Rocket vs Spider-Gwen

00:00
This is a Dynamike Network podcast.

00:24
Hi and welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother, Johnny DC. And in this episode, we're going to find out who'd win in a fight between the multiversal characters of Rocket from Milestone Comics and Spider-Gwen.

00:49
from Marvel Comics, but from an alternate universe. Yeah, this is the second week we're pitting multiversal characters against each other. Of course, last week we pit Ultraman against Hyperion. This week we wanted to do a Spider-Girl type episode in lead up to our next episode, which is a review of Madame Web, which takes place, you could say, in an MCU adjacent universe made by Sony. Right, yeah, we're trying to squeeze in these multiversal duels, considering that both Madame Web

01:16
and the recent DC animated movie that came out, Crisis on Infinite Earths, deal with comic book and movie multiverses. Both of these characters are pretty awesome, so I'm really interested in seeing who will win. But we'll figure that out later on. Before that, we're going to break down the latest comic book movie news to come out this past week, including the incredible trailer that we got over the Super Bowl for Deadpool and Wolverine. That's the name of the movie now. It's no longer Deadpool 3. It's Deadpool and Wolverine. Can't wait to talk about that. We also got confirmation.

01:46
from Matt Shackman who's gonna direct the upcoming Fantastic Four movie that Pedro Pascal is indeed confirmed to be playing Mr. Fantastic. Yeah, a lot of big Marvel news this episode. 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.

02:11
Why hello there. Do you love listening and chatting about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2-0 tier lets you listen to this podcast without ads and gives you access to its Discord chat group, where you can chat with Johnny DC and Marvelous Joe. The fantastic 4 tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each month, including bloopers and top 10 shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favorite Marvel and DC subjects.

02:40
The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Duel, where every month you help the hosts choose what to review and who to fight against each other.

02:48
And finally, the Dynamike Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters to create their own battle-focused show using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results to announce on your show. Pitch the twins your show via email at dyna or by reaching out to them on social media. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio!

03:16
Thanks AJ9K, and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys, be sure to tune into the Max Destruction Podcast, which is part of the Dynamike Podcast Network, which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This week, hosts Ken and his wife put together a Valentine's Day episode, where they all find out who'd win in a fight between Lisa from Weird Science and Hollywood from Cool World. Battle of the Babes. And on the Send Your World Podcast.

03:46
Host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between your favorite anime characters. Zach's a little under the weather this week, so there will be no new episode of Send Your World this Thursday, but that'll give you guys a chance to get caught up on past episodes if you're not already. And on the Console Combat Podcast, hosts John and Dean find out who'd win in fights between your favorite video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they held their very first championship matchup between Scorpion for Mortal Kombat

04:14
against Ezio from Assassin's Creed. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamike Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked...

04:43
Who has been your favorite Supergirl actress across film and television and why? And this is coming off of the news that Millie Alcock has been cast as Supergirl for James Gunn's DCU. We got four answers, so we're going to break down the honorable mentions before revealing this week's no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon who said, Hey guys, Travis here. So my pick would have to be the Supergirl from the Flash movie, although she's not the one that we all know with the blonde hair and the skirt.

05:13
was a pretty bad ass version of Supergirl and honestly it's a shame that we won't see her her in this James Gunn DCU but hey, hey maybe the actress might come back as I don't know maybe like Wonder Woman's daughter or something but she's my favorite she's just an all around badass Latino hero. Yes so Sasha Kaia played Supergirl in the recent flash film that came out last year she didn't have the largest role in the movie but the time she did have on screen.

05:42
I thought she did a phenomenal job with. Yeah, she didn't look like your typical super girl who is portrayed in the comics, usually as having long blonde hair and wearing a red skirt and stuff like that. But I thought Sasha Kaia fucking killed it as this analog to Henry Cavill's Superman within this newly created timeline that The Flash started when he went back in time. Yeah, the character herself is actually based on a design from the Injustice comics. She was Superman's daughter. And I thought they nailed that design.

06:10
perfectly. She looked incredible in the movie. So great answer, Travis. Our next honorable mention goes to Miggie Mathingian, who said, Hey, what's up, guys? This is Miggie. And my favorite Supergirl actress would probably be Summer Glau. I think that's how you pronounce it. From Superman, Batman, Apocalypse. I think she just had the best job or did the best job displaying like a full range of emotions from her fear and confusion from first landing here on Earth.

06:38
to her grief at the death of her friend and to her anger at fighting Darkseid at the last battle. Thanks guys. Yeah, Superman Batman Apocalypse is an animated film that was based on a comic run written by Jeff Loeb, if I'm not mistaken. It was a fantastic run. It reintroduced the character of Kara Zor-El to the main DC continuity. And yeah, it was a great like origin story for the character.

07:03
They did a great job adapting it to the animated film. And there's been a lot of great actresses to do voiceover work for the character of Supergirl. In this movie, in DC Superhero Girls, in the Superman animated series, they've all done a fantastic job. And the recent Legion of Superheroes film that takes place in the Tomorrowverse. Oh, that's right. That was voiced by Megan Donnelly, the actress who almost became Supergirl in live action.

