1 00:00:00,930 --> 00:00:02,972 This is a DynaMic Network podcast. 2 00:00:25,194 --> 00:00:31,157 to the dynamic duel podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority 3 00:00:31,197 --> 00:00:36,840 between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny 4 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:43,103 DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are doing a duel between 5 00:00:43,143 --> 00:00:48,866 the characters of Talon and Nico Minoru. Like that's her name. She doesn't have a superhero 6 00:00:48,886 --> 00:00:54,049 name. Her superhero name is Sister Grimm, but she barely goes by it. She's one of the Runaways 7 00:00:54,069 --> 00:00:58,628 characters. if you guys are familiar with that Marvel team. Basically, both of these characters 8 00:00:58,648 --> 00:01:03,952 have their origins tied into a cult of some kind. One of the characters focuses on martial 9 00:01:04,012 --> 00:01:08,896 arts, the other one focuses on magic, but both characters slightly dabble in the other specialty 10 00:01:08,936 --> 00:01:13,659 as well. Right, we're gonna find out who's gonna win later on in this episode. Before that, 11 00:01:13,679 --> 00:01:17,702 we're gonna break down the comic book movie news from this past week, of which there was 12 00:01:17,742 --> 00:01:23,066 a lot of news. There was the Avengers Doomsday concept art that was leaked. as well as the 13 00:01:23,126 --> 00:01:28,329 first look at the Lanterns television series, and the announcement of My Adventures with 14 00:01:28,389 --> 00:01:35,152 Green Lantern, Superpowers, and Starfire animated series. Also, Jon Bernthal is set to return 15 00:01:35,172 --> 00:01:41,456 for a Punisher special for Disney+. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, 16 00:01:41,736 --> 00:01:45,818 so feel free to check out the show notes if you wanna skip ahead to a particular topic. 17 00:01:46,178 --> 00:01:51,121 Our artificially intelligent Duel simulator, AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners 18 00:01:51,161 --> 00:01:58,204 first though. So listen up. Why hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then 19 00:01:58,244 --> 00:02:02,188 become a part of the dynamic Duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three 20 00:02:02,228 --> 00:02:07,592 tiers. The dynamic two-oh tier gives you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic four 21 00:02:07,612 --> 00:02:11,936 tier gives you two bonus episodes each month. And the X-Force tier makes you an executive 22 00:02:11,976 --> 00:02:17,308 producer of this show. Lastly, The Diner Mike Podcast Network tier lets you create your own 23 00:02:17,348 --> 00:02:22,313 podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide 24 00:02:22,353 --> 00:02:27,358 graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas 25 00:02:27,398 --> 00:02:33,584 via email at dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. 26 00:02:33,944 --> 00:02:41,206 Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune into 27 00:02:41,246 --> 00:02:46,668 the other shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which 28 00:02:46,728 --> 00:02:51,070 pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This Wednesday, 29 00:02:51,330 --> 00:02:56,852 hosts Scotty and Gilly are finding out who would win in a fight between Flash Gordon and Buck 30 00:02:56,932 --> 00:03:01,614 Rogers. On the Senjoh World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between 31 00:03:01,654 --> 00:03:06,396 fan favorite anime and manga characters. Zach is on his brief season break right now, but 32 00:03:06,436 --> 00:03:11,582 anime fans should check out his season finale. Out now. which was an epic 10 vs 10 matchup 33 00:03:11,622 --> 00:03:17,904 of the Akatsuki from Naruto vs the Espada from Bleach. And on the Console Combat Podcast hosts 34 00:03:18,004 --> 00:03:23,065 John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, 35 00:03:23,285 --> 00:03:29,407 they found out who would win between Jack Winand from Bioshock and Corvo Attano from Dishonored. 36 00:03:29,767 --> 00:03:33,988 Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all the shows 37 00:03:34,368 --> 00:03:41,498 in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize! A no 38 00:03:41,538 --> 00:03:46,262 prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, 39 00:03:46,322 --> 00:03:51,187 is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer 40 00:03:51,227 --> 00:03:56,432 to our question of the week. Last week we asked you guys, what horror director would you like 41 00:03:56,472 --> 00:04:01,817 to see direct a film for one of Batman's villains and which villain? This was coming off the 42 00:04:01,837 --> 00:04:07,830 news that James Watkins is lined up to direct the upcoming Clayface film. We got a lot of 43 00:04:07,890 --> 00:04:11,751 answers this week. You guys came out of the woodwork to talk about your favorite horror 44 00:04:11,771 --> 00:04:16,452 directors and Batman villains. So let's go ahead and break down our honorable mentions as well 45 00:04:16,492 --> 00:04:22,194 as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Matt from Texas who said. Hey 46 00:04:22,214 --> 00:04:29,816 guys, it's Matt from Texas. I would say a director that I want to direct a horror Batman villain 47 00:04:29,836 --> 00:04:35,678 film would be Darren Bousman if that's how you say his name. He directed the majority of the 48 00:04:35,778 --> 00:04:42,780 Saw films and I think he could do a great Riddler film. Set it up, same Riddler from The Batman 49 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:49,662 and all those traps and everything would be awesome. Oh totally, a Jigsaw-esque Riddler 50 00:04:49,702 --> 00:04:55,163 film would be perfect for the character and perfect for Paul Dano, who I thought was a 51 00:04:55,243 --> 00:05:01,705 terrific Riddler in the Batman film. Yeah, Darren Lynn Bausman was kind of an out of left field 52 00:05:01,765 --> 00:05:05,759 choice. but I thought he was brilliant. Out of all the answers that were given for the 53 00:05:05,799 --> 00:05:10,101 character of the Riddler, I think he was the best one because I think a Paul Dano Riddler 54 00:05:10,141 --> 00:05:15,383 movie would be best served as a film in the style of the Saw franchise. Yeah, it's a pretty 55 00:05:15,423 --> 00:05:21,526 gritty franchise, but I could totally see Paul Dano's version of the Riddler existing within 56 00:05:21,566 --> 00:05:27,009 that universe and creating these like horrendous machines to punish people. Yeah, out of the 57 00:05:27,069 --> 00:05:31,391 other options we got for the Riddler, Jacob... Bell called in with his answer of David Fincher, 58 00:05:31,532 --> 00:05:36,236 so it would be a Riddler movie in the vein of Zodiac, which I thought was pretty good. And 59 00:05:36,276 --> 00:05:41,701 also, By Dear Bangora said that Wes Craven, the guy behind Nightmare on Elm Street and 60 00:05:41,721 --> 00:05:46,225 the Scream franchise, could direct a good Riddler movie. And those are solid options too, but 61 00:05:46,265 --> 00:05:51,309 I think I gravitated most toward Darren Lynn Bousman. Great answer, Matt! Our next honorable 62 00:05:51,349 --> 00:05:57,638 mention goes to Lee Tapscott, who said, Hi, this is Lee. What director would I like to 63 00:05:57,698 --> 00:06:06,822 see direct a Batman movie for a particular villain? Sam Raimi. I can just imagine what he could 64 00:06:06,882 --> 00:06:13,985 do behind a Scarecrow movie. Can you imagine what we, the audience, would see through Sam 65 00:06:14,585 --> 00:06:20,567 Raimi's direction with the Scarecrow gas, how it would affect everybody, what they would 66 00:06:20,687 --> 00:06:27,022 see and what it would do to Batman? Yeah, that is a fantastic choice. Sam Raimi. is a terrific 67 00:06:27,062 --> 00:06:32,226 director who's no stranger to the superhero genre, having directed the first Spider-Man 68 00:06:32,266 --> 00:06:37,589 trilogy as well as Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. But not only that, he's famously 69 00:06:37,649 --> 00:06:42,413 also directed films like the Evil Dead franchise. J.D. Right, yeah, he is a master of horror. 70 00:06:42,873 --> 00:06:48,737 I think he would be my number one pick to direct a Scarecrow film, actually. I think a lot of 71 00:06:48,817 --> 00:06:53,901 his nightmare scenes would be pretty gross to watch because he has quite the macabre sense 72 00:06:54,181 --> 00:06:59,939 of humor. and horror, you know, but I think it would be a whole lot of fun to see a Scarecrow 73 00:06:59,979 --> 00:07:04,400 movie done in the vein of Evil Dead. For all of Batman's rogues galleries, you'd think that 74 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:11,302 the Scarecrow would lend himself most easily to a horror genre film. And yes, Sam Raimi 75 00:07:11,582 --> 00:07:15,703 is one of the best horror directors out there. Great answer Lee Tapscott. Our next honorable 76 00:07:15,743 --> 00:07:22,465 mention goes to Daniel Alonso, who said, Okay, so I guess he's a horror director now, but 77 00:07:23,110 --> 00:07:29,696 My vote would be for John Krasinski to do a movie about Man-Bat. John Krasinski is the 78 00:07:29,736 --> 00:07:35,542 guy who directed The Quiet Place. And oh my gosh, if you haven't seen that movie, please 79 00:07:35,562 --> 00:07:40,648 watch it. But you'll get the idea of how Man-Bat would be able to hear everything in the dark 80 00:07:41,168 --> 00:07:46,073 and really get up close to Batman. I think that would be just a match made in heaven. Please 81 00:07:46,133 --> 00:07:50,655 do that. Yeah, I love this answer because it came out of left field. I have seen the first 82 00:07:50,715 --> 00:07:55,636 Quiet Place. I haven't seen any of the sequels. It's just so interesting to me that, you know, 83 00:07:55,716 --> 00:08:01,618 John Krasinski, the guy from Jim from The Office, the director of A Quiet Place, a popular horror 84 00:08:01,658 --> 00:08:07,239 franchise and, you know, like the current Jack Ryan, his career is so versatile. And I think 85 00:08:07,419 --> 00:08:13,521 the idea of him directing a man bat movie in the vein of his horror franchise, A Quiet Place, 86 00:08:13,901 --> 00:08:18,839 was just too interesting to pass up. Not only that, I think he could also play the character 87 00:08:18,879 --> 00:08:23,321 of Kirk Langstrom because he's also a talented actor. Yeah, I could totally see him in the 88 00:08:23,341 --> 00:08:28,983 role. And telling the story of this guy who tragically turns into a part bat creature, 89 00:08:29,063 --> 00:08:34,165 I think could be better serviced by a director as talented as John Krasinski than something 90 00:08:34,245 --> 00:08:40,948 like the movie Morbius. You know? 100%. Yeah, you're just stating the obvious. We want to 91 00:08:40,968 --> 00:08:46,083 give a special shout out to Bidear Bangora, Jacob Bell. Colby Hentges who actually gave 92 00:08:46,363 --> 00:08:51,467 a fantastic answer. He wants Osgood Perkins to direct a Professor Pig movie which I thought 93 00:08:51,888 --> 00:08:57,452 is just brilliant because Osgood Perkins has made some of the most atmospheric, evil looking 94 00:08:57,573 --> 00:09:03,117 horror films that I've ever seen including Long Legs and Black Coat's Daughter. But Professor 95 00:09:03,157 --> 00:09:09,863 Pig doesn't have too many supernatural elements to him and Osgood Perkins movies do so I thought 96 00:09:09,903 --> 00:09:13,950 he might be better suited to a different Batman character than Professor Pig. But great answer 97 00:09:13,990 --> 00:09:18,494 nonetheless, Colby. Also special shout out to Judson Batty, who said that Sam Raimi should 98 00:09:18,514 --> 00:09:23,918 direct a Ra's al Ghul movie. