Mary Marvel vs Hercules

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

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

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

And in this episode we're going to find out who would win in a fight between the Greek God-powered characters of Mary Marvel and Hercules. You know, Hercules is not Greek God-powered, he is the Greek God of Strength in Marvel. 

Oh interesting, I didn't realize he was promoted above Demi-God. Yeah, that is correct. I do have to say though that even with his godhood, I think this is a mismatch, probably as big of a one that was Rey vs. Havoc. Because Mary Marvel has all of the powers and Hercules is just some strong dude. 

So... Isn't it going to be funny when Hercules beats the shit out of Mary Marvel and then you're going to be like, oh I was so stupid for thinking this is a mismatch? No, I don't think that'll be funny. 

It'll be funny when Hercules wins. But before we get into that duel matchup guys, where we input their stats and run simulations to see who would win in a fight, we're going to break down the latest comic book movie news this past week, of which there was quite a bit because a lot of studios had their upfront presentations to potential advertisers. So in addition to the Superman official trailer, which sure, yeah that came out last week, we got the Iron Heart official trailer last week guys, hell yeah. We also got the teaser for the upcoming Spider-Nor television show starring Nicholas Cage, and we also learned that Kristen Ritter will be returning as Jessica Jones in the next season of Daredevil Born Again. A lot of great Marvel news and some rinky-dink DC news, but excited to get into it. 

You doing this just tells me how buttery you are, how good the Superman trailer was. You know it and you're hard to be true. 

As always guys, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. 

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

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Guys, be sure to tune into the other shows on the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including the console combat podcast where hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they speculated on who would win in a fight between Joel Miller from The Last of Us versus Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil. That's going to be a good one. 

Over on the Max Destruction podcast, hosts Scotty and Gilly, pit your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. They're on a brief season break, but they will be returning this June. 

On the Senjoh  World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. On Thursday, Zach is going to reveal who would win in a fight between Sunraku from Shingra La Frontier versus Kirito from Sword Art Online. He's finally feeling better guys, he got the cast off, so we're glad that he's back with us. 

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 that we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. 

Last week we asked you guys, cast any Saturday Night Live actor as a Marvel or DC superhero, who would you cast and why? And this is coming off of the news that Tim Meadows is going to have a role in the upcoming Peacemaker season 2. 

We got quite a number of answers, so we're going to break down this week's 3 honorable mentions before revealing the No Prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to... by Dear Bangura and Cyrus Moore. They both gave the same answer so they're sharing an honorable mention. They said... 

I think it'd be pretty interesting. 

Yeah, Andy Sandberg is one of the all-time Saturday Night Live greats in my opinion. I love the Lonely Island and what they did with their digital shorts. I think he would totally kill it as Booster Gold. He may not have the physique to play a superhero, but I don't think you really need that when you're playing a comedic character like Booster Gold who has this high-tech weaponry. It could work. It could totally work. And you know what? Have your Metacony play Ted Corden, Blue Beetle. 

I could see that working. I could also see Jason Sudeikis in the role of Ted Corden, Blue Beetle, since he's been a fancast as that character for a while. But you know, both Jason Sudeikis and Andy Sandberg were on SNL at the same time. 

You're talking about Andy Sandberg's physique, but he actually had a pretty good physique in the movie Popstar and in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I think Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a great show. He really proved himself as a leading man for a sitcom series like that. And since we know that Booster Gold is going to be a TV show set in the DCU, I think Andy Sandberg could totally carry that. He'd be fantastic. 

Great answer by Dyr and Cyrus. Our next honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon. Who said? 

What's our dynamic news? Travis here. Shout out to Manevele Twin. So my answer would be Kenan Thompson as Night Thrasher. I think he would be an interesting character for him to play, especially if you go to comedic route with him. Kind of like making him Marvel's equivalent of kickass or vigilante from Peacemaker. I think Kenan Thompson could pull it off and you know, you can maybe have him like a season two of She-Hulk or something as like this goofy vigilante or something being sued. 

I love this idea. At first I wasn't quite sold on the idea of Kenan Thompson playing a superhero when I was first listening to Travis's answer. But then when he pitched the idea of making it kind of like kickass or vigilante from Peacemaker, I was instantly sold. I was like, that's exactly how Kenan should approach this character of Night Thrasher, who of course is one of the founding members of the new Warriors team for Marvel. 

Yeah, I don't know much about Night Thrasher. Does he have any powers? 

No, he's like a master martial artist. He's a street vigilante in the true sense. 

Okay, yeah, that sounds perfect then. Night Thrasher will be a member of your team in our upcoming Infinity, Inc. vs. New Warriors team duel episode, which spoiler alert is going to be our next episode. So look forward to that. Great answer, Travis. Our final honorable mention goes to Mike Williams. Who said? 

Hi guys, Mike Williams here. I don't necessarily see anyone I would cast as a hero, but I see David Spade. I think he would make a decent arcade. The villain out of Marvel who's always taunting the X-Men and Spider-Man. Well, that's my take. As always, make mine Marvel. Thanks. 

We got a lot of great answers for this particular no prize, but this is one of the only answers where as soon as I heard it, I really couldn't imagine anyone else in the role. If Arcade ever makes live action appearance in the MCU as a villain for the X-Men or maybe like in a special presentation since I couldn't see him really holding his own film as a villain, they would have to cast David Spade in my opinion, because he would be so perfect for that. 

Yeah, when I think of Arcade, he definitely has the voice at the very least of David Spade. 

Yeah, I guess if they went in animated route, but I think he also has the look minus the red hair. They would just have to dye David Spade's hair red. But speaking of a lot of great answers, we want to give a huge shout out to a bunch of people who called in this past week. You guys came out of the woodwork and we truly appreciate it. So shout out to Brian Rochester, who said that Chris Catan should play Slapstick. I don't know if the MCU is ready for a character like Slapstick just yet, but Chris Catan could totally do the voice for the character because I think you'd have to go animated for that. Carter Pitts said Andy Sandbrook should play Trickster, the Flash villain. Colby Hinches cast a new gods film with people like Mikey Day as Mr. 

Miracle and Billy Crystal as Oberon. Jose Marcial said John Mulaney should play Snowflame as a cocaine joke. Although I don't think John Mulaney was ever part of the cast officially. He was just a writer at SNL. Cat Stevenson cast the Avengers with SNL characters. Lorenzo Valdez said Eddie Murphy should play Gus Gorman, who was the character that Richard Pryor played in Superman 3. 

