Boomstick: And Unicron, almighty chaos-bringer. That's right, it's the day we've all been waiting for!
As 2023 reaches its end, so does the 10th season of the show. Starting the season with the smallest but mightiest heroes alive, the finale now looks at the other side of that coin: a pair of villains cosmic in scale, able to use their immense size and power to devour planets at their leisure. What would happen when these cosmos-consuming colossi cross paths, and which one will be the last titan standing? To answer that question entails a death battle that will cause a big bang.
Before we begin the analysis for our first planet-eater, Wiz posits a question on the nature of evil; Is the wolf that hunts the deer evil, or the bear that kills the wolf, or the man that slays the bear? Is that truly evil, or simply nature? This question is theorised to have been on the mind of Taa-an scientist, Galan in his last moments. One of the most brilliant minds on his homeworld, the advanced paradise of Taa, he was helpless as he watched his universe coming to an end alongside his people, so he and a small group decided that they would die on their own terms by flying a ship into the brightest star left, but instead of being vaporised, Galan would end up merging with the Sentience of the Multiverse as part of a cosmic cycle of death and rebirth. With the old multiverse's death, Galan was no more, reborn with the new multiverse as a being of incomprehensible power, the Devourer of Worlds, Galactus.
Galactus is considered one of the strongest beings in Marvel's cosmology with a singular purpose, eating entire worlds, but calling him strong is an extreme understatement. His mere presence warps a persons perception of reality and in truth, isn't really a physical being with a soul anymore but rather composed of pure energy, the Power Cosmic. While the Power Cosmic can be straightforwardly used as a weapon it's far more flexible, granting Galactus a near infinite pool of knowledge, precognition, matter manipulation, telepathy strong enough to read and control the minds of gods and teleporting entire galaxies across the universe. The Power Cosmic also grants Galactus fundamental control over life itself, from manipulating souls, creating new life from nothing and even resurrecting the dead and due to being entirely composed of it, Galactus can't really be harmed in the traditional physical sense.
Galactus' energy based form also allows him to alter his size and appearance at will, and his form is dependent on the species observing him: Humans see him as a human, Skrulls see him as a skrull and so on. As far as Galactus himself is concerned, seeing him approach is itself the end of the world. The inhabitants only having time to pray to whatever deities they believe in before Galactus consumed their planet, absorbing it's energy and moving on to the next, but despite that, Galactus doesn't enjoy doing such, quite the opposite in fact. If Galactus didn't need to devour worlds he wouldn't but he has to out of necessity since it's the only way his power can be sustained, similarly to how we humans need to eat and drink to live. In summary, much like how the universe is bound by the laws of physics, Galactus is in turn bound by his hunger.
Galactus' hunger has put him in conflict with other beings of similar power, such as the All-father Odin and the Phoenix Force, and his fight with the entities known as the Other and the Scrier nearly tore apart the Marvel multiverse merely as a side-effect of their battle. While Galactus can comfortably travel countless light years in seconds, some of his foes are more abstract concepts than actual living beings, some even operating outside of linear time, such as Annihilus who used Galactus' own energy to destroy two entire universes, even after being drained Galactus still managed to destroy three whole star systems before needing to feed.
On the off-chance Galactus found himself threatened by beings beyond even his power, he used the Power Cosmic to craft a solution, the Ultimate Nullifier. The Ultimate Nullifier works by destroying the target by destroying and recreating the entire multiverse without the target ever having existed at all, such as when he used it on the abstract god of destruction, Abraxas, though the Nullifier was key to Galactus' first defeat on Earth when Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four got his hands on the device and forced him to back down and spare Earth, much to Wiz's confusion, pointing out that the Nullifier is part of Galactus himself; Being made of his own energy, which he can summon to his hand at any time or hide in a pocket dimension if someone tries to use it on him, even having the safety on.
We ultimately come back to the question Wiz asked at the start of the analysis with the true answer for this instance being the slow death of Galactus' humanity as Galan, the one thing that keeps him from simply devouring everything indiscriminately...
