Shredder VS Silver Samurai

Shredder VS Silver Samurai is the 82nd episode of Death Battle, featuring The Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and Silver Samurai from Marvel Comics in a battle between mutant-fighting Japanese warriors.
==Interlude==
Wiz: Hundreds of years ago, the samurai and the ninja battled across Japan, and these two fascinating ways of combat have been at odds ever since.
Boomstick: The Shredder, the sharp and shiny arch-villain of the Ninja Turtles.
Wiz: And Silver Samurai, the mutant swordsman who can slice through anything.
Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
==The Shredder==
Wiz: Beneath the streets of New York City, a secret battle wages between four humanoid turtles and a ninja covered in blades known as The Shredder.
Boomstick: A kitchen utensil?
Wiz: Many legends surround The Shredder's origins. Some say he's the reincarnation of an ancient Japanese warrior, some say he's an alien disguised as a man, and some say he's a bumbling idiot who sounds like Uncle Phil.
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1987 Shredder: But I don't wanna conquer this place. I wanna conquer Earth!
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Boomstick: Either way, every legend agrees on one thing: He's an absolute badass!
Wiz: Before he was called The Shredder, he was Oroku Saki, a member of the Japanese ninjutsu Foot Clan. He trained alongside his rival, Hamato Yoshi.
Boomstick: They weren't just rivals in martial arts, but in the search for love as well. They both pined for the lovely lady Tang Shen. But, unfortunately for our future Shredder, she only had eyes for Yoshi... Hamato Yoshi, not the dinosaur, that'd be weird.
Wiz: Jealous, Oroku Saki attacked Yoshi, but in his rage, accidentally struck down Tang Shen.
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Tang Shen's death from the 2012 Ninja Turtles cartoon is shown on-screen.
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Boomstick: Leaving Yoshi and his beloved for dead, Saki took over the Foot Clan and began a worldwide crime spree under his new name.
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Shredder: Now you face... The Shredder.
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Boomstick: Y'know, I wonder. Did he mean to name himself after a cheese grater? Speaking of which, if his armor didn't make it obvious enough, Shredder's got a weird spike fetish. This guy's got'em all over his legs, arms, shoulders, even his head.
Wiz: That headpiece, the Kuro Kabuto, is a relic passed down through the Foot Clan for over 1,500 years. Forged from the totems of the clan's defeated enemies, it was formed into an alloy that's stronger than steel. Plus, it just looks awesome.
Boomstick: Obviously, his armor is also a kickass weapon, and he can cut anyone down with the Tekkō-kagi claws on his wrists.
Wiz: Which literally translates to "Back-of-the-Hand Hooks".
Boomstick: Perfect for backhanding! It doesn't cover all that much, but he needs freedom of movement, because, you know, he's a ninja. Plus, would you wanna get anywhere near a guy covered in razors? I don't think so.
Wiz: Ninjutsu is comprised of 18 separate disciplines, and Shredder is a master of all of them.
Wiz: This includes stealth, espionage, pyrotechnics, horsemanship, and plenty of weaponry.
Boomstick: Yeah, like swords, spears, bo-staffs, and throwing weapons. But it's not like he needs 'em anyway; he's skilled in unarmed combat, too.
Wiz: Now a master of his craft, the Shredder led the Foot Clan to New York City.
Boomstick: Where he found out Hamato Yoshi wasn't quite as dead as he thought.
Wiz: As a matter of fact, Yoshi had transformed into a rat-person, and was raising four adolescent, genetically altered shinobi terrapins, but that's another story altogether. With his hatred reinvigorated, the Shredder swore to end his lifelong enemy once and for all.
Boomstick: Every time Shredder fought these Ninja Turtles, he proved why he's the leader of the Foot Clan. I mean, he's strong enough to tear through steel shipping containers with his claws, chop down trees in one sword swing, and throw around mutants several times his size like they're nothing.
Wiz: One such mutant, Leatherhead, weighs well over 300 pounds.
