Boomstick: Like Captain Marvel, the high-flying Avenger.
Wiz: And Shazam!, the literal boy-turned-hero of the Justice League.
A fallen combatant gets her shot at redemption in the fourth match-up of season six; her newest foe, another ordinary human whom, after an encounter with the fantastic, adopted the life of an otherworldly hero, sharing even the same alias for a time. In the latest of the many showdowns between the figureheads of the comic book industry, bleeding-edge power from the cosmos is matched against ancient arcane might, for Captain Marvel and Shazam, some of their respective companies' most formidable heroes, are soon to meet in this storied arena with only one fated to survive a death battle.
The first of the two combatants brought up to the plate is Captain Marvel; many have taken this identity over the years, but this episode focuses on its current bearer, one Carol Danvers. With her father serving as a Navy officer and her mother a bred warrior to her kin, Carol was destined to a life of martial service. Danvers sought to prove herself in her father's eyes and joined the Air Force with the intent of becoming an astronaut. Graduating from her class with highest honors, Carol soon developed a lengthy résumé of successful missions for the Air Force, a path that would ultimately land her a role as head of security for NASA. It would be in this new position that Carol's life took a turn towards the realm of the fanciful; her tenure at NASA saw her become embroiled in a war involving the race of militaristic aliens known as the Kree. During a skirmish with their forces, Danvers was caught in the destruction of a piece of Kree technology known as a psyche-magnitron; meant to grant its subject superhuman powers. What happened next only makes sense with a final revelation, that Carol's mother, human though she may have looked, was a champion soldier of the Kree's elite guard. The ace pilot's human and Kree genetics merged, awakening the warrior instincts instilled within her Kree biology. Carol would accept this revelation and the life of a superheroine with it. Carol established a rapport with the heroes of the world to ensure its peace from threats both domestic and intergalactic alike, rotating between identities as she did; it was only when her Kree companion and teacher Mar-Vell passed away that Carol adopted a new alias in his memory, taking on the responsibilities of becoming the Captain Marvel of two races.
Even by the generous standards through which her setting's cosmic heroes prove their mettle, Carol has reason to hold herself in high regard. Mar-Vell, another subject of the psyche-magnitron, had his share of genetics to blend with Carol's own Kree lineage, and the power to which they benefit her speaks volumes as to their quality; a superhuman physique leagues above even the greatest humans of her world are standard issue fare to her. Cosmic-level strength and durability, supersonic flight, stamina enough to withstand poisons and extreme fatigue, these are but the more mundane aspects of Marvel's skillset, as her true calling card lies in her ability to absorb and control different states of energy. With this at her disposal, Danvers is capable of altering energy on a molecular level or channeling it into herself to amplify her physicality; when not releasing any stored energy in the form of photon rays, that is. Another one of Mar-Vell's powers she has since adopted for her own usage is his hyper-awareness, which grants her perfect clarity as to her surroundings and any foes' movements. Enough energy stored up is even capable of developing a temporary surge of power christened her Binary state. Courtesy of the insectoid Brood aliens and their further machinations with Carol, the Binary state taps into the powers of a white hole singularity, attuned to the very fabric which the universe consists of. As Binary, Carol's already phenomenal might grows only further, developing the ability to control every conceivable manner of energy and manipulate the flow of gravity; what's more is that after attaining this state, Carol has also been shown as sensing the presence of nearby white holes and being able to use their presence to tap into the Binary form.
The Marvel universe has no shortage of space-faring heroes whose larger-than-life reputations give way to the feats that have established them, and the current Captain Marvel adheres to this rule. Danvers' speed is such that she can outmaneuver tachyon lasers from Kree warships that move well past the speed of light, while her strength allows her to effortlessly demolish asteroids. In the Binary form, Carol has been on both the giving and receiving ends of attacks with planet-destroying might and even forces comparable to the energy output of stars. That said, for all of the tremendous power Mar-Vell's prodigy displays, even she is not without weaknesses. There is, firstly, a limit to the amount of energy Carol can absorb and expend at any given time and state, whereas her Binary form in the present day requires the presence of a white hole for her to access. While stellar energy is something Carol can control with ease, magic-based energies provide far more difficulty and peril should she choose to absorb them, and her hyper-awareness, while incredibly accurate, is a random element which she has no control over tapping into. Ultimately, Captain Marvel has her share of hardships within herself to overcome, as does anyone else, but to continue operating as a hero on behalf of her homeworld and beyond is a testament to her virtue and willingness to push past these flaws for the sake of a purpose greater than herself.
