This is a DynaMic Network Podcast.

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

I'm Marvelist Joe.

And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC.

And in the countdown to the final episodes of this podcast, we're at number 6, that means there are 5 episodes left after this one.

Which is Parasite versus Sauron, the Superman villain against the X-Men villain?

Yeah, he's basically a pterodactyl man who lives in the savage land and also, like Parasite, has the ability to drain the life energy from his victims through contact.

Yeah, you mentioned last episode that it was a crime that we had not yet gotten to a Shadowcat duel.

It is an even bigger crime that it took us so long to get to a Parasite duel.

He's like one of Superman's biggest villains.

Nah, to me that's more like a misdemeanor, whereas not getting to Kitty Pride was basically a felony on behalf of the show.

Well not getting to Parasite is a felony with a higher sentencing, I don't know.

Before we get into that matchup guys, where we input the character stats and run simulations to find out who would win, we're going to break down the latest comic book movie news that came out this past week, of which we have one news item and that is the Supergirl official teaser trailer.

As always, we list our segment of 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.

Hello, these are the final episodes of Dynamic Jules Weekly Podcast, leading up to our grand finale on January 20th.

We hope you've enjoyed the past 10 years of Marvel and DC Jules and reviews, and we'd love for you to stick with us as we count down these last episodes.

We're inviting you, the listener, to help us close out the show by visiting dynamicjule.com over the next few weeks and clicking the red microphone button in the bottom right corner to leave us a voicemail that we'll play during the final episode.

Tell us what first got you into DC or Marvel, how long you've been listening, a favorite episode or moment, or anything else you want to share about what the podcast has meant to you.

Your messages will be aired and responded to on the January 20th finale.

Again, head to dynamicjule.com and leave your final message.

We would love to hear from you.

Pip Pip Cheerio.

Thanks, AJ9K, and thanks to everyone who takes the time to call in and leave a voicemail.

Be sure to tune into the other shows and the Dynamite 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 found out who would win between Lancer Big Daddy from Bioshock and Paladin Dance from Fallout.

Over on the Max Destruction Podcast, hosts Scotty and Gilly pit your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other.

On Thursday, the Macho Twins are learning who would win in a fight between Dex from Predator Badlands and the Mandalorian.

And on the Sanjo World Podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters.

In his next episode, Zach is revealing who would win between Shigio Kageyama, aka Mob, from Mob Psycho 100, and Tatsumaki, the tornado of terror from One Punch Man.

Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamite Podcast Network.

But now that that's done, on to the news.

OK, so last week, DC unveiled the official teaser trailer for the Supergirl film, which is coming out June 26th next year.

Of course, we saw Supergirl at the very end of the Superman movie that came earlier this summer.

She took crypto with her at the end of the movie, and now she's going to have her own adventure.

Crypto kicks off this trailer, which is nice to see because I was a huge fan of the character in the Superman movie.

What was not nice to see was how filthy the living condition Supergirl lives in is.

Dog piss and alcohol all over the floor.

Bitch, you nasty.

Yeah, I can smell it through the screen almost.

It's not pleasant, but that's her character, right?

She's kind of depressed.

Yeah, and the women of tomorrow graphic novel, she is depressed, having lost crypto and having witnessed the loss of it, which we partly see in this trailer as the city that she lived in erects a force field to protect the city.

It doesn't fully work.

I think the ground shielding didn't protect them from the radiation.

But the line that Ruthie asks when what was it like to lose everything in a day and Supergirl responds with Krypton didn't die in a day.

The gods aren't that kind.

It was actually a line from the comic, and I really liked the way that Millie Alcock delivered it here.

She's going to do a pretty good job as Supergirl.

I feel like especially this version of Supergirl, who again is depressed and just kind of trying to fight it back with alcoholism, essentially, when she's celebrating her 23rd birthday and saying it's going to be the best yet, although that's not a hard bar to clear.

You really felt it in her performance.

Yeah, I think she's going to do better with the drama in the role, better than the action, I think.

Although, you know, Kryptonians, they don't need to be buff.

It's not where they get their strength from.

I think my issue with Millie Alcock is just how she's selling the action more than do I believe she's actually doing this stuff?

Oh, I'm not even going to disagree with you.

Like when she's going up against the guys in that bar brawl with like the axe, it wasn't really convincing that she was going to be able to take them, especially since it appeared they were able to match her strength wise.

And then at the very end, when she's like pulling on that machine connected to a cable, I was like, I don't think you quite sold that there.

Well, I think maybe that was a special effects issue at the end there because centrifugal force doesn't work that way.

Like the string would have to be taught going straight out in order for her to maintain that swinging momentum.