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Travis Herndon, 99 00:09:24,279 --> 00:09:28,883 who said. What's up, Danny Medouj, Travis here. Shout out to my evil twins. So my answer would 100 00:09:28,903 --> 00:09:34,407 be Jordan Peele as a director doing a Killer Croc movie. I think he would do an amazing 101 00:09:34,647 --> 00:09:40,853 job following Wayland's origins from his New 52 origins, and then maybe combine it with 102 00:09:40,933 --> 00:09:47,665 Joker's Asylum. Killer Croc mini story that could be both interesting but tragic looking 103 00:09:47,685 --> 00:09:53,329 to Croc's origins and just him as a character. So yeah, that's my pick. I'm a big fan of Jordan 104 00:09:53,369 --> 00:09:58,893 Peele. I think he's kind of a brilliant mind when it comes to modern horror cinema. And 105 00:09:58,913 --> 00:10:03,556 I would really love to see his take on a character like Killer Croc who has been adapted in live 106 00:10:03,616 --> 00:10:09,200 action in 2016 Suicide Squad movie, but I think Jordan Peele could do a much better job. Yeah, 107 00:10:09,220 --> 00:10:14,102 if you told me that Killer Croc should get his own film, I'd be like, I don't know about that. 108 00:10:14,622 --> 00:10:18,944 But if you mentioned Jordan Peele is directing it, I'm like, yes, absolutely, 100 percent. 109 00:10:19,364 --> 00:10:24,145 Not only can you capture like the horror aspect, which, you know, Killer Crack is not that horrifying 110 00:10:24,385 --> 00:10:29,266 of a character. But I think Jordan Peele can bring not only the humanity of the character, 111 00:10:29,627 --> 00:10:34,968 but also a cultural element. Yeah, for sure. I just think out of all the directors on this 112 00:10:35,088 --> 00:10:39,769 list, I like the directorial talents of Jordan Peele the most. Yeah, the guy's incredible. 113 00:10:40,270 --> 00:10:44,212 Great answer, Travis. You win this week's No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning 114 00:10:44,232 --> 00:10:48,835 your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question 115 00:10:48,875 --> 00:10:52,137 of the Week. And now that that's done, on to the news. 116 00:10:57,634 --> 00:11:02,535 Alright, this past week, a series of concept art pieces for the upcoming film, Avengers 117 00:11:02,675 --> 00:11:07,676 Secret Wars, was leaked accidentally on the internet by the artist who drew them, Musk 118 00:11:07,776 --> 00:11:14,398 Rizvi. She posted these images to her ArtStation portfolio, and the images spread like wildfire 119 00:11:14,438 --> 00:11:19,380 throughout the internet. Now, if you haven't got a chance to see any of these images, Google 120 00:11:19,420 --> 00:11:23,321 is your friend, but be aware that the art is being taken down almost as quickly as it's 121 00:11:23,341 --> 00:11:27,423 going up. The reason we're going to comment on it now, is because we think that the images 122 00:11:27,703 --> 00:11:32,908 have spread enough and quite a few news outlets are reporting on it to warrant us discussing 123 00:11:32,988 --> 00:11:38,934 it because it's not really spoilers anymore. And the art itself is pretty interesting. Definitely 124 00:11:38,954 --> 00:11:45,901 worth discussing. Now, as fans, we knew that Marvel Studios cast Robert Downey Jr. as Victor 125 00:11:45,941 --> 00:11:50,645 Von Doom. We didn't really know much about the movie beyond the casting of Downey as Doom. 126 00:11:51,106 --> 00:11:57,889 But with this leak, we have a much better idea of what the movie is going to be about. And 127 00:11:58,149 --> 00:12:02,892 I think it'll surprise a lot of people who haven't seen the concept art that it looks like they're 128 00:12:02,912 --> 00:12:09,936 going for a high fantasy type movie with the Marvel Universe set in a new reality reshaped 129 00:12:09,976 --> 00:12:15,519 by Doctor Doom that looks medieval in nature. So as many comic book readers know, the 2016 130 00:12:16,260 --> 00:12:22,811 story of Secret Wars takes place in Battle Dr. Doom created when he obtained the powers of 131 00:12:22,851 --> 00:12:28,775 the Beyonder and became God Emperor Doom. He basically remade the multiverse in his image 132 00:12:28,855 --> 00:12:34,318 in order to save it from the incursions that would destroy everything. And he sat over everyone 133 00:12:34,378 --> 00:12:39,181 else as the planet's ruler. But they're taking that idea and it seems like they're also merging 134 00:12:39,281 --> 00:12:44,804 it somewhat with a concept like House of M where the Scarlet Witch rewrote reality and everyone 135 00:12:44,824 --> 00:12:49,639 just accepted this as the new normal. But they're also taking notes, I think, from an Avenger 136 00:12:49,679 --> 00:12:55,583 story called The Morgan Conquest, in which Morgan Le Fay rewrote reality so that the Marvel universe 137 00:12:55,623 --> 00:13:00,786 existed in this medieval timeline. So they're taking all these cues, and it's really exciting 138 00:13:00,826 --> 00:13:07,630 to see all these familiar faces and characters redesigned into medieval versions of themselves. 139 00:13:07,650 --> 00:13:14,046 Yeah, characters like Hulk and She-Hulk and Black Panther. And Doctor Strange. who, like 140 00:13:14,066 --> 00:13:21,050 in the 2016 Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars run, serves as basically an advisor to Doom's court. 141 00:13:21,070 --> 00:13:25,333 What's really interesting is it looks like Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four, Invisible Woman, 142 00:13:25,473 --> 00:13:31,656 and her son Franklin Richards serve as Dr. Doom's Queen and Prince. I'm wondering if they're 143 00:13:31,676 --> 00:13:35,899 going to introduce Franklin Richards in the Fantastic Four movie as this, you know, powerful 144 00:13:35,939 --> 00:13:41,498 reality-warping child as he is in the comic books, and somehow Dr. Doom... manages to usurp 145 00:13:41,538 --> 00:13:46,941 or take advantage of that child's power to recreate this reality. I could totally see that being 146 00:13:46,981 --> 00:13:51,464 the case. I probably see that more than what some people have been speculating with Wanda 147 00:13:51,624 --> 00:13:56,967 and the Scarlet Witch. Who knows though. I think it's most interesting to me though to see we're 148 00:13:56,987 --> 00:14:02,750 not just getting doom, we're getting God Emperor doom. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to know where 149 00:14:02,770 --> 00:14:08,213 he could possibly go from here if they reintroduce the character again after the events of Secret 150 00:14:08,233 --> 00:14:12,861 Wars. by an actor who's not Robert Downey Jr., you know, like a non-multi-versal version of 151 00:14:12,901 --> 00:14:18,266 him, it would be cool to get like a more intimate story between him against the Fantastic Four, 152 00:14:18,326 --> 00:14:23,090 I think. There's one piece of concept art where we see Hulk and She-Hulk decked out in medieval 153 00:14:23,130 --> 00:14:29,315 garb existing in this walled-off city of other gamma-irradiated beings, including his son 154 00:14:29,435 --> 00:14:35,600 Scar. It looks really interesting because they highly resemble orcs from World of Warcraft 155 00:14:35,801 --> 00:14:39,058 as they're designed here. Yeah, I can see that except, you know, they don't have like the 156 00:14:39,098 --> 00:14:44,621 large tusks, but otherwise, you're right, they do. Scar is an interesting addition here. He 157 00:14:44,661 --> 00:14:49,063 definitely looks different from what we saw in the She-Hulk television series, but they 158 00:14:49,083 --> 00:14:54,725 might be using him in this film as part of a broader Young Avengers team that they're also 159 00:14:54,765 --> 00:14:58,606 teasing with this concept art. Right, yeah, part of the concept art revealed our first 160 00:14:58,647 --> 00:15:02,628 look at the Young Avengers, or maybe they're called the champions here. We don't know yet, 161 00:15:02,988 --> 00:15:08,635 but it consists of medieval versions of Ms. Marvel. K-Pishup's Hawkeye, Stinger, Wiccan, 162 00:15:08,915 --> 00:15:13,957 and Speed, as well as Dupe from XStatics. I don't know if a lot of people out there know 163 00:15:13,977 --> 00:15:19,659 who Dupe is, but he is a mutant character who kind of looks like Slimer from Ghostbusters. 164 00:15:20,179 --> 00:15:23,641 He speaks like a different language and everything like that. It's interesting how they're incorporating 165 00:15:23,701 --> 00:15:31,264 him here as a mutant element set within this new medieval world. Which I kind of hate. If 166 00:15:31,304 --> 00:15:36,378 we see medieval versions of the X-Men for the first time in the MCU... I'm not looking forward 167 00:15:36,418 --> 00:15:41,741 to that. That being said, Doop doesn't have any clothes. He's like this floating green 168 00:15:41,881 --> 00:15:46,764 slug looking guy, so he's not really a medieval version of the character. He's just Doop as 169 00:15:46,844 --> 00:15:52,648 Doop. What's really interesting is that the character of Star-Lord in both pieces of concept 170 00:15:52,708 --> 00:15:56,930 art that he's featured in, he does not seem like he's decked out in medieval garb. He looks 171 00:15:56,950 --> 00:16:01,733 like he's wearing his regular outfit, so I'm wondering if he's the one that kind of comes 172 00:16:01,773 --> 00:16:07,801 to... God Emperor Doom's new battle world slash reimagined version of Latveria in which he 173 00:16:07,841 --> 00:16:13,104 is the ruler and maybe Star-Lord tries to remind everybody of who they really are and then get 174 00:16:13,144 --> 00:16:18,247 them to rise up and overthrow their new tyrant. Which is an interesting take. I never would 175 00:16:18,267 --> 00:16:23,791 have thought that Star-Lord would have been seemingly the protagonist of an Avengers film. 176 00:16:24,151 --> 00:16:27,813 Well, he could be when everyone else is kind of brainwashed into living in this new reality. 177 00:16:28,246 --> 00:16:33,130 We know that at least part of this movie takes place outside of this new medieval world, because 178 00:16:33,330 --> 00:16:38,696 one of the concept art pieces is Star-Lord chilling on his couch with Vision, the white version 179 00:16:38,736 --> 00:16:44,841 of Vision, watching TV as seeming roommates, which is fucking hilarious. Yeah, talk about 180 00:16:44,881 --> 00:16:50,387 an odd couple. That should be good times. I hope that's what Vision Quest is about, actually. 