Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter: Round 2

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

Hi, welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. 

And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And, whoa, look at that up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! Oh, it just landed. Oh, it looks like it's actually a comic book. Where did that come from? 

Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter. I didn't know they made this title. Oh, look, it's published by the DynaMic Network. What?! Well, let's open up the comic book and see what's inside. 

Duel Max Destruction will give you shadow kicks and sonic booms as Johnny Cage goes head-to-head with Colonel Guile for round three. Finally on Senjoh World, Evil Reigns Supreme as Revenant Liu Kang's Fireballs clash with Evil Ryu's Hadoukens in the final round. It begins now! Listen each day for a new fight. But only on Senjoh World will you learn which universe survives and which becomes my personal well of souls to claim. 

Whoa, that's one of those talking comic books! Yeah, I bet you guys were expecting another Marvel vs DC episode on this special April Fool's week at the network. But like last year when we gave you guys Godzilla vs Ultraman, we're diving into other franchises yet again and giving you round two of the Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter tournament. And strangely enough, both Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter have dipped their toes into the worlds of DC and Marvel. That's right, famously there was a Mortal Kombat vs DC video game as well as some tie-in comic books, but also DC has published several Mortal Kombat comic series. Yeah, and with Street Fighter there's the famous Marvel vs Capcom video game series which included X-Men vs Street Fighter all the way through Marvel vs Capcom 3 along with some tie-in comics as well. So this will be a fun episode, be sure to listen to round one of the Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter tournament over on Konsole Kombat and then tune into Max Destruction tomorrow for the third round in the tournament and then get the final results in the Senjoh World podcast on Thursday. Before we get into our main event though, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from this past week of which there was just one major news item and that was the cast reveal for Avengers Doomsday. Yeah, a lot to talk about there. 

Can't wait to discuss it, but 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. Our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. 

Why hello there. Do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2.0 tier gives you access to our Discord chat server, the Fantastic Four tier gives you two bonus episodes each month and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly, the Diner Mike podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicdualpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicdual. Pip pip cheerio. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize. A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. 

Our version, the dynamic dual no prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked you guys, what Marvel or DC actor whose performance was hidden by practical or special effects would you like to see play another character? And this was coming off of the news that Colin Farrell is in talks to play Sergeant Rock for that upcoming movie, Colin Farrell being the guy who plays the penguin in a largely unrecognizable role in the Batman franchise. Let's break down our three honorable mentions before revealing this week's no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Matt from Texas. Who said? 

Hey guys, Matt from Texas. The actor I would like to see is Matt Damon since he was in two different Marvel movies, Deadpool 2 and the sequels of Thor. I would like to see him show up as an actual character, probably Nighthawk of the Squadron Supreme, just to play off of his friendship with Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck being Batman, he could play the Marvel's version of Batman. That'd be awesome. 

Yeah, Matt Damon has been at the top of a lot of people's lists to play his superhero role for decades now. I remember way back in the day when they were thinking about making an Iron Fist movie, Matt Damon was the lead rumored contender for that role. And to this day, he still has yet to play a Marvel or DC superhero, despite making some cameo appearances in both Deadpool 2 and Thor Ragnarok and Thor 11 Thunder. I feel like the guy can't turn down a cameo, which is wild. Since his often screen partner and friend, Ben Affleck, played Batman in the DCEU, it would be kind of hilarious to have Matt Damon play Marvel's Batman counterpart from the Squadron Supreme, Nighthawk. 

And it kind of met a gag to the audience. Even if it just ends up being another cameo, where in one of the upcoming Avengers movies, we see the Incursions destroying these other worlds and we get this glimpse of the Squadron Supreme being destroyed by an incursion, I think that would be entirely worth it. Yeah, Hyperion could be Henry Cavill, Power Princess could be Gal Gadot, but make Nighthawk Matt Damon. There you go. We know Henry Cavill is up for these Marvel cameos. Apparently. So good answer, Matt. Our next honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon. Who said? 

What's up, dynamic dudes? Travis here, shout out to me, with twins. So my pick would have to be Ada Wale, Alec Kono'i. I probably butcher his last name. But the actor who played Killer Croc in the Suicide Squad movie, I mean, he had, and I think he'd be the perfect pick as Tombstone. He has the attitude. 

He has to hide, give him the sharp teeth, the white skin and the hairstyle. And I think he can make a pretty sick tombstone for a Spider-Man MCU movie in the future. 

Yeah, Ada Wale, Akanoye Agbaje has played multiple roles for both Marvel and DC. He was Killer Croc, like Travis said, but he was also Curse in Thor of the Dark World. So the guy has always just been covered up in prosthetics and hasn't really got the chance to shine as a Marvel or DC character. Now, he'd also be wearing a lot of makeup for Tombstone if you played that role, but considerably less so. Basically, just slap some white makeup on him and he's good to go. 

Yeah, that's all you really need. I think he'd be great for the role. He'd be one of my top picks if they ever cast Tombstone in live action, which, you know, who knows, the character showed up in the Into the Spider-Verse movie, so he could show up in live action, possibly in Spider-Man 4 or 5 with Tom Holland. I wouldn't mind that at all. Yeah, give the guy a shot. Great answer, Travis. Our final honorable mention goes to Christopher Minotti, who said, Hi guys, Christopher Minotti. 

My choice would have to be Paul Bettany, who obviously played his vision. I'd like to see him play Mr. Freeze. I think that would be really cool. Paul Bettany has, if you ever saw the Da Vinci Code, he played the kind of tragic villain in that one, and he was amazing in it. And I just think that it would be amazing. He would do an amazing job as Mr. Freeze because of that. 

Yeah, I keep hearing rumors that Mr. Freeze is going to be the villain for the second Batman film in Matt Reeves' Batman Universe. I don't know if that's true, but if it was, Paul Bettany would make a fantastic Mr. 

Freeze. I think he would do well in that universe as well. Yeah, based alone, even on his role in the Da Vinci Code. 

Yeah, he was also in Firewall, I believe. He played a great villain in that movie. He's just a fantastic actor. And he's also really pale and has got features, which I think is perfect for the character of Mr. 

Freeze. Yeah, I could totally see that. Great answer, Christopher Minotti. Everybody had great answers this week. I was like uncertain if it was even a good question of the week, but you guys came through. Quick shout out to Lee Tapscott, who also called in saying that Doug Jones, who played the Silver Surfer, should play Plastic Man in the DCU. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Colby Hentges. Who said? 