Travis Bailey, who gave a shout out to his good twin Travis Herndon, said that Damon Waynes should bring his blank man character to either the Marvel or DC Universe. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Paul Graves, who said... 

I'm really wishing that I cut that last part out of his message. 

I can't censor the truth. Now, Martin Short has to be one of my favorite SNL alums of all time. He and Steve Martin are one of the greatest all time comedy duos ever. And I could totally see Martin Short playing a character to perfection like Mr. Misk Spitalik. 

Yeah, this answer really stood out to me as well because once I heard it, I really couldn't imagine anyone else in the role. Now, of course, I think it was Gilbert Gottfried who voiced the character in the Superman cartoon series from the 90s. And he would have been a great Mr. Misk Spitalik too. But Martin Short, I think, has the look and the personality, I think, to tackle a character like that. 

Yeah, and despite him being older, he still has quite a bit of physicality to him too. Oh, for sure. The guy can move around. He's very spry. Great answer, Paul. You win this week's No Prize. 

If you, the listener, want to shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. But now that that's done, on to the news. OK, so last week Warner Brothers finally gave us the first official trailer for Superman, James Gunn's first DCU film that's hitting theaters in mid July. Now, we've had a teaser trailer, which I thought was really good and an extended version of that. But I feel like this is the first trailer we've seen where we finally get to see David Corn Sweat's acting approach to the character. The trailer starts off with Clark Kent and Lois Lane. 

I think in Lois' apartment, maybe their shared apartment, they're clearly a couple. But she gets to interview him for the first time as Superman, considering he did something fairly controversial and that he stopped a war abroad to help save lives. And Rachel Brosnahan, as Lois Lane, totally kills it as a reporter. 

You know, she definitely asks Clark the tough questions enough for him to get fairly upset. But it's also kind of cool just to see how much character David Corn Sweat is going to bring to the character of Clark. Just in contrast, it made me feel like Henry Cavill's past performance was a little bit more muted and maybe a little bit more generic. Like this Superman seems much more like a real person. 

Yeah, it was a really interesting start to the trailer. It went places I didn't think it was going to go, but it seems like the film is going to speak to, you know, the larger issue of superhero ethics and the role of Superman within modern society, which is not something any of the other Superman films have really done. 

Well, I think Zack Snyder actually tried to approach ethics in his films. But just the way this interview was set up, I feel like it's going to be a little bit more successful in having the audience ponder these questions. 

I didn't really like the editorializing that Lois Lane kind of did with her questions. It seemed just a little bit antagonistic, but I guess that's kind of who Lois Lane is. 

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, it looks like a lot of people are antagonistic towards Superman in this trailer, including the US military, including Lex Luthor, who has sided with the engineer apparently to invade the fortress of solitude, which I didn't love seeing that in this trailer. I think I figured that it was going to happen, but this is going to be the third or fourth movie now where Lex Luthor has broken into the fortress. 

Oh, yeah, there was Superman 2 famously and also Superman Returns with Kevin Spacey's version of Lex Luthor. But Nicholas Holt plays a pretty damn good Lex Luthor, I think. 

Yeah, just watching Kim perform, I have to feel like his acting is coming from a very real place of him just missing out on the role of Superman because he was next in line after David Cornswet to get the role. So he's probably like, fucking David Cornswet. 

The engineer looks interesting. She's made up entirely of like nanobots and can transform her limbs and stuff into deadly weapons. She kind of comes across as like the Faiora of this movie. But we also get to see like Miss Tess Mocker, like doing a selfie with Superman fighting a monster in the background. We get to see a lot of supporting cast, including Ma and Pod Kent. Actually, Pod Kent, Jonathan Kent get some voiceover in this trailer, which is kind of cool. They're very, very like Kansas farm couple. Like more so, I feel like than any other depiction of them that we've seen on screen. 

For sure. Yeah, I liked how human they were presented where Ma Kent was like, I cleaned your boots. I'll go get them. 

It was funny. Of course, we also get to see the Justice League in this trailer with Green Lantern, Hawk Girl, Mr. Terrific. And we get to see them display some of their powers like Green Lantern kind of flicking some soldiers with a giant green hand. And we also get to see Metamorpho, who looks like is caged with Superman in this like glass prison. And he's keeping him there by turning his hand into Kryptonite, which is pretty wild. 

Yeah, Metamorpho is a good guy, though. So Lex Luthor must be manipulating him in order to create that Kryptonite. 

Yeah, it kind of looks that way. Maybe by the end of this, Metamorpho will join the Justice League. 

We also get to see Ultraman in this trailer. 

I think that's Ultraman. People keep calling him Ultraman. I'm still not 100 percent sure if that's the actual Ultraman, you know, from Earth 3 or if that's like Lex's battle suit or what it is. No idea. There's still a lot to the story that I feel like we don't know anything about yet. 

Well, speaking of battle suits, Superman fights another guy wearing a like juggernaut almost ask battle suit in this trailer. 

Yeah, one that has heat vision. Yeah. Is that Lex Luthor's battle suit? Is it someone else's? No idea. 

But he also fights a Kaiju. I feel like Superman is just going up against everybody in this movie. 

Oh, yeah. Yeah, this movie is going to be all over the place, I feel like, which I'm kind of concerned about, but we'll see how James Gunn handles it. I didn't love the way the trailer ended with the end joke with, oh, you have a dog and then there's crypto. It's cute, but it's also Marvel-esque to me. Like, I don't need that kind of end stinger joke in my DC trailers. 

Well, DC is just trying to copy a successful formula, and that is to say, you know, they're ripping off Marvel. 

Just give me more epicness. All right. I don't need the jokes. I need the epicness. And it looks like this movie is going to be pretty epic. It comes out in July 11th. Can't wait to see it. Super stoked. Way more stoked for this than some shit show like Iron Heart is probably going to be. Why are you dissing on Iron Heart? Because they released the trailer the same day that Warner Brothers released the Superman trailer, knowing that it was going to just get buried. Like, who does that? 

All I know is that it looks like people are hyped for the Iron Heart trailer, and I would consider myself one of them. But let's talk about it. So the trailer starts off really hammering home that the series is executive produced by Ryan Coogler, who, of course, directed the Black Panther films. With the latter film in the series actually debuting the character of Riri Williams, where she goes to Wakanda and builds the Iron Heart suit of armor. 