181 00:16:50,487 --> 00:16:55,847 Like, the co-star of that show should be Star-Lord. We got our new look at the medieval version 182 00:16:55,887 --> 00:17:02,330 of Black Panther. I got to say his costume design is epic as hell. It looks so good with like 183 00:17:02,350 --> 00:17:06,973 a lot of gold trim. And he has his long flowing black cape in this version. It looks awesome. 184 00:17:07,413 --> 00:17:14,738 A lot of people are speculating that the actor rendered in this piece of concept art is Damson 185 00:17:14,858 --> 00:17:20,221 Idris, who is an actor that I'm not familiar with. But people say that this concept art 186 00:17:20,401 --> 00:17:25,292 looks like him. And while that may be the case, either Marvel has cast T'Challa or T'Challa's 187 00:17:25,332 --> 00:17:30,155 son in this new universe, or it's possible that the concept artist just used him as a reference 188 00:17:30,335 --> 00:17:35,339 for this piece of art. Which is not uncommon for artists to do. The final piece of concept 189 00:17:35,399 --> 00:17:38,941 art that was leaked was the most vague. There was no color involved or anything. It was a 190 00:17:39,401 --> 00:17:45,566 very early sketch, but it looks like a guy who is chained up by his arms in a dungeon in some 191 00:17:45,606 --> 00:17:50,629 sort of pit. It's hard to tell if like magic energy is emanating from him or steam or something 192 00:17:50,669 --> 00:17:55,075 like that. It's hard to tell exactly who this is. People have speculated that it's Peter 193 00:17:55,095 --> 00:18:01,317 Parker being used as a magical conduit or something like that, or maybe the human torch who's being 194 00:18:01,377 --> 00:18:06,679 doused in water to keep him from turning a flame and he's being held prisoner. But yeah, that's 195 00:18:06,699 --> 00:18:10,820 definitely the most mysterious piece of art that was released. Overall, with all the concept 196 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:16,630 art pieces here, how excited does this get you for Avengers Doomsday? It makes me super excited. 197 00:18:16,891 --> 00:18:20,433 I almost don't care that they're going with Robert Downey Jr. even more, especially if 198 00:18:20,453 --> 00:18:26,637 the whole entire thing is set in a new medieval reality that is so far removed from anything 199 00:18:26,717 --> 00:18:32,542 resembling the modern MCU. I like this as kind of like a detour story. And plus it's really 200 00:18:32,562 --> 00:18:38,986 interesting to see the Marvel Cinematic Universe reimagined within this new genre of high fantasy 201 00:18:39,086 --> 00:18:44,739 in a similar vein as Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones or World of Warcraft. But speaking 202 00:18:44,779 --> 00:18:50,236 of reimagining the MCU in the vein of another franchise like Lord of the Rings, that brings 203 00:18:50,276 --> 00:18:51,460 us to our question of the week. 204 00:18:55,934 --> 00:19:02,379 If you could take either the Marvel or DC cinematic universes and place them in a separate film 205 00:19:02,419 --> 00:19:09,205 franchise, what would it be? So you're taking the MCU or DC cinematic universes and then 206 00:19:09,285 --> 00:19:14,870 plopping it into another universe, another film franchise. Set in that world, what is that 207 00:19:14,890 --> 00:19:19,374 world? And tell us what it would be like for the heroes who find themselves there. Record 208 00:19:19,394 --> 00:19:23,437 your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right 209 00:19:23,457 --> 00:19:27,420 hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could 210 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:31,443 be up to 30 seconds long. And don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the 211 00:19:31,484 --> 00:19:36,327 podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that 212 00:19:36,367 --> 00:19:43,373 will post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before March 8th. Well in DC news, we got to our first 213 00:19:43,473 --> 00:19:50,906 look at lanterns, the HBO television series set in the DCU. starring Aaron Pierre as Jon 214 00:19:50,946 --> 00:19:57,189 Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hale Jordan. They released this first look to coincide with the 215 00:19:57,269 --> 00:20:01,811 start of production for the series. Perhaps they're going to be filming outside and people 216 00:20:01,831 --> 00:20:07,273 would be taking leaked set photos. I'm not sure. I do have to say though, if they're going to 217 00:20:07,314 --> 00:20:12,976 release any kind of official imagery to get people excited about the show, this didn't 218 00:20:12,996 --> 00:20:19,286 quite work for me. It cannot be more boring. Yeah, it's two dudes walking outside wearing 219 00:20:19,326 --> 00:20:24,528 jackets. One of them has a piece of jewelry on that could vaguely be described as a Green 220 00:20:24,568 --> 00:20:31,050 Lantern ring. Yeah, it's gray with like a hint of green in the middle, which is kind of disappointing, 221 00:20:31,090 --> 00:20:36,191 honestly. It reminds me a lot of the Green Lantern ring that Ryan Reynolds wore in the Green Lantern 222 00:20:36,231 --> 00:20:42,153 film. So I was hoping that they would be a little bit more, I don't know, green with the ring. 223 00:20:43,313 --> 00:20:47,443 But I guess this is what we're getting. I think it's the same ring that Nathan Fillion is wearing, 224 00:20:47,523 --> 00:20:52,247 is it not? I'm not sure. That one looked a lot more green to me, but it did move across the 225 00:20:52,267 --> 00:20:57,491 screen pretty quickly in the Superman trailer. I have to say, Aaron Pierre looks like Aaron 226 00:20:57,532 --> 00:21:04,317 Pierre. Kyle Chandler looks not quite what I imagined how Jordan would look like, but it's 227 00:21:04,357 --> 00:21:08,861 not a terrible look for the character. He does look like an older character than he normally 228 00:21:08,901 --> 00:21:13,745 does in the comics with the graying hair. Who knows? Maybe Parallax has already gotten to 229 00:21:13,785 --> 00:21:18,227 him. I don't know. What's interesting is that John Stewart is not wearing a ring in this 230 00:21:18,288 --> 00:21:23,771 image. Yeah, from what we can see, he has not received his ring yet. So I'm not sure how 231 00:21:23,791 --> 00:21:28,894 much he knows about how Jordan being Green Lantern in the scene that they're filming. We do know 232 00:21:28,914 --> 00:21:34,278 that a majority of the story for this series takes place on Earth. So this seems to be very 233 00:21:34,298 --> 00:21:40,301 much like an origin story for John Stewart and less of like a cosmic Odyssey type adventure. 234 00:21:40,874 --> 00:21:45,797 All I can say is you compare the awesomeness that was the leaked concept art for Marvel 235 00:21:46,217 --> 00:21:53,302 to the actual first look at Lanterns that we got released from DC. And as a DC fan, I would 236 00:21:53,322 --> 00:21:58,366 just be ashamed. I mean, it's not like I've lost all hope because the creative team of 237 00:21:58,426 --> 00:22:04,270 Chris Mundy, Tom King and Damon Lindelof is five star talent. So I imagine this is going 238 00:22:04,310 --> 00:22:10,246 to be an incredible show. This is just not an incredible first look in my opinion. Now this 239 00:22:10,306 --> 00:22:16,109 first look from Lanterns came out a few days after DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter 240 00:22:16,169 --> 00:22:24,034 Safran gave us a huge update regarding the lineup and projects within DC Studios and the DCU. 241 00:22:24,334 --> 00:22:29,217 The biggest announcements I think were that we're getting three new DC animated series 242 00:22:29,778 --> 00:22:34,801 including My Adventures with Green Lantern which ties into My Adventures with Superman which 243 00:22:34,841 --> 00:22:39,708 is a fantastic show. The Green Lantern one will focus on Jessica Cruz getting her ring for 244 00:22:39,748 --> 00:22:45,753 the first time. We also have a show titled DC Superpowers, which takes place at the Alliance 245 00:22:45,793 --> 00:22:51,498 School for Heroes, and is going to focus on students like Lightning, who I think is Black 246 00:22:51,538 --> 00:22:56,402 Lightning, but they're renaming him. Flash, Plastic Man, Aqua Girl, Green Lantern, and 247 00:22:56,462 --> 00:23:01,666 Terra, who are in training to level up their powers under the supervision of characters 248 00:23:01,706 --> 00:23:08,647 like Principal Martian Manhunter. It sounds very much like DC Superhero Girls, but with 249 00:23:08,687 --> 00:23:14,389 boys too. Or like X-Men Evolution? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Not too excited for that project, 250 00:23:14,449 --> 00:23:21,052 but we also got news of a Starfire animated series that explores the origin of that character. 251 00:23:21,492 --> 00:23:25,874 Of course, there was also announcements about the broader slate, including a Teen Titans 252 00:23:26,114 --> 00:23:31,556 live-action film that's being written currently, an update on the Sergeant Rock film, and that 253 00:23:31,656 --> 00:23:36,382 the script and the director are locked down. They're just looking for... their star. Shows 254 00:23:36,422 --> 00:23:41,086 like Booster Gold and Paradise Lost are still being written, but it looks like the Waller 255 00:23:41,106 --> 00:23:46,690 television series has kind of been abandoned. Along with the Authority, as those projects 256 00:23:46,710 --> 00:23:51,233 have been said to be increasingly complicated. Really, during the press event, James Gunn 257 00:23:51,293 --> 00:23:55,496 and Peter Safran doubled down on what they had been saying all along, is that they're not 258 00:23:55,536 --> 00:24:00,459 going to green light a project until the script is complete. And since Waller and Authority, 259 00:24:00,719 --> 00:24:05,430 Booster Gold and Paradise Lost have not been fully fleshed out, they're not moving forward. 