It was just strange.

Right.

Yeah.

Like physics wise, she would just be pulling that piece of machinery toward her and not in an arc.

Exactly.

I think it's just hard for people to believe that this character has the strength to swing a battle axe with one arm when it looks like the actress is struggling to do that herself.

I'm guessing the more physical stuff will be done with CGI.

And of course, there's always her powers like heat vision, which we get to see in this trailer, along with characters like Kram of the Yellow Hills, who is the villain of this movie.

And Lobo, played by Jason Momoa.

We don't get a good look at him.

But from what we do see, holy shit, he's going to nail this.

He was born to play this role.

Yeah, it was just a brief glimpse, but it looks spot on.

Regarding the look of the movie as a whole, Jonathan, how do you feel about DC straight up Xeroxing Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy?

And they're not doing anything with it anymore.

May as well continue the franchise over at DC.

I mean, I was actually really surprised as to how much this looked like Guardians of the Galaxy, considering the fact it's not directed by James Gunn.

It's directed by Craig Gillespie, who also directed films like I Tania and Corella, which I thought were great movies.

Well, it's just confusing me because when I look at the Woman of Tomorrow comic, it's a gorgeous looking book.

It's very colorful, very organic looking alien worlds, almost pastel in its color palette.

This is not that.

These are straight up reused Guardians of the Galaxy sets.

That wouldn't surprise me.

I'm guessing the director, maybe at the behest of James Gunn, wanted to make it look more like a James Gunn movie so that it looks like it fit more with the world that the Superman movie established, as opposed to looking more like the comic, which is very alien, very organic, very colorful, like you mentioned.

Well, does that mean that every DCU project in live action is going to have to look like James Gunn made it?

Like, is the upcoming Clayface movie going to be like Slyther or something like that?

Oh, dude, I hope so.

You just sold me on that.

I guess I was the wrong comparison.

All in all, I think this was a good teaser, not the best teaser I've ever seen by any means.

But it was enough, I think, to get people excited.

And honestly, I can't wait to see people's reactions and theaters to this.

Right now, I only know my reaction and like my daughters.

They're excited.

I'm excited.

So when you say that this teaser was enough to get people excited, are you referring specifically to just you and your daughters?

Because I don't know anybody else who's excited by this.

Not even people on the discord got excited by this.

There was like zero conversation about it.

To be fair, I was in the hospital the day this came out.

So I would have been talking about it a lot.

Why are you giving us your excuses?

Because I was in pain in the ER.

Again, why are you giving us your excuses?

Because I have them to give.

Well, you're out of the hospital within like a day.

So maybe you should be talking about this on the discord.

It's also been my daughter's birthdays for the past two days.

Oh, my God, so many excuses.

Yeah, bro.

Yeah.

You can't judge the success of a trailer based on how many people are talking about it in our own podcasts discord.

I've seen plenty of discussion online about it.

Most of it is good.

Like I said, no one thinks this is the greatest teaser trailer of all time, but it's passable.

All right.

It's like a B minus.

That's DC for you.

That's DC.

I can't wait for the new Avengers Doomsday teasers that are coming to theaters.

Apparently there's going to be four different teasers and they're all going to be attached in front of Avatar, Fire and Ash in theaters.

Are you serious?

I did not know that.

So it looks like I'm going to go see Avatar four times in theaters and hope I get to see each one.

You're going to have to go to like four different theaters.

I don't know, man.

It's kind of bullshit.

That reeks of desperation, I must say.

For Avatar.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Yeah.

I'll just wait till it's all online.

Well, we'll see if that happens.

Maybe it'll be recorded by somebody on their phone or something.

Who knows?

It better be.

When is Avengers coming out next December?

OK, well, I imagine the teaser for that is going to be super, super short compared to this one.

Yeah.

Of course, Supergirl again, comes out next summer on June 26th.

So look forward to our review of it then.

Right, because it'll come out after this podcast ends, but we're still going to be reviewing new films when they come out.

That's right.

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 Superman villain, Parasite and the X-Men villain, Sauron.

All right, Parasite versus Sauron, these are both parasitic beings, obviously.

I mean, the guy's name is Parasite, but in the sense that they absorb or siphon life energy from their victims, it makes them stronger and Sauron that manifests differently, I think, than like someone like Rogue or Parasite, because although Sauron can obtain the mutant powers of people he siphons life energy from, largely, it gives him the ability to like shoot out the energy he absorbs in the form of like thermal energy, which is pretty unique.

Oh, like lasers?

No, like it looks more like electricity that comes from his hands or fire from his mouth.

Interesting.

I did not know that.

Actually, I don't really know anything about Sauron.

