Infinity Inc. vs New Warriors

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 in this episode we are doing our monthly team duel, this time pitting Infinity, Inc. versus the New Warriors. 

Now tell me if I'm wrong, Jonathan. Infinity, Inc. is to the Justice Society as the Teen Titans are to the Justice League. 

Yeah, it's basically a team made up of legacy characters or successors to the Justice Society members. 

Now I wouldn't call the New Warriors a legacy team because a lot of them are original to the team but they are a young group of badasses. And I can't wait for them to mop the floor with Infinity, Inc. 

Clearly you know nothing about Infinity, Inc. 

I don't really know. That's true. 

A lot of people don't. It was a short-lived team but a cool team and we're gonna learn all about it later on in this episode. Before that we're gonna break down the comic book movie news from the past week of which there was just one major news item and that was the release dates that have been pushed back for Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars. 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 are artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners so listen up. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. 

Be sure to tune into the other shows and the DynaMic 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 reviewed The Last of Us season one. 

Over on the Max Destruction podcast hosts Scotty and Gilly pay your favor action heroes from film and television against each other. They are on a brief season break currently but are coming back in full force starting in June with Ben 10 versus Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender. 

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 going to reveal who would win between Makka Albarne from Soul Eater versus Akame from Akame God Kill. 

Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamite 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 who had the better official trailer from a couple weeks ago. Superman or Iron Heart and why and both of those trailers were released on the same day and we wanted to see you know what you guys liked more. So let's go ahead and say two honorable mentions and a no prize winner. 

Our first honorable mention goes to Lorenzo Valdez who said 

this is Lorenzo Valdez calling in once again. I quite like the Iron Heart trailer and I'm very much looking forward to that show but it doesn't hold a candle to the Superman trailer. I mean the shot of Clark young Clark running into Jonathan's arms that shot alone gives the Superman trailer the edge I think I would I would vote for it just based on that shot alone. Clon of forever and always. Bye bye. 

Yeah if there's one thing that I've come to associate with James Gunn and his filmmaking it's that he is pretty damn good at pulling on the heart strings whether it was the Suicide Squad or even Peacemaker and Guardians of the Galaxy for sure he knows how to tell an emotional story and I absolutely am expecting that for this upcoming Superman movie especially when you have things in the trailer like a little boy just running up to his dad excited. 

I'm not gonna lie I stopped listening to Lorenzo's answer about a third of the way through so all I know is that he really liked the Iron Heart trailer which makes sense it's gonna be a great show. 

I don't know what to say clean your ears apparently. 

Great answer Lorenzo our next honorable mention goes to Buster Barnes who said 

hi guys Buster Barnes here and the best trailer out of Iron Heart and Superman was definitely Iron Heart. I mean been waiting to see if you really was on the screen for a long time you know after with Canada forever really just couldn't wait to see her you know said absolutely no one ever. I mean Superman definitely cleared and it's gonna be amazing best superhero movie of 2025 and yeah I can't wait for July let's go. 

Not gonna lie you had me there totally thought you were gonna go the Iron Heart route but then you had that twist reveal at the end and totally saved your answer and yes you're correct Superman is gonna be so much better than Iron Heart it's not even funny. 

I'm not gonna lie either I stopped listening to Buster's answer about midway through so all I heard is that he thinks that the Iron Heart trailer was better and that he can't wait to see Riri Williams again. 

Okay so you need to get your ears checked and your brain checked. 

Great answer Buster but the winner of this week's no prize is Brian Rochester who said. 

Hello I'm gonna be controversial in this question and say both trailers are good. I cannot pick between Marvel and DC I've always liked both and I'm going to be the outlaw on this so there you have it. 

Now normally Jonathan on this podcast we don't like people to straddle the fence we like them to pick a side but I think in this particular case with this question of the week this was clearly the best answer of the group. 

The only reason this is getting the no prize win for anyone who's curious is because we do give points for originality and since he gave a unique answer that no one else gave yeah we're gonna give it to him even though he knows in his heart that the Superman trailer was better 

he knows in his heart that Iron Heart was fantastic correct yes. 

When's the last time you had a CAT scan? Because he needed another one your due. 

Great answer Brian you and 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 and now that that's done. Lots of the news! So this past week we got the total bullshit news that the Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars films are going to be pushed back from May in their respective years to December. Specifically Avengers Doomsday has been moved from May 1st of 2026 to December 18th and Avengers Secret Wars has been pushed from May 7th of 2027 to December 17th. So these films are no longer opening the summer movie frame but instead coming out in the winter holiday season. No one knows why it's very likely that these films are being pushed back because they're just so gargantuan that there wasn't enough time within the span of this upcoming year to adequately fulfill what is necessary in terms of like special effects and post production and perhaps reshoots if necessary. Sometimes those are the breaks and things like this just happen in life. 

Yeah, I keep hearing rumors about more people joining these casts, specifically Doomsday's cast. And I have to imagine with all of those actors there's got to be schedule conflicts. So I'm actually not surprised that this has been pushed back if they want to bring on more people and just need to work around their schedule adding more buffer time to kind of get things sorted. 