Hey, boys, Colby Hentges. I would like to see Bradley Cooper, everybody's favorite Rocket Raccoon, play a different Marvel superhero. But here's the thing, I'm going to stick it behind special effects again. Because I'd like to see him play Johnny Blaze, the ghostwriter, maybe teaching a young Robbie Reyes the ropes or some kind of Midnight Sun's spirit of engines movie. 

Yeah, I really like this answer. I think a lot of people are bringing up like Ryan Gosling for the role of Johnny Blaze, but I could totally see Bradley Cooper in this role. And I think, you know, his voice was nearly indistinguishable as Rocket Raccoon. So despite the fact that he's lent his talents to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I think he could do so in live action as the character Johnny Blaze, who turns into ghostwriter. Yeah, if all of the actors that could play ghostwriter, I think Bradley Cooper would be by far the best one to do so. But too bad because apparently, according to a certain scooper who has seen an early version of the Superman movie, Bradley Cooper has already been cast as Jor-El in James Gunn's DC Universe. That doesn't mean he couldn't play Johnny Blaze because we all know Jor-El dies. 

It's a small role. His fate is to not live and send his only son to Earth. Well, until they make the Superman prequel where they show everything that happens on Krypton. Okay, okay. No, I still think that Bradley Cooper would make a great Johnny Blaze and, you know, the whole Jor-El thing that hasn't been confirmed yet. 

So we'll see if that actually comes out to be true. But great answer, Colby Hitches. You win this week's No Prize. If you're 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. Another that's done? 

On to the news! Alright, this past week we got a major cast announcement for the upcoming Avengers Doomsday film, which has now begun production. It is a massive cast list that dwarfs even the size of Avengers Endgame in Infinity War. 

And suffice to say it was an exciting time this past week getting to see all the names that would be in the film. Yeah, it took hours to get through. Holy shit. It could have been a tweet. 

Yeah, it could have been a tweet. It would have been a long list, but I'll say that the engagement that Marvel got from this slow reveal of a camera panning across different chairs with the actors' names on them, it was kind of a brilliant move. Everybody was talking about it at the time. 

It was hard to be at work at the same time that this was all happening. But I'm going to go ahead and run down the list in the order that they were revealed, and we'll talk about them as we go. The first name on the first chair that we saw was Chris Hemsworth, and my initial reaction to that was, of course. We all figured that Thor would be back. Chris Hemsworth has to be there as the sole returning representative of the original Avengers team. Hopefully he can redeem the character from how fucking goofy he was in Thor 11 Thunder. 

Yeah, that bow god of dumpling still gets me as everything that's wrong with Marvel right now. The next name that was revealed was Vanessa Kirby, who will be playing the invisible woman in the upcoming The Fantastic Four First Steps movie. This was kind of a surprise in that I didn't know necessarily that The Fantastic Four was going to show up in Doomsday. I mean, I had a good idea, but the fact that we're getting both the Avengers and The Fantastic Four in one film was big enough news to get me excited. Yeah, because the Fantastic Four members are not typically Avengers characters, right? So I was surprised by this, but also not so surprised because obviously Dr. Doom will be the villain in Avengers Doomsday, and wherever there's Dr. Doom, you also expect there to be Fantastic Four. Yeah, it does seem like even though The Fantastic Four get their powers in another dimension, as we'll see in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, they eventually make their way to the primary Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

The sacred timeline is at work. After that, we've got a reveal of Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Anthony Mackie wasn't surprising. 

Sebastian Stan also wasn't, but it's cool to see him so frequently now since he had that cameo in Brave New World, and of course, he'll show up in the Thunderbolts movie, and we'll see him again in Doomsday. Then we got Letitia Wright, who's going to be in the movie playing Black Panther. I wasn't sure if this film was going to reveal the new T'Challa actor and who's going to play that new version of Black Panther. It looks like we're going to get Letitia Wright again as Shuri's Black Panther. Which is fine because I really liked her as the character in Black Panther Wakanda Forever. Yeah, and I'm sure these two Avengers films, the way I imagine it's going to play with time and reality, will allow for a natural introduction to a young T'Challa donning the mantle of Black Panther. 

Or an older T'Challa, as we saw in the concept art for Avengers Secret Wars. Yeah, right. Next up was Wyatt Russell as US Agent. I think my first reaction there was that, okay, so he's going to survive the events of Thunderbolts. I really was expecting prior to this announcement that a lot of the Thunderbolts characters were going to die in their battle with the Century during the course of that film. 

But, you know, as we go through this list even further, we realize that that's not the case. Yeah, it looks like a majority of the Thunderbolts are going to survive, which, spoiler alert, I know, right? But that is kind of cool that not only is this going to be an Avengers film, it's also going to be a fantastic four film and a Thunderbolts film. Next up, we learned that Tanok Kwertha was going to be reprising his role as Namor the Submariner. And that's pretty cool because Namor has had a lot of dealings with Doom over the years, sometimes as an ally. But it'll also be interesting since the Fantastic Four is going to be in this movie to see if he has any interactions with Sue Storm since he has a big old crush on her. Yeah, this is one of my favorite announcements that they revealed because I love the MCU adaptation of Namor. Like, they did a way better job with the character than the comics ever have. 

I agree. Yeah, he's definitely one of Marvel's more interesting newer additions. And you know, he's been an adventure in the comic books, so whether he joins the side of the good guys or teams up more with Doom will be interesting to see what side he falls on. Next on the cast was Ebon Moss Bakrok, who was expected once we got the announcement of Vanessa Kirby. Again, it's just nice to see the Fantastic Four here. But then we got news that Shang-Chi, played by Simu Liu, is going to show up again. And at that point, I think I got really pumped and excited because I think everyone else was kind of expected. But I've been dying to see Shang-Chi again in a Marvel project since that film came out because I was such a huge fan of that movie. And I think we've been long overdue to get an appearance from him again within these stories. 

Yeah, 100%. Rae and I saw that. I was like, it's about damn time. Then Florence Pugh was announced to return as Yelena Bolova the White Widow. Again, I was like, okay, so she survived Slender Bolts too. But after that, I think the biggest shock so far was the announcement of Kelsey Grammer returning as Beast. That was huge because we last saw him in the end credit scene of the Marvel's movie. 

And when I saw this, I immediately assumed that that world that Monaco Rambo ended up in was going to either perish in an incursion or find their way to the MCU. This either meant that Beast was going to be a member of the Avengers as he has been in the comic books. Or we were going to get the X-Men. 

