Arsenal vs White Widow

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This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

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Hi 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 and stat-based battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. And guys, we are in the eye of the storm of what Jonathan and I are calling review hell right now. We still have three more DC things to review because DC sucks and that is Suicide Squad

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We've been reviewing so many things that we haven't done a duel episode since over a month ago with Atrocitus vs Juggernaut, but this episode, we're getting back to it. We're going to find out who would win in a fight between Arsenal and White Widow. Arsenal was formerly Speedy, sometimes also known as Red Arrow, but he's the protégé of Green Arrow, whereas White Widow is the protégé of Black Widow. And her real name is Yelena Belova, and you know probably all about her from the Black Widow movie. She's played by Florence Pugh.

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And if you're a fan of CW's Arrow, you'll know Roy Harper because he was played by Colton Haynes. Nobody watched that show. Hey, if we're naming actors, why can't I? But before we get into the characters' backstories, run the simulations, and determine who would win in a match-up between the two characters, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which there was only one interesting news item. And that was that James Spader is returning to voice Ultron for the upcoming Vision.

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Disney Plus television 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.

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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 two-o tier gives you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic four tier gives you two bonus episodes each month. And the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly,

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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.

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Be sure to tune into the other shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This week, the Macho Twins are pitting The Penguin from Batman Returns against Big Boy from Dick Tracy. It's a great matchup. Yeah, cannot wait for that one. On the Send Your World podcast, host Zachary Heppern speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. This Thursday, Zach will be reviewing Sailor Moon.

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Cosmos and on the console combat podcast hosts John and Dean find out who'd win in fights between popular video game characters and yesterday's episode John and Ken determined who would win between link from the Legend of Zelda and Roxas from Kingdom Hearts visit dynamic Podcasts calm 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

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A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award that we post on Instagram for the person we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked, which upcoming DC Studios film or show are you most looking forward to and why? Of course in the week prior, we asked what MCU project you were most looking forward to and we only got two answers. This time we got so many more!

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because so many more people are looking forward to DC stuff. Well, DC fans are insecure, but also we got quite a few answers that said, no one cares. I'm not looking forward to any DC project because DC sucks. Well, I mean, doesn't that prove that Marvel fans are insecure? Like, why even call in with that answer? Because it's fun to dunk on DC. It's fun to be butthurt. OK. We have three honorable mentions and a no prize winner to get through. So our first honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon. Who said?

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What's up, dynamic dudes? Travis here. Shout out to my other twins. So my answer would have to be the Creature Commandos. Just like the Guardians of the Galaxy, I am very surprised to even see this sort of D-list superhero group be in a theatrical universe like this. So I'm excited for the show. I'm excited to be in the live action series. So yeah, Creature Commandos is going to be cool. It's going to basically be DC's Guardians.

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Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this kicking off James Gunn's DC Universe. I know it's going to be animated, but I still feel like it'll set the tone for a lot of what's coming, considering that James Gunn wrote it. Plus, the creature commandos are just a really cool team. I love the concept of like a super team of these borderline universal monster type characters, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, we might just have to squeeze in a duel with the creature commandos around Halloween time. Yeah, maybe.

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Great answer, Travis. Our next honorable mention goes to Lizzie Dyer Arnie, who said, It's Lizzie. And of course, the DC series that I'm most looking forward to is the superhero you've never heard of, Mr. Booster Gold. He's got definitely the most unique origin story. He's a college football player from the future who gets expelled for illegal gambling. And he works as a security guard and steals some stuff from the Superhero Museum.

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and then he comes back to our time to become a superhero. He is just such a fun guy and I love him. Yeah, Booster Gold, of course, is an upcoming, I believe television project from DC Studios. Rumors are heavily pointing to Kumail Nanjiani to play the lead role of Booster Gold, which I don't hate because it's a very comedic role and he's a very comedic guy. And also there'd be an awesome blow to Marvel because he of course was one of the Eternals. Yeah, he was Kingo.

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in the Eternals movie. I thought he was an awesome Kingo. I know that he'll make an awesome Booster Gold and it would be really interesting to see who they would cast as Blue Beetle. You know there's the Jamie Reyes Blue Beetle and then there's the Ted Kord Blue Beetle. And since James Gunn said the movie version of Blue Beetle would be making his way into the new DCU and in that movie they made reference to Ted Kord, I think it would be a lot of fun seeing who they cast as the Blue Beetle Booster Gold duo.