Yeah, right, because it seems like the Avengers Doomsday cast is larger than even Infinity War or Endgame and it's possible the Secret Wars cast is just as large. So considering that scale, I totally understand why Marvel Studios would make this call. I understand it, I respect it, but damn does it disgust me still. I don't want to wait. I feel so impatient for these upcoming Avengers films. The hype is already building. It's been building ever since, you know, the cast announcement and we've heard so much speculation regarding the plot of these films. I just can't help but be super excited and therefore super disappointed that we have to wait seven months longer, eight months longer. One of those two. 

Yeah, I could take them or leave them, you know, maybe they won't even come out. Shut the fuck up. 

Don't you put that evil out there in the world, Jonathan? 

Speaking of speculation, it's also currently being speculated that the upcoming Spider-Man film will also get a release date push. 

Oh my God, shut up. We don't want to hear that. 

We don't want to hear that. It was originally supposed to come out between Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars. So if they want to keep that story continuity, yeah, that's probably going to go back as well. 

You know what the plus side of this could be that if they were to fast track the Blade movie, they could probably still get it out before the Avengers film. 

It would have to be sort of like a small stakes story without much special effects or anything like that. But they could pull it off if they really wanted to, if they just got their shit together and got the Blade movie going. 

I agree. Marvel does need to get their shit together. 

No more so than DC. Like what's going on with the Batman movie? Exactly. 

That's none of your business. What's going on? Wouldn't you like to know, Weather Boy? 

No, I don't really care actually. But speaking of the upcoming Avengers Doomsday film, we have a question to ask you guys for our question of the week. What is your favorite theory as to why Victor Von Doom would look like Tony Stark? If you guys have been listening to this podcast, you'll know that Jonathan and I absolutely hate the idea of Robert Downey Jr. returning as Victor Von Doom because it doesn't give the character of Victor Von Doom, as we know him from the comics, his do as his own original, incredible character. Maybe he's going to turn out to be a variant or something like that. But there are a lot of interesting ideas that rationalize why Victor Von Doom would have Tony Stark's face. So whether it's your original theory or something you heard online, let us know how this casting can best be explained. 

Record your answer at dynamicdool.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 May 31st. 

From this moment on, none of your safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. 

But that does it for the news portion of this episode. Now let's go ahead and move on to the main event, the team duel between DC's Infinity Inc. and Marvel's new warriors. Okay, Infinity Inc versus new warriors. As we mentioned at the top of the episode, these are both teams comprised of younger heroes, or at least heroes that are starting out. You'll be familiar with quite a few of the Infinity Inc. team members if you watched the Star Girl television series that was on CW. Characters like Wildcat 2, Brainwave, Our Man, and even Dr. Midnight, the Beth Chapel version, were all members of Infinity Inc. Now there was going to be a new warriors television series up until Marvel Studios took over all of the Marvel television series. 

Right, yeah. When the Marvel television division was folded under the Marvel Studios umbrella, a lot of the existing television projects got reshuffled and some got cancelled entirely. The new warriors television show was going to start Milana Vayntrabe as Squirrel Girl, and reports said that the show was actually really good, but sometimes things just don't pan out that way, which is a shame. But the new warriors is a pretty cool group of heroes. 

It includes characters that we've done duels with, including Speedball and Nova, and some additional characters that we haven't done individual duels with, but I'll be sure to get into their backstory within the larger new warriors history. 

I will never forgive Kevin Feige for taking away the AT &T girl Squirrel Girl from us. 

Yeah, I don't think anyone will. That's his biggest crime so far as a producer. 

100%. But getting into this team duel to explain the methodology behind it, let's go to our sentient duel simulator, Alfred Jarvis 9000. AJ9K, tell our listeners how you go about determining a winning team in our team duel matchups. 

Yes, of course, sir. The way I determine a winner between the two teams is by running 1000 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 49000 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, Agent 9K! Before we run the simulations though, we like to break down each team's histories and rosters before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the thousands of simulations would play out beat for beat. And it is my turn to go first with the Marvel team history, so let me tell you all about the new Warriors. Under the leadership of Dwayne Taylor, better known as Night Thrasher, the new Warriors emerged as a team of young superheroes determined to prove themselves in a world dominated by older, more established crime fighters. Dwayne's crusade began in tragedy when as a child he witnessed the murder of his wealthy parents. Raised by their associates Andrew Corde and Ty, Dwayne grew up obsessively training in combat and tactics, eventually taking to the streets as a costumed vigilante. 

Inspired by the familial bond of the Fantastic Four and encouraged by Corde to build his own team, Dwayne identified and sought out like-minded young heroes to join him. Among his first recruits was Richard Ryder, the former Nova who had been depowered after his time at the Nova Corps. Believing Ryder's powers could be reactivated under stress, Night Thrasher forcibly dropped him from a building, a move that successfully reawakened Ryder's abilities and brought him reluctantly into the fold. Dwayne also approached telekinetic mutant Vance Astrovic, then operating as Marvel Boy. Vance had recently tried to join the Avengers but was rejected for being too inexperienced. 

Eager for validation and community, he accepted Dwayne's offer. The final founding member Dwayne sought out was Angelica Jones, known as Firestar, a mutant with microwave energy powers who had previously trained under the White Queen Emma Frost at the Massachusetts Academy. Though hesitant, Firestar joined after Night Thrasher uncovered her identity and applied pressure. 

You can learn more about the White Queen in her duel episode against Poison Ivy. Before the group could formally establish themselves, they were thrust into battle against Terriks, a cosmic threat and former Herald of Galactus. During this encounter, the group was joined by two additional heroes, the hyperactive Speedball with kinetic absorption powers and Namorita, who was the cousin to Namor the Submariner and a genetically engineered clone of her mother, Namora. 

