Captain Atom vs Wonder Man

Hi and welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. 

I'm Johnny DC and I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And this episode is a duel episode between one of my favorite characters, Captain Atom and some Marvel guy, a Wonder Man apparently. It sounds like a rip off of Wonder Woman. He's nothing like Wonder Woman, if anything he's more like Superman, but he has a definite powerhouse within Marvel, somebody who I can't wait to see go up against Captain Atom. They're both kind of like energy-based, superheroes, where Captain Atom is composed of quantum energy, Wonder Man is composed of ionic energy. Oh dude, quantum's are way better than ions. Way better. If you say so, I have no idea. 

Trust me. But before we get to the main event of the episode and we break down the characters and their histories and abilities and then run stats to find out who would win and match between the two, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, including the Aquaman sequels title reveal, the news that Jamila Jamil has been cast in the She-Hulk Disney Plus series, and we got some E3 news concerning Guardians of the Galaxy and the Black Panther Warfare Wakanda expansion for the Avengers game. A lot of fun news to talk about this week. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Guys, it's that time again when we talk about Patreon membership. As we've been talking about this past month, Apple Podcasts and Spotify has made a way for podcast creators to offer their show at a price to listeners. Jonathan and I have the opportunity to do that, but we don't want to. We want to keep the show free, but in order to do that, we do have to recompense some of those lost earnings that we would get if we did put the show behind a paywall. So to that end, we are desperately asking you guys to please join our Patreon. 

Our goal is to get to 100 patrons by the middle of July when we release our Black Widow review. If we're not able to make it then, then I guess we will be having to put the show behind a paywall. Otherwise, we're just throwing money away essentially. Yeah, so join our Patreon and get those bonus perks. 

Our lowest tier is only $2 a month. Yeah. And for those of you guys who are like, well, I don't think they're going to make their goal. I'm just going to resign myself to paying for the show when it does go behind a paywall. Don't do that. If you're planning to pay for the show, if it does go paid, just join Patreon because you get more from this podcast experience by doing so. All we need is a fraction of our listeners to sign up to meet our goal, and we're trying to get those listeners more for their money. Right through that bonus content, including monthly watch parties that Jonathan and I host, you guys get to watch a movie with us. We're going to watch Batman Ninja with our patrons this first month. I know last episode we said that we would do it June 19th, but we are going to have to push it back to June 26th because we completely forgot that this weekend is Father's Day and probably a lot of people will want to spend that time with their dads. 

So join us before June 26th and let's all watch Batman Ninja together. We'll send out more details to our patrons this week. Also again, you guys may know Jonathan and I are gifting out Marvel vs DC pin sets to our higher tier patrons at the $10 and $18 level. 

They're a limited edition. This month we've already sent out the Red Hood vs Punisher Pin Set to those patrons, but if you still want that, we still have a few left, so definitely sign up. Speaking of patrons, we want to give a huge shout out to Steven Lovato, who has become a new executive producer of this podcast. 

Just recently, that's huge. Thank you so much for helping make this show possible, Steven. We truly appreciate you as well as Andreas Kiraikaitis. 

I think that's how you pronounce it and probably way off. And Marquis High, you guys are awesome. Thank you guys so much for also joining our Patreon. If you the listener want to get more from this show and help save the show from going behind a paywall, be a hero. Visit patreon.com slash dynamic duel and sign up for one of our tiers. Again, the lowest tier is only $2. Not all heroes wear capes. 

Some of them support their favorite content creators. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize. A no prize is an award Marvel used to give out up until the 90s to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on social media that we personally draw for those who we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week's question tied into the reveal of Shazam's updated costume for the Shazam Fury of the Gods film. So we asked, which Marvel or DC character has had the most improved costume between their sequels? We got a lot of great answers for this question, but we picked out three honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. So let's get to it. Our first honorable mention goes to Michael Haggerty, who said, Hey guys, it's Michael Haggerty. 

I would have to say that Christopher Nolan's Batman probably has upgraded in best suit because in the first one he went from a beefy chungus to the next one where he was more slim and was upgraded able to turn his neck. And then in the third one, you know, he had he was mostly in the dark, so we never saw him in the light until that movie. And then we were like, Damn, he still looks badass even in the daytime. Damn, that suit's badass. So, Christopher Nolan's Batman. 

I'm Michael Mellai. I had to go on UrbanDictionary.com and look up what a chungus was. And there are varying reports. Some people just say it's like a big dude. Other people say it's a chunky anus. 

I don't know what to think about that. But certainly, yeah, Christian Bales Batman had this really like almost puffy, not quite, but but chungus-y suit of armor in the first movie and it became much more sleek in the second. Yeah, it allowed him to move easier. 

Like he said, it allowed him to turn his head. It was a costume upgrade. I think I still prefer like the bat chest emblem on the Batman and Began suit more. But other than that, it was an improvement. I agree. Our next honorable mention goes to Shane Habazin, who said, Hello, Johnny and Joe. 

It's Shane here. And I feel like Captain America had the best costume evolution in his sequels. Also, if you're counting the Avengers movies with the his final costume, having the scales from his original debut. And also, I made you guys a subreddit. So if you go on the Reddit type in dynamic duel, you'll find me there. 

That's pretty cool. Thank you for doing that, Shane. If you guys are avid redditors and you want to discuss this podcast, go check out the subreddit that Shane created. It's all one word dynamic duel. And you guys will be able to talk about the show there. But in regards to Captain America, Shane's right. You know, Captain America kind of had a roller coaster in terms of suit quality, because his original suit in the first Avenger film was awesome. Yeah, it was a great reinterpretation of the comic book costume. 

