House of Mystery vs Crypt of Shadows

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

Hi, 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 welcome to our spooky Halloween episode where we find out who is going to win between DC's House of Mystery and Marvel's Crypt of Shadows. 

So we're gonna do things a little bit differently this time. Basically the House of Mystery and the Crypt of Shadows were both comic book series that told anthological horror stories, kind of like Tales from the Crypt, if you guys remember that. That was a television show that was based off of a comic book series. Basically they all tell horror stories in comic book format. Here we're gonna find out who can tell the better horror stories based off of characters from Marvel and DC. 

Yeah, these are original stories that Joseph and I came up with. We're gonna try and scare the shit out of each other and maybe the listeners Well I'm not easily scared so you're gonna have a hard time with this one. Before we get into this matchup we're gonna break down the latest comic book movie news of which there was none. 

Again probably because we're just fresh off of New York Comic Con where the studios kind of revealed their hands and won't have much else to show for a while. 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 our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners so listen up. 

Why hello there do you want even more from 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 4.0 tier gives you two bonus episodes each month and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly the Diner Mike 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 dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune into the other shows in the DinaMic podcast network this week including the Konsole Kombat podcast where hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. 

In yesterday's episode they did a comparison of the 2002 Resident Evil film and 2021's reboot Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City. Over on the Max Instruction podcast hosts Scotty and Gilly pick your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. On Wednesday they're going to review Freddie versus Jason. And on the Senjoh World podcast hosts Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. In his next episode Zach is revealing who would win between Shigeyo Kageyama aka Mob from Mob Psycho 100 and Tatsumaki the tornado of terror from One Punch Man. 

Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all the shows in the Diner Mike 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 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 where the fuck were you guys last week wrong answers only and that of course was coming off of the previous week's question from which we got no answers mainly because it was a bad question. 

You guys had a lot of fun with this one. This week we actually have five honorable mentions which we'll go through all at once before naming the no prize winner. The honorable mentions will be going to Lee Tapscott, Alex Albro, Matt from Texas, Daniel Alonzo and Travis Herndon. Who said? 

Lee Tapscott here and another Marvel DC team up event. I was kidnapped and held hostage because I had a better name for their movies than they did. But I was told it would be okay for me to call in this week in an attempt to win the no prize as long as I didn't give you the names that I came up with for their movies. This is where I was last week and was unable to call in. Sorry. 

Okay look I'm so sorry I was having a really amazing conversation with some DC fans about how their movies are great their acting is great the CGI is always amazing. Just telling them how great they're like costume designs they're designed for just their characters their stories. So yeah I just got so busy really telling these DC fans how how awesome DC is. 

Hey guys Matt from Texas here. See what had happened was I was going to call in from this earth but then somehow ended up on an earth where DC movies actually have consistent continuity. It was fucking wild man. 

10-10 would go back. If you don't like that excuse well flashpoint happened and somehow it became my own grandpa and that's weird so I'm dealing with that right now. Thanks for looking out. 

What's up dynamic dudes Travis here shout out to me in between. Well you see what happened was I was going to answer your question but a portal opened up in my house and I got sucked into to this alternate universe where I fought a giant monkey man and saved the ninth dimension. Then I went before I went back to our universe I got sucked into another portal and fought a smaller monkey man and saved the eighth dimension. So yeah I was fighting giant monkey man and I'm a hero in two dimensions. You're welcome. 

Great excuses guys. Generally excuses are not a good thing but in this case I enjoyed listening to them. So thank you for calling in this time. But the winner of this week's No Prize is CJ Kraft who said 

hey guys CJ Kraft here just wanted to apologize for not calling in last week. Me and my girlfriend drove up to a secluded cabin in Michigan and read from some book of the dead called the Necronomicon. Anyway a long story short I got this nifty new chainsaw arm and I had to go back in time and save the human race. Luckily I got back in time to at least hear the new episode though it was amazing. 

I kind of feel like that was spoilers which is the most horrifying thing of all. Spoilers for the Evil Dead franchise. Yeah congrats to CJ Kraft. You won this week's No Prize because it was a scary movie reference and this is the Halloween episode. Speaking of Evil Dead I did end up watching Evil Dead Rising a few weeks ago and it was pretty hardcore. I think I still like the reboot the most though. 

Are the one directed by Fetty Alvarez? Yeah yeah I refused to watch that. Congrats again to CJ Kraft for winning this week's No Prize. 

If you the listener want to shout out winning your own No Prize stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. All right the House of Mystery opens along with the Crypt of Shadows. Let's go out and find out who has the more terrifying tales and emerge as the winner. Okay House of Mystery and the Crypt of Shadows of course as we mentioned earlier these were two horror anthology series produced by DC and Marvel respectively. The House of Mystery was once the home of the DC character of Kane but has since become the headquarters of the Justice League Dark. So the House of Mystery was not only a comic book series it was actually like a location within DC Comics. 

Yeah it's become one. Same thing with Crypt of Shadows actually so the Crypt of Shadows was a horror anthology series by Marvel that turned out to be in the basement essentially of the Sanctum Sanctorum where Dr. Strange lives. It's like a mausoleum underneath his house and the stories have had like different narrators over the years kind of like how the tales from the crypt had the crypt keeper and the creep show comics had the creep. Well living in the mausoleum was Dr. Strange's brother Victor Strange and he would often narrate the stories but also like I think in last year's Crypt of Shadows special it was Agatha Harkness who narrated the stories or she saw the stories in her like crystal ball. 

For a while the narrator of House of Mystery was Elvira. For DC really? Yeah I had no idea she was a DC character. She isn't really? I don't know how they pulled that off but they did for a time. 

She replaced Kane. Interesting. Well for this particular matchup the narrator of the Crypt of Shadows tales is going to be Nightmare who is a Dr. Strange villain. He's basically the ruler of the dream dimension and a fear lord born from the collective subconscious of all of Marvel's sentient beings. He feeds on fear by invading dreams and trapping souls within his realm and he often plagues Marvel's mystic characters. In his realm the dream dimension he has omnipotent power and in the mortal plane he still has considerable might I would say. He's like super strong, can teleport, he can manipulate dark energy, cast illusions, he has some like psychic abilities and he also has a wand that could warp reality. So he's a formidable character but he's also going to tell you the scariest stories that you've ever heard Jonathan. Which makes sense for a character like Nightmare. I feel like that's a really good choice for your Crypt of Shadows narrator. 

