Elongated Man vs Medusa

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

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 Marvelous Joe and I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. 

And in this episode we're going to find out who would win in a fight between Elongated Man versus Medusa. Now Elongated Man is a stretchy DC character with the most perverted name and existence against Medusa who has no relation to the Greek mythological character except for, you know, they both have interesting things going on with their hair. 

Yeah, Elongated Man is a fairly popular character in DC so I'm surprised that it's taken us this long to get to a dual episode with him and the same kind of goes for Medusa I feel. 

Yeah, so far we've only done one inhuman unless you count Miss Marvel Kamala Khan, but yeah, that was Black Bolt in our Shazam vs. Black Bolt episode and, you know, that's a mistake because I love the inhumans and I'm really excited to get back into those characters with this duel. 

But before we find out who wins between these two characters, we're going to break down the latest comic book movie news this past week of which there was none. So we're not going to do that. Yeah, we are going to give you guys a special update on the podcast though so stay tuned for that. 

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. 

Our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners so listen up. 

Want to know more about this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2.0 tier gives you access to our Discord chat server. 

The Fantastic Four tier gives you two bonus episodes each month and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly, the DynaMic podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicdualpodcast.com. Check it out at patreon.com .pippip. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. 

Guys, be sure to tune into the other shows and the DynaMic podcast network this week including the Konsole Kombat podcast where hosts Jon and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they reviewed The Last of Us season 2. 

Over on the Max Destruction podcast hosts Scotty and Gilly pit your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This week, the brothers are returning to kick off a new season by pitting Ben 10 against Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender. On the Senjoh World podcast hosts Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. In his next episode, Zach is going to reveal who would win between Makka Al Barn from Soul Eater versus Ryuku Matoi from Kill La Kill. 

Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all the shows in the DynaMic podcast network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize! 

A no prize is an award that Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Dual No Prize, is a digital award that we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week, we asked you guys, what's your favorite theory as to why Victor Von Doom would look like Tony Stark? 

Right, this is coming off the news that Avengers Doomsday has been pushed back here. We've all been eagerly anticipating the film, but we're going to have to wait until December of 2026 to see it. 

In the meantime, we thought it would be interesting to get your ideas on why, God, why would they cast Robert Dunney Jr. as Dr. Doom and how could that best be rationalized? We actually got quite a number of answers, but quite a few of you guys repeated your answers. So we still have only three honorable mentions and one no prize winner. 

Our first honorable mention goes to by Dear Bangura and Jutson Batty. Who said? 

Hello Dynamic Dual, I think that a good theory would be that Victor Von Doom implanted his brain inside Tony Stark's body. Very similar to Superius Spider-Man with Doc Oub. I think he was trying to make him a superior Iron Man. Maybe Marvel will follow that storyline and kind of blend in with this one and give us the best version of Tony Stark possible. Thank you. 

Hi guys, Jutson Batty here. I think that my favorite theory as to why Doom looks like Stark in Avengers Doom is that in his reality, it was a play on the superior Spider-Man story. Instead of it being Doc Ock and Spider-Man, it was Doom and Stark being that Doom gets some form of cancer that would kill him somehow and capacitate Iron Man. It takes his body and Iron Man dies instead. 

Alright, so they both gave the same answer, essentially theorizing that the Dr. Doom Iron Man relationship is going to be similar to the superior Spider-Man relationship between Dr. Ock to Puss and Spider-Man in that comic book storyline. Which is a theory that I haven't heard before. 

I think it's a pretty interesting one. Essentially, they're saying that an alternate reality, Dr. Doom, is going to somehow telepathically or otherwise implant his mind into an alternate reality, Tony Stark's body, and then come into the main 616 universe. 

Which is an interesting idea, but it's not necessarily an idea that I love because I can't come up with any kind of justification for why Doom would take over Tony Stark's body when he could easily just probably create a clone of his former body. Like there's no advantage to having Tony Stark's body unless you don't want a functioning heart. 

Well, one could say that the motivation would be deception. Dr. Doom puts his mind in alternate reality, Tony Stark's body, who comes to Earth pretending to be Tony Stark. 

I'd rather have Doom's face hidden the entire time behind a dope metallic mask. I don't need that kind of level of deception. Maybe Doom's plan does, we'll see. Great answer by Deer and Judson, our next honorable mention goes to Lorenzo Valdez. Who said? 

This is Lorenzo Valdez calling in once again. What I keep going back to with RDJ as Dr. Doom is the Superboy TV show, where at the beginning of season 2, Lex Luthor gets plastic surgery to look like another character, Warren Eckworth. And I'm wondering whether Dr. Doom has done something similar, and whether he's perhaps trying to pose as Tony Stark, or revive Tony Stark, to infiltrate the Avengers. Clon of forever and always, buh-bye. 

Yeah, this is a similar type of situation as the previous answer, except instead of being an alternate reality, Dr. Doom inserting his mind into an alternate reality, Tony Stark's body, it is Dr. Doom getting plastic surgery to look like the deceased Tony Stark. So face off, essentially. 