Boomstick: Okay, I know that's the official weight according to some toy, but look at him! Compared to the turtles, he should weigh half a ton!
Wiz: Either way, the Shredder survived Leatherhead chomping down on his midsection. The femur, the strongest bone in the human body, breaks at a pressure of about 1,700 pounds per square inch. A normal, unmutated American alligator can bite with a force of nearly 3,000 PSI, and Leatherhead's bite is surely stronger.
Boomstick: Meaning Shredder should've split in half. But nope! He was back up kicking some leather butt literally five seconds later.
Wiz: The Shredder is a cunning strategist and talented warrior. He's fought eight mutants in combat all at once, disarming every single one of them. What's more, while intimidating an Italian mob boss and his bodyguards, he did this.
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Vizioso raises a meatball to his mouth before a slashing sound is heard. A second later, we see the meatball and two candles cut through in half and Shredder re-sheathing his wrist blade.
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Wiz: The most well-trained human eyes are capable of detecting movements occurring at 1/220th of a second, meaning Shredder's slash could've been even faster than that.
Boomstick: But sometimes, Shreds needs just a bit more juice to get the job done, literally. When you see him crack open a green one, he's not doing it to hang out with the boys.
Wiz: In times of desperation, Shredder is known to resort to risking it all by consuming mutagen.
Boomstick: Transforming him into Super Shredder.
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Michelangelo: He must've drank all of it!
Donatello: It's a Super Shredder!
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Wiz: While this form has given him different enhancements in different iterations, it usually grants him immense strength, inhuman durability, and even teleportation and the power to shoot lightning.
Boomstick: You know, that's probably because mutagen's not an exact science, and it's bound to get random at times.
Wiz: That's true, Boomstick.
Boomstick: I did a science!
Wiz: Good job.
Boomstick: Heh heh! Well, he's toughed out a sword shattering against his skin, and even falling around a thousand feet onto a steel beam. Man, you'd think this guy would never lose anything, ever.
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The Turtles slam their shells into him from all angles, he collapses.
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Boomstick: But you'd also be super wrong.
Wiz: Shredder has his fair share of downsides, this includes a weakness to garbage trucks...
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Shredder yells as he falls into one.
Casey Jones: Oops!
He pulls a lever to turn on the trash compactor.
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Wiz: ...newborn infants...
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He is kissed by Tokka and Rahzar.
Shredder: They're babies! Ughhh!
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Wiz: ...the power of music...
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Stage Shredder: ♫I hate music!♫
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Wiz: ...a strange fascination with eating his enemies...
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Shredder: Tonight, I dine on turtle soup.
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Wiz: ...and wood.
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Super Shredder pushes down the beams of a pier, which collapse on him.
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Boomstick: Geez, were the '90s always this stupid?
Wiz: Yeah. Thankfully, despite his failures, the Shredder keeps getting back up, faster, stronger, and much more terrifying.
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Shredder: The true battle... starts NOW!
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==Silver Samurai==
Wiz: In feudal Japan, a samurai wasn't your typical bodyguard. He was trained in the art of war, and would only serve the elite upper-class. Honor was the samurai's currency.
Boomstick: But for the Silver Samurai, Kenuichio Harada, currency was just... regular money. 'Cause that shit's useful!
Wiz: Born into the Yashida clan, Harada was the son of a powerful Yakuza crime lord. Unfortunately, he could never inherit his father's empire for himself because he was born illegitimately. A bastard.
Boomstick: Wow, hey, no need to throw insults around, Wiz.
Wiz: No, the literal definition of ba— ...Move on.
Boomstick: Wiz's judgment aside, without a clear future, Harada decided to... well... become a samurai, because why not? They're pretty cool, right?
Wiz: Unfortunately, the way of the samurai no longer had a place in the present. Harada knew that in a world full of absurd superpowers, he would need to dedicate his life to the art in a way never seen before.
Boomstick: He wouldn't just be a samurai. He'd be... a Silver Samurai.