Speedball coined the team's name, the New Warriors, based on a news broadcast and the team established their base in the penthouse of the Ambrose building, funded by Dwayne's Family Foundation. The team quickly became involved in a range of battles, helping Thor combat the juggernaut and confronting the sinister genetic research corporation, Genitech. Genitech, using data from the Mad Thinker, created a rival team of unstable superhumans called Psionics. These adversaries would become recurring foils for the New Warriors, with shifting alliances forming over time. 

Additional threats to the team included the White Queen's Helians, Environmental Extremists known as the Force of Nature, and the corrupted corporate giant Obadiah Stain, Stain International. While the Warriors expanded their ranks, adding heroes like Darkhawk, Rage, Turbo and Silhouette, the team began experiencing internal changes. Namorita, while juggling her responsibilities with the Warriors, faced revelations about her own identity. 

Having grown up believing she was Namora's daughter, she was shocked to discover she was, in fact, a clone. This revelation, along with increasing leadership demands after Night Thrasher's periodic absences, led to mounting personal struggles. Her brief tenure as team leader ended in disaster when she unwittingly allowed the villainous Poison Memories gang access to the Warriors' personal information. The gang attacked the team's families, killing Rage's grandmother and deeply traumatizing the group. 

Namorita briefly left the team, only to return later as Chimera after undergoing a transformation into a more traditionally blue Atlantean form. Vance's romantic relationship with Firestar deepened, but his personal life remained complicated. He had been raised in an abusive household and during an altercation, accidentally killed his father. 

The resulting trial revealed years of domestic abuse, and although Vance was acquitted of murder, he was convicted of negligent homicide. Choosing to serve a sentence in the vault, he demonstrated a firm moral compass and resolve, later returning to the new Warriors' team under the new code name, Justice. Angelica Jones, aka Firestar, meanwhile, continued to struggle with the consequences of her powers. As an Avengers recruit early on, she discovered that prolonged use of her microwave emissions could render her infertile. This discovery caused tension in her engagement to Justice, but was eventually addressed when Hank Pym designed a suit that regulated her radiation powers. 

With new control over her abilities, Firestar played key roles both on and off the team, including aiding Spider-Man against Carnage and participating in Avengers' missions against Ultron and King the Conqueror. Night Thrasher's journey took an increasingly darker turn as he uncovered corruption within the Taylor Foundation. His adoptive guardian, Court, had been mystically compelled by his other guardian, Ty, to murder Dwayne's parents as part of a larger occult plot. Ty, a member of the Dragon's Breath cult, intended to sacrifice super-powered youth to harness the energies of a mystical nexus called the Well of All Things. Ty's long-term manipulation, including orchestrating the formation of the new warriors as potential sacrifices, was exposed during a climactic showdown in Cambodia where Night Thrasher killed Ty to save the team. Following Ty's death, Dwayne and Court began to rebuild the Taylor Foundation and the new warriors' trust. Dwayne became legal guardian to rage and the mutant Microbe brought an ink his role as a mentor. However, as Dwayne's crime-fighting methods grew increasingly unorthodox, including using wealth to coerce or buy out criminals, his leadership came into question. 

This culminated in his expulsion from the new warriors, although he would rejoin them again after Stintin Japan studying martial arts and aiding Iron Fist against the Hand. The team faced additional challenges including confrontations with the villainous Folding Circle, genetically engineered threats like Helix and cosmic foes such as the Sphinx. At one point, the warriors were scattered across time, requiring a secondary team to rescue them. As the core members matured, the team experienced repeated shifts in leadership and lineup. Justice and Firestar eventually joined the Avengers, while new recruits like Aegis, Boltz, and Debris helped keep the team active. As public interest in the team waned, Night Thrasher rebooted the new warriors as a reality TV series to fund their activities. 

This controversial move brought back core members like Nova, Speedball, and Namorita alongside newer heroes like Microbe and Debris. The show chronicled their crime-fighting exploits across small-town America, but during one such mission in Stamford, Connecticut, the warriors confronted a group of supervillains that included Nitro, who had the ability to self-detonate and reform from a gaseous state. In an attempt to subdue him, Namorita slammed Nitro into a bus and taunted him, prompting Nitro to detonate an catastrophic explosion that killed over 600 civilians, including schoolchildren and most of the new warriors. The Stamford disaster sparked the Superhuman Registration Act, which divided the superhero community and led to the superhuman Civil War. 

Only Speedball survived the blast, though it was emotionally devastated. Believing he deserved punishment, he rebranded himself as the self-flatulating vigilante Penance and joined the Thunderbolts. In the wake of this tragedy, former Warriors member Dwayne's half-brother, Don Yell, formed a new team of underground vigilantes in the new Warriors' name, composed of depowered mutants using advanced technology. Operating outside the law, this group struggled with internal trust issues, especially around Don Yell's secrecy and personal agenda to locate his brother Dwayne's body. 

