Talon vs Nico Minoru

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This is a DynaMic Network podcast.

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to the dynamic duel podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are doing a duel between the characters of Talon and Nico Minoru. Like that's her name. She doesn't have a superhero name. Her superhero name is Sister Grimm, but she barely goes by it. She's one of the Runaways characters.

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if you guys are familiar with that Marvel team. Basically, both of these characters have their origins tied into a cult of some kind. One of the characters focuses on martial arts, the other one focuses on magic, but both characters slightly dabble in the other specialty as well. Right, we're gonna find out who's gonna win later on in this episode. Before that, we're gonna break down the comic book movie news from this past week, of which there was a lot of news. There was the Avengers Doomsday concept art that was leaked.

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as well as the first look at the Lanterns television series, and the announcement of My Adventures with Green Lantern, Superpowers, and Starfire animated series. Also, Jon Bernthal is set to return for a Punisher special for Disney+. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you wanna skip ahead to a particular topic. Our artificially intelligent Duel simulator, AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners first though.

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So listen up.

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Why hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic Duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic two-oh tier gives you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic four tier gives you two bonus episodes each month. And the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly,

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The Diner Mike Podcast Network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast.

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Be sure to tune into the other shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This Wednesday, hosts Scotty and Gilly are finding out who would win in a fight between Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. On the Senjoh World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. Zach is on his brief season break right now, but anime fans should check out his season finale. Out now.

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which was an epic 10 vs 10 matchup of the Akatsuki from Naruto vs the Espada from Bleach. And on the Console Combat Podcast hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they found out who would win between Jack Winand from Bioshock and Corvo Attano from Dishonored. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize!

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A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award 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 horror director would you like to see direct a film for one of Batman's villains and which villain? This was coming off the news that James Watkins is lined up to direct the upcoming Clayface film.

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We got a lot of answers this week. You guys came out of the woodwork to talk about your favorite horror directors and Batman villains. So let's go ahead and break down our honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Matt from Texas who said. Hey guys, it's Matt from Texas. I would say a director that I want to direct a horror Batman villain film would be Darren Bousman if that's how you say his name.

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He directed the majority of the Saw films and I think he could do a great Riddler film. Set it up, same Riddler from The Batman and all those traps and everything would be awesome. Oh totally, a Jigsaw-esque Riddler film would be perfect for the character and perfect for Paul Dano, who I thought was a terrific Riddler in the Batman film. Yeah, Darren Lynn Bausman was kind of an out of left field choice.

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but I thought he was brilliant. Out of all the answers that were given for the character of the Riddler, I think he was the best one because I think a Paul Dano Riddler movie would be best served as a film in the style of the Saw franchise. Yeah, it's a pretty gritty franchise, but I could totally see Paul Dano's version of the Riddler existing within that universe and creating these like horrendous machines to punish people. Yeah, out of the other options we got for the Riddler, Jacob...

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Bell called in with his answer of David Fincher, so it would be a Riddler movie in the vein of Zodiac, which I thought was pretty good. And also, By Dear Bangora said that Wes Craven, the guy behind Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream franchise, could direct a good Riddler movie. And those are solid options too, but I think I gravitated most toward Darren Lynn Bousman. Great answer, Matt! Our next honorable mention goes to Lee Tapscott, who said, Hi, this is Lee.

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What director would I like to see direct a Batman movie for a particular villain? Sam Raimi. I can just imagine what he could do behind a Scarecrow movie. Can you imagine what we, the audience, would see through Sam Raimi's direction with the Scarecrow gas, how it would affect everybody, what they would see and what it would do to Batman? Yeah, that is a fantastic choice. Sam Raimi.

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is a terrific director who's no stranger to the superhero genre, having directed the first Spider-Man trilogy as well as Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. But not only that, he's famously also directed films like the Evil Dead franchise. J.D. Right, yeah, he is a master of horror. I think he would be my number one pick to direct a Scarecrow film, actually. I think a lot of his nightmare scenes would be pretty gross to watch because he has quite the macabre sense of humor.

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and horror, you know, but I think it would be a whole lot of fun to see a Scarecrow movie done in the vein of Evil Dead. For all of Batman's rogues galleries, you'd think that the Scarecrow would lend himself most easily to a horror genre film. And yes, Sam Raimi is one of the best horror directors out there. Great answer Lee Tapscott. Our next honorable mention goes to Daniel Alonso, who said, Okay, so I guess he's a horror director now, but

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My vote would be for John Krasinski to do a movie about Man-Bat. John Krasinski is the guy who directed The Quiet Place. And oh my gosh, if you haven't seen that movie, please watch it. But you'll get the idea of how Man-Bat would be able to hear everything in the dark and really get up close to Batman. I think that would be just a match made in heaven. Please do that.

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Yeah, I love this answer because it came out of left field. I have seen the first Quiet Place. I haven't seen any of the sequels. It's just so interesting to me that, you know, John Krasinski, the guy from Jim from The Office, the director of A Quiet Place, a popular horror franchise and, you know, like the current Jack Ryan, his career is so versatile. And I think the idea of him directing a man bat movie in the vein of his horror franchise, A Quiet Place, was just too interesting to pass up.

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Not only that, I think he could also play the character of Kirk Langstrom because he's also a talented actor. Yeah, I could totally see him in the role. And telling the story of this guy who tragically turns into a part bat creature, I think could be better serviced by a director as talented as John Krasinski than something like the movie Morbius. You know? 100%. Yeah, you're just stating the obvious. We want to give a special shout out to Bidear Bangora, Jacob Bell.

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Colby Hentges who actually gave a fantastic answer. He wants Osgood Perkins to direct a Professor Pig movie which I thought is just brilliant because Osgood Perkins has made some of the most atmospheric, evil looking horror films that I've ever seen including Long Legs and Black Coat's Daughter. But Professor Pig doesn't have too many supernatural elements to him and Osgood Perkins movies do so I thought he might be better suited to a different Batman character than Professor Pig.

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But great answer nonetheless, Colby. Also special shout out to Judson Batty, who said that Sam Raimi should direct a Ra's al Ghul movie. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Travis Herndon, who said. What's up, Danny Medouj, Travis here. Shout out to my evil twins. So my answer would be Jordan Peele as a director doing a Killer Croc movie. I think he would do an amazing job following Wayland's origins from his New 52 origins, and then maybe combine it with Joker's Asylum.

