Saturday, 18 April 2020

Death Battle Predictions: Cable VS Booster Gold


Back To The Future, Terminator, Hot Tub Time Machine. Time travel is a wonderful staple in sci-fi fiction, with all its uses and intricacies. From a kid caught in a time-hopping automobile to a killer robot sent from the future, there is no shortage of these badass time travelers roaming wherever. Or whenever. In Death Battle’s first match solely focused on these kinds of heroes, only one can walk out.

Cable, mutant member of the X-Men with a big ass gun and child of Cyclops and Jean Grey from the future. Booster Gold, the showboating time hopping celebrity from the 25th century. In what will be the show’s 20th Marvel VS DC themed battle, not many would see this matchup coming. But now they’re here to settle which of them dominates the timeline, the serious soldier with a steeled gaze or the overconfident time cop with a gleaming smile. 

Background

Cable

Cable Marvel VS Capcom 2 Render by Infamous20666 on DeviantArt

Nathan Summers was born to Scott Summers (AKA Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor (A clone of Jean Grey) as a weapon for the supervillain Mister Sinister to use against Apocalypse. Young Nate was later kidnapped by Apocalypse himself who infected him with the Techno-Organic virus, a deadly virus that spreads liquid metal and organic steel through the host's body and, if not stopped, eventually kills the host. To make things worse for poor Nate there was no cure. 

Thankfully? A visitor from 2,000 years in the future, Sister Askani of the Clan Askani, appeared to Scott. She claimed that Nathan would become a savior in her time and promised the Clan would cure him of the virus in the future, however, she would be unable to make a trip back, trapping Nathan in the future. Left with no other options, Scott sent Nate to the future with the hope of him being cured of the virus...buuuuut as it turned out not only was there no cure but to make matters even worse the future world also happened to be ruled by Apocalypse.

So yeah Nate was in a pretty shitty situation..

When he arrived in the future he was raised by a time-displaced version of his sister - Racheal Summers and placed in an incubation crib in order to stop the Virus from spreading, however, it was too late and the virus had already spread to his body making it impossible to remove it. Surprisingly though, Nate survived the process and was taken by Sister Askani of the Clan Askani due to Apocalypse attacking the Clan. Sister Askani brought Nathan’s Parents - Jean and Scott to the future with new clone bodies (made from their descendants) as their previous bodies would not survive the trip. 

Jean and Scott raised Nate, hoping that he would become the legendary Cable and overthrow Apocalypse. He was taught to use the Techno-Organic Virus that was in his body as well as Telekinetic Training from Jean - allowing him to contain the virus and prevent it from killing him. 

Overtime, Nathan would grow into a great warrior - naming himself Cable and dedicating himself to his training so that one day he would be the one to eventually defeat Apocalypse and save his ruined future...which he would eventually do so. These future events with Apocalypse were not the end for Nathan as he would go onto to have many adventures including going back and meeting the X-Men in the past, partnering up with the Merc with a Mouth - Deadpool, fighting his own clone in the form of Stryfe and even becoming the leader of X-Force. Ultimately, Cable is a survivor, a person with ruthless determination to achieve any goal he sets his mind to. 

Booster Gold


Michael Carter lived in the future, the 25th century. Born in the year 2442, Michael lived with his twin sister, mother, and frankly terrible father. At only the wee age of 4, his father ditched the family all for his obsession with gambling. This addiction left behind a debt for them, and they fell into poverty.

But things weren’t all bad. In college, Michael would become a star football player, nicknamed “Booster” for his incredible speed and skill on the field. It definitely looked like he was going to the big leagues. A bright future was ahead, but then it all came crashing down.

Michael’s mother came down with a terrible illness, one that could kill her without proper treatment. Due to their aforementioned poverty, the healing needed was not available. So, Michael risked it all to save her life. He made illegal bets and would throw games for money. After going down the destructive path of his father, he was finally able to get his mother cured. But he was arrested and jailed for his crimes, which sure didn’t go over well with his mother. In an unfortunate twist of events, it looked like Michael’s chances at success went down the drain.

Once out of jail, Michael got himself a job, working as a security guard at the Metropolis Space Museum. The museum housed many images of heroes from the past, the 20th century. Inspired, Michael made a bold move. Stealing a few artifacts from the museum, and taking the security robot, Michael was set to go back in time to the 20th century and change his unexciting life.

Using Rip Hunter’s time machine, Michael made his public debut in the past in a huge way: saving the President of the United States. Just like that, he became famous, and would become the celebrity hero Goldstar.

Or….at least that’s what he WAS going to call himself until he got nervous on live television, misspoke, and got stuck with the name Booster Gold.With his new tech and more that he’d acquired along the way, he served in the Justice League International run by Maxwell Lord and alongside Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. After this, Booster tended to bounce around from team to team, or go solo. Whether he was saving Gotham by Batman’s side or being tasked with saving the timeline, he’d always do it with a smile and his can-do attitude.

Equipment

Cable

Futuristic Weaponry:

Mahvel, baby!

  • Psimitar: A weapon used to amplify and manifest his psychic abilities as energy blasts.
  • Hyper Viper Beam: a large plasma-based energy cannon that fires beams of unstable spiral energy, made famous in the Marvel vs Capcom games.
  • Plasma Rifles: Dual-wielded energy weapons capable of dishing out high powered plasma bolts
  • Time Freeze Grenades: These Grenades are capable of freezing time allowing Cable to dodge attacks or simple freeze an enemy in place. 
  • Electric Grenades: in MVC2 he is cable of firing electrical grenades that have a much wider radius than your standard grenade and electrify enemies rather than blowing them up
  • Animal-controlling Gadget: Cable has gadgets that let him control animals/FUCKING DINOSAURS

Current Day Weaponry:

  • Glocks: Glocks are semi-automatic pistols that are designed for 
  • Koch MP5K: 30 rounds, best used as a close-combat weapon. He also uses an IMI Uzi in combat as a substitute.
  • Grenades: If Cable wants some explosive damage done, he can fire Grenades 
  • Knives: For short range combat, he usually carries a pair of knives around in case anyone unfortunate to meet him wants to get stabbed.