He's a pretty dope villain.

Like out of all the characters from the Savage Land that we could have gone with, I guess we probably should have gone with Khazar or K-Zar, however you want to pronounce it.

But in the end, I'm glad we went with Sauron, largely because what defines the Savage Land are its dinosaurs, its prehistoric life.

And also, he's probably just the biggest badass.

That's like not human to come out of there.

Yeah, for a while we were considering pitting Khazar or Khazar against either Warlord or Commandy, which I think would have been cool.

That would have been cool.

This is better.

Yeah, if we never did a Parasite duel in these 10 years, I would have been really pissed off.

We would have failed as a podcast.

Pretty much, pretty much.

I think there are many versions of Parasite that have existed.

So I'll be interested in seeing which one you go with.

It'll be Rudy Jones.

He's the primary one, I would say.

Although, I'll go into the backstory of a few others.

OK.

The movie adaptation of this guy was very confusing, I have to say.

But also hella good, am I right?

Before we get into their backstories to explain the methodology behind our duels, let's go to our sentient duel simulator Alfred Jarvis 9000.

AJ9K tell our listeners how you go about determining a winner in our duel matchups.

Yes, of course, sir.

The way I determine a winner between the contestants is by running 1000 Monte Carlo simulations using the characters statistics.

A Monte Carlo simulation is a probabilistic model used to determine outcomes through random sampling.

In this case, I randomize the statistics along a normal distribution as a way to simulate the many variables that can occur during battle.

The stat parameters are based on the official Marvel power grid from which the DC characters statistics are extrapolated.

Additional stat categories are included such as range, damage potential, versatility and perception in order to create a more detailed and accurate simulation.

The results of the 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 a fan vote is tabulated for determination of the winner.

Thanks, AJ9K.

Before we run the simulations, though, we 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 I believe it's my turn to go first with the Marvel character backstory.

So let me tell you all about Sauron.

Millions of years ago, in the era of dinosaurs and the supercontinent Pangea, an alien race called the New Wally constructed a refuge for Earth's prehistoric life in what is now Antarctica.

When an asteroid impact wiped out most of dinosaur life, this preserve remained protected, allowing its ancient species to survive unchanged.

Over time, shifting geological land masses and glaciation formed an enormous crater that concealed what came to be known as the Savageland.

Spanning 350 square miles, its sheer icy walls isolated the tropical basin from the frozen continent around it, hiding the region for millennia, except through secret tunnels, though pockets of early man did stumble upon the Savageland, becoming its native inhabitants.

In modern times, Carl Lycos was born the son of an explorer and spent his early youth accompanying his father on expeditions.

As a teenager, he joined his father on a journey to Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago at South America's southernmost tip.

There, they assisted a wealthy client, Dr.

Anderson and his daughter, Tanya.

During his expedition, Tanya wandered into a cave and was attacked by mutant pterodactyls that originated from the prehistoric Savageland.

Carl intervened, driving the creatures off with his walking stick, but in the struggle, he was bitten.

Dr.

Anderson saved Carl's life, but the wound left him changed.

During his recovery, Carl discovered that he could drain the life force of living beings through touch, accidentally killing his dog.

The need for this life energy became persistent, and in secret, he found himself periodically compelled to extract it from animals to survive.

After Carl's father died shortly after the expedition, Dr.

Anderson took him into his home as thanks for saving Tanya.

Over the years, Carl and Tanya grew close, but her father forbade a relationship due to Carl's lack of wealth, determined to win his approval.

Carl pursued medical training and became a physician, geneticist and hypnotherapist.

He treated patients with hypnosis while secretly siphoning their energy, rationalizing that he took only enough to weaken, never to kill.

During this period, he collaborated with Professor Charles Xavier, who became aware of Carl's condition, but kept his secret.

When Havoc was nearly killed after losing control of his powers in a battle with sentinels, the X-Men brought him to Carl's Manhattan practice, believing him trustworthy due to Xavier's association.

You can learn more about Havoc and the X-Men in their respective duels against the Ray and the Titans.

While treating Havoc, Carl siphoned part of his life force, but absorbing mutant energy triggered an unprecedented transformation.

He mutated into a half humanoid pterodactyl with human intelligence and powerful hypnotic abilities.

Shocked, he attacked the X-Men before escaping to Dr.

Anderson's home in an attempt to plead for Tanya's hand in marriage.

However, Tanya and her father recognized Carl for the monster he had become, forcing him to flee.

Carl returned to Tierra de Fuego, where horrified by his actions, he attempted to starve himself to death.

However, Tanya pursued him, arriving with the X-Men close behind.