07:30
Now we haven't reviewed Superman Batman Apocalypse yet, but it is definitely on our list of animated DC films to eventually get to. We only have about like 50 projects left to review for Marvel and DC that aren't new, so not too many. I imagine we'll get through quite a few this year considering how few theatrical releases DC and Marvel are putting out. Yeah for sure. Great answer, Miggy. But the winner of this week's Snow Prize goes to two people.

07:57
both Abner O'Terry and Peter Troll who both gave the same answer. And they said, Hey guys, it's Abner O'Terry. My answer is Melissa Pinoist because she was able to be funny and smart and her relationships with her adopted sister and the rest of the cast were just phenomenal. Hey guys, it's Peter. My answer for the best Supergirl.

08:25
is probably Melissa Benoist from the CW show. I thought she looked the part, I thought she played the part very well, and something about those CW shows just really have a grip on my heart. But also, I may be a little biased because I thought she was cute and maybe had a little crush. But yeah, Melissa Benoist is my choice. Thanks, guys. So, normally I like to give points for originality here, but it was really hard not to award the answer of Melissa Benoist!

08:53
Because yeah, who doesn't have a crush on her? She did a fantastic job in the role of Supergirl. Honestly, I think she's the best actress to play the character ever. Well, she certainly has had the most substantial role as Supergirl, considering she had so many seasons on her own television series. Right, as compared to someone like Helen Slater who had her own movie, but the movie was terrible. The Supergirl show wasn't for the most part. Yeah, here are the first few seasons. Like all of the DCCW shows were actually pretty good.

09:23
Yes, yeah, that is correct. So congrats to Abner O'Terry and Peter Troll. Both of you win this week's no prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own no prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, onto the news.

09:44
All right, this past week, right before the big game, we got the official teaser for the upcoming Deadpool and Wolverine movie. Now, you know, we've been calling it Deadpool 3 this whole time, but it was announced with this teaser that the movie is officially called Deadpool and Wolverine. So they split the billing. That's pretty cool. The trailer was great. I'm so excited to get into this. Yeah, the name is kind of smart, I would say, just because of how big of a name Wolverine is. I would still say as popular as Deadpool is,

10:12
His name isn't quite as big as Wolverine, so I think that's a huge selling point. And what's funny is that earlier this year, Hugh Jackman released a video and he inadvertently called the movie Wolverine and Deadpool, so I wonder if that's going to be kind of like a running gag where they kind of fight over who gets top billing. Yeah, that'd be great. The teaser trailer starts off with Deadpool's birthday, and everyone from X-Force is there, including Shatterstar, Pete, Doepinder's there, Vanessa's back. It looks like

10:41
At the end of Deadpool 2, he used Cable's time sliding device to basically save all of his friends. Yeah, I was really surprised to see characters like Shatterstar, but definitely implied that yeah he probably broke some TVA rules saving all of his friends from death. Which is why the TVA shows up at his house and we get one of the best gags in the entire Deadpool franchise just in this teaser where he's like, is that supposed to scare anybody? Piggings not new to me, friendo, but it is to Disney.

11:10
and he looks at the camera breaking the fourth wall. So good. And it was in continuity because we saw him be pegged in the first Deadpool movie on International Women's Day. So good on them for sticking to the established canon. It was also a nice way to just right off the bat address the whole purchase of Fox by Disney between Deadpool 2 and 3. Well, actually they address that in Once Upon a Deadpool. Oh, I never saw that. Yeah.

11:37
Well, it was the PG-13 of Deadpool 2 that they released around the holidays when Deadpool 2 came out. He basically stated in that movie that the reason they wanted to do a PG-13 version was because of Disney. Okay. Yeah, I wonder if that's canon. I don't know, but I'm glad to see that this movie obviously will not be PG-13. I'm glad that Deadpool is sticking to its hard R roots. Because honestly, Once Upon Deadpool wasn't that great. It was okay. But in this teaser, Deadpool gets taken to the TVA.

12:05
where he's talking to some guy. I kind of wish that the guy in the chair talking to him was Mobius, who is a character played by Owen Wilson in the Loki television series, but it's not. He's some British dude. There's a great gag there where he tells Deadpool that he sold himself while unconscious, and he's like, I wasn't unconscious, where am I? So good. Dude, that's not just some dude. That's fucking Matthew McFadden, the recent Emmy winner for Secession. He's a fantastic actor. I don't give a fuck who that is.

12:34
You will you will the guy is just an incredible actor. I think he's gonna kill it in this role Yeah, sure. You still should have been Mobius. I mean isn't Owen Wilson supposed to have a cameo in this movie Yeah, but like, you know, he could have had a substantial role here I don't know what kind of story they're setting up but apparently Deadpool has to help save the MCU For some reason and he calls himself Marvel Jesus, which is kind of funny I don't quite know what the threat is though because

13:01
we see him take on the TVA itself for a vast majority of this teaser. There's a lot of quick shots of him like suiting up and then we see him in this swanky place, what appears to be a Magi-Pore casino because we see him approaching Wolverine in his Patch persona from behind. So that's pretty cool. We're going to see Hugh Jackman not only in his comic accurate Wolverine get up, but we also get to see his alter ego of Patch. How do you know it's Patch? Because Wolverine's

13:30
persona of Patch wears a white suit. Oh, okay. I just love the suit up scene where it's like something from Batman Forever or Batman and Robin or just different like closeups. But there's also a scene where like someone's like slapping his ass just like randomly tossed in there. And then Kim doing the splits and like sliding upwards and doing like a dance move. I felt that, I felt it. I was like, hell yeah. It looks like actually both Deadpool and Wolverine get pruned.