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Killer Croc mini story that could be both interesting but tragic looking to Croc's origins and just him as a character. So yeah, that's my pick. I'm a big fan of Jordan Peele. I think he's kind of a brilliant mind when it comes to modern horror cinema. And I would really love to see his take on a character like Killer Croc who has been adapted in live action in 2016 Suicide Squad movie, but I think Jordan Peele could do a much better job. Yeah, if you told me that Killer Croc should get his own film,

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I'd be like, I don't know about that. But if you mentioned Jordan Peele is directing it, I'm like, yes, absolutely, 100 percent. Not only can you capture like the horror aspect, which, you know, Killer Crack is not that horrifying of a character. But I think Jordan Peele can bring not only the humanity of the character, but also a cultural element. Yeah, for sure. I just think out of all the directors on this list, I like the directorial talents of Jordan Peele the most. Yeah, the guy's incredible.

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Great answer, Travis. You win this week's No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done, on to the news.

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Alright, this past week, a series of concept art pieces for the upcoming film, Avengers Secret Wars, was leaked accidentally on the internet by the artist who drew them, Musk Rizvi. She posted these images to her ArtStation portfolio, and the images spread like wildfire throughout the internet. Now, if you haven't got a chance to see any of these images, Google is your friend, but be aware that the art is being taken down almost as quickly as it's going up. The reason we're going to comment on it now,

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is because we think that the images have spread enough and quite a few news outlets are reporting on it to warrant us discussing it because it's not really spoilers anymore. And the art itself is pretty interesting. Definitely worth discussing. Now, as fans, we knew that Marvel Studios cast Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom. We didn't really know much about the movie beyond the casting of Downey as Doom.

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But with this leak, we have a much better idea of what the movie is going to be about. And I think it'll surprise a lot of people who haven't seen the concept art that it looks like they're going for a high fantasy type movie with the Marvel Universe set in a new reality reshaped by Doctor Doom that looks medieval in nature. So as many comic book readers know, the 2016 story of Secret Wars takes place in Battle

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Dr. Doom created when he obtained the powers of the Beyonder and became God Emperor Doom. He basically remade the multiverse in his image in order to save it from the incursions that would destroy everything. And he sat over everyone else as the planet's ruler. But they're taking that idea and it seems like they're also merging it somewhat with a concept like House of M where the Scarlet Witch rewrote reality and everyone just accepted this as the new normal.

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But they're also taking notes, I think, from an Avenger story called The Morgan Conquest, in which Morgan Le Fay rewrote reality so that the Marvel universe existed in this medieval timeline. So they're taking all these cues, and it's really exciting to see all these familiar faces and characters redesigned into medieval versions of themselves. Yeah, characters like Hulk and She-Hulk and Black Panther. And Doctor Strange.

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who, like in the 2016 Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars run, serves as basically an advisor to Doom's court. What's really interesting is it looks like Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four, Invisible Woman, and her son Franklin Richards serve as Dr. Doom's Queen and Prince. I'm wondering if they're going to introduce Franklin Richards in the Fantastic Four movie as this, you know, powerful reality-warping child as he is in the comic books, and somehow Dr. Doom...

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manages to usurp or take advantage of that child's power to recreate this reality. I could totally see that being the case. I probably see that more than what some people have been speculating with Wanda and the Scarlet Witch. Who knows though. I think it's most interesting to me though to see we're not just getting doom, we're getting God Emperor doom. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to know where he could possibly go from here if they reintroduce the character again after the events of Secret Wars.

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by an actor who's not Robert Downey Jr., you know, like a non-multi-versal version of him, it would be cool to get like a more intimate story between him against the Fantastic Four, I think. There's one piece of concept art where we see Hulk and She-Hulk decked out in medieval garb existing in this walled-off city of other gamma-irradiated beings, including his son Scar. It looks really interesting because they highly resemble orcs from World of Warcraft as they're designed here.

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Yeah, I can see that except, you know, they don't have like the large tusks, but otherwise, you're right, they do. Scar is an interesting addition here. He definitely looks different from what we saw in the She-Hulk television series, but they might be using him in this film as part of a broader Young Avengers team that they're also teasing with this concept art. Right, yeah, part of the concept art revealed our first look at the Young Avengers, or maybe they're called the champions here. We don't know yet, but it consists of medieval versions of Ms. Marvel.

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K-Pishup's Hawkeye, Stinger, Wiccan, and Speed, as well as Dupe from XStatics. I don't know if a lot of people out there know who Dupe is, but he is a mutant character who kind of looks like Slimer from Ghostbusters. He speaks like a different language and everything like that. It's interesting how they're incorporating him here as a mutant element set within this new medieval world. Which I kind of hate. If we see medieval versions of the X-Men for the first time in the MCU...

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I'm not looking forward to that. That being said, Doop doesn't have any clothes. He's like this floating green slug looking guy, so he's not really a medieval version of the character. He's just Doop as Doop. What's really interesting is that the character of Star-Lord in both pieces of concept art that he's featured in, he does not seem like he's decked out in medieval garb. He looks like he's wearing his regular outfit, so I'm wondering if he's the one that kind of comes to...

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God Emperor Doom's new battle world slash reimagined version of Latveria in which he is the ruler and maybe Star-Lord tries to remind everybody of who they really are and then get them to rise up and overthrow their new tyrant. Which is an interesting take. I never would have thought that Star-Lord would have been seemingly the protagonist of an Avengers film. Well, he could be when everyone else is kind of brainwashed into living in this new reality.

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We know that at least part of this movie takes place outside of this new medieval world, because one of the concept art pieces is Star-Lord chilling on his couch with Vision, the white version of Vision, watching TV as seeming roommates, which is fucking hilarious. Yeah, talk about an odd couple. That should be good times. I hope that's what Vision Quest is about, actually. Like, the co-star of that show should be Star-Lord.

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We got our new look at the medieval version of Black Panther. I got to say his costume design is epic as hell. It looks so good with like a lot of gold trim. And he has his long flowing black cape in this version. It looks awesome. A lot of people are speculating that the actor rendered in this piece of concept art is Damson Idris, who is an actor that I'm not familiar with. But people say that this concept art looks like him.