Yeah, yeah. The reason I find this particular theory unsatisfying, and same thing with the Superior Spider-Man theory, is that it doesn't give enough space for the character of Victor Von Doom to be his own character prior to this deceptive plan. So in that case, we will never really get a good sense of who this guy is, what he looks like, before we dive in head first into, oh, this appears to be Tony Stark, and like acts like Tony Stark, and all this stuff. And it just bothers me because Victor Von Doom is such an interesting character in the comic books, and really truly has not been done justice in the films, and deserves to be. 

Right, at least even in the movie Face Off, in the first act, you got a sense of who the characters were before they switched faces. Exactly, exactly. Great answer, Lorenzo. Our final honorable mention goes to Alex Albro, who said, 

Hey guys, I think it plays out similar to the MCU with a few twists. Instead of getting stranded in Afghanistan, he gets stranded in Laveria, uses the Ten Rings to help him take over the country, still feels the need for a suit of armor around the world, builds Ultron, which turns into the Doombots. And since he can't save his mother in this universe, as the universe's collapsed, he trails the Fantastic Four to the 616, back in time to save his mother from the Winter Soldier, and he's been here all along. 

So yeah, this is the type of scenario that I'm really hoping that Marvel does not actually go down. What he poses is that an alternate reality, Tony Stark, named Victor Von Doom, goes through the same essential arc of being a weapons designer who gets captured and taken to Laveria, instead of Afghanistan like Tony Stark did in the first Iron Man movie. And then takes over the country, proposes the Ultron program, which turns into Doombots, and then comes into our reality to stop his mom from dying by the hands of the Winter Soldier. So that's what I don't want to happen. I don't want the character of Victor Von Doom to essentially be Tony Stark, because Victor Von Doom's actual origin story from the comic books is much more interesting than just being an alternate reality rehash of the MCU's Tony Stark. 

Yeah, it may sound petty, but I think Victor Von Doom should be done more justice than just being a Tony Stark variant. Right, exactly. 

Yeah. That's what I don't want. I don't want him to be a Tony Stark variant, necessarily. I mean, there's one theory that was not called in as an answer that I'll discuss in a minute here, but for the most part, yeah, I would not like Dr. Doom to be a variant. 

That said, if Victor Von Doom was going to be a variant of Tony Stark, that was a very creative way of going about that. So still, great answer, Alex. 

But the winner, or should I say winners of this week's No Prize are Travis Herndon and Cyrus Moore. Who said? 

Well, so the name of the dude's Travis here, shut up to my twin. So my theory is that what if RDJ is a red herring? Like they actually hired someone else to play Victor and they're keeping it hush hush. So when at the end of Doomsday, we actually get the true reveal of the actual actor who's playing Doom, Marvel would then pretty much pull the biggest, got y'all, fuck all of you guys that were doubting us moment in MCU history if that was the case. 

Hey guys, Cyrus Moore here. So my ultimate theory is that Tony Stark is coming back as Victor Von Doom is actually just an illusion. It's just a mass effect. Marvel's actually going to have Tony Stark come back and be Iron Man, and they will cast somebody else as Von Doom. Because you know the only character to stay dead is Uncle Ben. So yeah, I think Iron Man's coming back. 

Alright, this may be wishful thinking on my part and probably most fans who don't like the idea of Robert Downey Jr. being Iron Man, but it would be pretty impressive if Marvel was playing this kind of long con where they announced Robert Downey Jr. as being cast as Victor Von Doom. And then it turns out that it was all just a scam and that he's actually coming back as Iron Man and the character of Doctor Doom is played by a different actor. 

I don't think that's likely. I think it would be far more likely that maybe Robert Downey Jr. plays Doctor Doom for like the first movie at which point at the end he gets reverted to his true form and then we see another actor like pull away the disguise as a were and show us who the real Doctor Doom is. I think that is still potentially a possibility, but Marvel pulling off something like that I think would be exciting and would be something that I would actually love to see. 

Yeah, one thing about the Marvel fandom is that they're always trying to figure out all of the secrets that Marvel may or may not have. Like when it came to, you know, Spider-Man No Way Home. Like everyone knew what the spoiler for that film was going to be before we even saw it. It was still exciting when we learned that Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield would be in the movie, but I think it would be cooler if sometimes we didn't know all the secrets or couldn't figure out all the secrets ahead of time. If Marvel is really just punking all the fans, I would actually love that. I'm so sick of all of the Marvel speculation and rumors. I don't give a shit about it because, well, one, I'm a DC guy, but also two, like there's no way you're going to know until you see the actual movie. So just stop. Right. 