Belle

Cable has his own AI System called Belle which he interacts with telepathically due to his bio-cybernetics implanted in him by the techno-virus. He is able to use Belle to hack the internet as well as electronics to use in his own advantage. 

Booster Gold

Power Suit

Booster’s impressive physicality doesn’t come from any metahuman gene or radioactive ooze, but rather this high-tech advanced multi-purpose combat suit. He stole it from the museum, and it augments all physical attributes. It also houses some of his best equipment, which he has used in his various adventures as a superhero:


Energy Gauntlets


When it comes to his main weapon, he uses gauntlets attached to his arms. These gauntlets are fueled by his suit’s power source which come from the 25th Century. Using these gauntlets, Booster is able to fire unidirectional energy blasts called Booster Shots. These Booster Shots can adjust their power - from stunning to killing. He can also max out these gauntlets and then channel them back into his suit in order to give himself a physical boost in strength,speed and durability though this could end up killing him.

Goggles


These goggles shield his eyes from extreme light. Okay, there’s more than that. The goggles let him zoom in on anything in sight. 

Force Field Belt


One of Booster Gold’s most useful tools. This Force Field Belt which originally belonged to Brainiac-5 of the 30th century is capable of forming barriers of energy around him in order to protect him from attacks. The energy barriers are so potent, they are even able to protect against microscopic bacteria. These Barriers are able to protect Booster from not just energy and physical attacks but also matter manipulation and even telepathy (for context - Booster Gold’s Barrier stood up to one of the most powerful telepaths in the DC Universe - Maxwell Lord). 

Booster can also project his force field outward to surround and protect his allies and teammates. He can also use this Force Field Belt offensively - through crushing them with his force field or covering them in order to prevent them from moving. He can also electrify his forcefield to shock enemies that touch it as well as increase the size of it in order to take down larger threats. 

Legion Flight Ring

Using a flight ring from the Legion of Superheroes,enough to keep up with ultra-fast beings like Superman, Martian Manhunter, and the Flash. If removed from Booster’s finger he’ll lose his flight, but if it’s close enough to him, he can control it telekinetically and force it back on.

Skeets

he friend :)

This is Skeets, the security robot that Booster stole from the Metropolis museum. As an intelligent AI, he’s a helpful source of information. He can shoot concussive lasers, fly, hack into all sorts of devices and gadgets, track time travelers, and fake his own death with a cloud of smoke. He’s also a pretty pleasant companion to have around.

Abilities

Cable

Techno-Organic Physiology

Cable’s Body has been altered by a techno-organic virus which has turned him into a human cyborg. This Virus has altered his body in significant ways - heavily increasing his superhuman strength,durability and speed as well as making him extremely difficult to kill as he is capable of rearranging the atomic structures of his own body using his own energy. In other words... 

It does have a limit as he must have energy in order to restore his own body. Also if he is unable to use energy to save his own life then he is basically dead. However, Cable has been trying to mitigate this by constantly upgrading his own body through his left arm. He has also learned various abilities that has been useful on his adventures: 

Telekinesis 

Cable has extremely impressive high-level telekinesis. This enables him to manipulate matter using his own thoughts. Using this Telekinesis he is capable of lifting extremely large objects such as the time he lifted and re-positioned the sunken space station Graymalkin.He can also do various things with his telekinesis: 
  • Techno Active Manipulation: Cable is able to manipulate the techno-organic virus in his body as well as anything that is techno-organic. 
  • Intuitive Aptitude: Using Telekinesis he can disassemble complex devices which often causes them to explode. He can also easily assemble complex devices. This allowed him complete control over objects, even a person’s own electrons.He can also analyse oxygen molecules and determine how many of them there are. 
  • Matter Alteration: Cable is able to alter molecular and subatomic structures in his techno-organic components as well as other objects - for example moving oxygen molecules to cause asphyxiation
  • Inorganic Disintegration: Cable is able to manipulate the molecular bonds which often leads to him  disintegrate objects through completely dissolving them
  • Psionic Spikes: Using his telekinetic abilities, he is able to create psionic spikes that destroy the physical objects that the spikes come into contact with.
  • Size Alteration: He can use his telekinetic abilities to easily increase his size (such as the time he increased his size to being as large as Apocalypse 
  • Telekinetic Healing:  He is capable of using his telekinesis to regenerate as well as heal himself at any increased rate - for example if he is shot in the head, he will regenerate in seconds.  
  • Force Fields: Using his telekinesis, he is capable of creating protective force shields that could deflect attacks (even small objects such as bacteria. Cable has great mastery over this ability as he is able to manipulate their size and he is able to create a forcefield in the shape of his own body. 
  • Concussive Blasts: Cable can project telekinetic energies as powerful blast beams that are easily capable of blowing up buildings. These are otherwise known as Optic Blasts (but Cable does it through the mind)
  • Tactile Telekinesis: Cable can use his telekinesis to improve his own physical speed,strength and durability
  • Telekinetic Flight: Using telekinesis, he is able to fly for short periods of time. 
  • Telekinetic Teleportation: Using telekinesis, he is capable of teleporting himself to other places. 