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And while that may be the case, either Marvel has cast T'Challa or T'Challa's son in this new universe, or it's possible that the concept artist just used him as a reference for this piece of art. Which is not uncommon for artists to do. The final piece of concept art that was leaked was the most vague. There was no color involved or anything. It was a very early sketch, but it looks like a guy who is chained up by his arms in a dungeon in some sort of pit. It's hard to tell if like magic energy is emanating from him or steam or something like that.

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It's hard to tell exactly who this is. People have speculated that it's Peter Parker being used as a magical conduit or something like that, or maybe the human torch who's being doused in water to keep him from turning a flame and he's being held prisoner. But yeah, that's definitely the most mysterious piece of art that was released. Overall, with all the concept art pieces here, how excited does this get you for Avengers Doomsday?

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It makes me super excited. I almost don't care that they're going with Robert Downey Jr. even more, especially if the whole entire thing is set in a new medieval reality that is so far removed from anything resembling the modern MCU. I like this as kind of like a detour story. And plus it's really interesting to see the Marvel Cinematic Universe reimagined within this new genre of high fantasy in a similar vein as Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones or World of Warcraft.

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But speaking of reimagining the MCU in the vein of another franchise like Lord of the Rings, that brings us to our question of the week.

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If you could take either the Marvel or DC cinematic universes and place them in a separate film franchise, what would it be? So you're taking the MCU or DC cinematic universes and then plopping it into another universe, another film franchise. Set in that world, what is that world? And tell us what it would be like for the heroes who find themselves there.

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Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long. And don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that will post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before March 8th. Well in DC news, we got to our first look at lanterns, the HBO television series set in the DCU.

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starring Aaron Pierre as Jon Stewart and Kyle Chandler as Hale Jordan. They released this first look to coincide with the start of production for the series. Perhaps they're going to be filming outside and people would be taking leaked set photos. I'm not sure. I do have to say though, if they're going to release any kind of official imagery to get people excited about the show, this didn't quite work for me. It cannot be more boring.

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Yeah, it's two dudes walking outside wearing jackets. One of them has a piece of jewelry on that could vaguely be described as a Green Lantern ring. Yeah, it's gray with like a hint of green in the middle, which is kind of disappointing, honestly. It reminds me a lot of the Green Lantern ring that Ryan Reynolds wore in the Green Lantern film. So I was hoping that they would be a little bit more, I don't know, green with the ring. But I guess this is what we're getting.

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I think it's the same ring that Nathan Fillion is wearing, is it not? I'm not sure. That one looked a lot more green to me, but it did move across the screen pretty quickly in the Superman trailer. I have to say, Aaron Pierre looks like Aaron Pierre. Kyle Chandler looks not quite what I imagined how Jordan would look like, but it's not a terrible look for the character. He does look like an older character than he normally does in the comics with the graying hair. Who knows? Maybe Parallax has already gotten to him. I don't know.

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What's interesting is that John Stewart is not wearing a ring in this image. Yeah, from what we can see, he has not received his ring yet. So I'm not sure how much he knows about how Jordan being Green Lantern in the scene that they're filming. We do know that a majority of the story for this series takes place on Earth. So this seems to be very much like an origin story for John Stewart and less of like a cosmic Odyssey type adventure.

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All I can say is you compare the awesomeness that was the leaked concept art for Marvel to the actual first look at Lanterns that we got released from DC. And as a DC fan, I would just be ashamed. I mean, it's not like I've lost all hope because the creative team of Chris Mundy, Tom King and Damon Lindelof is five star talent. So I imagine this is going to be an incredible show. This is just not an incredible first look in my opinion.

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Now this first look from Lanterns came out a few days after DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran gave us a huge update regarding the lineup and projects within DC Studios and the DCU. The biggest announcements I think were that we're getting three new DC animated series including My Adventures with Green Lantern which ties into My Adventures with Superman which is a fantastic show.

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The Green Lantern one will focus on Jessica Cruz getting her ring for the first time. We also have a show titled DC Superpowers, which takes place at the Alliance School for Heroes, and is going to focus on students like Lightning, who I think is Black Lightning, but they're renaming him. Flash, Plastic Man, Aqua Girl, Green Lantern, and Terra, who are in training to level up their powers under the supervision of characters like Principal Martian Manhunter. It sounds very much like

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DC Superhero Girls, but with boys too. Or like X-Men Evolution? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Not too excited for that project, but we also got news of a Starfire animated series that explores the origin of that character. Of course, there was also announcements about the broader slate, including a Teen Titans live-action film that's being written currently, an update on the Sergeant Rock film, and that the script and the director are locked down. They're just looking for...

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their star. Shows like Booster Gold and Paradise Lost are still being written, but it looks like the Waller television series has kind of been abandoned. Along with the Authority, as those projects have been said to be increasingly complicated. Really, during the press event, James Gunn and Peter Safran doubled down on what they had been saying all along, is that they're not going to green light a project until the script is complete. And since Waller and Authority, Booster Gold and Paradise Lost have not been fully fleshed out,

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they're not moving forward. Whereas smaller projects like Clayface and Dynamic Duo, the stop motion animated film coming out in 2027, I believe, are more fully flushed out. So those have been greenlit. I think they should also avoid announcing any projects that haven't been greenlit. I think Marvel Studios learned that lesson too. Well, that was actually one of the things they talked about with the press is that they could talk about something like perhaps Robert Pattinson joining the DCU. And just because they talk about it, the news spreads like wildfire.

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So they were essentially telling the press like, calm down, calm down guys. Yeah, there's always a lot of misinformation out there, for sure. I'm glad that James Gunn, you know, usually tries to set the record straight when he can. I don't think we've talked about this before, but there's also a Blue Beetle animated series in the works, which is being produced by the director of the Blue Beetle film, Angel Manuel Soto, and will be voiced by Sholo Mariduena, who played the character of Blue Beetle in live action.

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One of my favorite projects that was announced was Swamp Thing, which is going to be directed by James Mangold. Apparently that was put on the back burner for James Mangold's Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. But now that that's done, I'm hoping he'll return to that soon. All in all, were you excited by this press event that James Gunn and Peter Safran put on? Not really. I hope in the future they would do something much more like a presentation, like what Marvel does.