For the House of Mystery narrator this round I'm going with the Phantom Stranger who originated in a horror anthological series titled Phantom Stranger. Oh interesting. Like Nightmare he's also basically omnipotent but he's also omniscient. He knows way more than people realize. He's very mysterious. 

Like that's his main power. His true origins have never definitively been revealed. He's possibly a fallen angel or the wandering Jew or Judas Iscariot condemned to wander the earth. Over the ages he's appeared throughout history as this unseen guide to those standing at moral crossroads and serves unseen powers in the endless struggle between good and evil forever walking between them. That sounds pretty interesting. Before we get into our duel matchup though let's go ahead and go to our sentient duel simulator Alfred Jarvis 9000 who will tell our listeners how he goes about determining a winner in our duel matchups. 

Yes of course sir. The way I determine a winner between the two teams is by running 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations between every character on each team using their 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 49,000 simulations provide a percentage of wins for each character on both teams. The team with the higher average win rate is declared the victor as they have a higher probability to win any given battle. In an equitable pairing neither team 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 HNAK. Before we run the simulations though we're going to get into the spooky stories. So Nightmare emerges from the crypt of shadows, Phantom Stranger steps out of the house of mystery, they meet at a campfire between the two locations and let's say that Nightmare goes first with his three stories. The first tale of terror being about a naughty night writer who's been axing all the wrong questions. But don't worry her road trip will be cut short by Ghostwriter who has a real bone to pick. 

Buckle up kids, it's time for a joy ride straight to hell in a story called The Heart of Black. Olivia Yand, she had been driving for nearly 10 hours straight through the empty desert but even exhaustion wasn't going to stop her from what she had to do. She looked at the axe resting on her passenger seat. 

A glint of moonlight showed the deep red stains on the blade. Olivia smiled, her stepson had gotten what he deserved and now it was her husband's turn to join him as pieces in the trunk. It wouldn't be long now. The car was starting to stink, a little like rotten eggs. Suddenly the axe gleamed catching the light from the car's rear view. 

Olivia peered through the mirror to see what was behind her. On the road were two approaching headlights. Another car was on the road. It flashed its brights again, illuminating her car interior. Just pass, Olivia murmured. The headlights flashed her again as they grew closer. She rolled down her window and motioned the car forward. 

Go on Jackass! She shouted. Suddenly the headlights turned off. Peering back into her rear view mirror, Olivia saw nothing but endless black. 

What the hell was that? She grumbled to herself. Maybe she imagined it or maybe the car broke down and died. Maybe the driver needed help and would be stranded in the middle of the desert to die. Olivia preferred the latter option. 

It would serve them right. Suddenly brightness flooded her car again as the headlights turned back on. The car was right behind her. Olivia gasped as her throat went dry. 

What was this guy doing? The car crashed into her back bumper. Her head rocked forward, slamming into the steering wheel. 

What the fuck? She screamed. She stomped on the gas pedal, swerving as she regained control of the wheel. 

Her heart raced. This guy must be trying to kill her. He must be a psycho. He must know what she did. She thought about pulling over and grabbing her axe. Now on the car floor, she felt blood from her head injury drop onto her brow. The car slammed into her again. 

No! Olivia cried out as she fought to regain control of the wheel. Then the bright blue light flooding her car turned orange. 

And warm. Olivia glanced in her rear view again. The car was on fire? The impact must have ruptured a fuel line or maybe his engine overheated. 

Maybe now he'll leave. She fixed her eyes on the fiery car as it slowly fell back. She peered behind her trying to make out the driver. 

It looked like he was on fire inside his car. Yes, good. No. 

Wait. The driver was smiling. He was smiling and his face was on fire. No, his face was gone. It had melted off from the flames. 

And he was still driving. Olivia felt a cold chill run down her spine. This third slam caused Olivia to lose control. Her head slammed into her side window as the car drifted into a spin before screeching to a halt. With blood pouring over her eyes, she saw the fiery car parked in front of her. 

The driver was a flaming skeleton clad in black. It stepped out and walked toward her, grinning and holding chains. Olivia tried to gasp but her throat was closed in shock. Jesus Christ! She managed to squeak out. 

Not even close, said the voice in the back seat behind her. In her mirror, she saw a rose of glistening teeth and big red eyes. The last thing she remembered was the smell of sulfur and the sound of her own ripping flesh. The next morning, a highway patrolman took a statement from Robbie Reyes. The back seat of Olivia's car was melted into black glass. 

So the limbs in the car are from a separate body than the limbs in the trunk then, the officer said. He scratched his head. Just what the hell happened? Robbie's eyes burned faintly as he turned back to his car. Blackheart, he responded. 

Come again, the officer asked. He turned her heart black, he said and shut the door. Poor Olivia thought she could bury the hatchet in her husband, but instead she ended up getting burned. I guess you could say Olivia suffered from unintended consequences at the hands of Blackheart, which Phantom Stranger notes have also been faced by a character in his universe, Nightshade, in a tale he calls the Vale of Fog. As the princess of the land of Nightshades, a twilight realm between reality and nightmare, Eve Eden knew better than anyone that shadows are born of light. 

As the hero Nightshade, she used shadows themselves to fight the forces of darkness within her adoptive realm alongside Earth's most powerful magicians. It was her mystical attunement that drew her like a moth to flame to the secluded coastal town of Greyhaven. Blanketed in a Vale of Fog, the town's landscape and buildings appeared suddenly, as if conjured at the whim of its perpetual grey mist. The thick fog seemed to weigh on Greyhaven citizenry, slow, quiet, and uninterested in the newcomer to their town. 

Hunched adults shuffled down sidewalks, children sat in solitude. The silence was deafening. At night, the faint glow of the dim streetlights illuminated nothing but the dense fog around them. 

The streets were empty, and not a single light shined through a shop or house window. Eve was able to see in the dark, but not past the heavy grey mist of Greyhaven. She summoned a dozen homunculene shadow creatures under her control to scout the environment. A few of them guided her to a towering lighthouse, atop a cliffside. It's beacon, dark. Eve stepped through its shadowy doorway, using the darkness to portal straight to the top of the tower. 