Of course, she doesn't get to take it back with her. So this Iron Heart series, I think, is her trying to rebuild and improve upon her designs. She goes into this elevator in the trailer where it suddenly starts filling up with gas. And we hear from the hood who's played by Anthony Ramos that this is an interview pitch to see if she can get out of this deadly trap. The way she gets out of it is a little strange because instead of disarming the gas bomb and putting on the gas mask, she, I guess, stops the elevator. Man handles one of the handles off of the side of the elevator and then uses it as leverage to pry open the elevator door, which seemed a little low-tech from my perspective. 

You would think that she would do something a little bit more crazy, like, I don't know, turn the elevator into a jet that shoots out of the building or something. I don't know. That's just off the top of my head. I don't know if that's a good example. But manhandling the doors open was not that impressive to me in terms of a tech solution. 

Yeah, it literally wasn't a tech solution unless you're going back to caveman tech. 

But they called her a genius for her actions there. I guess she passes her interview by performing these actions. It did take some out-of-the-box thinking, which can definitely be considered genius inventive thinking. You know, she's going to MIT. We see her working on New Iron Man armor. She says she wants to build something iconic, which was a little bit of a strange adjective to me because I think to be iconic, you know, you're building something that is a symbol, but it also implies a sort of originality. But we know that the Iron Heart armor is heavily inspired by the Iron Man armor. 

I thought the same exact thing. To me, an icon is set apart from everything else and really is a legacy character for Iron Man. 

Right, yeah. She takes on Tony Stark's legacy and I hope they address that in this series. I think to not bring up Tony Stark at all would be a mistake. And what was really interesting is that in the comic books, Tony Stark's consciousness depicted as an AI hologram really served as a mentor for Riri as she was building the suit of armor. 

They kind of became like colleagues in a sense in that way, which was really nice. I think that's what fans want and expect from this series. And my concern is that they're not going to address Tony Stark's legacy at all. I mean, eventually Riri becomes her own character, but we don't want to lose sight of that legacy, I think. From the previous look at this show that we got, I think last year at D23, we learned that the series is taking on kind of like a set it off type plot where Riri temporarily becomes a thief in order to get the money to fund her work, building the Iron Heart armor. 

Therefore, she partners with Parker Robbins, a.k .a. the hood. Who seems pretty cool in this trailer too? We see that he can bend his magic bullets like he can in the comic books. The source of his powers are magic based in nature. 

He gets the hood from Mephisto and rumors are that Mephisto will be making an appearance in this series, which is interesting because we'll get that magic versus technology angle here. There was one shot that I thought was pretty cool, if not a bit derivative, where it looks like Riri is going to get run over by a semi truck and the armor comes to save her. And then she does like a superhero landing and punches the truck over her. We've seen that a lot in these superhero shows. 

So it wasn't that original to see it again. I'm really hoping that they take this series in a direction to make it worth the investment that Marvel Studios has put into it. Because I don't know if there's a whole lot of demand for this series, but if it's good, then I don't think people will care that there wasn't a lot of demand. 

Very true. And you've mentioned the investment that Marvel has put into this and it does look like they put quite a bit of money. The show looks really good, I would say. I don't mean just the special effects, but just the cinematography alone. 

Yeah, it's very cinematic. The end stinger after the title card, we see Riri go into some guy's bunker. The character is Joe McGillicuddy, who is an original character to this series. 

I don't remember that name from the comic books. And I didn't even know that Alden Ehrenreich was going to be in this show. So it was pretty interesting that he shows up. 

Yeah, I almost wonder if he's like a stand in for Tony Stark as that kind of mentor type figure. Maybe. 

He does have like guided missiles in his bunker or something like that. So he might be some kind of weapons designer like Tony Stark was. We'll see. The show comes out in about a month. The first three episodes are going to launch on June 24th on Disney Plus. And then we're going to get the remaining three episodes in the weeks after that. It is surprising that they're debuting the show with like the first half of the entire season. I'm really looking forward to the show. I hope it's good. All I know is that the trailer was better than the Superman trailer. 

And all I know is that you know that you are lying to yourself. But that brings us to our question of the week. Who had the better official trailer last week? Superman or Ironheart? 

Obviously the answer is Ironheart, Team Marvel, step up, call in with your answer. Let us know why Superman is no good. 

Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long. And don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before May 24th. 

Speaking of Marvel trailers, we got the first official teaser for Spider Noir, which is a series that's going to debut on Amazon Prime and stars Nicholas Cage as Spider-Man. The Noir version of Spider-Man as he was depicted in the Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse animated movie. 

Now it's strange is that this hasn't officially been released by Amazon. Like it's not under official YouTube channel or anything like that, which I thought was strange. 

Yeah, the trailer was debuted during their upfront presentation. And I don't know if it was supposed to be publicly released, although the version that some channels have put out looks pretty official. It's pretty damn cool looking. It's giving Sin City vibes. 

Oh, yeah. That's the first thing I thought when I saw this and I was instantly sold. Like these 30 seconds to me are way better than the entire Iron Heart trailer. 

In the trailer, we hear a guy talking about how this version of New York, I think it is, needs a hero. And we hear Nick Cage say, well, I hope it finds one. There's a spider that crawls by his foot and it looks like we see his spider sense tingling at one point. It also crawls on his hand and we see him beat the shit out of some bad guys. The camera work is really damn interesting, especially for a noir project like this, because the camera is very dynamic. We see Spider-Man flipping on walls and sliding across the floor. And there's one part where he's hiding behind a bad guy and he clicks his goggles on, which glow kind of like headlamps, which I think makes for a really damn cool visual. 

Yeah, it looks badass. And we really haven't seen this kind of style of filmmaking since Sin City and Frank Miller's The Spirit, although I never really watched that. That was a horrible movie. 

I've heard. But I mean, it looks really cool. So I'm glad to see that it's being used once again for this because this feels like it's the perfect project for that style. 

It kind of looks like a great mix of Spider-Man and Batman. I'm actually surprised that DC has never thought to produce a noir series with Batman like this. 

Well, Amazon Prime actually does a noir style version of Batman already in Batman Caped Crusader, the animated series produced by Bruce Tim. If they ever did that in live action, I think they could totally do a similar style to this. 