Their mission ultimately ended in failure with the team disbanding after a misguided attempt to use time travel to undo the Stamford disaster. Meanwhile, Justice led another iteration of the team known as Counter Force, joined by Rage, Debris, Ultra Girl, and Slabstick. Acting as watchdogs against the government's initiative program, the group eventually took back the new Warriors' name and formed the Avengers Resistance in response to Norman Osborn's rise to power. After Osborn's fall, many of the members moved on to become staff at Avengers Academy. The new Warriors would resurface again under Justice and Speedball's guidance as they recruited new young heroes, including a resurrected neighbor Rita, to stop the high-evolutionaries' plan to eliminate superpowered beings. 

And that's the new Warriors' history. For the roster, I'm going with the original team roster, starting with the team founder and initial leader, Night Thrasher, who is a master martial artist, particularly with his Escrima sticks. His bulletproof and fireproof suit comes equipped with a variety of gadgets, including small firearms, gas-emitting gauntlets, incendiary explosives, communication devices, an LED camouflage system, infrared goggles, a glider's chute, and most importantly, a jet-powered armored skateboard. Next up is his first recruit, Nova, who we go over in his duel against the Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and who has greatly enhanced strength, able to lift over 100 tons, ability to fly at faster-than-line speeds, and can channel the Nova Force as extremely powerful concussive blasts or force fields. Then on the roster, we have Justice, who emits a telekinetic aura that he can use to psychokinetically move objects, fly, project concussive blasts, and erect protective force fields. Next up is Firestar, who can tap into the nuclear forces and surrounding atoms and convert them into microwave radiation. She can use this energy to fly and can project beams of intense heat. Following her is Neymarita, whose human-Atlantian physiology grants her the ability to breathe underwater and gives her enhanced physicality, including increased strength, able to lift 75 tons and increased durability. 

She can fly with the wings on her ankles, has limited armor, and atlantian combat training. Last to the original team is Speedball, whom you can learn more about in his duel against Wally West The Flash. Speedball has a kinetic force field that can redirect all force exerted against him, but with greater momentum. 

He can slightly extend this field to protect others in his immediate proximity, and can hurl blasts of kinetic energy or lend kinetic force to his physical attacks. The last member of my New Warriors roster has never actually been a member of the team, but has notoriously been associated with them over the decades, and that's Squirrel Girl. Comic book writer Fabian Nichieza, I think I'm pronouncing that right, reportedly wanted Squirrel Girl on the New Warriors team, and he wrote her as being a huge fan of the team and having a heavy crush on Speedball. She was also a member of the New Warriors in the unerred pilot of the TV show as we discussed before, so I do feel like she's a new warrior in spirit. As detailed in her duel against Ratcatcher, Squirrel Girl has the proportionate physicality of a squirrel and can communicate with the rodents. 

She has claws, enlarged incisors, and advanced negotiating skills. That's my roster. To reiterate the New Warriors fighting today will be Night Thrasher, Nova, Justice, Firestar, Namorita, Speedball, and Squirrel Girl. 

So right off the bat when you started this backstory of the New Warriors, I thought, wow, what a ripoff of Batman Night Thrasher is. Not really. Like verbatim, almost. What is going on? 

Yeah, but Night Thrasher has a jet-powered skateboard. Does Batman? 

He's a Batmobile. He doesn't need some punk-ass skateboard. 

That's right. He doesn't. 

I didn't know that Squirrel Girl was not a member of the New Warriors team. I feel like when I've looked for imagery of New Warriors, I see a lot of Squirrel Girl. 

Yeah, she's associated with the team a lot of times. So yeah, I felt comfortable adding her to this roster. Interesting. 

Okay, well, let me get into the DC team's backstory and tell you all about Infinity Inc. Now, Infinity Inc. was formed when several young heroes, most of them children or heirs to members of the Justice Society of America, were denied membership in the legendary team, which you can learn more about in our Justice Society vs. Fantastic Four Team Duel episode. These hopeful young heroes included Hector Hall, a.k .a. Silver Scarab, the son of Hawkman and Hawkwomen, Lita Trevor, a.k .a. Fury, the daughter of Earth Two's Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, Norda Candrell, a.k .a. Northwind, the godson of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and Albert Rothstein, known as Nuclon or Adam Smasher. 

Be sure to learn more about in our Adam Smasher vs. Stinger Duel episode. They were later joined by Jenny Lynn Hayden or Jade and Todd Rice, known as Obsidian, the children of the Green Lantern, Alan Scott. After the rejection by the JSA, the group caught the attention of Sylvester Pemberton, the former Star-Spangled Kid, who had once been a youthful adventurer himself during World War II as part of the Severance Soldiers of Victory. Sympathetic to their cause, Pemberton left the JSA and founded a new team with them, bringing in additional heroes like Power Girl, Huntress, and Brainwave Jr. 

The group was officially named Infinity Inc. and headquartered in the Infinity, Inc. debuted publicly during a press conference in which its members revealed their secret identities and announced Hector Hall's engagement to lead at Trevor. The team's first major conflict was against the Justice Society, who had been turned evil by the Ultra Humanite. After subduing the JSA and defeating the Ultra Humanite, who you can learn more about in his duel against Mr. Sinister, the team established themselves as protectors of Los Angeles, operating under a public contract with the city. Their dual roles as both public figures and vigilantes brought media scrutiny as well as a loyal fan base. The team soon clashed with Helix, a group of metahumans created through unethical genetic experiments. During one encounter, Fury was kidnapped and in another, the second wildcat, Yolanda Montez, discovered familial ties to Helix member Karcharo. Though Helix initially escaped one of its members, Mr. Bones, a chain-smoking albino with transparent skin and cyanide-laced touch, was later apprehended by authorities. 