Carl felt the pull to drain Tanya's life energy, but instead ran, falling over a cliff, unable to locate him.

Tanya and the X-Men presumed Carl dead.

However, he survived unconscious on a ledge below and eventually wandered through subterranean passages into the Savage Land.

There, he lived in human form by feeding only on lesser animals, keeping his Sauron persona at bay.

He became an ally to the Jungle Lord, Khazar, and provided medical care to his companions for many months.

When the X-Men later became stranded in the Savage Land, the presence of mutant life energy overwhelmed him, and he preyed on the team.

After absorbing Storm's energy, he reverted into Sauron again, though he soon returned to human form.

After the X-Men departed, Magneto took an interest in the Savage Land and began experimenting on local inhabitants, creating a mutated army to help him control the region.

However, his campaign was stopped by Khazar.

Tanya eventually learned Carl had survived the fall and traveled to the Savage Land with Archangel and Spider-Man.

They found him, but the Savage Land mutates captured them and used one of Magneto's genetic transformers to mutate Archangel, Spider-Man, and Tanya into animalistic forms.

When the machine was destroyed, Carl drained their altered life energies to restore them.

The process worked, but he involuntarily transformed into Sauron again and joined the mutates in opposing the X-Men.

The X-Men defeated them and returned Carl to the United States, where Professor Xavier appeared to cure him.

Carl and Tanya reunited, hoping to build a normal life.

The attempt ended when the mutant Toad abducted Carl and Tanya in order to recruit Sauron into his new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, whom you've learned more about in their duel against the Flash Rogues.

Toad forced Carl to drain Tanya's life energy, killing her and transforming Carl into Sauron once more.

Enraged, Sauron joined the Brotherhood and helped them attack X-Force, Cable then shot Sauron and discarded his body, though he eventually recovered.

He later battled X-Factor, marking the beginning of several renewed clashes with the X-Men.

You can learn more about Toad in his duel against the Trickster and more about X-Force and X-Factor in their respective duels against the Outsiders and the Freedom Fighters.

Sauron returned to the Savage Land and took leadership of the Mutates.

In one effort to increase his power, he had them kidnap Havoc, hoping to use his energy to sustain himself.

When Cyclops, Phoenix, and Polaris attempted a rescue, Sauron placed both Summers Brothers in an energy transfer device.

The combined energies mutated him further, enlarging him and increasing his strength.

Phoenix confronted Carl on the psychic Astral Plane, where his human consciousness seized control and cast his Sauron persona into an internal abyss.

As a result, Sauron's physical form became trapped in a feral, non-sentient state.

Sauron later recovered fragments of his human mind and used this clarity to escape the Savage Land by stowing away Ancazar's transport to New York.

He sought out the X-Men again, but was defeated and turned over to Shield.

Eventually, he was incarcerated within the Weapon X program, subjected to their experimentation, and forced to capture and recruit other mutants, though the program eventually collapsed.

Carl was then held in the superhuman prison called the Raft, where he escaped during a jailbreak, prompting the Avengers to pursue him back to the Savage Land.

After briefly holding the New Avengers team hostage alongside the mutates, Sauron was shot in the head by Black Widow.

He survived by having previously absorbed Wolverine's healing factor.

During the Skrull's secret invasion of Earth and their infiltration of the Savage Land, Sauron fought the Skrulls alongside Khazar, his wife Shanna, their pet Sabertooth Tiger Zabu, and the native tribes.

Sauron later appeared at a gathering of Wolverine's enemies, hosted by Sabertooth, where Wolverine fought and defeated the assembled villains.

Sauron then joined the Hellfire Club's new school, the Hellfire Academy, as a staff member, serving as the school's science instructor.

Sauron eventually partnered with Dr.

Vincent Stegron, a former Shield scientist who experimented with dinosaur DNA recovered from the Savage Land.

Together, they plan to transform humanity into dinosaurs, battling Spiderman and students from the Jean Grey School.

Their alliance crumbled due to jealousy over their infatuation with the student Shark Girl, leading to an internal conflict that caused their powers to cancel out, petrifying both.

Later, Carl resumed laboratory work to enhance control over his transformations.

Now able to store mutant energy, he transformed into Sauron at will and confronted the Scarlet Spider, a clone of Spiderman before being defeated and restrained for authorities.

However, he escaped and maintained a lab in Staten Island, helping defend it against Null, a dark primordial deity you can learn more about in his duel with White Lantern.

Joining his fellow mutants on the Sentient Island nation of Krakowa, Carl then joined the team X-Men Green, which took an environmentalist stance, fighting on behalf of planet Earth.

After the fall of Krakowa, Carl returned to the Savage Land, where he was later imprisoned by Khazar.