Telepathy

As an Omega class mutant, Cable is easily one of the most powerful telepaths Marvel has in the catalogue. He can do a lot and we do mean A LOT of different abilities and these abilities that are about to be listed are likely not the only abilities he has been shown capable of doing:

Time Manipulation


Cable has been shown capable of manipulating time through various ways.
  • Time Travel Scanning: He is capable of scanning the timestream  for certain events or people
  • Time Projection: He has been shown capable of being able to psychically project himself through time without needing to travel there physically, effectively being in two places or times at once.
  • Body-Slide: Cable is capable of using time manipulation to skip forward or backward in space-time (similar to Tracer’s Blink ability.

Booster Gold

Time Manipulation


  • Time Travel: Booster eventually integrated time travel circuitry into his suit, allowing him to warp backwards and forwards through time at will. Booster has also used it to on occasion gather other versions of himself from different points in time to fight with him.
  • Time Stopping: His future self developed a device that allowed him to stop time entirely and added it to his suit, allowing him to do so at will.

Mass Dispersion Field

BOOSTERRIFIC! Booster Gold Powers and Abilities

Booster can use his forcefield ability for more than defense. By reversing polarity, he can not only block objects, but absorb their mass and return it in the same form. Though he rarely uses this power at all, it’s usually for a Reverse Uno.

Waverider

This is Booster Gold’s eventual permanent transformation in the future that basically turns him into a being of pure chronal energy. While Boooster’s Version of Waverider doesn’t display all of Waverider’s powers in his one appearance - we can still give him the abilities that the other Waveriders have displayed (in particular, Matthew Ryder) considering Booster had an immediate grasp on his powers and abilities.

  • Increase to Strength, Speed and Durability: Booster Gold is comparable to Matthew Ryder in this state, considering Matthew Ryder as Waverider would be capable of destroying entire timelines as well as move faster than light then Booster Gold in WR Form should be Universe Level and FTL.
  • Chronal Energy: Due to Composed entirely of chronal energy, making him intangible and unable to be hurt by physical attacks (also likely by matter manipulation and telepathy as he doesn’t have a body or a brain and can just reform from attacks).
  • Time Manipulation: Waverider is easily able to manipulate the time around him, from stopping time, to speeding up time (he is also completely immune to time stop). He can also send people to certain timelines.Wave rider also has unlimited time travel across all of time and space.This also allows him to exist in multiple places at once, giving him a pseudo-omnipresence.
  • Shapeshifting: He can warp the energy in himself in order to shapeshift as well as bypass force-fields
  • Control over the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Waverider is able to manipulate everything on the electromagnetic spectrum including radio waves,microwaves and ultraviolet rays
  • Form of Omniscience: Complete knowledge of past and future events, and an understanding of the histories of other beings and their eventual fates, essentially a form of omniscience.
  • Summoning: Wave Rider is able to summon an infinite army of himself from various timelines in order to assist him. 
  • Force Fields: Waverider is capable of creating force-fields that can tank attacks from Herald Level Threats such as Exalt. 
  • Erasure: Can erase entire timelines on a whim making him at the very least Universe Level

Feats

Cable

Accomplishments 

Strength 


Speed


Durability 

Booster Gold

Accomplishments 

  • Saved Ronald Reagan’s life
  • Successfully stole equipment from the museum to become a celebrity
  • Resisted the telepathic control of Maxwell Lord 
  • Became the leader of the Justice League International
  • Eventually became Waverider who is a Universal God and the guardian of all of reality. 
  • Set up a casino on an island together with his best buddy Ted Kord. 
  • Defeated Hyperfly who was going to consume the main DC Universe if not stopped. 
  • Able to tussle with some of the strongest heroes in the DC Universe like Doomsday,Green Lantern and Blue Beetle (Jamie Reyes)
  • Helped protect the timestream numerous times despite the fact it got him very little in terms of recognition. 
  • Saved the world and most of Earth’s heroes and villains from a Starro invasion
  • Single-handedly took on the Metropolis-based crime syndicate The 1000 and won. 
  • Was forced to defeat and kill his own son - Rip Hunter.

Strength 


Speed

Durability

Weaknesses

Cable

He ate Wade’s balls

For as badass as Cable is even he still has some flaws, though luckily one of his biggest weaknesses is no longer an issue. While Cable originally had to use 20% of his psychic abilities to fight back the technovirus from spreading to the rest of his body he has since had the virus removed while still keeping his sweet cyborg body and can now freely fight at his full potential.

Also the minds of Cable and his alternate universe counterpart Nathanial Grey are interconnected and them coming close proximity to each other will cause both to experience excruciating pain.

Booster Gold

If you got serious Johnny Cage vibes from this guy, your intuitions were right. No wonder he was in the Cage vs Falcon interlude. Typical of a showoff celebrity, especially one with knowledge of future events, Booster Gold is overconfident. He won’t always take a fight seriously, and relies a lot on his defensive options and allies. His short attention span and fun-loving attitude sure don’t do him many favors in a fight to the death. Though, he isn’t dumb, that part’s just a facade he puts up so villains don’t try to take him out for being a time cop.

In a more practical sense, Booster’s tech runs on a finite battery source. Once his ludicrously powerful suit runs out of juice, he’s essentially just a normal dude.

Summary

Cable


Advantages:
  • More experienced 
  • More skilled 
  • Technopathy and hacking could possibly fuck up Booster Gold’s tech
  • More likely to take the fight seriously
  • Hax could potentially let him end the fight before Waverider is summoned
  • HYPER VIPER BEAM
  • Never mistaken for Green Lantern, though, may resemble Thanos in some ways...