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Yeah, I'm still rooting for Jason Sudeikis, but we'll see if that happens. Great answer, Lizzie. Our final honorable mention goes to Scott Camacho, who said Scotty Macho here. One I am looking forward to only because of my son's namesake is Batman, Brave and the Bold. I really want to see what they're going to do with Damien Wayne. Batman, Brave and the Bold. Gilly Macho here. And this is mine. DC sucks.

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Shut the fuck up, don't fricking come in here. DC's up. Dude, I know all about embarrassing twin brothers. Let me tell ya, it's rough. Gilly, you're my boy. Thank you so much for that. Way out of line, way out of line. Batman Brave and the Bold is gonna be awesome. I'm still really hoping, honestly, that they bring Robert Pattinson into the DCU. Probably not gonna happen, but I can still hold out hope because they haven't really announced any casting news for this film yet.

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That said, I'm still really looking forward to it because we may finally get a Batman and Robin in live action on the big screen that works. The way you could do it with Robert Pattinson is have his fling with Talia Al Ghul happen, not when he's Batman, but while he's training around the world. So when he was younger, that way it's still believable that Batman could still have a child. Yeah, and a five year old Damian would be totally fine with me.

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just like kicking ass, it would be hilarious. I could see it. Great answer, Scotty. Dishonorable mention to you, Gillie. Which also counts as an honorable mention coming from a DC guy, so good job. We wanna give a special thanks to Cyrus Moore, Abner O'Tary, and Kat Stevenson for taking the time to visit our website and record an answer. And Gil Camacho and Nate Wagner. No, no, no, they're dead to me. The winner of this week's snow prize, however, is Mickey Math and Gian, who said...

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Hey, what's up guys? This is Miggi and no surprise the DC Studios film I'm looking forward to the most is Superman. I'm a huge Superman fan and everything I've seen from GunsPost about his inspirations and set photos and the casting, the costume design, it just looks like it's going to be the perfect Superman film. And a great start to the DC Studios reboot. So yeah, Superman. I'm super excited. Thanks guys.

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Yeah, the initial photo they released of David Corn sweat as Superman in the costume did not get my hopes up, but the set photos absolutely did. From seeing the costume on set to all of the actors portraying their different roles, I am so unbelievably pumped for James Gunn's Superman movie, which as Biggie said is really going to kick off James Gunn's DC universe in the live action sense. I mean yeah, if you like that sort of thing. Uh, yeah, bro.

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DC fans do, and that's why this is the best answer, cause it's effing Superman. And if you don't like Superman, then you don't like superheroes, cause they wouldn't exist without him. So then. I mean, surely there was Zorro before Superman, you know, he was kind of a superhero. I'm sorry, could he leap tall buildings in a single bound? No, fuck Zorro. John Carter of Mars? Was he faster than a speeding bullet? No, fuck John Carter. The Phantom? Oh, was he bullet powerful than a locomotive?

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I have no idea. Oh, it's Phantom! What is happening? Superman, that's what's happening. Next year he's happening. It's gonna be awesome. Can't wait for it. Great answer, Miggie. You win this week's No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done, on to the news!

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Alright, this past week we learned from the Hollywood Reporter that the actor James Spader would be returning as the voice of the villain Ultron in the upcoming Vision series. Now, previously we heard that the series was going to be called Vision Quest, but the Hollywood Reporter said that that's not the official title, which thank God, because really the series should just be called Vision. I don't know, I kind of liked the title Vision Quest. Shut up! So the Hollywood Reporter also called...