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It just seems more official that way with like different visuals that they'll also release during those presentations We did get title treatments for the new animated series my adventures with Green Lantern superpowers and starfire But it's nothing worth writing home about you poor DC bastards You poor DC bastards Marvel managed to show you guys up even without having a press conference because in addition to the leaked concept art it was also announced this past week that John Bernthal is set to return as

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Frank Castle, the Punisher in a Disney Plus special presentation. Now we know John Berntal is going to appear in Daredevil Born Again, the series that starts in just a few days here. I'm super excited by that. But it was never clear where the Punisher was going to go from there. Now we know he's getting his own like one hour movie. Basically special presentations are like one hour long projects released by Marvel. We've seen them do it with the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Werewolf by

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I would have rather have seen Punisher get his own full length movie, but if Disney was going to do anything with the character, I think their safest bet was to put him in a special presentation. So I can totally understand why they went this route. I mean, the special presentations have been good so far, like the two that they've put out. So I think this is awesome news. Yeah. And you know, with the character as violent as the Punisher, a little bit can go a long way. You know, I think as long as they cram as much action as they can.

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into this one hour special presentation run time, I think I'll be entirely satisfied with that. What's interesting is that John Bernthal is helping to write the script alongside Reynaldo Marcus Green, who's also going to direct the project. And Green is a talented director. You know, he directed the recent Bob Marley biopic called One Love. He directed King Richard, the movie about Venus and Serena Williams' father starring Will Smith. He's done a lot of great stuff. But what was also exciting was that brand Winderbaum

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who is an exec over at Marvel Studios, said that it's gonna be a shotgun blast of a story, but with also pathos and emotion that you want from Frank Castle. Whatever that means. It sounds like good stuff to me, man. I want a shotgun blast of a story. Punisher, take it to the bad guys in a quick and dirty special. Yeah, I wonder who the villain of a Punisher special would be. Oh, that's a great question. You know, Punisher has a lot of one-off villains, considering a lot of them don't actually survive. Well, can't wait to see it.

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Sincerely, but why'd you have to say sincerely? Guess you thought I was lying. I didn't think you were being sarcastic. Who wouldn't be excited to see this, right? We don't know when this special presentation will be releasing, but I have to assume if they're writing it now, you know, we're probably more than a year out.

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That does it for all of the news for this episode, now let's move on to the main event. Refind out who would win in a duel between the Court of Owls assassin Talon and the Runaways member Nico Minoru.

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Okay, Talon versus Sister Grimm, was it? Nekomino-ru. Sure. This matchup was brought to us by our executive producer, Devin Davis, who comes up with a lot of fantastic ideas and actually gets a lot of credit for ideas that I think may not have been his. Like our last episode of Darksides Elite versus the Black Order I attributed to being his idea, but it was really Zachary Hepburn's. This match, however, is definitely Devin's idea, and I liked his pitch.

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in regards that Talon is a martial arts type character with a dabbling of mysticism. And Nico Minoru is a mystic character with a dabbling of martial arts. Yeah, this episode is timely because Nico showed up in the Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man animated television series on Disney+.

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In the animated show she was voiced by Grey Song, but Nico has also shown up in live action in the three seasons of the Runaways television show played by Lyrico Cano, who I thought did a fantastic job. Has Talon been in any cartoons or live action shows or movies or anything? Well, the Court of Owls, who owns Talon essentially, appeared in Gotham and Harley Quinn and also that short-lived Gotham Knights series that no one watched.

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but they were also the antagonists in the Batman vs Robin animated movie. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, we have yet to review that one, so we're going to have to check that out at some point. Right. The Court of El was story line was regarded as one of the best story lines that came out of the New 52 era of comics. So I was pretty excited when we decided to do this episode. Yeah, I'm excited too. But to explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient duel simulator Alfred Jarvis 9000.

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AJ9K tell our listeners how you go about determining a winner in our Duel matchups. Yes, of course, sir. The way I determine a winner between the contestants is by running 1000 Monte Carlo simulations using the characters' statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to determine outcomes through random sampling. In this case, I randomize the statistics along a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle. The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid.

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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 1,000 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.

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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 like to break down each character's histories and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine

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One of the 1000 simulations would play out beat for beat. And it's my turn to go first with the DC characters backstory, so let me tell you all about Talon. Now, the Court of Owls is an ancient secret society that has controlled Gotham City from the shadows for centuries. Composed of Gotham's oldest and wealthiest families, the court has wielded power through assassination, manipulation, and economic influence, ensuring that Gotham remained under their dominion.

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Their existence has been whispered as an urban legend, reinforced by a nursery rhyme that warns of their presence, but for those who have stood in their way, the court is a very real and deadly force. To enforce their will, the court has employed assassins known as Talons, highly trained killers enhanced with Electrum, an alchemically enhanced metallic alloy that can regenerate and resurrect human tissue. These Talons, conditioned to obey without question,

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have operated in shadows and eliminating threats to the court's control over Gotham. Their legacy has spanned generations with each Talon serving as a silent enforcer of the court's interests. Now among the most formidable Talons was William Cobb, the great grandfather of Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing, who you can learn more about in our Nightwing vs Daredevil duel episode. William, born in 1901.

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He grew up in Gotham's working class, the son of a steelworker who died in a bridge accident. Struggling to support his mother, he turned to street performances, juggling baseballs for spare change. One day, after stopping a thief mid-escape with a well-aimed throw, he caught the attention of Nathaniel Haley, the owner of Haley Circus, who offered him a place among the performers. Under Haley's mentorship, William became a skilled knife thrower.

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earning acclaim as one of the circus's most popular acts. During a return performance in Gotham, he met and fell in love with Amelia Crown, the daughter of Burton Crown, one of Gotham's wealthy elites. Their romance, however, was cut short when Amelia's father forbade their relationship, declaring that a man of William's station would never be worthy of his daughter. Unaware that he had impregnated Amelia, William departed, heartbroken and bitter.