And then it really dipped in the Avengers movie. Yeah, I loved how they incorporated like a World War Two helmet into the first design. And then what the fuck was up with the ears in the Avengers film? Bill Coulson was not the best costume designer. But Cap did go back to, you know, his more badass look in the subsequent Avengers films and Captain America sequel films. Culminating in Avengers Endgame when he had the cool scale armor or a suit evoking the scale armor rather. That was a fantastic look. He looked way cooler in the movies than he ever has in the comic. Yeah, I don't deny that. Our final honorable mention goes to Joel Seagrave, who said, 

All right, guys, this is Joel Seagrave from London. Character with the best improved costume between sequels has got to be the amazing Spider-Man 2. The costume is a lot brighter, a lot more vibrant compared to its earlier film. And the fact that it's a lot more comic accurate. Easily one of the best costumes that has been in the franchise. Take care, guys. 

Now, what do we first thought about this question? This was probably the first costume that came to mind. Because the costume for the amazing Spider-Man was fuggly. I fucking despise that costume. Now, we haven't reviewed any of the amazing Spider-Man films yet. But when we do, I will go into a 10 minute rant about how much I hate the costume design from the first amazing Yellow Eyes? 

Really? What the fuck was that? Oh my God, it was so bad. But they changed it so much and they improved it so well for the amazing Spider-Man 2. It was perfection. I was just blowing away. 

Yeah. As good as Tom Holland's Spider-Man outfit is in the MCU, it's very John Ramita inspired with the thick lenses and everything like that. I've always been more of a fan of Todd McFarland's design of Spider-Man with the big eyes. Oh yeah. And J. Scott Campbell, I think, is a tremendous Spider-Man artist who does the really big eyes and they went with the big eyes for the amazing Spider-Man 2. In my opinion, that film's costume is better than the MCU versions of Spider-Man, even though that wasn't a great movie. 

Right. And I think this totally would have won this week's No Prize if it wasn't for the choice the winner gave. Before we reveal the winner, we want to give a quick shout out to everyone else who answered, including Jacob Bell, Maggie Bettingen, and Eli Morehouse. Thanks for taking the time to visit our website and leave us an answer. Great answers too. Yeah. All great answers. But the winner of this week's No Prize goes to Nate Wagner, who said, Hey, it's Nate here. 

And for most improved costume, I would have to go with Deadpool. I know what you're saying. Well, Deadpool 1, Deadpool 2, not a lot changed. I'm talking from X-Men Origins to Deadpool. How much better he got? Also, they improved on Colossus and Juggernaut. I know it's not a sequel, but X-Men continuity is all sorts of messed up. 

And continuity aside, I think this is a fantastic answer. I'll definitely accept it. Deadpool's design in X-Men Origins Wolverine was atrocious. I don't know what the hell they were thinking and we go into that in a review of that film that we did with the Blast from our past podcast. We just ragged on it with like the sword blades that extend from his forearms. Like Baraka. Yeah. 

And like Sharpie Marker designed all over his body and the optic blasts and everything like that. It was just so bad. They sewed his mouth shut. 

So dumb. The merc with the mouth. We go from that abomination to the perfection that is the Deadpool suit in the Deadpool movies is far and away the most improved look between sequels. Yeah, I still can't believe that like Ryan Reynolds wanted to return to the role after that. 

Yeah. Thank God he wanted to. And thankfully, he was a big fan who wanted to kind of set the record straight. And it was also right regarding, you know, the juggernaut. Like how much better was the juggernaut between X-Men 3 and Deadpool 2? 

The same goes for Colossus as well. So great answer, Nate. You win this week's No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. 

And now that that's done, on to the news. Okay, so earlier this week, the director of Aquaman and Aquaman 2, James Wan, revealed a snapshot from a production meeting for the sequel where the title is displayed as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Pretty cool title. I kind of assumed that they were going to go there, you know, just how much they referenced the Lost Kingdom from the first movie. Yeah. So it's not a big surprise by any means. Apparently, we called that this was going to be the title back in 2018 during a review of the Aquaman movie. 

This was mentioned by listener Anthony Boconfuso on Instagram. Yeah, again, I mean, that's probably why I'm not surprised here. If you remember in the first film, they established that there were seven kingdoms of Atlantis, essentially. There was Atlantis, like the main kingdom, but there was also Zebel, the fishermen, the brine, the trench, the deserters who we never saw, and the Lost Kingdom, which they mentioned several times. 

But again, we also never saw them. It's a big mystery about what that is. Apparently, we're going to find out in this film. My guess is they're going to be dolphin people. And that's how we're going to meet the character Dolphin. And that's probably how Mira is going to see her exit because Aquaman is going to be like, Dolphin, you're my new girl. I hate that idea. I want Dolphin to be Aqualad's girl, because that's how they met in the comics. Maybe we'll be introduced to both of those characters in the Bermuda Triangle, because that's where they are. 

I'm calling it right now. Yeah, that's not a bad guess. The subtitle has like this air of mystery about it. Like if you don't remember them mentioning the Lost Kingdom in the first movie, this is still intriguing to you, I think. But that brings us to our question of the week. What Marvel or DC film subtitle interested you the most when you first heard it? 

And why? Record your answer at dynamicdool.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message can be up to 30 seconds long. And don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and draw that person at Dynamic Dool no prize that we'll post to social media. 

Be sure to answer before June 19th. In Marvel news, we learned that Jamila Jamil has been cast as Titania in the She Hulk Disney Plus series. Now Titania is one of She Hulk's more prominent villains. 

You know, she's also strong and invulnerable, like her nemesis. So it makes sense that she'll be in this show. I've never really seen Jamila Jamil in anything. I did see like brief snippets of the Good Place television series that was on ABC, and she played a prominent role in that. She's also done a lot of voice work, including for Rugrats, DuckTales, Animaniacs, American Dad, and even the Harley Quinn television series on HBO Max. She's definitely a rising star in Hollywood, so I'm really glad that they picked her up for this series. I think she'll do really well. That being said, I think I've only read like a few issues with Titania in it. 