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Vision series as like the third in a sort of Trilogy of television shows starting with WandaVision followed up by Agatha all along and then ending with this upcoming Vision series Which is a pretty cool concept Rumors are that Elizabeth Olsen will be returning in her role as the Scarlet Witch in the upcoming Vision series as well Although that's not been confirmed. Spoiler maybe? I don't think so. I think it's pretty expected, right? If she was gonna show up anywhere, it would be here

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Well, maybe it's like a flashback or something. I guess it could be. Or maybe she's just coming back from the dead in Agatha, La Lange. Who knows? But this is exciting news. If you remember from the end of the Avengers Age of Ultron movie, Ultron allegedly died off screen during a conversation with Vision, where they kind of had this philosophical discussion about the nature of humanity. And then Ultron lunges at Vision, and then there's a bright flash of light. And then we never really see what happens. We're just left to assume that Ultron

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is dead. But as we know from the comics, Ultron has implanted failsafe coding within the Vision android, compelling him to rebuild the evil robot. Now that may not be exactly what's happening here, especially since the original Vision body was recreated by the Sword Organization and he's white in color now and kind of devoid of his previous personality, also similar to what happened in the comics. So.

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There's a lot of cool stuff going on here. I really like the character of Vision, especially how he's portrayed by actor Paul Bettany. So I'm really excited for this series, especially now that we know that Ultron's gonna be the bad guy. I feel like series like these should have come years ago. Like I'm so ready for Marvel to pick up all these loose threads that they've been dangling everywhere. Ultron being a big one. Yeah, and Vision too. We've been waiting to see what happened with the white Vision ever since 2021.

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I can't remember, did we like James Spader as Ultron or was it lame? My impression was that he did a great dark sinister voice. It wasn't necessarily what I thought the character sounded like based on how I read it in the comics. I would set up him as a little bit more snivelly and whiny I guess. But yeah, I like James Spader as an actor and he does a good take on Ultron I would say.

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thinking behind Spader's casting in Avengers Age of Ultron was that Joss Whedon was kind of counter casting against Robert Downey Jr. because both Downey and Spader were teen heartthrobs in the 80s. And considering how Ultron here was kind of portrayed as the brain child of Tony Stark, I thought that all fit pretty well. Yeah, I think if anyone could go toe to toe with Robert Downey Jr., it's definitely...

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James Spader. He's a solid actor. And definitely a formidable one for Paul Bettany to go up against. For sure. For sure. It's gonna be a great show. I can't wait for Marvel to announce a release date for Vision. But as soon as we know it, we'll let you guys know. But speaking of great casting for a Marvel villain, that brings us to our Question of the Week.

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Who do you think was the best cast, Marvel or DC villain of all time? A lot of great options to choose from, from both Marvel and DC, so we can't wait to hear your guys' answers. Record them 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.

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Be sure to answer before August 31st.

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But I think that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and get into our main event where we find out who'd win in a fight between the Green Arrow protégé, Arsenal, and the Black Widow protégé, White Widow.

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All right, Arsenal versus White Widow. We are doing this duel episode now because it's a lead up to our team duel that we have going on in a few weeks where we find out who'd win in a fight between the Outsiders team versus X-Force. And that was selected by our executive producers. That's going to be a fun episode. But Arsenal is a quintessential outsider. Yes. He was the leader of an incarnation of the Outsiders for a time. Yes. And he has the ability of a marksman.

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just like Green Arrow, correct? Uh, yeah, except he uses more than a bow and arrow. Like, Green Arrow pretty much sticks to only that, but Arsenal has a literal arsenal of weapons that he is a perfect marksman with. Does he have a boxing glove arrow? I'm sure he does. As Arsenal, he's a little probably too cool and hip for something like that. But as Speedy, you know, in his younger years, he definitely used that. You know who doesn't have a boxing glove arrow? White Widow.

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And that's probably because she doesn't have a bow, but it automatically makes her the better character. I just said Arsenal doesn't use that. Well, in my headcanon, he does. He fires nothing but boxing glove arrows and he's a big dumb dumb. Well that will be your downfall. To be fair, I don't really know much about the character, so I guess I'm going to find out now as we go into the characters backstories, input their stats, run simulations, and find out who to win in a fight. But to explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient duel simulator.

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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 randomize the statistics along a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle.

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The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid from which the DC characters' statistics are extrapolated. Additional stat categories are included such as range, 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. The contestant with the higher percentage is declared the victor.

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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, Adrian 9K.

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Before we run the simulations though, we like to break down each character's histories and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the 1000 simulations would play out beat for beat. And I believe, Jonathan, it is your turn to go first with the DC character, so tell us all about Arsenal. Alright. Roy Harper Jr. was raised by a single father, Roy Sr., who was a forest ranger in the southwestern United States.