I was more thinking the former rather than the latter. I thought we were just really going to get Beast showing up in this Avengers film. But I was shocked to say the least by later announcements. I was shocked that we didn't get Teyona Paris on this cast list. I know. 

Yeah, that's a little weird. We'll talk about the people who didn't show up and how that surprised me. The next one to be announced was Louis Pullman as the Sentry. That completely shocked me because the Sentry or the Void rather is the primary antagonist of the upcoming Thunderbolts movie. So something happens there where he's not necessarily defeated, but instead he's reformed or something like that. Or they managed to destroy the Void without destroying the Sentry. Or he gets imprisoned and in the course of Doomsday he escapes or something like that. 

Who knows what's happening? All we know is that the Thunderbolts don't kill the bad guy in that upcoming movie, which I think it was a terrible spoiler. I wish they would have saved all the Thunderbolts cast announcements for later on after the movie was released. 

That way we didn't get any of these spoiler stuff. Well, I mean, as far as we know, Julie Louise Dreyfus could be the main antagonist of the Thunderbolts. She was on this cast list. 

I don't think she would be, but you're probably right. Next announced was Danny Ramirez as the Falcon, which was no surprise because Anthony Mackie was already announced and the Falcon is Captain America's sidekick. Then we got Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch. 

Again, no surprise. And David Harbour as the Red Guardian, which at that point I was like, okay, so everybody in the Thunderbolts basically does live. I was surprised to see Winston Duke return as Mbaku just because the character status has been really elevated within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Yeah, I mean, by the time this comes out, he'll be in more Avengers movies than Black Panther movies. That's true. Wow. That's kind of surprising. Next up is Hannah John Kammon, who played Ghost in Ant-Man and the Wasp and is reprising the character in the upcoming Thunderbolts movie. 

It looks like she lives too. And then actually a big announcement that I guess wasn't surprising, but one that I absolutely loved was that we get to see Tom Hiddleston back as the character of Loki. It makes sense because at the end of Loki Season 2, we see Loki, you know, sitting on his throne kind of overseeing the multiverse. So if Doomsday deals with incursions, there wouldn't be any doubt that we would see some kind of appearance from Loki as these universes are colliding and getting destroyed. I'm wondering if he even kicks off the whole story. 

Yeah, probably. You keep saying incursions, though, but I don't know if I believe that just because Benedict Cumberbatch was not in this cast list. He doesn't need to be in the movie for there to be incursions. Well, he was our introduction to incursions at the end of Multiverse of Madness. So I have a hard time believing that if incursions were involved, he would not be like the main character. 

Why? Because he would need to introduce the audience to incursions because the character of Clea was the one that introduced that to the Marvel Universe in general. No, Clea didn't introduce it. Dr. Strange had to help Clea with an incursion, but Loki could also introduce the concept of incursions. 

It doesn't have to be Dr. Strange. Okay, Loki's inclusion didn't make you sad at all that they're revisiting a story arc that had already been perfectly resolved? No, I expect it to seem more of Loki by the end of Loki season two. And I don't think his appearance here ruins the ending of that show because comic books, by their very nature, have stories that go on and on and on. 

The conclusion of one arc doesn't diminish the character's inclusion in another. The next announcement was a big one. I got really excited by it. We get to see Patrick Stewart reprise his role as Professor X. By this point, I was like, okay, that's two X-Men. 

We're definitely going to get more. And hopefully this time he lives and he doesn't get his neck snapped by the Scarlet Witch was my thought. Well, yeah, considering it looks like Scarlet Witch is not in this movie, it's a safe bet that that's not going to happen. I think by the time this next announcement rolled around, Ian McKellen as Magneto, I was full on screaming with excitement because I think I knew where they were starting to go with these announcements with the back to back reveal of Professor X and Magneto. I'm not going to lie. I was pretty underwhelmed by this list or not really impressed by the list up to this point because I was just like, okay, just everyone in the MCU so far. 

Gotcha. Don't need to watch anymore. But once they said Ian McKellen, I was like, holy shit, how did they get him to come back? You know, he hasn't played the role in quite some time, but he was the perfect Magneto. 

And it's really interesting to see that they got him back into the role for this film. Yeah, they basically have him until he's fucking 90. I have no idea how old he is by now, but he's got to be close to 90. 

Oh, yeah, he's 85 years old. There you go. The next announcement had me laughing on the floor because while this whole thing was going on, I posed a question to our patrons on the discord. Like, who do you want to show up in this movie that you think is not going to? Like you think has no chance. And one of our executive producers, Brandon Estregard, said, I know there's absolute zero chance of this happening, but if they bring back Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, I will shit gold for three days straight. And I remember reading that thinking that there was no way in hell that Alan Cumming was coming back. And then all of a sudden his fucking name showed up on that chair. 

And we all messaged Brandon saying like time to start shitting because Alan Cumming is back as Nightcrawler. And that was just, I was floored. I was floored. By that point, I couldn't work anymore. And I was just glued to my screen on the Marvel YouTube channel, just waiting to see who else was coming back. Yeah, that's about the time when I dipped off of the discord because all the Marvel fans started talking about how they were coming and all the different coming jokes. I was like, I'm out. 

We were just really happy. Rebecca Romain was announced next. Glad to see that she's coming back. It is interesting that they're bringing back the original X-Men lineup and not, you know, the first class lineup. So we're not getting James McAvoy or Michael Fassbender or Jennifer Lawrence. You know, we're getting the original actors, including James Marston, who's coming back as Cyclops, which is really exciting. I really want to see James Marston given his due as the character because he kind of went out like a punk ass in X-Men The Last Stand. And in the first two movies, he didn't have a whole lot to do. So I'm hoping that, you know, we see James Marston in the classic Cyclops outfit and that he's a total badass. Yeah, considering what Marvel Studios was able to bring us with X-Men 97, I have total faith that they can do Cyclops justice in a way that Fox couldn't. 

Right. Like how they couldn't do Channing Tatum justice with the character of Gambit until Deadpool and Wolverine. And speaking of Channing Tatum, he was the next one announced. I think we all knew that Channing Tatum was going to come back as Gambit. I didn't know it was going to be this soon because we never got to see Gambit interact with the rest of the X-Men team. 

He only made that one, you know, brief appearance in X-Men Origins Wolverine and that was super lame. This will be much more exciting and much more true to the character in the comic books. I just had a ball watching him in Deadpool and Wolverine and I want to see what the team dynamic is like with Channing Tatum in the role here. Yeah, that said Channing Tatum's role in Deadpool and Wolverine was fairly comedic, I would say. So I'm interested to see how that changes or maybe doesn't change for this movie. 