Wiz: ...Yep.
Boomstick: While blinged out like Xzibit's rims, he picked up on a few fighting styles. Not too many, just bajutsu, the art of horseback; bujitsu, military strategy; iaijutsu, the sword-based quick draw; tantojutsu, knife fighting; ninjutsu, bein' sneaky; kyujutsu, which is archery; and, well, jujutsu and karate-do, which are both forms of unarmed combat. God! How many more jutsus do you think he can fit in his brain? I didn't even know there were that many.
Wiz: At least one more: kenjutsu, the art of Japanese sword fighting. After all, what's a samurai without a katana at his side?
Boomstick: Dead, that's what. In order to keep living, he had to get really good with swingin' that sword.
Wiz: Luckily for Harada, he soon learned he had one of those absurd superpowers for himself.
Boomstick: Yep, he's a mutant.
Wiz: Now who's being insensitive? Harada has the ability to generate a tachyon field. With it, he can enhance his sword, allowing it to slice through almost anything.
Boomstick: Even GHOSTS!
Wiz: In real life, tachyonic fields are hypothetical particles with mass, which travel faster than light. A definition which may explain how Harada's cutting ability works.
Boomstick: So he uses his power on sharp objects. Well, that's too bad for everybody in Silver Samurai's way, because he carries a lot of 'em.
Boomstick: He's got throwing knives and shuriken ninja stars on hand for long-range attacks, and of course, he always carries that katana.
Wiz: He's wielded many different swords, including the legendary Muramasa Blade. However, he's not too picky about what kind of sword he carries.
Boomstick: With his power, any blade Harada carries instantly becomes one of the most dangerous swords on the planet.
Wiz: Harada has one more trick up his sleeve: a teleportation ring. With it, he can warp around the battlefield for unexpected strikes, and it makes for a good getaway.
Boomstick: Though he almost lost it once, to John Belushi. You know, the guy from Saturday Night Live? Jocelyn told me about it once, it was weird.
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John Belushi screams as he chops fruit on a wooden board.
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Wiz: After years of hard work, Harada was truly a masterful warrior. However, he still struggled to defeat one opponent: the Wolverine.
Boomstick: Who killed his dad and got engaged to his sister. Ah, the shame combo. Oh, and she was next in line to rule the Yashida clan! Man, a triple.
Wiz: Needless to say, a little miffed, Harada challenged his own sister for the right to run the clan, and he won, after she was poisoned by an unrelated third party.
Boomstick: Sometimes, life just works out, Wiz.
Wiz: I guess a win's a win, and that wouldn't be his last one.
Wiz: He's incredibly deadly in battle. He's so fast, he deflects bullets with his sword, and once even sliced a speeding bullet completely in half. In this instance, the gunman was standing 15 feet away when he fired the bullet. At approximately 1,400 feet per second, this means that Silver Samurai was able to reach for his sword, and accurately cleave the bullet in two, in just over 1/100th of a second.
Boomstick: Even if he didn't chop it in half, his armor is totally bulletproof. Shoot, it even let him survive a freaking building falling on top of him. But without his armor, he's survived taking a sword straight through the lung, and being run over by a car from... the f***ing Jetsons?!
Wiz: He's no slouch on the battlefield either. He's knocked Spider-Man unconscious, shaken off hits from Cannonball, and even defeated Spider-Woman in combat. At one point, he was dog-piled by Daredevil, She-Devil, along with a cheetah and a panther, together likely weighing over 600 pounds in total, and he threw them all off in one big push.
Boomstick: And he's always fighting with his number one rival, Wolverine.
Wiz: Speaking of which, while some may boast that Harada is the greatest swordsman in the world, Wolverine's frequently proven to be his better.
Boomstick: Yeah, he may be good with his blade, but his battle strategy isn't quite as sharp. Also, his bulletproof armor doesn't cover everything, as seen here.
A comic panel is shown on-screen where Wolverine cuts off Harada's hand.
