Man-Bat vs Morbius

00:02
you

00:23
Dynamic Dual 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 Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. And in this episode, it's a Halloween themed episode, we're going to find out who would win in a fight between the Batman villain, Man-Bat, and the Spider-Man villain, Morbius. Yeah, Morbius is like a vampire and Man-Bat is like this man that's a bat.

00:53
It's spooky. Yeah. Morbius isn't strictly a vampire. He's like a pseudo vampire. Basically he did some experiments with vampire bats and became not a supernatural type of vampire but like a scientific type of vampire. That was all done due to the Comics Code Authority because they couldn't include actual vampires in the comics at the time. Yeah, so glad that the publishers got away from using that. Before we gather statistics on these characters.

01:21
and run them through 1,000 simulations to find out who would win in a fight, we're going to go over the comic book movie news from the past week. There wasn't too much news to come out this past week, basically because DC is gonna save all their headlines for the upcoming DC fandom event that's coming out on October 16th. And basically Marvel is holding on to their news so that they can release it right after the event so that they can poach all the headlines. What? But we will be discussing the upcoming full celebrity guest list that will be at the DC fandom event.

01:50
Marvel totally would pull a dick move like that. I can't wait for them to pull that dick move just so I could call them out on pulling that dick move. And then what are you gonna do about it? Call them dicks. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out our show notes if you wanna skip ahead to a particular topic. And just a reminder, only the four most recent episodes of this podcast are available to the listening public. If you guys want access to over 200 episodes of archived content, including Batman versus Moon Knight,

02:20
The Lego Batman Movie Review, Asriel vs. Blade, Our Blade 2 Review, Two-Face vs. Jigsaw, or our Batman The Long Halloween Review. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on Spotify or Patreon, both of which will provide you with an RSS feed to use in your own podcast app. On Patreon, you also get bonus content including bonus episodes, access to our Discord server, blooper reels, and more. It's only $2 a month to subscribe on Spotify or Patreon.

02:50
And you could do so by visiting dynamicduel.com slash subscribe, which is linked in our show notes. And with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize. A No Prize is an award that Marvel used to give out up until the 90s to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award that we post on social media that I personally draw for those who we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. For last week, we asked, who is your favorite Marvel or DC character created or partially created?

03:20
by Jack Kirby and why. Of course, Jack Kirby was one of the most prolific comic book creators back in the golden age and silver age of comics. He created a ton of Marvel and DC's beloved characters and a lot of you guys responded with your favorites. Let's go ahead and run down our honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Nate who said, Hey guys, it's Nate here and for the question of the week, could you ask a more vague question? I mean, honestly, you could say any.

03:49
one of your favorite characters and chances are, Jack the King Kirby has made it. But in all honesty, I gotta go with my favorite character by him is Galactus. To this day, his design holds up and it is fantastic. No pun intended, I guess. Well, to answer your question about whether we could ask something more vague, the answer is yes. Yes, yeah, totally, we could have. But to respond to the second part of your answer.

04:15
Yeah, when it comes to Jack Kirby's character designs, I think Lactis is the epitome of his complex style of line work and tech-like embellishments, similar to how he designed the Celestials or the New Gods over on DC. And it's so strange because it's like the complete opposite of the Silver Surfer character who's very stripped down, basically just like this naked silver dude without any embellishments. Right, very streamlined. Yeah.

04:43
The silhouette of Galactus, I think, is one of the most iconic and striking designs in comics. There's like nothing else like it. Oh, definitely not, yeah, and I really can't wait till we see him in live action. Like, properly? Right, yeah, yeah. Because I've seen him show up in like some video games and stuff and he just looks so epic. And it's gonna be awesome when he eventually rears his head in the MCU. Our next honorable mention goes to Michael Haggerty, who said... Hey guys, Michael Haggerty here. So uh...

05:11
My favorite character by Jack Kirby, there's only one real way to bring him out, to announce him like a wrestler. And it's this, gone gone the form of man. My favorite Jack Kirby character is Etrigan. Oh, hit you with a poem. Anyway, yeah that's it. I'm kind of embarrassed I did that, but you know, whatever. It's cool, I stand by it. I stand by my decision. Etrigan. Etrigan for president. Yeah? We prefer all of our answers to be in the form of a poem. Yeah, totally. Take note guys.

05:41
You know, Etrogen is definitely one of the coolest characters, I think personally, that Jack Kirby came up with. Definitely one of the darkest. Oh yeah, I mean the spectrum within which Jack Kirby operated was so broad in terms of genre and different types of characters. It was awesome. The man could work within any subject matter. Whether it was like, you know, the super patriotic Captain America.

06:03
to like the dark demonic magic realm that Etrigan operated in to like the cosmic sci-fi arena of like the new gods or silver surfer or something like that. There was like nothing he couldn't do. I like the medieval like tunic he gave him. You know, it's not often that you think of demons and think of them wearing like lighthearted medieval outfits, but he made it work and still made them so bad ass. It was very unique. You wanna talk about how unique he was in the form of a poem?

06:33
words and poems for me to share. This is a challenge I do not like, but if you don't like it, then take a hike.

06:51
Ah, Jonathan, the next freestyle artist out there. I am the worst. All right, let's go ahead and move on to our next honorable mention given by DC Joe, who said. I got two answers to this question. First answer is Darkseid, because he's just one of the most interesting and most powerful villain that there ever was. And the other answer is Dr. Doom. In his own right, he's interesting, but without Dr. Doom, there is no MF Doom.

07:20
best rapper ever, R.I.P. I mean, I think Jonathan might be the best new rapper out there now. Sweet. But yeah, great answer with Darkseid and Dr. Doom, respectively, probably DC and Marvel's greatest villains ever. It's so crazy that one guy came up with like the baddest villains for both respective universes, right? Yeah, they're both very different, but also, you know, they have some similarities. They both like to stand around with their arms behind their back a lot.

