Sunday, 7 April 2019

Death Battle Predictions: Captain Marvel VS Shazam



The word “marvel” is reserved for individuals or events who instill a sense of astonishment or wonder in others - thanks, Webster’s! All kidding aside, fiction is chock full of many things that would elicit this response, as many of the previous combatants have embodied to different extents, either by pushing the limits of what humans are capable of to literally warping the fabric of reality itself and basically becoming gods in all but name. For the next episode of Death Battle, there’s no better way to celebrate what it means to embody what that word means than to pit two of comic history’s greatest heroes who have personified it the most against each other.
Captain Marvel, the Avengers’ stellar and starbound savior. Shazam, the charismatic care-free champion of the Justice League. After her first clash against another superpowered blonde bombshell brawler like herself two years ago - one which we here had covered before, the Binary-powered ace is set to enter the fray again to battle the child-turned-warrior chosen by fate, pitting her otherworldly alien heritage and experience as a battle-tested soldier against his divine blessings from the legends of old and tons of youthful ingenuity to back it up. Which of these mighty mortals ultimately prove to be the most marvelous one of them all?
Also, apologies to Brie Larson and Zachary Levi for being dragged into the Marvel VS DC rivalry. They honestly don’t deserve this. Stop bugging them. Please.
In Case You’re Wondering...
This doesn’t really have any bearing on the fight itself, but a quick distraction never hurt anyone, right?


Comic buffs are probably going to recognize that the main reason why this fight is even a thing is because way back in the day, Shazam used to be called Captain Marvel - way before Carol Danvers herself assumed the mantle after years of being Ms. Marvel. For the benefit of those who aren’t too familiar with this piece of history, here’s a quick recap:
Shazam is by far the older of the two, his debut dating back all the way to the ‘30s. He wasn’t a DC character at the time, and this was a more cutthroat age where the then-National Comics Publications didn’t take too kindly to anyone who looked and operated like a bootleg Superman, so they ended up suing the then-Captain Marvel’s publisher, Fawcett Comics. Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel-related comics, right until some 30 years later when their library was acquired by DC. Things seemed to go well…
...until it turned out that nobody had actually bothered to trademark the name “Captain Marvel”. By that point, Marvel Comics had their own Captain Marvel - the Kree warrior Mar-Vell - and ended up trademarking the name on their own. This elicited a quick name change: while DC still referred to Billy Batson’s superpowered adult alter-ego as “the original Captain Marvel” - reminder that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in 2008 still referred to him as Captain Marvel in addition to Justice League Unlimited doing it a few years before that, just to show how well into some more modern times they were in keeping him as such - they mainly chose to address him in the comics as Shazam, after the source of his powers. Eventually, the name stuck for good following the New 52 reboot.
As for Marvel’s Captain, he didn’t hold onto the name for long. Mar-Vell eventually had to pass on the Captain Marvel moniker to other characters within the Marvel canon. Carol Danvers is currently the 17th individual to bear it after spending nearly 30 years as Ms. Marvel.

Background

Captain Marvel
Before becoming the mightiest member of Earth’s mightiest heroes, Carol Danvers was one of the highest-ranked officers to serve in the United States Air Force - a career path she took after her father refused to support her any further on account of her gender. Driven by her strong sense of duty, she participated in multiple joint operations that saw her interact with many super-powered individuals, both hero and villain alike. This included one such costumed crusader: Captain Marvel, the superhero alter-ego of scientist Dr. Walter Lawson, who would become a close friend and confidant to Carol in their professional lives.
Little did she know that Lawson was actually a member of an alien race called the Kree, who sent spies to Earth to study humanity and determine if it was any threat to their empire. Unbeknownst to them, Lawson - or rather, Mar-Vell - had grown accustomed to his new home and often found himself fighting off the Kree themselves when they attempted to invade. In the crossfire of one such attack, Carol was caught in the explosion of a Kree Psyche-Magnetron, altering her body’s genetic make-up and partially infusing her with Kree DNA; this led to the creation of her own superhero persona, which she had named after Lawson’s own: Ms. Marvel.
From that point on, Carol started battling supervillains and fighting crime on the side, eventually becoming staunch allies of both the Avengers and the X-Men. She took on multiple other monikers aside from Ms. Marvel, not only to pass the mantle on to other younger and worthy heroines but to reflect her ever-growing set of powers. With the death of Mar-Vell, she herself became the latest individual to adopt the name of Captain Marvel, while expanding her operations to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, seeking to deliver her own personal brand of justice to any unlucky evildoers who would dare cross her path.