I mean, speculation is fun, but there's a limit to what I can tolerate even as a Marvel fan. I think essentially lying to fans is probably the best means at this point of actually retaining some sort of surprise, as they did with Spider-Man No Way Home. They basically lied and said these guys weren't in the movie, but then it turned out they were. But the lie just has to be maintained and believable. We'll end up seeing what happens. In regards to my statement that there was another theory out there that I liked. 

I think we talked about it on this podcast before. But if Victor Von Doom is going to be a Tony Stark variant in this cinematic multiverse, then I also want Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson to come back as evil variant versions of their characters. So like Hydra Cap along with Superior Iron Man version of Doctor Doom and maybe Scar Joe as like Madamask or something like that. That's the only way I can see this working if it's not just Robert Downey Jr. coming back, but other original Avengers actors coming back as variants of their former roles. Something like that I think could be pretty cool. 

And that's probably the only way I'll accept Doom being a variant of Tony Stark. But thanks to everyone who called in and congrats to Travis Herndon and Cyrus Moore for winning 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. Alright, in one of the biggest announcements for this podcast, we want to let you guys know like seven months in advance that in mid January on the 10th anniversary of this podcast, Jonathan and I will be ending Dynamic Duel as we all know it. That doesn't mean that we're going away forever. 

It just means that Dynamic Duel will no longer be putting out a weekly show. By the time that mid January comes around, Jonathan and I will be turning 40. And as many of you listeners may know, we started this podcast on our 30th birthday. And we feel that 10 years is a long time to exhaust any single topic, especially one like Marvel vs DC. 

Yeah, it was interesting. We started this podcast because DC that year was releasing Batman v Superman and essentially kicking off their very own shared cinematic universe to compete with the MCU. And that was a big ol' failure. 

Apparently. But I thought it was kind of fitting that we would kind of end the podcast once that journey was over and as DC is kicking off a new universe. So we started the show with the birth of one DC universe and we're ending it with the birth of another. Now the weekly format will be going away for the show, but we will still be doing film reviews of the upcoming Marvel and DC theatrical projects. 

And maybe some television shows as well. I'm not quite sure. 

Right. We're still going to be on Ron Tomatoes. We're still going to be here just not every week for you guys. Yeah. 

And to that end, the executive producers have determined the remaining dual episodes that we'll be doing throughout the rest of this calendar year into next January. So the main reason we're announcing this now is because if there are any potential executive producers out there, and I had to tell Paul Graves this, who is our newest executive producer, basically the role of the executive producer was to determine the content calendar of this show and pitch dual ideas and things like that. All the duels are figured out for the rest of the show. And so the main role of the executive producer now is to determine in what order those duels will be coming out. So I don't want to discourage anyone from supporting this podcast, but if you do become an executive producer from here on out, just know that the responsibility of that role has kind of shifted. Yeah. 

If you've been a supporter of this podcast, you've known about this news for a while and it's kind of bittersweet. But we're all really looking forward to the upcoming schedule we have for the remainder of this year. And the final episodes in particular are just going to be amazing. I almost can't wait for them. 

Yeah. In some ways next year can't come soon enough. And in other ways, it'll be hard to stop doing a weekly show, you know, something that we've done for literally a decade consistently. We've never missed a drop date, even while sick. 

Even while at the hospital having a kid. 

Yeah, I guess I did miss that episode for sure. But I did not. Hopefully this doesn't come as like a sad announcement to a lot of our listeners out there. Hopefully you guys understand that doing this for 10 years is a long time. 

And we still love doing the show, though, and we can't wait to continue putting out more episodes for you guys. Finally, solving this Marvel vs DC debate and shutting my twin brother up once and for all. 

Yes, those exact words. 

But regarding this announcement, that brings us to our question of the week. 

How did you find Dynamic Duel and how long have you been listening to the show? 

Yes, sometimes our questions are more market research than looking for editorials from you guys. But with the news that the show will be ending as it currently exists, we would just love to hear from some of our listeners. 

Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before June 7th. 

But I think that does it for the news portion of this episode, so let's go ahead and move into our main event. Where we find out who would win in a fight between elongated man and the inhuman Medusa. All right, elongated man versus Medusa. The primary reason we are doing this duel, not only because these characters can stretch, but also they're going to lead into future team duels that we have planned in the coming months, including the Justice League International versus the West Coast Avengers and Wildcats versus the Inhumans. Of course, elongated man was a member of the Justice League and Medusa is a member of the Inhumans, and we wanted to make sure to touch on these characters specifically before their team duels because we feel they're interesting and important enough characters to delve deeper into. I don't know if listeners have noticed yet, but Jonathan and I are just plowing through the team duels in essence trying to get through as many characters as possible before this upcoming January. 

Yeah, doing one team duel a month was going to be the only way we could get through all of the team battles that we were hoping to get through before moving on from the current iteration of this show. Now, if you're an avid fan of the Flash television series on the CW, you are familiar with elongated man. He was a member of the Flash's superhero team essentially in the later seasons of the show, and you may also remember Medusa from a really, really shitty Inhumans live action series. 