A young boy sat atop its ledge, gazing at the mist over the ocean. Starterled upon seeing Eve, he slipped from the ledge and fell. Eve reacted instantly, her shadow lashing out like a whip and catching him by the ankle. She drew him back to safety. I'm sorry, she said softly. I didn't mean to frighten you. 

The boy laughed, breathless. It's alright. You're the first person I've seen up here, and I don't know how long. As sunrise approached, the two of them conversed. She asked him about the town, and the boy told her that Greyhaven had been covered in a fog for as long as he could remember. The town used to be a port, but when the lighthouse beacon went out, the ship stopped coming. When Eve asked why no one fixed it, the boy said the town didn't have the supplies to do so. 

Their secluded village was dependent on the provisions from the ships, and without them, they had to manage by their own means. Eve examined the beacon. There was something strange about it, beyond it being physically broken, as if someone had placed a spell on it. She resolved to fix it. At sunrise, Eve floated down from the top of the lighthouse into a shadow portal she created below. It took her about a day to research how to repair the beacon and for her homunculi to find the necessary supplies, which she portaled back to the Greyhaven lighthouse. The boy watched as she and her shadow creatures repaired the light. 

It didn't take long, and Eve paused to admire her work before flipping the switch. The beam of light swept across the town, piercing and dispelling the blanketed fog within its path. To Eve's horror, the boy dissipated when the light struck him, as though he were made from the same mist. 

His horrified expression lingered before evaporating. She quickly looked down on the town below. With the fog vanishing, she could see the people looking up at her, as they too disappeared once the light touched them. The elderly, children, all gone. 

She shattered the beacon with a massive shadowy fist and teleported to the now exposed town square below. A mere handful of people remained within the lingering bit of fog, crying and confused as to what just happened to their friends and relatives. It wasn't long before Eve learned that the people of Greyhaven were ghosts, protected from the light and the truth for decades by whoever conjured the fog. As she apologetically ushered the remaining Greyhaven ghosts through a portal into the land of nightshades to start a new life, she remembered that shadows are born of light, and likewise, the purest intentions can have the darkest of consequences. A ghost town is pretty scary, but uh, not scary enough, not like Nightmare's Next Tale, which takes us deep in the Florida Everglades, where you'll meet Jennifer Kale, a witchy woman with a swamping suspicion that something nasty is bubbling beneath the surface. 

Here's a story of corpses, creeps, and carnage I call Crimson Lands. 10. This Way Jennifer Kale shouted at Manthing. The swamp creature snapped out of his trance and slowly lumbered to her location. For as important as Manthing was to the protection of this reality, he wasn't very bright. That's why Jennifer knew that her presence alongside him was so important. 

Guarding the Nexus of All Realities may have been Manthing's responsibility, but he was hers. A portal of magic in the middle of the Florida Everglades, the Nexus connected the swamp to infinite worlds and endless dimensions. Sometimes, things came through it that you wouldn't want to, and all too often, people died in the swamp. Jennifer pointed down at the murky water, not far from the Nexus. Manthing reached his monstrous hand down into the sludge, pulling something back out. A corpse. 

Jennifer gagged. The body was half decayed, modeled and infested with maggots crawling in and out of its rotted flesh. Black ooze seeped out of its riddled skin. Its body was covered in vines, and its face distorted in a terrified, silent scream. Jennifer flicked away a leech crawling out of its cheek. She looked closely at the body to get a hint as to why it called to her. Her witchcraft was powerful, but it's not as if she could raise the dead. The corpse lashed out and clamped its hand around her jaw, spewing black, putrid ooze over her. She vomited as Manthing crushed the body in his grasp and threw it into the trees. 

He put his hand on Jennifer's back as she wiped sludge from her eyes. Pfft. It moved! Jennifer sputtered. She looked up and saw a dozen corpses slowly rise from the murky water all around them. 

What evil is this? She whispered, and stuttered, jagged motions, the vine-riddled bodies crept toward them, their decayed arms reaching out. Jennifer raised her hand, using witchcraft to engulf one of the corpses and flames. Manthing lunged at another, using his claws to tear it to pieces. He lunged again, grabbing one and squeezing it like jelly. The corpses started to pile on him as he tried to pull them off. 

There were too many, and more were rising from the swamp by the second. Ted! Jennifer called out at Manthing. Suddenly a wall of roots and wooden vines erupted from the ground, separating them. 

No! She shouted, punching through the barrier with a magic blast. Behind it was another wall. They rose up all around her like a hedge maze. She tried levitating above the maze, but the vines reached up to pull her down into the mud below. She crawled out and trudged her way through the corridors, looking for a way out, but the maze shifted and reformed, trapping her in its passage. A horde of corpses rose and stumbled toward her, spewing ooze and fetid sludge, and the passage itself narrowed, closing in on her. There's no use fighting, came a voice in an Irish brogue. 

The swamp belongs to me, and it has no more need for the walking mulch heap. Jennifer froze, realizing whom the voice was referring to. Ted! She screamed. She unleashed a magic wave of energy that tore down the walls and corpses around her. Across the clearing, she saw Manthing's body strewn across the swamp, decimated by a man holding a gnarled wooden staff. It was Black Tom Cassidy, manipulator of wood and plant life. 

The corpses then awakened not from necromancy, but from the vines, roots and mold threaded through their rotted flesh, his puppet strings. What are you doing, Tom? Jennifer shrieked at him as she walked toward the swirling nexus. 

As I said to her, the swamp is mine, Black Tom shouted. Therefore, the nexus is mine, and therefore, everything is now his. He paused to smile and wave as he entered the portal, disappearing into the nexus. 

For a moment, there was only silence. Jennifer wondered who Black Tom was referring to. Was it his friend, the juggernaut? 

Was he enthralled to someone else? Suddenly, she felt the ground shudder beneath her. The nexus convulsed, its light flickered and cracked like a wound splitting open. Waves of blood gushed from the rift in a roaring flood pouring across the swamp. The water churned red as if the land itself were bleeding. The corpses rose again, lurching through the Crimson Mire, their jaws dripping. Jennifer looked out around her, waist deep in the nightmare. The dead spoke in one voice. 