260 00:24:05,650 --> 00:24:10,871 Whereas smaller projects like Clayface and Dynamic Duo, the stop motion animated film coming out 261 00:24:11,191 --> 00:24:16,673 in 2027, I believe, are more fully flushed out. So those have been greenlit. I think they should 262 00:24:16,713 --> 00:24:20,674 also avoid announcing any projects that haven't been greenlit. I think Marvel Studios learned 263 00:24:20,694 --> 00:24:23,935 that lesson too. Well, that was actually one of the things they talked about with the press 264 00:24:24,195 --> 00:24:30,177 is that they could talk about something like perhaps Robert Pattinson joining the DCU. And 265 00:24:30,217 --> 00:24:34,906 just because they talk about it, the news spreads like wildfire. So they were essentially telling 266 00:24:34,926 --> 00:24:38,989 the press like, calm down, calm down guys. Yeah, there's always a lot of misinformation out 267 00:24:39,009 --> 00:24:43,631 there, for sure. I'm glad that James Gunn, you know, usually tries to set the record straight 268 00:24:43,651 --> 00:24:47,234 when he can. I don't think we've talked about this before, but there's also a Blue Beetle 269 00:24:47,354 --> 00:24:52,477 animated series in the works, which is being produced by the director of the Blue Beetle 270 00:24:52,517 --> 00:24:58,621 film, Angel Manuel Soto, and will be voiced by Sholo Mariduena, who played the character 271 00:24:58,641 --> 00:25:03,575 of Blue Beetle in live action. One of my favorite projects that was announced was Swamp Thing, 272 00:25:03,816 --> 00:25:08,398 which is going to be directed by James Mangold. Apparently that was put on the back burner 273 00:25:08,658 --> 00:25:14,382 for James Mangold's Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. But now that that's done, I'm hoping 274 00:25:14,422 --> 00:25:18,824 he'll return to that soon. All in all, were you excited by this press event that James 275 00:25:18,845 --> 00:25:23,968 Gunn and Peter Safran put on? Not really. I hope in the future they would do something 276 00:25:24,448 --> 00:25:29,690 much more like a presentation, like what Marvel does. It just seems more official that way 277 00:25:29,970 --> 00:25:34,892 with like different visuals that they'll also release during those presentations We did get 278 00:25:34,952 --> 00:25:40,255 title treatments for the new animated series my adventures with Green Lantern superpowers 279 00:25:40,335 --> 00:25:46,917 and starfire But it's nothing worth writing home about you poor DC bastards You poor DC 280 00:25:46,937 --> 00:25:51,259 bastards Marvel managed to show you guys up even without having a press conference because 281 00:25:51,279 --> 00:25:55,381 in addition to the leaked concept art it was also announced this past week that John Bernthal 282 00:25:55,701 --> 00:26:01,569 is set to return as Frank Castle, the Punisher in a Disney Plus special presentation. Now 283 00:26:01,589 --> 00:26:06,873 we know John Berntal is going to appear in Daredevil Born Again, the series that starts in just 284 00:26:06,913 --> 00:26:11,297 a few days here. I'm super excited by that. But it was never clear where the Punisher was 285 00:26:11,317 --> 00:26:17,082 going to go from there. Now we know he's getting his own like one hour movie. Basically special 286 00:26:17,102 --> 00:26:23,187 presentations are like one hour long projects released by Marvel. We've seen them do it with 287 00:26:23,387 --> 00:26:27,934 the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Werewolf by I would have rather have seen 288 00:26:28,255 --> 00:26:32,858 Punisher get his own full length movie, but if Disney was going to do anything with the 289 00:26:32,898 --> 00:26:38,081 character, I think their safest bet was to put him in a special presentation. So I can totally 290 00:26:38,101 --> 00:26:42,805 understand why they went this route. I mean, the special presentations have been good so 291 00:26:42,845 --> 00:26:47,888 far, like the two that they've put out. So I think this is awesome news. Yeah. And you know, 292 00:26:47,908 --> 00:26:52,832 with the character as violent as the Punisher, a little bit can go a long way. You know, I 293 00:26:52,872 --> 00:26:57,435 think as long as they cram as much action as they can. into this one hour special presentation 294 00:26:57,515 --> 00:27:02,637 run time, I think I'll be entirely satisfied with that. What's interesting is that John 295 00:27:02,677 --> 00:27:08,401 Bernthal is helping to write the script alongside Reynaldo Marcus Green, who's also going to 296 00:27:08,441 --> 00:27:13,023 direct the project. And Green is a talented director. You know, he directed the recent 297 00:27:13,063 --> 00:27:18,706 Bob Marley biopic called One Love. He directed King Richard, the movie about Venus and Serena 298 00:27:18,726 --> 00:27:23,209 Williams' father starring Will Smith. He's done a lot of great stuff. But what was also exciting 299 00:27:23,269 --> 00:27:28,784 was that brand Winderbaum who is an exec over at Marvel Studios, said that it's gonna be 300 00:27:28,804 --> 00:27:34,227 a shotgun blast of a story, but with also pathos and emotion that you want from Frank Castle. 301 00:27:34,747 --> 00:27:39,450 Whatever that means. It sounds like good stuff to me, man. I want a shotgun blast of a story. 302 00:27:39,670 --> 00:27:44,192 Punisher, take it to the bad guys in a quick and dirty special. Yeah, I wonder who the villain 303 00:27:44,372 --> 00:27:49,115 of a Punisher special would be. Oh, that's a great question. You know, Punisher has a lot 304 00:27:49,135 --> 00:27:53,537 of one-off villains, considering a lot of them don't actually survive. Well, can't wait to 305 00:27:53,577 --> 00:27:58,969 see it. Sincerely, but why'd you have to say sincerely? Guess you thought I was lying. I 306 00:27:58,989 --> 00:28:03,155 didn't think you were being sarcastic. Who wouldn't be excited to see this, right? We don't know 307 00:28:03,215 --> 00:28:07,462 when this special presentation will be releasing, but I have to assume if they're writing it 308 00:28:07,502 --> 00:28:09,885 now, you know, we're probably more than a year out. 309 00:28:17,282 --> 00:28:22,349 That does it for all of the news for this episode, now let's move on to the main event. Refind 310 00:28:22,409 --> 00:28:29,099 out who would win in a duel between the Court of Owls assassin Talon and the Runaways member 311 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:30,401 Nico Minoru. 312 00:28:45,650 --> 00:28:53,836 Okay, Talon versus Sister Grimm, was it? Nekomino-ru. Sure. This matchup was brought to us by our 313 00:28:53,876 --> 00:28:58,540 executive producer, Devin Davis, who comes up with a lot of fantastic ideas and actually 314 00:28:58,580 --> 00:29:03,064 gets a lot of credit for ideas that I think may not have been his. Like our last episode 315 00:29:03,204 --> 00:29:08,729 of Darksides Elite versus the Black Order I attributed to being his idea, but it was really 316 00:29:08,789 --> 00:29:14,970 Zachary Hepburn's. This match, however, is definitely Devin's idea, and I liked his pitch. in regards 317 00:29:15,010 --> 00:29:22,199 that Talon is a martial arts type character with a dabbling of mysticism. And Nico Minoru 318 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:28,006 is a mystic character with a dabbling of martial arts. Yeah, this episode is timely because 319 00:29:28,066 --> 00:29:33,473 Nico showed up in the Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man animated television series on Disney+. 320 00:29:34,122 --> 00:29:38,445 In the animated show she was voiced by Grey Song, but Nico has also shown up in live action 321 00:29:38,545 --> 00:29:43,368 in the three seasons of the Runaways television show played by Lyrico Cano, who I thought did 322 00:29:43,388 --> 00:29:49,173 a fantastic job. Has Talon been in any cartoons or live action shows or movies or anything? 323 00:29:49,673 --> 00:29:56,879 Well, the Court of Owls, who owns Talon essentially, appeared in Gotham and Harley Quinn and also 324 00:29:56,919 --> 00:30:03,195 that short-lived Gotham Knights series that no one watched. but they were also the antagonists 325 00:30:03,335 --> 00:30:08,840 in the Batman vs Robin animated movie. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, we have yet to review 326 00:30:08,860 --> 00:30:12,323 that one, so we're going to have to check that out at some point. Right. The Court of El was 327 00:30:12,363 --> 00:30:18,328 story line was regarded as one of the best story lines that came out of the New 52 era of comics. 328 00:30:18,609 --> 00:30:23,173 So I was pretty excited when we decided to do this episode. Yeah, I'm excited too. But to 329 00:30:23,233 --> 00:30:27,997 explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient duel simulator Alfred Jarvis 330 00:30:28,077 --> 00:30:33,251 9000. AJ9K tell our listeners how you go about determining a winner in our Duel matchups. 331 00:30:34,131 --> 00:30:38,432 Yes, of course, sir. The way I determine a winner between the contestants is by running 1000 332 00:30:38,912 --> 00:30:44,594 Monte Carlo simulations using the characters' statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic 333 00:30:44,634 --> 00:30:50,175 model used to determine outcomes through random sampling. In this case, I randomize the statistics 334 00:30:50,215 --> 00:30:54,917 along a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle. 335 00:30:55,317 --> 00:31:00,070 The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid. from which the DC characters' 336 00:31:00,090 --> 00:31:05,252 statistics are extrapolated. Additional stat categories are included such as range, damage 337 00:31:05,292 --> 00:31:10,695 potential, versatility, and perception in order to create a more detailed and accurate simulation. 338 00:31:11,195 --> 00:31:15,997 The results of the 1,000 simulations provide a percentage of wins for each character. The 339 00:31:16,037 --> 00:31:20,499 contestant with the higher percentage is declared the victor, as they have a higher probability 340 00:31:20,539 --> 00:31:26,321 to win any given battle. In an equitable pairing, neither character should win 100% of the matches. 341 00:31:26,850 --> 00:31:31,352 The comic book stories have shown that there's even a way for Batman to defeat Superman, so 342 00:31:31,372 --> 00:31:35,254 the confidence rate of my method falls in line with the precedents that have been established 343 00:31:35,294 --> 00:31:40,837 in the source material. My mathematical simulations are without subjectivity or bias. Feats are 344 00:31:40,877 --> 00:31:45,280 not the sole consideration, nor are fan votes tabulated for determination of the winner. 345 00:31:46,700 --> 00:31:51,763 Thanks AJ9K! Before we run the simulations though, we like to break down each character's histories 346 00:31:51,783 --> 00:31:57,538 and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine One of the 1000 simulations 347 00:31:57,558 --> 00:32:02,479 would play out beat for beat. And it's my turn to go first with the DC characters backstory, 348 00:32:02,839 --> 00:32:09,181 so let me tell you all about Talon. Now, the Court of Owls is an ancient secret society 349 00:32:09,221 --> 00:32:15,063 that has controlled Gotham City from the shadows for centuries. Composed of Gotham's oldest 350 00:32:15,143 --> 00:32:20,844 and wealthiest families, the court has wielded power through assassination, manipulation, 351 00:32:21,184 --> 00:32:26,786 and economic influence, ensuring that Gotham remained under their dominion. Their existence 352 00:32:26,806 --> 00:32:32,349 has been whispered as an urban legend, reinforced by a nursery rhyme that warns of their presence, 353 00:32:32,629 --> 00:32:38,172 but for those who have stood in their way, the court is a very real and deadly force. To enforce 354 00:32:38,212 --> 00:32:44,015 their will, the court has employed assassins known as Talons, highly trained killers enhanced 355 00:32:44,035 --> 00:32:50,579 with Electrum, an alchemically enhanced metallic alloy that can regenerate and resurrect human 356 00:32:50,639 --> 00:32:57,307 tissue. These Talons, conditioned to obey without question, have operated in shadows and eliminating 357 00:32:57,347 --> 00:33:02,929 threats to the court's control over Gotham. Their legacy has spanned generations with each 358 00:33:02,969 --> 00:33:09,792 Talon serving as a silent enforcer of the court's interests. Now among the most formidable Talons 359 00:33:10,052 --> 00:33:16,075 was William Cobb, the great grandfather of Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing, who