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before Nathaniel Haley, secretly a member and recruiter of the Court of Owls, offered him a new purpose and a chance to become a Talon, an assassin for the court. Accepting the offer, William was subjugated to grueling training and was infused with Electrum, including an Electrum tooth implanted in his mouth, granting him enhanced abilities and virtual immortality. In exchange, William abandoned his former life, including his newborn son,

34:47
whom William kidnapped as an infant and entrusted to Haley's circus, unknowingly beginning a bloodline that would eventually lead to Dick Grayson. William became one of the court's most effective talons, carrying out assassinations across Gotham for decades and kept in mystic suspended animation during times when his skills were unneeded. His missions often targeted political figures, industrialists, and anyone who opposed the court's rule, including even members of the Wayne family.

35:17
For centuries, the Court of Owls operated in secrecy, pulling the strings behind Gotham's power structures. However, when Bruce Wayne announced plans to reshape Gotham's future, the court saw him as a threat and marked him for death. William was reawakened by the court and sent to assassinate Bruce Wayne, attacking him during a business meeting. Their battle led to a deadly struggle at Top Wing Tower, where William seemingly plummeted to his death and was sent to the morgue.

35:44
only to resurrect himself, slaughtering the paramedics and escaping. In response to Bruce Wayne's continued defiance, the court unleashed the Night of Owls, awakening all of their talon assassins to retake Gotham. Batman and his allies fought back, facing an army of resurrected assassins in a citywide battle. William confronted Nightwing himself, revealing his true identity as Dick Grayson's great-grandfather and declaring that

36:12
Dick was meant to be the court's next talent. Their battle ended with Nightwing defeated William, freezing him with liquid nitrogen and rejecting his supposed destiny. In the aftermath, the court, frustrated by their failures, attempted to execute William, but he was later revived and used by Bane during the Arkham War, serving as a lieutenant in Bane's conquest of the city. Meanwhile, a new talent named Calvin Rose had recently been trained by the Court of Owls.

36:41
Calvin had been raised under extreme abuse, locked in a dog kennel by his father for days until he managed to escape. Running away, he was taken in by Haley Circus, where he became a skilled escape artist, learning the art of lockpicking, acrobatics, and illusion. Recognizing his potential, the Court of Owls recruited him to become their next Talon, subjugating him to extensive combat and assassination training. Unlike previous Talons,

37:09
Kelvin's specialty was infiltration and evasion. He was an escape specialist trained to enter impossible situations and kill high profile targets. However, when Kelvin was sent on his first assassination mission, he discovered that his target was a young woman and her daughter, not the criminals he had been led to believe the court hunted. Unable to carry out the kill, he instead helped them escape, defying the court and becoming a fugitive.

37:37
Kelvin spent years on the run, staying one step ahead of the court while trying to dismantle their operations. He allied himself with Sebastian Clark, a former member of the court who also sought to destroy them. Together they launched attacks on the court's resources, seeking to bring them down permanently. Kelvin's war against the court led him to confront some of their deadliest talons, including the monstrous Felix Harmon, the Gotham Butcher. However, Kelvin eventually discovered that his ally,

38:07
Sebastian Clark had been manipulating him all along, using Calvin as a weapon while secretly seeking to take control of the court himself. Betrayed, Calvin was later killed by Bane, only to be revived using Electraum and forced back into servitude as a Talon. The court ordered him to hunt down and kill Strix, another rogue Talon who had escaped their control. Though he initially followed orders, Calvin ultimately turned against the court once more,

38:37
seeking to break free of their control for good. Despite repeated defeats, the Court of Owls endured, reforming as the International Parliament of Owls and expanding their influence globally. They attempted to recruit Dick Grayson once more using psychological conditioning and deception to manipulate him into becoming a Talon. Netwing resisted, however, and exposed and dismantled much of their network. Years later, it was revealed that the Court had ties to the Dark Multiverse.

39:05
worshipping the ancient entity Barbados and playing a role in bringing the evil versions of Batman from dark dimensions known as the Dark Knights into Gotham. This alliance led to their near extinction at the hands of the Batman Who Laughs, though remnants of the court continued to operate in secrecy. Powers-wise, Talon possesses enhanced strength, speed, agility, and reflexes. His body is infused with Electrum.

39:33
Granting him near immortality and accelerated healing, allowing him to recover from fatal wounds almost instantly, though exposure to extreme cold will slow his regenerative and resurrection abilities. A master martial artist, Talon is proficient in multiple fighting styles, able to match Batman and Nightwing in combat. His stealth and infiltration skills make him nearly undetectable, and his precision with throwing knives and bladed weapons is near perfect.

40:01
He wields an arsenal of weapons, including throwing knives kept on a bandolier across his torso, as well as twin swords on his back, among others, all customized for silent lethal efficiency. Additionally, he uses infrared goggles for tracking targets in the dark, and smoke bombs for quick escapes. He is a world-class escape artist, able to break free from any restraint. His one other weakness is his reliance on Electrum. Its ability to heal can be depleted.

40:31
and Talons are dependents on the Court of Owls for replenishment of the alloy. That's Talon. Do you know what version of Talon you're going to be going with for this match or are they all pretty much essentially the same? I'm going with the composite Talon of the two primary Talons in William Cobb and Calvin Rose. I guess my biggest surprise from that story was that for a secret organization and a secret assassin, why was it that Bruce Wayne was attacked by a Talon during the middle of a business meeting?

40:59
I believe the person he was meeting with was a member of the court. And they didn't anticipate that Bruce Wayne was going to be as adept at defending himself from the Talon as he was. Okay. Okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. Well, there's not a whole lot there in common with Nico Minoru, but I think that should make things interesting when we get around to the speculation. But let me go ahead and tell you all about Nico Minoru, aka Sister Grimm.

41:23
Now, Niko Minoru was born to Tina and Robert Minoru, two powerful sorcerers who, along with five other couples, formed the Pride, which was a secret cult dedicated to serving the mystical entities known as the Geborim.

41:36
Each year, the Pride performed a ritual sacrifice to the Gaborim in exchange for promises of future power and prosperity. Unaware of her parents' true nature, Nico and the other children of the Pride would spend these annual gatherings together. However, one fateful night, Nico and the other teens decided to spy on their parents and were horrified to witness them murdering an innocent young woman in ritualistic fashion.

42:00
Shocked and disillusioned, Nico and the other teens resolved to escape from their parents, becoming the Runaways. As they fled, Nico was confronted by her mother, Tina.