Absolutely, yeah. That would be cool. I think one of the coolest things about this teaser was the title card for Spider-Nor. I really like the font that they chose. It's very noir looking. 

Yeah, it's like an art deco kind of style, but it's wonky. 

Yeah, the font weight is shifted over. That gives us some interesting character. And it's all set in shadow, too. It's really cool looking, real atmospheric. We learned that the show is coming next year in 2026. So I'm really looking forward to that. Speaking of the upfront presentations by Studios, we learned this past week from Marvel that Kristen Ritter will be joining the cast of Daredevil Born Again Season 2, reprising her role as Jessica Jones. Which means that since Daredevil Born Again took on the continuity of the Netflix Daredevil series and that version of Daredevil and Jessica Jones teamed up in The Defenders, that means that the Jessica Jones series is also part of the MCU continuity and we'll get to see that character return with all of that established backstory. So these characters won't be meeting each other for the first time in season 2. They'll be meeting again and maybe that'll even lead to a reformation of The Defenders. But hopefully without Finn Jones. Or he could come back and pass on the mantle of Iron Fist onto a character like Lin Lee, the Sword Master, or something like that and establish that Iron Fist legacy. I think that would be a cool way to use him if he came back. But it would make sense for some heroes to show up in season 2 since we know that at the end of season 1, Daredevil is putting together basically a team to go up against the Kingpin, who's the mayor of New York. 

Yeah, I have trouble seeing how Kingpin is going to stand a chance against a group of superpowered vigilantes like Jessica Jones and The Other Defenders, unless Kingpin himself starts to hire out superpowered individuals, which will be pretty cool. 

That would be pretty cool. I'd like to see that. There's a lot of speculation to be had here. I really hope they bring back Mike Coulter as Luke Cage and then bring on some other street heroes like Moon Knight or something like that. 

Bring in Oscar Isaac and stuff like that. Who knows? The sky's the limit. If Kristen Ritter is coming back as Jessica Jones, who knows who else we might see. We don't know the specific date, but it's been said that the season is going to debut in March of 2026, so a year after the first season came out. If you guys listen to this show a lot, you'll know that we rated Daredevil born again season 1, 4 stars out of 5, so I'm really looking forward to season 2. 

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But that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and move into our main event, where we find out who would win in a fight between the Greek God-powered characters of Mary Marvel and Hercules. Alright, Mary Marvel vs. Hercules. Now, we decided to do this episode because Hercules is a big-time Avengers character in the comic books. He's the most known for being a part of that team, as well as the champions. But, you know, he's a prominent Marvel character who's fought alongside of a lot of other Marvel characters. 

So we wanted to give him his due. He did make an appearance at the end of the Thor 11 Thunder movie played by Brett Goldstein. Who knows if we're going to see that guy again? But I really hope we do because he's an awesome character, and all he knows is that he's going to beat the crap out of Mary Marvel. 

People say this. I don't know why they're smoking crack. 

Because there's no way that's happening. People? What people? Everyone who's claiming that Hercules is going to beat Mary Marvel. He's strong, and that's it. I'm pretty sure. I've seen the Disney movie. That's all he does. 

Now, Mary Marvel, of course, is the sister of Shazam, initially his twin sister, and later on his adoptive sister. But we have seen her on screen, just like Hercules, of course, played by Grace Caroline Curry in the Shazam films. 

If she's such a great DC character, then why is she named after Marvel? 

Because the original Captain Marvel did not belong to Marvel, it belonged to Fawcett Comics, who was bought by DC. Mary Marvel has gone through a few name changes throughout the years, especially since the new 52 relaunch of DC continuity, like Lady Shazam. But they didn't quite stick. 

It's because everybody knows that Marvel's better. I'm just going to say that. And Mary Marvel's going to learn that today. But to explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient dual simulator, Alfred Jarvis 9000. AJ9K tell our listeners how you go about determining your winner in our dual matchups. 

There are 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 1000 simulations provide a percentage of wins for each character. The contestant with the higher percentage is declared the victor as they have a higher probability to win any given battle. In an equitable pairing, neither character should win 100% of the matches. The comic book stories have shown that there's even a way for Batman to defeat Superman, so the confidence rate of my method falls in line with the precedents that have been established in the source material. My mathematical simulations are without subjectivity or bias. Feats are not the sole consideration, nor are fan votes tabulated for determination of the winner. 

Thanks, A.J .9K! Before we run the simulations though, we'd like to break down each character's histories and abilities before improvising a scenario on how we imagine one of the 1000 simulations would play out beat for beat. And it's my turn to go first with the DC characters' backstory, so let me tell you all about Mary Marvel. Now, Mary Batson was the twin sister of Billy Batson, born to archaeologists C.C. 

and Marilyn Batson. While Billy remained in the United States, Mary accompanied her parents on an archaeological expedition to Egypt, funded by the villainous scientist Thaddeus Savanna. There, Theo Adam murdered the elder Batson's and kidnapped Mary, leaving her in the care of his sister, Sarah Prim, back in America, where it was arranged for Mary to be illegally adopted by Nick and Nora Bromfield. Renamed Mary Bromfield, she grew up in a wealthy, idealic environment unaware of her true origins, though she was haunted by reoccurring dreams of a brother she had forgotten. Meanwhile, Billy grew up in foster care and on the streets before being granted the power of the wizard Shazam, allowing him to transform into the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel and better known simply as Shazam. 

You can learn more about him in our Shazam vs Black Bolt dual episode. Billy and the wizard searched for Mary for years without success, with Billy's only clue to her identity and whereabouts being her favorite toy, a tiger doll named Takitani that had been sent back from Egypt with the Batson's belongings. As luck would have it, Mary entered a regional spelling bee in Fawcett City, where Billy, now working for Wiz Radio, was the MC. After rescuing Mary from a kidnapping attempt as the hero Shazam, Billy noticed her resemblance to his sister and confirmed her identity through private investigation. The truth revealed Billy delivered the Takitani doll to Mary, who was again kidnapped by the same thugs. When Mary opened the package and saw the doll and the papers proving her identity, Takitani came to life and instructed her to speak the word Shazam to save her brother. 

