This is a DynaMic Network podcast.
And welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations.
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are doing a spooktacular
duel between two witch characters, Clarion the Witch Boy from DC and Agatha Harkness from
Marvel. who currently of course has her own series on Disney Plus, Agatha All Along. Yeah,
I haven't started watching it yet. I'm hoping to binge it right before Halloween, because
it feels very Halloween-y and I don't want to wait week to week, basically. Well, hopefully
this episode will help people get in the Halloween spirit, but before we get into the duel, we're
going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which there's really
just one news item, and that was that Aaron Pierre has been cast as Jon Stewart in the
Green Lantern series. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so
feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Guys,
our artificially intelligent duel simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners,
so listen up! Why hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part
of the dynamic duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic
2-0 tier gives you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic 4 tier gives you two
bonus episodes each month, and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show.
Lastly, The Diner Mike podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this
Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support
and consultation, and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicduelpodcast
at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and
thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys, be sure to tune into the other shows
on the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action
heroes from film and television against each other. This week, hosts Scotty and Gilly are
reviewing Beetlejuice for Spooktober. On the Cedro World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates
on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. He did not release an episode last
week due to being sick, so the Muzan from Demon Slayer and Femto from Berserk episode will
be this Thursday. And on the Console Combat Podcast, hosts John and Dean simulate battles
between popular video game characters, and yesterday's episode they reviewed Five Nights at Freddy's.
Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows
in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize! A No
Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize,
is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer
to our question of the week. Last week we asked you guys, who's your favorite Robin character
from the comics, and why? We got a lot of answers, 8 in total, but only 3 got an honorable mention,
and there was one No Prize winner, so let's go ahead and run those down. Our first honorable
mention goes to Mason Thompson, who said,
So I'll pull from the main selection. I'm gonna go with Jason, you know He went from people
wanting to vote him to get killed off To him coming back and he's popular in the main media
and he's a fan favorite I mean, that's just an insane comeback to not choose him He has
so much depth to him and feel just with Bruce and his connection So yeah, give me Jason is
the best Robin. Yeah, Jason Todd has one of the most interesting Backstories of a comic
book character ever. Fans initially hated him, like Mason said. They voted for the character
to die decades ago. Although that wasn't really true. Yeah, actually one guy used a speed dialer
to vote way more times than anyone else, so it was kind of rigged. But, you know, for the
character to come back and be arguably the coolest Robin as Red Hood is quite the character arc.
Yeah, he had a lot of attitude as a Robin, which I think a lot of people didn't like, but...
It makes sense to parlay that attitude into more of a badass character in the Bat Family.
And he has a really cool look to him too, so. Yeah, absolutely. Of course, if you want to
learn more about Jason Todd, we put him in one of our duel episodes against the Punisher.
Great answer Mason! Our next honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon, who said, What's up
dynamic dudes? Travis here. Shout out to my evil twin. So my pick would have to be Duke
Thomas. Now I know he wasn't exactly chosen by Bruce. to be the new Robin it was Alfred
but Alfred is Bruce's second in command and I think Duke is pretty cool Robin at the time
and very underrated compared to like all the rest of the other bat family so yeah my answer
would be Duke Thomas that's my favorite Robin. Yeah Duke Thomas was a character who came around
during a time when Batman Bruce Wayne was dead but he quickly emerged as a pretty popular
teenage hero within Gotham of course he was never officially a Robin. but he is still a
part of the Bat Family as the character of Signal, Gotham's daytime protector, considering that
Duke Thomas is a metahuman with powers. What kind of powers? It involves light. I forget
the exact name of it, but he could essentially see the past sort of almost like in a photographic
way. Like if he looks into a room through the light, he can see what had transpired there
earlier. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it is really cool. Great answer, Travis Herndon. Our next
honorable mention goes to Gavin Carrasco. Who said? Hello, this is Gavin, first time responder.
I am coming with the hot take of Kara Kelly from The Dark Knight Returns. I always thought
she was the best of Dick Grayson with his wit and charm, and I always thought she was smart
like Tim Drake. And those are two of the best Robins, so them combined made a really good
Robin for an amazing Batman. So that's my answer, Kara Kelly from The Dark Knight Returns. Yeah,
I still remember the first time I read The Dark Knight Returns and how cool the character of
Carrie Kelly was as a Robin. She, of course, was the very first female Robin, you know,
outside of DC's standard continuity. And she did a fantastic job. Fan favorite, totally.