13:58
and go to the void at the end of time, where it's kind of post-apocalyptic. We see the 20th century Fox logo there, just in the sand. We do see what I think is Eliath for a brief shot, taking out one of the TVA members. And I think a vast majority of the film takes place in the void. And it seems like the film was mainly about escaping it. Which is honestly pretty cool. I love the fact that we get to see other X-Men characters there, like fucking Pyro. That was a surprise. Yeah, Aaron Stanford as Pyro makes a guest appearance here.

14:28
That was great. Cool to see him back. I can't wait to see everyone back. It's gonna be the No Way Home of X-Men movies. And it seems like it's gonna be even bigger than that. Well, I mean, the X-Men franchise has already had its No Way Home movie in days of future past, where you got a merger of the two big franchises, like with James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart and Michael Fassbender and Dean McKellen. But Deadpool 3 also has the other.

14:54
task of merging the Foxverse with the MCU. It looks like a whole lot of fun. I really like the last shot where Deadpool's like injured, hurt on his back and he's like, don't just stand there, Harry Ape help me up. And Wolverine unsheathes his claws and he's like, oh never mind, I'm fine. Great way to segue into the title card of the film, which again revealed the new title Deadpool and Wolverine. As well as the release date, which we all know of July 26th. It's coming out this summer. Cannot wait. I'm so hyped for it.

15:24
I hope a lot of people saw this trailer and are also hyped as well because, you know, a lot of people are kind of souring on the MCU as a whole and it'll be great to have them back. Yeah, it does kind of seem like this movie will in fact be Marvel Jesus. It'll save the MCU. Right. It almost makes me wonder if like Ryan Reynolds has been telling Kevin Feige that, yeah, make these upcoming Marvel projects like really sucky so that my movie can save it. Obviously, that's not the case, but it almost feels that way.

15:53
I was wondering if the TVA is like, oh, these these projects have been sucking. Like we need you to save it. And he's like, yeah, I'm going to save it. I do have to say that I'm kind of bummed that they didn't show the last shot of Wolverine in costume as brief as that was during the Super Bowl teaser, because, you know, it was much shorter what they showed on television. And then they were like, see the full trailer online. I hate when they do that. I know it's a way for the studio to save money because those Super Bowl commercial admin, it's are pretty pricey.

16:21
But still they should have shown that specific shot because everyone who saw that would have gotten totally pumped up. Now you gotta save the money shot for later. It's just a teaser. Just tease them and keep them coming back for more. We'll see Wolverine in costume and I bet you it'll be in the next trailer that we get. Hopefully, it will be. You're probably right. But the teaser trailer looked great, super pumped. It was super funny. And that brings us to our question of the week.

16:49
What has been your favorite Deadpool joke out of all Deadpool media? There's been a lot of them out there. There was the video game, the Deadpool movies, there's the Deadpool comics. What made you laugh the hardest and why? Yeah, even the Deadpool teaser trailers. Why not? Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast.

17:16
We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before February 17th. In other news from Marvel coming out this past week, we got a confirmation not only from the Screen Actors Guild of America, but also the director of Fantastic Four himself, Matt Shacman, that Pedro Pascal has been cast as Reed Richards' Mr. Fantastic in the upcoming Fantastic Four film. Now...

17:42
This has been rumored for a couple of months now. The news was previously dropped by Deadline, I believe, or Variety. They reported that Pedro Pascal was in talks to play the character. But you know, when the director tweets out that the actor is playing the role, it's pretty much confirmed. Loathe as I am to say that Pedro Pascal got the role because I was really hoping for John Krasinski to return as Mr. Fantastic from his cameo in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Venice, but I am a Pedro Pascal fan. Yeah.

18:12
The dude is hella cool. Like when I grew up, I wanna be Pedro Pascal. He does not necessarily look the part of Reed Richards, at least not as I know him from the comics. That's not to say that the man cannot play this role. He looks like him enough, and I think he can act the shit out of this role. Oh, absolutely. Honestly, if you had to give me a choice between who's more charismatic, Pedro Pascal or John Krasinski, Pedro Pascal. Honestly, I feel like...

18:40
The whole reason he was cast was sort of to be like a new Robert Downey Jr. esque replacement for the MCU. Yeah, maybe. I mean, you want as many charismatic lead actors in these franchises as you can get with all the actors that you have at your disposal. Someone like Pedro Pascal is certainly more charismatic than say Adam Driver, who was previously rumored to be offered the role of Mr. Fantastic. And honestly, yeah, I am glad that Pedro Pascal got it over Adam Driver.