And that's his backstory.

Powers-wise, Sauron is a mutate with the ability to drain life energy or any thermal energy source directed at him through touch contact.

Initially, the energy would involuntarily transform Carl into a pterodactyl form, though through his medical and genetics expertise, he developed the ability to transform at will by storing the energy in his cells.

With his pterodactyl physiology, he gains enhanced strength, able to lift around 10 tons, durability, and flight.

He has a beak full of sharp teeth along with talons on his hands and feet.

Siphoning a victim's life energy leaves them feeling drained, and Sauron can expel excess energy from his mouth via fire breathing or energy emissions through his hands.

With his eyes, Sauron can hypnotize victims to induce hallucinations.

When he drains mutants, he absorbs their mutant powers temporarily, though to a lesser extent than rogue.

If he runs out of energy, he will revert back to his human form.

The extent of his intelligence while in pterodactyl mode varies.

He typically retains his intellect as Sauron Okay, so he is a little bit more going for him than I initially thought.

Good.

I also forgot that he had a human form.

I thought he was just full pterodactyl all the time.

Nope.

Initially, he was supposed to be like a bat creature, but they couldn't get that past the comics code authority because that would have been too vampire like.

So the writers turned him into a pterodactyl, which in turn influenced the entire savage land to be a prehistoric refuge.

Interesting.

Well, that sounds like it would have been too close to Morbius anyway.

Right, exactly.

Well, now that we've heard about Sauron, let's get to the character everyone's here for.

Parasite.

The earliest individual to bear the name Parasite was Raymond Maxwell Jensen, a laborer whose exposure to radioactive material at a research facility mutated his body into a parasitic organism capable of absorbing life energy, memories, and powers through physical contact.

Jensen repeatedly confronted Superman, draining portions of Kryptonian power before his body destabilized and disintegrated.

Though believed destroyed multiple times, Jensen's cells repeatedly reconstituted, establishing that a human body could persist as a living energy absorbing entity.

Years later, a new incarnation emerged in Rudolph Rudy Jones, a janitor employed at the Pittsburgh branch of Star Labs.

Believing valuable materials were hidden within secured waste containers, Rudy forced one open and was exposed to experimental radiation.

The accident transformed him into a bald, green-skinned mutant whose body could no longer sustain itself naturally.

Rudy discovered that he had to drain life energy directly from other beings in order to survive, leaving victims as burned-out skeletons.

Unlike Jensen, Rudy's hunger was constant and unavoidable, and without feeding, his body rapidly deteriorated.

Rudy fled confinement and became known as Parasite, quickly drawing the attention of Superman after draining multiple victims.

When Parasite made contact with Superman, he absorbed Kryptonian energy on a massive scale, gaining superhuman strength, durability, and heightened intelligence.

As the stolen energy dissipated, Parasite weakened again, driving him to repeatedly seek out Superman as his most potent source of sustenance.

Parasite's earliest confrontations with Superman were erratic and driven by immediate hunger.

He was repeatedly captured and incarcerated, only to escape as his absorption abilities weakened power systems and guards alike.

Attempts to stabilize or cure his condition failed, instead altering his physiology.

Medical interventions changed his skin color from green to purple, and expanded his absorption capabilities to include non-living energy sources such as electricity and heat.

During a volatile standoff involving Firestorm, Parasite was deployed despite objections from those overseeing the operation.

Once released, he immediately lost control, feeding indiscriminately and endangering multiple combatants.

When he attacked Firestorm directly, the disparity in power left Parasite severely injured and near death, though subdued, Parasite later exhibited further psychological changes.

Parasite's fixation on Superman intensified during a crisis in which Superman struggled to contain an overload of solar energy.

The confrontation carried both beyond Earth, where Superman released a massive burst of heat vision.

Parasite absorbed the blast entirely, triggering a violent mutation that increased his size and strength.

In this state, he could drain inertia from moving objects and siphon energy through mental contact, making telepathic attacks ineffective.

The transformation also increased his metabolic demands, forcing more frequent feeding.

While imprisoned afterward, Parasite absorbed a scientist tending to him, though he was not consumed completely, and instead the mind of Dr.

Torval Freeman remained within Parasite, significantly increasing his intelligence.

From that point forward, Parasite employed more calculated tactics, relying less on uncontrolled rampage and more on planning and deception.

Parasite later aligned himself with other adversaries targeting Superman, repeatedly testing how his absorption interacted with altered forms of Kryptonian power.

In one encounter, Superman's unstable energy nearly killed Parasite.

In another, Parasite attempted to feed on Supergirl and was defeated.

