Death Battle Predictions: Batgirl vs Spider-Gwen

 “Women who will lift and build others, who will love and be loved. Women who live bravely, both tender and fierce. Women of indomitable will.”

Amy Tenney

Over the years, Batman and Spider-Man have inspired many individuals with their tales of heroism, coupled alongside a never-say-die attitude that has allowed seemingly ordinary people to rise up and achieve greatness, even going so far as to stand alongside legends and gods as equals. Many have found themselves following their footsteps, and two young women - both of whom had developed similarly inspiring reputations themselves - who have done just that will take center stage for the next stage of the longest-running rivalry in fictional history:

Batgirl, DC’s tech-savvy Bird of Prey. Spider-Gwen, the punk-rocker Ghost Spider of Marvel Comics. In spite of their ages, Barbara Gordon and Gwen Stacy rose up to face the dastardly criminal elements of their respective universes with nothing more than their daring wit in the face of danger and the same resilient spirits that powered their older counterparts. Neither of them would prefer to take a life if they can prevent it, but with the chance to go all out and pull no punches in a Death Battle, which one of these high-flying heroines will rise to the occasion?

Background

Batgirl

“I have to find another path. Divine my own future. One uniquely mine. Not a page from someone else's book. Not a fate that begins and ends on page one”

Despite modeling herself after the Dark Knight, Barbara Gordon’s own costumed crime-fighting identity as Batgirl is about as far removed from that of Bruce Wayne’s in terms of temperament and motivation. Whilst Batman fights crime primarily due to being haunted by the deaths of his parents, Batgirl fights for more altruistic reasons: she views it as a responsibility of hers based on her talents and skills, and needs no motivation beyond simply wanting to do good by others. Such a motive to enter a field like this must explain why - for the most part - her decision to become a vigilante was born out of a spur of the moment encounter with her future mentor.

Once the head of Gotham City’s public library, Barbara fashioned her own take on Batman’s suit as a costume to wear at a masquerade ball, going beyond being just for show by making it an outfit fully capable of being worn for battle. However, she never did get the chance to wear it to that part, as before arriving, she assisted Batman and Robin in solving a crime committed by Killer Moth. After a few misunderstandings, the Dynamic Duo saw potential in Barbara and offered her a chance to join them for future cases, which she readily agreed to, becoming a valued member of the ever-growing Batfamily in the process.

As with her comrades, Batgirl possessed both a genius-level intellect and the expert martial arts training to go along with it, in addition to many gadgets of her own design. Her more idealistic mindset made her a stark contrast to the dark environment she was born and raised in; even after being paralyzed from the waist down after being savagely beaten to near-death by the Joker, she continued to find ways to help her friends and others in need as the ever-present hacker and info broker, Oracle. Nothing short of death would prevent Barbara from reaching her truest potential as a hero, and her many years of experience serve as proof of that.

Spider-Gwen

“Even when you're not wearing a mask, you're still a superhero. You're still on the outside. You don't get to be normal. All you get to be is special. Forever.”

On Earth-616, Gwendolyne Maxine Stacy played an important role in Spider-Man’s legacy, albeit one she could no longer bear witness to. As the first woman Peter Parker ever truly loved, her death at the hands of the Green Goblin haunted him for years after, reminding him of the stakes that being a superhero entailed. While he would continue to mature into the well-meaning symbol of peace that she would have no doubt been proud of, Peter would eventually get the chance to see his long-lost love again, albeit under circumstances he would not expect: as the Spider-Woman of an alternate universe where he himself was dead.

Earth-65’s own Gwen Stacy spent her high school days as a drummer for the Mary Janes and enjoying her days as a relatively normal teenage girl. However, a bite from a radioactive spider granted her the amazing abilities she currently enjoys, and thus inspired her decision to become a superhero, with only a few aware of her secret identity; one such person was her universe’s Peter Parker, who secretly held feelings for her. In awe of her newfound strength, Peter sought to channel that power by becoming his universe’s version of the Lizard to get back at those who tormented him, only to tragically die fighting against her.

Haunted by the death of her best friend, Gwen continued to fight crime, with her memories of Peter further serving as motivation. She in turn would come to meet his Earth-616 incarnation, making a mutual promise to look out for each other in honor of those they had lost. Now adopting the name of “Ghost Spider” after noting how many of her own alternate counterparts had died, Gwen now travels between both Earth-65 and Earth-616 to further her education and continue her activities as a vigilante alongside Spider-Man and others like her, constantly remembering the responsibilities that come with her power and her desire to fulfill them.

Equipment

Batgirl

Batsuit

This batty attire was originally created by Barbara to be used as a Batman-themed costume for a masquerade ball. However, Barbara would later alter it to use in her crime fighting career. Due to Barbara’s police connections, she was able to obtain police supplies in order to modify her costume so that it would be able to protect her from getting hit/getting pierced by bullets,etc. It was later upgraded by Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson to have kevlar lining thread and carbon nanotube fibers. This upgrade allows the suit to take even further damage. to the point that she can withstand Small Building Level grenade explosions and firebang grenades.

Barbara's gloves by themselves have composite plastic that can resist a knife cut to her forearms. They have shock plates intended to absorb kinetic damage and sharp edges capable of piercing through Firebug's armor. She also has a respirator built into her gloves and a flashlight in her left glove.

Utility Belt

Due to her police connections, Barbara was able to modify a police belt in order to create her own custom utility belt. It is made from leather and tough sewn pockets reinforced with steel lining, making it bulletproof in case the utility belt gets shot. While Barbara’s utility belt does not store as many things as Batman, it still has a lot of equipment in it that can help Barbara in a variety of situations.

Grenades and Bombs

Batgirl has plenty of explosives in her bat arsenal that are capable of incapitating opponents or putting them to sleep:

• EMP Grenades - These electromagnetic pulse grenades are efficient in disabling electronic devices.

• Bat-Grenade - The Bat-Grenades when thrown create a small explosion that is strong enough to flip a car.

• Fire Bombs - When thrown, these grenades create a small fire. In Young Justice, Batgirl and Impulse used their Fire Bombs and Speed to create a fire tornado. 

• Safety Foam Bomb - Barbara can throw this small bomb down to create an abundance of expanding safety foam, designed to absorb impact and halt movement. 

• Chemical Bomb - When thrown, a large amount of something green is released that could be a deadly chemical.

• Sleeping Gas Bombs - Pretty self explanatory, when thrown sleep gas is deployed causing the target to fall asleep. 

Pellets

 

• Smokescreen pellets - Inspired by tales of the Ninja, these pellets when thrown onto the ground create a large smokescreen that can be used to hide Batgirl’s escape from pursuers. 

• Flash pellets - These pellets are used to shine a flash of bright light to blind and stun opponents for approximately ten seconds.

• Foam pellets - These pellets are used for putting out large fires due to the foam smothering fire. 

Guns

Just like Bruce, Barbara doesn’t like the use of firearms, but she has on occasion been shown to use very specialised firearms in her war against crime: 

• Grapple Gun/Grapnel Gun - A Bat-Family staple. Batgirl, like her mentor, relies a lot on the grapple gun in order to go around Gotham. She can also use it to pull thugs towards her for a quick knockout punch. 

• Batarang Gun - A specialised gun that fires out Batarangs that can be used to incapacitate opponents. 

• Little Batarang Gun - A specialized gun that can fire Batarangs that are too small, they do almost no damage and is used primarily for distraction.

• Fire Extinguisher - This handy gun is able to shoot out water in order to extinguish fires as well as prevent people from burning. 

• Batclaw - A more combat oriented variation of the Grapplegun in that it fires a claw rather then a simple grappling hook

• Taser Gun - Fires two lines of electricity that can be used to stun opponents though how effective it is will depend on how durable the user is.

Ropes

Due to Barbara preferring non-lethal force, she will use ropes in order to entangle her opponents or simply use them practically, such as pulling a falling car. 

• Ropes - Pretty self-explanatory, Barbara can use ropes in order to entangle thugs or lift falling vehicles. 

• Batrope - A specialised rope made by Batman. Serves the same function as a normal rope but is a lot more durable due to being made by Wayne Enterprises. 

Etc.

These are gadgets that couldn’t be fitted into the previous categories:

• Electromagnets - Creates a magnetic field that can be used to magnetize objects.

• A geiger counter - Measures the radiation level in any given area. 

• Laser-Strafer - A device that spins around, shooting multiple lasers at once.

• Rebreather - Used underwater in order to breathe.

• Line Launcher - This device can be used to get to one location to another by firing the line at a building and then travelling across the line.

• Tracking Device - Very useful in Batgirl’s line of work. Allows her to track the location of moving objects. 

• Duct Tape - Can be used to wrap thugs up and prevent them from speaking. 

• Air filter - This device protects her from harmful gases.

• Bat-Whistle - Can be used to produce a large sound that can disorientate opponents. 

• Tranq Darts - These darts can be used to knock opponents out as long as it touches the skin. 

• Bat-Phone Case - This protects her phone from impacts. It also has a built-in super-flash that can be used to disorient.