19:08
He's a little bit older, but, you know, not as old as, say, Robert Downey Jr. Yeah. Now, Pedro Pascal is no stranger to the world of comic book movies. He did play the villain of Maxwell Lord in the Wonder Woman 1984 film. And he was one of the best parts of that movie. Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, I guess there was no good part of that movie, honestly. Shut the hell up. But I think Pedro Pascal will make a better Reed Richards than he did Maxwell Lord. I'm sure he'll nail the role. Yeah. Now, joining Pedro Pascal.

19:38
Rounding out the Fantastic Four cast, allegedly is Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman. Which is perfection. I woulda know, I don't think I've seen her in anything. She was in The Crown. I'm ashamed that I know that. Um, but no, she's fantastic. I think she's gonna be great in the role. Joseph Quinn will be playing the Human Torch, who I'm also not familiar with, and I hope I'm pronouncing this right, Ebon Moss-Bachrock will be playing the Thing.

20:06
who I am familiar with because he played Micro in season one of the Punisher Netflix television series. I mean, he's no Michael Chiglis, but he's a good actor too. They all look the parts. It's a really interesting cast. I'm sure that they'll nail it. None of this has officially been confirmed, but it's all but confirmed, we'll say. So an exciting time to be an MCU fan. I hope as soon as they release this news officially, that Marvel also produces a screen test of what the costumes look like.

20:36
Cause I want to see Pedro Pascal, you know, with the gray temples in the blue suit. Think it'd be awesome just to get a feel for it. Yes, absolutely. I bet you will see that at this year's Comic-Con. Hopefully that'd be cool. Honestly, like I'm hella jealous this week. They have such like cool news for Marvel. Where's the DC news? Like where's the Joker, Valiant Dude trailer? Where's like the Superman screen test? Come on. I want a Superman teaser poster at the very least. Like yesterday.

21:06
That's not going to happen because DC is dumb. And Marvel's the best. And they just reminded everybody of that this week. And your silence right now speaks volumes. I'm just quietly seething and plotting your demise. Ha ha ha ha.

21:27
But I think that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and get into our main event where we find out who'd win in a fight between the multiversal characters of Rocket and Spider-Gwen.

21:54
Alright, Rocket versus Spider-Gwen, also known as Spider-Woman, also known as Ghost Spider, but colloquially best probably known as Spider-Gwen. We're pitting her up against Rocket, who is a character from Milestone Comics, best known as the sidekick to the hero Icon, but she also had a stint in the Young Justice animated television series. Right, which is a series focused around sidekicks, and so yeah, she played a role in the show.

22:21
She's a prominent black character as all milestone media superheroes are because it's a black-owned comics company that focuses on creating and fostering great BIPOC characters in comics. So we also figured that this was a great tie-in to Black History Month. We've never done a milestone comics character before. They're quasi-multi-versal. They were for a time brought into Prime DC continuity. But yeah, I thought she counted as a multi-versal character.

22:49
And the reason that we thought this would be a good match and our executive producers agreed was due to their power sets both being based around basically speed and durability with some range based attacks. Exactly. Yeah. So let's get into it to explain the methodology behind our duels. Let's go to our sentient dual simulator Alfred Jarvis 9000. AJ9K tell our listeners how you go about determining a winner in our dual matchups. Yes, of course, sir.

23:16
The way I determine a winner between the contestants is by running 1000 Monte Carlo simulations using the characters statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to determine outcomes through random sampling. In this case, I randomise the statistics along a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle. The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid from which the DC characters statistics are extrapolated.

23:46
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.

24:12
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 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.

24:40
And it's my turn to go first with the DC character, so let me tell you all about Rocket. Now Raquel Irvin was born and raised on Paris Island, the poorest neighborhood of the fictional city of Dakota in the alternate universe of Earth 1993, aka Earth-M, aka the Dakotaverse. Paris Island was notorious for its high crime rates and violent gang warfare.

25:06
which culminated in a massive war and riot between all of the gangs in the neighborhood on one night known as the Big Bang. That same night, knowing the police would have their hands full, Raquel's boyfriend Noble and his friends drove her to the wealthy Dakota suburb of Prospect Hills to help burglarize one of its mansions. Though Raquel was a bright 15-year-old girl as an aspiring writer, the idea of getting her hands on a typewriter or computer proved too tempting.

25:36
and she agreed to join them. Though they believed they were stealing from a rich white man, in reality, they were stealing from Augustus Freeman IV, a black corporate lawyer who was secretly an ancient and superpowered alien stranded on Earth. Augustus confronted the youths, surviving multiple gunshots and flying to catch those attempting to flee, including Raquel. Freeman let them go on the condition that they told no one about him and promised never to steal again.