It was so bad, which is such a shame. I really wanted to like the Inhumans series because it was being released in IMAX and everything like that. And Jonathan and I even went to our local IMAX theater to see the Inhumans pilot episode essentially, and we were severely disappointed. 

We actually did a review of it on this podcast when it came out. And I thought Serendis Swan, the actress who played Medusa, was pretty well cast. A lot of the cast was actually pretty good, but everything else in the show really sucked. It's probably the worst thing Marvel television has ever put out, and that's a shame because the Inhumans deserve better. Yeah, I've always thought that Inhumans were pretty cool. 

I would agree with that. Before we get into this dual matchup to explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient dual simulator, Alfred Jarvis 9000. AJ and IK tell our listeners how you go about determining a winner in our dual matchups. 

Yes, of course, sir. The way I determine a winner between the contestants is by running 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations using the characters statistics. A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to determine outcomes through random sampling. In this case, I randomize the statistics along a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle. 

The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid from which the DC characters statistics are extrapolated. Additional stat categories are included such as range, damage potential, versatility and perception in order to create a more detailed and accurate simulation. The results of the 1,000 simulations provide a percentage of wins for each character. The contestant with the higher percentage is declared the victor as they have a higher probability to win any given battle. In an equitable pairing, neither character should win 100% of the matches. The comic book stories have shown that there's even a way for Batman to defeat Superman, so the confidence rate of my method falls in line with the precedents that have been established in the source material. My mathematical simulations are without subjectivity or bias. Feats are not the sole consideration, nor are fan votes tabulated for determination of the winner. 

Thanks, AJ9K. Before we run the simulations though, we like to break down each character's histories and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the 1,000 simulations would play out, beat for beat. It is my turn to go first with the DC characters backstory, so let me tell you all about Elongated Dan. Randolph Relf Dibney was born in Waymore, Nebraska to a modest and unassuming family. From a young age, Relf was captivated by carnival side shows featuring contortionists who seemingly impossible feats of flexibility ignited his imagination. Determined to uncover their secrets, Relf discovered that many of these performers drank a soda called Gin Gold, which was flavored with extract from a rare fruit known as Jingo, which only grew in the remote jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. As it turned out, most people were allergic to Jingo in its raw concentrated form, as it possessed unusual biochemical properties that interacted with the human nervous system. Fascinated, Relf studied chemistry and eventually traveled to the Yucatan to collect Jingo fruit samples. He isolated and refined the active compound into a highly concentrated extract, which upon ingesting radically transformed Relf's body, triggering within it a latent metagene that granted him superhuman elasticity. He found he could stretch, twist, and reshape himself into almost any form imaginable. Inspired by the flash in Central City and determined to use his newfound gifts for good, Relf adopted the heroic identity of Elongated Man. 

You can learn more about Flash in our Flash vs. Quicksilver duel episode. Unique among superheroes, Relf never concealed his identity and instead embraced fame as a celebrity detective. Early in his heroic journey, he met Su-Dirban, a spirited and wealthy socialite. The two married and quickly became one of the most beloved and enduring couples in the superhero community. As a close ally of the Flash, Relf became an honored member of the Justice League of America. Known for his trademark nose twitch whenever something seemed to miss, Relf relished solving mysteries and earned a reputation as one of the world's greatest detectives. His lighthearted nature, keen intellect, and unwavering devotion to Su made him a respected figure among both heroes and civilians. While joining the Justice League on countless missions together, Relf and Su traveled the globe solving bizarre, supernatural, and otherworldly mysteries. Though not the most physically imposing hero, Relf's flexibility and deductive genius often made him the key to resolving crises that others couldn't. 

The couple became mainstays in the Justice League Europe and later joined the offbeat Super Buddies team formed by Maxwell Lord. In addition to his work with superhero teams, Relf became a liaison between the mystical and scientific community. He consulted on arcane-related investigations and developed a working knowledge of magical phenomena, which aided in several cases involving cursed artifacts and extra-dimensional incursions. 

His ability to combine scientific reasoning with open-minded intuition set him apart for more rigid detectives. He and Su also developed a rapport with many of their fellow heroes, forging close ties with members of the Justice Society and newer heroes alike. They were frequently called upon for both mystery-solving expertise and moral support, becoming regarded as a stabilizing presence in the heroic community. 

Relf's humor and Su's charm made them a welcome addition to nearly any gathering. Their joyful partnership came to a tragic end, however, when Su was found murdered in their home. Investigations revealed that years earlier, Ralph was shattered by the loss. His grief consumed him, and he turned to mysticism in a desperate attempt to resurrect Sue. After finding Sue's tombstone defaced with a Kryptonian symbol for resurrection, Ralph tracked down the vandals and learned of the Cult of Connor, an organization attempting to bring the recently deceased Superboy back to life. 