• Bat-Camera - While undercover, Batgirl can use her utility belt to take pictures secretly without being caught.

• Little Binoculars - These binoculars are useful for seeing far off locations despite it’s very small size.

• Jetpack - This gadget gives Batgirl the ability to fly for short periods of time. 

• Laser Cutter - This cutter can easily cut through windows allowing for a quick entrance. 

• Microcassette Recorder - Using this, she can record her voice. This can be used to deceive enemies or send messages to others. 

• Nano-aluminum spray - Sprays aluminum particles everywhere. Mostly used for detective work

Batarangs

One of the most well-known weapons owned by the Dark Knight are the small shurikens that are his trusty Batarangs, but Bruce isn’t the only one who uses them. Barbara has trained in using them and just like Bruce, she has a wide variety of them to use in different jobs. For that reason, they come in several different versions:

• Concussion Batarangs - These are heavier than usual batarangs and are intended to give the person a concussion.

• Explosive Batarangs - These explosive batarangs cause a small explosion when thrown. They are strong enough to stagger superhumans such as Black Beetle. 

• Taser Batarangs - Electrified batarangs that can bounce off surfaces to hit multiple targets. 

• Shock Batarangs - These electrified batarangs can shock anything that comes into contact with them

• Razor Batarangs - During a fight against his brother, Barbaba used these batarangs to save her mother from her brother, James Gordon Jr. These batarangs can deal significant injury to the spine. 

• Gooperangs - These batarangs when coming into contact with an object encase them in a goop that prevents them from moving 

• Ice Batarangs - Frosty batarangs that incase anything in ice that comes into contact with it 

• Timed Explosive Batarangs - They’re basically explosive batarangs but set on a timer

Neural Implant 

After being shot by the Joker, Barbara was paralyzed, rendered unable to walk. She had experimental surgery that placed a neural implant at the base of her brain. This neutral implant connects directly to her spine, which allows her to bypass the missing section of spine and use her legs.This neutral implant does have one significant weakness. If the implant is damaged or malfunctions, Barbara could become paralyzed again and sufficient enough damage could lead to permanent brain damage. 

Spider-Gwen

Spider-Woman Suit

This suit designed by Gwen Stacy herself is very different in terms of design to most Spider-Suits. It utilizes skin-tight cloth for ease of maneuverability. The mask is for preventing dust in Gwen’s eyes whilst maneuvering around her universe’s version of New York. Most notably, there are web-wings on her armpits that allow her to temporarily glide in the air. 

Web-Shooters

These web shooters are similar in concept to Peter Parker’s web shooters but function very differently. Developed by Gwen’s version of Janet Van Dyne, these web shooters trap moisture in the air to create web-fluid. This web-fluid can be used in order to create various web based objects such as webs and notes. The main weakness of these web shooters is that if the environment lacks moisture then she will be unable to create web-fluid. While Gwen still has these, she relies less of them since getting the Venom Symbiote.

Plasma Weapons

During her fight against Earth 65 Cindy Moon, Gwen used a plasma rifle, space pistol and space mini-gun to try and take down Cindy Moon. They proved ineffective against Cindy Moon’s Power Glove and it’s Captain America mode. 

Ticket to the Multiverse

After she lost her Dimensional Travel Watch, the Gwen Stacy of Earth-3109 (long story) gave her a new way to traverse dimensions via the Ticket to the Multiverse. It’s essentially a modified Dimensional Travel Watch, but it’s keyed to her DNA, and like the watch, Gwen can use it to teleport mid fight and get the drop on enemies.

Venom Symbiote 

Developed by Doctor Elsa Brock. It is functionally pretty different from the 616 symbiote as it’s actual form is a swarm of spider-like creatures that can amalgamate, separate, and shapeshift at will. Gwen would bond with this symbiote after having lost her previous spider-based powers due to them being stolen by Cindy Moon’s Power Glove. 

In terms of its powers and abilities, it gives the user superhuman strength, speed, and durability as well as replicate the previous powers used by Gwen including wall crawling and Spider-Sense. Due to the symbiote being more or less a replica of her regular powers, she still takes on the persona of Spider-Woman/Ghost Spider. But if Gwen’s emotions get the better of her, she will transform into Venom. While in this state she will become more angry and thus will become more aggressive with her attacks.

She later has gained control over her symbiote and has learned to use it’s powers including invisibility which she used in order to break into a mass security prison. Eat your heart out - Miles Morales. 

The symbiote does have a fair share of weakness. Like 616 symbiotes,  it is weak to sonic attacks and heat. If Gwen is hit by a fire-based or sound-based attack while wearing the costume, it will cause her and the symbiote extreme discomfort. Specialised sedatives also work in knocking her out as shown when her universe’s version of Miles Warren did so. 

Abilities

Batgirl

Martial Arts

Being the daughter of a police commissioner, Barbara took self-defense classes since she was six. By the time she became Batgirl, Barbara had already been trained in various martial arts. But she didn’t stop there. Throughout her career as a crimefighter, Barbara was taught by many skilled martial artists. One of them, of course, was Batman, who trained her as one of his allies and a fellow member of the Batfamily. Even after she got crippled by the Joker, Barbara still continued her martial arts training and was even trained by Richard Dragon, one of the top martial artists in the DC Universe.

Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves, throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a boxing ring. In addition, it also contributes as a fitness exercise for anyone who trains in it. There are three main styles of boxing: outside fighter/outboxer, brawler/slugger, and inside fighter/swarmer. However, only truly elite fighters are often able to incorporate auxiliary styles when presented with a particular challenge. In boxing, a person can learn a variety of moves from a combination of large, sweeping punches (crosses, hooks, uppercuts) to smaller punches (jabs). Boxing also incorporates several basic maneuvers that allows a person to evade and block punches. This combat sport helps improve balance and posture, strengthen upper body and core, boost endurance, increase alertness, enhance mood, and raise hand-eye coordination.

Jujutsu

Jujutsu is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon or only a short weapon. It can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponents. Because striking against an armored opponent proved ineffective, practitioners learned that the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it. However, many modern-day jujutsu schools include striking, both as a set-up for further techniques or as a stand-alone action. In jujutsu, practitioners train in the use of many potentially fatal or crippling moves, such as joint-locking throws.

Karate

Karate is a martial arts form developed from indigenous fighting methods from the Ryūkyū Islands, Chinese kempo, and classical Japanese martial arts. It is known primarily as a striking art, featuring punching, kicking, knee/elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques, but grappling, joint manipulations, locks, restraints/traps, throws, and vital point striking also appear. Karate can be practiced as an art (budō), self defense or as a combat sport. However, traditional karate places emphasis on self-development (budō). Modern Japanese style training emphasizes the psychological elements incorporated into a proper kokoro (attitude) such as perseverance, fearlessness, virtue, and leadership skills. Sport karate places emphasis on exercise and competition. Weapons are an important training activity in some styles of karate. Karate training is commonly divided into kihon (basics or fundamentals), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).

Kihon means basics and these form the base for everything else in the style including stances, strikes, punches, kicks and blocks. Karate styles place varying importance on kihon. Typically, this is training in unison of a technique or a combination of techniques by a group of karateka. Kihon may also be prearranged drills in smaller groups or in pairs. Kata literally means “shape” or “model” and is a formalized sequence of movements which represent various offensive and defensive postures. These postures are based on idealized combat applications. They’re referred to as a Bunkai when applied in a demonstration with real opponents. The Bunkai shows how every stance and movement is used and is a useful tool to understand a kata. Sparring in Karate is called kumite, which literally means “meeting of hands.” Kumite is practiced both as a sport and as self-defense training.

Dragon Style Kung Fu

Dragon Style Kung Fu is a Chinese martial arts form and is one of the many techniques used in the art of Wushu, which are several hundred fighting styles in Chinese martial arts. The movements of the Dragon Style are based on the  imagined characteristics of the mythical Chinese dragon. The dragon represented two of the ancient elements, Earth and Water, endowing the creature with powers of illusion and strength.

Dragon-Style Kung Fu is essentially an internal chi cultivation method, but initialisation training is far more like a hard, external style, than the delicate approach an internal would have. In learning the moves, the student will strike hard, block hard and rush into each position, with the idea of learning the proper place to be once each movement is complete. Eventually, the method of transmitting power is retained, and the physically strengthened body is able to make transitions in the proper, fluid manner. In turn, this dragon-like smoothness helps disguise the attack, making it extremely difficult for an adversary to effectively counter. Once a purely physical semblance to flow has been mastered, the disciple incorporates the deep hissing sounds to train chi flow. Inhaling is silent, but exhalation is deliberate, tense and controlled. Inhaling lightens the body for aerial maneuvers, while exhaling drives power into each technique. Blocking is dispensed with, and parries or simple strikes substituted. On the highest level, an opponent is allowed to tire himself out, evasion becoming the Dragon's key defense. Chi control is highly developed, and the degree to which the body must be moved to redirect or avoid impact is under greater control.