26:06
Inspired by what he could do, Raquel later went back to Freeman's mansion with sketches of him and her in superhero costumes, encouraging him to use his powers to help his community as a superhero named Icon, while making her his sidekick or partner, Rocket, so that she could have adventures to write about. Freeman was reluctant initially, but was inspired by Raquel and Dakota's recent upheaval during the Big Bang to adopt the superhero identity of Icon,

26:34
and gift Raquel with a belt made from alien technology that would allow her to fight alongside him. Despite initially being mistaken for criminals during their first mission to rescue Dakota's mayor, Thomasina Jefferson, Icon and Rocket successfully saved the mayor from a mutated monster known as Payback, who revealed to them that during the night of the Big Bang,

26:56
Mayor Jefferson authorized the local police department to use an experimental tear gas that was laced with a radioactive marker that would allow them to subdue and later track the gang members involved. Instead, the tear gas killed all but a small minority that either mutated or developed special powers. While Icahn investigated Payback's claims as a lawyer, Raquel dealt with the realization from Icahn's superhuman senses that she was in early-stage pregnancy.

27:25
Though Noble and her mother Sandra encouraged Raquel to have an abortion, Raquel decided to keep the baby. After several adventures, including taking on the Big Bang-powered gang known as the Blood Syndicate, Raquel was forced to give up superheroics and allowed her best friend Darnice to assume the mantle of Rocket for a short time. Raquel eventually gave birth to a son, whom she named Amistad Augustus Irvin. While Raquel was on maternity leave,

27:53
Freeman found a way to return to his home planet, supporting Raquel with a trust that provided her monthly checks while he was away. When an alien threat known as Oblivion arrived on Earth to kill Freeman, Icon returned to Earth, as did Raquel as his partner, Rocket, once again. Upon Oblivion's defeat, Freeman decided to remain on Earth, and Raquel continued as his partner while also raising Amistad. Though Raquel and Freeman often clashed,

28:21
due to their conflicting political viewpoints, Raquel did develop a close relationship with another teenage hero of the city of Dakota, Static. As in Static Shock? Yeah, I mean, the name of the cartoon was Static Shock, but the character's name is Static. That's right, he's a milestone character. Yes, yeah. Now during the final crisis, when the villain Darkseid acquired the anti-life equation in DC's Prime Universe, the existence of the Dakotaverse was threatened.

28:48
though a being known as Dharma managed to merge the city of Dakota into DC Prime. Though Freeman remembered Dakota once being part of a separate universe, Raquel and other members of Dakota were unaware of the merger, and Raquel remained Freeman's partner in the new continuity that was created. In the new DC universe, Icon was a member of a secret organization of superheroes known as the Shadow Cabinet, who were attacked by the Justice League while on a mission to Metropolis.

29:17
At the behest of Icon, Rocket joined the Shadow Cabinet and helped protect its agents from the League, going toe to toe with Batman. The two teams eventually joined forces to defeat the villain Shadow Thief, and Icon and Rocket returned to Dakota, which they continued to protect. In post-Flashpoint continuity, Raquel's origin remained largely unchanged, though upon Icon's and Rocket's initial mission to stop the drug trade, their actions ended up nearly crippling the global economy.

29:46
In response, the United States government hired an alien assassin known as Mr. Lord to kill Icon and Rocket. With help from Static, Icon and Rocket were able to bring down Mr. Lord instead. Now powers-wise, Rocket is equipped with an inertia belt made from alien technology from Icon's escape pod that crash-landed him on Earth over a century ago.

30:09
The inertia belt generates a usually invisible field around rocket that absorbs the kinetic energy of anything that crosses its surface, allowing rocket to store that energy for a variety of uses, including powerful energy punches, the ability to redirect that energy into thrown projectiles or focused energy beams, and high speed flight and maneuverability.

30:36
Rocket can also surround opponents in an inertialist field, preventing them from moving or even breathing, though this uses a large amount of her stored energy and can only last for a few seconds. Any use of the energy stored by her belt drains some of its power. And that's Rocket! I don't know much about the Milestone universe. I completely forgot that static is a part of it, and it makes me think that we gotta get static in a duel sometime.

31:01
Yeah, I would say Static and Icon are kind of the flagship characters of Milestone, although there's also Hardware. Now, the experimental tear gas that the mayor used on the gang members, is that the same mutagen that transformed Static's rogues gallery? Yes. Yeah, they go into the Big Bang on the cartoon, although it's a little bit different. Interesting. Pretty cool character. I'm interested in seeing how this fight will go out, especially with that inertia belt. But Gwen Stacy's got some tricks up her sleeves. Let me go into her backstory.

31:31
In the Marvel Comics Multiverse, in the timeline of Earth-616, Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man's, first true love. The two met at Empire State University and began dating, however she was tragically killed by the Green Goblin who threw her off the George Washington Bridge. You can learn more about the Green Goblin in his duel against the Joker, and more about Spider-Man in his duel against Blue Beetle.

31:56
Gwen's death was a defining moment in Spider-Man's life where he realized the full extent of the loss he could experience as a hero. However, in another universe, Earth-65, Gwen's Stacey story went a little different. Born in Forest Hills and Queens to Helen and George Stacey, Gwen also experienced loss from a young age when her mother died, leaving her dad, an NYPD captain, to raise her as a single father. To cope with her grief and overbearing home life,

32:24
Gwen rebelled from her ballerina dancing lessons to take out her frustrations playing the drums. At Midtown High School, she became good friends with several students, including the shy but brilliant Peter Parker, the rebellious but affluent Harry Osborn, and the outgoing Mary Jane Watson, the latter of whom also shared a love of music and formed a band called the Mary Janes with Gwen and their friends Betty and Glory.