07:50
They both also wear like tunics. Does Darkseid wear a tunic? Yeah, kinda, sorta. At least in his original design. I do have to say Darkseid would totally stomp on Doctor Doom. I mean, we all saw what Doctor Doom did to Thanos in 2015's Secret Wars event, so I don't know about that. I mean, Thanos is no Darkseid. Let's be real. I mean, that's true, because Thanos is better. Do we need to go back to the duel episode between Thanos and Darkseid? Nope. Exactly. Great answer, DC Joe.

08:18
That does it for our honorable mentions. We want to give big shout outs to Miggy Mathagean, Patrick and Evan Tomkeaf for taking the time to visit our website and leave their answers as well. But the winner of this week's No Prize is CJ Kraft who said, CJ Kraft here and my favorite Jack Kirby creation has to be the ever loving blue eyed thing from Yancy Street. Whenever it's clobbering time, he gets the job done. His battles with the Hulk are epic. His back and forth with Johnny Storm is some of the funniest stuff in comics.

08:48
They just apparently can't get them right in movies. Come on, Marvel, you gotta fix that. But no other character has so much of Jack in him, right down to the cigar-chomping and smart mouth. So gotta be the Thing. Oh yeah, definitely. The Thing is such a great answer when it comes to Jack Kirby's creations. You're right, there was so much that Jack Kirby had in common with the character of The Thing. It was almost like he personified himself in comic form. And what a lovable character.

09:16
so influential, you know, the Fantastic Four really put Marvel comics on the map in the Silver Age and the character like the thing had never really been done before, you know, basically you had this monster who was a hero, usually monsters were saved for, you know, villains or monster tales and the like. And really all of Jack Kirby's work was really influential, he created so many popular characters that you know have stood the test of time. It's remarkable that one man could have that amount of influence. I think he's had more influence.

09:44
over the comics medium and the characters within than any other person. At least when it comes to Marvel and DC for sure. Oh absolutely, yeah. The King. King Kirby. Yeah and it's always nice to revisit some of these early creators that really formed the Marvel and DC universe we know and love as a fan base we owe so much to them. But congrats again to CJ Craft. Guys, CJ is a long-time listener of this show. Every year he puts out a new collection of short horror stories called Pages of Terror.

10:12
And a day after this episode drops, October 13th, his third book, Pages of Terror 3, hits Amazon. And he's also compiled these first three books into a collection called Pages of Terror Trilogy of Fear. I myself read both of his first books. He's a magnificent horror writer. So if you're into that at all and you wanna support a fellow listener, go onto Amazon and check out Pages of Terror Trilogy of Fear or any of his Pages of Terror books. Yeah, I really gotta say, over these past years, CJ has been like super

10:41
inspirational and how he's really pursuing you know his dream of becoming a writer. I think he's mentioned before like writers write and that's exactly what he's doing. As someone who aspires to be you know an artist, a writer, myself, I'm really proud of the work that CJ has done and the fact that he's putting them out there for all of us to read is really admirable. So congrats once again to CJ for releasing another book and guys definitely support your indie artists. That does it for the No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your

11:11
Stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, on to the news!

11:23
Okay, so DC's second annual virtual comic convention, the DC Fandom, is this upcoming Saturday, October 16th. And last week, they announced the full celebrity guest list that will appear during the virtual panels. It's a huge list! Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of people there when they release the trailer for the DC Fandom event. While I did recognize some of the celebrities that are gonna be part of this thing...

11:50
there were a lot of faces I didn't recognize. They were like, join me. And I'm like, I don't even know who you are. So we have the full celebrity guest list for the event. What I'm gonna do is run down this list of names. Jonathan, you're gonna tell me quickly what they're gonna be doing there. And so we'll have a good idea of what this event is going to consist of. Sound good? Yeah, cool, let's do it. All right, let me start off the list with Adeel El-Arbi. Oh, he's one of the co-directors of the HBO Max film Batgirl.

12:19
So we're probably gonna be getting news about that. Okay, who is AJ Hudson? So he's a voice actor. There's this upcoming preschool series called Bat Wheels that'll be on Cartoon Network, and he's the voice of Robin. Okay, I didn't know that. Yeah, Ethan Hawke is going to be the voice of Batman. Ethan Hawke? Yeah. In the children's cartoon? Yeah, preschool series. Wow, okay, that's quite the cast. All right, what about Aldous Hodge? Well, Aldous Hodge is playing Hawkman in the upcoming Black Adam movie.

12:49
What about Angel Manuel Soto? He's the director of HBO Max's upcoming Blue Beetle film. Oh, so we might get news about that, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anne LeMay, who's that? She works for WB Games. She's probably gonna be tied to some video game. I'm not sure which one, and I'm not sure why they're calling her a celebrity. Next on the list is Anson Mount. I already know who that is. He was the guy who played Black Bolt in the Inhumans television show, and he's voicing Batman in the Injustice animated movie. That's right. Ava DuVernay?

13:18
Ava DuVernay, she was going to do a New Gods film but that got scrapped. She's gonna be here because she's probably gonna be promoting the upcoming CW series, Naomi. Who's Bilal Fallah? He's the other co-director of the Batgirl film for HBO Max. Bruce Timm, we all know him. Yeah, yeah, he's a major producer of a lot of DC's animated content. Cam Newton is gonna be there? Is that the same Cam Newton as the quarterback Cam Newton? Yes, it is. And honestly-

13:47
I can't figure out why he's gonna be there. I think he just really likes DC Comics. What a loser. I'm glad the Broncos beat him in that Super Bowl about a decade ago. Alright, who's Cameras Johnson? He's an actor on the Batwoman CW TV series. He plays Luke Fox, Lucius Fox's son. And he's supposed to be suiting up as Batwing in this next season. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. Candice Patton? She plays Iris West on CW's Flash TV series. Okay, who's Chris Wood?

14:15
He plays Manel on the Supergirl series. Lotta CW actors here. Oh, is that Manel part of the Legion of Superheroes? Yes, yes he is. There's actually a few Legion members that appear on the Supergirl series. Interesting. Next up is Christian Convery. Oh, I'm excited for this actually. He's the young actor who plays Sweet Tooth on the Netflix show of the same name. So hopefully we get some kind of news about season two of that show, because that show was freaking awesome. And who's Christina Hudson? She was the screenwriter on Birds of Prey.