Upon doing so, she was struck by magical lightning and transformed into the divinely powered hero. Mary defeated the Canepers and reunited with Billy, joining him as a member of the Marvel family under the name Mary Marvel. Mary fought alongside her brother Billy and his friend Freddy Freeman, the hero known as Captain Marvel Jr., against a variety of magical and superpowered threats in the universe known as Earth Five. After the multiverse collapsed into one universe following the crisis on Infinite Earths, Mary now shared her power with Billy and Freddy, resulting in a sometimes tense dynamic between the three since the balance of magical energy shifted depending on whoever invoked the magical word of Shazam. 

At one point, a disruption in the cosmic balance of magic prevented the marvels from reverting to their mortal forms, forcing them to journey to the Source Wall at the edge of the universe to repair the broken nature of magic itself. Mary later joined the Super Buddies, a team of former Justice Leaguers and participated in several adventures before traveling with Supergirl. Mary was killed by a cursed dagger in the Garden of Eden but was eventually resurrected by one of Supergirl's allies. Following the death of the wizard Shazam, Mary lost her powers, causing her to fall from the sky. 

Though she survived, she fell into a coma and was cared for by Freddy. Upon awakening, Mary was unable to access her powers. Ignoring warnings, she traveled to Gotham City and encountered Black Adam, who transferred his power to Mary, transforming her into a darker version of herself with a black costume and mystical power. 

You can learn more about Black Adam in our Black Adam vs. Apocalypse dual episode. Seeking guidance with her newfound power, Mary turned to Zatanna, Clarion the Witchboy, and finally Eclipse, who at the time was possessing Jean Maureen. Eclipse corrupted Mary and attempted to offer her to Darkseid as a concubine, though Mary rebelled and overpowered her. 

Realizing the corruption her new powers had caused, she rejected them, transferring the tainted lightning into Eclipse. Both women fell into the ocean, but Mary washed ashore on the Mosquera, where she helped expose the deception of Granny goodness, who had been impersonating the goddess Athena to manipulate the Amazons. You can learn more about Granny goodness in our Darkseid's Elite vs. Black Order team dual episode. After journeying through the multiverse with the challengers of the unknown, Mary eventually returned to Earth to confront Darkseid. Secumbing to temptation, she accepted the return of Black Adam's powers, adopting her black costume once again. Though ultimately freed from Darkseid's influence by Freddy, Mary's exposure to Dark magic had lasting consequences. After Darkseid's defeat, she sought to join Black Adam, informing a new Black Marvel family, but was rejected. 

Resolving to operate alone, Mary became a solo heroine for a time. Later, however, Black Adam enlisted Mary to join him and Isis in Seizing the Rock of Eternity, where they stripped Billy of his power. Mary forced Billy to say her name, transforming him into a corrupted Black Marvel. Together, Mary and Billy launched an assault on the Justice Society of America, only to be defeated when Black Adam turned against Isis. When the wizard Shazam resurrected, all four were stripped of their power. The wizard declared Mary and Billy unworthy and barred them from the Rock of Eternity. 

Homeless and powerless, the twins wandered the streets of Fawcett City. Mary was later tempted by the demon Blaze to kill Freddy in exchange for restored powers, but ultimately sided with her brother. Together, the three defeated Blaze and Freddy vowed to find a way to restore their abilities. In post-Flashpoint continuity, Mary was no longer Billy's twin sister, but an unrelated older foster sister named Mary Bromfield, the eldest foster child of Rosa and Victor Vazquez. Having run away from an abuse of home, she became a maternal figure among the other foster children, including Freddy Freeman, Darla Dudley, Pedro Pena, Eugene Choi, and later Billy Batson. When Billy was granted the power of Shazam, he later shared his abilities with the other foster siblings, transforming them into the family. Mary became a red-suited adult version of herself gifted with the living lightning. 

Alongside her family, she fought Black Adam and other magical threats across the Seven Magic Lands, hoping to restore her brothers from the King Kid's tyranny and battling Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil. In the aftermath of these events, Mary began noticing a disturbing shift in Billy's personality, who, unbeknownst to her, was being influenced by the Batman who laughs, who you could learn more about in our Batman Who Laughs vs. Cosmic Ghostwriter episode. Billy became erratic and aggressive, distancing himself from the rest of the Shazam family. After tracking him to a confrontation with the war god Ares, Mary attempted to help Billy by fighting at Ares' side against her adopted brother. Billy feigned remorse and tricked Mary into lowering her guard, using his corrupted magic to infect her with the same dark influence that had overtaken him. Mary transformed, adopting a more volatile demeanor, until the corrupting force lost its grip following the fall of the Batman Who Laughs. The Shazam family lost their powers as Billy's connection to the Rock of Eternity weakened. Mary visited Billy at Titans Academy, urging him to see Freddy, whose health was deteriorating without magic. 

Not long after, Mary enrolled at Vassier College, attempting to live a normal life. However, she was summoned by Hoppy, the magical rabbit, sent by Billy to deliver a message that she was now the new champion of Shazam. After stopping a bank robbery as Lady Shazam, Mary soon discovered her foster parents had gone missing. 

Transferring to Fawcett City Community College, she began investigating a string of disappearances tied to mysterious magical technology. Facing villains like Disaster Master and Babbel, Mary unraveled the mystery behind the abductions, ultimately discovering that Georgia's Savanna, the daughter of Thaddeus Savanna, was responsible. Mary rescued the kidnapped townspeople, defeated Savanna, and fully embraced her role as the new champion of Shazam. It wasn't long, however, that Mary sacrificed her powers during an attack by the goddess Hera on humanity, after which one of Roman's recently deceased mother, Hippolyta, now ascended to Godhood, declared Mary worthy of her own unique empowerment. Granting her the blessings of a new pantheon of goddesses, Hippolyta severed Mary's dependence on the wizard Shazam, establishing her as a divine champion in her own right. Powers-wise, Mary Marvel possesses the magical ability to transform into a superpowered version of herself by saying the word Shazam. In her earlier incarnations, her powers derived from the wizard Shazam and were shared with her siblings. Currently, however, Mary has her own distinct powersets by a new pantheon of goddesses, the agility of Selene, the strength of Hippolyta, the stamina of Artemis, the flight of Zephyrus, the invulnerability of Aurora, and the wisdom of Minerva. Though she still transforms using the word Shazam, she no longer bears the wizard's living lightning, though she could still summon Zeus's Thunderbolts. That's Mary Marvel. 