Despite his criminal past and grim appearance, Bones expressed remorse and a desire to change. After some hesitation, Infinity, Inc. allowed him to join their ranks. His addition introduced tension within the group, especially due to the lethal nature of his powers, but also reinforced the team's mission of offering redemption and purpose to those who saw it. During the crisis on Infinite Earths, the team played a supporting role in the multiversal conflict and gained three new members, the new Wildcat, a new Our Man, and a new Dr. Midnighth named Beth Chappell, the latter two of whom you can learn more about in their respective duels against Bishop and Falcon. 

Together they helped stabilize collapsing realities and provided backup to the JSA and other heroes. The team suffered a tragic blow when Hector Hall fell under the influence of the evil Hath Set and became a corrupted incarnation of the Silver Scarab, wielding the ancient Eye of Ra. After a final confrontation at Hall Mansion, which was revealed to contain a hidden pyramid, Hector was destroyed by the Eye's power. Northwind and Fury left the team in the aftermath, and Fury later reunited with Hector, who had become the new Sandman in the Dream Dimension. He could only return to the real world for one hour per day, but it was enough to rekindle their relationship. Eventually the two were married and chose to live together in the Dream Inc, severing their ties to the mortal world. 

Infinity Inc experienced a devastating blow during the wedding of Hector Hall and Lita Trevor, when Marcy Cooper, secretly the third Harley Quinn and a double agent working against the team, orchestrated a lethal trap. She manipulated events so that Skyman, Sylvester Pemberton, the team's founder and leader, would be alone with Solomon Grundy, a powerful and unpredictable creature who you could learn more about in his duel against Warwolf by Night. At the same time she lured Mr. Bones into the room, knowing his flesh carried a deadly touch. Under Harley Quinn's influence Grundy grabbed Bones and forcibly pressed his hand against Skyman, instantly killing him. 

Bones, horrified at what had happened, fled the scene. The team tracked him to the villainous group Helix, who had taken him in once more. But when Dr. Love, their manipulative creator, ordered Helix to kill Bones, the group turned on their maker and killed him instead. Disillusioned, Helix disbanded, and Bones, now free of their influence, was granted full membership in Infinity Inc. 

Still, the loss of Skyman shattered the team's foundation. With their headquarters at Stellar Studios burned down and their guiding force gone, the remaining members of Infinity Inc found themselves leaderless, directionless and overwhelmed. In time they chose to disband, each member going their separate way. Although the team dissolved, their legacy lived on. Several former members of Infinity Inc joined Black Adam's campaign to liberate Condoc, forming part of his superpowered army. 

Brainwave, Northwind, Nemesis, Adam Smasher, and a host-possessed Eclipse, aided in Black Adam's violent mission. Though his militant assembly bore little resemblance to the idealistic team once headquartered in Los Angeles. In a parallel timeline, resurrected after Infinite Crisis, a new Earth 2 emerged, one where the Justice Society and Infinity Inc had merged into a single multi-generational unit known as the Justice Society Infinity. This version of the team featured doppelgangers of familiar faces like Silver Scarab, Fury, Jade, and Northwind. Unlike their counterparts, this team operated in a world where Alan Scott had died, Jade Carrick retired, and Superman had vanished. Back on Earth 1, decades after the original Infinity Inc disbanded, the name was resurrected as part of Lux Luthor's Everyman project to turn ordinary citizens into superpowered crime fighters under his control. Luthor purchased the rights to the Infinity Inc name and identities of the lauded superhero team composed of regular people given metahuman abilities through a synthetic medigene therapy. 

These new heroes included Natasha Irons, known as Starlight, a new Skyman, Nuclon, Fury, Everyman, and the Speedster, Trajectory. The team operated as both Luthor's personal metahuman unit and a corporate stunt, appearing frequently in media and managing rogue Everyman subjects. Their headquarters and operations were largely overseen by Lexcorp under the careful watch of Luthor and bodyguard Mercy Graves. Though they fought threats such as Blockbuster and Cobra operatives, the team's darker purpose was eventually revealed when Luthor deactivated Trajectory's powers with flight leading to her death. He later murdered Skyman through Everyman, who took his identity to expose Natasha Irons as a double agent working with her uncle, Steel. Luthor's own powers derived from the exo-gene treatment were nullified when Natasha used Steel's hammer to emit an EMP, ending his control. In the wake of Luthor's exposure, remaining members were arrested. However, some resurfaced during World War 3 when Ellen Scott called on them to aid in the battle against Black Adam. 

They refused and fled the battlefield, realizing that true heroism required more than manufactured power. A year after the dismantling of the Everyman project, several of its former subjects, Natasha Irons, Eric Strom, aka Fury, and Juro McKenna, aka Nuclon, entered therapy to cope with the become mist-like. Jerome could duplicate himself and Eric manifested a dominant female alter ego. Together with a pain-inducing psychic named Lucia and Lex Cork bodyguard of Mercy graves, they attempted to reform as a new Infinity Ink, now independent of Luthor and determined to forge their own identity. This group operated briefly from a mobile base, engaging in missions while trying to control the erratic changes in their powers. However, they were soon targeted by a facade of Apocalypse, who manipulated Jerome's psyche and attempted to siphon their powers using a specialized machine. 