And basically, she gets her powers from Dr. Doom, who grants them to her during the first Secret Wars event. Really? Yeah. 

That's interesting. Obviously, they're probably not going to go that route for this show because we haven't seen Dr. Doom yet, so she's going to get her powers a different way. What I primarily remember her from was from Dan Slott's run on She Hulk, where she was given the power gem by the champion after the champion who was the wielder of the power gem was defeated by She Hulk. And that was a fun story. But as we know, the gems are gone, man. Exactly, exactly. So Jamila can't get her strength from the power gem either. So they got to find some way for her to be strong like She Hulk. My guess is that Bruce Banner is going to factor in some way. We know he's going to be in the show. And to me, I think that's probably the easiest way for her to get her powers. Another experiment of his or something like that. 

Like another gamma radiation test gone wrong or something? Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. It's possible that both She Hulk and Titania will have similar origins in this series. I think what really excites me about this though is that because we have such a physical villain in this show, we're going to get some really awesome She Hulk throwdown fights. 

That's true. Where they're just like pumbling on each other. That's going to be so fun to see. I mean, that was like the best part of the Incredible Hulk I felt. You know, seeing the Hulk go up against Abomination, that was pretty cool. 

Well, Abomination is also going to be in the She Hulk series. That's right. Yeah. I totally forgot about that. Actually, you know what? Maybe that's how Titania gets her powers the same way Emil Blonsky got his. 

The flawed Super Soldier serum. Right. Yeah. 

Why not? Exactly. Or maybe she gets a blood transfusion from Abomination. 

I mean, yeah, that's possible too. You know, we haven't really seen the Hulk and the MCU really throw down with anybody since he got his ass kicked in Infinity War. So I'm hoping that in this series, Hulk and She Hulk team up to lay the smash down on Abomination and Titania. Fingers crossed. 

That'll be cool. In other Marvel news, this is not movie news. It's actually video game news that came out of the E3 Expo. 

We got a look at a trailer for a Guardians of the Galaxy game that's being made by Square Enix as well as the Black Panther War for Wakanda expansion for the Marvel Avengers video game. As you guys know, if you listen to this podcast, neither Jonathan nor I are huge into video games. Well, lately we've been playing a ton of Fortnite. 

That's true. Like way too much. Yeah, way too much Fortnite. Because we just started playing and actually we got a support of creator code. If you guys want to use that, if you guys play Fortnite, that code is duel D U E L. So put that in if you guys play and also add us to your friends list. 

My epic ID is Marvelous Joe and Jonathan's is Johnny hyphen DC. That's right. And we'll squat up sometime. It'll be fun. Anyway, as I was saying, we're not really big video game guys, like we each own a switch and that's it. But seeing games like Marvel's Avengers and Insomniac's Spider-Man games and now this Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy game makes me kind of want to start picking video games back up because of this Guardians of the Galaxy game looks like a lot of fun. Granted, it's just a single player campaign like you can't be the other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. You can only be Star Lord, but it looks fun in its branching storyline. As leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, you're making decisions throughout the game that affect the story. 

And so you can have multiple playthroughs of this, each with a different result. The character designs are kind of similar to Square Enix's approach to Marvel's Avengers, where the designs are kind of MCU inspired, but they don't have the MCU history. They're more like from the comic books. Yeah, I think that was most noticeable in the Gamora design. You know, in the comics, she has that like design over her eyes. Yeah, the yellow diamonds kind of. Yeah, she didn't have that in the movie, but she has a design here. Yeah. 

Yeah. And actually Peter Quill looks pretty different in this game. I think he doesn't look anything like Chris Pratt. I'm not quite a fan of the whole like chin braid for Rocket Raccoon. Yeah, that's a little weird. 

I know. But speaking of Rocket, during the gameplay footage of this, there was a reference to Half World, where if you listen to our Green Lantern versus Rocket Raccoon episode, you'll know that that's where Rocket is from, Half World. There was also a reference to Maclu Four, which if you listen to our Mandarin episode, you know, that's where his Magic Rings came from. 

It's like an alien race of dragon-like creatures. So there's a lot of really cool Easter eggs within this. I think the story looks like the best thing about the game. The gameplay looks like nothing new. 

Like same thing with Marvel's Avengers, you know, they're not making any real innovations in terms of how the game is played. But the stories do intrigue me. Yeah, the attraction is the stories and the characters getting to be able to play as them. 

Right. And speaking of video game stories, I haven't played Marvel's Avengers, but that also looks like a pretty fascinating story where they go up against AIM and now they've added to that universe with a tale of Wakanda. The war for Wakanda expansion for Marvel's Avengers looks amazing. Again, it's also MCU inspired. If you guys check out that trailer, it looks like he's going up against the villain Kla, who kind of starts out looking like Andy Serkis' character from the Black Panther movie. But then by the end of the trailer, he looks like his comic book counterpart where he becomes this sonic energy being. 

And that looks way cool. I would have loved to have seen that for Andy Serkis within the MCU, but we never really got that. He had like his hand cannon and everything, but we never got to see him in all of his vibrational sound power glory. Yeah, hopefully playing as Black Panther is as cool as playing as Batman in the Arkham games. 

I hope so. Like, I know you played those games and you were like amazed by them. I'm really interested in seeing what the reviews are for this. If they're that good, then I may just cave and pick up Marvel's The Avengers for a PlayStation. Because I think this Black Panther trailer has compelled me even more than the main Avengers gameplay. 