In different forms, one is taught to "ride the wind", a phrase which in large part means follow rather than lead. Provide no opening without first letting the opponent open. Unlike Crane, which also relies heavily upon evasion as a tactic, the Dragon evades primarily by rotation of upper or lower torso with straight and zig-zag stance movements, while the Crane stylist hops frequently to reposition the entire body. Both styles employ pinpoint strikes to vulnerable meridian targets, but the dragon also heavily uses tiger-like punches and clawing techniques, snake-like stance shifts, and leopard-like hit and run strikes to weaken a physically superior adversary. Dragon-Style Kung Fu also regularly employs low sweeping techniques, but these are not unique; most senior stylists of any kung fu system use these on a weakened adversary.

The user of this martial art relies on a variety of fighting techniques that can be employed for a wide range of needs. The style uses techniques that can cripple or kill an opponent if the need arises or it can be used simply to control a minor street fighting situation. Lung Ying (Dragon form) focuses mainly on powerful, short to medium range attacks, as is common among southern Chinese styles of kung fu. Gripping techniques and extensive use of forearms typify the art. The style was created as an aggressive combat art and operates under the basic assumption that the user is trying to either disable their opponent to the point that they are no longer a threat in battle, or kill them, though these are not by any means the only options a Lung Ying practitioner has. As such, Lung Ying employs a large number of techniques to damage the opponent's joints either through joint manipulation or direct striking; nullify the opponent's defenses either through breaking their stance or compromising their guard, and thus their ability to defend; and others. Like most southern style kung fu, it has initially limited kicks and jumps and consisted mainly of fist, palm and clawing techniques. Power generated from the waist using soft hard jin. Lung Ying training also involves an extensive amount of iron body training. Hardening the forearms especially is considered essential to the style as it makes such extensive use of them.

A practitioner typically attacks with winding low yang; that is, powerful and quick movements. For example, when striking with the fist, more power can be exerted when the movement originates from the feet, is guided by the waist, flows through the body, and exits through the fist. In this martial art, leg work is characterized by a zig-zag motion that mimics the imagined movement of the mythical Chinese dragon. This also allows one to use floating, spitting, swallowing and sinking movements which are very important in generating power and stability, making your body calm and relaxed.

Though the Lung Ying footwork pool is deep, it generally centers on two basic types of stepping. The first is "Zig Zag" stepping (dragon stepping). Basically with each step forward, the rear foot moves forward and becomes the forward foot. However, the step is not taken directly forward but basically follows the angle the front foot is turned at (about 33 degrees). This has the effect of moving the Lung Ying practitioner forward and off to an angle while offering some protection to the groin from attack. This type of stepping allows a Lung Ying practitioner to press their opponent (usually used before the opponent's center has been taken) while launching attacks from angles that are difficult for the opponent to defend. The Lung Ying practitioner seems to be constantly moving into an uncomfortable range and at an angle that forces their opponent to reposition their whole body to defend against, or else torque their torso around thus breaking their structure and disconnecting them from the power generation machinery of their lower body.

The second basic type of stepping is Bik Bo stepping, or press stepping. In this method the front foot moves forward and the rear foot drags up to get back to the basic position. This stepping generally covers less distance than the dragon stepping, and is used to press the opponent. It will frequently be used once the Lung Ying practitioner has begun to press their attack in earnest or is exploiting some advantage. There are specific methods for stretching this footwork out addressed in various forms. One of the primary purposes of this footwork is to keep the Lung Ying practitioner "on top of" their opponent and in attacking range. Also, this type of stepping is heavily used in various stance breaking methods.

Judo

Generally categorized as a modern martial art, judo has since evolved into combat and olympic martial arts. Judo's most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the objective is to either throw or take down an opponent to the ground and immobilize or otherwise subdue them with a pin or force an opponent to submit with a joint lock or a choke. Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as weapons defences are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice.

Judo encompassed a philosophy and way of life in addition to specific martial arts techniques. Philosophies for judo include maximum efficiency with minimum effort, mutual welfare and benefit, and softness (or gentleness) controls hardness. Judo also has a moral code, which includes the principles of politeness, courage, sincerity, honor, modesty, respect, self-control, and friendship.

Techniques are generally intended to turn an opponent’s force to one’s own advantage rather than to oppose it directly. Judo moves are broken down into three main categories:

• Throwing techniques (nage-waza): These techniques break down further into standing techniques performed with either the hand, hip, foot, or leg, and sacrifice techniques that involve falling on one’s side in order to execute the throw.

• Grappling techniques (katame-waza): These techniques break down into holding or pinning, strangulation, and joint locks.

• Striking techniques (atemi-waza): These techniques are only performed during kata (forms).

Eskrima

Alternatively known as Kali and Arnis, Eskrima is an umbrella term that refers to any martial art originating from the Philippines. Most have traced its inception from the lower-class villagers and commoners of the country before its colonization at the hands of the Spanish, who later influenced it with their own weapon-based fighting styles. Early travellers from China, Indonesia, India and Malaysia have also played in a role in refining it as well. Eskrima primarily covers the use of impact-based and bladed weapons as well as improvised ones, in addition to hand-to-hand and grappling techniques. The most common weapon used by practitioners is the Baston, which is usually made out of rattan, kamagong, and bahi wood.

Muay Tai

The history of Muay Thai can be traced to the middle of the 18th century. During the battles between the Burmese of the Konbaung Dynasty and Siam, the famous fighter Nai Khanomtom was captured in the year 1767. The Burmese knew of his expertise in hand-to-hand combat and gave him an opportunity to fight for his freedom. Nai Khanomtom managed to knock out ten consecutive Burmese contenders. Impressed by his boxing skill, he was freed by his captors and allowed to return to Siam. He was acknowledged as a hero, and his fighting style became known as Siamese-Style boxing, later to be known as Muay Thai. This fighting style was soon to be recognized as a national sport.

Muay boran, and therefore Muay Thai, was originally called by more generic names such as Toi muay or simply muay. As well as being a practical fighting technique for use in actual warfare, muay became a sport in which the opponents fought in front of spectators who went to watch for entertainment. These muay contests gradually became an integral part of local festivals and celebrations, especially those held at temples. Eventually, the previously bare-fisted fighters started wearing lengths of hemp rope around their hands and forearms. This type of match was called muay khat chueak (มวยคาดเชือก). Kickboxing was also a component of military training and gained prominence during the reign of King Naresuan in 1560 CE.

Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs", because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows, knee strikes and shins, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in other more regulated combat sports, such as kickboxing and savate. Each strike and movement is meant to deliver a deliberate and crushing blow, and enable the fighter to continue brutal aggression or move on to the next opponent quickly without leaving themselves exposed to an attack. 

In essence, Muay Thai uses the body to mimic the weapons of war. The hands become the sword and dagger; the shins and forearms were hardened in training to act as armor against blows, and the elbow to fell opponents like a heavy mace or hammer; the legs and knees became the axe and staff. The body operated as one unit. The knees and elbows constantly searching and testing for an opening while grappling and trying to spin an enemy to the ground for the kill.

Tae Kwon Do

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that’s characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kick techniques. In fact, World Taekwondo sparring competitions award additional points for strikes that incorporate spinning kicks, kicks to the head, or both. To facilitate fast, turning kicks, Taekwondo generally adopts stances that are narrower and taller than the broader, wide stances used by martial arts such as karate. The tradeoff of decreased stability is believed to be worth the commensurate increase in agility, particularly in Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo.

The emphasis on speed and agility is a defining characteristic of Taekwondo. In the Theory of Power, the kinetic energy of a strike increases quadratically with the speed of the strike but increases only linearly with the mass of the striking object. In other words, speed is more important than size in terms of generating power. This is a principle that was incorporated into the early design of Taekwondo and is still being used today. A relaxed/strike principle has also been advocated for Tawkondo. According to the principle, between blocks, kicks, and strikes, the practitioner should relax the body, then tense the muscles only while performing the technique. It is believed that the relax/strike principle increases the power of the technique by conserving the body's energy. Components of the Theory of Power include:

• Reaction Force: The principle that as the striking limb is brought forward, other parts of the body should be brought backwards in order to provide more power to the striking limb.

• Concentration: The principle of bringing as many muscles as possible to bear on a strike, concentrating the area of impact into as small an area as possible.

• Equilibrium: Maintaining a correct centre-of-balance throughout a technique.

• Breath Control: The idea that during a strike one should exhale, with the exhalation concluding at the moment of impact.

• Mass: The principle of bringing as much of the body to bear on a strike as possible.

• Speed: The speed of the execution of the technique in Taekwondo is deemed to be even more important than mass in terms of providing power.

Spider-Gwen

Martial Arts

Spider-Gwen is not trained in martial arts and thus has to rely on a freestyle martial art while using her powers. This freestyle form of fighting is inspired by Kung Fu movies that Gwen has watched. She heavily relies on her agility and balance to land swift kicks, like some sort of ballerina. Despite this fighting style being mostly effective, it is certainly a far cry from proper training, as evidenced by skilled close-range fighters like Cindy Moon and Earth-65 Matt Murdock. Cindy Moon has even outright stated that Gwen doesn’t know how to throw a real punch. 