The plant backfired when the machine caused Infinity Ink to vanish. Steel, arriving too late, swore to find his niece. The team later reappeared, imprisoned in the Terror Titans compound. The rescue was orchestrated with the help of Miss Martian, but the reunion was short-lived. The trauma of their experiences and instability of their abilities left the team scattered once more, their futures uncertain in the wake of a legacy marked by tragedy and reinvention. 

And that's the team's history. For my Infinity Ink roster, I'm sticking with the classic roster composed of legacy characters to the Justice Society of America. Starting with a former member of the JSA, the Star-Spangled Kid, aka Skyman, who is the leader of the team for most of its history, and whose cosmic converter belt grants him flight, energy projection, and enhanced physicals. Joining him will be Silver Scarab, the son of Hawkman and Hawkwomen, whose Anthemetal Armor also grants him flight, energy projection, and enhanced physicals. Silver Scarab's wife, the Amazon known as Fury, will also be on the team along with the twins Jade and Obsidian, who can create constructs from light and shadow, respectively, among other things. Adam Smasher, who is known as Nuclon while on the Infinity Ink team, and the second Wildcat, whose agility and retractable claws make her a fiercer fighter than her predecessor, will also be on this team. So to reiterate, my roster will include Skyman, Silver Scarab, Fury, Jade, Obsidian, Adam Smasher, and Wildcat. 

So the character of Fury we've actually seen in live action in the Sandman television series on Netflix, right? 

Yes, she was Hector Hall's wife, Lita Hall. 

The one who was like dreaming about him and then like she got pregnant? Yeah, yep, that's correct. That actually happened in the comics as well. Well, at least one of these characters has got a live action rendition. 

Well, a lot of the Infinity Ink members have. 

I'm not talking about Stargirl, no one watched that show. Although, I don't know how many more people watch Sandman, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. You never did. 

Well, now that we've got the team's histories and 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 our speculation, but it's fun to imagine how the fight could play out. Agent 9K, 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. 

Alright then, let's get into it. Infinity Inc and New Warriors meet on the battlefield, which team goes first? 

I'm going to say Night Thrasher is going to lead the New Warriors into battle, riding on his skateboard, his Jeb Howard skateboard, and he's going to do this like badass 360 spin kickflip as he peppers the Infinity Inc team with a bunch of sleeping gas capsules. So extreme, so badass, and most if not all of Infinity Inc is knocked out and they're just getting the shit stomped out of them by the New Warriors. 

Except that, you know, when Night Thrasher is in the air doing this so extreme badass skateboard trick, before he even fires any capsules, he's going to get snatched out of the air by a giant sized atom smasher who's just going to blink him right towards the horizon. Meanwhile, Jade is going to use her chlorokinesis to have these thorny rose vines sprout out from the ground to beneath the New Warriors and just trap them in place. 

Okay, if Pokemon has taught me anything though, it's that Fire Beats Plant. So Firestar, she's going to get her team out of this mess by just burning away all the vines using focused microwave beams, but Nova, he doesn't even need her to do that actually, he's just going to bust out of the vines himself and he's going to shoot atom smasher with the Nova Force Blast that's so powerful that it's going to send atom smasher to the horizon in the other direction. What? So like you just see this 100 foot tall giant man like flailing through the air until he's out of sight. 

Wow, okay. Well, Skyman, the team's leader, noticed how Firestar is helping her team. So he's going to take to the sky and blast her with these stellar energy force beams that's going to knock her to the ground. Meanwhile, Silver Scarab is going to do the same thing to Speedball, but he's going to blast him with a solar energy beam that's going to burn him. 

Well, okay, so I'm going to say that Speedball is going to save Firestar from Skyman's Force Blast by leaping in the way and redirecting the blast back at Skyman using his kinetic field. 

So Skyman just knocks himself out of the sky and since Silver Scarab was aiming his solar beam at Speedball, Firestar is going to return the favor by stepping in front of him and absorbing the heat radiation. So they protected each other, right? Defensive teamwork. They're going to high five and everything. 

Okay, you know, Skyman, he falls to the ground, but he's tough. So, you know, he'll recover. Wildcat, meanwhile, is going to take the fight to Squirrel Girl, landing this combo of slashes and kicks against her while shredding any squirrels that get near her with her attractable claws. Geez, why the squirrels, man? Fuck squirrels, bro. 

Well, Squirrel Girl has her own claws, just like Wildcat. So Squirrel Girl holds her own for a bit, going claw to claw. I won't say she's as talented of a fighter as Wildcat, but I think what she lacks in combat training, she makes up in her speaking skills, right? So she talks to Wildcat and gets her to hesitate in her use of violence for just the slightest second, we'll say. And that's when Squirrel Girl just straight up chomps down on Wildcat's fist with her giant front teeth and totally rendering one of Wildcat's hands useless. And while Wildcat's like, oh shit, my hand, that's when she's overrun by a squirrel stampede and she's basically chewed to bits. 

Well, except the obsidian sees the stampede coming, so he just blacks out the entire environment. So the squirrels can't see anything and they don't know what they're doing. But Wildcat can see in the dark. So that's when she lands a single devastating knockout uppercut right to Squirrel Girl's face, just shattering those buck teeth right in her mouth. And you know what the squirrel's being affected by the nightmarish shadow land energy that obsidian has them trapped in, they're gonna turn on Squirrel Girl and they're gonna devour her in the confusion. 