you can learn more 360 00:33:16,095 --> 00:33:23,154 about in our Nightwing vs Daredevil duel episode. William, born in 1901. He grew up in Gotham's 361 00:33:23,194 --> 00:33:28,999 working class, the son of a steelworker who died in a bridge accident. Struggling to support 362 00:33:29,059 --> 00:33:35,064 his mother, he turned to street performances, juggling baseballs for spare change. One day, 363 00:33:35,385 --> 00:33:40,809 after stopping a thief mid-escape with a well-aimed throw, he caught the attention of Nathaniel 364 00:33:40,849 --> 00:33:47,295 Haley, the owner of Haley Circus, who offered him a place among the performers. Under Haley's 365 00:33:47,335 --> 00:33:53,071 mentorship, William became a skilled knife thrower. earning acclaim as one of the circus's most 366 00:33:53,132 --> 00:33:58,776 popular acts. During a return performance in Gotham, he met and fell in love with Amelia 367 00:33:58,836 --> 00:34:04,702 Crown, the daughter of Burton Crown, one of Gotham's wealthy elites. Their romance, however, 368 00:34:04,742 --> 00:34:10,387 was cut short when Amelia's father forbade their relationship, declaring that a man of William's 369 00:34:10,427 --> 00:34:16,252 station would never be worthy of his daughter. Unaware that he had impregnated Amelia, William 370 00:34:16,292 --> 00:34:22,035 departed, heartbroken and bitter. before Nathaniel Haley, secretly a member and recruiter of the 371 00:34:22,075 --> 00:34:28,159 Court of Owls, offered him a new purpose and a chance to become a Talon, an assassin for 372 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:34,082 the court. Accepting the offer, William was subjugated to grueling training and was infused 373 00:34:34,102 --> 00:34:40,046 with Electrum, including an Electrum tooth implanted in his mouth, granting him enhanced abilities 374 00:34:40,426 --> 00:34:46,609 and virtual immortality. In exchange, William abandoned his former life, including his newborn 375 00:34:46,689 --> 00:34:52,997 son, whom William kidnapped as an infant and entrusted to Haley's circus, unknowingly beginning 376 00:34:53,057 --> 00:34:58,021 a bloodline that would eventually lead to Dick Grayson. William became one of the court's 377 00:34:58,081 --> 00:35:03,905 most effective talons, carrying out assassinations across Gotham for decades and kept in mystic 378 00:35:03,945 --> 00:35:09,549 suspended animation during times when his skills were unneeded. His missions often targeted 379 00:35:09,609 --> 00:35:15,213 political figures, industrialists, and anyone who opposed the court's rule, including even 380 00:35:15,253 --> 00:35:20,889 members of the Wayne family. For centuries, the Court of Owls operated in secrecy, pulling 381 00:35:20,909 --> 00:35:25,933 the strings behind Gotham's power structures. However, when Bruce Wayne announced plans to 382 00:35:25,973 --> 00:35:31,338 reshape Gotham's future, the court saw him as a threat and marked him for death. William 383 00:35:31,358 --> 00:35:36,242 was reawakened by the court and sent to assassinate Bruce Wayne, attacking him during a business 384 00:35:36,282 --> 00:35:41,367 meeting. Their battle led to a deadly struggle at Top Wing Tower, where William seemingly 385 00:35:41,467 --> 00:35:46,783 plummeted to his death and was sent to the morgue. only to resurrect himself, slaughtering the 386 00:35:46,823 --> 00:35:52,587 paramedics and escaping. In response to Bruce Wayne's continued defiance, the court unleashed 387 00:35:52,747 --> 00:35:59,072 the Night of Owls, awakening all of their talon assassins to retake Gotham. Batman and his 388 00:35:59,192 --> 00:36:05,497 allies fought back, facing an army of resurrected assassins in a citywide battle. William confronted 389 00:36:05,577 --> 00:36:11,461 Nightwing himself, revealing his true identity as Dick Grayson's great-grandfather and declaring 390 00:36:11,521 --> 00:36:17,229 that Dick was meant to be the court's next talent. Their battle ended with Nightwing defeated 391 00:36:17,269 --> 00:36:22,993 William, freezing him with liquid nitrogen and rejecting his supposed destiny. In the aftermath, 392 00:36:23,133 --> 00:36:29,157 the court, frustrated by their failures, attempted to execute William, but he was later revived 393 00:36:29,217 --> 00:36:34,821 and used by Bane during the Arkham War, serving as a lieutenant in Bane's conquest of the city. 394 00:36:35,241 --> 00:36:40,985 Meanwhile, a new talent named Calvin Rose had recently been trained by the Court of Owls. 395 00:36:41,314 --> 00:36:46,395 Calvin had been raised under extreme abuse, locked in a dog kennel by his father for days 396 00:36:46,755 --> 00:36:52,617 until he managed to escape. Running away, he was taken in by Haley Circus, where he became 397 00:36:52,737 --> 00:36:58,979 a skilled escape artist, learning the art of lockpicking, acrobatics, and illusion. Recognizing 398 00:36:59,019 --> 00:37:04,360 his potential, the Court of Owls recruited him to become their next Talon, subjugating him 399 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:10,162 to extensive combat and assassination training. Unlike previous Talons, Kelvin's specialty 400 00:37:10,202 --> 00:37:16,384 was infiltration and evasion. He was an escape specialist trained to enter impossible situations 401 00:37:16,744 --> 00:37:21,765 and kill high profile targets. However, when Kelvin was sent on his first assassination 402 00:37:21,805 --> 00:37:26,846 mission, he discovered that his target was a young woman and her daughter, not the criminals 403 00:37:26,866 --> 00:37:32,148 he had been led to believe the court hunted. Unable to carry out the kill, he instead helped 404 00:37:32,168 --> 00:37:39,859 them escape, defying the court and becoming a fugitive. Kelvin spent years on the run, 405 00:37:40,179 --> 00:37:45,543 staying one step ahead of the court while trying to dismantle their operations. He allied himself 406 00:37:45,583 --> 00:37:51,166 with Sebastian Clark, a former member of the court who also sought to destroy them. Together 407 00:37:51,207 --> 00:37:56,430 they launched attacks on the court's resources, seeking to bring them down permanently. Kelvin's 408 00:37:56,470 --> 00:38:01,553 war against the court led him to confront some of their deadliest talons, including the monstrous 409 00:38:01,674 --> 00:38:08,274 Felix Harmon, the Gotham Butcher. However, Kelvin eventually discovered that his ally, Sebastian 410 00:38:08,314 --> 00:38:14,217 Clark had been manipulating him all along, using Calvin as a weapon while secretly seeking to 411 00:38:14,257 --> 00:38:20,280 take control of the court himself. Betrayed, Calvin was later killed by Bane, only to be 412 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:26,164 revived using Electraum and forced back into servitude as a Talon. The court ordered him 413 00:38:26,204 --> 00:38:32,867 to hunt down and kill Strix, another rogue Talon who had escaped their control. Though he initially 414 00:38:32,927 --> 00:38:38,026 followed orders, Calvin ultimately turned against the court once more, seeking to break free 415 00:38:38,066 --> 00:38:43,708 of their control for good. Despite repeated defeats, the Court of Owls endured, reforming 416 00:38:43,908 --> 00:38:49,551 as the International Parliament of Owls and expanding their influence globally. They attempted 417 00:38:49,591 --> 00:38:55,093 to recruit Dick Grayson once more using psychological conditioning and deception to manipulate him 418 00:38:55,153 --> 00:39:01,056 into becoming a Talon. Netwing resisted, however, and exposed and dismantled much of their network. 419 00:39:01,596 --> 00:39:06,546 Years later, it was revealed that the Court had ties to the Dark Multiverse. worshipping 420 00:39:06,586 --> 00:39:12,812 the ancient entity Barbados and playing a role in bringing the evil versions of Batman from 421 00:39:12,912 --> 00:39:18,497 dark dimensions known as the Dark Knights into Gotham. This alliance led to their near extinction 422 00:39:18,557 --> 00:39:22,960 at the hands of the Batman Who Laughs, though remnants of the court continued to operate 423 00:39:23,061 --> 00:39:31,308 in secrecy. Powers-wise, Talon possesses enhanced strength, speed, agility, and reflexes. His 424 00:39:31,368 --> 00:39:37,329 body is infused with Electrum. Granting him near immortality and accelerated healing, allowing 425 00:39:37,349 --> 00:39:42,934 him to recover from fatal wounds almost instantly, though exposure to extreme cold will slow his 426 00:39:42,954 --> 00:39:48,959 regenerative and resurrection abilities. A master martial artist, Talon is proficient in multiple 427 00:39:48,999 --> 00:39:55,024 fighting styles, able to match Batman and Nightwing in combat. His stealth and infiltration skills 428 00:39:55,064 --> 00:39:59,769 make him nearly undetectable, and his precision with throwing knives and bladed weapons is 429 00:39:59,849 --> 00:40:05,608 near perfect. He wields an arsenal of weapons, including throwing knives kept on a bandolier 430 00:40:05,629 --> 00:40:10,992 across his torso, as well as twin swords on his back, among others, all customized for 431 00:40:11,072 --> 00:40:16,516 silent lethal efficiency. Additionally, he uses infrared goggles for tracking targets in the 432 00:40:16,556 --> 00:40:22,560 dark, and smoke bombs for quick escapes. He is a world-class escape artist, able to break 433 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:28,704 free from any restraint. His one other weakness is his reliance on Electrum. Its ability to 434 00:40:28,764 --> 00:40:34,709 heal can be depleted. and Talons are dependents on the Court of Owls for replenishment of the 435 00:40:34,789 --> 00:40:38,992 alloy. That's Talon. Do you know what version of Talon you're going to be going with for 436 00:40:39,012 --> 00:40:43,716 this match or are they all pretty much essentially the same? I'm going with the composite Talon 437 00:40:43,856 --> 00:40:49,461 of the two primary Talons in William Cobb and Calvin Rose. I guess my biggest surprise from 438 00:40:49,481 --> 00:40:55,826 that story was that for a secret organization and a secret assassin, why was it that Bruce 439 00:40:55,846 --> 00:41:00,606 Wayne was attacked by a Talon during the middle of a business meeting? I believe the person 440 00:41:00,666 --> 00:41:05,789 he was meeting with was a member of the court. And they didn't anticipate that Bruce Wayne 441 00:41:05,929 --> 00:41:10,651 was going to be as adept at defending himself from the Talon as he was. Okay. Okay, that 442 00:41:10,671 --> 00:41:14,813 makes sense. That makes sense. Well, there's not a whole lot there in common with Nico Minoru, 443 00:41:15,013 --> 00:41:18,295 but I think that should make things interesting when we get around to the speculation. But 444 00:41:18,315 --> 00:41:24,287 let me go ahead and tell you all about Nico Minoru, aka Sister Grimm. Now, Niko Minoru 445 00:41:24,307 --> 00:41:30,214 was born to Tina and Robert Minoru, two powerful sorcerers who, along with five other couples, 446 00:41:30,434 --> 00:41:35,621 formed the Pride, which was a secret cult dedicated to serving the mystical entities known as the 447 00:41:35,661 --> 00:41:41,530 