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At age two, Roy Jr. was orphaned when his father helped evacuate and rescue members of a Navajo reservation because of a wildfire, and Roy was adopted by Brave Bow, the tribe's shaman who trained Roy in archery. When Green Arrow emerged as a superhero, Roy became fascinated that someone could become a hero with only a bow and arrow. When Brave Bow learned that he was dying from an illness,

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He invited Green Arrow to visit the reservation and judge an archery tournament, during which Roy impressed Green Arrow with his bow skills. Though Roy was sabotaged in the final round of the competition, Green Arrow recognized how fast Roy was with his bow, even speedier than him, and he agreed to take Roy on as his ward to continue his archery training as well as foster skills in crime fighting. When Green Arrow felt Roy was ready,

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He presented him with his own costume and trick arrows so that he could become his sidekick, known as Speedy. You can learn more about Green Arrow in our Green Arrow vs Hawkeye Duel episode. After aiding Green Arrow in numerous adventures against villains such as Count Murdigo and Clock King, Roy eventually helped found a team of teen sidekicks known as the Teen Titans, which you can learn more about in our Titans vs X-Men Duel episode. After breaking up with his teenage sweetheart Donna Troy, the eventual disbandment of the

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The loss of Green Arrow's fortune and its subsequent abandonment of Roy to travel the country with Green Lantern and Black Canary, Roy, depressed, turned to drugs and became addicted to heroin. When Green Arrow uncovered Roy's drug use, he kicked him to the curb, forcing Roy into homelessness. It took some time, but eventually Roy overcame his addiction after promising to Black Canary that he would, though it took a lot longer for him to overcome his resentment toward Green Arrow. Having grown into an adult,

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Roy became a counselor to teams with drug problems, and he attempted to become a crime fighter once again, even joining a reformed Team Titans, though the team later disbanded. Eventually, Roy was recognized by the Central Bureau of Investigations, or CBI, as a potential clandestine agent to stop drug trafficking and terrorism. The CBI trained him in the use of firearms and turned him into an official drug enforcement agent.

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tasked on one assignment to gain the trust of a foreign assassin named Cheshire. Though Roy was eventually supposed to turn Cheshire into the authorities, the two ended up falling in love and having an affair. Worried that their relationship would endanger her, Roy abandoned Cheshire, unaware that she was pregnant and would give birth to his daughter, Leanne. When Roy learned of Leanne's existence, he and Nightwing, who you can learn more about in our Nightwing vs. Daredevil episode, tracked Cheshire down.

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though she captured and poisoned Roy, leaving him for dead along with their daughter. Though Nightwing was able to save Roy, and Roy accepted the responsibility of being a single father, just as his father was. After the CBI was moved under the larger clandestine organization Checkmate, Nightwing came to an agreement with the US government that the Titans should be a gove team, at which point Nightwing stepped down as team leader, and Roy, now going by the new superhero codename Arsenal.

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took his place. The Titans team eventually dissolved, and Arsenal used the opportunity to reconcile with Green Arrow, shortly before his Mator dive in an airplane explosion. After a new incarnation of the Titans disbanded following the death of several team members at the hands of Brainiac, Arsenal received corporate sponsorship to form a new superteam, which he named the Outsiders. That included Nightwing, the Green Lantern-powered Jade,

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and a rehabilitated brainiac robot named Indigo, among others. During one mission, the team encountered a child slaver named Tanner from Roy's past as an undercover CBI agent. Tanner recognized Roy and decided to torture him by kidnapping his daughter, Leon, even branding her with his mark. But Roy and the outsiders were able to track him down and safely rescue all of the children he had captured, including Leon. After being shot in the chest and having his throat slit-

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During the team's many adventures, Roy decided that the outsider's aggressive approach to crime fighting wasn't suitable for a single father, and he left the team with Nightwing in charge. Eventually, Roy was recruited to the Justice League, during which time he was dubbed Red Arrow by Green Lantern, an identity he fully embraced by taking up the bow as his primary weapon once again. During his time on the League, the team was attacked by the villain Prometheus, who infiltrated their satellite headquarters, ambushed Roy,

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and sliced off his arm with a sword. You can learn more about Prometheus in our Prometheus vs Taskmaster duel episode. As Roy was undergoing emergency medical treatment for his arm, Prometheus successfully destroyed most of Star City, where Roy resided with his daughter. Leon was home when it was destroyed, and she died as a result. Green Arrow, who had long since returned to life by this point, killed Prometheus in response, and Roy was given a cybernetic arm.