CITAROCK! The Crimson God, his bloody campaign had just begun. Jennifer Kale got more than a little bogged down there, and Black Tom Cassidy working with Citerock sounds like an alliance that will leaf the whole multiverse screaming. Yeah, evil forces working behind the scenes are definitely terrifying, and it's a concept not unknown to a particular character in DC known as the Ragman and his tale that the Phantom Stranger is calling A Thief in the Night. 

They say you should never pray for patience, for God presents you with the opportunities to practice the traits that you ask for. Rabbi Judah Lowe knew this in 16th century Prague, so rather than patiently wait for the prophesied savior of his people, he took it upon himself to craft his own, a Gollum from mud and mysticism. The grotesque monster initially protected his people from attacks, pogroms, and genocide, but the Gollum fell out of the rabbi's control and went on a murderous rampage that spilled the innocent blood of his people. Realizing his quest for justice had led to a serious and equal measure to the one he sought to stop. 

Rabbi Lowe destroyed his creation. He and other rabbis within Prague soon came together seeking a solution to their plight, rooted not in justice, but in redemption. Thus they formed a rag suit from the tattered clothing of those killed by the Gollum, a suit that bore their souls and could offer their strength to a new savior, the Ragman. Throughout the centuries, those who wore the suit of rags protected the Jewish people, absorbing the souls of men who would do their people harm, using that soul's strength until it had paid the price for its sins. As the souls of evil doers waited patiently for their redemption within the rags of the current ragman, Rory Reagan, the impatience of another council of religious men, this time in the vaults of the Vatican, resulted in the yet another abomination, made not from mud, but from sacred blood extracted from the shroud of Turin, the burial cloth of Jesus Christ during their studies of the artifact. They used the DNA to impregnate a young, naive Jewish virgin with a Christ clone in an effort to usher in the second coming. For nine months, the woman named Miriam lay chained to a bed beneath the Vatican, until suddenly, like a thief in the night, the clone tore its way into the world, its wrinkled red eyes shining with an ancient malice too old for any newborn. Horrified at the realization of what they had done, the Vatican scientists attempted to kill the clone, but not before Miriam. Suffering as she was from the violent birth, managed to escape with her child, swaddled an apportion of the very shroud that helped create her unholy offspring. 

From the time Miriam was her son's age, she was told stories of the Jewish hero, the ragman, who protected her people from evil. She barely made it to him before collapsing, her last words begging him to save her baby. Rory barely heard her as his writhing rags emerged reactively, the souls trapped within whispering confusedly in his head from the nearby presence of entities so holy and evil. Upon touching the shroud, it adhered itself to a suit. Threads of holiness pierced the damned fabric like nails through flesh, and Rory's senses were overwhelmed by the power that now coursed through his body, his typical ragged green cape, now in the visage of an angel's white wings. The infant in his arms shrieked, its shrill cry underlaced with a lion's roar that restored Rory to his senses and the sobering realization that he was now staring down the barrels of dozens of armed Vatican soldiers. Surrounded, he weighed surrender against a mother's last wish. 

With his surging new power, he could easily survive the Vatican's attack, but to what purpose he was unclear. Looking down into the infant's glowing eyes, Ragman foresaw the apocalypse and heard foul promises from the babe inside his head. Rory, praying for the strength to do what had to be done, cried in pain to the heavens as he absorbed the child's soul into his suit, transforming it from white to gray. 

As he laid the lifeless baby upon its dead mother on the ground, he heard the child whisper from within him, and Ragman wondered if what he had done was mercy or a sin greater than the golem. Time would tell. Patience is a virtue, they say, as is a promise kept, but a patient promise is prophecy itself, and prophecy is inevitable. I prophesize that Nightmare's final tale here is going to make the Phantom Stranger shit his pants. This final lesson in horror takes us to the halls of Strange Academy, where the young pupil Calvin Morse worries about passing his tests when maybe he should be worried about passing away. Classes in session for a tale I call the Many-Angled One. Calvin Morse Calvin Morse opened the door to Wong's office. 

As the instructor for the Mystical Defense course at Strange Academy, Wong was known for holding one-on-one sessions for students seeking academic help. In Calvin's case, however, the meeting was more of a check-in. You asked to see me, sir? Calvin asked. 

Wong closed the book he was reading and set his glasses on his desk. Calvin Morse, please have a seat. Calvin walked over to the wooden chair. Like the rest of the office, the seat looked ancient. The room's shelves were lined with magical artifacts and tomes. 

From class, he recognized the lifeline tablet and the Carnix war horn. Some of the scrolls looked so old that they were practically dust, and some of the books were bound in iron under lock and key. Of all the rooms at Strange Academy, Wong's office was one of the more intimidating. 

Wong pressed his palms together, resting his elbows on his desk. Calvin, over the past few weeks, I've noticed a change in your attentiveness during class. You have appeared agitated and unfocused. 

Your grades have begun to slip. Wong slid two parchment across his desk for Calvin to see. One was an exam on the eight principalities on which he earned a B+. 

The other parchment was an essay on the Hyborian Age, which was stamped with an F. What is the story here? Wong asked, is everything okay? Um, I guess. Calvin murmured. He looked up from the parchment to Wong's concerned expression. I don't really know. 

Wong stood from his seat and walked around to the front of his desk, leaning on it. Calvin, I'm concerned not just for your studies, as important as mystical defenses. I'm concerned for your mental well-being. 

As you know, it is important for sorcerers to remain clear and level-headed, lest their minds succumb to dark forces. I'm sorry, Mr. Wong, Calvin said. It's just, I've been seeing, like, bad visions and hearing whispers. Wong's eyebrows raised. Bad visions, whispers. 

Can you explain? He asked. Well, in Dr. Voodoo's class, we were learning about the orb of Agamotto, and after looking into it, I saw... Calvin paused. 

Wong prompted him. What did you see, Calvin? A giant eyeball? 

Calvin said. And tentacles. Wong's concerned expression turned grim. And what are the voices saying? Calvin hung his head and quietly whispered. 

Shuma Gorath. Wong walked back around his desk and sat down, his hands gripping the armrests. I don't know what that means, Calvin said, feeling tears begin to well in his eyes. But I feel scared. I saw my friends dying. 

I saw Emily and Irak and Zoe, their heads were gone. Wong took a deep breath. Shuma Gorath is one of the elder gods known as the Many-Angled Ones, he explained. It was responsible for the death of the ancient one. Dr. Strange was once forced to commit ritual suicide to prevent it from coming through to him into this dimension. 