Disadvantages:
  • Far slower
  • Far weaker, even at his best
  • Some of his abilities can be countered or resisted
  • Cannot get past forcefields with brute strength alone
  • Has less efficient time manipulation
  • Has absolutely no way of beating Waverider
  • Lacks charisma

Booster Gold


Advantages:
  • Far stronger than base Cable and can more than keep up with full power Cable
  • Far faster
  • Cable physically has no way around shields
  • Better time manipulation 
  • Can likely resist Cable’s mind manipulation and matter manipulation
  • Summoning Waverider is an instant win
  • Charisma

Disadvantages:
  • Not as skilled
  • Not as experienced 
  • Cable’s technopathy and hacking can possibly fuck up his tech
  • Doesn’t have any resistances to Cable’s other hax
  • Cockiness can lead to Cable getting the upper hand
  • Does not have Hyper Viper
  • Can’t seem to not be mistaken for Green Lantern

Verdicts


Malcolm Belmont


Hi guys,Mal here. Originally i wasn’t planning on doing a verdict due to personal reasons happening in my life that i would rather not go into detail plus University Work but due to having some free time i decided, why not make a verdict for this fight as this fight has gotten a lot of negative response recently which i am sure most people in the DEATH BATTLE scene will know what i am talking about and yes i am going to try and address that in this verdict. But yeah, i decided to make a verdict for this fight despite my misgivings towards it. 

This is probably not going to be structured like how i typically do my verdicts which would basically list of the stats for each and then look at their weapons and abilities before coming to a conclusion, i am going to try and hold off on that for this episode and instead do it as more of an Question and Analysis in terms of the big questions and debates people have regarding this matchup, i just think it would be a lot more interesting. Anyway, onto the actual analysis portion of the verdict. 

Question 1: Will Booster Gold be scaled to DC Heralds?

This question has been a big argument when regards to this matchup as originally most people believed that Booster Gold is simply a street level character or slightly higher than that. However, thanks to the blogs by Ultraguy as well as research by members of the G1DBFB - it was made extremely clear that Booster Gold should scale to DC Heralds. The reason why is because he has matched DC Heralds such as Doomsday who is capable of surviving planet level explosions,Blue Beetle who has been stated to be capable of blowing up the planet and Green Lanterns including Sinestro (considering Green Lanterns are shown to have survive universe level explosions). Plus the fact he has reacted to and dodged attacks from Heralds like the Martian Manhunter,Superman,Doomsday,etc then i would argue he has shown enough consistent feats against DC Heralds that he should reasonably scale. Now, in terms of where that would put Booster in terms of Stats - that should at least be Massively Solar System Level and MFTL if you scale him to the likes of Green Lantern and Superman but if you really want to high ball it you could put him at Universe Level and MFTL. At the end of the day, i definitely believe Booster should scale

Question 2: Will Cable be scaled to Marvel Heralds?

The answer is yes, at his max potential as he has tanked attacks from planet to star busters such as the Hulk whom while Cable wasn’t able to beat - he still put up a damn good fight against him. Cable has also staggered the likes of Apocalypse who damaged Thor and was strong enough to completely,  restrain the Hulk as well as trade blows with the High Evolutionary. Cable put up a damn good fight against Apocalypse so while i don’t think he is stronger than Apocalypse i feel that he should reasonably scale to him. Even ignoring that there is one mention that definitely proves that Cable should be up there with Marvel Heralds, the fact he has outright tanked an explosion caused by Nate Grey and Nate Grey has been stated and shown to be as powerful as Dark Phoenix. As such considering Cable can tank hits from Marvel Heralds and Stagger Marvel Heralds, he should definitely scale to them.As for what they would put him.Considering the fact that Marvel Heralds such as the Silver Surfer whom  iincinerated a solar system while pulling the souls out of Uni-Lord and causes Supernovas by flying through stars his DC should definitely be put at Multi-Solar System Level. As for his speed considering that Cable has fought the Silver Surfer. Whom searched through the entire galaxy in seconds. SS visited every planet across numerous galaxies in hours he should at least be Faster than Light to Massively Faster Than Light. 

So in terms of Stats if you lowball DC Heralds (putting them at Multi-Solar System Level than Cable and Booster Gold should be about equal but if you highball DC Heralds (put them at Universe Busting) then Booster should win comfortably in stats. 

Question 3: How do their abilities match each other?

This is an extremely interesting question/debate. Ironically both have fairly considerable counters to the other, when it comes to Booster Gold - one of the key abilities of the suit is its resistance against telepathy/telekinetic attacks as shown when he resisted the telepathic control of Maxwell Lord. Keep in mind that Maxwell Lord is absolutely one of the strongest telepaths in the DC Universe - so much so he put the entire world under his mind control making them believe that Ted Kord did not exist. So if Booster Gold is able to resist telekinesis and telekinetic attacks from someone with planet wide mind control as Maxwell Lord then it’s not much of a stretch to assume that Booster’s suit will allow him to resist Cable’s Telekinesis and Telepathic Attacks to some extent.  Booster Gold’s Force Fields also will allow him to resist a lot of the energy based attacks that Cable can throw at him which is very possible since it’s stated the Force Field can absorb Energy Based Attacks. Both of these factors show that Booster Gold is able to resist or at least counter a lot of Cable’s Telekinetic abilities and as well as his energy attacks which is extremely useful on him. 