14:44
but she's also writing the upcoming Flash movie as well as Batgirl for HBO Max. David Harewood? He plays Hank Henshaw. Really, he plays Martian Manator who's pretending to be Hank Henshaw in the Supergirl series. And who's Dennis Cowan? He's a comic book artist. He's done quite a bit of work for the milestone characters like Icon and Static Shock. And who's Donald Mustard? I've never heard that name before. He is the chief creative officer for Epic Games. So...

15:12
Maybe there might be some big DC Fortnite announcement during the fandom. That would be really cool. That would be cool. Who the hell is this Dwayne Johnson guy? Actually, that's the one name on the list that I had no idea what he was doing. Something about like the hierarchy of power in the DC universe. He's changing it forever or something. I don't know. Sounds lame. Who is Echo Kellum? Oh, he was the actor who played Mr. Terrific in the CW Arrow series, which is over.

15:41
I don't know, maybe he'll make an appearance on Flash. I haven't really been keeping up with the CW shows. So. Looks like Ed Boon is gonna be there. Of course, he's the head of NetherRealm Games. Yeah, it's expected that he's going to announce Injustice 3, though I'm really hoping that he announces the video game that he's been talking about making on Twitter, which is DC vs. Marvel. That will break the internet and my mind. Elizabeth Gillies, who that is? She's gonna voice the character of Catwoman in the upcoming animated film

16:11
Catwoman hunted. Okay, cool. What about Elizabeth Tullock? She's the actress who plays Lois Lane in Superman and Lois Ezra Miller. Hmm. What's he all about? He of course is the actor who plays the Flash in the DCEU Who's Freddy Stroma? He's gonna be playing vigilante in the upcoming Peacemaker series and Gareth Dunnett Aloe said he's the writer of the upcoming Blue Beetle film Grant Gustin He's the Flash on the CW flash series

16:40
What about Hindon Walsh? She's a voice actress, probably most notably in DC for the voice of Starfire in the Teen Titans Go series. And Jacob Bertrand? Most people probably know him as the Hawk in the Cobra Kai series, but he's gonna do one of the voices in the Batwell series for Cartoon Network as well. James Gunn is gonna be there? Oh, probably promoting Peacemaker, right? Yeah. Who's Jason Momoa? He's gonna kick your ass.

17:06
He of course is Aquaman, I really hope we get like some kind of teaser footage for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Javisha Leslie? She's the actress who plays Batwoman in the Batwoman series. Okay moving on to Jennifer Holland? That's actually James Gunn's girlfriend. She's going to be one of Peacemaker's handlers in the Peacemaker TV series. Oh that's right and she was also in the Suicide Squad movie. That's right. Okay who's Jesse Rath? He's the actor who plays Brainiac 5 in Supergirl. Another Legionnaire. Who the hell is this Jim Lee guy?

17:36
Jim Lee of course is the publisher and CCO of DC Comics. Also one of the best comic book artists of our time. Yeah, for sure. He's been like teasing this massive artwork piece that he's been working on for like the past few months on his Instagram. I can't wait to see that thing fully unveiled. It's gonna be incredible. Oh, JJ Abrams is gonna be there. That's cool. So he's probably gonna be talking about like Justice League Dark. Yeah, probably like the upcoming Zatanna movie. And I think also Constantine. And Superman, right?

18:04
Possibly. Yeah, the upcoming Superman project that's being written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. John Cena is gonna be there, of course promoting peacemaker Justin Hartley, I know that name. Isn't he the guy voicing Superman on the upcoming injustice movie? Yeah, that's right. Casey Walfall She's the actress that's playing Naomi in the upcoming CW show. Kaylee Cuoco is gonna be there Of course, she voices Harley Quinn in that animated series and what about Leslie Grace? She's playing Batgirl in that movie Linda Carter. She of course played Wonder Woman

18:34
in the old school TV series, but she most recently played Asterea in the Wonder Woman 1984 movie. Matt Bomer? Of course he's playing Negative Man in the Doom Patrol series, he also voiced the Flash in the recent Justice Society World War II movie. That's right. Matt Reeves, he's the director of the upcoming Batman movie. We're supposed to get a trailer for the Batman, hopefully we get that, that'll be cool. I think that's the thing I'm most looking forward to. Melissa Benoist? Is that how you pronounce it? Benoist? Benoist?

19:03
Yeah, it is. She's Supergirl, of course, in the CW series. Noah Centineo. He's gonna be playing Adam Smasher in the upcoming Black Adam movie. Patrick Redding. He's the creative director for Warner Bros. Games, so I think he'll be talking about Gotham Knights. Patty Jenkins is gonna be there, interesting. Yeah, yeah, it is interesting. She, of course, directed Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984. I'm wondering if she's there to announce Wonder Woman 3. Maybe, maybe not. Pierce Brosnan.

19:33
Holy shit. Man needs no introduction. Of course he's gonna be playing Dr. Fate in the upcoming Black Adam movie. That's huge. I'll be tuning into that panel for sure. Quintessa Swindell. The name sounds familiar. Who's that? They're the actor that's gonna be playing Cyclone in Black Adam. Reggie Hudlin. I already know who that guy is. He's a writer and producer and director. He's done work for Marvel Comics as well, but he also works for DC. Oh yeah, he's one of the minds behind DC's milestone media relaunch. What about Robert-

20:02
Pattinson who's that guy? He's the goddamn Batman! What about Ron Funches? He does the voice of King Shark on the Harley Quinn animated series. And Scott Minville? He does the voice of Robin in Teen Titans Go. Scott Snyder. Is that Zack Snyder's brother? Everyone asks that I'm sure he gets that question all the time. He's a popular writer for DC Comics. What about Sefton Hill who's that guy? He's the creative director and co-founder of Rocksteady Games. He'll be

20:32
Suicide Squad killed the Justice League, most likely. Steve Aggey? He's gonna be in the upcoming Peacemaker series. He was also in the Suicide Squad and did the mocap work for King Shark. Tara Strong? She is the voice of Raven in Teen Titans Go. And also has done a lot of Harley Quinn work as well. Yeah, yep. All right, next is Todd McFarlane. That's pretty cool. Yeah, he's gonna be there probably to talk about the DC toy line that he's making. They're really cool toy sculpts.