Wiz: Well, even that was merciful, compared to what happened when he went up against the four Black Samurai. Although Harada defeated them all against impossible odds, he ultimately succumbed to his wounds.
Boomstick: And when he arrived in Hell, Harada met the Devil, who promptly killed him again by cutting off his head and smashing his corpse into mush with a soul-destroying sword the size of a school bus. Damn! Never let it be said the Silver Samurai isn't hardcore.
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Wolverine: Last chance, Harada. Yield!
Silver Samurai: The Silver Samurai yields to no man!
His eyes and sword glow and he cuts through Wolverine's blade.
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==Prelude==
==Death Battle==
Under the night sky, the Silver Samurai is seen honing his skills by slicing down trees in an unknown forest. All of a sudden he feels the ground shake as a number of drill-shaped escape pods emerge from the earth. The Foot ninjas emerge from the pods and attack Harada, but the Samurai grunts before he slices the robots down with a few simple swings. The last pod opens up with a villainous laughter heard from the containment.
Shredder: You are no match for... The Shredder!
Shredder leaps from the pod in front of the mutant samurai. The two warriors face each other wielding their katanas.
Shredder dashes in for the first hit, pushes his opponent back with his sword and then swings with the samurai dodging it. He manages to land a few punches and kicks that send Harada flying back. Silver Samurai charges his katana with tachyon particles, causing it to glow yellow. Saki runs toward Harada with his blade in hand as the Samurai launches a projectile from his sword that Shredder narrowly avoids, with the attack slicing a tree in half behind him.
Harada charges the Shredder and swings his sword multiple times at high speeds. The Shredder is able to avoid every attack and he leaps into the air as the Silver Samurai stabs the ground. Saki then starts leaping on top of the trees to gain more coverage as he notices the forest behind him getting turned to dust. Harada is seen cutting down multiple trees at intense speeds to bring his opponent down.
Shredder hides behind a tall rock, but as he hears a powerful charge, he ducks to avoid Silver Samurai slicing through the rock and leaps backward. Saki notices his cape has been torn from the attack, so he tears it off and tosses it backwards. Harada belts out a large yell as he tosses five shurikens in Saki's direction. Shredder dodges it and throws a smoke bomb down to avoid the Samurai's next attack. He laughs as Harada observes his surroundings.
Silver Samurai uses his sword to block two of Shredder's shurikens and manages to avoid Shredder's sword and tekko-kagi. Using his teleporting device, Harada keeps up with Shredder's quick, ninja strikes as the two constantly miss each other. Harada then stops to observe Saki's reflection in his blade, allowing him to stab Shredder by surprise in the chest. Saki drops his sword and falls to the ground bleeding while Harada steps to the side and holds his blade up in victory.
However, the fight proves to be far from over. Shredder punches the ground in anger and stands up with a capsule of mutagen. He covers himself in the substance, allowing him to heal from the attack and grow larger to become Super Shredder. Silver Samurai is shocked by the transformation and tries wedging his sword in again, but Super Shredder avoids the attack and delivers powerful blows to the Samurai to send him backward. Super Shredder summons lightning from the sky to strike the Silver Samurai, but Harada charges his sword with the tachyon particles to deflect the lightning into the trees, setting the forest on fire.
Super Shredder walks menacingly in front of the flames as Harada attempts to attack him again. Shredder grabs the Silver Samurai's arm and karate chops it off, sending the samurai back in a bloody mess. The samurai's sword comes down, but before it hits the ground, Shredder punches it forward at high speed.
Shredder: DIE!
The sword knocks Harada's kabuto off as it's been lodged into Harada's face, causing his eye to dangle out. Silver Samurai drops to his knees on the ground in intense pain. Super Shredder chops Harada's head off with his hand and catches the Samurai's sword in his right hand and Harada's head in his left.
Shredder: PLAYTIME. IS. OVER!
Super Shredder's eyes glow as he crushes the Silver Samurai's head in the palm of his hand.