On the other hand, Cable is able to counter Booster. One of Booster’s biggest problems when coming into this fight is that his suit is simply technology meaning it’s power can be depleted rapidly or through an external source, considering Cable’s techno-organic virus is capable of hacking into technology and could possibly shut down Booster’s Suit which would leave Booster with some serious problems since he relies on that suit for his power and if he’s gone - well he’s basically an ordinary human and Cable could very easily finish him off. 

Finally there’s the entire reason why this matchup is happening in the first place - Time. In terms of their Time Manipulation abilities, both characters are able to speed forward,slow down and even stop time if they so choose to.Both could easily use their time stopping abilities in order to counter the other so in terms of simply just spamming their time manipulation abilities, it would basically just become a stalemate. 

So overall in terms of their abilities, you could make a fair argument that Cable and Booster Gold simply counter each other with their own abilities that are perfectly suited to disrupt the other. One character doesn’t have a huge advantage over the other and Booster Gold is resistant to a lot of what Cable can do but Cable can use his Techno-Organic Virus to affect Booster’s Tech. Ultimately I think in terms of Abilities it’s too close to say.

Question 4: What about their superforms?

Both Booster Gold and Cable technically have superforms or at least boosts in power that make them much stronger than before. Booster Gold has Wave Rider and Cable has his full potential maxed out. I will start with Cable since that’s a lot easier to explain. With Cable’s max power he is easily able to fight against Marvel Heralds such as Nate Gray who has been shown to be comparable to the Dark Phoenix. Cable at his max potential should definitely be stronger but not too much stronger. Waverider on the other hand is a completely different story. Waverider is basically a Post-Crisis Booster transformed into a being of pure chronal energy and given a MASSIVE boost in power. Waverider is cable of erasing entire timelines (putting him solidly at Universe Busting),complete control over the electromagnetic spectrum,can’t be hurt by any matter manipulation,telekinesis or even physical attacks and even better he can summon an infinite amount of himself to aid him in the fight. It’s fair to say that Waverider is completely busted and if DEATH BATTLE choose to put it into play then Booster Gold takes this easily but a debate that a lot people have about Waverider is:

Question 5: Should Waverider Booster Gold even be used?

This is perhaps the biggest debate regarding this matchup and one that people have definitely gone back and forth on. Here’s the thing about Waverider Booster Gold - he only appeared in one issue and people argue that he’s basically Superman One Million and since DEATH BATTLE didn’t include Superman One Million in DB then why should they include Waverider Booster Gold? Well for a couple of reasons - first Superman One Million is an alternate storyline and will now appear in canon. Second, the Post-Crisis Booster Gold is permanently Waverider. It’s not just a temporary transformation - he is the Waverider now. Also considering that Booster Gold can call Waverider at any time to aid him - there is no reason why Waverider shouldn’t be used unless they are 100% against him making an appearance which I would find to be a bit odd considering how Ultra has mentioned it in the blog. 

Conclusion:

Ultimately when it comes down to this matchup i think both characters match each other quite well in terms of their abilities with neither having the hax needed to beat the other as a lot of their abilities counter the other but in terms of stats - Booster should naturally take it due to most people including DEATH BATTLE themselves believing in Universe Level DC Heralds as shown through their Green Lantern video. While max potential Cable may put him closer to Booster Gold’s level - the second Waverider comes out, it’s all over for Cable. Ultimately I could see DEATH BATTLE going with Cable but ultimately there’s many more solid reasons as to why Booster Gold would win this over Cable. Ultimately when it comes to who is winning, I would more than not put my bet on Booster. Looks like Cable will be out of time

Ramen=Noodles


so here’s the visualization of every DC death battle because they’re all the same thing now




rinse and repeat ad nauseum, ensure that the next carcass is prepared in a very sanitary manner, keep a timer handy in case of possible overcooked meals, serve with salt to taste

Phantom Falcon

Booster Gold vs Cable huh. Never thought this fight would happen, always wanted Trunks vs Cable, but this match is pretty neat, and the animation looks fluid as hell.

Aight so Cable’s probably getting his full power, which allows him to scale to heralds like Silver Surfer, who’s galaxy to potentially universal and quadrillions of times light speed. So, seems clear cut for Cable right? I mean, Booster seems to be just your standard DC street tier. Well, that’s what we thought too.

Turns out, Booster is literally just “why” in terms of his feats, because he’s fucking ridiculous, even by herald standards. He already has better stats than even full power cable thanks to fighting characters like Blue Beetle and Doomsday, which make him quintillions-decillions of times light speed and universal-low multiversal, but he also resists a decent chunk of Cable’s hax, like telepathy and matter manipulation, and hacking the suit is unlikely since it’s Brainiac level tech.

Now there’s a potential way for Cable to surpass him, which is by scaling him to X-Man, who’s pretty OP. Universal-low multiversal does that for you, which puts him on even grounds with Booster, at least in sheer power. He can even get higher if you take the X-Man = Dark Phoenix statement literally, which should put him above Booster, though that relies on a statement that I’m not comfortable using. Even then, Booster can literally summon Waverider to even the odds and even potentially win.

Add that with Booster being capable of reflecting attacks and trapping Cable in his barriers, which are tough enough to survive hits from a full power Power Girl and Cyborg Superman, and Booster has enough odds in his favor to take the win. Looks like Cable got unplugged.

Clockboxxer

Wasn’t gonna leave a verdict due to personal reasons irl but saw the blog was lacking, this’ll be a short one

Goro vs Machamp was better than expected, favorite this season

Anyway, I’m glad to see Cable and my boy Booster Gold. Marvel and DC again, I guess, and that’s alright. I just hope the next 3 episodes exclude them.