How does she summon lightning if she doesn't have the power of Zeus anymore? 

I don't know, man. She just does. Zeus hears her and lightning happens. Actually, this list of goddesses is pretty close to her original list of deities, like Pre-Crisis, whom she derived her powers from. Oh, interesting. 

Okay. And what is her current superhero name in the comics? Mary Marvel. Okay. All right. I just wanted to hear that. DC's really got to get over the Marvel thing, man. Like, they just got to accept the fact that Marvel should own any superhero name pertaining to Marvel. 

Uh, no, I think we'll keep it. She was for a while called Mary Shazam, and that just sounds bad. 

That does sound really bad. Well, let me tell you all about the Marvel version of Hercules. Heracles Panhellenios was born in ancient Greece as the son of a mortal woman, Alcmenna, and Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. Zeus seduced Alcmenna by disguising himself as her husband, Amphitrion. Upon discovering the affair, Zeus's wife Hera became wrathful and tried to kill the child. Even as an infant, Heracles displayed supernatural strength by strangling two serpents Hera sent to kill him in his crib. Hoping to appease the goddess, the child was named Heracles, meaning the glory of Hera, though it did nothing to prevent her wrath. Heracles was raised by Amphitrion and trained in various forms of combat. As a youth, he accidentally killed his music teacher and was sent away to learn to control his strength and pursue a life of heroism. He eventually defended the city of Thebes from a group of minion pirates and as a reward was given the hand of the princess Magara, daughter of King Crian. 

They had two children and lived peacefully. Zeus, wanting Heracles to prove himself worthy of immortality, arranged for him to serve his cousin, who instructed Heracles to complete a series of 12 impossible tasks. These would later become known as the 12 labors of Hercules. The first labor was to slay the Nemean lion, whose hide was impervious to weapons. Heracles strangled the beast and wore its pelt as armor. Next, he traveled to Lerno to face the Hydra, a multi-headed serpent that regrew two heads for everyone severed. 

With help from his nephew Iolus, who cauterized the necks, Heracles defeated the creature and dipped his arrows in its poisonous blood. Additional tasks including capturing the Arimathean boar, hunting the sacred Serenane Hyned of Artemis, and dispersing the Stemphalian birds created by Ares. He cleaned the Aegean stables by diverting two rivers, captured the Cretan bull, stole the man-eating mares of Diomedes, and obtained the Amazon Queen Hippolyta's Golden Girdle. 

He then slew the three-bodied Gurian to claim his red cattle and tricked the Titan Atlas into helping him retrieve Golden Apples from the Garden of Hesperides. The final labor was the most harrowing, descending into the underworld to retrieve Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of Hades. His success completing all 12 labors earned him recognition from the gods, but his return to his home of Thebes was marked by tragedy. During his absence, Thebes had been overtaken by an outside nobleman named Lycus, who killed King Crian and condemned Megara and her children to death. 

Blood lusted and driven mad by a curse from Hera, Heracles killed not only Lycus, but also his wife Megara and their two sons. Haunted by shame, he began using the Romanized version of his name, Hercules, to distance himself from both Hera and his past. Hercules adventured across the ancient world. He killed Keknos, son of Ares, who was murdering travelers to construct a temple from their bones. 

When King Glamiden of Troy refused to pay Hercules for saving his daughter from a sea monster, Hercules raised the city, killing the king and all his sons saved one. He battled the river god Acherus for the hand of Daenerys, who would become his next wife. Eventually, Hercules met his mortal end after Daenerys, fearing that he had been unfaithful, unknowingly poisoned him with what she believed was a love potion. Feeling sympathy for his son, Zeus separated Hercules' mortal body from his divine spirit and raised him to Olympus as the new god of strength. 

Though now divine, Hercules retained his love for adventure and he returned to earth often. He participated in the first Olympic games, allegedly battled Vikings, and claimed an affair with Marie Antoinette. During World War II, he fought for the Greek resistance while disguised as the Submariner to avoid punishment from Olympus for intervening in human affairs. In the modern era, he emerged again and met Thor, joining him on the Avengers. Deceived into signing a contract by Pluto, Hercules was nearly trapped in the underworld again until Thor rescued him. He later fell under the Enchantress's spell and fought the Avengers before regaining his senses. Exiled from Olympus for coming to earth without permission, Hercules remained with the Avengers, battling Dragon Man, Typhon, and Ares. You can learn more about the Avengers and their team duel against the Justice League. Hercules became a founding member of another superhero team called the Champions, alongside Black Widow, Iceman, Angel, and Goshreiter. 

He and Black Widow developed a romantic interlude. Later, Hercules was beaten into a coma by the Masters of Evil after attempting to battle them alone while intoxicated. Zeus blamed the Avengers for his son's coma and imprisoned them in Hades, but Hercules awoke, cleared their names, and brokered peace. You can learn more about the Masters of Evil and their team duel against the Hercules later helped fight the High Evolutionary and Dr. Doom. He was devastated by the apparent deaths of the Avengers during their battle with Onslaught, a psychic entity you can learn more about in his duel against Parallax. He joined Heroes for Hire and Shield before rejoining the Avengers upon the Hero's return and fought with the team until its dissolution at the hands of the Scarlet Witch, who split the team apart in a fit of madness. 

You can learn more about that in the 10 versus Scarlet Witch duel episode. Without his team, Hercules fell into depression, a moment of vulnerability exploited by Hera and Eurystheus. They challenged him to complete a modern version of the 12 labors, this time as part of a reality television show. Among his challenges, Hercules captured a Sabertooth Tiger in the Savage Land, defeated a Hydra genetically created by Hydra, captured the teleporting dog Lockjaw from the Blue Area of the Moon, fought Dragon Man, and drove Atuma's Hordes from Atlantis. Later tasks involved surviving Red Skull's Dust of Death, defeating the Abomination, capturing a monster in Hawaii, stealing Captain America's Shield, retrieving a Doombot from Laveria, dragging a Shield Helicarrier by Chain, and returning to the Underworld to retrieve a flower from his former wife, Megara. 

In Hades, Megara and their children forgave Hercules for their murder, understanding Hera's role in the tragedy, and she gave him a flower of love. He opposed the Superhuman Registration Act during the superhero Civil War and joined Captain America's Secret Avengers. In the final battle, he destroyed the Thor clone Ragnarok, claiming it was an insult to the real Thor. 