Considering Ryan Reynolds was not a part of the cast. Yeah, we only have two names announced left. I think I was expecting like 10 more names. 

I thought that announcement was going to go on for like hours longer. And then we got Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic, which of course he was the final member of the Fantastic Four that they had yet to announce. And we all knew that was coming. But then we got Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Doom. 

And at that point I knew that was it. That was the final cast member that was going to be announced. We already knew that of course Robert Downey Jr. was going to be in this movie. For the record, I'm still fucking livid that they cast Downey in this role. Because I don't want the Victor Von Doom on the screen to just be a Tony Stark variant. 

I still really wish this was a different actor. Well, what if they never show his face? If they never show his face, I'll be a little bit more lenient. So they better not ever show his face basically. But if that's the case, then, you know, why get Downey Jr. just for his voice? That doesn't really make sense. 

Well, just because he's a good actor. I don't know, it may kind of be like the whole penguin and Sergeant Rock scenario, like our question of the week. Where one actor plays two different characters, but one of them is heavily covered up in makeup or CG. If they completely make Downey unrecognizable in the role, then I'll accept it. Because then I'll just see Doom, you know. 

So yeah, that might be acceptable. That was the entire cast list. I want to give a quick spotlight on the characters that I thought would have been announced, but have not been. There was some discussion on social media between Robert Downey Jr. And, you know, the official Marvel account about how there will be more names in the movie besides just this list. 

But I was really surprised that, you know, people like the Hulk or She-Hulk aren't going to be in the film. Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye. It would have been really cool to see the Disney Plus show characters like Moon Knight and Daredevil show up. Really surprised we didn't get any of the Marvels like Captain Marvel or Photon, considering where Photon ended up at the end of the Marvels film. Yeah, we didn't get any of the young Avengers or Star-Lord, really anyone we saw in the concept art for Avengers Secret Wars. Yeah, so it kind of seems like they're dividing a lot of their characters between these two films. Like the characters that don't show up in this movie like the Hulk are going to have a lot more screen time in Avengers Secret Wars, where we saw in the concept art like there's going to be Hulk and She-Hulk and Vision and Star-Lord and Dr. 

Strange. So I guess that's just a way to save money, but that being said, this cast is already fully stacked and it would be hard to see where they could possibly even insert additional characters. But Jonathan, considering that this is now not only an Avengers film, but an Avengers slash Fantastic Four, slash Thunderbolts slash X-Men film, how jealous are you on a scale of 1 to 10? 

Uh, zero? Why would I be jealous of that? Because that's the equivalent of getting a Justice League slash Justice Society slash Suicide Squad slash Titans movie, which you will never get. You will never get this. You'll never get this. You'll never get this. Uh, well, when you put it like that, I just have to say I also don't want that because that's too many teams in one movie. There's no such thing. 

There's no such thing and you're lying to yourself. Unless it was like a crisis movie, then I could maybe see it. And, well, frankly, this may be Marvel's crisis movie, to which I just have to say a ripoff. Secret Wars is not a ripoff of crisis. Sorry. 

Yes, it is, bro. Like a multiverse coming together and then like reforming into one universe. That's crisis. Yeah, I don't see the comparison. I don't see the comparison. I don't know what you're talking about. 

Now who's lying to themselves? But Avengers Doomsday comes out in a little over a year from now on May 1st, 2026. So it'll be really exciting to see what news comes out going forward. 

But speaking of the Avengers Doomsday cast, that brings us to our question of the week. 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 dual no prize that will post to Instagram. 

Be sure to answer before April 5th. But that does it for all of the news for this episode. So now let's go ahead and move on to our main event. Joseph, go ahead and grab that Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter comic one more time. 

You know, the one that talks. Let's see what Shang Tsung has to say. It has begun. Okay, this is round two of our Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter Dynamite Network crossover event for April Fool's Week. Yeah, looking at this comic book here, it looks like this matchup round two is going to be between Raiden and M. Bison. 

That's pretty cool. We have the Thunder God going up against the wielder of Psycho Power. Yeah, interesting matchup. I'm really excited for Raiden. He was the protagonist of the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe comic book series, as well as one of the protagonists of the video game. He also made an appearance in Injustice 2, which is a DC fighting video game and probably has my favorite version of the Raiden character. Yeah, so there's a lot of crossover between Mortal Kombat and DC. There's a lot of crossover between Street Fighter and Marvel as well. As I mentioned earlier, there's the Marvel vs. Capcom video game series, but that whole thing was started with the X-Men vs. Street Fighter video game of which M. Bison was the primary antagonist along with Magneto. So kind of like our last April Fool's episode, which was Godzilla vs. Ultraman. Godzilla had ties to the DC comics and Marvel had their own line of Ultraman comic books. It's nice that things are still able to be tied to the Marvel and DC universes. 

Absolutely. But to explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient duel simulator, Alphard Jarvis 9000. A.J .9K, 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. 

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 as they have a higher probability to win any given battle. In an equitable pairing, neither character should win 100% of the matches. The comic book stories have shown that there's even a way for Batman to defeat Superman, so the confidence rate of my method falls in line with the precedents that have been established in the source material. My mathematical simulations are without subjectivity or bias. Feats are not the sole consideration, nor are fan votes tabulated for determination of the winner. 

Thanks AJ9k. Before we run the simulations though, we'd like to break down each character's histories and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the 1000 simulations would play out beat for beat. And I believe it's my turn to go first, so let me go ahead and tell you all about the Street Fighter character M. Bison. Little is known about the early life of M. Bison, including his birth name or nationality. As a young man, he was a martial artist who once wielded soul power, a spiritually aligned energy based on positive emotions and balance. He trained under a master capable of manipulating psychopower, a darker supernatural energy force rooted in negative emotions like hatred and aggression. Obsessed with becoming the strongest martial artist in the world, Bison murdered his master and discarded soul power entirely, embracing the corrupting influence of psychopower. 

He journeyed on a quest for power, defeating numerous martial artists and absorbing their knowledge and techniques, eventually gaining control over a criminal syndicate known as Shadalu. At some point, Bison became aware of the secret assassination martial arts style of Ansatsuken and sought out its practitioner, Gouken. Upon confronting him, Bison fought Gouken, but was unsatisfied when the master chose not to utilize techniques like the Hadouken Fireball or Shoryuken Uppercut. 