Yeah, I could see that. It looks really cool. If you guys have played Marvel's The Avengers, definitely reach out to me on social media and you can find links to all of our accounts in the show notes for this episode. Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Just let me know what you think about it. Right. And as of the recording of this episode, E3 is still going on. I think it's going on all the way till Tuesday when we release this episode. So there may be more E3 news next week. Hopefully some DC stuff. Maybe. Yeah, maybe we'll get another look at Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League, and Gotham Knights. 

Yeah. But I think that does it for the news for this episode. Let's get into the main event where we see who would win in a fight between the DC Atomic Powerhouse, Captain Adam, and Marvel's indestructible badass, Wonder Man. Okay, so Captain Adam versus Wonder Man. We knew that after we saw Wonder Man was going to be in the MODOK TV series, which we reviewed in our last episode, that we wanted to do a duel with him. Now, a while back, we had someone reach out to us saying that a good duel episode for us would be Wonder Man versus Captain Adam. Can't remember who it was. Can't remember what platform they reached out to us on, but we thought it was brilliant. Yeah, thanks. 

Whoever you were, hopefully you hear this. Because again, Captain Adam is one of my favorite heroes. His story is like the Count of Monte Cristo, but he's a character with a power that rivals Superman's. And if you're familiar with Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, that character is actually inspired by Captain Adam. Although Dr. Manhattan has proved to be way more powerful than Captain Adam. 

Yeah, yeah, Dr. Manhattan is like a god. And Wonder Man is also a favorite Avengers character of mine. I was first exposed to him in the Morgan Conquest arc for the Avengers, where he was resurrected by the Scarlet Witch. And I was like, who is this badass who just came back from the dead to kick Morgan LaFace ass? 

And I grew to love the character and read more about him. All I gotta say is Captain Adam is going down like a little bitch. Bitch, please. 

That's not gonna happen. Actually, I have no idea who's gonna win this. This is gonna be a huge surprise. 

I can't wait to find out the winner. If you've never listened to one of our duel episodes before, the way we determine a winner between these two characters is by running 1000 Monte Carlos simulations using their statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to determine outcomes through random sampling. In our case, it randomizes statistics along a normal distribution, which is a bell curve, as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle. The stat parameters we use are based off of the official Marvel power grid, and we use that criteria to extrapolate the DC character stats. 

We've included some additional stat categories of our own, such as range, damage potential, versatility, and perception, in order to create a more complete and robust simulation. Now, running these 1000 simulations gives us a percentage of wins for each character, and we declare the one with the higher percentage to be the ultimate victor, considering they're more likely to win any given battle. No one character ever wins 100% of the time. 

You know, comics have shown that there's always a way for Batman to defeat Superman. We feel our method falls in line with the precedents that have been established in the comic book stories. And we use this method because it was the least subjective, most unbiased way to determine who would win. Of course, we are both heavily biased toward our respective allegiances, and instead of debating these matches forever, we just let the math decide for us. 

So there's no fan votes here, and no relying on just feats. Before we run the simulations, though, we like to break down each character's histories and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the 1000 simulations we run would play out beat for beat. And I think it's my turn to go first with the Marvel characters history, so let me tell you all about Wonder Man. Simon Williams was born in Patterson, New Jersey, the youngest of two brothers born to wealthy industrialist Sanford Williams. Simon's older brother, Eric, declined to join the family business, so when their father died, Simon inherited his munitions company, Williams Innovations, at age 22. 

Unfortunately, due to his lack of management experience, Simon was unsuccessful in competing with rival Stark Industries, and Williams Innovations began failing. To save the company, Simon took the advice of his brother, Eric, and embezzled company money to invest in Eric's business, who was racketeering for the Majia crime family. Simon's board of directors caught him in the act, and he was arrested and imprisoned, blaming Stark Industries for his misfortune. Baron Zemo, who is the leader of the evil supervillain team The Masters of Evil, heard of Simon's incarceration and saw an opportunity to use him as a pawn against Tony Stark and the Avengers. 

The crew bailed Simon out of jail, and he agreed to undergo an experiment by Baron Zemo using Ionic energy. The radiation treatments transformed Simon into an unstable, iron-powered being, granting him extreme strength and invulnerability. The Masters of Evil called Wonderman and told Simon that he would die if he didn't receive a weekly dose of their special serum. This coerced Simon to continue ahead with Baron Zemo's plan, and he befriended the Avengers and infiltrated the team. He revealed to them that his Ionic state was unstable and could kill him, and the Avengers vowed to use every resource at their disposal to try and find a cure. Simon led Earth's mightiest heroes into Baron Zemo's trap, but could not forget the kindness they had shown him. Having a change of heart, Simon used his strength to save the team from The Masters of Evil ambush, then succumbed to his super-powered side effects, seemingly dead. Despite showing no vital signs, Ant-Man recorded Simon's brain patterns for scientific purposes. The villain Ultron later used these to program the android vision, whom you can learn more about in our Martian Manhunter vs. Vision duel episode. 

And you can learn more about Baron Zemo in our Lex Luthor vs. Baron Zemo episode. Simon's brother Eric blamed the Avengers for Simon's death and attacked them, turning into the villain known as The Grim Reaper. However, in reality, Simon had merely fallen into a death-like coma caused by his unstable Ionic form. His body survived, no longer needing food or oxygen, and haven't shaken off Baron Zemo's deadly side effect. Simon was restored to consciousness after The Grim Reaper exhumed his body, and he was exposed to the radiation of the villain called The Living Laser. Adjusting to life, Simon stayed with his old allies, The Avengers, who granted him full membership to the team. He assisted in the fight against villains such as Korvac, Madame Mask, and Count Nefaria before coming to blows with The Grim Reaper, who could not accept that Simon was resurrected and his true brother. Despite having rejoined The Living, Simon often had a paralyzing fear of death, and he quit The Avengers to work as a Hollywood stuntman. 