32:49
One day, Gwen was bitten by a genetically engineered spider by random chance, altering her physiology and granting her the powers of a spider. Though she initially thought she could use her powers to win money for her band in a charity wrestling match, she stumbled upon a thief who was about to kill Ben Parker, her friend Peter's uncle. After saving Ben's life, she was inspired instead to use her new ability selflessly and became a masked crime fighter by the name of Spider Woman.

33:16
As Gwen's heroic reputation throughout New York grew, she was gifted a pair of web-shooters by the retired superhero, the Wasp. Gwen struggled to balance life as a student, rock musician, and superhero, but her misfortunes came to a head during her school prom where she was set to perform with the Mary Janes. Her friend Peter Parker idolized Spider-Woman and believed he could become a hero and avoid being bullied if he could also get similar superpowers.

33:43
After experimenting with lizards, Peter turned himself into a mindless lizard-like creature that crashed the prom. Unaware that the lizard was her friend Peter, Gwen asked Spider-Woman beat the creature despite its pleas to stop. The lizard, severely injured, reverted back to Peter Parker, who died from his wounds in Spider-Woman's arms, his last words stating that he just wanted to be special like her. Shocked at what she had done, Gwen fled the scene branded a murderer.

34:11
She was pursued by the police, including her father who saw Spider-Woman as a criminal. Haunted by Peter's death, she learned that with great power must come great responsibility to not abuse that power, and she sought redemption through helping others. She came out odds with the Kingpin of Crime and his right-hand man, a villain named Daredevil, who was the leader of the Hand Ninja Clan. Looking to appease Spider-Woman and bring them into their fold as an ally, the Hand went after police captain George Stacey.

34:40
After thwarting the murder attempt, Gwen was held at gunpoint by her father and was forced to reveal her secret identity to him. Unable to arrest his daughter, Captain Stacy asked her to leave before he changed his mind. Shortly after, Gwen was recruited to join other spider-powered heroes from across the multiverse to band together to defeat a vampiric race of beings known as the Inheritors who were intent on consuming those representing the Spider Totem in order to prevent their prophesied destruction.

35:07
She enjoyed seeing Peter Parker alive and well fighting as Spider-Man in multiple universes, as well as getting to know fellow Spider-Heroes Jessica Drew and Miles Morales, both of whom you can learn more about in our Queen Bee vs Spider-Woman and Batwing vs Spider-Man duels, respectively. After their battle, Gwen ended up returning to her universe and made up with her father. When the Marvel multiverse collapsed in on itself in a series of universe-ending incursions,

35:32
villain Doctor Doom used the usurped power of the all-powerful beings known as the Beyonders to save everything by fashioning a Patrick planet of all universes called Battleworld. You can learn more about this in our Doctor Doom duel against Superman. Finding herself in the domain of Arachnia, Gwen teamed up with other Spider heroes such as Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, and Spider-Man India to form a team called the Web Warriors who together defeated the Sinister Six and Mayor Norman Osborn.

36:02
Gwen and the team would go on to travel across the then restored multiverse to defend the Web of Life and Destiny, which was a construct of fate previously overseen by the mysterious Madame Web that was the source of her precognition and the source of the Spider-Sense powers shared by Spider-Heroes. For a brief period, Gwen stayed in Earth-616 to visit Jessica Drew, where she learned more about the mainstream Marvel universes Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker.

36:28
Returning to her home timeline, Gwen discovered that her former friend Harry Osborn had gone mad with guilt that he couldn't prevent the death of Peter Parker and had sworn vengeance on Spider-Woman. He took a modified version of Peter's lizard formula and transformed into the Green Goblin, fighting and unmasking Spider-Woman. When it was revealed that his enemy was also his former friend Gwen, the formula caused him to lose control.

36:53
With an assist by Captain America, Gwen was able to administer a serum suppressant and the Green Goblin was defeated. However, shortly after, Gwen lost her own powers after receiving a similar suppressant. Meanwhile, at OzCorp, a scientist named Elsa Brock combined the company's spider research with her work on an alien parasite and Peter Parker's formula to inadvertently create the Venom symbiote, which ended up bonding with Gwen, transforming her into Gwenem and restoring her powers.

37:22
You can learn more about Klintar symbiotes in our Clayface vs Venom and Lobo vs Carnage dual episodes. The symbiote had a vicious hold on Gwen that compelled her to unleash her inner anger on her enemies and even allies. Fearful of her own actions, she surrendered herself to the international law enforcement agency known as SHIELD where she was imprisoned for a time. Discovering how to control the symbiote, Gwen rejoined the Web Warriors and renamed herself

37:49
forming a slight romantic relationship with fellow Spider-Hero Miles Morales. Looking to learn more about the symbiote, but unable to find Dr. Elsa Brock, Gwen traveled to Earth-616 to have it studied by the mainstream Spider-Man. She ended up staying on Earth-616, where she pursued a degree at Empire State University. And that's her backstory. Powers-wise, Spider-Gwen has Spider-based abilities granted to her by the genetically altered Spider that bit her, and later, the genetically altered symbiote.