You can shape-shift, you can alter reality, it is the ruler of hundreds of universes and can destroy galaxies. Well, is it coming here? Calvin asked, wiping his eyes. Wong paused. Of course not, he said. 

Calvin sighed, relieved. So, maybe I've just been having nightmares. Perhaps, Wong said. But if it makes you feel better, why don't you grab the talisman of Shurair from the classroom? It is on the red wooden chest. It is said to ward off dark visions. Calvin nodded and walked to the mystical defense room. 

Resting on the red wooden chest was the book of Cogliostro and the Coral Crab, but there was no talisman. Calvin scratched his head and walked out of the classroom, returning to Wong's office. He opened the door. Mr. Wong, I couldn't find the talisman. 

Calvin stood, frozen. In front of him, Wong hovered a foot off the ground. A large smile spread across his face and his eyes opened wide. Calvin felt the blood drained from his face. What's the matter, Calvin? Wong said. 

As you said, it's just a nightmare. Wong peeled off his face to reveal a big, round eyeball underneath. Calvin gasped as a tentacle wrapped around his neck and squeezed. His body fell over, limp. His head rolled across the floor until it came to a stop. On his face, a frozen look of opened mouth horror. 

Looks like Calvin flunked out in the worst way, going straight from the student body to just a dead body. So Nightmare's prophecy proved incorrect because Phantom Stranger did in fact not shit his pants. Come on, that was scary. It was scary. 

I'm not going to lie. And very mysterious, as is the Phantom Stranger's final tale titled Manitou. Manitou, to the Algonquin people, the word meant mystery and referred to the mystic life forces and spirits of the world. Many of these spirits were named and revered, and some in the ancient need of wisdom were never named, never whispered about, for they can never be tamed, and their wild hunger never satiated. The shaman, Manitou Raven, named after the spirit of magic and a protector of the planet, bound one of these dark wild spirits 3,000 years ago on the land of his people. Upon traveling through time from the Obsidian Age to the modern one, he knew it would be his responsibility to trap the spirit once again. But to do so, he would again need the help of five youths. He sat atop a cliffside, waiting for them to enter the valley below, as the dark clouds foretold. He heard their echoing voices as they approached. Looks like rain's coming. 

Let's move, guys. Adam told the others as they reached the bottom of the valley. Are we lost? 

Virginia asked nervously. I swear if we are, I will strangle Skyler for leaving our phones, said Cherry. I told you I needed them for my telescope. Skyler snapped back. Yeah, you'll get a great view of the stars tonight through these clouds, muttered Jesse. We're not going to make it to the campsite before dark, Adam said. We'll have to find shelter soon and wait out the rain. 

Maybe spend the night. Cherry whispered into his ear, and he blushed. Look, there's a cave, Jesse said, pointing ahead as the rain began pouring. They entered the cave soaked, nervously peering into the blackness. Adam cautiously explored the cave with his flashlight, while Skyler and Jesse argued over how to start a fire. Cherry and Virginia huddled together near the entrance, wondering the loud if maybe the cave belonged to a bear or mountain lion. Adam found no sign of an animal, and were it not for the illumination from the fire the others managed to get started, he wouldn't have seen the black skull amidst the rocks. 

It was human. Guys, let's get out of here. Adam said as he rushed back to the others. He tripped suddenly, a thorny vine wrapped around his leg. 

Are you okay? Virginia asked. In the light of the fire, they watched as more vines sprouted beneath Adam, wrapping around him like dark tendrils, binding tight against his body and pulling downward, effortlessly sawing through his neck and limbs like razor wire. Screams filled the cave, lava belched from the fire, landing on Cherry. 

Her jacket and haircut fire as her skin blackened beneath the blistering bright orange. Skyler emptied his canteen on Cherry, dousing the flames too late. Steam rose and swirled around Skyler, plunging into his mouth and nose. He fell to his knees, black sludge pouring from his mouth, tears and eyes as his skin turned gray. 

A howling, piercing wind suddenly came rushing from deep within the cave. Jesse rushed to shield Virginia from a blast of butchered air that knocked them both to the ground. Jesse, Virginia shrieked, Jesse's body lay still. She rolled him off of her, only to look in horror at his now deformed figure as if the wind had blown his facial features and limbs to places they shouldn't be. 

A teary eye atop his patchy-haired head blinked at her. Virginia? He struggled to say from the mouth now on his neck. Virginia screamed and ran out of the cave into thick rain and the arms of Manitou Raven. He embraced her as she looked up at him, pleading for help. 

He didn't respond. His gaze locked within the cave. Virginia turned in his arms and her horror saw the corpses and body parts of her friends roll toward each other at the cave's opening, merging into one another and forming a grotesque serpent with Adam's face. 

Virginia tried to flee, but Manitou Raven held her firmly in his arms. She looked up at him, confused. He looked down at her with regret in his ancient eyes. Forgive me, he whispered as the serpent lashed its shadowy tail around her neck, yanking her toward its gaping maw. 

It chewed loudly, then sprouted bat wings and wore Manitou Raven, whose sacred tattoos and angry eyes now glowed blue as he unsheathed tomahawks blazing with fiery magic. History repeated itself. Five innocent youths were sacrificed to give the dark spirit a physical form that could be destroyed and trapped for another 3,000 years. As Manitou Raven finished chanting his binding ritual, he pondered the mystery as to what was darker, the Manitou that hungers or the one that feeds it. I'm gonna say it's the Manitou that feeds it. Manitou Raven is one cold-hearted son of a bitch in that story. I'm not gonna lie, that was a pretty good one. 

I really like the moral dilemma that Manitou had in that story. And Nightmare does not appreciate how scary that story was. You're not trying to one-up him, so in order to teach Phantom Stranger a lesson, he's going to summon a whole team of supernatural and mystic characters from Marvel to basically beat the shit out of Phantom Stranger. 

And Phantom Stranger is not frightened by that, because he will do the same. From the House of Mystery, he's going to summon Madame Zanadu, an immortal sorceress and seer who commands powerful magic drawn from ancient sources most often channeled through tarot and ritual. She could foresee destiny summon spirits and manipulate the unseen threads of fortune. 