Disappointed by the encounter, Bison cursed Gouken for withholding the true potential of his style and turned his attention toward Gouken's students, famed warriors Ryu and Ken. As the leader of Shadalu, Bison began expanding his organization's global influence, carrying out human experimentation, military operations, and assassinations, such as the murder of Interpol Inspector Dori, who came too close to learning the syndicate's secrets. Bison later fought Dori's daughter, Interpol Officer Chun Li, and revealed to her that he was responsible for her father's death, for which she swore vengeance against him. Bison pursued Ryu after the fighter defeated Sagat, one of Shadalu's newly recruited lieutenants. Intrigued by Ryu's power, Bison sought to recruit him to the syndicate. 

When Bison finally tracked him down, he offered to make him the most powerful fighter in the world by infusing him with psychopower, but Ryu refused. In a covert operation, Chun Li and Air Force officers Charlie Nash and William Gile, longtime Wingman and friends, infiltrated Shadalu's base to destroy it. During the assault, Bison mortally wounded Charlie by punching him through the chest, a pivotal moment for Gile, who vowed revenge. 

Charlie stayed behind to ensure the base's destruction, sacrificing himself while Gile and Chun Li escaped. As Bison's reliance on psychopower intensified, the strain began to degrade his physical body. Anticipating this, he commissioned his scientists to create a replacement host, leading to the creation of Kami, a clone derived from Bison's own DNA. Kami was placed among the dolls, a group of elite female assassins brainwashed to serve Shadalu and each implanted with fragments of Bison's psychopower. 

Kami, however, began developing self-awareness and defected. Bison responded by dispatching his lieutenant Vega to retrieve her. When these efforts failed, he renewed his interest in taking over Ryu's body as a more suitable vessel. In pursuit of Ryu, Bison learned of Akuma, Goken's younger brother who had fully embraced the dark side of Ansatsuken, fueled by killing intense and unrestrained aggression. After defeating Akuma, Bison dismissed his power as inferior to his own and declared it only a matter of time before he controlled Ryu. To provoke the fighter, Bison captured Ken, Ryu's closest friend, and subjected him to brainwashing, pitting the two against each other. Ken eventually broke free of Bison's influence and urged Ryu to end Bison's tyranny. Bison fought Ryu once more, overpowering him and attempting to convert him once again. 

Sagat, witnessing these events, objected. Bison offered Sagat his long-desired rematch with Ryu, hoping the encounter would cause Ryu to give in to his dark side. Ken intervened, however, breaking Bison's mental hold. 

Ryu regained control and, with encouragement from his friends, defeated Bison with a Mezu Shoryuken, a more powerful variant of the traditional Shoryuken uppercut, enhanced by spiritual force. Bison fled to his Psycho Drive, a powerful machine used to amplify his Psycho Power in order to restore himself. Meanwhile, Kami rallied the remaining dolls to rebel against Bison. When Bison reappeared, he declared them expendable and warned that their psychic connection to him meant they would die if he did. Kami accessed the Psycho Drive and severed the link, freeing the dolls. Bison's control over them collapsed, but he remained a looming threat. 

In the years that followed, Bison rebuilt Shadalu, establishing a new base in Thailand. To draw out Ryu, he hosted the World Warrior Tournament. His plans were interrupted when Akuma suddenly appeared and killed him with a Shungoku Satsu, a devastating finishing move that targets the soul. Refusing to surrender, Bison unleashed all of his Psycho Power in a suicidal blast. 

However, his soul persisted, waiting for a new host. Prior to these events, Bison had ordered Shadalu to create a line of advanced androids. Seth, or Unit Number 15, rose to prominence among these androids and attempted to lead Shadalu after Bison's death. Seth was a synthetic being programmed to emulate and improve upon human martial arts styles, acting as a contingency vessel for Bison. 

Eventually, Bison reemerged in a weaker body, rejecting the advice of his scientists to wait for a more suitable vessel to return. He declared that Seth's actions were part of his plan all along and quickly dispatched his rogue creation. Meanwhile, Bison deployed seven satellites capable of unleashing devastating electromagnetic pulses to plunge the world into chaos and fuel his Psychic Power. After one such satellite destroyed a major North American city, Bison personally arrived on site, now fully powered and easily overcoming Chun Li. 

Kami rescued her and the two retreated. As panic spread worldwide, Bison's power reached unprecedented levels. Charlie Nash, who was resurrected using bio-enhancement, confronted Bison and was again defeated, but he succeeded in absorbing much of Bison's Psycho Power and sacrificed himself to weaken the dictator. In the final battle, Ryu, having achieved the power of nothingness, a serene spiritual state that nullifies negative energy, confronted Bison and overpowered him. Laughing, Bison attempted one final attack, but was consumed by his own dissipating Psycho Power and vanished. 

Despite the destruction of Shadowloo, remnants of Bison's influence endured. In time, a nameless man appeared in Metro City, exhibiting violent tendencies and wielding Psycho Power. With no memory of his past, he wandered until his power led him to a ruined Shadowloo Lab. There, an echo of his past self was released by a malfunctioning lab device, and the nameless Bison absorbed it and regained his full power and memories. 

Speculating that his survival was due to his soul transferring into one of his many contingency bodies, he acknowledged that while Shadowloo had fallen, his ambition for global domination endured. And Bison's history also includes interactions with the Marvel Universe in the Marvel vs. Capcom video game series. In X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Apocalypse began abducting powerful mutants and street fighters for experimentation. In response, fighters from both universes joined forces to stop him. In this conflict, M. Bison allied himself with Magneto in a temporary partnership aimed at world domination, though Bison harbored intentions to betray Magneto and seize power for himself. 

In the video game sequel Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, Apocalypse returned as the main villain, expanding his reach to not only mutants and street fighters, but also superheroes and villains from across the broader Marvel Universe. His experiments resulted in monstrous fused beings such as Cyber Akuma. Once again, Bison took part in the battles against these threats, pursuing his own ambitions amid the chaos. The crossover continued in Marvel vs. Capcom, Clash of Superheroes, where Onslaught, a psychic entity born from Charles Xavier and Magneto, threatened the multiverse. 

Bison appeared among the characters drawn into the conflict. Further crossover events such as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, New Age of Heroes, involved the emergence of the reality-threatening being called Abyss. In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Fate of Two Worlds, interdimensional tampering awakened Galactus. 