20:59
Tyler Hocklin is going to be there. Of course, he's the actor that plays Superman in the Superman and Lois television show. That's right. Shiloh Mardi Dwenya. He's the actor who's going to be playing Blue Beetle in the upcoming movie. He's also known for his work on Cobra Kai. Oh, look at that. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is also going to be there. Yeah, he's the actor who played Black Manta in the first Aquaman movie. I imagine he's going to be there for the sequel, but he was also Dr. Manhattan in the Watchmen television series for HBO Max.

21:28
so you never know what else he may be there for. Zachary Levi is gonna be there. Of course, yep, he's the actor who plays Shazam in those movies. And last but not least, Zoe Kravitz, who of course is playing Catwoman in the upcoming The Batman movie. Right. So a few awesome names there. I'm probably only gonna turn into the fandom for a few panels here and there, but largely, like most Marvel fans, I'll be skipping the fandom. Good, we don't even want you there, Normie. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. This is for DC fans.

21:57
This list is missing notably I think like Jeff Johns or anyone else involved in the Green Lantern Corps series for HBO Max. I'm actually really surprised not to see anyone's name because that's like one of the big projects that I'm really looking forward to hearing more about. Yeah, where's like Michael Keaton? Yeah, yeah, there's no Michael Keaton and there's no Sasha Kaia either, which is kind of disappointing. And no Andy Muschietti who's directing The Flash. What's up with that? I was wondering the same thing. Apparently the only one that's going to be repping

22:25
The Flash is gonna be Ezra Miller during the fandom. Which is kinda disappointing. Overall, does this list make you more or less excited for the fandom? I mean, I'm really excited. This list, I wouldn't say it made me more excited. It's kind of pretty much what I was expecting. But yeah, if we would've seen some Henry Cavill on there or some Michael Keaton, I would've been much more excited. Well, cool, we'll see how it all goes down this Saturday, October 16th. How do you visit the DC Fandom event? All you have to do is go to dcfandom.com.

22:53
they're going to be streaming the entire virtual convention for like the whole day. So there's plenty of time to check it out. All in all, though, there's going to be a ton of DC projects that they're going to be talking about. I'm personally most looking forward to any project that involves the DCEU. And that brings us to our question of the week.

23:13
What is your favorite DCEU film so far and why? There's been 10 of them now. We wanna know your favorite. Yeah, The Joker is not one of them. No, no, it's not. Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking the red microphone button in the bottom right-hand corner, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message can 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 draw that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to social media.

23:42
be sure to answer before October 16th. Which again is the day of the fandom. Don't miss it. Bruce Wayne may appear to be a wealthy playboy, but beneath his facade his true identity is that of the Batman, waging an endless war against crime. Join the caped crusader in Batman the Audio Adventures, the first scripted audio original featuring Batman and his villainous rogues gallery in a world premiere story of life and death in Gotham City.

24:11
debuting exclusively on HBO Max. Starring Jeffrey Wright as Batman and a who's who of Incredible Saturday Night Live alums, this rollicking adventure, told across 10 episodes, is written and directed by Emmy winner Dennis McNicholas, includes devilishly delightful original music by Doug Bossie, and performances by Rosario Dawson, John Leguizamo, Chris Parnell, Melissa Villasenor, Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Brooke Shields, Fred Armisen.

24:40
and many, many more. Go to hbomax.com slash Batman Audio Adventures for more and stream Batman the Audio Adventures only on HBO Max.

24:52
Thanks again to HBO Max for sponsoring this episode. But now let's get into the main event where we pit the Batman villain, Man-Bat, against the Spider-Man villain, Morbius, the living vampire.

25:19
Alright, Manbat vs Morbius. As we said earlier, Manbat is basically Manbear Pig, but minus the bear pig and adding a bat. So he's kind of lame, but Morbius on the other hand is a legit vampire. Just in time for Halloween, right off the back of our Venom Let There Be Carnage review. Morbius is of course a Spider-Man villain who is also getting his own live action film this upcoming January starring Jared Lotto as the character.

25:47
And that film was supposed to come out already. We've been planning this episode for a while, and we always kind of figured that we would be pitting Man-Bat against Morbius considering both characters were scientists who became supervillains by experimenting with bats. Yeah, I don't know too much about Man-Bat. Is Man-Bat like vampiric at all, or is he just like a giant fucking bat? He's like a giant motherfucking bat. What? Well, that is something to look out for.

26:14
If you've never listened to one of our duel episodes before, the way we'll determine a winner between Manbat and Morbius is by running 1000 Monte Carlo simulations using their statistics. Now, a Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to determine outcomes through random sampling. In our case, it randomizes statistics along a normal distribution, which is a bell curve, as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle. The stat parameters we use are based on the official Marvel power grid.

26:41
and we use that criteria to extrapolate the DC's character stats. We've included some additional stat categories of our own, such as range, damage, potential, versatility, and perception, in order to create a more complete and robust simulation. Running these 1000 simulations gives us a percentage of wins for each character, and we declare the one with the higher percentage to be the ultimate victor, considering that they're more likely to win any given battle.

27:06
No character ever wins 100% of the time. Comics have shown that there's always a way for Batman to defeat Superman. We feel our method falls in line with the precedents that have been established in the comic book stories. And we used this method because it was the least subjective, most unbiased way to determine who would win. Of course, we were both heavily biased toward our respective allegiances, and instead of debating these matches forever, we just let the math decide for us. So there's no fan votes here, and no relying on just feats.

27:35
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 we run would play out beat for beat. And I think it's my turn to break down the Marvel character's history first, so let me go ahead and tell you guys all about Morbius, the living vampire. Michael Morbius was born in Greece to a single mother and grew up with a rare blood disorder similar to hemophilia. Fearful of her son getting injured,

28:02
Michael's mom kept him indoors for most of his childhood, often bringing him books to read from the bookstore where she worked. Michael became an intellectually gifted child, though he occasionally sneaked out of the house to play with his best friend, Emil Nicos. During one such outing, he fell and got injured, causing both boys to get into trouble and vow to one day cure Michael's condition. Michael and Emil grew up...