Shazam
After the death of his parents, young Billy Batson’s terrible and aggressive attitude saw him alternate between foster homes and running across the streets of Philadelphia to fend for himself. He would never remain mobile for too long, and after landing himself in a local orphanage, was sent over to live with the Vasquez family, whose children were all orphans just like him. While he often fought with them, they were by far the closest Billy could get to regaining the sense of normalcy he had lost before, as he spent his time participating in the same responsibilities and shenanigans any normal 15-year old like him would be a part of.
One night out on the streets, Billy was drawn into an unknown location, leading to a meeting with the wizened immortal wizard named Shazam. In him, the old figure saw great potential and a level of purity and goodness within the boy that belied his flippant nature, and so had ultimately determined him to be the next worthy host for his powers. With the aid of the Living Lightning, Billy could harness the ancient powers of the gods for himself by uttering the name “Shazam!”, causing him to assume an adult form who possessed powers based on mythological figures, such as Solomon, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.
Since that fateful day, Billy has tried to reconcile the differences between his old life and his new one to the best of his abilities. When not slacking off on his homework or using his powers to abuse his status as a temporary adult or pranking others, he assumes the mantle of Shazam to uphold his commitment to the wizard to fight the forces of evil. Despite not being old enough to be considered an adult, Billy possesses a surprising level of maturity and wisdom that belies his often foolish demeanor; his desire to be the best hero he can be when faced with the most dangerous of circumstances has truly made him a worthy successor to the legacy of Shazam.

Powers

Captain Marvel

Kree Physiology

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Captain Marvel has increased strength, speed, and durability due to her nature as a Human/Kree Hybrid. This came about due to the genetic heritage of one of the Kree’s greatest warriors, with the race having denser skin with increased muscles flexibility to explain Carol’s newfound stat enhancements. Marvel can also use the latent psionic talents that all humans in the Marvel Universe have. With both the Kree’s denser skin and the ability to manipulate psionic and photonic energy, Carol is a new breed of being that is able to use many different abilities including:


Flight: Carol is able to propel herself through the air. Her flight speed should at least be three times the speed of sound considering she was able to fly fast enough to break the sound barrier and reach space.
Molecular Control: Carol is able to control her molecules, and she uses this ability to change from her regular outfit to her hero costume.


Photonic Manipulation/Blasts: Captain Marvel has the ability to manipulate photonic energy from her hands and fingertips.This power is strong enough to fry a human being as shown with her fight against Warbird. She can adjust this energy to create beams which are strong enough to damage Count Nefaria, who has been compared to the likes of Thor in power as well as Iron Man in a Hulkbuster-style armor. She can also make her beams curve which she demonstrated in a battle against Iron Man.


Marvel can create an energy field that is basically a large ball of photonic energy which can explode, she can increase the power of her blows to battle with the likes of Wonder Man and the Hulk, surround herself with photonic energy into order to protect her from blasts of energy (she can do this in both the comics and EMH), can transfer energy in the ground to create shockwaves, she can also electrify herself through photonic manipulation as shown with the fight against Count Nefaria.
Energy Absorption: One of Carol’s biggest trump cards is her ability to absorb different kinds of energy and use this to augment her strength, speed and durability. She is able to absorb every kind of energy including:



She can also use the energy that she absorbs to heal herself from attacks that would have crippled her, for example this large explosion. However, her healing factor does have limits considering her energy absorption ability has limits. While she did prevent the Earth’s Sun from dying and absorbed energy from the sun as well as the anti-matter (Quasar #34), which is very impressive considering that the amount of energy that the sun has been calculated to 400 trillion trillion watts, doing so taxed all her energy and she fell unconscious. Based on what Quasar says, absorbing the anti-matter as well as energy from the sun burned her out.
Flash Precognition/Cosmic Awareness: Captain Marvel has the ability to predict the moves of her opponents. In the early days, this power was unreliable as it would activate randomly and without warning, but in recent times it’s less random. Carol is able to easily predict and then dodge a blast that is stated to be faster than light. It is pretty much impossible to try and kill her before she notices as she can predict you are coming and then counterattack (Ms Marvel Vol 1 #1). In her Binary Form this ability is further increased (which will be talked about later).