Radioactive Spider Powers

After she was bitten by a radioactive spider created by the Cindy Moon of Earth 65, Gwen Stacy gained abilities such as superhuman speed, strength, and reflexes. Later her powers were stolen by Cindy Moon and she would obtain the Symbiote (mentioned earlier) that would replicate the powers and abilities given to her by the radioactive spider. 

Wall Crawling

Unsurprisingly, this iconic Spider-Man party trick is still a tradition that lives on through Gwen Stacy. Basically she can control the electrostatic force in her body as well as anything that she puts her hands on, and this allows her to stick to walls and climb up them. 

Equilibrium 

This power allows her to achieve perfect balance and movement on any surface. Basically even if a point is very small, she will still be able to perfectly balance on it without falling off.

Spider Sense

Like most Spider-People, Gwen has a sixth sense that is constantly surveying the area, ready to warn for danger. However, Gwen’s in particular has been proven to be more unreliable compared to past Spider-Men (though considering how inconsistent Spider Sense has been in the pass, that isn’t too much an issue)

Feats

Batgirl

Overall

• As Oracle, is the DC Universe’s most prominent and well regarded computer expert, information broker and hacker

• Has defeated the Joker

• Defeated a DC Villain by the name of Firebug

• Defeated her own brother, James Gordon Jr

• Has fought Nightwing on equal footing (though it was a friendly spar)

• Has fought Black Canary on equal footing 

• Is one of the most intelligent members of the Batman Family

• Has shown to be an equal to Black Canary who is known for her martial arts skilled

• Is comparable to Nightwing in terms of fighting skills. 

Strength

• Punches the Mirror hard enough to break a stone tombstone

• Flips a man hard enough to slam him over the car

• Nearly overpowered the Joker in a contest of strength over a chainsaw

• Slams Ragdoll’s back into a wall and cracks it 

• Breaks a man’s teeth

• Uses her physical strength to throw a tiger away (considering adult tigers are usually around 450-500 pounds - that is an impressive feat of strength)

• Kicks down a locked door

• Scales to Black Canary who damaged metal using just her elbow

• Punched Wen Lu hard enough that the window behind her completely cracked and she fell out of it. 

• Scales to Red Hood, who held down the roof of a broken building; Red Hood is also strong enough to cut off the head of a dinosaur

Speed

• Capable of bullet timing

• Disarmed a guy before he could shoot a hostage

• Throws a Batarang at a shooter before he could fire 

• Dodges a taser gun

• Tackles an Police Officer and gets them to safety before an RPG can hit them

• Dodges blasts from energy beam guns. 

• Dodges attacks from Silver

• Dodges a shot from a revolver

• Evaded gunfire 

• Reacts to an electricity attack from Livewire

• Scales to Black Canary in speed who has dodged laser fire on numerous occasions

• Scales to Red Hood who blitzed the GCPD (The Gotham Police) while just wearing a towel

• Scales to Tim Drake who dodged a spray of bullets in a confined sewer

• Scales to Batman who’s fast enough to dodge heat vision with reflective properties

• Batman has also dodged uzis at close range, tanks, machine guns, snipers, and machine guns from police helicopters and military helicopters

Durability

• Survived this explosion alongside the Birds of Prey

• Should realistically scale to the rest of the Batfamily, including Bruce who could survive this explosion.

• Hit by a firebang grenade

• Tanks fire from a flamethrower 

• Gets slammed into the ground by Riot Black and then kicked in the gut

• Has a building fall on top of her and is fine

• Stabbed in the side by Knightfall

• Stabbed by Talon’s throwing knives. 

• Gets an IPad slammed on the back of her head

• Is fine after being tackled through a window

• Scales to Black Canary in durability who survived this building explosion

• Scales to Red Hood who tanked getting hit by a bazooka.Red Hood also survived multiple nukes going off underwater (though he was not directly in the explosion)

Spider-Gwen

Overall

• Participated in multiverse-threatening events with other Spider-Men and Women, including multiple incarnations of Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Jessica Drew, Ben Reily, etc.

• Defeated Matt Murdock (her universe’s version) with the power of music

• Matched her universe’s version of Captain America 

• Defeated Earth 65 Cindy Moon

• Defeated Earth 65 Rhino

• Defeated Earth 65 Harry Osborn

• Help defeat Ben Reily’s Clone Conspiracy with Peter Parker and Kaine

• In Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse - was instrumental in helping to stop Kingpin’s plans

• Is one of the most well-liked Spider-Man characters despite only just be introduced in 2014

• Survived a year in prison 

Strength

• Like any other Spider-Person, can lift well over 10 tons

• Broke a pair of batons

• Punched Rhino through a wall 

• Cratered a wall by throwing Cindy Moon against it

• Knocked out Earth 65 Cindy Moon with a kick

• Slams Frank Castle into a car which dents it

• With the help of Earth 65 Captain America, pulled down a roof of a sewer 

• Way stronger than Daredevil, who can sever the head of a older Ultron model with a stick and can crack concrete walls with his punches

• Comparable to Peter, who supported a landing aircraft, threw a tank, and in one of his most iconic moments, lifted a giant metal structure that by his own estimations outweighed a locomotive, which for the time period would be 130 tons; more impressively, Peter ripped apart Doc Ock’s robotic appendages, the same ones that survived a nuclear blast of 2 kilotons   

• Comparable to Miles Morales, who can break vibranium as shown during his fight against Hydra Cap; Miles can also throw police cars

• Comparable to Jessica Drew, who held up a part of a collapsing bridge and lifted a large gold statue

Speed

• On par with Miles Morales, who can dodge electricity and, with microsecond precision, destroyed a couple of artifacts

• Dodges a blast from Electro (It should also be noted that she scales to Peter and above Daredevil who have both dodged Electro’s electricity)

• Dodges bullets from the Punisher (Robot Duplicate)

• Dodges attacks from her universe’s version of Captain America

• Dodges blasts fired by energy weapons

• Can web up a gun before the shooter has a chance to fire

• Dodges a repulsor blast 

• Dodges an attack from Cindy Moon while in her Iron Man Model 51 Model (it should be noted that this is one of Iron Man’s most recent models and can move/attack at sub-relativistic speeds)

• Outspeeds a robot duplicate of 616 Daredevil and lands a good kick on him

• Comparable to Spider-Man, who can blitz Daredevil, who has been described to have lightning fast reflexes while evading gunfire

• Comparable to Jessica Drew, who can move faster than the eye can track

• Dodges attacks from her universe’s version of Wolverine

• Has shown to be capable of bullet dodging

• Knock out several thugs in only a few seconds

• Dodges bullets fired by a police officer

• Daredevil, and comparable characters like Beast, who Gwen is faster than, can react down to the nanosecond

Durability 

• Tanks a punch from her universe’s version of Captain America

• Tanks an explosion from a Green Goblin Bomb

• Gets punched by Harry Osborn who has drunk the Lizard Metagene

• Gets shot through a brick wall 

• Tanks a blast from an Electro

• Tanks this explosion

• Tanks Cinder Moon’s Power Glove. It should be noted the Power Glove can generate explosions like this. It should also be noted that while in Hulkbuster Mode, the Power Glove is capable of destroying buildings

• Miles has taken on multiple heat seeking missiles and survived this explosion

• Scales above 616 Daredevil, who survived a nitroglycerin explosion and tanked a napalm explosion

• Comparable to 616 Jessica Drew, who survived this oil rig explosion

Weaknesses

Batgirl

Images that precede unfortunate events.

As you can expect with a member of the bat family, Barbara’s biggest weakness is that, despite all the training she’s undergone, she’s still a human (by comic standards), and is subject to the same weaknesses as what you or I have. This has led to some major problems for her, such as when she was tracked down by the Joker and shot, resulting in her being paralyzed. Fortunately, that was fixed with a neural implant that lets her walk and move around like normal, despite losing part of her spine...but that also means she has one particular part of her that is a major achilles’ heel, and can cause her to suffer brain damage as a result.

Spider-Gwen

Gwen is a skilled fighter, but she also is extremely lacking in experience, having not done the whole superhero business for nearly as long as some of her compatriots and fellow Spider-people. She also has similar weaknesses as to what other symbiotes have: sound and heat, but unlike the Venom of Earth-616, this one hasn’t had as much exposure to its weaknesses, so it likely can’t take as much of a blast of sound as what Eddie can. And without the symbiote, Gwen is essentially left powerless making it easy for a strong and skilled opponent to dispatch of her quickly.

Summary

Batgirl

“I know you’re angry. I was, too. But I’ve grown since then. I’ve moved on, made friends, and had time to heal. I’m past all the darkness. I can see now there’s a better way.”

Advantages:

• Smarter and much more skilled

• More experienced

• Better arsenal

• Is still a badass in a wheelchair 

• Top tier in Injustice 1

• Great when written by Gail Simone...