He later formed the Renegades with Amadeus Cho, Namora, and others to aid the Hulk upon his return from being exiled by some of Earth's heroes to space, empathizing with a fellow warrior. When the Skrulls secretly invaded Earth on behalf of their alien deities, Hercules led a team of gods from multiple pantheons called the God Squad. This included Snowbird, the Inuit Demigoddess, Ajek, the Eternal, the Egyptian Godslayer Demigorge, and Mikaboshi, the Shinto God of Chaos. 

Together, they slayed the Skrull gods, Kleibin and Sigurt. Eventually, Mikaboshi evolved into a new entity called the Chaos King and began destroying all realms of the afterlife. Hercules reunited with the God Squad to seal the entity away, but he expanded all his godly energy in the process, becoming mortal. Hercules settled in Brooklyn, bartending at a Greek restaurant and using magical weapons from his brother Aerys' armory, such as the Sword of Pellius and Perseus' shield. During the Norse god of fear, the Serpent's attack, Hercules helped save Brooklyn from becoming a Hellscape and became a local hero. He later served as a guest instructor at the Avengers Academy and fought against a new pantheon of gods that included the God of Data and the Goddess of Vanity. 

After defeating them, he declined to return to Olympus, choosing instead to live among mortals. Hercules rejoined the Avengers during their fight against King the Conqueror and later helped a new iteration of the champions, eventually regaining his godhood with help from god particle scientist, Roshna Cole. He later learned Nix, the Greek goddess of night, had slain most of the Olympian gods, who subsequently returned in a corrupted form. Hercules was captured by these dark gods, but was rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy. After helping that team exile the dark gods, Hercules returned to Earth and helped the Avengers fight off a vampire invasion. 

And that's Hercules' backstory. Powers-wise, Hercules, as the Greek god of strength, is the physically strongest of all the Olympian gods, unable to lift well in excess of 100 tons. He is also the most durable of his pantheon, with his invulnerability, unable to run at speeds around 100mph and leap 100 feet in the air. His immortality grants him limitless stamina, regenerative healing, and toxin resistance. He is a master combatant in Greco-Roman wrestling and wields a number of mythological weapons, including his indestructible adamantine mace forged by his brother Hephaestus, the sword of Pellius, a curved syca forged by the centaur Kyren, the shield of Perseus, which can temporarily turn observers to stone when the shield's covers removed, and the bow of Hercules, with arrows dipped in hydra blood. And that is Hercules. 

Okay, so he just carries all of these weapons around with him at all times? Usually when I see him, he's just holding this golden hammer club thing. 

Well, modern comics, Hercules is usually depicted actually with his mace and the sword of Pellius, but he's gone on multiple adventures with the shield. Actually, I less commonly see him use the bow, but it's his, it's named after him, it's the bow of Hercules, and yeah, he'll have it for this fight. 

Okay, cheater. At the very least, he'll have the mace and the sword, because he almost always carries those around now. They're like strapped on his back like an X, but we'll say that the shield covers that, and then you know, the bow is just strapped to his side, we'll say, I don't know. 

Yeah, having the sword and the shield and the mace and the quiver and the bow on his back is a lot. 

That's, it's probably too much, you're right. I guess he won't have the bow for this match, since yeah, it's less commonly used, but he'll at least have his sword, his shield, and his mace. We'll say that. 

Dual, where comic book titans smash every Tuesday. Max destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday, and Sendro 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 got their histories and abilities out of the way, let's speculate on how one of the 1000 simulated matches will go. The winner is determined by simulations, not the speculation, but it's fun to imagine how this fight could play out. AJ9K, what are the rules or speculation? 

Well, I should say there are no rules other than the characters have no prior knowledge of the other going into the fight. All they are aware of starting out is that the other character is a threat that needs to be eliminated. For the speculation, the contestants 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 contestants must earn victory on their own merit. 

Alright, then let's get into it. Mary Marble and Hercules meet on the battlefield. Who goes first? 

Now, I will admit that probably because of the wisdom of Minerva, Mary Marble wouldn't go first and would probably wait to observe where Hercules would do. 

Yeah, plus Hercules is more belligerent than Mary, right? So yeah, he's gonna go first, and he's gonna start out by pulling out his Mace, his adamantine Mace, and he's gonna slam it into the ground, which is gonna create this big earth-shattering earthquake that's gonna open this fissure that travels along the ground and knocks Mary into the air with seismic force. 

Okay, yeah, that's fine. Mary stays floating in the air thanks to the flight of Zephyrus, one of her powers, and she's probably gonna snatch one of the boulders that are also flung upward, and she's gonna hurl that sucker right at Hercules with the strength of Hippolyta. 

Alright, so Hercules sees this boulder being thrown at him, and he's gonna spin around while holding his Mace out, kind of like how an Olympian would do in the Hammer Throw event at the Olympics, and he's gonna let go of the Mace hurling it at the boulder, which just explodes the rock into pebbles in the air, and the Mace is actually gonna travel through the boulder and slam right into Mary Marble, which is gonna knock her out of the air, and she's probably like in a coma now on the ground. 

Now, she has the agility of Selene, so Mary's actually gonna dodge the Mace, and she's gonna rock it down into the ground and cause her own like miniature earthquake that's gonna knock Hercules into the air, and that's gonna give her this opening, and she's going to just uppercut him right into the stratosphere. 

No, no, she tries to uppercut him, but he catches her fist as she tries to, and then he's gonna grapple her flinging her over his shoulder, and then position her head down to do this like pile driver move right into the ground. So he slams her down, and now they're both in this big crater. 

Okay, well, you know, thanks to the invulnerability of Aurora, Mary's not that hurt. And with Hercules on top of her pinning her down, that's when Mary is going to just call out Shazam summoning Zeus's lightning, which is gonna crash into Hercules and just stun the shit out of him. And with him dazed, that's when Mary just kicks Hercules right in the balls with all of her strength. 

No, no, Hercules has his shield on his back. So he's not going to be stunned from Zeus's lightning, because the shield is going to protect him. So he's going to leap to his feet, you know, dodging this kick from Mary Marvel, and then he's going to equip the shield of Perseus and the sword of Pellius from off his back into his arms. And he's going to raise the sword above his head and come down with a mighty chop that's just going to finish Mary Marvel off and end this match. 