42:10
who wielded a magical artifact called the Staff of One. Attempting to prevent Nico from leaving, her mom tried to stab her daughter with the weapon, but instead, Nico's body absorbed the staff entirely. Later, during a confrontation with the time traveling York's parents, Nico was cut by the father's battle axe, triggering the Staff of One to emerge from within her body from her chest for the first time. Instinctively, she uttered the word freeze, and the spell instantly encased the York's mother in ice.

42:40
The moment marked the awakening of Niko's latent magical abilities and revealed that the Staff of One could only be summoned through bloodletting and that it allowed her to cast a spell only once before requiring her to devise new phrasing for the same effect. As the Runaways investigated the Pride, they learned more about their parents' arrangement with the Giborum. The deal promised that after 25 years, six members of the Pride would be allowed to survive and rule over a cleansed world while the rest of humanity perished.

43:10
friends, the Runaways leader Alex Wilder revealed himself to be a double agent, secretly working with his parents and attempting to secure a place in the Gaborim's utopian future. Alex sought to convince Nico to join him, but she rejected him and struck him down, aiding in his ultimate demise at the hands of the Gaborim. The Runaways' parents ultimately sacrificed themselves to destroy the Gaborim, leaving Nico and her friends orphaned fugitives. With Alex gone, Nico naturally assumed leadership of the Runaways, guiding the group to the

43:39
as they sought to evade authorities and rebuild their lives. While searching for Victor Mancha, a boy prophesied to become a future threat, Nico and the Runaways encountered Ultron, who was revealed to be Victor's father. You can learn more about Ultron in his duel against Brainiac. After Ultron's defeat, Nico invited Victor to join the team despite the misgivings of some members.

44:02
Meanwhile, fellow Runaway member Carolina Dean confessed her romantic feelings toward Nico, but Nico did not reciprocate them. Instead, she began a relationship with Victor, though their dynamic remained complicated. During a conflict with the Gaborim, Nico was nearly taken by the ancient beings who deemed her soul pure and suitable for consumption. However, Victor intervened and saved her. Afterward, Nico led the team on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Iron Man, eventually bringing them to New York.

44:31
There, she made a risky alliance with the Kingpin, only for the Runaways to become entangled in a time displacement event that sent them back to 1907. In this era, Nico was abducted by a mysterious woman known as the Witchbreaker, who claimed to be her great-grandmother. Informing Nico that she came from an ancient magical lineage, the Witchbreaker subjected Nico to brutal training, insisting that enduring pain would strengthen her magical abilities.

44:57
Though the ordeal was traumatic, Niko emerged with enhanced control over her magic and a greater understanding of the Staff of One. Upon returning to the present, the Runaways became caught in the Skrull's secret invasion of Earth. During this period, Niko sought to prove that the Runaways were more than just a band of outcasts, and insisted they join the Young Avengers in resisting the alien threat. However, Wiccan urged her to retreat, arguing that the Runaways needed to remain in reserve should the Young Avengers fail.

45:27
You can learn more about the Young Avengers in their team duel against Young Justice. Niko's leadership was further tested when she used the spell Scatter to disperse a group of invading aliens, inadvertently causing emotional disarray among the runaways. Her attempts to stabilize the group led to further difficulties, including a disastrous attempt to throw a prom for the team. Meanwhile, a rival warlock warned Niko of the dangers of the Staff of One and attempted to steal it from her, only to be killed by the Staff itself.

45:57
This incident reinforced the notion that the staff carried immense and unpredictable magical power beyond her complete understanding. Niko and the Runaways later became entangled in Arcade's murder world, where Arcade kidnapped 16 young heroes, forcing them into a deadly battle royale. An ordeal you can learn more about in our Riddler vs Arcade duel episode. Niko was gravely injured when Chase Stein, a Runaway controlled by the Darkhawk Amulet, severed her arm.

46:24
As she lay dying, she used the last of her strength to utter the spell, Help, sacrificing herself to the Staff of One in the process. This act triggered the Staff to resurrect her, restoring her body. The experience significantly amplified her magical abilities, allowing her to wield powers beyond those previously granted by the Staff of One. In the aftermath of Murderworld, Nico and the other survivors were thrust into the public eye when Arcade released footage of their ordeal.

46:52
She and Chase traveled to Bagalia, a nation of villains, where Nico trained under Daemon Hellstrom to hone her newly enhanced abilities. There she was reunited with the resurrected Alex Wilder, who offered her guidance in navigating the moral complexities of her power. Eventually Nico and her allies escaped Bagalia with help from the Avengers, where a fight against the Masters of Evil broke out. You can learn more about the Avengers and the Masters of Evil in their respective team duels against the Justice League and the Legion of Doom.

47:22
Nico later joined A-Force, an all-female superhero team where she played a pivotal role in battles against Anti-Matter and the Countess. However, tensions within the team escalated during the second superhero civil war when the inhuman Ulysses had a vision for telling that Nico would kill a woman named Alice.

47:40
Unwilling to be judged for a crime she had yet to commit, Nico fled to Colorado, where she encountered the monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, whom you can learn more about in her duel episode against Frankenstein. As it turned out, the woman named Alice transformed into a monstrous parasitic insectoid, forcing Nico to ultimately cast a spell to end her life. The ordeal left Nico questioning her role as a hero and the ethics of preemptive justice.

48:10
used time travel technology to rescue the former team member Gert Yorke from death. Though reluctant at first, Nico recognized that her bond with the Runaways remained her strongest tether to humanity.