Super Shredder walks away as he leaves behind Harada's bloodied sword and kabuto. Like in the comics, Silver Samurai is sent to Hell and is destroyed by the Devil's soul-destroying sword.
==Results==
Boomstick: You know, I bet Shredder would go far if he took up darts.
Wiz: Both Shredder and Silver Samurai were incredibly tough, capable of withstanding tremendous amounts of pain. Harada's armor may have been tougher, but it had plenty of exposed weak points, which a fighter as precise as Shredder could exploit.
Boomstick: Silver Samurai could throw around 600 pounds of people and cats, which is technically stronger than anything Shredder's done, but Shred-Head's handled equally mighty mutants plenty of times, like Leatherhead.
Wiz: While the Silver Samurai's teleportation ring did make him harder to track, he's always preferred to use it as a means of escaping a battle, not really engaging in one. Even when he did use it during combat, his moves were often predicted by more experienced opponents.
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Wolverine: This guy likes to come at me from behind.
Harada teleports, Wolverine backflips and grabs Hamada with his claws as he teleports back in. Harada cries out.
Wolverine: Just tryin' out one of your tricks, tin man.
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Wiz: Given Shredder's talents and history, it's reasonable to believe he could do the same.
Boomstick: Still, with Harada's tachyon blade and Shredder's ninja precision, they only needed to land one fatal hit to finish the fight, so the real question was: Who could land the killing blow first?
Wiz: Silver Samurai's best speed feat, slicing an incoming bullet, clocked in at one-hundredth of a second. Shredder's faster-than-eyesight feat measured at four-thousandths, making him over two times faster than Harada. To be blunt, Shredder's fastest known attack was quicker than Harada's fastest known defense, proving that Shredder could deal a killing blow first.
Boomstick: Or, you know, he could just turn into Super Shredder and beat the shit out of him. I mean, Super Shredder can lift and throw a giant oil tanker like it's a beach ball at a rave.
Wiz: That's probably heavier than 600 pounds of people and cats.
Boomstick: Looks like Shredder was too much for Silver to tachyon.
We cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: The winner is the Shredder.
==Original Track==
===Composition===
The track for this fight is "Shredding Silver" by Brandon Yates. It combines the Japanese musical instrument shamisen with some upbeat rock, with the Japanese nature being an homage to both characters' cultural backgrounds.
===Title===
The title is both a combination of both characters' names (The Shredder and Silver Samurai) and a nod to how both fight with sharp, silver weapons.
===Cover Art===
The cover art done by Luis Cruz depicts Silver Samurai's sword clashing with Shredder's tekko-kagi claws.
==Trivia==
===Production===
*The core connections between Shredder and Silver Samurai are that they are both Japanese villains who are modern versions of types of historical Japanese warriors (ninja and samurai, respectively) who were historical enemies. Both are also skilled in martial arts and don similar-looking silver armors. In addition:
**Both held jealous hatred against their main rivals (Hamato Yoshi and Wolverine, respectively).
**Both have mutants as their main enemies (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Wolverine, respectively).
**Both had antagonized their own siblings in the past.
**Ironically, many aspects of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were based on Daredevil, and Silver Samurai debuted in a Daredevil comic, though Shredder himself is not confirmed to have taken any inspiration from Silver Samurai.The fascinating origin story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
**Both one of Shredder's nemeses and Harada's nemesis had previously fought each other on DBX.
*Before this matchup was decided on, Shredder was considered as an opponent for Wolverine during Season 2 along with Baraka, Vega, and Freddy Krueger. However, all four of them would be rejected in favor of Raiden because they were deemed too weak for Wolverine, mainly in regard to being unable to deal with his healing factor.DEATH BATTLE LIVE! Pre Show - Wolverine vs RaidenUser blog:CrossoverKing96/Road to 100 Archive: Wolverine vs Raiden
*This is the first episode to have Boomstick say "Ghoooosts~!" whenever he mentions them, which would become a recurring running gag in the show.
