Wiz: But these two take their "friends" even further than that.
Boomstick: Venom, the lethal symbiote and Spider-Man's best frienemy.
Wiz: And Crona, the deadly demon sword from Soul Eater.
As season seven reaches the three-quarter mark, marking this occasion is a battle of living weapons, troubled souls making the most of the malevolent black masses to whom they are bonded. Both Venom and Crona have overcome terrible experiences to become who they are today, but now they must attempt to overcome each other on the field of a death battle.
The first on the chopping block is Venom, the product of man and monster. The Klyntar, a race of amorphous creatures, have existed since the beginning of time as products of the primordial symbiote god Knull. Among their numbers was one known only as Venom. After being cast out the Klyntar homeworld, the Venom symbiote wandered the cosmos aimlessly, bonding with various lifeforms. By the time it arrived to Earth, the symbiote had found itself in the hands of the young superhero Spider-Man. The symbiote proved to be of great help to Peter Parker upon merging with him, but he found its past hosts had left it with conflicting mental issues; understanding the threat posed by the symbiote, Peter broke free of its addictive hold and left the Klyntar creature behind. The lost alien creature would soon cross paths with its most iconic host, Eddie Brock. Eddie's life is one similarly steeped in misery; raised by a resentful, manipulative father, Eddie was diagnosed with adrenal cancer months before his conflicts with Spider-Man. The journalist hoped to make a name for himself and bring some semblance of justice to with the little time he had to live. Investigating the case of a rampant serial killer, he wrongly accused an innocent man of the murders. Spider-Man, by tracking down the real killer, sent Brock's life further into ruin; Eddie lost his job, family, and his wife shortly after. Eddie prayed for an end to his suffering, and found an answer in the form of the symbiote. With the Klyntar abandoned and Eddie's life destroyed by the same man, the pair united in their mutual hatred for Spider-Man. The symbiote took advantage of their shared desire for revenge, bonding with Brock and giving birth to the humanoid monstrosity known as Venom.
An alien entity such as the symbiote can rightfully be expected to have a plethora of unearthly abilities to gift their wielder. Unique to the symbiote's own biological makeup, Venom can shapeshift his body to create various weapons and other utilitarian features; even flight is within the symbiote's potential with a set of shapeshifted wings. This ability's versatility goes even further, as Venom can camouflage and disguise himself with shapeshifting. Beyond this, the symbiote's other unique powers enable its user to regenerate from grievous injuries and have full 360-degree vision of their surroundings. Invading the orifices of living beings is another specialty of the Klyntar; Venom can enter an entity and control them through their nervous system or cause them to rupture into further symbiote mass. So effective is this control over other lifeforms that the best way to counter it is through another symbiote. The Klyntar's adaptive abilities mean Venom has access to a great many powers of the symbiote's past owners; its tenure with Spider-Man stands out in particular. From its time with Peter Parker, the Venom symbiote has developed its own take on his abilities, such as heightened strength, deploying web-like projectiles, and the ability to scale walls.
Venom, both the symbiote and its master, have a long legacy of accomplishments to their names. The number of foes Eddie has stood as an equal to beyond Spider-Man include the supernatural Ghost Rider and even Knull himself. With the symbiote's strength, Venom has lifted a number of heavy objects, tanks, trains, and ferris wheels alike, with minimal effort. In the way of speed, Venom is comparable to Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of the year 2099; one of O'Hara most impressive feats in this regard is grabbing ahold of Mjölnir while the hammer was in midair at speeds beyond Mach 2000. Durability is yet another point in Brock's favor, having withstood sound waves capable of shattering glass within a ten-mile radius; a feat of additional note, given Klyntar symbiotes have an inherent susceptibility to high-frequency noises and intense heat. On the topic of similar shortcomings, Venom's complete range of vision, while effective, lacks the reflexive spider-sense that acts as a preemptive warning system. Through these flaws and other tragedies, Eddie has persevered. The trauma he endured at his father's hands instilled within Brock a desire to do good, and perhaps it is this moreso than the symbiote bonded with him that is his greatest strength. Gradually, Eddie became more of a hero and even an occasional ally to Spider-Man, proving on this road of redemption, that both he and the symbiote have as much capacity for heroism as their former foe.
- Venom: You'll see us everywhere, even in your nightmares.
With that said, the episode then moves on to Crona, and the history that ties them to the eldritch horror that is the Kishin. Centuries ago, the Kishin roamed the world, threatening to drive humanity mad with fear. The physical manifestation of death itself was able to subdue this monster, and to prevent the Kishin from reawakening, he founded the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Young souls are groomed by the academy staff and gifted with Demon Weapons, humans that transform into armaments drawing on a wielder's soul for power. It is here with academy nurse Medusa Gorgon that Crona's story begins. Fixated with the legends behind the Kishin, Medusa used her child as a test subject to create one of her own. Crona was subjected to inhumane experiments of their mother's design to mold them into the perfect killer. The crux of these experiments was with the Demon Weapon Ragnarok. Melting him alive, Medusa combined Ragnarok's remains with her custom-made black blood; she then drained Crona of their own blood and transplanted Ragnarok into her child's veins. Permanently fusing Crona with Ragnarok, Medusa set them out on their goal to consume enough souls to become another Kishin, thereby finishing that which death postponed in centuries past.