Now you can't do that. It's Squirrel Girl. She's the unbeatable Squirrel Girl. 

I looks like she is in fact beautiful because that's just what happened. She's out. 

Okay, well, you know who else could see in the dark? The marita, right? So she goes over to obsidian, slaps him down to the ground, which will turn the lights back on on the battlefield, essentially. And she's gonna lift obsidian into the air by his ankle and spin him around and just hurl him into Jade, which sends them both tumbling across the ground. 

No, I mean Jade, you know, she'll create a green energy construct of like a giant pillow to soften their landing. And Fury, meanwhile, she's gonna charge towards Namorita and tackle her out of the air once the lights turn back on. 

And the two of them are gonna trade blows. So it's Amazon versus Atlantean. But I'm gonna say with Fury's superior Amazonian fight training, she's gonna be able to rip off Namorita's ankle wings. 

I don't think that Amazonian training would be superior to Atlantean training. Oh, it is. But if Fury's going for Namorita's ankles, even if she's successful in ripping them off, you know, looking down like that, she's gonna miss Namorita's elbow that comes right down on her head. That's gonna stun her. And you know, as she's in her days, Nova flies by like a cannon ball, just completely knocking Fury out with a supersonic punch. So yeah, either Fury's in a coma, or she's just a goner. And either way, she's out of this match. 

Well, that's gonna piss off Silver Scarab, you know, who probably saw his wife get taken out. So he's gonna fly after Nova, just bombarding him with solar energy beams. And while Nova is distracted by those, that's when Adam Smasher's hand just comes out of nowhere, slapping Nova down to the ground and knocking him out. 

When did Adam Smasher get back into this fight after being blasted to the horizon? 

Well, he's been leaping back from there, which Silver Scarab noticed. And he intentionally directed Nova in Adam Smasher's direction while distracting him. He's smart like that. 

Okay, well, it's gonna take more than that to take out Nova, I think, just getting slammed to the ground. But Justice is gonna telekinetically lift Adam Smasher's hand off of Nova. And then he's gonna force Adam Smasher to make a fist and punch himself right in the gonads. It's gonna make him fall over in pain, and he's gonna feel sick and puke in his mask. 

And he's gonna be out of commission for a bit, just reeling. Meanwhile, Wildcat, she's gonna try to hit Speedball, but like he keeps absorbing the kinetic energy from all of her punches that just bounced right off of him. And then with all this kinetic energy stored up, he's gonna run into her and slam into her, just bouncing her across the battlefield until she's like a mile away. And that's probably gonna knock her out, I would assume. But either way, she's out of this match, because she's just too far to easily get back regardless. 

Okay, but as Speedball is running around, zipping through the environment, that's when he's suddenly gonna fall into Adam Smasher's giant shadow, thanks to Obsidian. And so Speedball is now in the Shadowlands, where he's being tormented by his worst nightmares. So he's out of the match as well. 

Oh, that wasn't a good ending for him. Okay. But by this point, Night Thrasher has parachuted back into the match, back from when he got thrown into the horizon. And as he's gliding over Adam Smasher, he's just gonna unload a few packs of Incendiary napalm that's just gonna burn Adam Smasher alive. 

So he's out. And then Night Thrasher lands back on the ground, back on a skateboard, actually, all extreme sports like, and he's gonna pull out his emergency submachine gun and just unload all of his bullets into Jade. 

Nah, force field. And actually, in addition to the force field, she's gonna create a ramp that's gonna cause Night Thrasher to launch into the air on a skateboard, just out of control, Williams flailing, and he's gonna accidentally land on his neck, snapping his spine, and he's dead. 

That is not a cool way to go out. That's not extreme. Well, while that's happening, Firestar is gonna beam Skyman with radiation that's just gonna fry the circuitry of his belt, and it's gonna cook him from the inside out so that he just explodes like a baked potato in a microwave. He's done so. 

Damn. Okay. Well, while that happened, Silver Scarab, he's gonna be cooking Namorita by bombarding her with solar beams that are gonna dehydrate her like really quick and just cause her body to shrivel into a dry husk. So she's out as well. Okay. 

Well, I have Justice left. He's going to telekinetically remove Silver Scarab's armor from his body, and then he's gonna compress all that metal into this antmetal circular shield, kind of like Captain America shield, and he's gonna hurl it through Silver Scarab, just cleaving him into that shield. 

What the heck? Is he like Magneto? This is really strong metal. 

Now, he's telekinetic. He's a strong telekinetic. 

Okay, whatever. I have Jade and Obsidian left. So as this metal disc is flying around, Obsidian, he's gonna open up a shadow portal in its flight path, and the other opening is gonna be right behind Justice so that disc is just gonna straight up decapitate him. Oh, geez. 

Well, killing Justice is gonna piss off Firestar, who's gonna like just burn with rage, and the radiation aura that surrounds her is gonna turn all fiery and white hot. So with that, she's gonna fly right through Obsidian, just burning right through his shadow form, since he's weak to light, and she's gonna dissipate him from within the shadow lens. 

Oh, damn. That was a good move. But I mean, you think Firestar was pissed at Justice's death? Like Obsidian is Jade's twin brother, so Jade is gonna trap Firestar in this vacuum chamber, made of solid green energy, and that's gonna quickly remove all of the air around her, and cause Firestar to suffocate and die. 