In the beginning, before heaven, Earth, light and dark, there was Unicron, created by a formless being known as The One to explore the vast cosmos of the multiverse. Instead of doing this, however, Unicron decided to defy their master and desires to consume everything. The One responded by splitting Unicron into two beings, one of order and hope known as Primus, while the other of chaos and evil inexplicably also called Unicron.
The two beings of opposite ideals began to clash over the fate of existence until Primus tricked Unicron into imprisoning their souls into massive asteroids. While Primus went dormant, turning their meteor into the planet known as Cybertron, Unicron turned theirs into a planet-consuming one, complete with the ability to transform into a massive robot one could only describe as satanic, thus making Unicron the first transformer. With this new body, Unicron continued where their previous form left off, consuming planets and universes alike. Not because out of any hunger or necessity like his opponent, but because Unicron was the embodiment of death and destruction itself, programmed to destroy everything.
As expected for such a deity, Unicron has plenty of ways to wreck havoc and destruction, including a tractor beam, eye lasers, fire breath, a chest cannon, and violent antibodies to deter killing him from the inside. Mind controlling entire races, wiping things from existence and warping space, time, and matter are also among the Chaos Bringer's arsenal, allowing them to repair their body in case it gets damaged or, failing that, they can send their spark, the Transformer equivalent of a soul, out to find a new host. Unicron's Spark in particular is immensely powerful, producing its own energy source known as Dark Energon, which Unicron can form into weapons at any time, including swords and planet-busting lasers.
Dark Energon also corrupts any that consume it, brainwashing them into serving Unicron's will. It's also, naturally, the opposite of Energon, an energy source created by Unicron's equivalent Primus which serves as the powering force for the Transformers, effectively making Unicron powered by the opposite of life. Being the mechanical personification of death, Unicron can't be killed by traditional means, even the normally guaranteed death via destruction of their Spark isn't enough to kill them, as they will continue to exist as a required cosmic force. Any time he's truly destroyed, Unicron will simply reincarnate in another universe, thus making the many depictions of Unicron across Transformer's media more or less the same being.
Unicron's the personification of death and destruction that can't be reasoned with, they won't stop until the entire multiverse is destroyed, and is so incomprehensibly corrupt that they can drive planets worth of people insane with their mere presence. As Wiz recalls from his philosophical questions from Galactus' overview, Unicron is evil itself; incomprehensible, undeniable, inescapable, and unbound by the limits of time or space. The Chaos Bringer is so powerful that they wreck the space time continuum and destroys galaxies simply by moving through them, not by the force they're generating, but by the overwhelming evil of their being. Unicron has been devouring universes one at a time for aeons, with estimations of the Transformer's multiverse going from 15 quadrillion universes, to an infinite amount of universes, alternate timelines and planes of existence.
Despite all of this power, Unicron has been stopped many times, mainly thanks to the Matrix of Leadership, the essence of Primus themself and the embodiment of hope and light in the universe, which is the exact opposite of the evil and darkness Unicron embodies, just as unknown to them as they are to us. While heroic transformers like Optimus Prime have beaten back Unicron time and time again, Unicron has emerged from the rubble of defeat. Even after he was seemingly destroyed for good thanks to a united effort from Autobots, Decepticons and Minicons beings made from Unicron's cells, Galvatron's hatred for Optimus brought Unicron back to life.
Destroying Unicron is nigh-impossible thanks to the fact that they embody destruction and chaos, and to accomplish such a feat would be paradoxical. Every act of violence, war, cruelty, and even episodes of this very show gives the Chaos Bringer life, the life they will use to end all of existence.
Wiz: Jesus, now you've got me scared...
After an advertisement for the episode's second sponsor of the DEATH BATTLE! tabletop game, these two planetary predators are now ready to face off, and, for the last time of 2023, it's time for the death battle you've been asking for forever!
The scene opens with Galactus again preparing to devour Earth, saying that "As all things must, your world has come to an end." However, before he can begin, a shadow falls over his face, as a metallic orb approaches from the other half of Earth. Reaching out, Galactus proclaims that this planet is his to consume. "So sayeth Galactus, Destroyer of Worlds." However, the other party decrees his own intent to eat as "Unicron, Chaos-Bringer." Galactus blasts the orb away, but Unicron rallies and transforms into Unicron's robot form. He grabs Earth, and shoves it into Galactus's face, destroying it.