Medusa's experiments have proven both despicable and effective in turning Crona into a weapon. The black blood Crona possesses can be manipulated into different shapes and its density can be altered to form an impromptu armor. Ragnarok has a similar control over the black blood and can control Crona through it if he wishes. His proficiency in black blood is to such extremes that he can aid Crona in recovering from wounds and adjust his shape to enable flight. As a meister bound to a Demon Weapon, Crona is also gifted with the abilities that entails; namely, weaponizing their own soul to conjure Ragnarok in the form of a greatsword. Above the sword's hilt lies Ragnarok's mouth. This feature is for more than aesthetics; Ragnarok in sword form can draw from Crona's soul alongside Crona themselves and perform the Scream Resonance. By emitting a deafening screech, Ragnarok's Scream Resonance creates damaging sound waves and intense vibrations that amplify his cutting power. Because of Medusa's machinations, Crona's powers grew exponentially with the consumption of further souls. With these additional souls powering them, Crona's mastery over the black blood permitted them to transform their whole body into black blood and corrupt those who touch them. Specifically, any who come into contact with the black blood in this state are beset by violent delusions.
Despite their status as Medusa's pawn for most of their lives, to call Crona and Ragnarok "weak" is a horrible underestimation of their abilities. Their Scream Resonance is powerful enough to slice an entire ghost ship in two and encase the moon itself, and Crona is strong enough to physically open the mouth of said moon via lifting thousands of tons of rock. They can also produce enough black blood to engulf an entire Ukrainian city. They proven themselves time and time again to be a comparable match for the aces of Death Academy: Maka Albarn, Death The Kid, and Black Star, the last of which is fast enough to dodge lasers and cross 20 kilometers in six microseconds, and they did indeed succeed in Medusa's goal to absorb Asura and become a new Kishin. However, they are not without weaknesses. The black blood can be broken through with enough raw force, and Crona's fragile sanity and meekness clashing with Ragnarok's forceful personality have led to them taking their fair share of physical and mental abuse in battle. Indeed, Asura was able to exploit the latter to fight back against the absorption, but their friendship with Maka, despite all their trials and tribulations, gave them the necessary strength to finally strike the final blow against Asura and seal him away once more, ironically becoming the world's savior after a lifetime of destruction.
- Crona: (driving Ragnarok through Maka Albarn's scythe) Just give up. I'm tired of trying to figure out how to deal with you!
With both combatants' unpleasant histories accounted for, everything is set for the battle to begin. One advertisement for Bluechew later, it's time for a death battle!
A quiet church on the countryside has a few sparse candles illuminating its hall, with a single figure before the altar. His prayer is interrupted when the door is thrown open; Crona Gorgon stumbles inside, hoping for the opportunity to be alone. Their query to the seemingly-empty church is interrupted as Ragnarok emerges behind them, reprimanding them for their obliviousness as the praying figure makes to advance; Eddie Brock lets the symbiote envelop him before emerging into the light, and Venom greets the newcomers threateningly, mistaking meister and Demon Weapon for a pair of villains - and therefore, acceptable victims for the Klyntar's hunger.
FIGHT!
Venom leaps towards Crona and Ragnarok; the latter is the one to retaliate, seizing Venom by the neck in mid-flight. As the symbiotic antihero swipes ineffectively at the air, Crona expresses concern about the situation; their Demon Weapon shows no such misgivings, crushing Venom between his hand. One free limb launches a spray of webbing to blind Crona, and Venom uses Ragnarok's subsequent distraction to leap free, the symbiote repairing any harm that Eddie might have suffered from the blow. Shots of Klyntar gunk are launched at Crona as they pry the webbing from their face, and Ragnarok quickly forms a sword with which they may deflect the blows.
In response, Venom sends a pool of fanged tendrils forth from below his shadow; the attack envelops the meister, despite their attempts to leap away. However, despite the brief encasement, their blade quickly punctures the mass, whereupon the mouth of Ragnarok opens in a ferocious scream. The sound shatters the gunk around Crona, but Venom is more durable; tendrils extend from his back to approach Crona, but they simply leap into the air, spinning to deflect the Klyntar's attack before sending a shockwave of concentrated sound racing across the floor in Venom's direction.
Crona follows the projectile, and no sooner has Venom recovered than their sword strikes him, twisting into a whirlwind of slashes. Venom exercises his shapeshifting, deflecting a blow and then leaping over the next before launching another web spray to bind Ragnarok to the nearest wall. Ragnarok simply changes, the Demon Weapon transforming from sword to combatant, and Crona only watches as he lunges at Venom, bombarding him with blows.
The moment he is thrown free, Venom hurls another projectile at Crona, this one leaving enough smoke for him to vanish. Crona and Ragnarok are left clueless to his location before a drip of fluid falls to the ground beside them; Venom is clinging to the church's ceiling, and his tongue quickly swings down to seize Crona's ankle. The meister is dragged skyward, and their Demon Weapon follows as Venom lashes them into the roof and altar of the church before throwing them back towards the entrance.