A favorite of mine for sure. So great answer, Gavin. Was she Robin chronologically before
Stephanie Brown was? Because I know Spoiler has been a Robin as well. Well, Spoiler wasn't
a Robin until I think the 2000s. Oh. So... Chronologically, it's hard to say because the Dark Knight returns
takes place in the future. But from a publishing standpoint Yeah, Carrie Kelly was the first
Robin. She wasn't Robin for long She moved on to being cat girl by the sequel to that story
But yeah, she still made for a cool Robin great answer Gavin We want to give a quick shout
out to Cyrus Moore Daniel Alonso Daniel you give the best answer. Basically his answer
was who cares? It's Robin and as a Marvel fan. I just loved that Shout out to Mike Williams
and Peter Trull for calling in with your answers. Thanks for taking the time to do that. But
the winner of this week's No Prize is... Miggy Mattingian, who said... Hey what's up guys,
this is Miggy and my favorite Robin is the OG, the best Robin, Dick Grayson. He's the paragon
of everything DC represents. He overcame great tragedy, the selflessly championed hope and
compassion to a world without those in and out of the costume, and grew into a respected figure
in the universe. He led teams like the Titans and the Outsiders to bring about justice. and
even led the entire superhero community through several world-shattering events like Dark Crisis,
Beast World, and Absolute Power. And he's just really damn cool. Thanks guys. Yeah, I know
of no bigger Nightwing Dick Grayson fan than our executive producer, Miggie Mathingian.
I agree Dick Grayson is the best Robin for all of the reasons that Miggie just stated. He
is one of the most interesting and probably one of the most important characters in the
entirety of DC Comics. someone who represents the hope and compassion of Superman, but with
all of the ability and expertise of Batman, he's just a fantastic character. Yeah, if you're
a member of our Discord channel, you know how much Mickey loves Dick. He loves Dick a lot.
Maybe too much, some might say, because the character is just so-so. I only see him as
the character who lost to Daredevil in the duel that we had between those two characters. Oh
wow, look, a Marvel fan with a low-hanging fruit.
Great answer, Miggy! Proud of you, Miggy! You win this week's No Prize. If you, the listener,
wanna try winning your own No Prize, stay tuned till later on in this episode when we'll be
asking another Question of the Week. But with that out of the way, on to the news!
Okay, so a few weeks ago we learned that Kyle Chandler was cast as Hal Jordan in the upcoming
Lantern series for HBO that's going to be a part of James Gunn's new DC Cinematic Universe.
Now, the series supposedly has two leads, Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart, and we've been waiting
to see who is going to be cast as Jon Stewart, this iconic Green Lantern character, and it
looks like James Gunn has gone with Aaron Pierre from the Netflix movie Rebel Ridge. Which I
have not seen. But I hear is good. It's really hard to be excited about this casting because
I have not seen that yet. I haven't seen it either, but apparently it's pretty popular
on Netflix. Yeah, and a lot of people are praising his performance in it. I know he has a ton
of upcoming work, including The Lion King. He's doing voice work for Mufasa. He's also playing
Malcolm X in the Nat Geo series, MLK slash X. The guy is definitely gonna be a star, especially
with this series. I think the craziest thing about him is that, I think he is green eyes
or blue eyes or something like that. They're very piercing in a way that the comic book
character John Stewart also has. Yeah, yeah, John Stewart has green eyes in the comics when
he has his green lantern ring on, but it's like they don't have any easy to do CGI for Aaron
Pierce eyes because yeah, those things are really bright, really striking. I wonder if that's
one of the reasons he was chosen. Well that, I mean, you know, he has a strong military
look to him. I believe him as, you know, this ex-military guy. If you guys want to learn
more about the comic book character of Jon Stewart, check out his duel episode we did against Quasar.
Yeah, that was a fun episode. Jon Stewart is my favorite Green Lantern, so I'm pretty excited
for this casting, given though I'm not too familiar with the actor. I'm more excited for this casting,
actually, than I was of hearing that Kyle Chandler was playing Kal Jordan. I wonder how the two
will do chemistry wise. I know that all the actors in Final Contention for the role of
Jon Stewart had to do a chemistry reading with Kyle Chandler. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.
That's great to hear. Well, if they chose Aaron Pierre, then you know, I'm sure the chemistry
was fantastic. I'm actually really curious to see what the dynamic will be between the two.
I'm assuming Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan will be training Aaron Pierre's Jon Stewart, but
we'll see if that's the case. The Lantern Show has a phenomenal crew behind the scenes, including
writers Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof. I expect really good things from this show. And speaking
of great superhero shows, that brings us to our question of the week.
What has been your favorite live action Marvel or DC television series so far, and why? There
have been quite a few to come out now, and pretty much across the whole spectrum of really good
to not so good. So I'm curious to hear what your favorite is. Record your answer at dynamicduel.com
by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen,
which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long,
and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our
favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram.
Be sure to answer before October 19th.
But that does it for all the news for this episode. So now let's go ahead and move on to our main
event, where we pit and a duel the two witch characters of Clarion the Witch Boy and Agatha
Harkness.