You can learn more about Superboy in his duel against Rogue. The Cult planned to test the resurrection technique by first attempting to bring back Sue. Ralph, lost without his wife, joined their cause and brought four other heroes to the ceremony. Midway through, however, Ralph deduced it was an elaborate hoax and tried to stop the ritual. 

As the ceremonial building burned, the straw effigy of Sue, now a flame, crawled toward him and whispered his name. Devastated, Ralph believed he had destroyed his only chance at reunion. Ralph relocated to Marseille under the alias Alvin Bergson, where he was eventually found by Detective Chimp, who sought his deductive expertise. You can learn more about Detective Chimp in his duel against Howard the Duck. Ralph joined Detective Chimp and his magical Shadow Pact team in Egypt, where the Helmet of Nubu began to speak to Ralph. Eventually, Ralph performed a resurrection ritual in the Tower of Fate using the Helmet of Nubu. After donning the helmet and firing an enchanted gun at it, the illusion shattered, revealing that the supervillain Felix Faust had posed as Nubu, manipulating Ralph with the intention to trade his soul to the demon lord, Nieron. Ralph revealed, however, that he had known the truth all along and that the ritual he had performed was actually a binding spell. Nieron appeared and killed Ralph, unaware the spell would imprison both him and Faust in the Tower. Reunited with his wife in the afterlife, Ralph and Sue remained on the mortal plane as ghost detectives, solving paranormal cases from beyond the grave. 

In post-Flashpoint continuity, Ralph was alive once again, portrayed as a private investigator specializing in metahuman cases, and who had withdrawn from the public eye after Sue's apparent death in a metahuman-related accident. Isolated and emotionally fractured, he was also physically unstable. His body's elasticity deteriorated from exposure to corrupted synthetic gingold used in unauthorized experiments. Ralph's condition worsened until he was found by Batman and the Flash who brought him to Star Labs. There, a Medigine Regeneration Chamber stabilized his molecules and restored his powers. Grateful for his second chance, Ralph resumed his role as elongated man. Operating under the alias Big Shot, he infiltrated the Seeker Six under the direction of the Riddler who was manipulating the team under the codename Mockingbird. Sue, who supposed death had been fabricated as part of Ralph's cover story, was later revealed to be alive. 

Upon reuniting, the couple reconciled and resumed their crime-solving partnership, continuing their adventures together. Powers-wise, elongated man possesses an elastic body which allows him to stretch and reshape his physical form, contorting into nearly any shape with extraordinary precision. His elasticity also provides him with enhanced durability and resistance to physical trauma. He can flatten himself, elongate his limbs, slip through narrow spaces, and rebound from impacts that would incapacitate normal humans. His flexibility is matched by his brilliant deductive mind. He is a world-class detective whose keen instincts and analytical skills rival the best investigators on earth. And that's elongated man. 

Elongated man is probably, I think, an underrated character, but with the worst damn origin story in existence. He basically drank fruit juice and became stretchy. Hey man, it was the Silver Age! 

What are you gonna do? Silver Age doesn't cut it. Like, that sounds more like a Golden Age-type origin story. So even saying it's the Silver Age is just sad. Out of all the origin stories we've discussed on this podcast, that's the worst one. And probably will remain the worst one. 

At the very least, it's unique, alright? Fruit juice? Come on! 

Inhuman origins? Way better, you know? The whole backstory with the Kree experimentation on early humans, special genes that give them powers when they're exposed to an alien element. That's how you do a Silver Age origin story right there. But you know what's more realistic? 

Fruit juice! Let me get into Medusa's backstory. In the hidden city of Adelene, Medusa-Litha-Melaquin was born into the Inhuman Royal Family, the daughter of Quillen and Ember, and sister to Crystal. When she was an infant, her parents exposed her to the Tarogen Mist, the mutagenic vapor that unlocks late in-inhuman traits, which granted her prehensile crimson hair able to lift great weights, lash-like whips, and move with the dexterity of added limbs. You can learn more about Tarogenesis and the history of the Inhumans in our Shazam vs Blackbolt dual episode. During adolescence, Medusa regularly visited her distant cousin Blackbolt, who was confined in an isolation chamber because a whisper from his voice could level mountains. They invented a private sign language, shared secret conversations through the glass, and fell in love. Soon after Blackbolt's 18th birthday, his parents were accidentally killed when his voice destroyed their spacecraft. 

The tragedy placed the young man on the throne, with Medusa publicly acknowledged as his betrothed. Early in Blackbolt's reign, the Alpha Primitives, Adelene's genetically engineered labor cast, rebelled. Maximus, Blackbolt's unstable younger brother, exposed three Alpha Primitives to experimental Tarogen energy, mutating them into monstrous beings called the Tricon. Medusa battled the trio from a sky sled, but the craft crashed, and the impact left her an amnesiac wanderer. She drifted through Europe, where she was discovered by the villain, Wizard, who recruited Medusa into his frightful four team. 