Geborim. Each year, the Pride performed a ritual sacrifice to the Gaborim in exchange for promises 448 00:41:41,590 --> 00:41:47,275 of future power and prosperity. Unaware of her parents' true nature, Nico and the other children 449 00:41:47,295 --> 00:41:52,359 of the Pride would spend these annual gatherings together. However, one fateful night, Nico 450 00:41:52,399 --> 00:41:56,482 and the other teens decided to spy on their parents and were horrified to witness them 451 00:41:56,542 --> 00:42:02,414 murdering an innocent young woman in ritualistic fashion. Shocked and disillusioned, Nico and 452 00:42:02,434 --> 00:42:07,605 the other teens resolved to escape from their parents, becoming the Runaways. As they fled, 453 00:42:07,725 --> 00:42:12,939 Nico was confronted by her mother, Tina. who wielded a magical artifact called the Staff 454 00:42:12,979 --> 00:42:17,721 of One. Attempting to prevent Nico from leaving, her mom tried to stab her daughter with the 455 00:42:17,761 --> 00:42:23,644 weapon, but instead, Nico's body absorbed the staff entirely. Later, during a confrontation 456 00:42:23,684 --> 00:42:28,826 with the time traveling York's parents, Nico was cut by the father's battle axe, triggering 457 00:42:28,866 --> 00:42:34,289 the Staff of One to emerge from within her body from her chest for the first time. Instinctively, 458 00:42:34,369 --> 00:42:40,392 she uttered the word freeze, and the spell instantly encased the York's mother in ice. The moment 459 00:42:40,412 --> 00:42:45,355 marked the awakening of Niko's latent magical abilities and revealed that the Staff of One 460 00:42:45,395 --> 00:42:49,698 could only be summoned through bloodletting and that it allowed her to cast a spell only 461 00:42:49,858 --> 00:42:55,222 once before requiring her to devise new phrasing for the same effect. As the Runaways investigated 462 00:42:55,262 --> 00:42:59,665 the Pride, they learned more about their parents' arrangement with the Giborum. The deal promised 463 00:42:59,685 --> 00:43:04,588 that after 25 years, six members of the Pride would be allowed to survive and rule over a 464 00:43:04,648 --> 00:43:12,773 cleansed world while the rest of humanity perished. friends, the Runaways leader Alex Wilder revealed 465 00:43:12,813 --> 00:43:17,196 himself to be a double agent, secretly working with his parents and attempting to secure a 466 00:43:17,256 --> 00:43:22,640 place in the Gaborim's utopian future. Alex sought to convince Nico to join him, but she 467 00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:28,004 rejected him and struck him down, aiding in his ultimate demise at the hands of the Gaborim. 468 00:43:28,364 --> 00:43:32,647 The Runaways' parents ultimately sacrificed themselves to destroy the Gaborim, leaving 469 00:43:32,687 --> 00:43:38,270 Nico and her friends orphaned fugitives. With Alex gone, Nico naturally assumed leadership 470 00:43:38,310 --> 00:43:42,413 of the Runaways, guiding the group to the as they sought to evade authorities and rebuild 471 00:43:42,453 --> 00:43:47,916 their lives. While searching for Victor Mancha, a boy prophesied to become a future threat, 472 00:43:48,317 --> 00:43:53,420 Nico and the Runaways encountered Ultron, who was revealed to be Victor's father. You can 473 00:43:53,460 --> 00:43:58,943 learn more about Ultron in his duel against Brainiac. After Ultron's defeat, Nico invited 474 00:43:59,003 --> 00:44:04,206 Victor to join the team despite the misgivings of some members. Meanwhile, fellow Runaway 475 00:44:04,246 --> 00:44:10,208 member Carolina Dean confessed her romantic feelings toward Nico, but Nico did not reciprocate 476 00:44:10,228 --> 00:44:15,509 them. Instead, she began a relationship with Victor, though their dynamic remained complicated. 477 00:44:15,949 --> 00:44:20,510 During a conflict with the Gaborim, Nico was nearly taken by the ancient beings who deemed 478 00:44:20,550 --> 00:44:26,292 her soul pure and suitable for consumption. However, Victor intervened and saved her. Afterward, 479 00:44:26,332 --> 00:44:30,813 Nico led the team on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Iron Man, eventually bringing them to New 480 00:44:30,833 --> 00:44:35,607 York. There, she made a risky alliance with the Kingpin, only for the Runaways to become 481 00:44:35,647 --> 00:44:41,869 entangled in a time displacement event that sent them back to 1907. In this era, Nico was 482 00:44:41,909 --> 00:44:47,370 abducted by a mysterious woman known as the Witchbreaker, who claimed to be her great-grandmother. 483 00:44:47,690 --> 00:44:52,232 Informing Nico that she came from an ancient magical lineage, the Witchbreaker subjected 484 00:44:52,272 --> 00:44:57,393 Nico to brutal training, insisting that enduring pain would strengthen her magical abilities. 485 00:44:57,954 --> 00:45:02,915 Though the ordeal was traumatic, Niko emerged with enhanced control over her magic and a 486 00:45:02,955 --> 00:45:07,896 greater understanding of the Staff of One. Upon returning to the present, the Runaways became 487 00:45:07,936 --> 00:45:12,958 caught in the Skrull's secret invasion of Earth. During this period, Niko sought to prove that 488 00:45:12,978 --> 00:45:18,319 the Runaways were more than just a band of outcasts, and insisted they join the Young Avengers in 489 00:45:18,379 --> 00:45:23,821 resisting the alien threat. However, Wiccan urged her to retreat, arguing that the Runaways 490 00:45:23,861 --> 00:45:28,410 needed to remain in reserve should the Young Avengers fail. You can learn more about the 491 00:45:28,430 --> 00:45:33,973 Young Avengers in their team duel against Young Justice. Niko's leadership was further tested 492 00:45:33,993 --> 00:45:39,396 when she used the spell Scatter to disperse a group of invading aliens, inadvertently causing 493 00:45:39,456 --> 00:45:44,959 emotional disarray among the runaways. Her attempts to stabilize the group led to further difficulties, 494 00:45:45,039 --> 00:45:50,802 including a disastrous attempt to throw a prom for the team. Meanwhile, a rival warlock warned 495 00:45:50,862 --> 00:45:55,405 Niko of the dangers of the Staff of One and attempted to steal it from her, only to be 496 00:45:55,445 --> 00:46:00,439 killed by the Staff itself. This incident reinforced the notion that the staff carried immense and 497 00:46:00,580 --> 00:46:05,402 unpredictable magical power beyond her complete understanding. Niko and the Runaways later 498 00:46:05,442 --> 00:46:11,346 became entangled in Arcade's murder world, where Arcade kidnapped 16 young heroes, forcing them 499 00:46:11,386 --> 00:46:16,949 into a deadly battle royale. An ordeal you can learn more about in our Riddler vs Arcade duel 500 00:46:16,989 --> 00:46:22,433 episode. Niko was gravely injured when Chase Stein, a Runaway controlled by the Darkhawk 501 00:46:22,533 --> 00:46:27,423 Amulet, severed her arm. As she lay dying, she used the last of her strength to utter the 502 00:46:27,463 --> 00:46:33,265 spell, Help, sacrificing herself to the Staff of One in the process. This act triggered the 503 00:46:33,305 --> 00:46:38,327 Staff to resurrect her, restoring her body. The experience significantly amplified her 504 00:46:38,367 --> 00:46:43,249 magical abilities, allowing her to wield powers beyond those previously granted by the Staff 505 00:46:43,289 --> 00:46:48,252 of One. In the aftermath of Murderworld, Nico and the other survivors were thrust into the 506 00:46:48,312 --> 00:46:54,962 public eye when Arcade released footage of their ordeal. She and Chase traveled to Bagalia, 507 00:46:55,182 --> 00:47:00,263 a nation of villains, where Nico trained under Daemon Hellstrom to hone her newly enhanced 508 00:47:00,323 --> 00:47:06,425 abilities. There she was reunited with the resurrected Alex Wilder, who offered her guidance in navigating 509 00:47:06,465 --> 00:47:11,927 the moral complexities of her power. Eventually Nico and her allies escaped Bagalia with help 510 00:47:11,967 --> 00:47:16,608 from the Avengers, where a fight against the Masters of Evil broke out. You can learn more 511 00:47:16,628 --> 00:47:20,929 about the Avengers and the Masters of Evil in their respective team duels against the Justice 512 00:47:20,969 --> 00:47:26,828 League and the Legion of Doom. Nico later joined A-Force, an all-female superhero team where 513 00:47:26,848 --> 00:47:31,732 she played a pivotal role in battles against Anti-Matter and the Countess. However, tensions 514 00:47:31,752 --> 00:47:36,675 within the team escalated during the second superhero civil war when the inhuman Ulysses 515 00:47:36,715 --> 00:47:41,934 had a vision for telling that Nico would kill a woman named Alice. Unwilling to be judged 516 00:47:41,994 --> 00:47:46,856 for a crime she had yet to commit, Nico fled to Colorado, where she encountered the monster 517 00:47:46,876 --> 00:47:51,959 hunter Elsa Bloodstone, whom you can learn more about in her duel episode against Frankenstein. 518 00:47:52,439 --> 00:47:58,362 As it turned out, the woman named Alice transformed into a monstrous parasitic insectoid, forcing 519 00:47:58,422 --> 00:48:03,984 Nico to ultimately cast a spell to end her life. The ordeal left Nico questioning her role as 520 00:48:04,024 --> 00:48:06,626 a hero and the ethics of preemptive justice. 521 00:48:11,228 --> 00:48:17,153 used time travel technology to rescue the former team member Gert Yorke from death. Though reluctant 522 00:48:17,193 --> 00:48:21,417 at first, Nico recognized that her bond with the Runaways remained her strongest tether 523 00:48:21,457 --> 00:48:26,555 to humanity. She resumed leadership of the team and finally formed a romantic relationship 524 00:48:26,615 --> 00:48:31,558 with Carolina Dean. However, she struggled with the burdens of responsibility, including the 525 00:48:31,578 --> 00:48:36,260 discovery that the staff of One contained a trapped magician known as The One. Through 526 00:48:36,300 --> 00:48:41,722 negotiations, she altered the terms of her bond with the staff, allowing her to summon it without 527 00:48:41,762 --> 00:48:47,205 bloodletting, but at the cost of graDuelly freeing The One's will inside of her. Attempting to 528 00:48:47,245 --> 00:48:48,726 embrace a more structured life, 529 00:48:52,628 --> 00:48:58,171 the J Team. However, she and the Runaways uncovered Doc Justice's sinister history of orchestrating 530 00:48:58,211 --> 00:49:03,094 the deaths of his young protégés to bolster his reputation. The team ultimately turned 531 00:49:03,134 --> 00:49:07,537 against him and Nico used her magic to save Carolina from death. Following these events, 532 00:49:07,617 --> 00:49:11,919 Nico accepted a position at Strange Academy where she began teaching creative spellcasting 533 00:49:12,299 --> 00:49:17,663 to a new generation of magic users. Powers-wise, Nico is a sorceress in training with great 534 00:49:22,390 --> 00:49:27,434 to perform powerful and dangerous spells. Despite her inexperience, she is able to tap into her 535 00:49:27,474 --> 00:49:32,539 magic aptitude to wield the Staff of One, a powerful magic artifact capable of casting 536 00:49:32,579 --> 00:49:38,205 spells with a word or phrase. However, as part of the Staff's limitations, she cannot repeat 537 00:49:38,225 --> 00:49:43,630 the same word or phrase to use a spell without suffering undesirable effects. The Staff's 538 00:49:43,670 --> 00:49:48,730 magical effects are usually temporary and occasionally unpredictable, but she has refined this through 539 00:49:48,810 --> 00:49:54,213 training. For example, the word freeze was the first spell she ever cast, and when she tried 540 00:49:54,253 --> 00:49:59,396 the word again, the staff summoned a flock of pelicans. However, through training, she's 541 00:49:59,436 --> 00:50:04,299 found that she can increase the length of the spell phrase to produce the same magical effect, 542 00:50:04,699 --> 00:50:09,261 such as freeze to the exact temperature and aesthetic appearance of a cheap popsicle from 543 00:50:09,321 --> 00:50:14,844 a 7-11, which gives her a workaround to repeat some spells when necessary. Though again, she 544 00:50:14,884 --> 00:50:19,855 cannot use the same phrase twice. Nico can also summon the Staff of One to herself when it's 545 00:50:19,895 --> 00:50:25,117 beyond her reach and use it as a physical combat weapon. In her time as a runaway and superhero, 546 00:50:25,137 --> 00:50:29,579 she's added a number of learned spells to her repertoire that she can use without the staff, 547 00:50:29,699 --> 00:50:35,661 including Portal Generation, Magic Shielding, and Levitation of both herself and other objects. 