Skurge the Executioner: Another combatant? Welcome! (tosses his Bloodaxe at Carol)
Captain Marvel: (swats the axe away) Thanks, right back at ya! (flies towards Skurge and starts pummeling him)
The focus of the episode shifts from one Captain Marvel to another, this one christened Billy Batson. Despondent and bitter towards the world due to the death of his parents, the teenage orphan was shunted between foster homes until he found himself under the care of the Vasquez couple. Billy's hostile attitude towards the Vasquezes and their other adopted children began to soften as he bonded with them, but the real moment that would come to define his life stems from his surrogate siblings fleeing the neighborhood bullies that plagued them. Batson, separated from his kin, escaped the bullies by boarding an underground subway car, unaware that the train would lead him into an alternate dimension. In this dimension lie the Rock of Eternity, home of the ancient wizard Mamaragan. Needing a successor to his power to operate in the mortal realm, Mamaragan summoned Billy to the Rock to gauge his worthiness. The wizard saw the cruel exterior Batson crafted around himself, but understood that there was still the potential for goodness to blossom within him and chose the teen as his heir. Before passing away, Mamaragan informed Billy that to unlock the powers he had been bestowed with, he need only shout the sobriquet the wizard fashioned for himself: Shazam. Armed with this ability, Batson joined the ranks of the world's heroes under the alias Captain Marvel; however, as the hosts clarify, legal issues between a number of comic brands muddied the rights to the title, hence, the reason why Batson's superhero identity in the modern day is referred to as Shazam.
The origins of the first Captain Marvel may be rife with its own backstory and history, and yet it seems fitting that with its own complexity is the diverse collection of abilities at his disposal. More than the alias through which his superhero form operates, the term Shazam doubles as an acronym, signifying the six figures of antiquity whose powers become those of Batson's. From the biblical king Solomon, Shazam gains a wellspring of knowledge and wisdom that grants him any information he wishes at a moment's notice, whereas the classical demigod Hercules is the source of Shazam's strength that puts him on par with the legendary Kryptonian known as Superman. With the stamina of Atlas, the titan cursed to lift the heavens, Batson's empowered form requires little maintenance and suffers minimal fatigue even through intense physical exertion. It is the lightning of the top god Zeus, however, that proves the most influential of the sextet's powers; these thunderbolts may be used as a weapon, but also provide a great many other uses: the conduit through which Billy transforms into his alter ego, access to interdimensional travel including to the Rock of Eternity, a means to recover from the most grievous of injuries, and even how Batson can share Mamaragan's power with others. Completing the array of powers these gods and heroes gift Shazam with, the courage of Achilles means he is invulnerable to nearly all forms of harm and grant him unshakable willpower, and his access to the speed of the god Mercury lets him move not only at speeds well beyond that of light but flight matching a similar velocity.
Despite the harshness that Billy is associated with, he has long dreamt of becoming a hero like those who inhabit his world, and Shazam is the means through which he fulfills his goals. While transformed, the teenager is comparable to the founding members of the acclaimed band of superheroes known as the Justice League; as an example, the speed of Mercury means Shazam can surpass the Flash in a race. As a superhero who can move at theoretically infinite velocities, it is entirely possible that Flash can exceed the speed light a hundred trillion times over; by extension, so can Shazam. As for the other sources of Shazam's power, he has withstood the presence of the Void Hound, an antimatter warship capable of annihilating multiple star systems and his punches can create miniature black holes with the sheer power they exert. Indeed, with all the tremendous showings that Billy has demonstrated while transformed, it can be all too easy to forget the shortcomings that come with being a sullen teen. His experience falters compared to the other members of the Justice League, and his cockiness can get him into tight situations should he fail to properly perceive a threat; most damning of all his weaknesses, however, is that it is possible for him to be struck with his own thunderbolts, stripping him of his alter ego's powers once more. Billy continues to live his dream despite setbacks such as these, proving that kindness is a virtue that still exists within him, and more importantly, proving Mamaragan's faith in him is more than justified.
Both of these spectacular heroes have been given their due and the time for blood fast approaches. One advertisement for the Blue Apron cooking service later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
The afternoon streets of Philadelphia find themselves roamed by its hometown hero, Billy Batson, albeit in his identity of Shazam. With the lightning of Zeus running through his fingers, the teenage hero overloads the technology around him from his nonchalant firing of thunderbolts. Trouble soon stirs as a wayward bolt strikes an ATM, causing a torrent of money to billow from the skies much to his horror. Pleading with the technology to behave out of desperation, the sight is caught well past is context by another figure; from atop a neighboring skyscraper is Carol Danvers, known better as Captain Marvel. A few more seconds pass as Shazam feebly stammers his way through an excuse until he finally decides to cut his losses, dashing off from the scene as a red blur.
FIGHT!