Wizard's mind-altering devices kept her obedient while she fought the Fantastic Four on several occasions. Eventually, Medusa's cousin, the Inhuman Warrior Gorgon, arrived on Earth to retrieve her. Medusa was returned to Adelene, where the shock of familiar surroundings restored her memory. 

During her absence, Maximus had seized the throne and declared Medusa his future queen. He sealed the city inside an energy dome generated from negative zone particles. Blackbolt used his devastating voice to shatter the barrier, freeing the Inhumans but leveling large portions of their capital. 

With Adelene's secrets now exposed, the royal family undertook a diplomatic mission among humans. In New York, Medusa was manipulated into battling Spiderman, and the Wizard briefly recaptured her before she escaped again. Medusa soon forged friendlier ties with humanity. When Susan Richards left the Fantastic Four, Medusa filled her vacancy, fighting threats on Earth and in deep space attending Crystal's marriage to the speedster Quicksilver. You can learn more about the Fantastic Four in their duel against the Justice Society and more about Quicksilver in his duel against the Flash. After Susan Richards returned to the Fantastic Four, Medusa rejoined Blackbolt and guided Adelene through environmental crises. 

Earth's pollution threatened in human biology, so the city was relocated to the oxygen-rich blue area on the moon. There, Blackbolt and Medusa married, formalizing her position as queen consort and royal interpreter. A new conflict flared when Medusa became pregnant. The genetics council ruled the fetus too dangerous, fearing it might combine Maximus's madness with Blackbolt's power and ordered termination. Defying them, Medusa fled to Earth's deserts and gave birth in secrecy to Ahura. 

Returning under truce, she surrendered the infant for study, unaware the council planned to trade him to human scientists for Earth technology. The transport crashed, Ahura vanished and Medusa sank into depression. Years later, the boy, aged rapidly by his genetics, was recovered, declared unstable, and imprisoned in solitary confinement, much as his father once had been. 

Public outrage over the council's duplicity forced both council and royal family to advocate Adelene, but political chaos soon demanded the royals resume their leadership, still headquartered on the moon. When most of the Earth's mutants were stripped of their powers by the Scarlet Witch's magic, Crystal's ex-husband Quicksilver, stripped of his mutant speed, sought asylum in Adelene. Medusa granted refuge before bait him from entering the Tarjan Chambers. Quicksilver defied her, stole Tarjan crystals, and fled. In the ensuing turmoil, Blackbolt snapped at Medusa for misinterpreting his silent orders before the council, and Maximus exploited their marital strain by psychically darkening Medusa's thoughts. Confused, she visited Maximus in a cell, and under his influence, they shared a single kiss that Blackbolt witnessed in anguish. Not long after the royal family learned Blackbolt had been replaced by a scroll, a shapeshifting alien infiltrator. Medusa led an assault into galactic territory controlled by the Kree Empire, bargaining her sister Crystal's hand in marriage to the Kree leader Ronin in exchange for aid, rescuing Blackbolt and Ahura. 

You can learn more about Ronin in his dual episode against Big Barda. Upon their return, Maximus had fortified Adelene and converted the city into a starship. The Inhumans launched a campaign that routed the scrolls, and, after fierce clashes with the Shiar Empire, left Blackbolt and the Shiar ruler apparently dead in a doomsday blast. Medusa, weeping yet resolute, declared victory against the Shiar, and assumed sole rule of both Inhumans and the newly conquered Kree. As queen, she quelled riots incited by outside agitators and secretly staged a faux rebellion engineered by Maximus to prove the royal family's necessity, defeating it publicly to consolidate authority. 

During this period, she represented the Inhumans on the Illuminati, a clandestine council of Earth's foremost strategists. Despite those successes, disaster struck when Blackbolt detonated a pterogen device while repelling an attack on Adelene by Thanos. The Inhuman City was obliterated and a miscarrying pterogen particles drifted across Earth, awakening dormant Inhuman genes amongst some humans, creating new humans. Medusa established new Adelene at the mouth of the Hudson River, welcomed the royal family's newly empowered subjects, and defeated rogue new human factions. She assisted Blackbolt in saving their son Ahura from the time-manipulator Kang the Conqueror and guided him home. 

You can learn more about Kang in his duel against Professor Zoom. Elsewhere, scientists discovered that lingering pterogen clouds were poisonous to mutants, igniting global tension. Medusa pursued diplomacy, but hostilities escalated. Confronted with the looming extinction of mutants, she chose to destroy the last pterogen cloud. 

The decision sacrificed her people's future ability to undergo pterogenesis, but it averted worldwide disaster. Medusa abdicated the throne and appointed the engineer Iso to guide Adelene under a more democratic charter. No longer monarchs, Medusa and Blackbolt led an exploratory mission to the ruined alien Kree world of Hala. Their outer space expedition led them to an ancient substance called Primogen, the source of all pterogen guarded by the cosmic gardeners known as the progenitors. During the voyage, Medusa and Blackbolt reconciled emotionally, agreeing to stand as partners, but not lovers. 