Lucky for me the celebrity from the future is winning this. Booster takes the stat trinity by a lot, his tech is Brainiac level, making it a tall order for Cable to even attempt to hack his stuff, he has mental protections, his time manipulation is better, he can resist matter manipulation, and if for some reason all else fails Waverider ensures that at worst it becomes a stalemate (but that’s only if you give Cable his best scaling possible, otherwise he dies horribly). Even if they decide Cable’s mental abilities are above Maxwell’s, Booster is hilariously faster and can stop that shit. Tactics and experience are great and all but Cable’s screwed. DC W. Again. So yeah. Booster takes the Gold.



Joshski 


K Goro vs Machamp was really fucking good definitely the best fight of the season now to see what’s ne-
Oh shit that’s a really cool fight with two really great characters now I haven’t really looked into Booster Gold but from what I know I’m pretty sure Cable has this in a decently close deba-

“Booster scales to DC Heralds”, “Booster resists a good chunk of Cabel’s hax”, “Fucking Waverider”

ohnoooooooo

While I’m still really looking forward to the full episode it does kinda suck that DC is gonna get yet another win and give Marvel yet another L. Here’s hoping we can get away from Marvel and DC for at least a few episodes and maybe give other series a chance. Anyways R.I.P. Josh Brolin...again.

The Draconic Hero

(Booster Gold. Meet golden dragon. ...yeah I’m not good at these intros)

When I first heard of this matchup, I thought this was going to be, as Clockboxxer said, another crime scene of DC slaughtering Marvel and even as a DC fan, I’m honest to god sick and tired of it. The last definitive win Marvel had over DC was Ghost Rider vs Lobo and before that, if you don’t count Batman Vs Black Panther, or Venom Vs Bane, you’d have to go all the way back to Season 2’s Hawkeye Vs Green Arrow for a hard fought Marvel victory against their DC counterpart, which is, in my opinion, just not fair to Marvel. With the advent of DC’s comics going down the plug hole (Looking at you New 52) and their movies paling in comparison to the MCU (death of Black Widow aside), I just want Marvel to show that they can stand up to their rivals, not be their bleeding punching bag.

Then, to my surprise, as I glossed the wiki of both characters, I thought “Hey, you know, Cable’s got plenty of hax. He might actually win.” Then we found out that Waverider was a thing. ...I was super salty. His mere existence took away all the fun out of the debate and pretty much made it clear Booster was gonna win...until we realized it was possible to scale Cable to, of all things, Dark Phoenix. 

As a result, we decided to keep things just between Booster Gold and Cable since such scaling and things would make the battle too insane to predict, likely ending a stalemate. And even with that said, Booster probably still wins. While Cable has his hax of telekinetic powers, mind control, and matter manipulation, Booster has resisted and/or powered through all three kinds of techniques from beings greater than Cable. It took Doomsday to one-shot Booster Gold’s forcefields. Cable’s only real chance of getting past those is by disintegrating Booster’s suit if given the chance. Problem is...it’s hard to say if he’ll get it, or if he could even pull it off. Booster’s suit resisted the subatomising of a planet and Cable’s matter manipulation is similar. 

Now you could argue that Cable having better tactics might give him the chance he needs to turn this around, but Booster Gold is not an idiot and he’s also way stronger and faster. Behind Booster Gold’s goofball nature is the mind and spirit of a true hero, he’s not gonna let Cable get the upper hand more than once, so it’s unlikely he’s going to end up falling for Cable’s tricks with everything he’s powered through and been able to pull off. Not to mention, Death Battle has a running history of that while character’s could pull off victories in some very specific circumstances (Sonic, Mob, and Strange just to name a few), they’re only interested in who wins the vast majority of the time and sadly, I don’t think that’s gonna be Cable. They also have that same running history of wanting a character at their best. In that case, with how Death Battle works, any mistake Booster makes is far too likely to result in him having the durability, speed and strength to tank and learn from it. The majority of the time, he will likely be able to withstand or avoid a fatal attack from Cable--or losing his suit. And Death Battle always looks at the majority.

I am praying for Cable’s win, but I don’t think he’s going to get the golden opportunity to boost his chances of victory. The winner will likely be Booster Gold, but I really hope it’s not. I will never be happier to be wrong.


Otto



Green Lantern vs Cable

Well, this is a fight that’s going to come down to how Death Battle sets the rules. But for now, let’s just look at the fight as being standard Booster Gold vs standard Cable. No Waverider, no TO-free X-Man power levels, just Booster vs Cable as they’re typically imagined.

Booster destroys Cable.

Booster’s Boosted Legion Gear And Why They Trash Cable

What you have in Booster is a guy with a LOSH flight ring and Brainiac 5’s forcefield belt. That’s more than plenty to do in Nate. I don’t think the top speed of a LOSH flight ring has ever been stated. It’s not as fast as superspeed as characters with superspeed (Mon-El, Superboy) are said to be faster than their teammates. Still, it should be plenty fast--far faster than Cable.

It’s been said that in Booster Gold v2 47 Booster keeps up with the Flash and taps into his speed force. In context what happened was that Booster activated chronal energy to do a time-jump but needed to borrow some of Barry’s energy to finish it because he was drained trying to time travel to a place that didn’t exist (long story, comics are weird). It’s less that he matched the Flash and more he got Flash to jump his batteries.

Still, the flight ring should make Booster far faster than Cable. It also comes with kinetic alterations programmed into the ring to keep characters like Matter-Eater Lad from pulping themselves by going too fast. This means Booster has added protection to getting knocked around be it by laser beams or TK. 

Though with Brainy’s belt, he hardly needs the boost.