These encounters informed Parasite's subsequent tactics and feeding strategies.

A significant change occurred when Parasite was contracted to drain excess electromagnetic energy from an electrical being known as Strange Visitor.

Exposure to this energy altered Parasite permanently, allowing him to retain absorbed intellects and hold stolen power for extended periods.

Later, he absorbed a shapeshifter, getting the ability to replicate victims perfectly at the genetic level, including voice, appearance, and biological traits.

With these abilities, Parasite shifted tactics.

He stalked Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, seeking leverage over Superman rather than immediate power.

By posing as an elderly civilian and engineering brief physical contact with Lois, Parasite confirmed Superman's secret identity.

He abducted Lois and replaced her, maintaining the impersonation through repeated contact.

During this period, Parasite provoked confrontations with Clark Kent and later struck Superman while still disguised as Lois, revealing the deception.

The scheme ended during a physical assault on Superman.

Over time, Parasite had unknowingly absorbed Kryptonite radiation present in Superman's system.

The accumulated poisoning overwhelmed him, made flights, paralyzing, and killing him before he could disclose Lois' location.

Superman later recovered Lois from Parasite's hideout.

Despite his apparent death, Parasite later resurfaced in St.

Rock, Louisiana.

There, he used his abilities to temporarily drain other villains of their powers in exchange for payment, allowing them to evade detection.

Though his appearance and speech differed noticeably from earlier encounters, he was confirmed to be Rudy Jones, having regenerated from his apparent death.

After the Flashpoint event reset continuity, a new Parasite emerged in the form of Joshua Michael Allen, a courier living in Metropolis.

Allen's transformation began when he attacked a Parasitic creature during a battle, electrocuting both it and himself.

Though he survived, his body deteriorated rapidly.

While undergoing examination at Star Labs, an explosion killed the attending scientists and transformed Allen into a skeletal, hairless organism that drained life energy uncontrollably.

Unable to endure the constant hunger, Allen attempted suicide, but Superman intervened.

Contact with Superman temporarily relieved his pain, initiating an obsession with metahuman energy.

Allen was imprisoned and later aligned with criminal groups to gain access to stronger power sources.

His abilities evolved, allowing power replication with minimal contact and size increase, proportional to absorbed energy.

Rudolph Rudy Jones later reappeared as Parasite in this continuity, demonstrating greater caution than in earlier incarnations and refusing to absorb energies he believed would destroy him.

He was forcibly recruited into suicide squad operations and deployed on a mission to capture the new Swamp Thing, during which he fed on the green and was violently purged of the stolen energy, leaving him mutilated and abandoned.

Jones later returned under supervision, equipped with a device that regulated his hunger and allowed limited employment.

He assisted Superman during major threats and was seemingly killed while fighting Doomsday, surviving by absorbing residual energy.

His most unstable mutation allowed him to divide into autonomous duplicates capable of infecting other beings, increasing his threat level while also accelerating his physical collapse.

And that's Parasites.

Powers-wise, Parasite absorbs life energy, memories, skills, and superhuman abilities through physical contact and can train non-living energy sources such as electricity, heat, and solar radiation.

Absorbed power temporarily enhances his strength, durability, size, and intellect before dissipating, requiring continual feeding.

He can perfectly mimic victims down to their DNA and regenerate.

Later incarnations could also divide into duplicates, though he inherits the weakness of those he drains, including vulnerability to kryptonite when absorbing kryptonian energy and excessive absorption destabilizes his body.

That's Parasite.

Why didn't I know that he has shapeshifting abilities?

He didn't always have them.

He only attained them because he absorbed a shapeshifter for a time.

But does he consistently have shapeshifting abilities now?

Maybe.

Okay, fucking dumb.

It is unique that he's actually one of the few energy absorbers that can shapeshift.

Like, Rogue can't do that.

Well, no, his whole body is just weird, though.

He's almost like Clayface in a way in a few iterations where he's just like this amorphous blob almost.

Can you describe the version you're going with for this match a little bit better?

Yeah, sure.

I mean, he's going to start off in like a normal humanoid-ish size and physique, but of course purple in color.

Okay.

All right, that works for me.

I don't think we've ever put two energy absorbers against each other.

Like the most recent match we did was with Sebastian Shaw, but that was against Mandel Savage, and of course we've done Rogue and Superboy.

So I have no idea how this is going to end, but let's find out.

Did we think this battle through enough?

Like, they're both energy absorbers.

What are they going to absorb from each other?

The ability to absorb energy?

It's like pooping back and forth forever.

I don't know if you like it.

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Well now that we've got the characters, histories, and abilities out of the way, let's speculate on how one of the 1000 simulated matches will go.