Binary


This is a form that Marvel gained after being experimented on by the Brood, an alien species in the Marvel universe. This form is much more powerful than her base form and has been stated in Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 that Carol has a power output of a star, which is pretty impressive to say the least. Her power comes from a White Hole (for those who are wondering, yes, she can access the power of the White Hole to become Binary as shown through her battle against the Phoenix Force) as of current canon.


And in case you’re wondering what a white hole is,l to explain it simply it’s is a region in space that is the exit-point of a point singularities’ inward collapse out of this universe and into another (yes this is a real thing). A point singularity is such an extreme distortion of the space/time fabric of our universe that it basically creates an interdimensional breach from one universe to another. This breach is the “weak” point of the universe which Binary is able to tap into small portions of cosmic energy from this breach to use.


Now what powers does this give her?
Increased strength, speed, durability and senses: In this form, Carol’s physical stats significantly increase. In her base form, she is able to lift trains (Captain Marvel #14) and toss meteors (Captain Marvel #1), but with Binary she is able to punch a person to the moon as well as hurt Sentry ,who is on Thor and Hulk. Her speed has been boosted being able to easily fly across the galaxy in matter of minutes, and she’s durable enough to be able to easily survive an attack from the Phoenix Force which can easily destroy stars. Her senses have also increased, allowing her to easily detects enemies from far away (for example an enemy spaceship (Quasar #54). Carol has stated during her fight against the Phoenix Force that she can see everything. She is also able to breath in space.
Increased energy output/absorption: In her Binary Form, due to the fact that she literally surrounds her entire body in cosmic energy, the amount of energy Captain Marvel can fire off is significantly increased as well as the amount of destruction it can cause. She once was able to destroy Broodworld which is the size of a planet (Ms. Marvel #23), as well as being strong enough to annihilate multiple Broodships at once during Uncanny X-Men. She is also able to absorb energy from one of the strongest aliens in the Marvel universe, the Mad Titan Thanos and fire that energy right back. Her most impressive absorption feat is when she absorbed part of a black hole
Control of the electromagnetic spectrum: As Binary, Carol has been stated to have control over the electromagnetic spectrum. This means she is able to produce different types of electromagnetic radiation such as gamma radiation, which can kill cells in the body and is responsible for turning Bruce Banner into the Hulk, X-Ray which allow her to see through the body’s flesh and into weak points, as well as manipulate ultraviolet radiation, which allows her to see in the dark, and microwaves which she can used to cook her enemies.


Gravity Manipulation: Binary also is able to manipulate gravity, pulling enemies towards her or pushing enemies away, preventing them from getting near her.

Shazam

Power of SHAZAM!
Yes. Shazam isn’t (just) a made-up word. It’s actually an acronym that represents the mythological figures Billy draws his powers from and the attributes he takes after as well. The acronym itself isn’t fixed, as it depends on the specific figures:

Wisdom of Solomon
Grants Billy knowledge of various creatures and items across the universe, even if he’s never seen them before. It also grants him 5000 years of battle strategies and possible precog because more is always better.  

Strength of Hercules
Grants Billy Superhuman Strength on par with Superman, as well as to match his rival - Black Adam who are both a little strong.

Stamina of Atlas
Grants Billy the stamina to endure great physical exertion without tiring and heal from extreme physical assaults within seconds. Billy is also able to survive without food, water or any other sort of sustenance while in his Shazam form.

Power of Zeus
Besides fueling the thunderbolt that transforms Billy into Shazam, the Power of Zeus also grants Billy electrokinesis, allowing him to control and discharge powerful blasts of magical electricity.

Courage of Achilles

He keeps that good ol motivation.

Speed of Mercury

Grants Billy well...superhuman speed  and the power to fly.

Shazam also has...


  • Possession resistance - Billy as resisted possession from some powerful enemies
  • Time travel - Pretty self explanatory - Billy can travel back in time, its not really useful in combat.
  • Divine Distribution-As Shazam, Billy can share a portion of his powers with anyone he chooses. Doing this, however, divides Billy's own power.
  • Dimensional Travel: Shazam can access the Rock of Eternity whenever he wants, which sits at the center of the Multiverse.
  • Immortality: As long as Billy remains in his Shazam form he can not age.
  • Electricity: can turn into electricity.