Booster’s said before that Brainy’s belt is the greatest thing he’s ever stolen and he’s absolutely right.

Brainy’s belt is by farrrrrr Booster’s greatest power. To understand how powerful the belt is, you have to understand its history.

 Brainiac, the dude that fights Superman and collects cities-in-bottles, had a forcefield famous for keeping out Superman. Supermans typically had to use guile to overcome the shield. For instance in its first appearance (Action Comics 242) Superman had to sneak into Brainiac’s ship by letting Brainiac shrink Metropolis with himself inside it as Clark Kent and get the jump on him. The shield has only ever been overcome by force twice. The first was in Action 275 where Superman with a third eye in the back of his head (long story involving red and green kryptonite, comics are weird) spun so fast his triple heat vision hit as one and broke the shield. The second was in Action 491 where a berserk Superman breaks through the shield (after it survived Superman inhaling a supernova and breathing it out on the shield. Eat your heart out Kirby). Superman’s power level being tied to his emotional state isn’t something post-crisis came up with, and writers used it to explain why for instance Brainiac’s forcefield could keep out Superman who could also travel through time and survive the big bang going off in his face. Thus I don’t think we should scale Brainiac’s shield to Superman’s more cosmic feats, but it's still quite a sturdy invention if it requires Superman totally taking the gloves off to crack.

Brainiac’s belt was so OP that obscure supervillain Grax, who had a 20th level intellect to Brainiac’s 12th, had to steal Brainiac’s belt because he couldn’t make a copy himself in Action Comics 342.

Grax proceeded to hook the belt up to a red sun so that Superman would have to deal not only with a wall he couldn’t break but a wall that reduced his powers on contact. This shows that the belt, though not perfectly immune to physical damage, should at the very least be star level for durability.

(For those wondering why a villain smarter than Brainiac is so obscure, note that he got his ass kicked by Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog in Super Friends 8. It goes to show that no matter how powerful a villain you are, no writer wants anything to do with you after you’re defeated by Scooby-Doo standins)

Booster doesn’t use Brainiac’s forcefield. Instead, he uses Brainiac 5’s forcefield. Brainiac 5 is a descendent of a Brainiac 1 from the 30th (sometimes 31st) century. Brainy is a good guy version of Brainiac 1 with an intelligence level on par with his ancestor, so one would think his forcefield scales to his, especially given how Brainy modeled his forcefield belt directly on his ancestor’s own.

Brainy’s belt might be just as strong as Brainiac 1’s, but it is worth mentioning that Brainy technically doesn’t have tech feats on par with the first Brainiac. We don’t even have to go into modern stuff like Convergence and multiverse-level Brainiac to prove this. Back in the Bronze Age Brainiac 1 accidentally created Unicron years before Unicron (Action 528). That’s well beyond anything Brainy’s ever done. It’s reasonable to assume that his forcefield would be a step down from his ancestors. But it does have several impressive feats all its own.

In LOSH 303 Brainiac uses his forcefield to contain the Emerald Eye of Ekron, though he says his forcefield can only hold the Eye for a few minutes.

Now, what’s the Emerald Eye of Ekron?

Basically, a proto-green lantern ring. It’s a little more complicated than that and involves a space giant (comics are weird), but that’s the long and short of it. Still, given the things lantern rings are capable of (as I’m sure Ben 10 fans are acutely aware of) holding the Eye for minutes should count as, at the very least, star level.

Now we can’t say that Booster’s belt is exactly like Brainy’s--even though technically, it is--because of two caveats. The first is that Booster is powering the belt off 25th century batteries. You try powering your computer with a powersource from five hundred years ago. This leads to the all-too-common scenario where Booster’s shield is taking damage like it's supposed to when “OH NO! MY POWER’S GOING DOWN!” happens and Booster gets taken out. The second is that Booster is using the belt after its been gathering dust in a museum for centuries. How a belt made in the 30th century wound up sitting for centuries inside a museum in the 25th century is quite a tale, and I’m sure Death Battle will explain it. But if they don’t, know that it involves Ronald Reagen (who also gave Booster Gold his name). Booster lacks a 12th level intellect, so it’s very doubtful he’s been keeping the belt in tip-top condition.

Still, even with these caveats, I feel it's safe to say that Booster’s forcefield--which also ties into his strength--is far more than Cable can handle. Even with the batteries running down as Booster fights, the speed of the flight ring means that he’s going to be able to missile-slam Cable until he dies. 

I know what some people might be thinking--to hell with forcefields. Cable is a telepath. He tells Booster to turn off the forcefield and then frags him. I thought that to. But surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly. Say you’re a green nerdboy with a crush on Supergirl. You really want her girlfriend Saturn Girl to read your thoughts?) the forcefield gives some serious telepathic resistance. When Maxwell Lord used his mind control powers to wipe his existence from the world (a feat which was so powerful it worked on other telepaths) Booster was unaffected because of his shield. 

There was a comic where Cable fought a flying forcefield user sort of like Booster. In New Warriors 46, Cable goes for a ride on a mind-controlled Cannonball (the mutant, not the projectile) whose power is that he can cover himself in a kinetic force field and blast around. Cable nearly dies, and only survives because he sends a desperate telepathic command to Cannonball to STOP.

His fight with Booster will be like his fight with Cannonball, but this time STOP isn’t going to work.

How Cable Could Still Win

Here is where we get into the “going to come down to how Death Battle sets the rules” stuff I mentioned.