The winners determined by simulations, not the speculation, but it's fun to imagine how this fight could play out.

AG9K, what are the rules of our 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.

Parasite and Sauron meet on the battlefield?

Who goes first?

I'm actually guessing Parasite might go first, because at his base level, he's probably not as intelligent or as calculating as Sauron is.

Basically, Parasite, he's just gonna be hungry, so he is going to lunge for Sauron, grabbing one of his wings, and draining his life energy, as well as his intellect.

You think that Parasite can cover that distance of 50 meters between them before Sauron takes to the sky?

I don't think that's gonna happen.

Parasite's not gonna be able to touch Sauron, and while Sauron's looking down on Parasite from the air, he's gonna use his gaze to hypnotize Parasite into a trance that keeps him still.

And with Parasite just standing there, Sauron's gonna land down behind him and grab his skull with both hands and just drain his life energy.

Well, I mean, Sauron's physical contact would actually allow Parasite to drain him as well, though.

And this match is over.

They just both drain each other to death forever, apparently.

Well, I mean, I imagine there would be some kind of energy feedback loop that would probably cause both of them to overload and be violently repelled from each other, like an explosive force.

So now Parasite is like 15 feet tall, inject with a huge mouth of razor sharp teeth and wings.

That doesn't sound right to me.

I don't actually think Parasite would gain any benefit from absorption if that energy is just going back and forth between him and Sauron.

My guess is that they wouldn't overload by touching each other, because where would that excess energy come from?

Like, they're absorbers, they're not generators.

I think that it would actually be a net energy gain for each side, like nothing would happen.

So absorption alone probably wouldn't be a factor in this match.

They'd have to resort to other abilities.

But I mean, Parasite gets larger by absorbing any energy.

Like maybe he wouldn't get the wings or any of Sauron's unique abilities, but the energy moving through him, I think, would make him smarter and stronger.

What?

Why?

Like, you don't get any energy that Parasite absorbs would be taken from him via Sauron's absorption.

Okay.

Okay.

So how would Sauron defeat Parasite then?

Easy.

Sauron rips Parasite's face off with his claws, obviously.

Okay.

So you mean he physically touches him?

Awesome.

With each slash, Parasite is just going to get stronger.

But Sauron would also get stronger with each slash two.

You know what, we got to find a way for them to actually absorb each other.

That's the only way this is going to work.

But we'll say that the one who is absorbing is the one who initiated the contact.

So they can't touch each other.

The one who's doing the strike is the one that absorbs.

Does that make sense?

How about that?

So we'll go back to the initial narrative where Sauron takes to the air hypnotizes Parasite into submission and then lands behind him and then drains him with his claws.

So this is going to leave Parasite weakened because he's not going to be absorbing from Sauron's touch.

And then Sauron is just going to fry Parasite to a crisp with his flame breath, finishing him off.

Okay.

So Parasite will just absorb the thermal energy from the flame.

And that's going to restore him probably beyond what he started out as because I'm going to say Sauron emitted much more energy than he drained.

What?

So now Parasite is, we'll say he's like eight foot jacked monster who uses his longer reach to grab Sauron by the wrists, draining his energy because he's the one who initiated the contact while also spreading Sauron's arms apart until they pop from the sockets.

All right.

But while Parasite is holding Sauron's arms out, he's going to kick his legs forward and snatch Parasite by the chest with his talons.

And he's going to start draining back the energy that Parasite stole from him.

That's going to cause Parasite to let go of Sauron's wrists.

So Parasite loses energy.

He shrinks down in withers.

He's sees what the game is here.

He's going to put some distance between them.

So he's going to fly like 50, 100 yards away.

And he's just going to start tearing up the environment below him, like slashing out the ground, tearing it up into like small chunks of earth.

You know, he's could lift 10 tons.

He's strong enough, but he's going to pick up some of these chunks and then fly into the air and then just start dropping and pelting Parasite with the stones, basically stoning him to death because he knows he has to keep his distance and Parasite can't do anything Okay, except in the brief moment Parasite held Sauron, he caught glimpses of some of Sauron's memories, particularly of Tanya.

So with the last amount of his energy, Parasite is going to transform it to her.

And that's going to trick Sauron's animalistic brain and prevent him from attacking her with the stones.

And when Sauron flies down to meet her, that's when Parasite is just going to grab him by the throat and drain him.

And he's going to gain wings in the process.

So he flies up to the sky holding Sauron by the neck.

And when Sauron becomes so drained that he reverts back to human form, that's when Parasite is going to drop him, causing Carl to fall to his death.

Match over.

That was a pretty solid move.