Okay, Clarion the Witch Boy versus Agatha Harkness. Of course, we wanted to do a Titan duel to
Agatha Harkness because we knew that she was going to be having her television series, Agatha
All Along, currently airing on Disney Plus during the Halloween season. So it seemed very appropriate
to do a witch duel. Now us and the executive producers had a hard time finding a match for
Agatha. Initially, We had voted that we wanted to put her up against Madame Xanadu, but in
the end we determined that we could play up on Agatha Harkness's old age, as she has been
typically depicted in the comics for the majority of her appearances in the comic books, against
the age of Clarion the Witch Boy, who's a young child. Both of them have cats, both of them
are witches, both of them are pretty powerful, so it seemed like a pretty good matchup. Yeah,
it's young versus old. Cat versus cat, Agatha the witch versus Clarion the bitch. Whoa! Yeah,
she's gonna make him her bitch in this episode. I don't know if you knew that. I had to. Man,
with the low hanging fruit, you're right. Be better. But to explain the methodology behind
our duels, let's go to our sentient duel simulator, Alfred Jarvis 9000. AJ9K, tell our listeners
how you go about determining a winner in our duel matchups. Yes, of course, sir. The way
I determine a winner between the contestants is by running 1000 Monte Carlo simulations
using the characters statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to
determine outcomes through random sampling. In this case, I randomise the statistics along
a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle.
The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid from which the DC characters
statistics are extrapolated.
damage potential, versatility and perception in order to create a more detailed and accurate
simulation. The results of the 1000 simulations provide a percentage of wins for each character.
Contestant with the higher percentage is declared the victor as they have a higher probability
to win any given battle. In an equitable pairing, neither character should win 100% of the matches.
The comic book stories have shown that there's even a way for Batman to defeat Superman, so
the confidence rate of my method falls in line with the precedents that have been established
in the source material. My mathematical simulations are without subjectivity or bias. Feats are
not the sole consideration, nor are fan votes tabulated for determination of the winner.
Thanks AJ9K! Before we run the simulations though, we'd like to break down each character's histories
and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the 1,000 simulations
would play out beat for beat. And I believe it's my turn to go first this episode with
the Marvel characters backstory, so let me go ahead and tell you guys all about Agatha Harkness.
Agatha Harkness's early life is largely unknown, but she has claimed to be centuries old, living
before the fall of Atlantis over 20,000 years ago. As a child of the ancient world, she began
her practice in witchcraft early on and eventually became one of the Earth's most powerful sorceresses.
Her earliest documented activities took place during the 1600s in an Eastern European country
called Transia, near Wondagore Mountain, where she was part of a coven of witches that faced
persecution during the height of the witch hunts across Europe at the time. By the late 17th
century, Agatha had relocated to Salem, Massachusetts. where she established her own coven during
the infamous Salem witch trials. Rather than hide from persecution this time, Agatha embraced
it, believing that the trials were a way to strengthen the magical community by weeding
out those who were not strong enough to survive. She sent some of her own followers to be judged
and executed, believing that their sacrifice would make the remaining witches more resilient.
During this time, Agatha encountered the time displaced pyrokinetic mutant Firestar, whom
and tried without success to burn at the stake. Agatha admired Firestar's resilience in the
face of adversity and her refusal to embrace violence as a solution. This influenced Agatha
to abandon the idea of open warfare between witches and non-magical humans and she led
the surviving witches westward, establishing a hidden witch community called New Salem in
the mountains of what would later become Colorado. Here the witches were able to live in peace.
far away from the fear and persecution from mankind. In New Salem, Agatha gave birth to
her son, Nicholas Scratch, who would later become one of her most dangerous enemies. Over time,
into the modern era, Agatha's ideals shifted, and she began to see the dangers of the covens
isolation. Believing that New Salem's retreat from the world would eventually lead to stagnation
and decline, she left the community to rejoin the wider world. Her departure left a void
in New Salem's leadership. and Nicholas Scratch took advantage of this, rising to power and
fostering a deep resentment toward his mother for abandoning the community. After leaving
New Salem, Agatha settled in New York, where she became the governess for Franklin Richards,
the young son of Reed and Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four. Though the Richards family initially
had no idea of Agatha's true nature, her powers were soon revealed when the Frightful Four
villain team attempted to kidnap Franklin. Agatha used her magic to easily defeat the villains,
including transforming her cat Ebony into a powerful panther to drive the intruders away.