Typically, Cable has tremendous telepathic potential limited by his TO virus. If he uses too much telepathic power his TO acts up and he gets a seizure. But Cable’s been through a lotttt of stuff throughout the years. Here’s a guide to the changes in his power levels taken from a post by 8fenristhewolf8 on reddit:

Cable's powers have fluctuated fairly frequently and sharply over the years, making it tricky to describe his power levels with accuracy. While I have combined feats from several different periods in Cable's life under the same categorizations, the following dates (very) roughly outline some of his power fluctuations. Mouse over feats in the respect thread to see when they occurred.
  • 1990-1995: Cable almost never used powers in his early appearances, and on the rare instances he did, he was fairly limited. The comics later revealed this was because Cable was infected with a TO Virus; Cable had to constantly use his Tk to keep the virus from spreading and killing him and he could spare very little of his powers elsewhere.
  • 1995-2003: Cable's powers eventually began to grow, particularly once the comics fully established he was the son of Scott and Jean Grey (or at least her genetic template). Barring some ups and downs, he began to use his powers increasingly often and to greater effect.
  • 2003-2007: Cable achieved his highest levels of power and became a globe-changing force wielding incredible psionic power (sometimes fans call him Omega or Savior Cable). However, Cable's body was unable to sustain such power for very long and his powers burned out. He was able to approximate his high-level psionic abilities with technology for some time, but he eventually lost that as well.
  • 2007-2012: After Cable's powers burned out, he could barely use them; it was even dangerous to do so because of the TO virus had returned. This might be Cable's weakest period. He was often in poor health and had few resources as he traveled the future with Hope.
  • 2012-2015: In 2012, Hope cured Cable of the TO virus, but his powers remained stunted. Cable began using cybernetic arms and an eye and had significant technological resources. During this time, Cable developed premonitions about future disasters. Such visions struck him randomly, but were very precise.
  • 2015-onwards: Aside from some flashes of telekinesis and telepathy in 2015-2016's Uncanny Avengers, Cable is back to almost exclusively using future tech in his fights. In his current solo series Cable that began in May 2017, he barely shows any psionic powers but often uses weapons, teleporting, and time travel to achieve his goals.

(I love it when I don’t have to do my own research!)

Putting Cable at his Savior Cable power level drastically changes the game. In Savior Cable, you got someone that can fight with the Silver Surfer and scales to Dark Phoenix by scaling to X-Man, his alternate timeline self that never got infected with the TO virus. Yes, he does burn out at this power level, but his cosmic might should be enough to drain Booster’s batteries and frag him.

But I don’t think we should use Savior Cable.

Some people think that Cable should be at Savior Cable power level because the rule is that Death Battle takes characters at their peak. But this goes against the rule that we aren’t supposed to use nonstandard forms of characters. Captain Marvel (Billy) doesn’t get his Wizard Shazam mode or his God of Gods mode. Superman doesn’t get the Sword of Superman and he doesn’t get to split into Superman Red and Superman Blue. Batman doesn’t get the Hellbat armor.

I believe Savior Cable qualifies as a nonstandard form. He’s been debuffed to being without telepathic powers far longer (2007-2015) than when he was at his Savior levels. Him being without telepathic powers is more “standard” than him at Savior power levels.

But say we twist the rules to allow Savior power levels (the rules have been bent before such as when they gave Thanos the Infinity Gauntlet even though he typically doesn’t have it and has actually used cosmic cubes more often). But if we bend the rules for Cable so we can use him at his max power even if its with a nonstandard form, then we should do the same for Booster right?

Booster has his own superpowerful nonstandard form in Waverider, who is sort of like his version of Superman Prime (the one from DC 1 Million, not PRIME TIME). Waverider is a future version of Booster who merges with the timestream and becomes a god who not only can control time, but is time. 

Waverider should be able to handle Savior Cable, especially since his powers don’t run out and Cable’s do.

And given his durability feats in Zero Hour, it’s likely that Waverider could not only defeat Savior Cable but every X-Men related character at once.

Will DC Streak Again?

There’s a lot riding on this fight. If Cable loses then it means not only that DC is kicking off another winning streak but that X-Men characters kicking off a losing streak (and really they should already be on a losing streak. Wonder Woman vs Rogue was bogus and everyone knows it).

Assuming the rules work like I think they work, we’re going to see both streaks happen.

Booster is just too fast and too durable. Cable’s best bet would be to try and get Booster to waste energy by bodysliding as often as possible and taking advantage of Booster’s grandstanding and ego until the shield is depleted, but that’s not as likely to happen as Booster tackling Cable into the sun.

My vote: Green Lantern

Addendum: In which I try and guess the thoughts of the Death Battle writers

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but am I the only one that feels as if the Death Battle team went into this one thinking Booster and Cable were far less powerful than they are? I think they went into this thinking that they were both essentially guys with future weapons. They had energy shields and energy guns and they’d do a little math and see who could pew pew the best. I don’t think they anticipated Cable’s messianic mode or Brainy’s belt being as powerful as it is.

Barring some shocking serve no one sees coming, DC once again tramples over Marvel and kicks off another streak to boot. I don’t think Death Battle likes streaks. As hype as they can be, I don’t think they like it when the audience sees a DC character and goes “oh boy, here we go again.”

If Death Battle wants to balance fights against DC characters, they need to do a bit of prep work before hand and ask questions such as “does this character have a device invented by a 12th level intellect?” Yes, “dials go up to 11” and all that, but DC can easily stock up defeats if they started picking from the lower-power levels of the universe. Take Booster’s teammates for example. Blue Beetle, Fire, and Ice aren’t exactly cosmic level.

But I have no doubt Ben has a file called “Sidekick Match” on his computer set aside if they need to quickly serve DC a defeat.

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