48:22
She resumed leadership of the team and finally formed a romantic relationship with Carolina Dean. However, she struggled with the burdens of responsibility, including the discovery that the staff of One contained a trapped magician known as The One. Through negotiations, she altered the terms of her bond with the staff, allowing her to summon it without bloodletting, but at the cost of graDuelly freeing The One's will inside of her. Attempting to embrace a more structured life,

48:52
the J Team. However, she and the Runaways uncovered Doc Justice's sinister history of orchestrating the deaths of his young protégés to bolster his reputation. The team ultimately turned against him and Nico used her magic to save Carolina from death. Following these events, Nico accepted a position at Strange Academy where she began teaching creative spellcasting to a new generation of magic users. Powers-wise, Nico is a sorceress in training with great

49:22
to perform powerful and dangerous spells. Despite her inexperience, she is able to tap into her magic aptitude to wield the Staff of One, a powerful magic artifact capable of casting spells with a word or phrase. However, as part of the Staff's limitations, she cannot repeat the same word or phrase to use a spell without suffering undesirable effects. The Staff's magical effects are usually temporary and occasionally unpredictable,

49:47
but she has refined this through training. For example, the word freeze was the first spell she ever cast, and when she tried the word again, the staff summoned a flock of pelicans. However, through training, she's found that she can increase the length of the spell phrase to produce the same magical effect, such as freeze to the exact temperature and aesthetic appearance of a cheap popsicle from a 7-11, which gives her a workaround to repeat some spells when necessary. Though again, she cannot use the same phrase twice.

50:17
Nico can also summon the Staff of One to herself when it's beyond her reach and use it as a physical combat weapon. In her time as a runaway and superhero, she's added a number of learned spells to her repertoire that she can use without the staff, including Portal Generation, Magic Shielding, and Levitation of both herself and other objects. And that is Nico Minoru. So what kind of spells exactly can she cast with Blood Magic? Summoning her Staff of One? That's it? That's all she can do with Blood Magic?

50:47
Through bloodletting, specifically the torture that she went through on behalf of the Witchbreaker, she was able to gain more control over the spells that she would cast using the Staff of One. But it's not just blood magic skill that she has potential in, it's also standard magic, which is how she has those learned spells such as levitation, magic shielding, and the like. So she's only able to summon it if she produces her blood? Not anymore, no. She doesn't have to actually bloodlet in order to summon the Staff.

51:14
Cause that was pretty dark. She was essentially like a cutter superhero. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that's why they changed it cause they didn't want kids kind of like enacting that sort of bloodletting. But I do think that Nico is a vastly interesting character. You know, she's got like the Japanese thing going. She's got the goth thing going. There's no other character in the Marvel universe that's quite like her. And I think that's why she's kind of been the standout character of the Runaways.

51:39
kind of transitioning successfully from that team onto other Marvel superhero teams like the A-Force. And she's just a knockoff version of Tracy 13. Actually the way that Nico uses her spells through like the one word, one phrase type thing and like the fish nets and all that kind of reminded me of Zatanna. I think an interesting duel would have been Zatanna versus Nico, although I do believe that Zatanna would have wiped the floor with her because Nico has those spell limitations. Whereas Zatanna can use her spells over and over again. She just says them backwards.

52:07
I find it interesting that you describe Nico as still being in training when she's also teaching courses at Strange Academy. Yeah, she's still in training though to reach her potential. A lot of the magic that she does is summoned through the staff, so she's working on becoming a better sorceress outside of the staff. Maybe she'll become the future Sorcerer Supreme. She was in consideration along with the rest of Marvel's sorcerers and sorceresses at the time that Doctor Strange lost the title briefly. Oh, interesting. Okay.

52:42
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53:02
Smash every Tuesday, Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday, and Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on the matches and, armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score.

53:28
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.

53:58
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. Talon and Sister Grimm meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? I'm gonna say Niko goes first by summoning her staff. That's her first action. It emerges from her chest.

54:26
and she spins it around like a badass. And actually, I have a list of all the spells that she's performed in the comics, because I'm going to try to keep this speculation as comic accurate as possible for Nico. So I have a list of like no-go words and phrases, just, you know, to stay in keeping with her limitations. OK, good. Well, Nico is busy twirling her staff. Tellen's going to hurl a volley of blades her way with deadly precision, targeting each of her limbs and her

54:56
head. Oh sorry the blades missed because Nico she puts up a magic shield to block them you know it's one of her learned spells she doesn't need the staff for and then she's gonna use the staff to vault over her magic shield and she's gonna levitate in the air point the staff at Talon and she's gonna call out the spell Captain Howdy which is gonna make Talon's head spin around like the girl from the exorcist movie and also like an owl since he kind of looks like an owl

55:23
and that's going to snap his neck, just taking him out. OK. You know, with his neck snapped, his body is probably going to drop to the floor dead. And Nico, she'll land on the ground and be like, well, that was easy. But as she's busy looking around, wondering where she is and why she's in this environment, she's going to be too distracted to see Talon's head spin back around. And his body stands back up. And before she realizes it, she's been straight up impaled with a sword through her back.

55:54
Oh shit, okay. Uh, well okay, so she falls away from the sword, she's mortally wounded, but before she passes out, she's gonna call out the spell Red Potion, which is gonna cause the Staff of One to heal her up instantly, you know, like the Red Potion from Legend of Zelda. So she gets back onto her feet, and she's glaring at this Talon douche who just stabbed her, and she calls out Pyre, which is gonna cause Talon to catch on fire. Pyre? Like a funeral pyre?

56:24
Yeah. I'm guessing she's already used the spell fire. According to this list, she's used hell fire and back draft. But I would think that fire would either be too common that she'd have had to have used it at some point or she'd want to save it as like a backup emergency spell. Because in the comics, she's kind of forced to get creative with some of her wording in order to not back herself into a corner in the future. So I'm just kind of rolling with that idea. OK, well, I mean, it doesn't matter because all she says on fire.

56:54
is a column of smoke where Talon once was. And as she's looking around for him, that's when Talon's going to attack from whatever direction she wasn't looking, just delivering this series of kicks and strikes. And that's going to cause her to drop her staff and get knocked to the ground. OK, so she's on the ground, but she's going to use her learned magic spell to telekinetically shove Talon back. And then she's going to summon the staff that she dropped back into her hand.

57:24
She's gonna call out the spell, sleep with the fishes. And suddenly Talon's feet are gonna be encased in cement, like cinder blocks, and now he can barely move his legs. He's stuck. Dude, a middle school age kid with karate skill can get out of this. He's just gonna karate chop this cinder block, it's gonna crack in half, so he's free. Okay, but she's gonna see him doing that, and she's gonna realize that she needs a better freezing spell. So she's gonna point her staff at him.