Her time with Franklin allowed her to bond with the Richards family, though her relationship
with them would soon be tested by the return of her estranged son, Nicholas Scratch. Scratch,
now the leader of New Salem, convinced the witches of that coven to abduct Agatha and Franklin,
bringing them back to stand trial for their supposed crimes. The Fantastic Four pursued
Agatha and Franklin to New Salem, where they clashed with Nicholas Scratch's seven children,
known as Salem Seven, who had inherited immense magical powers from their father. Agatha and
the Fantastic Four ultimately defeated Salem Seven, revealing the truth of Nicholas Scratch's
evil machinations, and the people of New Salem banished Scratch to another dimension. Following
her time with the Fantastic Four, Agatha shifted her focus to another powerful individuel, Wanda
Maximoff the Scarlet Witch. whose mutant abilities were intertwined with dark magical forces,
desperately sought control over her powers, which had become increasingly unstable. Agatha
saw the danger the Scarlet Witch posed, both to herself and to the world, and agreed to
become her magical mentor. You can learn more in our Zatanna vs Scarlet Witch duel episode.
Under Agatha's guidance, the Scarlet Witch learned to tap into her abilities more effectively.
Though Agatha kept the full truth of her powers, particularly their connection to the dark god
of chaos, C'thun, hidden from her. Agatha's mentorship helped Scarlet Witch grow as a magic
user, and her newfound control over her powers left her confident to marry her romantic partner,
Vision, an android, which led to the subsequent birth of their twin children. You can learn
more about Vision in his duel against Marsha Manhunter. Wanda's children were later revealed
to be magical constructs created from the fragments of the demon Mephisto's soul. Agatha made the
difficult decision to erase Wanda's memories of her kids, believing it to be the only way
to spare her from the overwhelming grief. This act, though well-intentioned, planted the seeds
for Wanda's eventual mental breakdown. Agatha continued to aid Wanda through her personal
struggles, helping her face threats such as Immortus, who sought to manipulate Wanda's
reality-warping abilities for his own purposes. With Agatha's help, the Avengers were able
to defeat Immortus, though Wanda's fragile mental state remained a constant concern. Years of
repressed trauma eventually led to Wanda's breakdown, in part triggered by psychological manipulations
by the villain Dr. Doom. In her grief and rage, Scarlet Witch destroyed the Avengers Mansion,
which led to the dissolution of the Avengers team. Wanda confronted Agatha, demanding to
know the truth about her children. Not long after, Agatha was found dead in her home, her
body seemingly desiccated. You can learn more about this in our Justice League vs Avengers
Team Duel episode. However, even death did not end Agatha's influence. She continued to appear
in spectral form, forgiving Scarlet Witch and guiding her and others through the challenges
they faced. Eventually, Agatha was brought back to life via the Goddess of Witchcraft, who
was cleansed by Scarlet Witch during her journey through a mystical dimension known as the Witch's
Road. Upon Agatha's resurrection, she returned to the magical fold, this time teaching new
witches at Dr. Strange's new Magic Academy. It was there- that an old coven member called
Corrosion attempted to kill Agatha, but she was rescued by her new students, including
the former Runaways member, Niko Minoru, a teen sorceress. The mystical energies unleashed
from the battle resulted in Agatha being de-aged from her elderly appearance into a young woman.
After the Scarlet Witch destroyed a powerful book of chaos magic called the Darkhold, Agatha
attempted to create a new Darkhold. Her plans were eventually thwarted by the Avengers. the
consequences of which led to the Darkhold taking on the form of a young boy, whom Agatha fled
with in an attempt to guide him. And that's Agatha's backstory. Powers-wise, Agatha Harkness
is one of the most formidable witches on the planet, allowing her to cast all manner of
spells. Her witchcraft abilities include precognition, possession, elemental manipulation, and transmutation.
She can fly, teleport, cast illusions, and sense mystic occurrences. Agatha has the ability
to summon mystical energies for offensive or defensive purposes, or manipulate these mystical
energies to enhance, reflect, or negate their magical effects. With enough time, she can
perform a magic ritual to achieve any number of spells. Her familiar, Ebony, is a magical
cat capable of transforming into a powerful panther and regenerating from almost any wound.
Agatha has extensive knowledge of witchcraft gained over millennia. and has trained other
powerful individuels in the use of their abilities. She's also terribly mysterious, I'll say, even
inexplicably surviving death on several occasions. There you go. This old hag doesn't stand a
chance. Wow. Way to discriminate on the basis of age there. Good job. I don't feel bad if
it's a fictional character, I'm just putting that out there. Also she was de-aged, so like
I don't know what you're talking about. Largely they did that just- so that the character would
be consistent with how she appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, played by Katherine Han.
Yeah, and I figured that. Yeah. Brand synergy. As I've typically known the character in the
comics though, yeah, she's pretty old. That's kind of what made her such a badass though,
because she's like so seemingly frail, almost looking kind of like Aunt May in the comics,
but she's supremely powerful. Well, not as powerful as Clarion! Let me get into his backstory.