FIGHT!
Angered, Galactus then punches Unicron, remarking Unicron is too eager in asking for oblivion's embrace. Unicron in turn grabs Galactus's horns, and knees him, saying I AM Oblivion!. He then punches Galactus away, who responds by flinging countless planets at Unicron.
Unicron is battered by the planetary barrage, each breaking apart into countless pieces as they hit his planet-sized frame. Unfazed, Unicron ups the ante, sizeshifting to stellar scales and grabbing a nearby sun, throwing it at Galactus. Undaunted, Galactus casually matches Unicron in size and swats the sun away with a backfist, before charging towards Unicron. Unicron grabs another sun, this time crushing it with his bare metal hands into a black hole just in time for him to strike Galactus in the stomach with it like a knuckle-duster.
Galactus recovers quickly and hammer fist Unicron away, before firing a huge beam of energy at Unicron. Unicron is briefly bathed in cosmic energy, before he charges up and fire back his own beam of dark energon back at Galactus, the two attacks colliding between them. The Beam-O-War lasted for a few seconds before the accumulated power between them exploded like a million supernovas. Unicron barely gets a second to recover from the blinding light before being punched in the face by Galactus again, pushing him back.
Changing tactics, Unicron summoned his energy sword, and swung it just as Galactus fires another beam attack. The Sword Beam Unicron created cuts through the blast and strikes Galactus in the abdomen, cutting him in half. Galactus gasps in pain, before his whole body decomposed into a cloud of energy. The universe stood still for a moment... Before a voice thunders from within it.
"I am the Power Cosmic incarnate... not so easily felled!"
Galactus punctuates his point by rematerialising and punching Galactus straight through the chest of Unicron, his fist coming through his back. Unicron attempts to blast him back with an energy beam from his mouth, but Galactus is unfazed, slamming his other hand into Unicron's waist and cutting Unicron in half with another blast of energy. Galactus watched as the star-sized wreck of Unicron's body goes dark and a glowing wisp of baleful purple streaked away into the distant stellar cluster.
"Fleeing so readily, Unicron?" Galactus crowed with bemusement.
"No devourer..." Unicron's echoing voice from the distance quickly put out Galactus' sense of triumph, "TRANSFORMING."
Before Galactus' wide eyes, countless planets, stars, nebulas and other celestial bodies are pulled into the distant spark of Unicron, gathering and twisting into a titanic mass. When the light faded, Galactus stared up at a now even more titanic Unicron, now bigger than even galaxies.
"BEG NOT FOR MERCY. BEHOLD BLACKENED SKIES" Unicron gloated, his voice echoing throughout the cosmos. Just then the wave of power from his transformation hits Galactus and the galaxies around him, sweeping away the latter like a tidal wave, "AGAINST MINE CHAOS, EVEN GODS WILL DIE!"
Galactus summons a bolt of Power Cosmic and blasts Galactus in the face, to no effect. Galactus' body glowed - but Unicron interrupts the Devourer of World's next action by launches his hand forward, his very presence destroying entire galaxies as he does so. Unicron grabs Galactus, then uses his other hand to blast him with a titanic Dark Energon beam.
Galactus is buffeted for a moment... before he successfully completed his transformation, shifting his size to match Unicron's own intergalactic enormity, breaking free from Unicron's grasp. "GALACTUS MEETS YOUR CHALLENGE, HEARS YOUR CALL!" Galactus declares defiantly, even as he wallops Unicron in the face repeatedly, "THIS WORLD, WE WILL BRING DESTRUCTION TO IT ALL!"
The two trade punches, each blow shaking the cosmos. Unicron throws a galaxy at Galactus with a grab and throw, who responds by using his power to accelerate several more back at Unicron. Both come out of the attacks unfazed. Unicron declares "THE END, DESTRUCTION, PURE FINALITY. IN FIRST AND LAST, TRUE IMMORTALITY!", believing he cannot be destroyed by anyone, before unleashing yet another powerful energy beam at Galactus, who this time absorbs it with a shield big as galaxy clusters.