A dazed moment gives Venom the opportunity to charge forward, forming his hand into a blade that he promptly drives into Crona's neck. What seems for a moment to be a fatal blow turns out to be far more threatening to its inflictor, as a drop of their black blood falls to the ground, shocking Venom. The moon above begins to chuckle as a burst of black blood fills the church, launching both combatants through the roof and into the night sky.
Ragnarok awakens the briefly-incapacitated Crona with a harsh blow before transforming, wings and manifesting as the True Black Dragon. As Crona gathers themself, they notice Venom soaring towards them on demonic wings of his own; they seize one blade in both hands, deflecting Venom's first charge, and as the symbiote recovers two more blades appear at the end of arms of black blood.
The two begin to clash as the moon's amusement fills the night sky with sinister laughter, the two becoming a blur of rushing blows in the air. Venom briefly claims the advantage, knocking Crona to the ground and striking them rapidly before dragging them back into the air; Crona manages to wrest the Klyntar off of them and impales them on one Ragnarok, throwing him back down to the church before hurling projectiles after him.
The symbiote is starting to separate from Eddie, baring his face; after the landing. He tries to assert himself, re-masking his visage as he gets to his feet and proclaims himself darkness and nightmares incarnate - but no sooner has righted himself than thorned vines of black blood surround him. The enraged Crona declares their hatred of their opponent before the vines impale Venom; the meister follows suit, driving all three blades into Eddie's heart, and the Demon Weapon's three mouths open and unleash a soul-shattering screech. The symbiote is torn away, and the body of Eddie Brock shatters, leaving Crona and Ragnarok standing alone in the church. Ragnarok seizes the souls of human and Klyntar, devouring them eagerly.
K.O.!
As Boomstick compares the symbiote's fate to that of his progeny, Wiz proceeds to dive into the post-fight analysis. Although Venom's versatility served him well in keeping his opponent off-guard, he lacked in most other fields; Crona scaling to Black Star puts them at over Mach 9000 speeds, whereas Venom scaling to the Spider-Man of 2099 only affords him Mach 2000 at best. Not only was Crona's exertion of nine trillion tons of Mad Blood well outside Venom's range of durability, but their precision control thereover would serve as an effective defense against any mental manipulation that the symbiote could attempt. And more than any strength feats, Ragnarok's intense sound-based offensive capitalized on one of the Klyntar's weaknesses. Although the Venom symbiote has built up a resistance to sound-based attacks, it barely survived a 244-decibel attack; Ragnarok was able to engulf the moon (of Soul Eater) in its scream, requiring a 275-decibel volume, which due to the logarithmic scale of the unit equates to a superior potency of one thousand times. Ultimately, although Venom did possess skill, they couldn't match up to Crona's power, and Ragnarok had exactly what it took to eliminate Venom.
Wiz: The winner is Crona.
Next- Er, Next time on Death Battle...
Venom vs. Crona features examples of:
- Air Jousting: After the fight takes to the sky, Venom uses his Necroswords to clash with Crona and Ragnarok in an arial duel.
- Ambiguous Gender: Wiz acknowledges that Crona is never referred to by a specific gender and they have both male and females characteristics. Like the anime in Japanese and English, Crona is given an actress to voice their lines in a way that can be perceived as either a young boy or girl.
- The Bus Came Back: Venom returns, all the way from his win over Bane in season four. He ends up keeping the prior season's Back for the Dead streak intact this time, however.
- Call-Back:
- As with previous battles that featured symbiote combatants, Venom taunts his opponent with a singsong melody. Boomstick also points out a resonance between Carnage's fate and Venom's, namely dying to a pink-haired anime character. Finally, the final words in the fight are "I hate you.", but this time it's Crona's Pre-Mortem One-Liner instead of Carnage's "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner.
- Furthermore, this is not the first time that Decibels and their logarithmic scale were used to determine that the victor could overpower their opponent.
- Man of Kryptonite: Most of Crona's attacks are sound based, which, after determining how loud they are, was found to be the perfect weapon to take down Venom.
- Mugging the Monster: Seeing Crona as easy prey, Venom ends up going after them; bad move on his part.
- No Body Left Behind: Being hit with several Scream Resonances at point-blank completely atomizes Eddie and the symbiote, leaving nothing behind but their souls for Ragnarok to devour.
- Power Perversion Potential: Boomstick comes to the obvious conclusion when he learns that Venom's powerset includes Combat Tentacles and Mind Rape.Are we sure this episode's rated E for everyone or do we need to start blurring stuff?
- Running Gag: Boomstick finding the Weird Moon in Soul Eater rather terrifying.
- Shout-Out:
- After pulling a Smoke Out, Venom quotes "This is Halloween".We are the ones hiding under your bed... teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red!
- Venom's wings are taken from sprites of Eddie.
- After pulling a Smoke Out, Venom quotes "This is Halloween".
- Vocal Evolution: Reprising his role from Venom vs Bane, Adam Wennick gives Venom a much deeper voice here instead of how it was done last time, which many felt was more fitting for Carnage.