57:52
and call out squishy and then he completely freezes encased in ice just frozen to death. Why does squishy freeze him? From the Simpsons you know the the drink that the cookie mart sells it's like an icy. Okay well I mean icies are pretty liquid it's not like they're frozen blocks so Talon's actually just soaked in cold red syrup and that's gonna allow him to throw a dagger right across Nico's throat slitting the larynx and preventing her from

58:21
speaking any more magic words. No, cause actually, you know, the literal meaning of the word is less important than the meaning that she assigns to it. Cause like in the comics, she built a house using the spell Abraham Lincoln, but it's not like that spell summoned Abraham Lincoln. So no, Talon's not covered in red liquid. He's frozen solid, like she meant him to be. And he didn't throw any daggers cause he's frozen, cause he's dead.

58:48
And there's not going to be any resurrecting here because she's going to shatter him into a thousand pieces with her staff. Match over. All right. But surprise, just as she's about to shatter him, he's going to eject these extendable claws kind of like Wolverine from his wrist. And that's going to shatter the ice around his arm, freeing it. And the staff, she's going to swing that into these blades, which is going to cause Nico to accidentally get her staff sliced in two.

59:17
So before she can even comprehend what just happened, Talon's gonna like flex his way out of the rest of the ice and quickly draw his sword and slice her body into with one stroke, ending this match in his favor. Okay, so either Talon breaks out of the ice and slices Niko down with his sword, or he stays in the ice and she shatters him into a thousand pieces.

59:43
I think that's a pretty good cliffhanger for this match. Let's go ahead and see which scenario happens by running the stats on these characters, along with the simulations, and coming back with a winner. AG9K, hit it! Inputting data, running calculations, processing results, simulations complete. All right, we always knew that the stats for this particular matchup were gonna be interesting. Like, the characters aren't identical at all. They have nothing really in common. It's more about what they have in contrast with each other. And to that end,

01:00:13
these stats came out as expected. Like you have Talon, who's an incredibly skilled fighter going up against Nico, who is not. And then you have Nico, who is incredibly versatile going up against Talon, who is not. Right, Talon is basically a stabby stabby fight man who really doesn't have too much going for him, you know, besides his healing factor as well. Oh yeah, the healing factor put him way over the top over Nico in terms of durability. But when it came to damage level,

01:00:43
Niko came out on top by equal measure. Yeah, she definitely has the potential to cause a lot of damage. We also said that Niko was slightly stronger thanks to her telekinesis and had a broader range. But in contrast, Talon had greater perception thanks to his infrared goggles. I think the stat that was most surprising here was intelligence. The Marvel power grid ranks Niko at a two.

01:01:09
And because of that, I thought Talon was gonna take that stack category. But it turns out he's not really that much smarter either. Yeah, I know the Talons are pretty much mindless zombies that only know how to do the will of the court. So, yeah, he ranked pretty low. But with all of this in consideration, Joseph, who do you think came out on top? I think Nico's going to take it. I mean, for as good of a fighter and as lethal and as durable as Talon is regenerative, I should say.

01:01:36
I think Nico has her own unique strengths and I think that's going to put her over the top. Instagram does not agree with me for some reason. 61% of our Instagram poll takers said that Talon was going to win this match, which kind of scares me a little bit because I would think that a lot of people would actually know who Nico is, you know, just based on the runaways television show or the current Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series. Talon just must be more popular than I think he is or he's more powerful than I think he is.

01:02:05
Talon comes from one of the most interesting Batman stories ever, at least recently. So yeah, I'm not surprised by those Instagram results. But let's see if those poll takers are correct. Agent NK, the results please. Hey Yuasa. Alright, the winner of the matchup between Talon and Niko Minoru is... Niko Minoru. That's right, baby! That's right! But...

01:02:33
By what percentage would you guess? I think it'll be pretty close. It's got to be in the 50s. I don't think she's going to take almost two thirds of these matches. I think it's going to be closer to the 50-50 mark. I actually thought Nico was going to totally stomp after putting in the stats, but she won 58.6 percent of her matches or 586 of the 1000 compared to Talon, who won 414. OK, OK, so that was pretty close to 60 percent then.

01:03:02
Yeah, in the end, Talon's fighting and durability stats cannot overpower Niko's versatility and damage as well as range really. You know, it was the stat that really failed him. It was intelligence. If Talon was like a smart genius, like I thought he was going to be, he actually would have put up a better fight to the point of maybe even winning this thing. I mean, both of the prominent talents were recruited by Haley Circus fairly young.

01:03:30
And that's not really to discount the intelligence of circus performers, but their specialties are physical and not necessarily academic. Yeah, and even though Nico's like teaching some classes at a strange academy, I don't think she graduated high school. So she definitely is gaining in her knowledge of the occult and mysticism. But you know, she's still a little bit naive. She's still considered like a young hero compared to the rest of the Marvel Pantheon.

01:03:57
Did you know that the Staff of One has made an appearance in the MCU? Oh, it was in the Dr. Strange movie, right? Yeah, it was when Dormammu was attacking the magic stronghold in China, the one that Wong was defending, and alongside him was Tina, Nico's mom, holding the Staff of One. I'm really hoping that the Court of Owls are the main villains in the upcoming sequel to The Batman. It's rumored that they, and possibly also Mr. Freeze, will be.

01:04:27
Fingers crossed, I think that'd be really cool. I feel like the Court of Owls and Mr. Freeze aren't two comic book entities that jive well in a story, but I'd rather see the Court of Owls because they seem a lot more grounded than something like Mr. Freeze, and we all know that the Batman franchise is pretty grounded. Well, I think Batman would almost need Mr. Freeze's tech to stop the Court of Owls and their talons, so I don't know. Yeah, that would make sense. We'll see.

01:04:55
But that does it for this duel AJ 9k help close this out.

01:05:00
Thanks for listening to Dynamic Duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicDuel.com and follow us on Instagram at dynamicDuelpodcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicDuel and joining a tier that works for you, or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Duel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite Podcast Network, including Max Destruction, Senjow World and Console Combat.

01:05:29
Our next episode is going to be a matchup between two psychic entities, or I guess one of them is an emotional entity. It's going to be Parallax versus Onslaught. Yeah, two universe shaking bad guys from the 90s. It's going to be awesome. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Storosky, Zachary Hepburn, Mickey Montagian, Brandon Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Austin Wiselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Nick Abonto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies.

01:05:57
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.