Though he would revisit and help out the team on occasion as needed. He helped found the Avengers West Coast Division alongside Hawkeye and War Machine, later joined by Vision, whom Simon began to regard as a sort of twin brother. His growing confidence and success with the team led to increased fame in the Hollywood scene. 

He landed the starring role in the sword and sorcery action film Archon 4, cementing his status as a celebrity actor. Simon also became briefly romantically involved with the Scarlet Witch after Vision's artificial mind was dismantled and seemingly destroyed, causing the android to become a shell of who he once was. Eventually, the West Coast Avengers disbanded and Simon joined Iron Man's Forceworks team. He was apparently killed, however, during their first mission when he intercepted an alien bomb. 

And no I said apparently. Simon's The Ionic Energy form persevered, though it had been dispersed. Later, the Scarlet Witch inadvertently reconstituted Simon through her Chaos Magic powers and her love for him after the villain sorceress Morgan Lefe captured the Avengers. You can learn more about Scarlet Witch in our Duel episode where we pit her against Zatana. After helping the team defeat Morgan Lefe, Simon rekindled his romance with Scarlet Witch and served as an Avengers Reserve member. During that time, he created a non-profit charity called Second Chance's Foundation, funded by his acting residuels and Wonder Man merchandise sales. 

Eventually, the Scarlet Witch admitted to Simon that she was still in love with Vision and the two split up. During the superhuman Civil War, in which the government forced heroes to work as official agents or face prosecution, Wonder Man was blackmailed by SHIELD for apparent misappropriation of funds by members of his foundation. They coerced him into registering as a government hero and made him create televised public messages promoting the Superhero Registration Act. He later joined the Mighty Avengers team, though he developed a pacifist outlook after its dissolution, publicly denouncing the amount of violence in which the Avengers participated. After the Avengers vs X-Men event, which saw the two superteams fight and later unite over the returning Phoenix Force, Simon joined the Avengers Unity Division, composed of former Avengers and X-Men. Simon vowed not to fight for the team, but instead used his PR skills to convince the public of the necessity of human and mutant cooperation. During a battle with the Celestial, Simon offered all his Ionic energy to the mutant Rogue, who absorbed him for the fight. You can learn more about Rogue in our Superboy vs Rogue episode. 

For some reason, Simon was unable to be released from Rogue for quite a while until she made contact with Deadpool, whose healing factor briefly transferred to her and facilitated the remanifestation of Simon in his regular form. That's random. Yeah, kinda. No longer a pacifist, though, he joined the resistance against Hydra after they shortly took over the United States under a reality warped Captain America's leadership. After Hydra's defeat, Simon went into space with other Avengers to aid the Kree and scrawl alien races in an interstellar war. 

And that's his history. Powers-wise, Wonder Man's abilities stem from his Ionic energy form. As a pure energy being, he's immortal and not susceptible to the limitations of flesh and blood, able to resist nearly any form of physical attack. His invulnerability also applies to energy attacks, though Wonder Man's not protected against his own Ionic or Anionic energy patterns. If he is injured, his energy body can recover through his Ionic regenerative healing. Wonder Man has powerful strength, lifting more than 100 tons, and he can propel himself through the air flying up to sonic speeds. He occasionally manipulates his energy to create defensive shields or offensive blasts from his eyes. 

Wonder Man can also detect energy signatures, teleport, and even shape change since his physical form is entirely subjective. He has a talented scientific mind and is an experienced hand combatant and stuntman. He's very random. I feel like he has a scientific mind, but he's also a stuntman, but he's also like a starring actor. It's like, whoa, he's like everything. Well, he parlayed his stunt career into an acting career. They tried to start him out as kind of like this brilliant scientific mind, and he is good at some science stuff, but I feel largely they abandoned that when he began his acting career and he kind of became like the acting superhero. 

It'll still show up from time to time, though. He's kind of similar to Shadow Cat in that regard, where you know they're smart and they're adept, but they're not out there like on the level of Peter Parker or something like that. I mostly knew Wonder Man's power set. I didn't realize he could shape shift. 

That's cool. It's rare that he does that, but he can. I thought he would have had a more interesting backstory. 

Not gonna lie. Yeah, he's always been kind of a side character, but I've always liked his look, I guess. When he's in his ionic energy form, he looks kind of like this like purple fizzy kind of humanoid. And I always thought that was really cool the way he uses his powers. Don't you wish he had a different name though? No, not really, because I think Wonder Man is way cooler than Wonder Woman. 

Way cooler. But he's like a rip-off. It's like DC having a character named like Iron Woman. Well, DC has a character named Iron. One of the metal men? 

Yeah, doesn't count. Anyway, speaking of metal, weird segue, let me get into the backstory of Captain Adam. So Captain Adam was not originally a DC Comics character. He was first published by Charlton Comics, who first told the story of Alan Adam, an accidently took off. Trapped inside, the rocket carried an atomic payload that was preset to detonate at an altitude of 300 miles. 

Adam was disintegrated in the explosion, his particles bombarded with atomic energy that were somehow able to reform back into Adam back on the ground. Ambued with nuclear power, the new hero Captain Adam was a flagship character for Charlton Comics, which was eventually acquired by DC Comics in 1985 when the publisher went out of business. The Charlton characters were first introduced in DC continuity during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event when it was revealed that the Charlton universe was a part of the DC multiverse, specifically Earth 4. 