Well, except when Hercules is coming down on her with his sword, Mary's gonna, you know, clap her hands together above her, stopping the blade in her palms. And that's when she's going to scream again, Shazam a second time. And a lightning bullet is going to come down, strike the tip of the blade, and that electricity is going to move through the sword into Hercules body and just fry his brain. And yeah, since the lightning passed through Mary, she probably transforms back into her mortal form. But since Hercules is now dead, it doesn't matter. She wins. 

Now, I think Hercules is too durable to be finished with just one bolt of magic lightning. You know, he's hurt for sure, but he's not dead. He's on the ground, injured. And as Mary stands up, you know, she's in her mortal form now. From the ground, Hercules just chucks his shield right at her, walloping her and taking her out because she doesn't have her enhanced durability anymore. 

Oh no, I mean, she saw that Hercules didn't die from this electricity. So right away, she's going to cry out Shazam once again, as the shield is hurtling towards her. And the lightning bolt that strikes her, allowing her to transform the energy from that ricochets the shield back toward Hercules. And it's just going to decapitate him straight up. 

Okay. No, but Hercules is not a chump who'd get taken out with his own shield. Okay, these catches the shield as it ricochets back toward him. But that lightning bolt explosion, just incinerated the cloth cover that was over the shield. So Hercules wheels the shield again, and Medusa's face is now visible on the front of the shield, and her eyes glow green, and the shield turns Mary Marvel into stone. And that's when Hercules leaps over and just double drop kicks the Mary Marvel statue, and she gets shattered to gravel for sure, ending this match. 

Well, I mean, you're right about the lightning bolt incinerating the shield cover, but not right about Hercules catching it because as it was traveling back toward him, he saw Medusa's visage in the shield. 

So he turned to stone first, after which the shield just shattered him to gravel as it collided with him. And Mary Marvel knew this was going to happen, because you know, she recognized the shield cover due to her wisdom of Minerva. 

How would she recognize the shield cover? Just because the shield exists in Greek mythology doesn't mean it's going to be like the same looking shield with the same looking cover. 

Of course it does, bro. Of course it does. And even if it wasn't the same, Minerva would recognize it. 

Well, you better recognize that's dumb. But let's find out which of these scenarios happens. Either the shield of Perseus turns Mary Marvel into stone and then he kicks her to pieces, or the shield of Perseus turns Hercules into stone as it's traveling toward him and then crashes into him, shattering him to pieces. Let's go ahead and find out which of these scenarios happens by inputting the character stats, running their simulations, and coming back with a winner. AJ9K hit it. 

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

Okay, so this was a pretty decent matchup way better than I thought it was going to be initially because I figured Mary Marvel has all of the powers, but it turned out they were pretty comparable to Hercules. 

Yeah, I guess the main difference was that Mary Marvel had the lightning and the power of flight, but Hercules had a few weapons that gave them the edge in a few categories. Right off the bat, we said that Mary Marvel was faster than Hercules. 

There's just no denying that. But since we accounted for the weapons that Hercules had in the speculation, in these stats, we said that Hercules had a slight edge in evasiveness because he had his shield. For the purposes of the stats we gave him his shield, his mace, and his sword. 

Yeah, Hercules also got the edge when it came to fighting since he's an expert in wrestling and range, surprisingly, because Mary Marvel doesn't wield her lightning in the same way that Billy does, especially now in the comics. 

Yeah, whereas Hercules can throw all of his weapons with great strength and accuracy. 

We did give Mary Marvel the edge when it came to perception thanks to her wisdom of Minerva, allows her to see things that normal people wouldn't be able to see. But for the rest of the stats, from durability, strength, damage, and versatility, they were even. So, Joseph, with all of the stats and consideration, who do you think came out on top? 

I'm going to give it to my boy, Hercules. I've got to give it to him. I think what he lacks in lightning power, he makes up for in being a badass with his mace and a few of the other weapons from Ares' armory. And Instagram agrees with me because 65% of the poll takers sided with Hercules, believing that he'll win. 

Which baffles me because... Why? It's freaking Mary Marvel. She essentially has the powers of Shazam, this insanely powerful Superman-level character. 

Yeah, but Hercules is like a well-established Greek mythological figure, whereas Mary Marvel's just this side character in the Shazam comic book mythos. 

Hercules is a Disney cartoon, bro. You're thinking of the wrong Hercules that people are familiar with. Let's find out if you and our Instagram poll takers have any clue what they're talking about. AJ9K, the results, please. Here you are, sir. The winner of the matchup between Mary Marvel and Hercules is... Fucking Hercules. 

Hercules, Hercules, Hercules. 

He won by 577 of the 1000 matches or 57.7%. Mary Marvel won 423 of those 1000 matches. To me, this makes sense. 

You know, there's some people out there that may balk at me giving Hercules the mace and the sword and the shield, but a lot of current depictions have him wielding both the sword and the mace. And even if he just had the mace, you know, he could use that defensively in the same way that Thor uses Mjolnir. The only thing that just the mace would do for him statistically is that it would lower his versatility because he wouldn't be able to turn Mary Marvel into stone with the shield of Perseus. So take that away, and this is still a coin toss. So either way, you can't discount Hercules beating Mary Marvel. 

I hate that Hercules won. Like, Mary Marvel is just too near and dear to DC fans' hearts. Hercules is just a jerk. He's Jerkely's. Jerkely's. 

Now, he's a pretty endearing character, too. He has a good heart in the comic books. I can't wait to see him in live action. Hopefully, you know, they do something with the character besides just that end credit stinger that we saw in Thor 11 Thunder. But that does it for this duel, guys. HN9K, help close us out. 

MaxDistruction, Senjo World, and Console Combat. 

As I mentioned earlier, our next episode is going to be another team duel this time, repeating DC's Infinity Inc. against Marvel's new warriors. 

Yeah, I don't know much about Infinity Inc. I guess they're kind of a legacy team for the Justice Society. Right. So they're like a younger group, but sort of the new warriors, which consists of characters like Nova, Speedball, Night Thrasher, people like that. We'll break down the rosters and the team's histories in our next episode. 

But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Starosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin 

Belcom, Mickey Muthinkean, Brandon Essigard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatn, Austin Wazalowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick Obanto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Molesky, 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. 

Do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you? Now do you think you love me, Mary Marvel?