Now, Clarion Bleak. often referred to as Clarion the Witch Boy, was born in Limbotown, an isolated
and mysterious subterranean society hidden beneath New York City. Limbotown was populated by Kroatoans,
who were the descendants of the Lost Roanoke Colony, America's first permanent English settlement
that later mysteriously vanished. To survive in the New World, the Kroatoans had developed
a deep connection to dark magic. and necromancy over centuries. Every citizen in Limbo Town
practiced witchcraft and had a draga, or an animal familiar, that aided them in their magical
pursuits. Clarion's familiar was a cat named Tikal, who shared her master's rebellious and
mischievous nature. From a young age, Clarion struggled with the strict rules and religious
codes enforced by Submissionary Judah, Limbo Town's leader. Judah and the other elders dictated
how magic could be used, and they harshly discouraged any curiosity or questioning about the world
beyond Limbo Town's borders. Clarion, however, was always drawn to the unknown and wanted
to explore beyond his subterranean world. He secretly began studying darker and forbidden
forms of magic, driven by his thirst for knowledge and freedom. His disobedience did not go unnoticed,
however.
eventually caught the attention of the town elders. And one day, Clarion found himself
pursued by the Horagil. terrifying entities created when Judah and other submissionaries
merged with their familiars. Clarion fled Limbo Town with Teekal by his side, narrowly escaping
the clutches of the Horagold, and emerged in the subway tunnels beneath New York City, marking
his first encounter with the world above, which he'd later refer to as the Blue Rafters. In
the subway tunnels, Clarion met Ebenezer Bade, another runaway from Limbo Town who had escaped
Clarion under his wing, showing him the many wonders and dangers of the surface world. It
was long, however, before Bade betrayed Clarion, with the intention to sell the boy into slavery.
In response, Clarion and Teekal confronted Bade alongside a group of hive-minded children known
as the Leviathan, whom Bade had been capturing for years, also to sell into slavery. With
the Leviathan's help, Clarion put an end to Bade's schemes, and Bade was ultimately the
children he had exploited. Although the Leviathan offered Clarion a place among them, the Witch
Boy declined as he wanted to continue his explorations of the world beyond. Clarion's travels led
him to Manhattan, where he crossed paths with a man named Melmoth, who you can learn more
about in our Frankenstein vs Elsa Bloodstone duel episode. Melmoth offered Clarion food
and shelter, while Clarion remained unaware that Melmoth was the Sheeta King,
ago by breeding the women of the Rhonok colony with the Sheeta, a devolved human insectoid
race from the future. Mellmoth intended to use Clarion and a group of young delinquents known
as the Deviant Ones to steal a massive subterranean drill to invade and plunder Limbo Town, taking
back what he believed was his by right. When Clarion realized the extent of Mellmoth's plans,
he warned the Deviants about the Sheeta
Instead, Clarion decided to return to Limbo Town to protect his people from the impending
invasion. Upon his return to Limbo Town, however, Clarion faced immediate hostility from the
town's people, who accused him of blasphemy, and believing he had abandoned their way of
life, bringing back dangerous ideas back with him from the outside world. Clarion tried to
warn them about Melmoth's invasion, but the town's people refused to listen and instead
captured Clarion to burn him at the stake for his supposed crimes. Before they could carry
out the execution, however, Melmoth and his army arrived, interrupting the proceedings.
Clarion seized the opportunity to escape, and as he ran to ring the town bell in alarm, he
ran into Judah, who was gravely wounded. Recognizing that his death was near, and that Limbo Town
was in great danger, Judah passed on the title of Submissionary to Clarion. With this title
came the ability to transform into a horror gold, the same monstrous being when he fled
Limbo Town. Merging with Tikal, Clarion assumed the form of a powerful Horacle and fought off
Melmoth's forces. He severely crippled the Sheet-o-king in battle, forcing Melmoth to retreat and saving
Limbo Town from destruction. Despite his victory, Clarion rejected the idea of staying in Limbo
Town as its leader, longing instead for freedom and adventure, sans any responsibility, and
therefore departed for the surface world once again, as the She-Da attempted to overtake
the planet. When the organization Shade and their agent Frankenstein attacked the She-Da's
time-traveling fortress known as the Castle Revolving, Clarion took advantage of the situation
to take over the fortress and the She-Da, becoming the new She-Da King and taking the She-Da into
the past before he abandoned his crown. Upon returning to the present, Clarion allied himself
with Contessa Erika Alexandria del
who led a secret global organization known as the Agenda, which sought to cause chaos within
the superhero community. Using his magical abilities, Clarion cast a spell that swapped the ages
of teenage and adult heroes, turning young heroes into adults and their adult counterparts into
teenagers. The spell created confusion and mistrust amongst both heroes and the general public,
which delighted Clarion. For him, the chaos he caused was nothing more than a mischievous
prank. another opportunity to push boundaries and test his powers, as well as have powerful
playmates to occupy his time. However, Clarion's actions eventually backfired when he was confronted
by a vengeful Lobo, who had been turned into a child by Clarion's spell. Upon his defeat,
Clarion was forced to undo the spell and restore the heroes to their proper ages. Lonely, without
his young playmates, Clarion traveled the country occasionally offering heroes and villains alike
increased power. in exchange for portions of their souls. While in Gotham City, a fellow
Limbotown exile kidnapped Teekal, along with other Witch's familiars, in order to conjure
an apocalyptic entity known as the Judgment Beast. But with the help of Tim Drake, Robin,
Clarion was able to rescue Teekal and return the familiars back to their rightful owners.