At the end of the crisis, all of the worlds within the multiverse were merged into a single universe and continuity was adapted. In this post-Crisis continuity, Nathaniel Adam, a captain in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, was framed for murdering a senior officer, wrongfully charged with treason and sentenced to death by Colonel Wade Eiling. Colonel Eiling was also in charge of a top secret project that had discovered an alien spacecraft that absorbed all forms of energy. The lead scientist on that project, Dr. Heinrich Megala, theorized that the metal could be used to shield soldiers against nuclear weaponry. Insisting on his innocence and wanting to return home to his wife and children, Adam agreed to an offer made by Colonel Eiling to help test Dr. Megala's theory in exchange for a full presidential pardon and freedom. As a test subject, Adam was housed within a capsule made of the alien metal, now dubbed Dillastell, and placed on top of a thermonuclear bomb before it detonated. The experiment, known as Project Adam, took place in 1968 and the explosion left no trace of Adam, the Dillastell, or any radiation whatsoever. Adam was declared dead, only for him to emerge in a burst of energy 18 years later in the year 1986, in the same location that the experiment took place. Now a US Air Force Base, run by now General Wade Eiling. The Dillastell capsule, which melted onto Adam in the experiment, absorbed too much energy, resulting in a tear in the space-time fabric that imbued Adam with quantum energy and caused him to quantum leap into the future, where he learned that General Eiling married his wife and raised his kids. 

Dang. Because Adam was declared dead, his presidential pardon was never signed, and Eiling took advantage of the situation to force Adam, still technically a criminal soldier, to become a superhero for the US government. His Charlton Comics history was used as a fabricated cover of origin story to maintain the secrecy of the Dillastell metal and establish Adam, now Captain Adam, as a seasoned, trustworthy superhero. With help from the now elderly and handicapped Dr. Megala, Captain Adam quickly learned to master his newfound powers. In his first mission, Captain Adam prevented the assassination of the Canadian Prime Minister and US President on live television from the villainous Plastique. Captain Adam became a public sensation. 

As Captain Adam's government superhero career continued, he learned more and more about Project Adam, including a second experiment that was conducted a year after his, which resulted in the creation of the villain, Major Force, Captain Adam's arch nemesis. Eventually, Captain Adam was also able to prove his innocence, but discovered in the process that General Eiling was the one who framed him decades ago. Being that Eiling was the surrogate father of his children, however, Captain Adam took no action against the general, safer resigning from the Air Force and eliminating Eiling's control over him. Dr. Megala came to Captain Adam for help in curing his radiation poisoning, and though Captain Adam was successfully able to help him, Dr. Megala continued to fear for his life due to General Eiling covering up Project Adam. 

When Dr. Megala was killed, Captain Adam revealed the existence of Project Adam on live television, ruining General Eiling's career. At the behest of the US government, Captain Adam became a member of the Justice League, during which time he married his former enemy, Plastique, and discovered that the Dillistil Medal that encased him was part of a sentient being that accidentally fell to our world from the quantum field. Captain Adam and Major Force were able to track down the remaining Dillistil Medal, which came alive in their presence, forming a being known as Silver Shield. With part of Silver Shield permanently bonded to Captain Adam and Major Force, the entity was unable to return home. 

But Captain Adam was able to make Silver Shield a comfortable home on Earth while faking its departure from the planet and preventing General Eiling from getting his hands on it. Captain Adam eventually became the leader of Justice League Europe and led the Meta-Human Forces during the Invasion storyline. Not long after, during the Armageddon storyline, a time-travelling supervillain known as Monarch emerged and proved to be a major threat toward Earth's heroes. It was supposed to be revealed that Monarch was Captain Adam in the future, but because the surprise was leaked beforehand, DC Comics editorial changed the story at the last minute so that Monarch was Hawk instead. 

You can learn more about Hawk in our Hawk and Dove vs. North Star and Aurora duel episode. Captain Adam's and Monarch's clash set the two back to prehistoric times, where their battle continued to propel them back toward the future over time, with only Captain Adam emerging in the present, victorious. After leading and joining several super teams, including Extreme Justice, the Living Assault Weapons, and the Super Buddies, Captain Adam and Plastique divorced over differing political viewpoints. Captain Adam returned to working for the government at the time run by then-President Lex Luthor, during which Captain Adam seemingly sacrificed his life to destroy a giant asteroid made of kryptonite that was headed toward Earth. 

Rather than dying, however, the explosion sent Captain Adam into the Wildstorm universe. Wildstorm Productions was a former comics imprint of Image Comics that was created by comics artist Jim Lee, who now runs DC Comics. Wildstorm Productions was eventually sold to DC Comics in 1999, and they would establish the Wildstorm universe as Earth 50 in their newly formed multiverse. Captain Adam's existence in Wildstorm threatened to destroy that universe, resulting in him battling and allying himself with the likes of Mr. 

Majestic, the Wildcats, and the Authority. Many of the Wildstorm characters died, either trying to help or fight Captain Adam, including Grifter, Apollo, Midnighter, and Jenny Quantum. Eventually, a being known as The Void was able to send Captain Adam back to DC proper. Upon Captain Adam's return, however, he was noticed by a monitor, one of the many cosmic beings tasked with watching and recording the events within a designated universe. For seeing the final crisis that would be the end of everything, the monitor, named Solomon, mentally manipulated Captain Adam, driving him insane and causing him to blow up the city of Bloodhaven. Captain Adam took up the mantle of Monarch and traveled the multiverse, capturing numerous versions of Superman, Batman, and others in an event known as Countdown. 

He forced them to fight each other in order to build an army of multiverse's strongest heroes to defeat all of the monitors, to re-merge the multiverse, and create a single universe inhabited only by its strongest, including Solomon. Solomon noticed, however, that Superboy Prime was potentially stronger than Captain Adam, and he manipulated the two into fighting in a battle that destroyed the universe of Earth-51. In post-Flashpoint continuity, Captain Nathaniel Adam was atomized while attempting to pilot an interdimensional transfer vehicle. He re-emerged in his own time with god-like abilities, similar to his Watchman analog, Dr. Manhattan, though this version of Captain Adam was much more molecularly unstable. Eventually, he exploded, which sent him back to 1997, powerless. 