She could also levitate, teleport, heal, and manipulate mystic energies across time and space. From one of the stories he told, he'll also be summoning Manitou Raven, who was born among an ancient tribe in the time before recorded history. He serves as a shaman who communes with the spirits of Earth and Sky, who joined a circle of ancient champions to defend the world against the darkness that threatened to consume it. When he was transported forward in time, he carried with him the wisdom and burdens of the obsidian age into the modern world. 

He commands elemental and spiritual forces, can summon animal spirits, travel the astral plane, alter his size, and even bend time itself. Also being summoned is Lori Zecklin, aka Black Alice, who grew up in a fractured home. Her mother's death and her father's decline pushed her toward isolation and despair. In her grief, she turned to the occult, discovering a dark connection between her emotions and the arcane forces surrounding her. 

In her pursuit of meaning, she was drawn to the world of magic, allowing her to siphon and wield the magical powers of others, drawing their arcane essence and memories as her own. Nightshade emerges next, who as I mentioned earlier is Eve Eden, born to the Queen of the Shadow Realm known as the Land of Nightshades. As a child, she witnessed her mother be abducted by the demonic Incubus, who sought dominion over both her realm and Earth. Eve vowed to master the mysteries of darkness to one day return to her mother's world and free it from corruption. 

She can open portals through darkness, conjure creatures of shadow, phase through matter, and vanish into her two-dimensional form. Ragman will also be joining the fray. You just heard a story about him. He is Rory Reagan and was raised in the slums by his father, a junk dealer, who was killed along with his friends by criminals, allowing Rory to discover the mystic legacy they had protected, a garment woven from the souls of the guilty. Bering its burden, he became the latest in a long line of reluctant saviors who atone for other sins through their own suffering. His mystical suit of souls grants him the strength, speed, and skill of the wicked spirits it absorbs. Each soul becomes a living thread within the rags, which can guide and teleport him toward evil actions. Finally, Phantom Stranger summons Blue Devil, aka Daniel Cassidy, who is a Hollywood stuntman whose ambition led him to dabble in supernatural forces beyond his understanding. When a demonic encounter bound him permanently to the monstrous suit he had created for entertainment, his life of illusion became one of grim reality. Struggling to reconcile fame and faith, he sought redemption by turning his curse into a calling. He possesses immense strength, durability, and resistance to sorcery. His enchanted trident, known as the Trident of Lucifer, can channel hellfire and banish demons. So to reiterate, Phantom Stranger's team consists of Madame Zanadu, Manitou Raven, Black Alice, Nightshade, Ragnan, and Blue Devil. 

I'd like to see who Nightmare summons to go against that team. Well, coming out of the crypt of shadows, first is Jennifer Kale, Ghostwriter's cousin who hails from a long line of mystics in Florida's Kale family who are descendants of Atlantis' ancient cult of Jeredna. Her latent magical abilities emerged while studying ancient tomes beneath their family cemetery, honing her skills in witchcraft. Guided by the man thing, and later trained by Dr. Strange, she became one of Earth's prominent sorceresses. 

As a battle mage, she can don witch armor, manipulate magic energy, mesmerize minds, cast teleportation portals, along with a myriad of other spells. Also emerging from the crypt is Wong, a descendant of a family sworn for generations to serve the ancient one. Wong was trained from youth in martial arts disciplines, and when he was sent to Car Martage, she became the personal attendant and ally of Dr. 

Strange. Though bound by duty, Wong's wisdom and combat skill made him a protector of Earth against supernatural threats. In addition to being a master martial artist, Wong is a skilled sorcerer able to manipulate magic energy for portals, shields, and various other effects. Klai is the next one out of the crypt. She is the daughter of Umar and the niece of Dormammu, born in the Dark Dimension. She first encountered Dr. Strange while he battled Dormammu and aided him against her tyrannical uncle. 

After years of tutelage under Dr. Strange, Klai grew into a powerful sorceress and ultimately became the sorceress supreme of the Dark Dimension. Due to her half mortal, half faulting heritage, she has enhanced physiology including durability and magical resistance. 

She calls on more elder magics for powerful spells including energy manipulation, elemental control, teleportation, psychic manipulation, telekinesis, scrying, necromancy, transmutation, and more. Next out of the crypt is Pixie. Megan Gwyn grew up in Wales as the daughter of Mastermind and a descendant of Fairy Lineage. She joined the Xavier Institute where during an adventure in Limbo, the new magic tainted a portion of Megan's innocent soul to manifest a soul dagger, similar to magic's own soul sword. Pixie can fly with her insect wings and can produce hallucinogenic dust. 

She can also cast spells for teleportation, sleep, and she can summon her soul dagger at will, which can harm magic entities and stun non-magic entities. Second to last out of the crypt is the Scarlet Scarab whose real name is Leila L. Fowley. She was an Egyptian mercenary who once worked with Mark Spector before he became Moon Knight. Killed during a mission, her soul entered the Duot, which is the Egyptian realm of death, where the goddess Tawadet transformed her into the realm's guardian, the Scarlet Scarab. Revived to the mortal world by Osiris, she now serves as a protector of both the living and the dead. She can fly at high speeds with her wings and summon swords and chakram discs. 

Her ruby scarab grants her enhanced strength and durability, the ability to fire concussive mystical energy, and can drain the power of anyone who touches the scarab. Finally out of the portal is Ghost Rider, aka Robbie Reyes, who was a teen mechanic that was murdered by a gang members while he was racing in his possessed Dodge Charger. Resurrected by the spirit of his Satanic uncle, Eli Morrow, Robbie became the Ghost Rider, a fiery Avenger bound to hellish power. 

Torn between protecting his brother, Gabe, and resisting Eli's bloodlust, Robbie tries to punish the guilty across Los Angeles. As Ghost Rider, he possesses enhanced strength and full regenerability, pyrokinesis, mystic chain manipulation, and he wields the Pen and Stare, which can inflict an opponent's the pain and suffering they have caused in others. He can also summon and remotely control his possessed Dodge Charger, which contains a portal to hell in its trunk. So that's Nightmare's team. Again, it's Jennifer Kale, Wong, Klaia, Pixie, Scarlet Scarab, and Ghost Rider. 

