Capeworld Comics

It’s been a long time since Death Battle gave us a same universe battle. Weird one too, I don’t really get the theme beyond “Spidey villains.” Is it because they think they’re the strongest? No way. Carnage and Sandman are right over there. Going by the preview they also got the characterization wrong. Would Max go out of his way to save a guy from a hungry symbiote? I doubt it. And isn’t Venom going through another Lethal Protector phase where he’s more or less a superhero with an attitude? Why’s he trying to eat some random guy’s brains? Ah, it doesn’t matter, they usually make a mess out of characterization anyway.

I know on first glance this looks like a major stomp for Venom. When they fought wayyyy back in Web of Spider-Man, Venom beat the shit out of Electro. But consider that Venom got the Max. Death Battle rules have characters start aware of each others’ presence. So Venom won’t be able to pull off the alpha strike.

Now Max is an idiot, true. He’s not Static. He’s not even Black Lightning. He’s a classic case of supervillain who could go well above his weight class if he had some marbles. It’s not actually that he’s dumb, the canon explanation is that Max has a horrible inferiority complex, so he subconsciously operates at the level of the loser he believes himself to be. Spidey roasting him every time they fight probably didn’t help that inferiority complex either. And that inferiority complex explanation tracks with Max’s origin. He’s an electrician. He got a certification. His IQ wouldn’t be below 100.

I think what shifts things in Max’s favor is his history with Venom. Venom nearly killed him. Max is going to go all out against him in a way he wouldn’t against Spidey simply off raw fear instinct. I’m talking massive AOE attacks. Now, that could spell Max’s doom, as Electro has been known to gas without a nearby source of electricity to leak from. There was some video game character like that back in the Bush years who needed to sponge power off light posts and what not, can’t quite think of what it was called. I think the series had like a sequel and a spinoff and faded into obscurity. Maybe they’ll bring it back one day. But I digress. My point is that if Max panics and shoots all his lighting at once, and Venom survives (and he has been known to take a lot of punishment), then it’s Venom against a Max without any juice, easy brain happy meal.

So if the fight is like, on a dessert island, Max is likely screwed, but dirty Eastern US mega cities tend to be the standard brawling environment for cape fights so I’m going to assume they’re fighting in a city, and in that case, Max has plenty of “charging stations” to pick from.

Max is also aware of Venom’s weaknesses and has a good power kit for exploiting those weaknesses. Symbiotes resist electricity, but lightning can create fire as well as sonic bursts through thunder. That’s both symbiote weaknesses at once–and even an idiot like Max would know to exploit them.

Remember, before he got his shit pushed in by Venom, Mysterio asked Electro to hunt down and kill Venom for him. You shouldn’t put much stock into Electro believing he can kill Venom, because he’s an idiot, but Mysterio is pretty darn smart and tactical. He wouldn’t have sent Electro after Venom unless he believed Electro killing Venom was a real possibility.

So my final vote for the next fight–Electro.