And in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, the fusion of Ultron and Sigma using the Infinity Stones created Ultron Sigma, who merged the Marvel and Capcom universes into the converged realm. In these events, Bison was among those affected as the two universes collided. And that's in Bison's backstory. Powers-wise, M. Bison wields Psycho Power, the supernatural psychic energy fueled by hatred, rage, fear, and destruction. With it, he can perform feats of telepathy, including mind reading, psychic hallucinations, and controlling the minds of the weak-willed, or stronger minds with technological assistance from the Psycho Drive. His power also enhances his physicals, granting him increased strength with enough force to punch a hole through a man, increased speed with the power to teleport, and increased durability. 

If his body is destroyed, Psycho Power allows his soul to live on, wherein he can transfer it to another physical form such as a cloned body or another adequately strong host like Ryu. Bison is a commanding leader of a manipulation. Bison is also a master martial artist who incorporates Psycho Power into his own unique fighting style characterized by powerful strikes, unpredictable movements, psychic pressure, and aerial mobility. And that's in Bison. So he's essentially a really powerful telepath. 

Yeah, telepath with some telekinetic abilities as well. Okay, gotcha. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, his name isn't actually in Bison in the Japanese version of the game, because I remember there was some copyright thing with M. Bison being the name of a boxer character I think that was playing on Mike Tyson. Right, yeah, in Japan M. Bison is known as Vega. Okay, that's right, and Vega is Balrog, and the boxer Balrog is actually M. Bison. 

Correct, yeah, the three didn't name swap, but in the United States, you know, Vega is the Spaniard with the Wolverine Clause, and Balrog, of course, is the boxer. Gotcha. Okay, well, what does the M stand for? 

Motherfucker. It has not actually been revealed what M stands for. It's just part of the mystery of the character, but a lot of fans think it stands for master Bison. 

Okay, this is interesting. Yeah, it's like one of Street Fighter's major antagonists going up against one of Mortal Kombat's primary protagonists or champions. Right, yeah, I think this is a great matchup. Let me get into the Mortal Kombat side of things by telling you about the history of Raiden. Now at the dawn of Earthrealm's history, Raiden was chosen by the Elder Gods to serve as its divine protector. When the Elder God, Shinok, sought to conquer Earthrealm and rule it for himself, Raiden led the defense against him in a cataclysmic war. 

The conflict devastated large swaths of the realm, wiping out entire civilizations. With the Elder Gods aid, Raiden defeated Shinok by stripping him of his powerful amulet and banishing him to the Netherrealm. To prevent Shinok's return, Raiden built a temple of the elements in the mountains of Nepal, where he hid the amulet and appointed four elemental gods as its guardians. Millions of years later, Shinok's follower, the sorcerer Quan Chi, manipulated the assassin's sub-zero into stealing the amulet for him. 

The Raiden was able to sense the theft and with Sub-Zero's help was able to recapture the amulet and prevent Shinok's return. Soon after, Shang Tsung invited Earthrealm warriors to compete in Mortal Kombat, a tournament between realms that, if lost, would allow Outworld to invade Earthrealm. Aware of the danger, Raiden took on human form and entered the tournament to ensure Earthrealm's survival. 

When Earthrealm's champion, Luke, defeated Shang Tsung, the threat was temporarily ended. However, a year later, Raiden received another invitation, this time to a tournament in Outworld. Knowing the treachery of Outworld's ruler, Shao Khan, Raiden warned the surviving champions of the Shaolin Temple and then traveled alone to Outworld to confront the threat. After Earthrealm's victory in the second tournament, an unexpected convergence emerged between Earthrealm and another universe populated by powerful beings such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. As this dimensional collision intensified, it caused rage and instability to spread among fighters from both worlds. Raiden initially believed these newcomers to be invaders, aiding Shao Khan, and fought several of them, including Captain Marvel and Batman, before realizing that they were also acting in defense of their own realm. The true threat was revealed to be Dark Khan, an interdimensional fusion of Shao Khan and Darkseid, created when Raiden blasted Shao Khan with a lightning strike through a portal at the same moment when Superman struck Darkseid with heat vision into a boom tube. With their combined energies and rage fusing between the universes, Dark Khan sought to merge and conquer the two worlds. Raiden eventually worked alongside the DC Universe's champions to bring an end to the chaos, later confronting Dark Khan alongside Superman, defeating the merged entity and restoring balance to both universes. With their crisis resolved and their realms restored, Raiden returned to Earthrealm, though he did return later to the DC Universe on a mission to stop Brainiac's conquest of it, fearing Earthrealm would be next. 

You can learn more about Brainiac in our Brainiac vs. Ultron episode and Darkseid and his duel against Thanos. It wasn't long after his defeat that Shao Khan enacted a new scheme to merge Earthrealm without world by resurrecting his queen, Sindel, within Earthrealm itself. Her rebirth gave him an excuse to violate the rules of mortal combat and invade the realm directly. As Earthrealm's protector, Raiden was unable to fight without giving up his godhood. Choosing Earthrealm's safety, Raiden relinquished his immortality and fought alongside its champions. When Liu Kang defeated Khan once more, Raiden's godhood was restored. Soon after, Shennock escaped from Netherrealm and began a second war against the Elder Gods. 

Caught off guard, many of Earthrealm's gods were killed. Raiden assembled a force of mortals to fight alongside him, led once again by Liu Kang. Together they defeated Shennock's forces and Raiden was elevated to the status of Elder God. He passed the role of Earthrealm's protector to the Wind God, Bujin. Years later, when Liu Kang was killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, now calling themselves the Deadly Alliance, Raiden petitioned the Elder Gods to intervene. 

When they refused, he relinquished his status and returned to Earthrealm to stop them himself. Despite his efforts, Raiden's warriors were slaughtered in battle against the Tarkhautans. Desperate, Raiden confronted the Deadly Alliance alone, but was defeated. As Shang Tsung and Quan Chi prepared to face each other, the Dragon King Onaga appeared and reclaimed his lost throne. Recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, Raiden sacrificed himself by unleashing a massive explosion of godly energy. Onaga survived, however, and Raiden's essence reconstituted in Earthrealm, now corrupted and embittered. 