In a world where fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The Dynamite Podcast Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday. Dynamic Duel, where comic book titans smash every Tuesday. Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday. And Cendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on the matches and armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score. 

But now that we've got their rosters out of the way, let's speculate on how one of the thousands of simulated matches will go. The winner is determined by simulations, not the speculation, but it's fun to imagine how a fight could play out. Ajin Enkei, what are the rules of our speculation? 

Well, I should say there are no rules, other than the teams have no prior knowledge of the other going into the fight. All they are aware of starting out is that the other side is a threat that needs to be eliminated. For the speculation, the groups will begin approximately 50 meters apart in a nondescript environment that will have no bearing on the match itself, as no environmental statistics are considered in my simulations. The teams must earn victory on their own merit. 

All right, with both of our horror narrators teams assembled, they're going to chronicle how this terrifying battle will play out. The mystery is, who goes first? Nightmare says that Ghost Rider is going to go first, and he starts by summoning his Hell Charger, which comes out of the ground, and he controls it remotely to crash into the Phantom Strangers group, just running them all over. Except Blue Devil's Trident helps him sense demons, which he could banish to hell. So once he recognizes that the car is possessed, that's exactly what he's going to do. He's going to slam his Trident into the ground, open up this fissure that's spewing Hellfire, and the car's going to fall straight into it, and that fissure is just going to seal back up. 

Okay then, I guess that move didn't work. Pixie, she's going to fly into the air and release her hallucinogenic Pixie Dust. So Phantom Strangers group just starts tripping balls, start freaking out, and that's going to cause Manitou Raven to set Ragnan on fire, because he like sees him as like birthday candles that he needs to light or something. 

Birthday candles for a 3000 year old shaman? All right, it's a choice. Yeah. Well as Ragnan is stopped dropping and rolling, Black Alice, who has done some trippy magic drugs before, is less affected, and she's going to steal Cleia's magic from her. So Cleia's powerless now, and Black Alice is going to summon a magic wind that blows all of Pixie's dust off of her team, and also it's going to put out Ragnan's fire. 

Okay, I have to warn you, this is going to sound like bullshit, but I swear that this was a thing from the comic books. Cleia has been depowered or like had her magic negated before, but the thing is, because she's half mortal, half faulteen, she's special in that she pulls from different realms of magic, such as like Earth's magical field, or like the Dark Dimension, or the very ancient Faltine magic. So Black Alice may be able to drain Cleia's power, like say her Earth magic or whatever, but Cleia then calls upon her Faltine magic, and then she casts a spell called the Talons of Tarkus, and that's going to manifest this magic hawk that grabs Black Alice and just pulls her into another dimension, this magic-less dimension. So Black Alice is out of the match, Cleia still has her magic, she's kind of I'm gonna say that Madame Zenadu foresaw that Cleia was going to do that to Black Alice, so she cast a counterspell so that whoever used magic against Black Alice would also forget all magic forever. So Cleia is powerless when Manitou Raven summons a massive swarm of Ravens, a fuck ton that are gonna blacken the sky and devour Nightmare's team. 

I guess you did find a way to depour Cleia, okay she gets devoured by the Ravens, but Jennifer Kale and Wong throw up magic shields that protect the rest of the team, and the Ravens just crash into the shields like birds into a window. And then Scarlet Scarab, she hurls a chakra disk that she manifests, and the blade just slices right through Manitou Raven's neck, decapitating him, and causes the Ravens to vanish. Okay, well suddenly Ragman teleports behind Scarlet Scarab due to his danger-sensing rags, and his cloak is gonna wrap around her, stealing her soul for the murder she just committed, and her body's gonna fall to the floor lifeless. Okay, Ghostrider is gonna hold his chains over to Ragman then pulls him over to him and then does the pen and stare, which causes Ragman to feel all the pain that all those souls in his cloak have inflicted on innocent victims. Oh no. So like Ragman is fucking dead dead, like he was just killed like a thousand times over from this incalculable level of pain, like no one has ever died just as much as Ragman just died. 

Dude stop, he's already dead! But you know who else is gone? Pixie, because she's gonna get slammed out of the air by this 10 story tall shadow figure created by Nightshade, straight into the ground. Well that probably would take her out of the match, but Wong meanwhile, he conjures a magical bow staff, and he uses it to vault into a flying kick at Madame Zanadu and kicks her Deku Tarot cards right out of her hands, and she's like, ah shit! And then Wong roundhouse kicks her in the face, followed up by a leaping scissor kick to the face, like WAP WAP! And then he wax her in the head with his magic bow staff, and then he summons a portal beneath her where she falls through it into an icy mountain crevasse, like up in the Himalayas, and she dies. I feel like she would have seen all of this coming. 

First of all, it takes way too much time to read those cards. Second of all, even if she did see it coming, she would have been way too mesmerized by the beating that she just took. What? Why would you be mesmerized by a beating? Because it was like martial arts mastery awesomeness. 

That's so dumb. Alright well, Blue Devil saw this, so he and Wong go toe to toe with their staff weapons, and while Wong may be a better fighter, Blue Devil is super durable and strong like Hellboy, so all it takes is one punch for Wong to go night night. And even if Wong tries some kind of like sorcery in his attacks, Blue Devil is magic resistant, so Wong's out. 

He's magical resistant. You know, Jennifer Kale's gonna test that resistance with a mesmerizing spell. She's gonna capture Blue Devil's gaze and convince him to, as a demon himself, banish himself to Hell. So now Blue Devil's out. Except that Blue Devil can't be mesmerized by what he can't see, because Nightshade, just envelops the entire environment in darkness, and that's gonna negate Jennifer Kale's spell. So both Jennifer and Ghost Rider are going to be torn to shreds in the dark by dozens of homunculi shadow creatures she created. No, because Jennifer Kale would cast a Lumo spell, where like her fist shines like a beacon, and it's so bright that it tears and burns through the darkness around them, including tearing and burning through Nightshade herself into nothing. Lumos? Isn't that a Harry Potter spell? I said luminos. 

Luminos. Whatever. She could do it. 

Regardless. Okay, well, I mean, it's a good thing that Blue Devil is burnproof then, and thanks to his heightened senses, he was able to maneuver behind Jennifer in the dark, so she doesn't see it coming when he pierces her through a gap in her witch armor, and pailing her on the trident of Lucifer. She doesn't have any gaps in her witch armor? Dude, I've seen scans of what she looks like. 