Seemingly realising the Chaos-Bringer's true nature now and declaring he "have no patience left", Galactus summons his Ultimate Nullifier. Seeing this, Unicron abandons the Beam-O-War and his intergalactic form, his Spark surging towards Galactus and his weapon, possessing the latter. Galactus looks upon the possessed Nullifier and stated simply that Unicron has no idea what sort of power he is possessing. Unicron replies he does, before activating it.
Reality cracks and glows white, the whole multiverse swirling into oblivion. The only thing left is the Ultimate Nullifier floating through the blank void. Unicron's voice resounds from it, re-forming his planet-sized robot form even as reality itself reforms into existence. Unicron is satisfied - he declares he has won...
Only for a crack in reality to appear behind him. Unicron turns to find, to his shock, a much bigger Galactus tearing his way out of the pocket reality he had hid in to avoid his own weapon's effect.
"I'VE SEEN YOUR POWER, BRINGER OF CHAOS, YET BY MY VIGOR THOU HAST MUCH NEED." Galactus makes his judgement of Unicron known. Before Unicron can react, Galactus uses his matter-energy conversion power directly on the Chaos-Bringer, and Unicron is unable to resist its effects. Unicron is decomposed into energy, and his screaming Spark is drawn into Galactus' palms and form along with everything else. With this act, Galactus finishes his declaration, and with it the battle, "WITNESS THE LAST FATE THAT AWAITS YOU THUS, FOR ALMIGHTY GALACTUS MUST NOW FEED!''
KO!
With the Chaos-Bringer reduced to nothingness and a galaxy ready to serve as the Devourer of Worlds' next meal, Wiz and Boomstick begin their final breakdown for the year. Both Galactus and Unicron have existed since time immemorial and are capable of rewriting reality on a whim, so the only way to determine who would win came down to who was ultimately stronger. Given the sizes of their universes' cosmologies, each combatant was capable of destroying a near infinite-amount of multiverses, but while Unicron could only consume one universe at a time, Galactus' battles with similarly powerful beings such as the Other threatened the Marvel multiverse itself as mere side effects - only made more impressive considering that Marvel's own multiverse dwarfs Transformers' by a large amount. Following this, Galactus also had more experience in actually fighting foes who could challenge him; Unicron may be the most powerful being in Transformers, but this meant he really could not prepare himself for such an encounter.
While Unicron could attempt to corrupt Galactus via Dark Energon, Galactus could likely resist its effects; he has no soul to corrupt, he has successfully fought off various mental attacks before, and energy sources similar to Dark Energon have outright failed against him before. On the flip side, Unicron had no means to survive the effects of the Ultimate Nullifier. He has survived the destruction of his Spark in the past, but the Ultimate Nullifier is more thorough in its destruction, as the hosts bring up how it defeated Abraxas, a being that represented the multiverse's destruction... much like Unicron himself; conversely, even if Unicron could somehow turn the device against its owner, Galactus could escape the Nullifier's effects by opening up a pocket dimension to wait until the universe was reborn. Thus, with all compared, Galactus simply had all the necessary tools needed to lay claim as the superior deific destructor en route to victory.
Wiz: The winner is Galactus!
Next season on Death Battle, another Champion-decided bout...
"Galactus VS Unicron" contains examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Unicron and Galactus are humongous in their base forms, and they only continue to grow in size as the battle goes on.
- Badass Boast: Nearly every single line of dialog from both Unicron and Galactus is a grand boast of their power.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the end of the fight it looks like Unicron successfully turned the Ultimate Nullifier against Galactus, only for Galactus to survive by hiding himself in a pocket dimension and emerging from to deliver the finishing blow to Unicron.
- Beam-O-War: Engaged multiple times by both combatants, Power Cosmic clashing against Dark Energon.
- Big Fish in a Bigger Ocean: The crux of Galactus' victory. Unicron may be the pinnacle of power in the Transformers universe, but he also hasn't had as many opportunities to fight opponents on his level compared to Galactus who has on multiple occasions fought opponents who are capable of matching him in battle.