Feats

Captain Marvel

Accomplishments

  • Became the commander of the Alpha Flight Space Program, which is Earth’s primary defense against threats from space
  • Is a member of the Avengers and during one of the Mighty Avengers runs, led the team. For those who don’t know, the Mighty Avengers are a New York-based group of heroes following Civil War
  • Also became a member of the X-Men after the Marcus Incident
  • Didn’t kill Iron Man in CW II
  • Had a good movie
  • Didn’t die from Rogue
  • No this is not Shulk’s bias leaking through

Strength

Speed
  • As mentioned, on the same tiering of Iron Man who’s pretty darn fast
  • Like pretty damn fast (for reference 1 picosecond at a distance at one meter is at the very least is 3335 times faster than light)
  • Binary is comparable to people such as Gladiator who are even more ludicrous in speed
  • Gladiator tends to contend with Thor, who takes frequent trips to Asgard, which is a universe away
  • Loki (who’s typically weaker than Thor) managed to travel to Asgard in microseconds

Durability

Shazam

Accomplishments

Strength

Speed

Durability

Weaknesses

Captain Marvel
Although Binary is extremely powerful, Carol requires an extreme amount of energy to access the form, which depending on the source can be inconsistent with how long it takes to reach that point. It doesn’t help that Carol can’t absorb every energy she comes across, such as magic - granted, it could be possible on occasion, but magic is definitively one element she cannot fully absorb. Also she’s a bit of an alcoholic. Probably explains CW II.

Shazam
Worth pointing out that despite the closest any mortal man can be to an actual god as Shazam, Billy himself is still just an ordinary 15-year old kid most of the time, and will remain as such until he finds a way to say “Shazam!” to transform. He’s at his most vulnerable without the wizard’s powers to save him, and it doesn’t help that he can be somewhat immature at times, leading him to making a careless mistake here and there.
Sharing his powers with his other family members also divides his own, making him weaker, though it’s unlikely this will be much of a problem in the actual episode.

Summary

Captain Marvel
Advantages:
  • Is more experienced, given that Shazam is still a kid.
  • Movie came out first, and ‘twas pretty good.
Disadvantages:
  • Outclassed in stats
  • Cannot fully absorb any of Shazam’s magic.
  • Wisdom of Solomon seriously fucks her over.
  • Civil War II. Oh, lord above, Civil War II.

Shazam
Advantages:
  • His powers being magical in nature prevents Captain Marvel from absorbing them.
  • Statstomps in almost every way possible.
  • Wisdom of Solomon should brief him about Captain Marvel’s powers and weaknesses.
  • Less exploitable weaknesses.
  • Was technically “Captain Marvel” first.
  • His movie was also good.
Disadvantages:
  • Still is technically a kid, and thus, has less experience.
  • Injustice.

Verdicts

ramen

(why)
…..can we just take a break from any comic book stuff at all for the next few fights? I love Marvel and DC as much as any upstanding nerd would, but holy crap do I not like this episode. Let me count the ways:
  • One-sided boring as sin match-up purely predicated on the fact that both characters are/were called “Captain Marvel”. This is already in a season where the first three matches were themed: “water”, “Mega Man” (although that was excellent though) and “widow”.
  • Also done because of obvious movie tie-ins, although this is one hustle I can respect - timing couldn’t have been more perfect to be honest. Still pretty stupid.
  • Zachary Levi does not want any part of this “””rivalry”””. Listen to him.
  • Marvel has been over-represented too much lately. Not only has this season alone only had one fight that did not have anything to do at all with Marvel (and again, said episodes is the best one by a long shot), the last 11 episodes stretching back to the latter half of Season 5 have had either alternating or back-to-back episodes featuring Marvel characters - 4 of which were against DC.
  • Barring Leonardo (who went back-to-back fights because S1 shenanigans) and Charizard (who at least had Red to mix things up in his second fight), Carol has one of the shortest waiting times in-between episodes, and good Lord, the Android 18 fight was infinitely more fair to her.
  • Also, first 4 episodes of the season and we already have two returning combatants.

Basically, I hate this episode and want this over and done with. Variety is the spice of life or whatever that shitty saying is - these last few episodes do not represent that. Would it kill to not have anything related to either Marvel or DC for… like, the rest of the season? Please.


Oh, right. Verdict.