The pair eventually returned to Adelene, their long severed bond rekindled once more, as I said about rebuilding their people's future yet again. And that's Medusa's backstory powers-wise. Medusa has the enhanced physiology of an inhuman granted to her through pterogenesis. 

This includes greater strength, speed, and durability than any normal human. She also has trichokinesis, or the ability to psionically control every strand of her hair, each one having tensile strength and durability of an iron wire. With her hair, she can lift over one and a half tons and she can move it in any manner imaginable from performing delicate tasks like threading a needle, creating powerful whips, or ensnaring opponents. She cannot detect pain through her hair, but she can feel sensations through her psionic connection to its strands. Finally, Medusa is a skilled diplomat and an experienced fighter. And that's Medusa. 

I have to say, elongated man may have kind of a silly origin, but at least the guy did not marry his cousin. Oh dang, what is this, Game of Thrones? 

Kinda. I mean, they're distant cousins, alright? I don't know how far removed they are, but uh, yeah, that thing's kind of common I guess within royalty. That's a pretty good description though. At their best, the inhumans kind of feel like a sci-fi Game of Thrones. 

That inhuman show should have been so much better. 

So much better, I know, right? 

But now that we've got the characters' histories and abilities out of the way, let's speculate on how one of the 1000 simulated matches will go. The winners determined by our simulations not our speculation, but it's fun to imagine how the fight could play out. AGA9K, what are the rules of our speculation? 

Alright, then let's get into it. Elongated man and Medusa meet on the battlefield? Who goes first? 

I'm gonna say that elongated man starts with his nose twitching, probably, as he tries to make sense of this new foe before him. 

Okay, while elongated man is busy twitching his nose, Medusa extends her hair downward and uses her hair like legs to race toward elongated man moving across the floor, kind of like a Mustang or something, and she uses some of her hair to wrap him up and crush him in her hair grasp. 

She tries at least because elongated man, he's gonna inflate his body like a balloon to escape her grasp and he's gonna quickly contract his body, then stretch his legs to double kick her right in the gut. 

Well, Medusa blocks the double kick because she's gonna form some of her hair into a shield, right, and her hair is super durable, so the hair blocks the attack and then her hair grabs his legs and she also grabs his arms with other strands of hair and she's gonna stretch elongated man out just like Taffy until he snaps. 

Alright, well as she continues to stretch him and find out that his limit is really long, that's when he's gonna shoot his head forward, you know, stretching his neck to headbutt her right in the face and just blinding her from the pain. 

That was a pretty good move. Okay, so that's probably gonna hurt her, she drops his legs and arms, but she's durable, you know, she's an inhuman, but she's also royally pissed, okay, so she forms some of her hair into a sharp like spearhead and kind of like a scorpion tail, she strikes forward with it and stabs through elongated man's chest. 

Damn, okay, well elongated man, he's essentially immune to blunt physical force, but he can be pierced or stabbed by sharpen of objects, but not this time. I'm gonna say as soon as he feels the initial poke, he's gonna stretch his chest backward to compensate. And while she's trying to stab essentially putty, elongated man is gonna stretch himself really wide covering Medusa and all of her hair in like a giant tarp essentially made of his body. And that's gonna suffocate her beneath him. 

Couldn't she just stab him repeatedly with her hair from under that tarp with like a thousand hair needles? 

That's just acupuncture, you know. If anything, you know, she blocks his chi or some shit. 

All right, okay, well then she turns her hair into like spinning fan blades, which I started doing the comics once. So she fills this elongated man tarp with air, which is gonna cause him to rise and lift off of her like a sheet in the wind. And he doesn't want to get blown away, so he shrinks back down to normal size. And at that point, Medusa lashes him with hundreds of hair whips, just like loud cracking all over his body, like just like firecrackers. And he gets whipped to death basically. 

Oh, damn. Okay, well, he's going to expand the size of one of his hands to act as a barrier between his body and her whips. And sure, that probably means he's whinsing by how much his hand hurts, but he'll live. And it's going to give him enough time to grow his other hand to giant size and have it reach over his barrier to slam down on top of Medusa, squashing her into the ground like whack a mole. 

All right, okay, so she's like in a hole in the ground, but she's going to come out of the hole unscathed because at the very last second, she used her hair to wrap around her entire body and form like a hair armor, like a hair suit of armor type thing. And as she comes out, she lassos out a strand that wraps around elongated man's neck and she tightens it just grotting him to death, like either causing him to die from strangulation, or like even if he can stretch his neck and trachea thin enough to still breathe, she's going to tighten it even more just to take his head completely off. Match over. 

Dude, elongated man, as he's being grotted, I'm going to say he quickly stretches his fingers down and around Medusa. So they approach her from behind out of her line of sight, and the fingers are going to plunge into her ears, making their way past her skull to her brain, and it's just going to squeeze it to death essentially. So she dies before he gets strangled and now the match is really over. 