Accepting his circumstances, he married and had a son, only to have a gunshot wound during a carjacking, caused his metallic skin to leak out of him and hurl him back to his present, where he displayed his classic pre-Flashpoint abilities. Now, powers and abilities wise, Captain Adam's dillastil metal shell grants him nigh invulnerability to physical attacks and the ability to absorb all forms of energy. If he absorbs too much energy, it will cause him to quantum leap into the future, though he's also capable of leaping through time on his own through sheer concentration for a few minutes. He can emit explosive energy and manipulate energy to form force fields or lob energy bombs. He can also manipulate and transmute matter at the atomic level and alter his dillastil shell to change his appearance, allowing him to mimic others. He has quantum strength comparable to Superman and can fly at speeds approaching light. He also has military fight training. 

That's Captain Adam. Way more interesting than Wonder Man. I don't know, I kind of zoned out halfway through. What? Like, there's just, you kept jumping through time. That's just think. 

Okay, okay. We'll see if that pops up in our speculation as we improvise a scenario on how this fight will go. Oh yeah, this is gonna be like some like trippy, tenet type shit going on right here. So now that we've got their histories and abilities out of the way, we will now speculate on how one of the 1000 simulated matches will go. The winner is determined by simulations, not this speculation, but it is fun to imagine how this fight could play out. We don't set any rules for this match other than the characters don't know anything about each other going in, except that the other character is a threat that needs to be put down. And we say that they start off about 50 meters apart in an environment that has no bearing on the match itself because we don't take stats for the environment. 

And plus certain characters can have advantages in some environments over others, and we want these characters to win on their own merit. So let's get into it. The characters meet on the battlefield, who goes first? 

I'm gonna say I'm gonna go first this time because you go first all the time. Plus, I mean Captain Adam is, I would say faster than Wonder Man, since he could fly like half the speed of light. Okay, so Captain Adam is going to blast Wonder Man with atomic energy beams right off the bat. 

Okay, big deal. Wonder Man, like, gets blasted with this energy beam, he gets pushed back, but he's just gonna throw his arms up, protecting himself by creating like this energy shield using his Ionic Energy Aura. So blocking the blast, subduing the energy, he's gonna fly up into the air and then zap down at Captain Adam like a lightning bolt that results in this powerful energy blast at Captain Adam's feet that sends him flying like a mile away. He could turn into lightning? Yeah, he's not electricity per se, but he forms like this energy bolt form that can zap down. Interesting. 

Yeah. Okay, so Captain Adam gets knocked away, but he's just gonna rock it back at super speed and just plow straight into Wonder Man. Like the two are probably gonna trade blows like back and forth, but Captain Adam, he's probably gonna get the upper hand due to his military fight training. 

Okay. At which point Captain Adam is just gonna knock Wonder Man high into the air and then just hurl like an energy bomb up towards him. And what's this energy bomb like? It's just like a ball of energy that will explode after a certain amount of time. Okay, so Wonder Man's up in the air and he sees this energy bomb heading toward him. And so he's just gonna teleport back to the ground before the bomb makes contact. And he's gonna teleport behind Captain Adam and wrestle him into a headlock where he like snaps his neck man of steel style. He man of steel them and he's like, No! That's not a term that I like. 

That's messed up. I totally forgot Wonder Man could teleport. Yeah. Okay, but before Wonder Man could snap his neck, Captain Adam, he's just gonna detonate his entire body like a thermonuclear bomb. 

Okay. And that just sends Wonder Man flying so far away from him like miles and miles. Well, the nuclear blast, I don't think is gonna hurt Wonder Man too much because he's just so invulnerable. Thermonuclear. Okay, whatever. But Captain Adam is gonna, you know, fly over to see how Wonder Man's doing. 

Like inspect his status to see if he's dead or not. And as Captain Adam's flying over, he's gonna get shot out of the air by Wonder Man's ionic vision blast. So these red beams just knock Captain Adam on his ass. He plows into the ground right next to Wonder Man. And Wonder Man's gonna grow like three times his normal size. And he's just gonna start punching and hammering Captain Adam deep into the ground over and over again. 

And Captain Adam's body is just pummeled. It's probably like leaking radioactive energy and everything. Okay, then Wonder Man gets cancer. Captain Adam wins. Wonder Man can't get cancer because he's not flesh and blood. He's immune to all diseases. 

All right. So I'm gonna say after a couple of blows though, Wonder Man looks down and he sees nothing's there. What? Captain Adam's just gonna change the appearance of his metal to look like the ground around him, whether it's concrete or sand or whatever. Okay, so Wonder Man's like, where did he go? And that's when Captain Adam just re-emerges and punches like right through Wonder Man's head. Okay, I'm not sure if that would actually work though, because Wonder Man would still be able to sense Captain Adam's energy signature there. 

But Captain Adam moves so fast that, okay, sure, this happens. He punches through Wonder Man's head. Wonder Man falls to the ground, but he has his ionic regeneration factor, which reforms the hole in his head as he shrinks back down to normal size. So Wonder Man will be fine. 

I guess he's made of energy. That makes sense. Okay, but as Wonder Man heals, Captain Adam just spends a quick moment just meditating. What? 

Yeah. Okay, so Wonder Man gets to his feet and just freaking haymakers the dude in the space while he's meditating. All right, but as Captain Adam was concentrating, he was actually traveling a short distance into the future where he saw Wonder Man's attack. 

Okay. So when Captain Adam returns to the present, it's like he never left. And he dodges Wonder Man's haymaker, countering with his own attack that knocks Wonder Man into space. 