She has so many gaps. Well, Ghost Rider does not appreciate Blue Devil messing with his fellow spirit of vengeance's mother's brother's daughter. Okay, so he's just gonna flame breath him with this like giant blast of Hellfire so powerful, it actually melts Blue Devil and burns his soul. I literally just said the guy was burnproof. 

Blue Devil deals with Hellfire all the time, but I doubt Ghost Rider deals with Hellfire straight from Lucifer's trident. That's like the hottest of the hot. Motherfucker, DC's Hellfire is like a lukewarm bath. 

It's not doing shit, okay? Marvel's Hellfire is way hotter, plus Ghost Rider grabs Blue Devil by his horns and just tosses him in the trunk of his car, which he resummoned from Hell, and inside Robbie Race's trunk is a portal to Hell, so Blue Devil gets banished and Ghost Rider wins. No, I already said the car was banished to the deepest pit of Hell, so no, it's not coming back. If anything, Blue Devil banishes Ghost Rider. It's what he does. It's what Ghost Rider does. Yeah, but Blue Devil just doesn't better. 

According to who? Phantom Stranger, duh. Well, I say that Ghost Rider not only banishes Blue Devil to Hell, Nightmare banishes Phantom Stranger to the crypt of shadows for all of eternity for being a dumbass. That's fine, Phantom Stranger would probably love it there. He loves that mysterious shit. I doubt Nightmare is going to love it in the House of Mystery, where Phantom Stranger traps him for eternity because the Nightmare is there would be out of his control. 

Why? Again, because the Phantom Stranger says so. Well, let's find out who gets trapped where. Let's go ahead and run the simulations on this cast of characters after we input their stats. We'll be right back, folks, with a winner. A.J .9K, hit it! 

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

Okay, Nightmare and Phantom Stranger both summoned this team of warriors to fight against each other, but we also incorporated their stats as well into this team duel. Right, so we had seven characters each. And I have to say, it's kind of a good thing that Phantom Stranger and Nightmare did not include themselves in their speculation because they are hella powerful. 

Yeah, they're basically omnipotent, basically omniscient. They won a majority of their battles. Nightmare won 90.6% of all his matches and Phantom Stranger won 91.8%. So we had these very lopsided characters stat-wise compared to the rest of the supernatural and mystic characters on the teams. 

Another heavy hitter was Clea. She won about 70% of all of her matches. Yeah, besides Nightmare, she was your most powerful character. My most powerful character outside of Phantom Stranger was surprisingly Nightshade. She is super powerful. My weakest character on my team was Pixie. 

I don't think that's any surprise. She only won 14.5% of her matches. Surprisingly, my weakest character was Black Alice, but I think it has to do with the way we had to determine her stats. Because her power is so variable in the fact that she steals power from others, we had to average all of the Marvel character stats to determine hers. And with that, she still emerged as my weakest character, although Ragman was not too far behind that. Looking at the team battles overall, it looks like the DC team's biggest advantage was in strength. Your characters were more strong, whether it was through physical strength or telekinetic strength. 

Characters like Pixie, Wong, and Jennifer Kale really brought me down there. But Marvel kicked the shit out of DC when it came to the category of versatility. Like, all of my guys are highly versatile, whereas Phantom Stranger's team had a few less versatile characters like Ragman and Blue Devil. Considering all that, Jonathan, do you have a guess as to who's going to win this? There's no way I could ever vote against these badass DC characters, many of whom I'm kind of sad did not get their own individual duels like Ragman, like Blue Devil, like Manitou Raven. So yeah, I gotta go with DC's House of Mystery team. And Instagram agrees with me, 79% of them also voted for the House of Mystery. 79%? 

What the hell is wrong with our Instagram followers? No one knows what the Crypt of Shadows even is. Like, House of Mystery had its own movie. Well, it was like a part of a collection of animated DC shorts, though. 

That's on par for what the House of Mystery is, a series of short stories. Yeah, we'll probably chalk it up to that, I think. Really, people didn't know who they were voting for, because we kept the roster of this team duel a surprise within that Instagram poll. I'd like to think that if they knew who was on the Marvel team, they would have voted for Marvel. Really, you think they would have voted for Pixie? Yeah. Let's find out if they're right, though. 

AJ9K, the results, please. Hey, you are, sir. All right, the winner between the Phantom Stranger's House of Mystery and Nightmare's Crypt of Shadows is the House of Mystery. 

Yes! It was pretty close. Out of the thousands of simulated matches, the House of Mystery won 52.3% of the time compared to the Crypt of Shadow team's 47.7%. In the end, you know who was the tipping point? Which character? 

No, which one? It was actually Black Alice, whose variable power set actually ended up averaging into a win for you guys. Despite the fact that she was your weakest character. Oh, dude, I did not see that coming. I thought she was going to bring me down for sure. 

But, you know, it makes sense. Like, all she has to do is steal Nightmare's power and your whole team is done for. I don't think you can actually drain Nightmare's powers, or if you did, I feel like you would just remanifest with his power in the Nightmare dimension. Not if he's powerless. Like, she's absorbed the power of the Spectre before. It doesn't care if Phantom Stranger's team won. 

Nightmare still told the more scary stories. You think so, huh? I say we let the people decide. That brings us to our question of the week. Which scary story this episode was your favorite? 

And why? Record your answer at dynamicduld.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 Dual No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. 

Be sure to answer before November 1st. I think the results of that question of the week will determine the real winner of this particular team duel. No, you can't get out of your loss. You own that. But that does it for this duel. AJ9K helped close us out. 

Thanks for listening to Dynamic Duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicduld.com and follow us on Instagram at Dynamic Duel Podcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicduld and joining a tier that works for you, or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Dual on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite Podcast Network, including Max Destruction, Senjo World, and Console Combat. 

In our next episode, we will be reviewing Season 2 of Peacemaker, a review that we delayed in order to make room for October's spooky duels. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Starosky, Zachary Hepburn, Destin Belcom, Miggi Mothagean, Nathaniel Wagoner, Levi Yatten, Austin Wieselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Nick Ibonto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Molesky, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Mike Williams, and Paul Graves for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up, up, and away, true believers. 

I soiled my armor. I was so scared.