All right, well, that seems like a good place to end the match. So either elongated man gets garotted by Medusa's hair, or he squeezes her brain by entering her skull through the ear canal. Let's go ahead and run the simulations and find out which of these two scenarios ends up happening by coming back with a winner. AG9K, hit it! 

Inputting data, running calculations, processing results, simulations complete. 

All right, I liked this matchup. I wasn't quite sure how it would go. I was hoping it wouldn't be too much like our Plastic Man vs. Mr. Fantastic dual episode, but I thought this would be neat because it's really a stretchy guy versus a woman who makes her hair stretch, and I was wondering how that would affect the stats, right? Because in some ways, Medusa stretching her hair gives her an advantage, because it's not really her making herself vulnerable, it's just her hair, right? So she has pretty damn good evasiveness, although elongated man, of course, is really damn evasive himself. 

Right, we did say that elongated man is faster than Medusa, just because of the nature of his powers, and he's an ally of Flash who he's been able to keep up with. 

Yeah, he can stretch his legs like hundreds of feet and make huge strides, whereas Medusa can't quite, it doesn't really do that to the same effect. 

We also said that elongated man was more durable considering how malleable his body is. 

Yeah, Medusa is durable if she gets hit, but she herself is not malleable, it's her hair. So in terms of using her hair defensively, we put those types of moves in the evasiveness category as opposed to durability. 

And the only other stat category where elongated man came out on top was intellect, considering he's an incredibly intelligent and deductive thinker, but Medusa was not only more versatile, but also had a greater damage potential, surprisingly. 

Oh yeah, her hair is really strong, I've seen her knock around characters like Thing and Iron Man with her hair. 

We also interestingly said that Medusa had greater perception because of her connection to her hair. 

Yeah, she has psionic feelers with her hair essentially. 

So taking all of these stats into consideration, Joseph, who do you think came out on top? 

I don't know, I'm gonna say Medusa, I think it's gonna be close though. Big surprise, biased. Is it though? Is it a surprise that I would guess the Marvel character? Because I don't think so. What is a surprise is how many of our Instagram followers that voted in our poll that we put up chose elongated man as the likely winner, because he got 63% of the votes. 

Now both of these characters, I would say are pretty obscure, potentially, though Medusa is probably more obscure than elongated man, and that's why I think he got the edge in the poll. 

I wouldn't know how to quantify that, but maybe we just did. 

Well, let's find out who won. AJ9K, the results please. Alright, the winner between elongated man and Medusa is Medusa. Yes, but it was so close. Medusa won 514 of the 1000 matches, or 51.4%, compared to elongated man, who only won 486 of his matches. It's a coin toss, pretty much. 

I wonder what put Medusa over the edge, I bet you it was probably her inhuman physiology. Well, actually it was her damage. Okay, so her inhuman powers then. Which makes sense, I mean like her hair can perform a lot of the same feats that elongated man stretching can, but I think her hair is a whole lot more durable and strong than elongated man's body. 

Well, considering it's like iron fibers, yeah, you could probably make that argument. But that particular stat being that much higher than elongated man doesn't surprise me, considering her ranking within the inhuman royal family. Like the royal family tends to be amongst the most powerful inhumans. That's true. So for her to be queen means that she could basically take on almost any other inhuman, right? 

Blackbolt is just insanely powerful, so I don't know. I mean, she's shut him up a few times with her hair, so it's hard to say. It all depends on, you know, how the story's being written. We could run the stats, who knows. 

Wait, you're saying she's blocked his speech with her hair? 

She kept his jaw closed so he couldn't speak. Gotcha. Okay. 

Wow. Well, I gotta say, I'm not surprised that this match was this close. I assumed it was going to be this close. 

It's always nice when the matches are close like this, because it means it was just a good pairing. And when I lose, I think it just means that Jonathan has to respect the Marvel character even more when it's close. 

That being said, I don't have to respect any DC character, Marvel wins. So elongated man could take his dumb nose twitching, ginkgo biloba, take an ass, and get the hell out of here. Well, you know what? 

At the end of the day, elongated man gets to go home to a beautiful wife who I'm sure is very satisfied by him in multiple ways. And therefore he's the true winner. 

I was wondering when you were going to go for the dick joke. Elongated man is just, it's just the worst name, the character with the worst name and the worst origin. 

There's actually a panel in the comics where elongated man is like, I love my wife because she's been around guys like Superman, it still loves me. And I'm like, we all know why. 

That does it for this dual guys. AJ and IK help close this out. 

Max Destruction, Senjoh World, and Konsole Kombat. 

In our next episode, we are doing another dual this time between the insanely powerful characters, Mr. Mxyz Spitalik, and Impossible Man. 

But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Staroski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Mickey Mathen-Gian, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatyn, Austin Wazalowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick 

Obanto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Speese, Dean Moleski, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, 

Mike Williams, Oscar Galvez, and Paul Graves for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. 

A popin' away, true believers.