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though it was of little solace as he initially had trouble aiming with his new arm, and in his despair he turned to painkillers. He was eventually ambushed one night in his new home by Cheshire, who blamed him for Leon's death, though in their dispute the two ended up grieving together rather than fighting. Returning to heroin, Roy took to the streets, viciously beating up criminals while high. He was eventually discovered by Nightwing, who put Roy in rehab, though Roy escaped and later killed the imprisoned villain.

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known as the Electrocutioner, who was Prometheus' accomplice in the destruction of Star City. After which, Roy burned down his home and all of his possessions while reclaiming the mantle of Arsenal. Roy joined Deathstroke's villainous version of the Titans, helping to build a healing machine called the Methuselah that Deathstroke was able to use to heal his son, Jericho. You can learn more about Deathstroke in his duel episode against Deadpool. When Deathstroke claimed the machine could also bring back Leon,

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Cheshire jumped at the opportunity, but Roy came to the sobering conclusion that his daughter was in a better place, and he took on Deathstroke and the rest of the team to successfully destroy the machine. Though Cheshire vowed revenge against him, Roy and the newly-healed Jericho decided to reform the Titans' team. In post-Flashpoint continuity, Roy's backstory remained about 80% intact, though his arm was replaced with an organic replica, and Leon never died.

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After forming a team called Iron Rule to overthrow the Korraki dictatorship, Roy was forced to kill his teammates when they turned against him and began killing civilians. For his crimes against Korraki, Roy was sentenced to death, though he was rescued by the Red Hood and Starfire, both of whom you can learn more about in their respective duels against the Punisher and Sunspot. Together, the three formed a team known as the Outlaws, taking on the likes of the Joker in Gotham City and the League of Assassins around the world.

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world. When Wally West returned to continuity, Roy and the original Titans reformed the team, though Wally would accidentally cause Roy's death later during a speed force explosion incident at a therapeutic resource center for superheroes known as the Sanctuary, where Roy was getting treatment for his addictive nature. He was eventually resurrected via a black lantern ring, but he was able to overcome its influence through his love for his daughter, Leon, and help from his former teammate, Jade.

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Roy eventually reunited with Leon, learning that she had become a young vigilante on her own, known as Cheshire Cat. Well, he, Black Canary, and Green Arrow's son, searched for a Green Arrow who had become lost in the timestream along with the rest of the Justice League. That's pretty much his backstory so far. Powers-wise, Arsenal has no superhuman ability outside of his uncanny speed and precision with ranged weaponry. He's an accomplished technician, having developed many of Green Arrow's trick arrows

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including ones that are explosive, electrified, cryogenic, contain knockout gas, smoke, adhesive resin, and neural scrambling waves, just to name a few. And though he's among the best archers in the world, unlike his mentor Green Arrow, Arsenal employs other weapons such as handguns, rifles, grenades, crossbows, darts, daggers, and other throwing blades. He is literally a walking arsenal, on top of being an expert in close quarters combat and strategy.

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His only weakness is, well, heroin. But he's working on that. Well, I hear that White Widow has some contacts in the underground drug trade, so you might be screwed. I'm sorry, is she regularly carrying heroin on her? Why do you think they call her the White Widow? Oh, shit. It's one of those slang words that Deadpool knows about. I doubt that. I think you just made that up. But let me go ahead and tell you the real backstory of White Widow.

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Now little is known about the early life of Yelena Belova, who was born to unknown parents in Russia. At age 15, she attracted the attention of the Soviet Red Room, who recruited her into their Black Widow program, training her to be an elite spy for 10 years. While in the program, she constantly held herself to the standard of the Red Room's most infamous Black Widow, a spy by the name of Natasha Romanoff, who had defected from Russia to join the American group of heroes known as the Avengers.