Disadvantages:

• ...but eh when written by anyone else besides Gail Simone

• Loses in the stat trinity 

• No way to get around the Spider-Sense

• A good hit to the head could end the fight instantly due to how her neutral implant works

• Her main attribute that makes her unique from the other Batman (computer skills) is completely useless against Gwen

• Unlikely to figure out Spider-Gwen’s weakness to heat and sound in a short fight unless she just gets super lucky

• Killing Joke...that’s all

• Slept with Batman in another timeline and in that one, was impregnated by him

Spider-Gwen

“As Spider-Woman, I've traveled the Multiverse. I've stared down psychic vampires and psycho cops. Kicked in all the scary yellow teeth. And no, being caught or killed or found never truly scared me. No, what scares me is losing what I have in my hand now... what scares me is losing the people I love.”

Advantages:

• Takes the stat trinity handily

• Has much more mobility especially with her teleportation 

• Her webs counter most of Batgirl’s gadgets, especially her batterangs

• Symbiote makes her a more vicious opponent

• Really only needs to land a good strike to the head to end the fight

• Spider-Sense counters Barbara’s stealt-

• Into the Spider-Verse. Go watch it.

• Doper costumes

Disadvantages:

• Not as experienced 

• Not as smart or skilled

• Less versatile

• The amount of “art” found while making this blog…

• Will likely somehow be sent crashing into a car

Verdicts

Malcolm Belmont

Sooooo that Red vs Blue episode was a lot of fun, can’t wait to see what’s nex-

See it’s Bat-Girl vs Spider-Gwen

“Overwhelming sadness about no Spider-Gwen vs Jolyne Kujo”

(Credit goes to 1mavstone for the Thumbnail)

I will freely admit that i didn’t really want this fight as i felt it was going to be a bit redundant considering it has the exact same result as Batman vs Spider-Man even though that was a S1 Episode. As for if Batgirl has any chance against Spider-Gwen..likely no. 

In terms of their strength feats, Batgirl uses her physical strength to lift and throw a tiger away (considering adult tigers are usually around 450-500 pounds - that is an impressive feat of strength). She’s also strong enough to scale to characters who can dent metal with their physical punches. This is decently impressive but not anything above peak-human. Spider-Gwen on the other hand is bluntly superhuman and has displayed superhuman feats in the past such as the time with the help of Earth 65 Captain America, pulled down a roof of a sewer. She is also comparable to Peter Parker who lifted a giant metal structure that by his own estimations outweighed a locomotive, which for the time period would be 130 tons. As for a comparison between Batgirl lifting the Tiger and Gwen scaling to Parker - there really isn’t any competition. 450 Pounds is around 0.225 Tons so Gwen should be at least 557 times stronger than Batgirl. Even completely ignoring scaling - Gwen has been stated in Spider-Gwen Vol 2 #1 to be able to lift at the very least 10 tons which is 44 times stronger than Batgirl lifting a tiger. So even completely ignoring scale - Gwen is still much stronger than Barbaba. 

In terms of speed, Gwen also has the very clear advantage. She is very easily capable of bullet dodging and has dodged a blast from the likes of Electro. Electro has fought on par with the likes of Spider-Man and Daredevil (this is consistent as both have managed to dodge Electro’s electricity). Electro’s electricity has also been shown to fire at Massively Hypersonic Speed at the past so Gwen should be MHS to have dodged it. This is also consistent with other Marvel Street Level characters such as Daredevil who can react down to the nanosecond. All in all - i would put Gwen’s speed at Massively Hypersonic Speed. I would also put her speed to being close to Massively Hypersonic but with a big caveat that she doesn’t have nearly as consistent general speed feats/as well as scaling compared to Gwen. The reason why i would put Batgirl close to being MHS is due to the fact that she has reacted to an attack by Livewire. Though you could make an argument that this feat is an outlier since she simply reacted to it by putting her hands up - not outright dodging it and she has no consistent feats that come anywhere close to reacting to an electricity blast with the closest probably being her bullet dodging feats as well as scaling to Black Canary who had dodged laser fire on numerous occasions. So both have electricity reacting feats but Gwen is more consistent and scales to characters that have more impressive speed feats. It’s not quite a stomp as strength but Gwen wins speed soldy. 

As for Durability, I would say Gwen has the edge there. Gwen has tanked hits from Cindy Moon’s Power Glove which has been shown to be capable of destroying buildings.  Considering that Gwen herself has tanked attacks from Cinder Moon’s Power Glove even if it’s normal move is weaker then the Hulkbuster Mode - Gwen should still be able to tank hits from it.Considering that it takes around 11 tons to destroy a building - Gwen should at the very least be able to tank 11 tons of force. This is also not scaling her to anyone else as Spider-Man/Peter Parker should likely be City Block level considering he has tanked punches from the Collective Man. The Collective Man who can hit with the force of everyone in China. Considering Peter has tanked hits from him that should put Peter’s Durability at around City Block Level. Considering Gwen scales to Peter it’s likely her max durability through scaling is around that same ballpark. As for Barbara it’s likely her durability is Building Level at most considering she had a building fall on top of her and is okay but clearly at her limit. At most i would say that Barbara’s durability is around 2 tons, maybe 11 if you really highball it. Overall I would say that Gwen takes durability. 

So Gwen has Strength,Speed and Durability in the bag - surely Gwen has means which could allow her to take out Barbara despite being weaker in the big three categories. The answer to that question is a solid no. Barbara despite having extensive equipment doesn’t really have the means of taking out Gwen and her symbiote for good. Barbara’s best shot is using her fire grenades to hurt Gwen’s symbiote but that is likely not going to be enough. Even if Barbara uses her stealth - Gwen has Spider-Sense/Symbiote Sense to detect when Barbara is about to strike and then counter attack. Gwen also has her beat in stealth thanks to her Predator Mode (Invisibility) which means Gwen can simply outstealth her in the long run (though that doesn’t really matter due to Gwen’s superior stats). Gwen’s symbiote also gives her an added layer of protection against opponents and will be able to easily stop any projectiles that come her way. If she has a massive flamethrower or sound device then maybe but in my opinion none of Barabara’s Equipment will be enough to stop her for good while Gwen only needs to land one good hit in and then Barbara’s down.

Even Barbara’s most used skill and the one that she is most famous for - her hacking skills won’t too much against Gwen as it's unlikely she will be able to hack Gwen’s dimensional watch in time and Gwen’s Symbiote is Alien not technology meaning Barbara can’t really her her hacking skills against Gwen. While Barbara 100% has Gwen beat in terms of the technology and equipment it’s just not enough to take down someone who is stronger,more durable and faster then you especially since Batgirl can’t prepare a possible solution for taking down Gwen. All in all Gwen’s strength,speed,durability and Symbiote will just prove too much for a long or short fight as all that Gwen has to do is get in close and finish her in one shot. I like Barbara but ultimately Gwen is the superior fighter in this DEATH BATTLE. Looks like Barbara standed a ghost of a chance. 

Final Thing: Ridley vs Vilgax will likely be released tomorrow or Monday so look forward to that

AkhilPDX

Ngl, I’m pretty hyped for this one. While a lot of people are getting tired of continuous comicbook fights, I run on Marvel & DC. I don’t get tired of it. I’ll always be here as long as Marvel & DC is.

Now to go onto who wins. This is pretty clearcut. I see no way Batgirl can win this. It’s a traditional Bat VS Spider matchup. The Spider-Verse / Spider-Family member almost always blitzes and one-shots the Bat-Family in a bloodlusted setting (without plot or narrative involved ofc). Batgirl downscales from Batman by a good bit while the same can’t be said for Spider-Gwen. Sure, she’s weaker than Peter holistically but her scaling to him is more solid than that of Babs to Bruce.

For speed, Spider-Gwen is comparable to Spider-Man who’s capable of blitzing weaker Marvel street-tier characters like Wolverine, Daredevil, and Black Widow who all have lightspeed capabilities. Daredevil and Beast both have statements of being capable of reacting down to the nanosecond which is over 3c and yet Spider-Man can blitz Daredevil (and he’s faster than Beast). If Spider-Gwen is even a little bit comparable to Peter at his best, which she easily is, even Batgirl’s potential scaling to Black Canary’s nanosecond feat won’t save her from a blitz.

Then we move onto AP. Batgirl is MCB. Spider-Gwen is around the large town to small city range. She upscales from pretty much every other street-tier in Marvel except for Spider-Man related characters (only high-tier Spider-Man villains like Morlun or Venom… people like Mysterio or Doc Ock consistently don’t scale to a full-powered Spidey) and Iron Fist. That’s definitely big enough of a gap to one-shot. Same goes for durability so once again, Barbara is outmatched. She might be able to stagger and knock back Gwen, perhaps even slightly hurt her with certain gadgets like batarangs or explosives but not only is the gap too big to do any significant damage, but you still run into the problem of it being a blitz.