Unfortunately for Batson, Carol's bullheadedness works against him as she closes the distance moments later and slams him into the ground with a wild haymaker. Shazam has to force himself upright in order to continue the battle; the human-Kree offspring, meanwhile, backflips onto the pavement and charges at Mamaragan's champion. This approach is one that Shazam is more prepared for, meeting Carol's outstretched fist with a raised arm of his own. The grown teen gets his first blow of the fight in when he bats the captain away with his electrically-charged punch. What was once an uphill battle for Batson swings the match in his favor as he chases after Captain Marvel, repeatedly slamming his mighty fists into her frame. Even as he sends Danvers careening into the heavens with an upwards jab, Batson gives chase after her as the two heroes swerve around the buildings.
By now, the Kree pilot has regained her senses, shielding herself from another barrage of Shazam's punches before returning his prior punch with another uppercut of her own. In his vulnerable position, Shazam is helpless before a photon laser from the captain that sends him crashing into a sedan. Carol attempts to push her offensive, but is met with the lightning of Zeus for her trouble. Comets hued creamy yellow and deep burgundy race across the landscape, the force of their collisions shaking the neighborhood around them. As their impromptu chase draws to a close, Carol is the first to stop; Batson quickly darts around her ensuing straight punch and knocks her with a fist that disorients her. The wielder of gods' powers grabs his foe and blasts off further and further into the skies before bellowing his own name. Energy builds up in the clouds above the two heroes before a thunderbolt barrels straight into Carol, its presence punctuated by an agonized shriek. The resulting burst of energy is enough to push Batson away, but his surprise makes the ensuing turn of events all the clearer; where he expected to see naught but dust is an empowered Carol, tapping into her Binary form.
A faint crimson aura surrounds Danvers' form as she sardonically parrots Batson's catchphrase, releasing the lightning of Zeus afterwards. The bolt connects with the empowered hero, reverting him back to his ordinary human self; the orphaned teen begins plummeting back to earth as Carol's own shock mirrors that of Billy's. Calling upon his superhero form once again, a third blast of lightning fills the air as Shazam stands in Batson's place once again. The surprise Captain Marvel bears soon gives way to enraged indignation as she flies into Billy and carries him into the subway streets below. In the caverns beneath the city, the advantage shifts between the two combatants busy punching and blasting each other across the walls. The heated exchanges of fisticuffs grows in scale before reaching a crescendo heralded by the rainbow vortex that engulfs both heroes.
Shazam taunts Carol on her supposed inferiority and the ace pilot falls for his gambit, soaring towards Batson with her fist outstretched. Channeling the strength of Hercules into him, Shazam grabs Captain Marvel's exposed arm before hurtling her into the void where the Rock of Eternity resides. Numerous asteroids are blown into smaller chunks before Danvers unceremoniously collides with another. Danvers' expression is one of subdued contempt, but is soon fraught with terror as she sees Batson flying towards her. With one final punch, Shazam collides into Danvers with a force that obliterates the entire asteroid. The cosmic dust stirs about briefly before the chosen wielder of ancient might beams with pride at his victory; a tattered fragment of Captain Marvel's attire, the only surviving remnant of the Kree warrior smacks him in the face afterward, depriving him of anything but bewilderment in the aftermath of his triumph.
K.O.!
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Shazam flies towards the scorched garment that was once part of Captain Marvel's outfit, a souvenir of sorts. Both heroes were definitely given their due in the fight, but Carol's only advantage was that her experience with cosmic level threats would help her keep up with Shazam's phenomenal strength. Captain Marvel's other powers proved to be perfectly countered by those of Shazam; energy absorption is ill-suited to handling magical blasts, such as the lightning of Zeus which Batson uses, and her hyper-awareness senses would be outclassed by the much more imposing speed of her foe. In fact, by being able to race and surpass the Flash in speed, Shazam proved to be Marvel's better in the field a hundred quadrillion times over. The wisdom of Solomon, meanwhile, could provide Billy with any information he needed to develop a strategy to deprive Danvers of any power and otherwise prove to be a valuable asset. While Carol's Binary form has been shown to destroy a planet, Shazam's punches have proved to have the force equivalent to a black hole. Going off estimations regarding the context of this latter feat, it can be assumed that to generate such a black hole, his punches have almost two hundred forty octillion pounds of force behind them, or, to put it laconically, the equivalent to almost a hundred supernovae. Even by comparing Shazam to the deities that empower him does the difference between the two fighters' capabilities become clearer, as Zeus used his lightning bolts to defeat the Shattered God, a primordial deity who was only stopped by the Big Bang; even while acknowledging Zeus was aided by other gods at the time, this feat demonstrates that the lightning that Zeus, and by extension Shazam, employs, has a force capable of destroying at least a thousandth of the whole universe, something that Carol had no real counter for. Ultimately, the current Captain Marvel has every right to be respected for her showings in her home universe, but the original Captain Marvel more so for he could surpass them through the sheer scope of his own power.