Wake me up after Wrestlemania weekend ends.
ALSO FOR FUCK’S SAKE WHERE THE HELL IS JOKER IT’S ALREADY APRIL YOU SHITS

Joshski
Can I just take a second and talk about how much this seriously pisses me off...
Fuck you Nintendo it’s been months and all we got was his fucking back, no gameplay, no screenshots, his render wasn’t even revealed officially, and he’s supposed to come out this month, seriously what is this bullshit...oh uh and I guess this fight is kinda lame too.
For reasons I’m sure people will get into, this matchup is pretty boring. I love Marvel but jesus three of the four episodes this season being Marvel matchups is really goddamn stupid, especially when one of them has a character who was already in an episode not too long ago. I really hope DB just takes a break from Marvel and DC for a loooong while and maybe use characters from series that currently aren’t in like I dunno...
(Seriously the movie comes out in a fucking week)
Alright the fight itself, Carol is fucked, Carol is super fucked, Carol is very very fucked. Billy has a massive advantage in pretty much everything, strength, speed, durability, the only thing Carol really beats him in is experience...which doesn’t matter since Billy constantly goes up against people far more experienced than him and the Wisdom of Solomon grants him 5000 years of battle strategies. Honestly the Wisdom of Solomon might be the most broken thing in this fight with it being able to give Billy the rundown of all of Carol’s powers and weaknesses, this combined with Carol not being able to fully absorb magic (which Shazam is pretty much made of) and Billy’s superior speed, guarantees Carol won’t be able to go Binary before Shazam dabs her head off.
Hell even if Carol somehow manages to go Binary it’s still nowhere near strong enough to beat Billy who is literally magic Superman. In the end there’s only gonna be one Marvel left standing or flying and it’s pretty obvious it’s going to be Shazam. And hey DB if you really want to do another comic fight...
I’m just saying


And also all hail our lord and savior

The Black Shulk
So uh April  has been quite the month already. Joker fans are busy banging on Nintendo’s door for...fucking anything on the character. Best Buy meanwhile went ounga bounga and leaked just about anything Nintendo had for a potential direct. Shazam will be out to the public this Friday, and Avengers Endgame is on the horizon by the end of the month. Oh and GT Goku is likely coming this month for DBFZ, SC VI released Amy recently, the Sonic trailer is as bad as we thought it was going to be, and…
Oh wait this fight.
So yeah to keep it straight, Carol dies no matter how you slice it. In a realistic scenario Carol would get blitzed to hell and back before Binary is even considered. At best she matches up people like Iron Man who toss around Thing tier peeps. Billy meanwhile is consistently on the same level as Superman. It's pretty much a clear cut victory in realistic terms. Even if Carol got access to Binary somehow, Billy still has the superior feats, making this a surefire victory for him.
Even when it comes to abilities, Billy outdoes Carol. Carol doesn’t have any notable hax or techniques that could throw off Billy an-

Ok is there anything more I can really say? I mean shit this pretty straightforward. We really need a break from Marvel after this because the last couple of fights have been practically Marvel back to back. This fight isn’t even a creative idea (wowee they have the same name) and exists just to cash in on le movie hype. If you wanna cash in on something do DMC5 or something. At least that’s a break from the all the Marvel we’ve been getting. Lordy I hope the next matchup is something that isn’t related to Marvel or DC because this is getting ridiculous.
Go watch Shazam and shite.
Brobuscus


Gonna be blunt. Billy statstomps too hard for any debate to happen. The end.


PineappleGuy Carmine
Glad to be back. Even if a lot of people are bored with this fight. Onto the match.

Billy wins hands down. No ifs, ands, or butts about it. Billy has the edge in basically every stat here by scaling to Superman. Wisdom of Solomon also hard counters Carol’s experience edge.

Hell, even if you give Carol benefit of the doubt with her higher feats and scaling, while giving Billy none of his, he would still smack her. Base Carol under no circumstances can touch Billy and can’t retain magic long enough to go Binary. Thus he would almost immediately be able to paste her.

So yeah, Billy wins. Main thing I got to do here was discuss the new Marvel/DC herald stuff. Coolio.

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2 comments:

  1. maskofthedragon7 April 2019 at 11:30

    Billy had movie's back in 1941
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Captain_Marvel

    ReplyDelete
  2. Blaze the hedgehog9 August 2021 at 14:32

    Stomp match

    ReplyDelete

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