Disillusioned by how humanity treated its realm, Raiden became increasingly harsh and authoritarian in his judgment. He blamed Shunjinco, a warrior manipulated into gathering the Kamidagu relics that freed Onaga and nearly killed him in rage. Shifting his focus, Raiden exhumed the corpse of Liu Kang and took it to a temple once belonging to the necromatic Kuon sect. Using enchanted bindings and the sect's resurrection magic, Raiden revived Liu Kang's body and imbued it with his power, turning it into a mindless revenant to enforce the will. The undead Liu Kang carried out Raiden's orders, targeting those Raiden deemed responsible for Earthrealm's peril. When Shinnok offered an alliance, promising Earthrealm's safety in exchange for Raiden's cooperation, Raiden feigned acceptance to learn his plans. He also struck a deal with Shao Khan, agreeing to eliminate the demigod Taven to ensure Earthrealm would be spared if Khan conquered the other realms. Raiden confronted Taven on a Dina's doorstep of what was defeated. Meanwhile, Raiden's former allies began to take notice of his instability. 

Fujin and Kung Lao joined forces to confront him and the revenant Liu Kang. Before a resolution could be reached, the timeline ended in the Battle of Armageddon. Raiden and Shao Khan were the last warriors standing. As Khan prepared to strike the final blow, Raiden used the last of his power to send a message into the past. 

He must win. In the altered timeline, Raiden received fragmented visions of the future and tried to prevent Armageddon by altering events. Though well-intentioned, his interference had dire consequences. Many allies, including Kung Lao, Smoke, and Kitana, were killed. Liu Kang blamed Raiden for their deaths and during a confrontation, Raiden accidentally killed him in self-defense. When Shao Khan attempted to merge Earthrealm and Outworld outside of Mortal Combat, the Elder Gods intervened, empowered Raiden, and allowed him to destroy Khan, though the lives that were lost left Raiden deeply shaken. During the Netherrealm War, Raiden and Sonya Blade stormed Quan Chi's fortress. 

There, Raiden combined divine and dark magic to restore Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Jax to their human forms. During Shennok's return, he pleaded with the Elder Gods to destroy the fallen Gods' amulets. They refused, but permitted him to seal it using the blood-bound Kamidogu Daggers. Raiden allowed each dagger to pierce him, then entrusted them to his champions. With the Chaos Realm, Denizen Havok used blood magic to corrupt the daggers. Raiden invoked the same magic to trace the threat, but was again corrupted, this time by Havok himself. Under Havok's control, Raiden helped turn Rako into a blood god and later enslaved Malina. Though Havok was ultimately defeated, Raiden no longer entrusted himself with Shennok's amulet and gave it to Sonya Blade for special forces protection. Soon after, Shennok invaded Earthrealm. Raiden and Fujin defended the Jinsai Chamber until Cassie Cage sealed Shennok away, but Raiden's exposure to the Gods' corruption changed him. He descended into the Netherrealm, delivering Shennok's still-living head to Liu Kang and Katana as a warning. 

He would now destroy all threats to Earthrealm without mercy. Two years later, Raiden led an assault on the Netherrealm, losing Sonya in the process. His violent methods alarmed his allies and when a temporal disturbance brought younger versions of fallen warriors into the presence, the corrupted Raiden vanished, replaced by a pure, younger version of himself. This Raiden joined Liu Kang in confronting Kronika, the keeper of time. On the break of turning dark again, Raiden experienced visions of his endless battles with Liu Kang and realized they had been manipulated across timelines. He merged his essence with Liu Kang, transforming him into a fire god who defeated Kronika. In Liu Kang's new timeline that he created, Raiden was reborn as a humble farmer in Fengyan. 

After winning Outworld's tournament, Liu Kang granted him an amulet that allowed him to control lightning. Raiden helped defend the realms against Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and Titan Shang Tsung. Later, when Sub-Zero attacked the Wushi Academy and fell to Titan Havoc's corruption, Raiden helped subdue him and placed him in the Temple of the Elements to await a cure. And that's Raiden's history so far. Now there have been various versions of Raiden throughout his history, but the version I'm going with for this match is the God version from the Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and Injustice 2 video games and comics. Powers-wise, the Wise Raiden possesses control over electricity and weather, channeling divine lightning to attack enemies and teleport. As a god, he is capable of flight, immortality, and dimensional travel. His skills in martial arts, particularly in hand-to-hand and staff combat, make him formidable even without his powers. 

That's Raiden. You know, with every DC backstory that you give, you always have to go through multiple timeline iterations of these characters. You know, post crisis, post flashpoint, it seems like the characters in Mortal Kombat are no exception, as you have to keep going through multiple iterations. Yeah, you could say that. 

They even had their own flashpoint event that reset continuity. In a way that seems pretty apt considering you're the DC guy, I'm really glad that I don't have to do that as the Marvel guy because I like to think of just one version of the character. And while Bison has certainly gone through changes in the course of his history, dying on several occasions, the version that I'm going with for this matchup is probably the one from Street Fighter 5, not when he was super powered by the satellites or anything like that, but the most recent version where he doesn't have his cape, but rather he has that long jacket. 

All right, well 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. The winner is determined by simulations, not the speculation, but it's fun to imagine how this fight could play out. AJ9K, what are the rules of our speculation? 

Well, I should say there are no rules other than the characters have no prior knowledge of the other going into the fight. All they are aware of starting out is that the other character is a threat that needs to be eliminated. For the speculation, the 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. 

All right, then let's get into it. Raiden and M. Bison meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? I think M. Bison is going to go first because he's so evil. So like with this like sinister grin, he's going to rush at Raiden, just covering the distance between them. Okay, and as Bison runs toward him, Raiden is going to slam his energized fist into the ground, sending an electric current through it that's going to just race right towards Bison's feet and shock him. No, Bison leaps over the ground current and is going to stomp down on Raiden's head with both of his feet in a move that's called Skull Diver, and he bounces off of Raiden's head back into the air, knocking off Raiden's signature hat. Oh, shit. 

No, you didn't. Before Bison is going to land on the ground, I'm going to say Raiden does this vicinity blast move that's like this electrified sphere of electricity that is going to knock Bison out of the air. It's like an aerial counter. And that's when Raiden does his front he's got a car electric fly attack, and he's going to fly into Bison while electrified and shove him backward. I think he was more like, yeah, no, it's more like, hey, you got a baby. 

It's different. When Bison sees Raiden flying at him, he's going to counter with his own flying attack. It's this flying corkscrew move called psycho crusher charged with his flaming purple psychopower, and Raiden and Bison are going to fly into each other and the two moves are going to cancel each other out, and they're both going to ricochet off in this like lightning psychopower energy explosion. Oh, yeah, I was wondering which of those two were more powerful. They have a lot of similar moves. 