You can learn more about Tim Drake and his duel against the Winter Soldier. In post-Flashpoint
continuity, Clarion encountered several mystical figures in New York and Kim involved with a
magical coven led by Piper, who sought to help him understand and control his powers. During
this time, Clarion faced a mysterious villain named Cole, who had introduced a form of dangerous,
addictive technology onto the streets. Clarion, always seeking new ways to strengthen himself,
ingested this future technology to boost his powers and confront Cole. Their battle ended
with Clarion easily defeating his foe by stealing his techno magic, further own abilities. Later,
Clarion ascended to new heights as a powerful Lord of Chaos, aligning himself with Pariah's
Dark Army in order to re-establish DC's original multiverse. And that's his backstory so far.
Powers-wise, as a Kroatoan warlock, Clarion is a natural prodigy of the Dark Arts and the
Occult, with powers sourced from his bond with his magical cat familiar, Tikal, with whom
Clarion has a psychic link. telekinesis, transmutation, teleportation, energy absorption and manipulation,
telepathy, divination, and spellcasting. He's also quite durable, as long as he's near Tikal.
If Tikal is injured, Clarion's power is greatly reduced. That's Clarion. So what's interesting
there is that for the most part Agatha Harkness has been a supporting character among the larger
Marvel She's had her own titles occasionally, but they haven't lasted very long. But according
to your backstory for Clarion, it seems like he's a long running character with his own
titles. I'm interested in like who created the character and when did his stories really start
taking place? Jack Kirby created the character. He was originally a villain for Jason Blood,
I believe. He appeared in the Demon comics, who was also a creation of Jack Kirby's. Uh,
he's only had a few of his own mini series though. He had one that was written by Grant Morrison.
He also had a recent one, but yeah, not too many. Okay, so much of his backstory was kind
of detailed in the Entrakin the Demon comic books. Well, his own comics, I would say, like
Seven Soldiers of Victory written by Grant Morrison. Oh, I see, okay. Grant Morrison kind of rewrote
Clarion's origin story. In Jack Kirby's original version for the character, he was from Witch
World, and I think that was later retconned to Beyond Country. It was another dimension
entirely. But Grant Morrison was the one who kind of established him as being descendant
of the Roanoke colony, which is a real colony and a real mystery in the US. Kroatoa, yeah,
that is a weird mystery. Definitely a spooky one just in time for the season.
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yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The
Dynomic Podcast Network presents... Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every
Monday. Dynamic Duel, where comic book titans smash every Tuesday. Max Destruction, where
the world is at its limit. The Dynomic Podcast Network presents... TV and action heroes battle
every Wednesday, and Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as
we speculate on the matches and armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover
who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com, where we settle the debate and settle the score.
Now that we got their histories and abilities out of the way, we're going to speculate on
how one of the 1000 simulated matches will go. The winner is determined by simulations, not
the speculation, but it's fun to imagine how the fight could play out. AJ and IK, what are
the rules of our speculation? Well, I should say there are no rules, other than the characters
have no prior knowledge of the other going into the fight. All they are aware of starting out
is that the other character is a threat that needs to be eliminated. For the speculation...
contestants will begin approximately 50 meters apart in a nondescript environment that will
have no bearing on the match itself as no environmental statistics are considered in my simulations.
The contestants must earn victory on their own merit. Alright then let's get into it. Clarion
the Witch Boy and Agatha Harkness meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? You know what
I think Clarion will go first by aging Agatha up to her old lady form if she isn't there
already. then he's gonna let Agatha go, you know, citing age before beauty. Alright, okay,
um, that's fucked up. I think Agatha will probably smirk at what just happened. You know, she's
used to being an old lady anyway. Her cat Ebony is gonna hiss at Clarion, and Agatha is gonna
give the little brat what's coming to him. She's gonna use her magic to erect a dead tree behind
Clarion. and she's going to animate the tree so that it bends Clarion over its trunk and
then gives the child a swift paddle on his behind. Okay, actually once the tree touches Clarion,
it's going to burst into green flame and then like quickly dissolve into ash, except for
like one small black branch that's shaped like a slingshot that Clarion's going to pick up
and use it to magically sling green fireballs at Agatha while just laughing his head off.