You can't copy me. All right, so Wonder Man gets knocked into space, but he's going to come hurtling downward like a meteor, like in the form of this like large, bolder sized comet. And he's going to crash into Captain Adam, raising up this like mushroom cloud and this huge explosion that leaves Captain Adam like unconscious in this crater. Okay, but as Wonder Man was coming down, though, Captain Adam created an energy force field just above him, protecting him from that crash and the whole explosion. 

He's protected. I forgot that he could create force fields. Okay, so he created the force field, but Captain Adam is going to lower this force field eventually. And when he does, Wonder Man is going to reform his body into like this sharp energy beam, like kind of like an energy lance, as it were. And he's going to dash through Captain Adam's chest, like rupturing Captain Adam's metallic skin. And as Captain Adam leaks energy through this tear in his body, Wonder Man is going to like fly into him and overload him with energy from within and causing him to just explosively combust, ending this match. Kind of like how Neo defeated Agent Smith at the end of the first Matrix. Okay, I was going to argue that there's no way Wonder Man would be able to slice into Captain Adam. Sure. 

But actually, now that I think about it, there's actually a device in DC Comics called the X-Ionizer that was developed by Dr. Megala that was capable of cutting through the Dillastell metal. Perfect. Perfect. We didn't tell me that before because I didn't think I needed to. Yay. 

But here's the thing. Captain Adam is not going to combust. The way it works is that the energy explosion is going to create a tear in space time and both Captain Adam and Wonder Man are flung into the past, probably to like the beginning of this match. Where Wonder Man is expelled from Captain Adam due to the energy output. Okay. Now, having had Wonder Man inside him, Captain Adam, he knows Wonder Man's energy makeup. 

All right. So he's going to convert his energy beams into an ionic energy and just blast Wonder Man out of existence. Okay. So basically Captain Adam was able to get a read on Wonder Man's energy signature and then blast him with the opposite of that energy to disintegrate him. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. 

I guess that's the end of this match. Then that's right. Except that Wonder Man's ionic energy eventually is going to reform his body over time. Long after Captain Adam has already thought he's won and left the match, but thereby leaving Wonder Man to win by default. How long does this take? A while. You know, a week or so maybe? I don't know. Jeez. That's ridiculous. He's immortal. But I think that's a good place to leave this match up. Either Wonder Man reforms his body or he doesn't. That's weird. So let's run the stats and find out which scenario happened when we find out who the winner is by running the simulations. Let's do it. 

All I have to say is that no matter who wins this match, it was Wonder Man that was inside Captain Adam. But after running the stats, these guys were pretty comparable in a multitude of stats, including speed, which was kind of a surprise, because Captain Adam is faster, but Wonder Man can't teleport. So he kind of compensated for that, and they ended up about equal. They're both equally evasive, able to create shields. They're both incredibly durable and incredibly strong. 

Absolutely. We did give Wonder Man the edge in terms of versatility since he is able to change his form to adapt to whatever Captain Adam throws at him physically. Yeah, Captain Adam could change his appearance, but in a matchup against Wonder Man, that really wasn't going to play a factor. 

No. But we did give Captain Adam the advantage in terms of fighting skill. Yeah, Wonder Man has fought alongside Captain America and things like that, but he doesn't have the same level of advanced training that Captain Adam got during his career with the military. 

We also gave Captain Adam the edge when it came to damage level. He's just capable of way more energy output than Wonder Man. Yeah, Wonder Man rarely blasts his ionic energy. His energy is more of a physical manifestation, not commonly a means of energy output in the same sense that Captain Adam can literally throw around nuclear bombs. Yeah, and because of that, we also gave Captain Adam the edge in range as well. 

Yeah. So considering all that, who do you think won this match? I think Captain Adam is going to take this one, and so do our social media followers. In fact, about 70% of them on Facebook and Instagram chose Captain Adam as the winner. Yeah, it seems like a lot of people know who Captain Adam is. Yeah, that's pretty cool. 

Too bad they don't know much about him to think that he would win in a fight against Wonder Man, because the winner of this matchup between Captain Adam and Wonder Man is Captain Adam. Yes. Fold you there. No, you didn't. You always keep trying to fool me. 

You don't. Like I was pretty confident Captain Adam was going to win after looking at the stats. I mean, he didn't win by much though. Captain Adam only won 574 out of the 1000 matches whereas Wonder Man won 426. So 57.4% of the time Captain Adam beats Wonder Man. Not a lot, but it's enough to get the W. So proud of Captain Adam. He's my boy. Proud of him. 

What do you mean? He kicked Wonder Man's ass. Well, I am proud of Wonder Man for being inside Captain Adam. Okay, let's do that joke a third time. I think I do. I am proud of Wonder Man for looking cooler than Captain Adam. 

What are you talking about? Captain Adam looks super cool. He's like the closest thing DC has to like Silver Surfer. Well, Wonder Man is the closest thing that Marvel or DC have to a living fizzy grape soda. So there. Not gonna lie. Totally want a fizzy grape soda now. 

But that does it for this matchup between Captain Adam and Wonder Man. Let us know what you thought about the results by writing to us at dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com or by visiting us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show notes or visiting our website dynamicduel.com. 

And don't forget on our site you can also find a link to our Patreon page where we offer bonus content. Again, the lowest tier, only $2 a month. That's less than a cup of coffee every month. Yeah, that's not much for bonus content. 

And of course, at our higher tiers, you get more, including pin sets or executive producer status. Our next episode is going to be another duel episode leading into the Batman the Long Halloween Part 1 review. We're going to do a Batman related duel where we pit the member of the Bat Family, Batwoman, against Black Cat, who is a Spider-Man villain and love interest. Yeah. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, Jace Crump, John Sturrosky, John Speese, Zachary Hepburn, John Bechennina, and Stephen Lovato for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up, up, and away. True believers.