28:27
and studied science together at their university, specializing in human and animal biology. They won a Nobel Prize for their research on using vampire bat blood to cure several other blood disorders, convincing Michael that was the key to fixing his own condition. Michael became engaged to a fellow scientist named Martin Bancroft, though his body was quickly weakening. Debilitated to the point where he could barely lift a coffee mug, Michael rushed an experiment on himself using the vampire bat blood.

28:57
and electroshock therapy. The process transformed his body. His skin turned chalk white, his canine teeth protruded fangs, his nose flattened like a bat's, and his eyes turned blood red. Michael's blood disorder had mutated into a disease of pseudo vampirism, and he immediately developed an intense thirst for human blood. He lashed out and bit his lab partner and friend, Emil, killing him and drinking his blood.

29:23
which revitalized Michael to a normal appearance and healthy physicality that he had never known. Restored to his normal mental state, Michael was shocked to see that he had murdered his childhood friend. Saddened and horrified by what he had become, and to protect his fiancee, Martine, he threw himself into the Mediterranean Sea, though a fishing vessel that was traveling toward New York City soon picked him up. By the time the boat reached the US, all the crewmen were dead, as Michael feasted on them during the voyage.

29:53
He washed up on the South Hampton shore where Spider-Man and the Lizard were at the time. Thirsty, Michael attacked the pair, but was overpowered and had to flee back into the night. The Lizard was able to use a sample of Michael's blood to create a serum that could temporarily transform himself back into his human form and cure Spider-Man, who had at that point mutated into having six arms. You can learn more about Spider-Man in our Blue Beetle vs Spider-Man dual episode.

30:19
Michael began reluctantly feeding off of New Yorkers, occasionally turning random victims into pseudo-vampires themselves. He tried abstaining from drinking blood, but the thirst would take over when given enough time. Distraught, he tried to commit suicide, though his new healing factor would not let him die. With nowhere to turn, Michael reached out to his former fiancée, Martine, who collaborated with him from overseas in developing an antidote.

30:45
They created a serum derived from his blood that would cure his turned victims of their vampirism, though it unfortunately did not work on himself. He declared that if he must drink blood in his search for a cure, then it should be the blood of criminals. In an attempt to become an anti-hero, Michael discovered a woman named Barbara Clark, who was being pursued by a demon named Nilrack. He went through great lengths to protect the woman from the monster, though afterward, he killed Barbara and drank her blood to satisfy his thirst.

31:14
feeling immense guilt at his lack of control. Eventually, Blade the Vampire Hunter, whom you can learn more about in our Asriel vs Blade episode, came across Michael and tried to kill him. Once Blade learned about Morbius' plight, however, and his anti-hero status, the two teamed up to defeat an otherworldly sorcerer named Daimond. Michael also met and tried to stop another sympathetic monster known as the Werewolf by Night, real name Jack Russell, and the two became reluctant rivals.

31:41
Eventually, they both teamed up with Ghost Rider and Man-Thing and formed the first incarnation of the Legion of Monsters superhero team, though they soon disbanded after accidentally killing a benevolent entity called the Starseed. Believing that perhaps Spider-Man's radioactive blood held the key to his antidote, Michael attacked him and managed to get his fangs in the hero's neck. At that moment, he was hit by a bolt of lightning, which somehow resulted in Michael being cured of his pseudo-vampirism.

32:11
Authorities charged him for his crimes as a vampire, though She-Hulk defended him in court claiming he was not responsible for his actions. After living life as a normal human again for a few years, Michael was captured and reverted back to his pseudo-vampire condition by the Voodoo Queen. He teamed up with Dr. Strange and Brother Voodoo to stop the Voodoo Queen's attempt to bring back vampires after Dr. Strange had eradicated Dracula, but the group was unsuccessful.

32:37
You can learn more about Doctor Strange in our Doctor Fate vs Doctor Strange episode. Morbius then formed a team of supernatural heroes with his former allies called the Midnight Sons and together they stopped Lilith, the mother of demons, and her spawn, the Lilin, from plunging the earth into eternal darkness. During the fight against Lilith, Michael's ex-fiancee, Martine, was killed and turned into a vampire herself, bringing him more torment.

33:03
Morbius put his mind to work trying to find a cure for a zombie virus that had entered Marvel's dimension through the nexus of all realities in Manthing Swamp. Together with the Midnight Suns, he helped contain a zombie outbreak, and he later teamed up with the Lizard to try and permanently cure their conditions together at Horizon Labs, though Michael inadvertently attacked the other scientists and was sent to the Rapt Prison before he could finish his work. Recently, Michael was seen back in Europe, where a group of vampires captured him and

33:32
and mixed his blood with their own, creating a new breed of monsters. With Domino's help, Michael defeated the new vampires and continued his journey across the earth in search for a cure. Powers-wise, Morbius is a pseudo-vampire in that he has all the abilities of vampires but none of their traditional weaknesses, except for the thirst and a minor sensitivity to direct sunlight. These abilities include superhuman strength, being able to lift one ton, superhuman speed,

34:01
especially in short bursts, night vision and a sensitivity to the smell of blood, a regenerative healing factor, sharp fangs and claws, the ability to glide almost endlessly, he can mesmerize people through prolonged eye contact with the duration of his influence depending on his victim's willpower, he can occasionally create other pseudo-vampires, and he doesn't age being effectively immortal. Morbius is also an incredibly gifted biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.

34:30
Silver, garlic, religious relics, stakes through the heart, all of that have no effect on him. His only weakness being the fact that he needs human blood in order to maintain his strength. So he can't turn into like a bunch of bats or anything like that? No. He can't like teleport through shadows? No, I guess he doesn't have all of their powers. He just has most of their powers. Okay, he's more like man bat than I realized. For some reason I thought Morbius was a lot stronger than you know the one ton lifting strength.