- Bittersweet Ending: Earth is gone, denying both world consumers their meal, and entire galaxies are devastated and destroyed in the fight between the cosmic entities. However, in his victory Galactus had removed a greater evil from and a terrible threat to the entire multiverse, likely saving all of existence. Unicron would not be able to return anytime soon, if at all, and now that Unicron has made himself known, if Unicron ever manages to escape or recover Galactus is one Ultimate Nullifier activation away from wiping him out for good.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: As terrifying as these two are, Galactus still has some of his decent mortal self within him and wouldn't be devouring planets if it wasn't necessary for his survival. Unicron, on the other hand, is a vicious Killer Robot who thoroughly enjoys the havoc he causes.
- Bookends: Two examples.
- The season premiere featured two superheroes known for their ability to shrink, which ended with the combatants growing to cosmic scale. The finale features two villains so huge that they can devour planets and who only get larger as the fight goes on. On top of this, both episodes were won by their respective Marvel representatives with the loser suffering a case of No Body Left Behind (Ant-Man blowing The Atom up completely with enlarging ants and Galactus destroying Unicron's physical body and eating his soul for good measure).
- Also works as one to the first season finale. The first Goku vs. Superman fight featured two superpowered beings gradually escalating the scale of their fight until the entire earth was destroyed as a result of their clash. The tenth and possibly final season finale ends with a fight between two planet eaters that starts with the earth being destroyed and gradually escalates until all of reality is destroyed (and recreated) as a result of their clash. Also, both losers die in such a way that there's No Body Left Behind.
- Combat Pragmatist: In contrast to the more dignified and principled Galactus, Unicron does not hesitate to use every dirty trick in the book to gain an edge in the fight, such as smashing Earth and throwing suns at Galactus, crushing another star into a black hole to use as an improvised knuckle-duster, attempting to grab and blast Galactus in a more powerful form before Galactus can do the same, and possessing Galactus' own Ultimate Nullifier to try and destroy him with it.
- Continuity Nod: At the end of Unicron's analysis, while Wiz explains how Unicron persists As Long as There Is Evil, a shot from the climax of "Black Adam VS Apocalypse" is included to illustrate the point.
- Doomsday Device: Galactus' Ultimate Nullifier qualifies as one, and likely lives up to its name as the ultimate weapon with its ability to unmake and remake the multiverse without the target. Post-battle analysis suggests had Galactus manages to use it against Unicron, it would had DEFINITIVELY kill him Deader than Dead with no hope for resurrection or reincarnation, since as demonstrated with Abraxas (the embodiment of the multiverse's destruction) in Marvel Comics it works against even supposedly unkillable abstract cosmic entities who embodies the very concepts making up reality, remaking reality to account for their absence - meaning it could work against even the multiversal personification of evil, chaos and destruction itself like Unicron.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Happens within the first minute of the fight. As soon as Unicron transforms into his humanoid form, he cracks the entire Earth upon Galactus like a common rock.
- Evil Is Petty: After transforming into his humanoid form, Unicron grabbed and smashed Earth over Galactus as the opening shot of their fight, denying them both their meal for no conceivable reason beyond spite. Galactus himself lampshades this.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Less evil and more Anti-Villain in Galactus' case, but while Galactus consumes planets as part of a natural life cycle and because it sustains him, Unicron consumes planets out of rabid hunger and sheer sadism, making one of the two less villainous than the other. Evil manages to triumph over Oblivion.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Galactus's calm, fearless reaction to Unicron possessing his greatest weapon is a strong indicator that he'll survive the Ultimate Nullifier being used against him.
- Foreshadowing: In Galactus' analysis, Wiz states the Ultimate Nullifier has several contingencies put into place in the event someone uses it against Galactus, and even if someone did use it on him, he'd just hide in a pocket dimension to escape its effects. This ultimately shows that Unicron using the Ultimate Nullifier against Galactus is doomed to fail.