Well, before the fireballs can reach her, Agatha is gonna telekinetically yank Clarion's slingshot
toward her, transforming it into a broom. Okay, and she's gonna use that broom to just swat
away the green fireballs with little to no effort, and then she's gonna hop on the broom and fly
into the night sky with her cat. And then from the air, she's gonna start throwing down purple
lightning magic bolts at Clarion. Ah, but Agatha can't hit what she can't see. Because you know,
as she was flying into the air... Clarion summoned a plague of locusts that's going to fill the
environment around them just with darkness, blotting out the stars and the moon and knocking
Agatha out of the sky. Okay, but Agatha is going to dodge these locusts and she's going to fly
around and summon a massive whirlwind that's going to dispel this locust plague by sucking
all the bugs out of the sky and away from the battlefield. And now that the moon is visible
again, Agatha is going to wave her hand over it. which is gonna turn the moon blood red
in color, okay? And as it shines its moonlight onto Clarion, blood is just gonna start pouring
from his eyes and his mouth and nose and his ears, just like all the holes, and he's gonna
fall down to his knees in pain. That's wild. Okay, actually I'm gonna say Clarion falls
to his knees because he's laughing so hard. And while he's laughing, he's gonna use his
own blood to draw. these intricate runes on the ground that stop the blood moon curse,
and from the earth that his blood was spilled on, he conjures this gargoyle that rises from
the ground, and it's gonna fly after Agatha and just slash her with its claws. Okay, but
as the gargoyle approaches Agatha, as she's in the air, her black cat Ebony is gonna leap
off the broomstick and midair transform into a demonic werecat creature. Like an evil panther
on steroids, kinda. And with a loud roar, Ebony's gonna tackle the gargoyle down to the ground
and just shatter it into small pebbles and sand and stuff like that. And then she's gonna take
a shit on the gargoyle. Because it's like it was kitty litter and Ebony turns back into
a cat. Dude, okay. Well, as Ebony was taking the time to take a shit,
orange tabby cat familiar, Teekel, on Ebony's panther form. But Teekel is going to be in
the form of this giant monstrous lion. And the two cats are going to scream and clawed with
just tufts of fur flying everywhere. Basically it's the worst cat fight you could possibly
imagine. And it's going to end though with Ebony's neck snapped in Teekel's jaws because no way
a panther is defeating a lion. No, no, no. Ebony, the cat, has gone up against Mephisto himself
and lived to tell the tale, okay? What? The cat was straight up turned inside out by Mephisto
and it still came back like nothing had happened because Ebony has like the most insane magical
healing factor ever. And also, I'm gonna say that Agatha puts a binding hex on Teekal to
prevent it from fighting back against Ebony. So Ebony's just mopping the floor with Teekal
and making Teekal look like a busted ass. hairless lion by this point. And Clarion's magic is
weakened because Tikal is weakened. And also I gotta say, everyone knows any witch worth
their salt has a black cat, not an orange one. So yeah, all the basic bitch witches have black
cats. But with Tikal trapped, you know, I'm not going to lie, Clarion, he's pretty emotionally
immature. So seeing his cat trapped in that spell, it was probably going to cause him to
throw a screaming fit. and Clarion's cries are gonna rattle both Agatha and Ebony, making
them feel like their heads are gonna explode. So while they're stunned, Clarion's gonna teleport
over to Tikal and merge with him, transforming into a massive horacle. What's a horacle? Again,
what do they look like? They all look different, but Clarion's version looks like a four-armed
werecat with like a second face on his forehead. It's essentially like Clarion's ultimate form.
And as a horror goal, you know, before Agatha and Ebony can even react, their entrails are
already strewn all over the battlefield because the horror goal ripped them both to shreds
match over. Wow. Well, OK. Agatha and Ebony are all shredded and dead, except that they're
not. In fact, Agatha is over off to the side of the battlefield sipping tea. with Ebony
in her lap. Because what Clarion thought he saw, that was just an illusion that Agatha
had cast as a distraction. And suddenly, Clarion's Horacle form just drops dead. Because what
he didn't realize was that this match was already over the moment that Ebony used that destroyed
Blood Gargoyle as a litter box. Okay, because her poo cast a poisonous curse that seeped
into Clarion's blood, right? and it just tainted him with this like slow death. And since Clarion
merged with Teekal, they're both dead. That's your finishing move? Yeah, dude, cat poop's
dangerous, all right? Like it has parasites in it and shit that can give you toxoplasmosis,
okay? It's dangerous enough on its own, like it can give you schizophrenia and shit. So
imagine how dangerous a demon panther's poop is. Just makes sense. Is that true? Like, yeah.