38:18
With these enhancements, she has increased speed, agility, durability, and strength, able to lift up to 10 tons. She can stick to any surface, and can fire symbiote-generated webbing to ensnare enemies and swing from buildings. The symbiote also lets her camouflage her appearance, hence the name Ghost Spider, grants her a healing factor, and she can generate small symbiotic offshoots that resemble spiders that she can use to scout environments.

38:44
In addition, Ghost Spider has a precognitive spider sense that warns her of oncoming danger and wears a pendant that allows her to travel the multiverse. She's a reasonable detective having learned investigation tips from her father and is a talented musician and former ballerina. Because she is the host of a modified Klyntar symbiote, she is weak to extreme heat and sonic based attacks. Wait, who says you gotta go with this Venom version of the character?

39:11
That is the existing and long-standing version of the character. Is this the version with like the teeth all over the hood? That was her outfit when she first got the Venom symbiote. Yes. But ever since she started going by Ghost Spider, she has gone with her traditional Spider-Woman outfit. OK, interesting. Didn't I realize that she had a symbiote that kind of changes things? We'll see how this goes. Yeah, I mean, it's a nice way to differentiate her from Spider-Man, you know.

39:37
Miles Morales has his bioelectricity and his ability to turn invisible. Gwen has her symbiote powers. Like, her universe's version of the Klyntar are basically alien spiders, and her suit is basically comprised of those small spiders. Interesting. Yeah, she calls them gummy spiders, and she uses them to gather intel. It's pretty cool stuff. She uses the symbiote in a way that, like, none of the other symbiotes have used it.

40:07
But 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 this 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.

40:36
For the speculation, the contestants will begin approximately 50 meters apart in a non-descript environment that will have no bearing on the match itself, as no environmental statistics are considered in my simulations. The contestants must earn victory on their own merit. Alright then let's get into it. Rocket and Spider Gwen meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? I'm gonna say Spider Gwen starts this match off because like, Rocket can't do shit anyway without having absorbed any kinetic energy.

41:04
No, no, rocket's starting off this match with a sizable amount of kinetic energy already stored up. Nice try. But Spider Gwen's gonna go first anyway. She's gonna leap into the air and she shoots a pair of web strands on each side of rocket. And she's gonna use them like a slingshot to just fling herself right into rocket with a flying kick. But it's like a graceful ballerina flying kick. Okay, so.

41:30
Spider Gwen, you know, she's probably strong enough to knock Rocket back with an attack like that, but it's not going to hurt her because, you know, the energy from the attack just gets absorbed into Rockets and nourish her field, which she's going to use to bounce back and rocket herself right into Spider Gwen, delivering a kinetic energy punch that's just going to send Gwen flying. But you forgot, my friend, that Spidey sense is a thing. Oh, my God, that Spider Gwen has. So she's going to dodge this oncoming attack from Rocket.

42:00
with some like mid-air splits type stuff. And she's gonna shoot a web line that sticks to Rocket and Rocket gets redirected from the web line and gets slammed right into the ground. Would Rocket's field block the webbing? I mean, even if it did, it would still stick to the field. No, it doesn't work like that. I'm guessing like the webbing probably doesn't hold much kinetic energy actually, because it's not like when they stick to people, they impact the people. So sure, let's say the webs get through Rocket's field,

42:30
when she's slammed into the ground, like again, it's not going to hurt Rocket. She's just going to absorb the force of the ground hitting her and gain more energy. But the impact of the ground against her inertia field does break some stones loose from the ground, which Rocket is just going to pick up and hurl at Gwen like bullets. Spider Gwen's just going to like bullet time dodge that shit, you know, like Beatrix type stuff. OK, we'll dodge this.

42:57
Rocket, she's gonna fire off a focused beam of kinetic energy like a laser, which is, you know, a lot faster than bullets. So Gwen for sure gets tagged and knocks to the ground. Okay, uh, I mean, but Gwen's durable, you know, she'll take this kinetic force blast, like a champ, and she gets knocked down, she'll just perform this like backward somersault into like a back handspring and she's back on her feet. No biggie. But then, using her symbiote, she's gonna camouflage herself.

43:26
to blend into the environment that they're in, so Rocket can no longer see her. Ooh, good move. Okay, I mean, Rocket's probably a little freaked out and looking around because she knows that she's vulnerable to stealth attacks, right? So she's gonna take to the air and she's gonna shoot up into the sky just to keep her distance. Oh, too late though. Suddenly Rocket gets yanked down as she tries to take off.

43:52
and gets pulled back toward the ground where she lands in this giant sticky web net that traps her and prevents her from moving. Shit. Uh, we're gonna test the strength of these webs. As soon as Rocket gets trapped, she's gonna blast herself sideways, like trying to pull herself free from the webs. And as Rocket's trying to free herself, bam! Spider-Gwen reappears and straight up kicks Rocket right in the face. And Rocket's like, out of my face! Okay, actually that kick...