35:00
But I'm glad he's not. This should be a good match, I think. Let me get into the history of Manbat. When Dr. Robert Kirkland Langstrom, aka Kirk, was a young boy, he made national headlines as a missing child as he became trapped within a deep underground cavern for six weeks. He was eventually rescued and began frightening other children, including a six-year-old Bruce Wayne, with stories of the half-man...

35:26
half-bat creatures he believed he had encountered in the cavern during his time there. Kirk maintained an obsession with bats as the years went on, and he attended Gotham University to become a zoologist specializing in chiropterology, or the study of bats. It was during his university years that he met and dated the chemist Francine Lee, with whom he shared his ideas of how his bat studies could pioneer medical breakthroughs.

35:54
After obtaining his doctorate, Kirk became a zoologist and nocturnal mammals expert employed at the Gotham Natural History Museum and he and Francine became engaged. After learning that he was slowly becoming deaf, Kirk developed a serum derived from bat gland extracts within his museum basement lab that could benefit blind or deaf people with enhanced hearing, granting them echolocation like a bat. Kirk tested his formula on himself.

36:24
which had the unintended consequences of mutating him into a monstrous half-man half-bat hybrid, a man-bat with large leathery wings and razor-sharp claws. Terrified by what he had done and overwhelmed by his enhanced senses, Kirk soon became aware that criminals had broken into the museum above him. They were members of the Blackout Gang, a stealthy group that was currently on the run from Batman.

36:51
who you can learn more about in our Batman vs. Moon Knight episode. Overcome by his animal instincts, Kirk attacked the gang alongside Batman, who assumed Kirk was a new fellow crime fighter. Kirk fled immediately after, but ran into Batman multiple times over the coming days as Kirk attempted to steal chemicals from around the city, desperate to find a cure before his animal mind took over.

37:21
sleeping harmlessly during the day and only going out at night to wreak havoc throughout the city. That's hilarious. Yeah, they kind of like were roommates for a while. Batman, who by this time had deduced that the creature was Dr. Kirk Langstrom, attempted to work on an antidote and enlisted the help of Kirk's fiance, Francine. Though they were successful, Manbette rejected the antidote, and in an effort to prove her love, Francine took the Manbette serum.

37:50
transforming into She-Bat. These names, man. Man-Bat followed the two bat creatures to Gotham Cathedral, where he forced them both to take the antidote. Grateful to be human once again, Kirk and Francine got married soon after, and Batman was Kirk's best man. Batman in his Batman costume? Yes. Yep. Interesting. Okay. The antidote, however, was revealed to be impermanent, as days after his wedding,

38:18
Kirk transformed back into Man-Bat, and with his animal mind attempting to take control, he created a more potent formula that would transform him into Man-Bat permanently. Batman stopped him from taking it, however, and administered the antidote once again. Months later, Francine reverted back to She-Bat, and Kirk helped Batman track her down and administer the antidote to her. Eventually,

38:43
Kirk was able to develop a new formula that would allow him and his wife to keep their human minds whenever they transformed. Kirk became a crime fighter and ally to Batman, helping him as Man-Bat take down villains such as the Getaway Genius and Baron Time. The Langströms later moved to Chicago to get away from Gotham City's criminal element, only to encounter and defeat the likes of the Ten-Eyed Man and Dr. Thanatogenos before moving to New York City.

39:13
While there, Kirk teamed up with Robin and Batgirl in order to stop a villain named the Outsider who was attempting to kill members of the Bat family. The Langstrums eventually became pregnant, and Kirk became a bounty hunter of sorts, capturing criminals in order to collect the reward money for his growing family. As Francine went into labor, Kirk teamed up with Etrigan the Demon, who you can learn more about in our Etrigan vs. Ghost Rider episode.

39:39
to stop the sorceress Morgan Le Fay from transforming all of the hospital's babies into demons. Francine gave birth to a healthy baby girl, whom they named Rebecca. Now with a child to think of, Kirk retired as madbat and began working in construction to support his family. News reports of a bat creature terrorizing New York City, however, led him to question whether or not he really had control over his transformations while he slept. He later discovered

40:07
It was his wife seeking freedoms from the new responsibilities of motherhood. When the Langstroms realized Rebecca suffered from acute hearing, Man-Bat attempted to steal chemicals once again to develop a cure. Batman stopped him, however, and it was Superman who later helped Kirk find a cure for his daughter. A short time after the Langstroms moved back to Gotham City, Kirk accidentally made a miscalculation in the formula he and his wife used to keep their human minds when they transformed.

40:37
and his animal mind took over completely. He secretly returned to the Batcave, leading Batman and Alfred to wonder if the Batcave was haunted. Batman eventually found Man-Bat and attempted to use the antidote, but Kirk's mind was too far gone and it didn't work. It wasn't until Man-Bat saw his daughter Rebecca that Kirk's mind was reawakened and he was able to take control once again. Although after that,

41:02
Kirk was forced to take the antidote regularly to limit his now more intense transformations. After getting his job back at the Gotham Natural History Museum, the long hours caused Kirk to forget to take his antidote, and he transformed into an uncontrollable man-bat once again, kidnapping Jason Todd in an attempt to transform him into a bat hybrid before being stopped by the combined effort of Batman, Francine, and Rebecca. The Langströms later had a son, Eren.