Finally, you move onto versatility, hax, and skill. Batgirl’s definitely more skilled than Gwen and carries a traditional set of Bat-Family gear and gadgets within that utility belt but alas, once again, it can’t match Spider-Gwen. Gwen is not just fast enough to blitz, but she has the handy dandy Spidey-Sense which would sense anything Barbara could come up with on the spot and warn Gwen about it in time for her to easily evade it. Again, that super speed is going to pretty much make everything Barbara does seem as if it’s in slow-motion. And then from there, you have Gwen’s webbing shooters, which if they’re even remotely similar to that of Peters, they’ll get feats like hurting the Hulk and temporarily holding back Iron Man in his Bleeding Edge armor (lower-end herald-tier armor). Now, of course, Gwen’s web shooters do function differently, but even if they don’t scale, they would be powerful enough to neg Barbara’s attacks and at least hold her back. Then again, Gwen doesn’t even need them as she can, as we’ve established previously, simply one-shot Barbara.

All in all, I simply don’t see a way Batgirl can beat Spider-Gwen. Maybe if it was Black Widow or Kim Possible instead, Batgirl would have stood a better chance. From what I read, she doesn’t win against Natasha either and I’ve been hearing more people say that Kim wins but I can guarantee both of those are way closer than this. Either that or they could have used Cassandra Cain who still loses but she’s beaten both Batman and Deathstroke so she definitely stands a better chance than Barbara Gordon. Even if it’s a stomp though, I’m pretty excited. The fight is a cool idea imo and from what I’ve seen of the animation, it looks like it’ll be good. Spider-Gwen ftw.

Ramen

(mfw more capeshit)

“Bat-catching spiders have been reported from virtually every continent with the exception of Antarctica (∼90% of the incidences occurring in the warmer areas of the globe between latitude 30° N and 30° S). Most reports refer to the Neotropics (42% of observed incidences), Asia (28.8%), and Australia-Papua New Guinea (13.5%). Bat-catching spiders belong to the mygalomorph family Theraphosidae and the araneomorph families Nephilidae, Araneidae, and Sparassidae. In addition to this, an attack attempt by a large araneomorph hunting spider of the family Pisauridae on an immature bat was witnessed. Eighty-eight percent of the reported incidences of bat catches were attributable to web-building spiders and 12% to hunting spiders.”

Source: Nyffeler M, Knörnschild M (2013) Bat Predation by Spiders. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58120. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058120

Phantom Falcon 

(You see, the joke is that they both have Gwen in their name. Very funny as you can tell)

Ngl I like this idea. Gwen having the symbiote makes for a more interesting fight dynamic for animation, and the SFM team working on it is 👀. Hope the animation is good, and that next time is at least a more interesting debate.

Anyways

[The Spider-Man Character] blitzes and one shots [The Batman Character]. While you may be able to argue [The Batman Character] has better training and weapons, it hardly matters against [The Spider-Man Character]’s large stat advantage.

Jedi Bender 

This has been a long time coming too bad. Everyone is pissed lol, well anyway I’ve always liked  the idea of seeing these two together. Hell their dialogue and Personalities alone has so much golden potential  nevertheless Debate wise YES I KNOW!  Babs

Unfortunately is not adding another W for our beloved Bat Family  However In comparison to Bruce She’ll stand more of a decent chance against Gwen  but not by much  due in part to her Experience, Training, and Way Above Human Durability (Seriously look up The Shit  she’s endured in her life as Batgirl  Makes anything Gwen has been through look  like a splinter)

on the flip side she’s arguably the weakest and least Gadget user  lacking a simple Sonic Device which would have given her a wildcard  like her Bae Dick Grayson  

  Still, SpiderGwen has more Superior Strength, Speed, and a Spider Sense  BUT We Most Remember just because Spider-Woman Can  Sense an attack doesn’t automatically mean she’ll be able to Dodge everything in time  but who are we kidding  plus with her own obvious trump card  Barbara’s Chances still go down 

 I’m quite disappointed we ironically didn’t get Stephanie Brown ( the 4th Robin and 3rd Batgirl) in here as she has more similarities with Gwen but alas 

In all Honestly both characters are 2 of my favorite Female Heroes in Comics  I’ve been so attached to them for a long time  in other words nothing will be lost too much I’ll just be happy to see Babs in DB  plus being another SFM fight  just is icing on this beautiful Cake…

 Spider Gwen FTW

Joshski

(“Alright, let’s do this one last time”)

This is a lame matchup that’s just a literal repeat of another episode with nothing new going on and is yet another Marvel vs DC fight yadda yadda yadda you’ve already heard all this said and you’re gonna hear it some more. Of course I’m sure it’ll be a fine episode, an amazing episode even especially with the SFM team working on it giving us our first fight featuring a Spider and a Bat family member in 3D. Cram it full of references to the first Batman vs Spider-Man and homages to Spider-Verse and I’m sure you’ve got yourself a fun fight, but I still gotta wonder why this fight and why do it now? Especially when this season is already full of both Marvel and DC as is (9 out of 20 episodes Jesus fucking Christ) so to have this be announced as the next time just feels so out of touch. I really hope and believe we’ll get more variety next year in Season 8 and Marvel and DC won’t be as prevalent, I’m not saying just ditch them all together from now on (though at this point I get why people feel that way) but I’d like to see other series get a chance. Well with that tangent out of the way let’s get to who’s winning here.

Did you really expect it to be any different when I said this is a repeat of Bruce vs Peter I wasn’t joking. There’s literally only two new factors here: the Venom Symbiote and Barbara’s Neural Implants. Now the Symbiote isn’t actually that big of an advantage as you’d think, it doesn’t really have any of the crazy stuff the 616 versions have and mainly just serves as a way for Gwen to get her powers back. If anything it gives Barbara a better shot here since she could potentially take advantage of its weakness to sonics, keyword could. Barbara still has to deal with the gap in stats, and the spider sense warning Gwen of anything Barb is gonna do, ruining any good chance of her landing anything meaningful. If that ain’t bad enough can we also bring up that Gwen can teleport cause uh yeah she can do that, goes great with how a strong enough blow to the head can damage Barbara’s implants and cripple her...wait a second.

Batgirl has her advantages but nothing meaningful enough to win more times than not against Gwen who’s simply much stronger and faster and has the abilities to counter just about everything Babs can do. No matter how hard Barbara tried she just couldn’t swing it.

VampyreNVRmore

(Hoping Spider-Man VS Ladybug becomes the next spider fight)

Alright, let’s address the elephant in the room. There’s nothing about Batgirl VS Spider-Gwen that’s any different from Batman VS Spider-Man in terms of the outcome. While the fight will be in SFM instead of 2D sprite, the verdict will be more or less the same as the one from Batman VS Spider-Man. Honestly, this fight isn’t necessary since both combatants have better opponents. The only reason why this fight got greenlit was because most of the responses to Ben’s Twitter post of who should Spider-Gwen fight was Batgirl. Fucking casuals. They always request the less than good match-ups, and they always get picked because they’re the majority. No, Randy Cunningham isn’t a better opponent for Ladybug because Spider-Man VS Ladybug isn’t a total stomp. It’s a much closer fight than you people realize.

Wait, what are we talking about? Oh right, Batgirl VS Spider-Gwen. Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush. Spider-Gwen has the advantage in stats. That’s the case in almost every Batman VS Spider-Man related match-ups. Barbara’s stealth gets nullified since Gwen has the spider sense, and her gadgets wouldn’t provide that much help. Adding to that, Gwen has a symbiote, though I’m not sure if the episode will add it based on the preview. Nevertheless, there’s nothing I can add that would differentiate it from Batman VS Spider-Man. The results will just be the same.

Honestly, I don’t like this fight. It didn’t need to become an episode because it’s basically just Batman VS Spider-Man except with lady versions instead, As I said before, both combatants have better opponents which we’ll not likely see because of this fight. It also doesn’t help that it’s another episode featuring a Marvel or DC character, which nearly took up half of this 20 long season. I’m starting to empathize with the fans complaining about too many comic book characters in this Death Battle season, but only because of this fight. Even though Spider-Gwen will win this fight, it was the fans who she drove batty.

Js250476

(How many more Spider people are there?)

Death Battle: Save it for season 7   

So yeah Spider-Gwen vs Batgirl has had less than stellar reactions from everyone to say the least and honestly can’t really blame them. Both had more exciting and interesting ideas and this is basically a reskin of Batman vs Spider-Man in terms of analysis of verdict, add that to the over usage of Marvel and DC this season and yeah it’s not a very exciting idea conceptually speaking. Now with all that said since this is essentially Batman vs Spider-Man done in the modern day there is some potential for a interesting analysis in terms of the exact stats and how some aspects of Gwen counters Barbara since season 1 didn’t really have those in as much detail as they would today and with things like Gwen’s Symbiote in mind there hopefully will be some different fight dynamic in it compared to Bruce vs Peter and surprisingly is being animated by Devilartemis which we’ll see how it turns out but they’re had a great track record with Death Battle.