I record this podcast in my basement. Not too far away from my cat's litter box. Well, I
mean, that explains why you're a DC fan, then. It's the neurosis. OK. You know what? I'm calling
cat shit on all of this. No way Clarion gets taken out by cat poop. In reality, Agatha and
Ebony are already dead. The whole, oh, it's just an illusion thing. That didn't happen.
Well, we could leave the match there. Either Agatha and Ebony get shredded by Clarion's
Horacle form. Or that's just an illusion and Clarion dies from being poisoned with a curse.
A poop curse. The worst kind. We'll go ahead and leave it there and put the character's
stats into our simulator, run the simulations, and come back with a winner. AJ9K, hit it!
Inputting data. Running calculations. Processing results. Simulations complete. Alright, Clarion
the Witch Boy vs Agatha Harkness. As I suspected, the characters were f- fairly close stat wise
and when one character did come out on top it wasn't by much. Yeah, the characters are both
a little bit vague in their magical abilities as witches and wizards tend to be. You know,
they can almost do anything in a sense, but these two characters were unique in that they
had some similarities around things like fighting skill that kind of set them apart. You know,
they're both not physical fighters at all. Yeah, and when it came to things like movement speed,
strength, damage level, range, perception, versatility, they were evenly matched. Yeah, we said Agatha
did come out a little bit ahead when it came to intellect just because Agatha's lived for
millennia and she's not as naive as Clarion is. Yeah, Clarion is a literal child, a smart
child, but a child. Yeah, he's not wise like Agatha is. Clarion, however, came out far ahead
when it came to durability, because the dude has been slapped by heavy hitters like Edric
and the Demon and Lobo. Yeah, and Mary Marvel, all kinds of heavy hitters. We also said that
Agatha got the edge when it came to evasiveness, simply because there's a lot more instances
of her avoiding damage than Clarion. Yeah, through her magic shields and illusion casting and
things like that. She has to avoid damage because she's just not as durable. She will literally
break a hip. Exactly. So with all that in mind, Jonathan, who do you think is coming out on
top in this match? I think Clarion. Just because there's no young boy that's going to be taken
out by an old woman, it's just not a thing that happens. And so far, our followers on Instagram
agree with me. I put up the poll a little late, but so far, 55% of the poll takers agree with
me. Well, that just makes me think that we have a lot of younger poll takers that just don't
know any better. Actually that makes me feel like a lot of those who voted are children
of the 90s considering that Clarion featured in a prominent episode of Batman the animated
series back in the day. That's true but Agatha Harkness has her own fucking series. How crazy
is that? Well people must not like it because of not voting for her. Whatever. Let's go ahead
and see who won. AG9K the results please. Hey Yuasa. Okay. The winner between Clarion the
witch boy and Agatha Harkness is... AGATHA HARKNESS! NOOOOOO! That's right! She made Clarion the
Witch Boy her little bitch boy by beating him in 515 matches out of the 1000 total battles.
Clarion only won 485. So Agatha's win percentage is 51.5% and Clarion's is 48.5%. That is really
close. Like... I don't think Agatha made Clarion her bitch. She did though, because she won.
So Clarion can cry about it. He probably will, honestly, not going to lie. But now you have
to deal with that. So congratulations. I will deal with it by not dealing with it and more
than likely laughing at the kid. Because that's what happens when you mess with Marvel and
old ladies and think that you could beat them. Old ladies can sometimes be pretty badass,
as Agatha Harkness has shown here today. I was going to say that young Puritan boys could
also be badass, but I don't think that's true. Well, I guess that does it for this duel. AJ9K,
help close us out. Thanks for listening to Dynamic Duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicduel.com
and follow us on Instagram at dynamicduelpodcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com
slash dynamicduel and joining a tier that works for you. or by rating and reviewing Dynamic
Duel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. Don't forget to listen to
the other shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network, including Max Destruction, Senjo World, and
Console Combat. Our next episode is going to be another duel episode. Guys, you remember
how last year we surprised you with a team duel that was the Deceased vs. the Marvel Zombies?
We're going to surprise you guys again with another team duel. and we think you'll be excited
by it. And hey, if you've made it this far in the episode, we'll let you know what the surprise
is now. Creature Commandos versus Legion of Monsters, baby. That's right. We're pitting
like classic Halloween creatures against each other next week and lead up to the Halloween
holiday. So look forward to that. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big
thanks to our executive producers. Ken Johnson, John Sturowski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Belcom,
Mickey Mathangian, Brendan Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton. Austin Wasylowski, AJ
Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Shunk, Dean Molesky, Devin Davis,
Joseph Kirstein, and Josh Leiner for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you
guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. If she weighs as much as a duck, then she's
made of wood, and therefore a witch.