41:31
who was born with a deadly illness due to Kirk's and Francine's altered DNA. Francine was forced to inject Eren with the Man-Bat serum, transforming him into a baby-bat hybrid permanently in order to save his life. Talia Al Ghul, who you can learn more about in our Daughters of the Demon vs. Daughters of the Dragon dual episode, later kidnapped the Langstrom family and threatened to kill them if they didn't give her the Man-Bat formula, which they did,

41:59
in which Talia used to create an army of bat-hybrid assassins known as the Manbat Commandos. Later, while Francine worked as a member of the Outsiders, serving as their scientific advisor, Kirk realized he was able to control his Manbat transformations at will. During the Blackest Night storyline, Francine discovered a cure for her and her husband's transformations, while also discovering that if Kirk transformed one more time,

42:27
he would no longer be able to turn back into a human. Just as Kirk was about to take the cure, a battle between Black Lantern Solomon Grundy and Bizarro injured Francine, and Kirk was forced to transform one final time in order to protect and save his wife. In post-Flashpoint continuity, the Manbat Serum originated as a lab-created airborne virus that plagued Gotham City before its accidental creator, Dr. Kirk Langstrom,

42:55
was able to derive an anti-virus by transforming himself into a bat hybrid, once again, the Manbat. He took a villainous turn for a while, allying himself with Scarecrow during the Arkham Wars and serving as a member of the Crime Syndicate before joining an anti-terrorism task force for the supernatural organization, Shade, which you can learn more about in our Frankenstein vs. Bloodstone episode. He was later a member of Woodrow Man's Justice League Dark Team,

43:22
during which time he became an expert on the science of magic. Powers-wise, Manbat possesses flight thanks to his wings, as well as enhanced physicality, including superhuman strength and agility. He has extremely sensitive hearing that allows for echolocation, and he can emit sonic blasts with his voice, capable of stunning his victims. He also has razor-sharp claws on his hands and feet. He has a brilliant scientific mind,

43:50
Though the longer he's in his Man-Bat form, the harder it is for him to fight back against Man-Bat's pure, instinctual, and animalistic mind. He can communicate with bats, and has a sensitivity to bright lights in his Man-Bat form. That's Man-Bat. It's interesting, like, this Batman villain is not really crazy, like, he's never been to Arkham Asylum or anything, so he seems quite different from the standard Batman rogues. He's kinda like Morbius, where he's basically more of a good guy who gets into trouble.

44:19
Yeah, he's a lot like Morbius except which one do you think came first? Obviously Morbius. He came out in 1971. Oh Man-bat has him beat by one year. He came out in 1970. What a rip-off. But once again But Marvel did it better because Morbius is a much cooler character who's actually getting his own film Actually Man-bat was going to be the villain of the Batman and Robin sequel But that never happened as long as Joel Schumacher didn't direct it. I'd be down to see that I think he was gonna direct it actually. Eww

44:49
Nah, that would be no good. He would have had like nipples, like bright pink areolas, I think. So these characters are like so similar then. Although you know what's interesting is that Morbius, although he was essentially turned into like a bat vampire creature, he doesn't have echolocation like Manbat does. And that's why he's going to die. Well, let's find out. Now that we've got their histories and abilities out of the way, let's speculate on how one of the 1000 simulated matches will go.

45:17
The winner is determined by simulations, not the speculation, but it's fun to imagine how this fight could play out. We don't set any rules for this match other than the characters don't know anything about each other going in, except that the other character is a threat that needs to be put down. And we say that they start off about 50 meters apart in an environment that has no bearing on the match itself because we don't take stats for the environment. Plus certain characters have advantages in some environments over others, and we want these characters to win on their own merit.

45:46
So let's get into it. Morbius and Manbat meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? I'm gonna say that Manbat does just because he's a little bit more animalistic and wild. So he's gonna start off by soaring into the air and send out the shriek that stuns Morbius. So Manbat's shriek is capable of stunning people? Yes. Yeah, it can also like shatter windows and stuff. It's pretty powerful. Well, Morbius would be particularly susceptible to that because he does have enhanced hearing.

46:16
Exactly. Okay, so Morbius, you know, he's like in pain, he's stunned, and Manbat, he's gonna use this opening to just like dive bomb him, right? And he's gonna slash Morbius' torso, just leaving these deep bloody gashes before taking off back into the air. That was a good opening, Salvo. And Morbius is definitely gonna be feeling the attack, both audio and physical, but you know, he's gonna be able to heal those slash wounds.

46:41
and he leaps up into the air at Manbat right at him and digs his own sharp claws into Manbat's chest and holds on tight and reaches up and just sinks his teeth into the creature's neck. Wait, he's gonna bite his neck as they're flying through the air? Yeah. Except that Manbat reacted to Morbius's claw attack with a barrel roll as he's flying through the air, right? So that's gonna fling Morbius off of him towards the ground before Manbat could get bit in the neck.

47:09
Do a barrel roll! Exactly. Except Morbius isn't gonna hit the ground, he can glide. So he's just gonna glide away from Manbat and just kinda like disappear into the shadows. Shadows? What shadows? Well wherever there's light, there's shadows. And wherever there's not light, there's, you know, also shadows. Okay? I mean, but you can't hide from Manbat in the shadows though. He has echolocation. So right when Morbius thinks he's safe-

47:37
Manbat's just gonna silently swoop in and just lift Morbius back into the air by his hair. That long ass hair that's just easy to grab. But Morbius is smart, okay? So, when he realizes that Manbat is able to detect where he is through echolocation, which Morbius would know because he'd be able to hear the echolocation scream, and also he would know where Manbat is at all times now that Manbat's bleeding because he could smell his blood. So, when Manbat-

48:05
thinks he's getting the drop on Morbius by swooping in to grab him by the hair. Morbius counters by dashing to the side and slashing through one of Manbat's wings and just fricking turning it into shreds. No, that's right. Manbat's grounded. All right. So Manbat, he's probably like screeching in pain. And honestly, that attack probably like made Dr. Langstrom lose control over the animal mind within Manbat. So now it's no more Mr. Nice Manbat. All right.

48:33
He's gonna scurry across the ground and just lunge at Morbius, just like grabbing his jugular in his jaws and just biting down really hard going for the kill. Holy shit. Except as Manbat pounces on Morbius, uh, Morbius is gonna throw up his arms in- in self-defense, and Manbat is only just gonna bite into his forearm instead of Morbius' neck. And with Manbat's bangs, you know, like, deep into Morbius' forearm, Morbius is gonna maneuver Manbat's head where he can expose his neck.