Now it should come as no surprise that Gwen wins handily for more or less the exact same reasons Spidey did against Bats. She’s much stronger then Barbara scaling to Peter and various other Spidey tier characters who have feats in the town level to possibly higher level range compared to the general accepted level of DC’s street tiers which generally sit at MCB level and any higher requires generous analysis of some feats which doing so would also boost Marvel street tiers as well even higher. 

And speed is largely the same Gwen compared to Spidey and above other street tiers who have microsecond feats galore and numerous feats of dodging lighting from Electro and even nanosecond feats. Even giving Barbara the best possible feats she could reasonably scale to it still falls short of Gwen. 

And even taking other aspects into consideration like Barbara definitely having more skill and experience along with better equipment it won’t do much good against someone so much stronger and faster who only needs 1 significant hit to bring her down. And considering Gwen’s spider sense renders stealth useless (albeit it is less reliable than the normal Spider sense) has webbing to counter a lot of her gadgets and can even teleport she can deliver a fatal blow to Barbara with little issue. 

Honestly “Spider-Man character stomps the Batman character in stats, while you may be able to argue Batman character has better equipment and experience it hardly matters against the Spider-Man characters superior stats” is basically an umbrella sentence that describes nearly all Batman vs Spider-Man matches and this one is no exception. So in the end Spider-Gwen takes the victory as Barbara lost on the web into the Spider-Verse!

Wolf

...okay, I normally don’t complain about the matchups themselves, but of all the possible Marvel vs. DC Matchups, THIS is the one we’re getting next? There are still plenty of good, or at least interesting ones. I-

*Peanuts adults sound*

Wait, the Ganondorf vs. Dracula team is editing this?

*More Peanuts adults sounds*

Huh...I guess that’s something to look forward to.

Look, I’m just going to come out and say it: this should be the most obvious stomp of the season. Heck, anyone who watches Death Battle but doesn’t usually get involved with versus debating outside what’s said on the show should see that Gwen stomps this because it’s pretty much a retread of Batman vs. Spider-Man. Gwen is so much stronger, faster, and more durable than Barb and has the spider-sense to keep Barb from trying to go stealth mode. Plus you’ve got the equivalent of the venom symbiote helping her out, which further puts her out of Barb’s league. And sure, Barbara is smarter and more experienced, but if she can’t even hit Gwen, let alone hurt her, what chance does she have?

Now, technically, Batgirl could use the symbiote’s weaknesses to heat and sound try and beat it, but that would require her to know that the symbiote even had those weaknesses in order to exploit them. She also has a major weakness with her neural implant which is more likely to be exploited than the sound weakness the symbiote has and will pretty much end this fight immediately. And that’s just ONE of the places Gwen can hit her to end this fight quickly. I don’t think I really need to go into any further detail on this, especially because I’m sure everyone else will have made the same points by the time this blogs done (assuming they don’t just meme the ever loving hell out of it), so I’ll just end it here. Point goes to Spider-Gwen

Clockboxxer

the exaggerated swagger of a black teen

I fuckin’ knew it. I fuckin’ knew Sabrewulf was gonna fuckin’ bite it. I fuckin’ knew he was fuckin’ dead. My 4 favorite fuckin’ characters this season all fuckin’ died. Well, fuck.

Sabrewulf vs Jon was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it. Really refreshing to get another fighting game vs fighting game matchup. I just wish they gave Sabrewulf a bit more credit in the mental department. Oh, and I gotta agree with the outcome. 

Then there was Red vs Blue. Good fight, everything else was eh. I feel like the character moments weren’t excellently divided, but the episode was fine. The episode itself didn’t get me to watch RvB, buuuut I did decide to start watching the show, and after blowing through 13 seasons, shit is awesome. And ironically, it makes me like the DB idea even less. I don’t think the delay was worth it but whateverrrrrrrrr

Now that the crazy schedule fuckup is over, it’s time for episode 18. Oh, boy, I can’t wait to see what it is-

...For real? 

• 9th fight involving Marvel and/or DC (45% season ratio)

• We have not gone more than 2 episodes without one

• This is coming pretty early off a triple burner from 13 to 15

• Third Spider fight this year (Also another fight riding off of Spiderverse hype when Miles was just fine)

• Batman vs Spider-Man 2

• Batgirl could’ve fought Kim Possible smh

Y’know. The usual problems. But yeah, not looking forward to this one. I don’t exactly get why this is SFM. Hopefully the episode turns out fine. 

I love Marvel and DC to death, seriously, I do, but they’re really just two franchises at the end of the day. Them having the most amount of DBs is fine, since it’s become the bread and butter, but...9/20? Especially since we’re doing Batgirl vs Spider-Gwen of all things, when there’s still a lot of unexplored stuff to squeeze out of these properties. Aside from the symbiote and teleportation, this is just treading really old ground. Stuff like this and Venom vs Crona just feels like missed opportunities to me. Opportunities to bring in more new franchises or bring back old ones. Whatever, I just hope season 8 has actual versatility. 

oh a prediction uhhhhhh have you seen the one with batman and spider-man if you said yes you’ve seen the outcome to this one too

yayyyyy free arachnid dub

Robin (TexasRoastingOnAnOpenFire)

(I shockingly kinda like this matchup)

This matchup is one of the more clear cut episodes of the season in my opinion. What we’ve got here are two characters who in my opinion are pretty easy to place in regards to AP and Speed. First and foremost, Babs is pretty much MCB to Small Town at most, and that’s only with generous interpretations of certain feats such as Clayface, Batwoman, and Ragman crashing to earth. Taking a look at Gwen, you’re going to find that she scales to characters who are pretty consistently town to large town. Let’s highball both of them to what they can scale to, and you’re quickly going to discover a total of a 100x AP gap advantage in favor of Gwen. This points to the fact that Babs shouldn’t be able to hurt Gwen with anything physical. As for speed, this point also goes to Gwen. You’ve got nanosecond feats for DC street tiers, but Babs isn’t exactly their equals (BC and Deathstroke). Meanwhile, Gwen upscales from people with nanosecond statements and has multiple other FTL feats she scales to. Add in the spider-sense, which also kinda wrecks any attempt at stealth, and Gwen really can’t be hit under any normal circumstances during this fight. Her chances of losing are infinitesimal here, so with this massive of a stat trinity lead I can’t really see Gwen losing this matchup. 

BangJang96

(Yeah, festive pfp early because it’s another excuse to rep Larfleeze, who’s as pog a lantern as Kyle)

Good to be back, although I’m cutting to the chase with this one; I’m a DC/Marvel junky as much as the next guy, but...this was the most hype Marvel vs DC fight they could think of? If they wanted a female fight, Scarlet Witch vs Zatanna is a really good choice that everyone wants to see. It’s just not a good idea that flies with me and legit I have been ranting about it all week despite me liking both characters. They both had clearly superior choices (Kim Possible for Barbara and Jolyne for Gwen), and yeah I’m gonna say it but this fight is Batman vs Spider-Man but they’re rocking a pair. There is nothing unique brought to the table except a less versatile version of Gwen’s Symbiote, and I’m gonna explain why this is a clear cut win for Gwen in shorter terms since there's no need to go in-depth unfortunately;

In terms of stats, Gwen by virtue of upscaling to the Spiders easily puts her at town level, whereas Batgirl at most you can argue only gets to city block level since she isn’t exactly one of the Bat Family top dogs. So even when up-scaling the strength gap is pretty much the same as you’d expect, goes for durability and speed as well, Marvels are a tad bit more consistent with their FTL reactionary feats, something of which Gwen should scale too easily. Skill and intellect wise, Barbara should take this. Trained by the Batman, and her time as Oracle gave her a lot of options such as hacking into Gwen’s equipment and she's been training in self-defense since the age of six. Problem is, none of Batgirl’s gear can do anything to Gwen. The absolute biggest threat is the stun batarang and even then, that’ll hardly even hurt Gwen, she has no sonic gear for the Symbiote and the rest of the gear are very much support gear like extinguishers or masks to filter out gas. So this is a clear cut victory for Spider-Gwen unfortunately. Stat trinity is easily locked down and that alone is too much for Barabara to handle, even with her skill/intellect.

                         

  Da Lunge Fish

                       

So yeah, my prediction, I was disappointed at first, cause Marvel vs DC again, 9/20 this season, there are better Marvel vs DC MUs, you all heard this shit a million times, and I still somewhat am disappointed, but the fight does have some potential with the SFM team, so yeah.Unlike some people here, I don’t think it being SFM is a waste, I don’t know why, it kinda just fits both characters, especially Gwen. 

Okay, onto the fight. First, so, Gwen is much, much stronger than Barbara, and at least as fast, if not faster. At first, I actually thought Barbara had a win con. The sonic weaponry. Gwen’s powers are dependent on her symbiote, so Batgirl using it would get rid of her power. This would even be possible for Barbara to pull off, with somewhat similar speed. But there’s one problem. Batgirl never used any sonic weaponry, so there goes her only win con (she would likely lose either way, since she wouldn’t know Gwen’s weakness at the start and won’t attack with sonic shit, at least at the beginning).