*This is the first episode to use stock music for the analyses and original soundtracks for the fights instead of music from the combatants' source material, mainly to avoid YouTube's copyright claims.
*The version of Shredding Silver released on YouTube and Spotify and the version within the fight itself are noticeably different, with the downloadable version being slower and lower-pitched. Brandon Yates confirmed that this was due to problems with the sample rate conversion in recording and miscommunications with Rooster Teeth.
===Easter Eggs===
*In Shredder's analysis, Wiz calls the Shredder from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon "a bumbling idiot who sounds like Uncle Phil." This is a reference to the late James Avery, who not only portrayed Uncle Phil in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but also voiced the Shredder for the first seven seasons of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
*The scene of Tang Shen's death is edited with the Japanese death cry of Chun-Li from Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
*The depiction of Shredder transforming into Super Shredder in the fight (holding up the container of mutagen over his head and breaking it with both hands before flashing green as he transforms) is a reference to Super Shredder's transformation sequence in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project.
===Errors===
*Boomstick mentions that while "some toy" might reference Leatherhead to be at 300 pounds, his actual size compared to the Turtles should mean he weigh well more than that. However, the toy bio is from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series (which wasn't factored due to its primary Shredder being an entirely different character) rather than the 2012 series (where Shredder's showings against Leatherhead and his comparative size were being discussed).
===Other===
*This is the first Paramount VS Disney-themed episode, with the next two being Danny Phantom VS American Dragon Jake Long and Korra VS Storm.
**This is the first time that Paramount wins, with the next one being Danny Phantom VS American Dragon Jake Long.
*This is the second non-Marvel VS DC-themed Comic Book-themed episode, after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battle Royale, and with the next four being Deadpool VS Mask, Flash VS Sonic, The Seven Battle Royale, and Omni-Man VS Homelander.
*This is the fifth Comic Book VS Cartoon-themed episode, after Starscream VS Rainbow Dash, He-Man VS Lion-O, Beast VS Goliath, and Deadpool VS Pinkie Pie, and with the next eight being Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099, Raven VS Twilight Sparkle, Ben 10 VS Green Lantern, She-Ra VS Wonder Woman, Iron Fist VS Po, Korra VS Storm, Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon, and Galactus VS Unicron.
**This is the third time the Cartoon character wins, after Starscream VS Rainbow Dash and Beast VS Goliath, and with the next three being Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099, Iron Fist VS Po, and Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon.
*This is the seventh Marvel VS non-DC-themed episode, after Thor VS Raiden, Beast VS Goliath, Darth Vader VS Doctor Doom, Wolverine VS Raiden, Deadpool VS Pinkie Pie, and Android 18 VS Captain Marvel, and with the next 14 being Carnage VS Lucy, Ultron VS Sigma, Black Widow VS Widowmaker, Deadpool VS Mask, Genos VS War Machine, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, Iron Fist VS Po, Korra VS Storm, Thor VS Vegeta, Magneto VS Tetsuo, Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon, Galactus VS Unicron, and Hulk VS Godzilla.
**This is the fourth time the non-DC character wins, after Beast VS Goliath, Wolverine VS Raiden, and Android 18 VS Captain Marvel, and with the next six being Carnage VS Lucy, Deadpool VS Mask, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, Iron Fist VS Po, and Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon.
==References==
Category:Death Battles
Category:Season 4 Episodes
Category:TMNT episodes
Category:Marvel episodes
Category:X-Men episodes
Category:Animated Sprite battles
Category:Fights animated by Luis
Category:'Villains' themed Death Battles
Category:'Antagonists' themed Death Battles
Category:'Comic Book' themed Death Battles
Category:'Swords' themed Death Battles
Category:'Comic VS Cartoon' themed Death Battles
Category:Death Battles with cameo appearances
Category:'Marvel VS non-DC' themed Death Battles
Category:'Disney VS Paramount' themed Death Battles