All right, so who's left? Okay, so it's really just down to Nova and Jade at this point, and we all know that Nova could take a green lantern, so he's just gonna blast Jade with a Nova Force beam that's so strong it could punch a hole in the entire planet. So she's just gone. 

Well, I mean, except that Nova can't hit what he can't see, you know, because Jade can use her magical light-based power to band the light around her, making her invisible to Nova. So, well, Nova's looking around for her. That's when Jade's gonna channel the full power of the star heart into this massive, mystical, light-hot energy beam that's gonna push Nova's force field to the limit, and once he's drained, Jade's just gonna pull his body apart with green energy tendrils. Match over. 

Jade's not that powerful. She can't overwhelm the Nova Force. 

Yeah, she is. Like, she doesn't need a green lantern ring or like a power battery or anything like that. She's a direct conduit to the mystical star heart energy. Like, she even wants to be Cain, the star heart. I don't know what the star heart is. Well, it's essentially concentrated chaos magic from throughout the universe. It's more powerful than the Nova Force. 

That's all you need to know. You're smoking acid right now if you think the star heart is more powerful than the Nova Force. What? 

Smoking acid? Can you do that? I don't know. 

Yeah, you just put all the papers into like a smoking paper and then you roll it up and then you smoke it and then you say crazy things just like you did. 

I don't know. I guess maybe we'll leave it there. Either Nova blasts Jade into oblivion or she turns invisible and blasts him into oblivion, essentially. 

Let's go ahead and put the team's statistics into our simulator and come back with a winner. Ageninke hit it. 

This is a damn good matchup. I had a lot of fun with this one, both with the speculation and seeing just how the stats lined up between all the characters. Of course, Nova was the most powerful character out of either team. I had the most powerful character. Jonathan, you had the least powerful character in Wildcat. 

Yeah, which is kind of depressing. My most powerful character is actually Obsidian, which kind of makes sense to me because he was able to take on the entire JSA like solo. 

Yeah, my weakest character was actually Firestar, which was surprising considering just how powerful she is. But statistically, she wasn't that impressive because other than in microwave radiation, she didn't have a whole lot going for her. Looking at the stat categories, it looks like the biggest discrepancy between the two teams was in the category of strength. And Infinity Inc had the big advantage there. 

Yeah, basically all of my guys, except for Wildcat, had enhanced strength with Adam Smasher actually being my strongest. 

Yeah, and you guys also had the advantage in durability and versatility because my guys weren't actually that versatile at all. I would only say that Night Thrasher had a lot of versatility. 

Night Thrasher was actually way more impressive statistically than I would have thought. 

Oh, for sure. I mean, you know, like he's fast on his skateboard. He has really good armor. He has a whole lot of weapons, including a whole lot of explosives that could do some pretty decent damage. And he's pretty damn smart. 

He was also the best fighter on your team. Right, right, right, right. 

So with all that said, Jonathan, who do you think is winning this match? 

I'm worried, but I got a root for Infinity Inc. I know you have the most powerful character, but I have to believe that my team is more well rounded. Our Instagram poll takers do not agree with me. They voted in favor of the new Warriors by 56%, which I don't know. Both teams are pretty obscure. I'm not entirely sure why new Warriors won out because our Instagram followers are smart. 

That's why. But let's get the official results. A g9k, the results, please. Hey, you are, sir. Yeah. The winner between Infinity Inc. And the new Warriors is Infinity Inc. Yes. What the hell is happening here? New Warriors, man. How did they lose? I mean, I guess it was only by a few percentage points. Infinity Inc. won 51% even of all of their matches, whereas the new Warriors won 49% even. 

Nice. Not going to lie. I am surprised. Like I was hoping that Infinity Inc. was going to win. I did not actually expect it to happen, though, especially considering it looks like Nova's win rate was a whopping 87.6%. That's insane. 

Yeah. He won most of his matches. Really. None of my guys had a bad win rate. Even my weakest characters still won about a third of It 

really looks like Jade and Obsidian carried my team for the most part. Both of them had really high win percentages, though I also had the lowest win percentage with Wildcat. She only won 18.3% of her matches. Everyone else was about middle of the road around 50%. 

Well, the new Warriors may have lost, but they are still the better team because they have that cool factor. Infinity Inc. is probably the least cool superhero team I have ever seen or heard of. What the hell are you talking about? They have no style, no thematic through line, none of the things that make a team cool. 

So how does new Warriors have a stronger thematic through line than a legacy team like Infinity Inc.? 

Well, look at Night Thrasher. Total badass. Nova. Total badass. Speedball. Really awesome. Same thing with Justice Firestar and Namerita. They're all like the rock stars of the Marvel Universe. So while we may not have won this match, at least we have that going for us. Again, CAT scan, bro. CAT scan. That does it for this duel, guys. AJ9K, help close this out. 

Our next episode is going to be another duel episode, just an individual duel between Elongated and Medusa. We have a guy who can stretch his body versus a chick who can stretch her hair. So it's going to be really stretchy and a lot of fun. 

Yeah, I can't wait. That does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Snorosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin 

Belcom, Mickey Muthangian, Brandon Essargard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatyn, Austin Wyselowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick Obonto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, Mike Williams, Oscar Galvez, and Paul Graves for helping make this podcast possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers. 

New warriors come out to play.