548 00:50:36,201 --> 00:50:43,064 And that is Nico Minoru. So what kind of spells exactly can she cast with Blood Magic? Summoning 549 00:50:43,104 --> 00:50:47,842 her Staff of One? That's it? That's all she can do with Blood Magic? Through bloodletting, 550 00:50:48,202 --> 00:50:52,345 specifically the torture that she went through on behalf of the Witchbreaker, she was able 551 00:50:52,365 --> 00:50:57,229 to gain more control over the spells that she would cast using the Staff of One. But it's 552 00:50:57,249 --> 00:51:01,692 not just blood magic skill that she has potential in, it's also standard magic, which is how 553 00:51:01,732 --> 00:51:07,036 she has those learned spells such as levitation, magic shielding, and the like. So she's only 554 00:51:07,156 --> 00:51:12,520 able to summon it if she produces her blood? Not anymore, no. She doesn't have to actually 555 00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:16,554 bloodlet in order to summon the Staff. Cause that was pretty dark. She was essentially like 556 00:51:16,574 --> 00:51:21,637 a cutter superhero. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that's why they changed it cause they didn't want 557 00:51:21,697 --> 00:51:27,840 kids kind of like enacting that sort of bloodletting. But I do think that Nico is a vastly interesting 558 00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:32,282 character. You know, she's got like the Japanese thing going. She's got the goth thing going. 559 00:51:32,462 --> 00:51:36,264 There's no other character in the Marvel universe that's quite like her. And I think that's why 560 00:51:36,284 --> 00:51:40,874 she's kind of been the standout character of the Runaways. kind of transitioning successfully 561 00:51:40,914 --> 00:51:46,317 from that team onto other Marvel superhero teams like the A-Force. And she's just a knockoff 562 00:51:46,358 --> 00:51:51,520 version of Tracy 13. Actually the way that Nico uses her spells through like the one word, 563 00:51:51,601 --> 00:51:55,443 one phrase type thing and like the fish nets and all that kind of reminded me of Zatanna. 564 00:51:55,783 --> 00:51:59,885 I think an interesting duel would have been Zatanna versus Nico, although I do believe 565 00:51:59,925 --> 00:52:03,267 that Zatanna would have wiped the floor with her because Nico has those spell limitations. 566 00:52:03,467 --> 00:52:07,730 Whereas Zatanna can use her spells over and over again. She just says them backwards. I 567 00:52:07,770 --> 00:52:12,271 find it interesting that you describe Nico as still being in training when she's also teaching 568 00:52:12,311 --> 00:52:16,113 courses at Strange Academy. Yeah, she's still in training though to reach her potential. 569 00:52:16,613 --> 00:52:21,475 A lot of the magic that she does is summoned through the staff, so she's working on becoming 570 00:52:21,495 --> 00:52:25,897 a better sorceress outside of the staff. Maybe she'll become the future Sorcerer Supreme. 571 00:52:26,538 --> 00:52:32,200 She was in consideration along with the rest of Marvel's sorcerers and sorceresses at the 572 00:52:32,240 --> 00:52:35,801 time that Doctor Strange lost the title briefly. Oh, interesting. Okay. 573 00:52:43,046 --> 00:52:49,090 fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare yourself 574 00:52:49,310 --> 00:52:55,434 for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The Dynomic Podcast 575 00:52:55,474 --> 00:53:00,097 Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday. 576 00:53:03,150 --> 00:53:08,833 Smash every Tuesday, Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday, 577 00:53:09,414 --> 00:53:15,318 and Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on 578 00:53:15,358 --> 00:53:21,042 the matches and, armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious. 579 00:53:21,582 --> 00:53:25,845 Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score. 580 00:53:30,226 --> 00:53:34,148 Now that we've got their histories and abilities out of the way, let's speculate on how one 581 00:53:34,228 --> 00:53:40,110 of the 1000 simulated matches will go. The winner is determined by simulations, not this speculation, 582 00:53:40,430 --> 00:53:46,013 but it's fun to imagine how this fight could play out. AJ9K, what are the rules of our speculation? 583 00:53:46,893 --> 00:53:50,895 Well, I should say there are no rules, other than the characters have no prior knowledge 584 00:53:50,915 --> 00:53:55,316 of the other going into the fight. All they are aware of starting out is that the other 585 00:53:55,336 --> 00:54:00,423 character is a threat that needs to be eliminated. For the speculation, the contestants will begin 586 00:54:00,463 --> 00:54:05,527 approximately 50 meters apart in a non-descript environment that will have no bearing on the 587 00:54:05,567 --> 00:54:10,911 match itself, as no environmental statistics are considered in my simulations. The contestants 588 00:54:10,951 --> 00:54:16,435 must earn victory on their own merit. Alright, then let's get into it. Talon and Sister Grimm 589 00:54:16,475 --> 00:54:22,639 meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? I'm gonna say Niko goes first by summoning her 590 00:54:22,679 --> 00:54:28,194 staff. That's her first action. It emerges from her chest. and she spins it around like a badass. 591 00:54:28,814 --> 00:54:33,355 And actually, I have a list of all the spells that she's performed in the comics, because 592 00:54:33,375 --> 00:54:37,877 I'm going to try to keep this speculation as comic accurate as possible for Nico. So I have 593 00:54:37,897 --> 00:54:43,458 a list of like no-go words and phrases, just, you know, to stay in keeping with her limitations. 594 00:54:43,478 --> 00:54:51,560 OK, good. Well, Nico is busy twirling her staff. Tellen's going to hurl a volley of blades her 595 00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:57,927 way with deadly precision, targeting each of her limbs and her head. Oh sorry the blades 596 00:54:57,987 --> 00:55:03,350 missed because Nico she puts up a magic shield to block them you know it's one of her learned 597 00:55:03,390 --> 00:55:07,752 spells she doesn't need the staff for and then she's gonna use the staff to vault over her 598 00:55:07,792 --> 00:55:13,115 magic shield and she's gonna levitate in the air point the staff at Talon and she's gonna 599 00:55:13,155 --> 00:55:18,599 call out the spell Captain Howdy which is gonna make Talon's head spin around like the girl 600 00:55:18,999 --> 00:55:24,262 from the exorcist movie and also like an owl since he kind of looks like an owl and that's 601 00:55:24,282 --> 00:55:30,607 going to snap his neck, just taking him out. OK. You know, with his neck snapped, his body 602 00:55:30,627 --> 00:55:35,251 is probably going to drop to the floor dead. And Nico, she'll land on the ground and be 603 00:55:35,291 --> 00:55:40,475 like, well, that was easy. But as she's busy looking around, wondering where she is and 604 00:55:40,515 --> 00:55:45,739 why she's in this environment, she's going to be too distracted to see Talon's head spin 605 00:55:45,799 --> 00:55:51,464 back around. And his body stands back up. And before she realizes it, she's been straight 606 00:55:51,484 --> 00:55:58,327 up impaled with a sword through her back. Oh shit, okay. Uh, well okay, so she falls away 607 00:55:58,387 --> 00:56:03,308 from the sword, she's mortally wounded, but before she passes out, she's gonna call out 608 00:56:03,348 --> 00:56:08,789 the spell Red Potion, which is gonna cause the Staff of One to heal her up instantly, you 609 00:56:08,809 --> 00:56:14,951 know, like the Red Potion from Legend of Zelda. So she gets back onto her feet, and she's glaring 610 00:56:15,011 --> 00:56:20,653 at this Talon douche who just stabbed her, and she calls out Pyre, which is gonna cause Talon 611 00:56:20,673 --> 00:56:26,958 to catch on fire. Pyre? Like a funeral pyre? Yeah. I'm guessing she's already used the spell 612 00:56:27,018 --> 00:56:34,420 fire. According to this list, she's used hell fire and back draft. But I would think that 613 00:56:34,460 --> 00:56:38,101 fire would either be too common that she'd have had to have used it at some point or she'd 614 00:56:38,161 --> 00:56:43,083 want to save it as like a backup emergency spell. Because in the comics, she's kind of forced 615 00:56:43,123 --> 00:56:47,504 to get creative with some of her wording in order to not back herself into a corner in 616 00:56:47,524 --> 00:56:51,965 the future. So I'm just kind of rolling with that idea. OK, well, I mean, it doesn't matter 617 00:56:52,325 --> 00:56:58,707 because all she says on fire. is a column of smoke where Talon once was. And as she's looking 618 00:56:58,747 --> 00:57:04,128 around for him, that's when Talon's going to attack from whatever direction she wasn't looking, 619 00:57:04,488 --> 00:57:09,390 just delivering this series of kicks and strikes. And that's going to cause her to drop her staff 620 00:57:09,850 --> 00:57:15,011 and get knocked to the ground. OK, so she's on the ground, but she's going to use her learned 621 00:57:15,071 --> 00:57:21,033 magic spell to telekinetically shove Talon back. And then she's going to summon the staff that 622 00:57:21,053 --> 00:57:27,034 she dropped back into her hand. She's gonna call out the spell, sleep with the fishes. 