 So yeah, it leaves us with typical Bats vs Spidey stuff. Barbara has intelligence, experience, arsenal and potentially equal speed (though Marvel street tiers likely scale to higher FTL). Gwen has superior strength and durability to the point of one-shotting, plus many useful superpowers, like the spider sense, which absolutely negates Barbara’s stealth and her web, which she can easily incapacitate Barbara with. Batgirl may have tried, but her opponent easily took the G-win.

 

...Poor Babs lol. She not only gets murdered this episode, but her opponent is also clearly in the center of attention here, even though Batgirl is the more significant character here in my opinion. Oh well. Maybe they’ll finally shut up about DB being DC biased.

SoMaShadow

(Why couldn’t we have had Jolyne, DB?)

It’s no secret that I like Marvel and DC as franchises, and there are some really cool fights with them that I’d like to see. But out of all of the possible options, why was this the one they went with? If it needed to be Marvel and DC, Deadshot vs Bullseye, Moon Knight vs Azrael, and Scarlet Witch vs Zatanna were right up their alley! Hell, these two characters had much better opponents that would’ve diversified the roster for this season, Batgirl vs Kim Possible and Spider-Gwen vs Jolyne Cujoh, respectively. Now we’ve got nearly half of all episodes this season being Marvel/DC, and this is the third spider fight, and not even with Peter! Don’t even get me started on wasting Crona’s episode with Venom when they should’ve fought Shiro.

Nothing this episode does brings anything new to the table, honestly. It’s just a rerun of Bats vs Spidey, but they’re girls. Leaving aside all disappointment and missed opportunities, it’s a clear-cut win for Gwen, and we all know it. I can’t sugarcoat this much, and I won’t need much time to explain, so I’ll keep it brief and simple. Gwen has the stat advantage by a large margin, and though Barbara might have some impressive lightning timing and MCB level durability feats, both are very debatable and Gwen is still much stronger and faster anyway. Gwen’s Symbiote could be a double-edged sword in that it’s weakness to sound could be exploited, but it won’t be Barbara’s opening move, and the only way she wins is by exploiting all available weaknesses immediately.

Barbara is much more skilled and experienced, plus her gadgets give her the versatility edge over Gwen, but that’s pretty much it. Gwen’s webs are super useful, and Barb doesn’t have a way to get around her Spider-Sense, and a good hit to the head could end it pretty much instantly due to how Barbara’s neural implant works. Basically, Spider-Gwen takes it pretty easily and a good JoJo’s fight is missed.

As for any other closing remarks? The fight will be SFM, and Devil Artemis has done fantastic work with his team, so that’s one thing to look forward to. Jon Talbain vs Sabrewulf was just amazing, and I’m so glad to see Jon take the win. Darkstalkers is a favourite fighting game franchise of mine, so I’m glad that it returned, and avenged Felicia at the same time. Also hope that a JoJo’s episode happens soon, it’s been a while since Jotaro vs Kenshiro and we could definitely have another.

The Draconic Hero

(What does this image have to do with the fight? Absolutely nothing. Just staying on brand)

It’s sad when I’m only doing this blog out of a voluntary obligation. When I first heard the matchup, my first instinct was “Barbara dies”, but I stuck around in the discussion for like a day to see if there was anything that made this different from Batman Vs Spider-Man way back in season 1.

The short version is: No. 

As for the long version...While Barbara and Gwen are comparable in the stat trinity--Gwen isn’t holding the advantage in such an egregious fashion like other times in this show, but just solidly enough that it matters--Gwen’s Spider Sense counters pretty much everything Barbara can throw at her. Experience doesn’t matter when Gwen is faster and, unlike Peter, she’s not dumb or arrogant enough not to freaking listen to its warnings. So, yeah, good luck for Barbara ever getting a hit on Gwen at all. About the only thing Barbara could do to remotely eek out a win would be to bomb Gwen with sleeping or chemical weapons to take advantage of an incapacitated Gwen. Barbara’s smart, but then again so is Batman. While there are ways for Barbara to win, Gwen is still going to clobber her like 90% of the time. I really don’t understand why this battle exists at all. Like, okay, if it was the penultimate episode of the season, I could see maybe them buying some time before the season finale because they needed time, but we have 2 episodes before the season finale. This “breather” episode is doing the show no favors and really just feels like cheap click bait to go “SEE?! SEE?! We let Marvel win!” Seriously, Death Battle, let Marvel have a goddamn win streak. They haven’t had one in ages. Their longest running streak was season 1--Rogue, then Thor, then Spidey--before getting stopped in season 2 by Batman fighting Captain America. Then later in season 2, Deadpool beat Deathstroke and Iron Man beat Lex Luthor before Beast lost to Goliath. And they haven’t been able to string wins together since. 

I’m more curious about that Hulk Vs Broly joke that’s made in the preview of the fight. I’m much more partial to Asura Vs Broly to be honest. Hulk does not stand a ghost of a chance against either of them. Liek…

Well, it’s out of my hands. I’m just the guy that makes verdicts and tries to be funny. See you all for the next DB. If not, see you for the finale. Ja ne!

RJ (Roger)

So, this is my third time on the blog and I am rather nervous still on doing this but at the same time they are actually pretty fun. 

To start with this debate, the thing I seen many people talk about is that Street-Tier Marvel characters (or the guys who basically fight Gangsters, low rent supervillains who make tech from soup cans and the occasional super alien), are usually better than most Street-Tier’s in DC’s Roster. These include, but not limited too…

Multi-City Block Attack Potency and Durability from daily battles from guys like Rhino, Lizardmen, and multiple explosions that usually takes a good chunk of New york on a regular basis. It’s kind of nuts compared to the usual fair of Street Tier feats in DC, which while getting high usually have a “But” at the end of their statements that usually have the calc be a tad bit lower. 

Speed is like Pretty forward with Marvel heroes being oddly able to react under the nanosecond while also having guys dodge camera flashes (Cap), Lasers (Misc) and the aforementioned nanosecond thinking power. To add, Dc is kind of lacking in that front to usually being guys who can dodge electricity and barely even that at times though there is one scan about Canary, a Nanosecond and sparring with Wonder Woman so there's that.

However, and this is a big one, if it weren’t for the stats….Barbara pretty much has everything else in terms of her kit, her mind and experiences from being a superhero for way longer than Gwen Stacey, years of hacking genius and tactical skills as Oracle. She has mastered so many fighting styles she basically kick my ass ten times over before I even hit the ground compared to the street fighting style of Gwen. And then, you take in to account that Barbara has and is not limited to Chemical weapons (Which is highly illegal.and breaks the geneva convention.), goorangs which basically incase you in gum and make you a sitting duck, explosives, cryo rangs which would freeze most people, Razor Rangs which can...and I can not believe people didn’t notice this when they wrote, can do serious damage to the spine. Barbara Gordon, who was disabled and got shot in the spine, has a weapon to do that to someone. That...is messed up. But besides that she also has a weird laser turret thing, laser cutters, Taserrangs, an actual taser, A grappling gun, another grappling gun that has a claw, just so much stuff.

If only Gwen had a power that could sense whenever she was gonna take aim and deck her in the head! Boom, Spider-sense….Which is like, the ultimate defense against someone who’s already slower, already weaker and who’s best equipment and abilities are for hand to hand combat, stealth takedowns and normal...takedowns. 

So let’s review, Spide-Gwen is stronger, she’s faster, she has an ability to sense when someone is gonna come from behind and slap her silly, she lacks the experience but well. When you basically have the edge in everything except Talent, it’s kind of a good place to be. Course if they were to be equals in this debate and you looked over Barbara’s options, one could argue for her since she also has access to what is basically a flashbang so she can get the edge there...but sadly they aren’t that equal and all of the major attributes are on Spider-Gwen's side.

So I bet on Spider-Gwen winning and next time, I’m hoping for that Sora in the latest FFBE event which will end in one of two ways, Pain or joy. Much like how some people feel bout next times in DB, it’s either Joy or Depression. Let’s hope it’s joy shall we fellas. 

The Real Cal Howard

(Bill Cipher and Star are the last chances for more Disney Channel representation past Jake)

No Batgirl vs Kim Possible upsets me to no end. This better be one of the best matches of the season lol. Good thing the SFM team is top notch.

Oh, right. The fight. Let’s get this out of the way. Babs ain’t touching Gwen. Forget about the stat trinity and how Gwen has a blitzingly high speed advantage. That on top of general Spider mobility, the Spider Sense, and teleportation? I don’t think so. Frankly, Gwen doesn’t even need her strength advantage when she can just win a war of attrition due to that. But Gwen does have that strength advantage. So she hits Babs. Babs is the better fighter, sure. But that’s about it. What good is it against a stronger, faster opponent who has the senses to know what you do before you do it? And while Babs has a better arsenal, it’s pretty much useless here as no sonic weapons...somehow. Gwen tanks or dodges. Also webs probably outrange Babs’s stuff. Not sure. Anywho, sorry Batgirl, but Spider-Gwen takes this melee quite easily. This is a...Killing Joke of a fight to her.