49:03
and Morbius just sinks his fangs into Manbat's neck and it's gonna drain him of all of his blood and energy. So Manbat's like done, like Morbius just like freaking pushes him off to the side and Manbat falls lippily to the ground cause he doesn't have anything left, Morbius wins. Except Manbat, you know, he's not frail without his blood. In fact, he's stronger now than he's ever been because since Morbius bit him, he's now a pseudo vampire Manbat. No, no, except, no, that didn't. Nah.

49:31
He's man-pseudo-vampire bat with like all white fur and skin like red eyes and now with his own healing factor But like still all animal instinct. He's more dangerous now than ever. Did you say man pseudo vampire bat? Yes, man pseudo vampire bat So he's like a giant albino bat now, but with vampiric tendencies. Yeah. Yeah. So Morbis is like, oh shit, I done fucked up

49:58
Exactly, but you know Morbius is also gonna be stronger than he's ever been because he just got done feasting on the man bats blood So, you know, he's like full of energy and before man meant what is it pseudo man's a pseudo vampire bat Yes Before he could do anything Morbius speed blitzes him and tackles him to the ground pinning him down as Morbius looks into his eyes and Mesmerizes the creature into becoming docile dude

50:25
Morbius can't tame the animal mind within Manitou vampire bat. All right? Animals can't be hypnotized, so they're not smart enough. OK, so as Morbius thinks he's hypnotizing Manitou vampire bat, he's just going to stick his head out and bite right into Morbius's neck, just ripping it out entirely and ending this match. So basically, Manitou vampire bat took advantage of Morbius just staring at him and it did nothing. Exactly. Morbius tried and failed.

50:53
But Morbius wouldn't die from getting his throat ripped out. What? Um, but I'm thinking now that Man-Bat has vampirism and he also has this mutagenic chemical in his blood that transformed him into Man-Bat in the first place. I bet you like in the comics, it probably somehow reacts with Morbius's own blood disorder. So as Morbius heals his neck, he also sprouts giant bat wings and sheds his outfit and he becomes his own.

51:23
Man-pseudo-vampire bat-vampire. Man-pseudo-vampire bat is probably horribly confused by what just happened. So man-pseudo-vampire bat-vampire then attacks man-pseudo-vampire bat and rips his pseudo-man heart out of his vampire bat chest.

51:43
Okay, wait, wait, whose heart got ripped out? The man, pseudo, vampire, bat, vampire? No, no, no, no, the man, pseudo, vampire, man, bat. All I know is Marvel wins. You don't know shit, like no one does anymore. Basically, there's these two giant albino, vampire, pseudo, man, bats that are attacking each other. There's just so much cross contamination of like blood conditions and viruses and shit. Who knows which one is which one anymore?

52:12
But let's find out who wins this scenario by running these character stats in 1000 simulations and coming back with a winner. Let's do it!

52:24
That was unexpected. What was it again? Pseudo vampire bat man? No, man pseudo vampire bat man. Oh, okay. I forgot. But we ran the stats on these characters. Pretty comparable here, as I figured it would be. It's definitely gonna be a close match because these characters are nearly identical when it comes to things like speed, evasiveness, strength, damage level, versatility.

52:48
But it was determined that Morbius is much more durable given that he has a regenerative healing factor, whereas Manbat does not. Right, but where Manbat did get the edge was in perception, thanks to his echolocation. That's something that Morbius didn't have. Manbat also had a slight advantage when it came to range due to his sonic shriek that he has. Morbius has some range with his whole mesmerization thing, but it's not very much. The victim has to be kind of in close proximity to see his gaze.

53:17
So after crunching these numbers and running the simulations, who do you think is gonna win this match, Jonathan? Manbet, hopefully. I'm not sure, I know it's gonna be close. I really hope it's not the same results that we got from our Instagram poll, in which 72% of our Instagram followers chose Morbius. And I'm like, what? What are you guys doing? Like, Manbet is way cooler than Morbius. I don't know how that happened. Manbet is just too simplistic of a character, I think.

53:44
He's not interesting enough to ever be that popular. Whereas Morbius, you know, he's a fucking vampire. Vampires are cool. Morbius is like the least cool vampire in fiction. He's like a living vampire. How lame is that? Like even other vampires hate him. It's interesting to me that Manbat turned out to be not vampiric at all. I always thought like he'd bite other people and turn them into Manbats themselves. No, it all comes down to his serum. Hence the lowered popularity.

54:14
hence these poll results. But let me go ahead and tell you who won. The winner in the dual matchup between Manbat and Morbius is Morbius, the living vampire. It was fairly close. It was 56.4% to 43.6%. So Morbius won 564 matches out of a thousand compared to Manbat's 436 wins. I thought Manbat scored higher in more stat categories than Morbius.

54:44
but Morbius scored much higher when it came to durability. And intellect, since we reasoned that Man-Bat isn't always consistent with how smart he is in that form. I forgot about intelligence. Shit. At the end of the day, a brilliant human mind will always beat out a crazy animal mind. That's just the food chain. Man-Bat turns into a nice snack for Morbius, and us Marvel fans get another win. You guys have needed one of those for a while. DC is totally stomping you guys, so congrats, I guess.

55:13
Thanks man. I can't wait to see Morbius's rotten tomato meter. I'm sure it'll probably also be at 56.4%. That's probably true, touche. That was pretty good. But that does it for this duel guys. Let us know what you thought about the results by writing to us at dyna or by visiting us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

55:40
You can find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show notes or visiting our website dynamic duel.com And on our site you can also find a link to our patreon page where we offer bonus content including bonus episodes and duels, monthly live movie watch alongs, collectible pincets, and access to our discord server. Check it out right now after this episode. Our lowest tier is only $2 a month. Which is also the cost to subscribe to this show on Spotify.

56:08
Subscribe now to access over 200 archived episodes of this podcast. Our next episode is going to be a review. We're going to talk all about the animated series What If on Disney Plus. Which I have yet to start watching. Need to get on that. Y'all be interested in hearing what you think about it. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Spees, Ken Johnson, Jace Crump, John Storosky, Zachary Hepburn, John Bechinina, Mitchell Phipps, Steven Lovato, Dustin Balcom,

56:37
Salvador Hernandez Contreras Jr. and Levi Yee-In for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.