- Frame Break: The fight animation is presented in a letterbox format. When Unicron activates the Ultimate Nullifer and Galactus escapes from his pocket dimension, the effects of their actions pass into the video's black bars.
- Godzilla Threshold: With the fight going nowhere and perhaps realising Unicron's true nature, at the climax of their battle Galactus decides to summon his Ultimate Nullifier, which works by completely destroying the multiverse and then remaking it without the target. Galactus would had utterly annihilated Unicron then and there were it not for Unicron possessing and attempting to use it against Galactus.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: During the fight Unicron cuts Galactus in half. Galactus simply reforms his body and retaliates by ripping Unicron in half, causing his spark to fly out and craft a new body.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Unicron attempts to pull this on Galactus by possessing the Ultimate Nullifier and firing it upon him, but the Lifebringer thwarts him by slipping into his pocket dimension, later breaking out of it to deal Unicron his own ironic demise.
- I Am the Noun: After Unicron pettily destroys the Earth, Galactus declares he earned death for that. Unicron responds thus.Galactus: Madness! So quick to pay for oblivion's embrace.
Unicron: I am oblivion! - If I Can't Have You…: Unicron smashes the Earth against Galactus rather than let him be the one to consume it.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Downplayed in the fight animation. Whenever Unicron's physical body is destroyed, his will and Spark will simply leave for another body to inhabit or enter a different universe. Galactus not only destroys his current body, but also eats his spirit as well, ensuring the Chaos Bringer is dead for good... for now, as it's noted even with the destruction of his Spark, Unicron will eventually be reborn thanks to being the Anthropomorphic Personification of hate, evil, and destruction, even if in a different part in the multiverse.
- Played straight in the post-analysis, where it's noted that Ultimate Nullifier would inflict this on Unicron if it successfully hits despite his absurd unkillability, with Unicron only avoiding this fate in the fight animation by stealing the Nullifier before Galactus can actually fire it at him and Galactus subsequently going for his different killing move. This combined with Galactus's own defenses against the Nullifier being turned against him is the major factor in Unicron's loss.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: One of the decisive factors in Galactus' victory. In the Marvel multiverse, Galactus has serious competition and has fought several Reality Warpers capable of as much destruction as he is. Unicron, on the other hand, is the biggest threat in his home multiverse and has very little in the way of competition. Furthermore, Galactus has rarely been truly defeated by lesser beings; his "losses" are mostly the heroes tricking him or pushing him back to where he willingly leaves them alone. Unicron, on the other hand, has been defeated on numerous occasions due to both trickery and the Transformers using The Power of Friendship, which Wiz states is Unicron's anathema. Adding to this is the fact the Transformers multiverse itself simply can’t compare to the sheer scale of the Marvel multiverse, which contains an infinite number of infinite multiverses.
- No-Sell: Unicron at the climax attempted to possess and use the Ultimate Nullifier against Galactus. At first it seemed like it worked... only for Galactus to reappear right behind him from the pocket universe he hid to escape its effects to deliver the finishing blow.
- Planet Destroyer: Both Galactus and Unicron destroy planets in their respective franchises for their own reasons. They end up not only destroying Earth but WAY more than that in their battle.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Galactus and Unicron begin rhyming their dialogue midway through the fight, as if they're reciting epic poetry about their own confrontation. More accurately, it is iambic pentameter often found in works like Shakespeare's plays, and serve to both highlight their transcendent intellect and also as a Shout-Out to Stan Lee's use of them for his characters in Marvel Comics.
- Season Finale: Of DEATH BATTLE!'s tenth season.
- Serial Escalation: The battle begins with Unicron and Galactus smashing Earth and throwing planets at each other. Then they grew in size and used suns or use attacks powerful enough to destroy suns. Then things get crazier as they assume the size of galaxies and weaponise or destroy them as incidental collateral to their throwdown. The fight culminates with the use of the Ultimate Nullifier, which destroys and recreates the entire Multiverse in a single stroke.
- Sizeshifter: Both Galactus and Unicron are titanic god-like beings with celestial-sized forms, which grows as they took their fight to the next level - both started out bigger than Earth, and ends it dwarfing entire galaxies.