623 00:57:27,414 --> 00:57:32,896 And suddenly Talon's feet are gonna be encased in cement, like cinder blocks, and now he can 624 00:57:33,076 --> 00:57:38,818 barely move his legs. He's stuck. Dude, a middle school age kid with karate skill can get out 625 00:57:38,858 --> 00:57:44,459 of this. He's just gonna karate chop this cinder block, it's gonna crack in half, so he's free. 626 00:57:45,320 --> 00:57:48,740 Okay, but she's gonna see him doing that, and she's gonna realize that she needs a better 627 00:57:48,861 --> 00:57:55,703 freezing spell. So she's gonna point her staff at him. and call out squishy and then he completely 628 00:57:55,743 --> 00:58:02,507 freezes encased in ice just frozen to death. Why does squishy freeze him? From the Simpsons 629 00:58:02,527 --> 00:58:08,030 you know the drink that the cookie mart sells it's like an icy. Okay well I mean icies are 630 00:58:08,210 --> 00:58:13,533 pretty liquid it's not like they're frozen blocks so Talon's actually just soaked in cold red 631 00:58:13,613 --> 00:58:18,836 syrup and that's gonna allow him to throw a dagger right across Nico's throat slitting 632 00:58:18,916 --> 00:58:25,427 the larynx and preventing her from speaking any more magic words. No, cause actually, you 633 00:58:25,447 --> 00:58:29,768 know, the literal meaning of the word is less important than the meaning that she assigns 634 00:58:29,828 --> 00:58:35,470 to it. Cause like in the comics, she built a house using the spell Abraham Lincoln, but 635 00:58:35,490 --> 00:58:40,911 it's not like that spell summoned Abraham Lincoln. So no, Talon's not covered in red liquid. He's 636 00:58:40,991 --> 00:58:47,013 frozen solid, like she meant him to be. And he didn't throw any daggers cause he's frozen, 637 00:58:47,313 --> 00:58:50,627 cause he's dead. And there's not going to be any resurrecting here because she's going to 638 00:58:50,727 --> 00:58:56,651 shatter him into a thousand pieces with her staff. Match over. All right. But surprise, 639 00:58:57,012 --> 00:59:02,015 just as she's about to shatter him, he's going to eject these extendable claws kind of like 640 00:59:02,035 --> 00:59:07,559 Wolverine from his wrist. And that's going to shatter the ice around his arm, freeing it. 641 00:59:08,119 --> 00:59:13,343 And the staff, she's going to swing that into these blades, which is going to cause Nico 642 00:59:13,403 --> 00:59:20,965 to accidentally get her staff sliced in two. So before she can even comprehend what just 643 00:59:21,005 --> 00:59:27,270 happened, Talon's gonna like flex his way out of the rest of the ice and quickly draw his 644 00:59:27,310 --> 00:59:34,817 sword and slice her body into with one stroke, ending this match in his favor. Okay, so either 645 00:59:35,358 --> 00:59:41,423 Talon breaks out of the ice and slices Niko down with his sword, or he stays in the ice 646 00:59:42,004 --> 00:59:45,258 and she shatters him into a thousand pieces. I think that's a pretty good cliffhanger for 647 00:59:45,278 --> 00:59:49,801 this match. Let's go ahead and see which scenario happens by running the stats on these characters, 648 00:59:50,061 --> 00:59:55,644 along with the simulations, and coming back with a winner. AG9K, hit it! Inputting data, 649 00:59:56,204 --> 01:00:02,007 running calculations, processing results, simulations complete. All right, we always knew that the 650 01:00:02,047 --> 01:00:05,849 stats for this particular matchup were gonna be interesting. Like, the characters aren't 651 01:00:05,929 --> 01:00:11,573 identical at all. They have nothing really in common. It's more about what they have in contrast 652 01:00:11,593 --> 01:00:16,511 with each other. And to that end, these stats came out as expected. Like you have Talon, 653 01:00:16,871 --> 01:00:22,453 who's an incredibly skilled fighter going up against Nico, who is not. And then you have 654 01:00:22,553 --> 01:00:29,376 Nico, who is incredibly versatile going up against Talon, who is not. Right, Talon is basically 655 01:00:29,856 --> 01:00:35,378 a stabby fight man who really doesn't have too much going for him, you know, besides his healing 656 01:00:35,398 --> 01:00:39,920 factor as well. Oh yeah, the healing factor put him way over the top over Nico in terms 657 01:00:40,120 --> 01:00:46,407 of durability. But when it came to damage level, Niko came out on top by equal measure. Yeah, 658 01:00:46,427 --> 01:00:51,310 she definitely has the potential to cause a lot of damage. We also said that Niko was slightly 659 01:00:51,391 --> 01:00:59,155 stronger thanks to her telekinesis and had a broader range. But in contrast, Talon had greater 660 01:00:59,215 --> 01:01:04,719 perception thanks to his infrared goggles. I think the stat that was most surprising here 661 01:01:04,759 --> 01:01:10,514 was intelligence. The Marvel power grid ranks Niko at a two. And because of that, I thought 662 01:01:10,554 --> 01:01:14,858 Talon was gonna take that stack category. But it turns out he's not really that much smarter 663 01:01:14,898 --> 01:01:20,003 either. Yeah, I know the Talons are pretty much mindless zombies that only know how to do the 664 01:01:20,023 --> 01:01:24,827 will of the court. So, yeah, he ranked pretty low. But with all of this in consideration, 665 01:01:25,148 --> 01:01:28,911 Joseph, who do you think came out on top? I think Nico's going to take it. I mean, for 666 01:01:29,071 --> 01:01:36,878 as good of a fighter and as lethal and as durable as Talon is regenerative, I should say. I think 667 01:01:36,938 --> 01:01:41,582 Nico has her own unique strengths and I think that's going to put her over the top. Instagram 668 01:01:41,602 --> 01:01:48,067 does not agree with me for some reason. 61% of our Instagram poll takers said that Talon 669 01:01:48,087 --> 01:01:51,690 was going to win this match, which kind of scares me a little bit because I would think that 670 01:01:51,710 --> 01:01:56,855 a lot of people would actually know who Nico is, you know, just based on the runaways television 671 01:01:56,875 --> 01:02:01,379 show or the current Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series. Talon just must be more 672 01:02:01,419 --> 01:02:06,438 popular than I think he is or he's more powerful than I think he is. Talon comes from one of 673 01:02:06,478 --> 01:02:11,919 the most interesting Batman stories ever, at least recently. So yeah, I'm not surprised 674 01:02:11,939 --> 01:02:17,401 by those Instagram results. But let's see if those poll takers are correct. Agent NK, the 675 01:02:17,441 --> 01:02:26,684 results please. Hey Yuasa. Alright, the winner of the matchup between Talon and Niko Minoru 676 01:02:27,844 --> 01:02:34,566 is... Niko Minoru. That's right, baby! That's right! But... By what percentage would you 677 01:02:34,606 --> 01:02:39,087 guess? I think it'll be pretty close. It's got to be in the 50s. I don't think she's going 678 01:02:39,127 --> 01:02:43,328 to take almost two thirds of these matches. I think it's going to be closer to the 50-50 679 01:02:43,588 --> 01:02:49,750 mark. I actually thought Nico was going to totally stomp after putting in the stats, but she won 680 01:02:50,110 --> 01:03:00,013 58.6 percent of her matches or 586 of the 1000 compared to Talon, who won 414. OK, so that 681 01:03:00,053 --> 01:03:06,388 was pretty close to 60 percent then. Yeah, in the end, Talon's fighting and durability stats 682 01:03:06,408 --> 01:03:13,133 cannot overpower Niko's versatility and damage as well as range really. You know, it was the 683 01:03:13,173 --> 01:03:19,658 stat that really failed him. It was intelligence. If Talon was like a smart genius, like I thought 684 01:03:19,678 --> 01:03:24,121 he was going to be, he actually would have put up a better fight to the point of maybe even 685 01:03:24,161 --> 01:03:29,385 winning this thing. I mean, both of the prominent talents were recruited by Haley Circus fairly 686 01:03:29,425 --> 01:03:35,388 young. And that's not really to discount the intelligence of circus performers, but their 687 01:03:35,448 --> 01:03:40,870 specialties are physical and not necessarily academic. Yeah, and even though Nico's like 688 01:03:41,090 --> 01:03:46,273 teaching some classes at a strange academy, I don't think she graduated high school. So 689 01:03:46,293 --> 01:03:51,355 she definitely is gaining in her knowledge of the occult and mysticism. But you know, she's 690 01:03:51,395 --> 01:03:56,617 still a little bit naive. She's still considered like a young hero compared to the rest of the 691 01:03:56,637 --> 01:04:00,496 Marvel Pantheon. Did you know that the Staff of One has made an appearance in the MCU? Oh, 692 01:04:00,516 --> 01:04:07,261 it was in the Dr. Strange movie, right? Yeah, it was when Dormammu was attacking the magic 693 01:04:07,321 --> 01:04:15,548 stronghold in China, the one that Wong was defending, and alongside him was Tina, Nico's mom, holding 694 01:04:15,608 --> 01:04:20,432 the Staff of One. I'm really hoping that the Court of Owls are the main villains in the 695 01:04:20,512 --> 01:04:26,017 upcoming sequel to The Batman. It's rumored that they, and possibly also Mr. Freeze, will 696 01:04:26,057 --> 01:04:31,163 be. Fingers crossed, I think that'd be really cool. I feel like the Court of Owls and Mr. 697 01:04:31,203 --> 01:04:37,024 Freeze aren't two comic book entities that jive well in a story, but I'd rather see the Court 698 01:04:37,044 --> 01:04:42,146 of Owls because they seem a lot more grounded than something like Mr. Freeze, and we all 699 01:04:42,166 --> 01:04:47,887 know that the Batman franchise is pretty grounded. Well, I think Batman would almost need Mr. 700 01:04:47,907 --> 01:04:53,629 Freeze's tech to stop the Court of Owls and their talons, so I don't know. Yeah, that would 701 01:04:53,649 --> 01:05:00,490 make sense. We'll see. But that does it for this duel AJ 9k help close this out. Thanks 702 01:05:00,510 --> 01:05:05,913 for listening to Dynamic Duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicDuel.com and follow us on 703 01:05:05,973 --> 01:05:12,456 Instagram at dynamicDuelpodcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicDuel 704 01:05:12,576 --> 01:05:16,799 and joining a tier that works for you, or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Duel on Apple 705 01:05:16,819 --> 01:05:22,442 Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in 706 01:05:22,462 --> 01:05:27,985 the Dynamite Podcast Network, including Max Destruction, Senjow World and Console Combat. 707 01:05:29,686 --> 01:05:35,489 Our next episode is going to be a matchup between two psychic entities, or I guess one of them 708 01:05:35,509 --> 01:05:40,672 is an emotional entity. It's going to be Parallax versus Onslaught. Yeah, two universe shaking 709 01:05:40,712 --> 01:05:45,054 bad guys from the 90s. It's going to be awesome. We want to give a big thanks to our executive 710 01:05:45,074 --> 01:05:50,757 producers, John Storosky, Zachary Hepburn, Mickey Montagian, Brandon Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, 711 01:05:50,998 --> 01:05:57,241 Levi Yeaton, Austin Wiselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Nick Abonto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam 712 01:05:57,281 --> 01:06:03,736 Spies. Dean Molesky, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, Mike Williams, and Oscar Galvez 713 01:06:03,776 --> 01:06:08,479 for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, 714 01:06:08,719 --> 01:06:09,299 true believers.