But I'm going to say that right before turning back into Carl, Sauron with the last of his strength just rips out Parasites throughout with his beak while they're flying in the air.

So Parasite, you know, he's in pain.

He drops Sauron who glides safely to the ground, but Parasite crashes down and then bleeds out.

Wait, so you're saying that Sauron did that with the last of his energy?

So he still reverts to human form and still fell when Parasite let go?

I'll allow this.

I didn't mean it was like the last last of his energy.

I mean, he still had some in the tank, you know, he was running on fumes, basically.

But he could still do it.

Parasite could use some of his stored energy to actually regenerate.

You know, he's come back from death that way several times.

Yep.

But the key phrase there of what you just said is that he died, meaning Sauron wins, meaning match over.

No, because I mean, what really happened is that he dropped Carl.

So, well, we'll leave the match there.

This was a tricky one.

Either Parasite absorbed so much of Sauron's energy while flying up in the air that he causes Sauron to revert back to Carl and then drop some down to the ground, or Sauron, before reverting back into human, rips out Parasite's throat and Parasite dies that way.

Not likely.

We'll go ahead and input the character stats, run the simulations, and come back with a winner.

AJ9K hit it.

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

All right, whose idea was this matchup?

Was it yours, Jonathan?

Because I feel like it was one of yours.

It may have been mine, and I think I'm realizing why now we kept pushing this match off.

This was not easy considering Parasite's stats are so fluid and variable.

Yeah, really, Parasite is only as good as the character he's going up against.

When he goes up against huge powerhouses like Superman, his stats are off the charts.

But when he's going up against someone like mid-level, I would describe Sauron as, you know, Parasite stats are mid-level.

That being said, you can never know at what given time what Parasite's stats are, because it's all based on how much energy he's absorbed from his opponent.

Basically, what we've done energy absorbers in the past, like Rogue or Sebastian Shaw, will average their stats between their base level and their potential.

So that's what we did here.

Now, Parasite has some pretty impressive feats in the comics, but considering that Sauron is not as powerful, like you mentioned, as Superman or someone even like Firestorm, and on top of that, basically has the same abilities as Parasite in terms of absorption, this didn't really go in my favor, I feel like.

Well, Parasite really had one main thing going for him over Sauron, and I believe that was durability.

Yeah, base level durability for Parasite is fairly high.

But Sauron, you know, he had the intellect thing going for him.

He had the versatility because not only can he, you know, slash you with his talons, burn you with his fireballs or shoot you with energy or hypnotize you, he has like all this shit going for him outside of just the power of absorption.

Whereas Parasite doesn't, he has to actually absorb the ability before he has it.

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

Well, let's see, I'm hopeful.

Just as our Instagram followers are, 62% of them voted in favor of Parasite in the poll that we put up on Instagram.

Well, I think a lot of those poll takers are probably considering the fact that Parasite is a Superman villain, so they're putting him at Superman levels without actually considering exactly how his powers work in any singular matchup.

But let's see if I'm right.

AJ9K, the results please.

Here you are, sir.

Alright, the winner between Parasite and Sauron is Sauron.

There's only one Lord of the Rings and he does not share power, not even with Parasite.

Because out of the 1000 matches that they fought, Sauron won a whopping 662, damn, whereas Parasite only won 338, so 66.2% over 33.8%.

I'm not surprised by this, I'm hurt for sure, but not surprised.

Although I feel like a lot of people will be.

Yeah, well, really Jonathan, what you needed to do was have Parasite go up in a match with Superman and drain all of his energy and then go into this match with Sauron where he would have just wiped the floor with the dinosaur.

But since that is not really something that we do in this podcast, yeah, Parasite just basically ate ass.

Did you say he ate ass?

Or ate shit?

That's what I meant to say.

Ew, so you're saying Parasite ate Sauron's ass?

Oh my god, get over it, you're so obsessed with this, just move on.

I already know you're running visuals in your head and everything.

Well, let's leave it on that note.

That'll do it for this duel.

AJ9K, help close this out.

Thanks for listening to Dynamic Duel.

Visit the show's website at dynamicduel.com and follow us on Instagram at Dynamic Duel podcast.

Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite podcast network, including Max Destruction, Senjo World, and Console Combat.

In our next episode, dropping just two days before Christmas, we are pitting the legion of super pets against the pet Avengers.

That's right, it's going to be seven pet animal characters against seven pet animal characters.

It should be a fun, crazy time.

So join us for that holiday episode next week.

I want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Strausky, Zachary Hepburn, Nathaniel Wagner, B.

Viayetan, Austin Wazalowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick Obanto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, and Paul Graves for helping make this podcast possible.

We'll talk to you guys next week.

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