Yeah. Okay, well, once Raiden is back on his feet, he's going to instantly teleport behind him by Bison by phasing through the ground, and he's going to uppercut Bison, knocking him into the air, and that's going to allow Raiden to pull off this like devastating martial arts combo that Bison is going to be helpless to defend against as he's, you know, juggled in the air with a series of punches and kicks, and Raiden's going to end the combo by grabbing Bison by the neck and just sending a surge of electricity through his body for dropping him. Okay, Bison's hit by this combo. But before Raiden can finish by electrocuting him, Bison's actually going to get out of the combo by teleporting behind Raiden and doing a slide kick. It's kind of like a slide tackle that sweeps Raiden off of his feet onto the ground, and then Bison's going to just stomp into him repeatedly with a series of kicks. That's kind of like Luke Hanks flying bicycle kick, but it's more stompy, and Bison's going to finish off by kicking off Raiden doing this backflip and landing on the ground. 

Okay. Well, as Raiden is getting back up, that's when he's going to hurl a bolt of lightning at Bison, which shocks and stuns him in place, and that's going to allow Raiden to surround Bison with a series of static traps. They're these like small electrified orbs of energy that are connected by arcs of lightning. Let's take a full Bison into walking into them, because as he comes out of being stunned, he's going to read Raiden's mind with his telepathy. So he knows, you know, what these are not to move, and then he's going to shoot out this quick expanding like orb of psycho power, like a force field from his body. It's called the psycho burst, and that is basically going to dissolve these static traps. And with them gone, Bison is going to leap from his force field with the scissor kick, which is like a front flip double kick. Well, actually, just as that scissor kick is about to land, Raiden's going to do a electric storm move where this lightning bolt from the sky crashes down on him and electrifies Bison, just stunning him. So that's when Raiden's going to grab him by the neck with one hand, electrocuting him still. And with his other hand, he's going to plunge it right into Bison's abdomen, just grabbing his spine and overloading his whole body with so much electricity, that Biden's just going to explode. 

And there's bones and blood everywhere. Fatality. I'm going to say that Raiden meant to do a fatality, but he got his inputs confused. And he actually performed a Mortal Kombat friendship instead of a fatality. So instead of electrocuting him, Raiden summons just this mini version of himself. And both Bison and Raiden are like, what? Kid Thunder? 

Right. And Bison takes advantage of the distraction by straight up punching Raiden in the gut with a psycho power charged fist, and then grabs Raiden and charges him full of psycho power, which is going to psychically take over Raiden's mind and flood him with all this negative energy that's going to transform him into like evil Raiden. And now he's just one of Bison's lieutenants in the Shadow Loose Syndicate. Okay. So either Raiden inputs the fatality correctly and he overloads and Bison with electricity, or he gets a wrong and then Bison overloads Raiden with psycho power. Correct. Taking over his mind and turning him into evil Raiden. Well, you know what? Kid Thunder will avenge him. Let's go ahead and find out which of these two scenarios happens by inputting the character stats, running the simulations, and coming back with a winner. AJ9K, hit it. 

Inputting data, running calculations, processing results, simulations complete. 

All right. That was a lot of fun. I was surprised during the course of this match, just how similar Raiden and Bison were, because they could both teleport. They both have like these flying attacks. They both have a lot of energy moves, and they could both like grab you and charge you with that energy. There's a lot of stuff that they have in common. Yeah, they even do like energy orb traps. Yeah. One of M. Bison's moves is to trap you in these psycho power orbs. It's a little copy cat-ish, I think, on behalf of Mortal Combat, because everybody knows that Street Fighter was the first and best. 

No, I'm sorry. Mortal Combat has very much surpassed Street Fighter in the fighting genre. Have you played one of the newest Mortal Combat games? They're awesome. No, I haven't, because I don't play lame games and I don't read lame comics. You read Marvel, bro. 

Yeah, you do. The characters were nearly identical in almost every stat category, including evasiveness, because they could both teleport and erect like energy shields. They were both evenly matched when it came to fighting, as well, obviously. They're both expert fighters, as they are major characters in a fighting video game. They're both highly durable. They're both pretty damn strong. 

Very intelligent and very versatile with the powers that they have. We did give the edge to Raiden when it came to range, because, you know, he could hurl lightning bolts. Yeah, he incorporates a lot more long range attacks than M. Bison does. We also gave the speed edge to Raiden, though Bison got the edge when it came to perception, because he does have those telepathic abilities. So taking all of this into account, who do you think came out on top, Joseph? I'm going to say my boy Bison has got this. 

He's going to beat Raiden and incorporate him into Shadowloo. And I would say that the Instagram followers agree with me just because Jonathan forgot to post the Instagram poll. I didn't forget. This is like a surprise April Fools episode, bro. I'm going to spoil it. I say Raiden wins. Well, let's find out. 

AJ9K, the results, please. Hey, you are, sir. You dumb robot. These aren't the results. This is just that comic book that showed up. 

Oh, whoa. Why is it glowing? It's flying back into the air. It looks like it's transforming into a video game console and then flying out of my hands back up into the air. 

I know you guys can't see this, but I'm describing it to a T. Just trust me. All right. There it goes. Right through an Outworld portal. Wild. I wonder where it's going to end up. Well, it looks like we won't get the results for this matchup today, folks. You'll have to tune into the Max Destruction podcast tomorrow for around three of the tournament where they're pitting Gile against Johnny Cage. And then on Thursday, tune into the Senjo World podcast where round four is going to determine the winner between Evil Ryu and Revenant Liu Kang, as well as provide all the results from these tournament matches. Yeah. And we finally find out which franchise is better, Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter that does it for this duel. AJ9K help close us out. 

Thanks for listening to Dynamic Joule. Visit the show's website at dynamicjoule.com and follow us on Instagram at Dynamic Joule podcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicjoule and joining a tier that works for you or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Joule on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite podcast network, including Max Destruction, Senjo World and Console Combat. 

Yeah, don't forget to listen to Console Combat, Max Destruction and Senjo World for the rest of this Mortal Kombat versus Street Fighter tournament. Our next episode, guys, is going to be another duel where we find out who'd win in a fight between Ratcatcher, who you may remember from the Suicide Squad film, and Squirrel Girl. 

It's basically rats versus squirrels. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Sturrosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Mickey Mithangian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Aitin, Austin Wyselowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick Obanto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Molesky, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, Mike Williams and Oscar Galvez for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up, up and away, true believers. Your soul is mine.