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You can learn more about Natasha in our Black Canary vs Black Widow duel episode. Yelena's marks exceeded Natasha's while in the program, and after succeeding in a test to avenge the death of her mentor, Yelena graduated from the Red Room. Sent out as Russia's new elite spy, Yelena shadowed her rival Natasha during a mission to retrieve a biological weapon. Planning to kill Natasha and retrieve the weapon for Russia, she learned that Natasha was onto her all along.

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and the two were forced to fight together against one Colonel Khan. In order to teach the ambitious young Yelena a lesson in what makes a spy, Natasha brought her into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. They swapped faces, just like in the movie Face Off, and Natasha went undercover as Yelena to stop Yelena's handler, a rogue Russian general, from restarting the Cold War. Disguised as Natasha, Yelena learned that the general viewed her as a disposable and naive tool. Feeling betrayed,

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Yelena defected from Russia and had her and Natasha's faces restored, abandoning their rivalry. She retired from being a spy to Havana, Cuba, where she became a model and ran a safe house that she used to help shelter Natasha while she was on the run. Yelena teamed up with Daredevil to rescue Natasha when she was captured by a cosmetics agency known as Gainacon who was using pheromone triggers acquired from the Russian Red Room and its products to manipulate women around the world.

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Returning to life as a spy, Yelena joined SHIELD where she became part of a rogue faction that was illegally mining Antarctic vibranium down near the South Pole in an area called the Savage Land. There she was attacked by a villain named Soron who burned and disfigured her body. While in intensive care, Yelena was approached by Hydra who offered to restore her appearance by outfitting her with cybernetics, giving her the powers of the superadaptoid.

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villainous robot with the ability to alter its appearance and take on the powers of others. In turn, Yelena was tasked with destroying the Avengers. She nearly succeeded, taking on the power of the Sentry, but was defeated by subsequently taking on the Sentry's villainous alter ego, The Void, which drove her insane. Seeing that she had failed her mission, Hydra killed her. You can learn more about the Sentry in this duel episode against General Zod. The evil science organization AIM

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was able to use Yelena's Adaptoid components to revive her body, and they manipulated her into joining AIM. After stealing the Iron Patriot armor on behalf of the evil scientists she worked for, Yelena became an enemy of SHIELD, who sent Natasha after her former protege. This time, Yelena was able to overcome her fellow Black Widow using her super Adaptoid powers. But Natasha was rescued by the Avenger Hawkeye. When AIM captured Hawkeye's ex-wife, a spy named Mockingbird,

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she and Yelena fought. When it appeared that Mockingbird was victorious, AIM had her shot. However, it was later revealed that during the fight, Mockingbird used a holographic image inducer to alter Yelena's appearance, and Yelena was the one that AIM had killed. The Russian Red Room then enacted a program to revive their best agents via genetic cloning. This included Natasha, who at the time was also dead. Regaining her original memories from Epsilon

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The Natasha clones sought to shut down the program by using three amnesiac clones of Yelena to help destroy the facility and the genetic samples. Only one of Yelena's clones survived, who was given the original's memories from the Red Room psychic as well. Back in control of her life, Yelena became a mercenary spy known as the White Widow, and went on a mission to break the Russian hero Red Guardian out of captivity. Together,

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They rescued Natasha and broke her out of her brainwashing from her enemies that made her forget her life as a spy. Both Yelena and the Red Guardian later joined the new Thunderbolts team led by the Winter Soldier, a former Captain America sidekick turned Russian assassin turned hero whom you can learn more about in our Red Robin vs. Winter Soldier duel episode. Together, the Thunderbolts took on and defeated the Red Skull, a villain you can learn more about in his duel against Rosal Gull. And that's Yelena's backstory.

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Abilities-wise, White Widow has been vigorously trained in the Soviet Red Room to be one of Marvel's premier operatives. She is a master in multiple styles of fighting, and she has biological enhancements that grant her peak human physicality in terms of strength, speed, agility, endurance, and durability. She is an experienced spy, tactician, hacker, and markswoman. Her costume provides resilience to small arms fire, and her specialized bracelets contain a variety of weapons and gadgets

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from which she can shoot grapple lines, gas pellets, and a blast of 30,000 volts of electricity called a widow's bite. On her person, she also carries combat knives, handguns, and lock picks. And that's White Widow. So basically, she's like a less armed version of Arsenal. Sweet. A less armed but better in every other way version of Arsenal, yes. What? That's correct. We'll find out, I guess. All I'll say is that she's never done heroin. Wow.