Wiz: The winner is Shazam!
Captain Marvel vs. Shazam contains examples of:
- Always Someone Better: Carol only has the edge against Shazam in combat experience, which doesn't amount to much when he outclasses her literally everywhere else. While she was faster than light in Binary form, Shazam was 133 Quadrillion times faster. While Captain Marvel could withstand nuclear detonation and attacks from the Phoenix Force, Shazam could shrug off attacks that outright warped him inside out alongside high end planet-busters. On top of this, Carol was a planet-buster at best, which doesn't compare to someone who can punch with a force comparable to 97 supernovas.
- Anti-Magic: Carol can absorb magic to empower herself, and a single "Shazam!" lightning bolt was enough to instantly turn her into Binary. However, she can only absorb magic and not take it away, so while she was able to turn Shazam back into Billy, it was only for a brief moment as he turned back after a second. Even then, Shazam can generate enough magical energy comparable to 1/1000th of the Big Bang through Zeus, which is far more than Carol had any hope of absorbing.
- Bloodless Carnage: The fight is noticeably devoid of any gore. Even the killing blow is relatively clean, if only because Captain Marvel's body was essentially pulverized into ash. Ironically, the most gruesome moment of the episode came during Shazam's breakdown, where the hosts described what happened to his body when it was hit with a Tesseract Bomb, complete with a visual demonstration.
- The Bus Came Back: Returning almost two years after her last defeat at the hands of Dragonball's Deadly Beauty, Carol Danvers is back for round two... only for Shazam to destroy her even far worse than Lazuli could ever hope to, though at least he gave her a better death.
- Call-Back:
- Carol's hyper-awareness is compared, to quote the episode itself, to "Spider-Man's really OP spider-sense;" it did play a vital role in his victory over Batman, after all, so there are worse ways to describe it.
- One of Carol's feats is listed as withstanding tachyon lasers, and the Silver Samurai, a previous combatant who specializes in tachyon energy, is used as a reference point for her.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The fight ends with Shazam punching Carol so hard, it obliterated the moon-sized asteroid they landed on. There was nothing left of the Captain but her boot.
- Libation for the Dead: Parodied; upon throwing away his first can of beer, Boomstick pours another one out in memory of it, only realizing too late that that's twice the beer he's gone through senselessly.
- Magic Versus Science: Representing team science is Carol, the product of genetic engineering and alien technology, whereas team magic has Billy, the scion of a wizard who draws his strength from ancient gods. Adding to this, Carol has Anti-Magic abilities that let her absorb mythical attacks, albeit to a certain extent. Due to much greater showings with Shazam's powers and better feats to scale to, chalk this one up as a win for magic.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs whenever Boomstick wastes his beer. He gets incredibly over-dramatic about what he did, much to Wiz's ire.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: One of the aliases that Carol had was "Captain Whiz-Bang". Boomstick even says that they aren't making that up.
- Not What It Looks Like: This is the way the whole fight gets going: Billy accidentally makes an ATM malfunction and Carol mistakes it for attempted robbery.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Carol easily destroyed the Brood home world in the past and Shazam is on par with fellow world-busting POMD Superman. During the battle, Shazam drags the fight into deep space and punches Marvel so hard, the large asteroid they landed on was completely obliterated, and killed his opponent. It's also brought up that Zeus, one of the gods that Shazam derives his power from, was shown to be able to channel enough energy comparable to 1/1000th of a universal annihilation event.
- Running Gag: Boomstick wasting his beer happens numerous times throughout the episode.
- Shout-Out:
- It seems like every time the video cuts back to the hosts, there's a different work of fiction on the background screen, ranging between The Simpsons, Pulp Fiction, Galaxy Quest, among many others.
- The whole debacle about the original Captain Marvel is treated like an Ace Attorney trial, with the respective comic book publishers' logos crudely superimposed over the characters' faces.
- Technician vs. Performer: Captain Marvel and Shazam respectively are this in this match-up. Carol is a highly skilled military combatant with years of combat experience even before she became a superhero, alongside her powers having needed further augmentation to reach the level they're at now. Billy, meanwhile, is a child given god-like power who's naivety and lack of experience are counterbalanced by his sheer might. In this case, the performer wins since Shazam outclasses Marvel so much in terms of overall power that skill and experience aren't that helpful for her.
- Uniqueness Decay: In Shazam's initial rundown, Boomstick comments that damn near every character can go faster than light, making this level of speed rather unimpressive now.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played with. When Carol forces Shazam to revert back to Billy and sees that she's fighting a child, she's completely shocked. However, this being Death Battle, she convinces herself it's a trick and continues the fight. She actually would have survived if she went with her initial instincts.