44:22
just gave her the extra amount of energy she needed to break free of those webs. And she's going to quickly fly at Gwen and trap her in an inertialist field. So Gwen is frozen there for a few seconds, just unable to move or dodge this kinetic punch that's so powerful that Rocket's going to spend all of her stored kinetic energy to deliver it. And this punch could like knock back Icon and destroy a building. So Gwen essentially explodes from the force of it. Match over.

44:52
Actually, at the very start of the match, you know, when Gwen first made contact with Rocket by kicking her, Uh huh. At that point, Gwen actually imparted several symbiote spiders onto Rocket that have been crawling over her, making their way into Rocket's inertia belt and just gumming up that technology and making it useless. So when Rocket goes in for this like powerful kinetic punch killing blow, she's actually just powerless. She has no more power. Doesn't work.

45:20
And then at that point, Spider Gwen is freed from her inertialist field and lays an everloving beat down on Rocket. And that is how this match is won. Actually, I don't know, Spider Gwen gets punched before the spiders ever make it to her belt. So, yeah, that's what actually happens. But yeah, we'll leave the match here. Either Rocket delivers this explosive kinetic punch that just vaporizes Spider Gwen or Spider Gwen managed to get

45:50
these gummy spiders onto Rocket early in the match that gum up her alien technology belt, rendering her powerless and defenseless against Spider-Gwen's fatal barrage of attacks. To find out which of these scenarios happens, let's plug in the stats for these characters, run the simulations, and come back with a winner. AJ9K, hit it! Inputting data. Running calculations. Processing results. Simulations complete. Alright, so-

46:16
These characters are actually pretty similar in more ways than I thought. Like they both wear outfits that are alien in nature. They're both highly agile. They could both trap their opponents. But there were a few differences. Like we said, Rocket is actually faster than Spider Gwynn. Right. And more evasive as well, considering she's constantly wearing essentially a force field. However, we did say Gwynn was more durable and stronger than Rocket. Yeah, when it came to the physical stats.

46:44
Gwen definitely came out on top because Rocket is just a human after all. That said, she does pack quite a powerful punch, capable of some pretty powerful attacks, so we gave her the edge damage level wise. When it came to fighting skill, intelligence, versatility, they basically balanced out. We said that Rocket has a greater range, but Spider Gwen has greater perception due to not only her spider sense, but also her symbiote spiders that can feed her intel.

47:10
So taking all of this into account, who do you think came out on top? Joseph? I have no damn clue. This is an interesting one. I can't really tell based off the stats who's going to win. I thought this was a pretty good match. Honestly, I'm pulling for Spider Gwen, though, and Instagram agrees with me. Sixty five percent of the people who participated in our poll picked Spider Gwen to win this fight. Well, that's just because Rocket has yet to be in a film. Milestone actually is making a few animated projects, I believe.

47:40
So hopefully that changes soon. But let's find out if you're right. AJ9K, the results please. Hey, you are, sir. All right, the winner of the matchup between Rocket and Spider-Gwen is Spider-Gwen. Hell yeah. She won 58.3% of the 1000 matches or 583 matches total, as compared to Rocket who won 417.

48:09
All right, so what was the stat that gave Spider-Gwen her greatest advantage? It was two of them. It was perception and strength. Now, Rocket is strong when it comes to punches, when it comes to like lifting strength, not so much. And I mean, Spider-Sense is conceptually hard to overcome. I feel like Spider-Gwen could just dodge Rocket's attacks all day long. I mean, it's not like Spider-Gwen can do much to hurt Rocket either. Well, I mean, except for the whole stealth attack thing. Shit. Yeah, I guess this makes sense.

48:37
And it makes sense that Marvel would win like every fight, right? It never makes sense to me when Marvel loses. Marvel is just better as you learned here today. I didn't learn shit. That does it for this duel. Let us know what you thought about the results by writing to us at dynamic dual podcast at gmail.com or by visiting us on Instagram, which you can find a link to in our show notes or by visiting our website at dynamic dual dot com. And on our site, you could also find a link to our Patreon page where you could join our dynamic two tier.

49:06
and chat with us and fellow listeners. Our fantastic four tier, which gets you bonus content each month. Our X force tier that makes you an executive producer of this podcast. Or our newest tier that lets you join our Dynamike podcast network. Please don't forget to rate the show on Apple podcast, Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. Our next episode is one that I am dreading. We're gonna review Madam Webb, and I don't wanna see that crap. It looks so bad.

49:37
I hope it's not. Yeah, I don't even have my tickets yet. But it's probably going to be. Yeah, I don't even have my tickets yet. Yeah, I gotta get my tickets, gotta go see the movie. We'll talk all about it next week. Fingers crossing it's at least watchable. But that does it for this episode. We wanna give a big thanks to our executive producers, Ken Johnson, John Swarovski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy Mathingian, Brandon Anstragard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Nick Abonto, Austin Wisselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho.

50:06
Adam Spies, Andrew Schunk, and Dean Molesky for helping to make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.