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How judgmental, you judgmental piece of shit. Remember kids, don't do drugs.

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Where fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare 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...

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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.

34:36
Now that we got their histories and abilities out of the way, let's 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.

35:06
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. Arsenal and White Widow meet on the battlefield who goes first? Wait let me answer that. Arsenal goes first. Like they don't call him speedy for nothing. Alright. Alright. So

35:36
Arsenal has already drawn duel handguns and shot her twice in the chest. All right. Except White Widow's spy suit is made entirely out of Kevlar. So the bullets are going to hit her. They're going to knock her down, but she's not dead. She's still alive and she's going to go into like agility mode, you know, just sliding across the floor and handspringing up to her feet. And while she's in mid handspring, she's going to fire a gas pellet, a cyanide gas pellet at Arsenal.

36:05
and the gas pellet breaks on him and Arsenal breathes in the cyanide gas and his lungs just burn up. Actually, Arsenal's going to shoot that capsule before it even gets close to him. So now there's this like small cyanide cloud between them and as White Widow, you know, is doing hand springs across the environment, he's going to holster his guns and he's going to draw his bow and he's going to fire a glue arrow at her hand just as it touches the ground.

36:33
And so her hand is just stuck there. How does he even know where to shoot if there's this cyanide cloud in between them blocking their line of sight? I said it was a small cloud, you know, plus she's moving around. So, you know, it's not blocking him for very long. OK. All right. Well, if he can see her, then White Widow can see Arsenal firing this arrow and like a fucking badass, White Widow is going to catch the arrow midair because she's an elite spy. OK, she's not going to get shot with some goo like a chump.

37:03
And as she catches the arrow, she's going to immediately hurl the arrow back at Arsenal. And the glue arrow is going to hit his holster so that he's not able to draw one of his guns anymore. She's that good. Like, she could hurl an arrow that accurately and that fast. She's that good. OK, let's say that happens. Let's say Arsenal doesn't somehow manage to shoot a thrown arrow out of the air, just like he did with the capsule. That's fine. You know, because that's just one gun out of an entire arsenal that he still has.

37:33
So he's tired of her flipping and diving around. So he's going to knock a bola arrow that's tied to a line. And she gets wrapped up in it, falling to the ground. At which point he's just going to reel her toward him like a fish on a hook. Except White Widow is a master escape artist. She can slip out of anything. So she slips out of being wrapped up by this bola. And at this point, she's within ass kicking distance of Arsenal. So she's just going to proceed to kick his ass. She's going to grab his arm.

38:03
and she's gonna twist it, flipping him onto the ground. And then she's gonna step on his back and just break his arm in like four different places. Well, I'm sorry to inform you that she in fact grabbed his prosthetic arm. Fuck! So, she's holding his arm and Arsenal, he's just gonna lay down his own ass kicking on her, but with a knife in his good hand. And that's gonna allow him to like sever tendons in her arms and legs. That's going to slow down her movement.

38:33
No, I mean, he might get one good slash in there on her arm, but Arsenal is now literally fighting one handed. So White Widow is going to use her other arm that didn't just get stabbed to put Arsenal in a wrist lock, forcing him to drop the knife, which she's going to catch midair before it hits the ground. And like in one smooth motion, she's going to stab that knife right into his thigh. OK, like Aria from Game of Thrones style. Yeah, yes, exactly.

39:01
Okay, but I mean, she's going to have to drop his prosthetic arm while doing that. And, you know, since Arsenal, you know, he needs to reattach the arm and he'll need some distance and some time to do that. This is where he's going to snatch a cryo arrow from his quiver. He's going to slam that into White Widow's back, freezing her torso. So she's going to be in shock. And that's when Arsenal is going to reattach his arm and pull the knife out of his thigh.

39:30
Okay, so White Widow is in shock from having her torso frozen, but she's trained for this. You know, she's from Russia. I'm sure she's been out in those Siberian winters. She probably knows what it's like to be frozen. So she's going to assess the situation quickly. It's not going to affect her too much. And yeah, she's not going to be able to move around as much, but she can still move her arm. And while Arsenal is attaching his prosthetic, Zap! He gets shot with 30,000 volts of electricity to his forehead with White Widow's, Widow's

40:00
and it's going to fry his brain and end this match because he's not faster than fucking electricity. Damn. Uh, the thing is, though, Arsenal saw her aiming at him, so he just moved slightly, like just in time, just enough so that the widow's bite just knocks off the ball cap that, you know, he usually wears. And with the knife in his hand that he pulled from his thigh, he's just going to flick that into her neck.

40:27
and that's gonna sever her spinal column like a damn surgeon. So unfortunately for you, she is the one that is dead. You mean unfortunately for you, Arsenal was already electrocuted before he could even do that. Why? What do you mean why? Why not? Because he saw her aiming her arm at him because she fires those from her wrist bracelets, right? Yeah, so? He doesn't know what they do. No, she knows that she's gonna shoot something from them. He doesn't know that she has widow bites.

40:57
He doesn't know shit. Agree to disagree, but I guess we can leave the match there. Either Arsenal gets his brain fried by her widow's bite, or she gets a knife thrown through her neck. Damn. Let's go ahead and input the character stats, run the simulations, and come back with a winner. Adrian 9K, hit it. Inputting data, running calculations, processing results, simulations complete.

41:25
All right, this was a really good matchup. I didn't realize the characters had as many background similarities in being both hero and villain and being both spies and stuff like that. But they also were pretty similar when it came to their stats as well. Yeah, I knew right off the bat that Arsenal was going to have an advantage over White Widow when it came to damage level. And I knew that he would probably have her when it came to range as well, just because, you know, being a marksman is all that he has. And he has a vast arsenal as well.

41:54
But White Widow did have a few stats over Arsenal, including fighting skill and intelligence. Yeah, they went a little bit tit for tat in the stats, but any time one of them came out on top, it was just barely so. Like when it came to a lot of the physical stats like speed, evasiveness, durability, strength, they were even. Surprisingly, because I thought speedy would be speedier. So taking all of this into consideration.

42:23
Joseph, who do you think came out on top in this match? I think it's going to be White Widow, because I think they're pretty evenly matched, and I think Luck is just on White Widow's side. Oh, I'm sorry, we do not have a Luck stat, so that is completely moot. Will our Instagram followers agree with me? In our poll, 53% said that White Widow would be Arsenal. Now, to be fair, though, I put up that poll super late. So there's still a chance that Arsenal could come out on top. If people thought Arsenal would win, they would vote for him.

42:53
I don't want to hear your excuses. All right, well, AJ 9K, the results, please. Here you are, sir. The winner of the matchup between Arsenal and White Widow is... Arsenal! He won 54.6% of the 1000 matches compared to White Widow, who only won 45.4% or 454 total wins compared to Arsenal's 546%.

43:21
But where does the drug dependency stat come into play? Cause I feel like at any given moment, it's most likely that Arsenal is just smacked up on heroin and White Widow barely has to do anything to even try. He's kicked the habit often enough where I don't think that would be the case. Uh, what you didn't account for, and I think why this is an appropriate win is that even during our speculation, like I didn't unleash Arsenal's full Arsenal, like I didn't use anything explosive.

43:51
I didn't pull out any crossbows or rifles. Well, White Widow has explosives too. Yeah, but they can't go as far as Arsenaals can. You don't know that? Yeah, I do. Okay. I like 100% know that. All right. So yeah, Arsenaal wins. Go team DC. After that long break of duel episodes as we were doing reviews, it's nice to come back to a duel episode and get the win. And it will be nice for me to come back in our next duel episode after this one and teach you a lesson. What is the next duel episode?

44:19
Our next duel episode is going to be the team duel, Outsiders vs X-Force. That's right. But that's not going to be next week, that's going to be in a couple weeks. Right, our next episode is actually going to be a review of Suicide Squad Isekai, the television series, and we're going to bring on a special guest for that. So look forward to that next week, but that does it for this duel. AJ9K, help close us out.

44:44
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, Senjou World and Console Combat.

45:14
That's all for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, Ken Johnson, John Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy Mathen-Geehan, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Austin Wazilowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Shunk, Dean Molesky, Devin Davis, Joseph Kershting, and Josh Leiner for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. My ward is a junkie. He eats too much junk food.