Aquaman VS Namor

Aquaman VS Namor is the 104th episode and Season 6 Premiere of Death Battle, featuring Aquaman from DC Comics and Namor the Sub-Mariner from Marvel Comics in a battle between Atlantean kings. Aquaman was voiced by Kaiji Tang and Namor was voiced by Todd Haberkorn.
==Interlude==
Boomstick: You know the phrase, "there's plenty of fish in the sea"? Yeah, real obvious. But it turns out, there's a bunch of superheroes down there, too!
Wiz: I don't think you understand what that phrase means.
Boomstick: Like Aquaman, the king of Atlantis.
Wiz: And Namor, the First Mutant and... also king of Atlantis.
We cut to Wiz and Boomstick.
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.
==Aquaman==
Boomstick: I don't get mermaids. I mean, they're kinda hot, but they're fish people? And then when you meet 'em, all they wanna do is try to kill you. I guess Tom Curry got to be one of the lucky ones, if you know what I mean.
Wiz: After a chance meeting, Tom was left to father Arthur, the son of a mysterious woman of the sea.
Boomstick: Though she thinks she was knocked up by a fish Jesus wizard... I-it's not important; comics are weird.
Wiz: Regardless, Arthur learned to hone his aquatic powers from a very young age. When Arthur was just two years old, poor Tom thought he had drowned when he was actually just playing with some fish. While breathing underwater.
Boomstick: Tom trained Arthur to master his powers until eventually, his mother showed up with a heavy dose of truth: Arthur was the rightful king of the underwater city, Atlantis. (sighs) I wish there were more stories about parents comin' back. In real life, too...
Wiz: And so, Arthur would descend the ocean depths to claim his birthright and maintain the peace between land and sea, as the king, the superhero... Aquaman.
Boomstick: Oh, are you one of the people who thinks that Aquaman is lame? Well, think again! He's super strong, super fast, and can chill deep underwater for as long as he wants. And no, he doesn't just talk to fish. He dominates their brains and forces them to bend to his will!
Wiz: Uh, only if he has to. He prefers to telepathically communicate with them, and most sea life respects him enough to come to his aid.
Boomstick: Except for piranhas, apparently, which ate off his frickin' hand! I know you're a hardcore badass, but make those fish bow to your king-like kingship, dammit!
Wiz: Not to worry, after a few gaudy hooks and a magic water hand, he got better. Arthur controls sea life by tapping into a worldwide phenomenon called the Clear.
Boomstick: Kinda like the Force from Star Wars, but just, in the ocean.
Wiz: Through the Clear, creatures he controls increase in strength. Some even become capable of breaking Green Lantern constructs. Also, Arthur's powers are not limited to just aquamarine life. He telepathically communicates with all sorts of animals, and can even tap into the human mind.
Boomstick: Wait wait, you're telling me he can mess with my brain, too? Oh, get my hat, Wiz. The shiny one.
Wiz: Well, he has difficulty dominating more intelligent life. His octopus friend Topo is one such example of a being he cannot forcibly control.
Boomstick: What's so impressive about that little guy—
A picture of Prime Earth Topo is shown.
Boomstick: Whoa! Yeah. Got it.
Wiz: And for humanoids, the most Aquaman can generally do is cause a headache or maybe a seizure.
Boomstick: That... doesn't make me feel much better.
Wiz: But, while Aquaman has plenty of power on his own, he also draws from the mystical might of his most iconic weapon.
We cut to Boomstick holding up Aquaman's trident.
Boomstick: THE LEGENDARY TRIDENT OF POSEIDON!!!
We then cut to the wide shot of the Death Battle Lab, where Wiz pulls out another trident.
Wiz: ...and also the Trident of Neptune.
Boomstick: Wait... isn't that the same god? Aren't they the same thing?
Wiz: Well, kind of. They both can control water, summon storms, create force fields, and unleash lightning. That one can teleport.
Boomstick: Awesome!
He grips his trident tightly and concentrates.
Boomstick: Come on... Do it... Disney World...!
Wiz: You have to be in water.
Boomstick: ...You think beer will work?
Wiz: Maybe...?
Boomstick: Jocelyn! Get the kiddie pool and the keg! I'm goin' to Disney World!
We cut back to the analysis.
Wiz: With added flight, hydrokinesis, earth manipulation, and more, Aquaman's Trident was a perfect symbol to prove himself a mighty king.
Boomstick: Literally! He's strong enough to push around oceanic plates, throw a submarine around with water magic, and lift this giant cruise ship.
Wiz: This ship appears big enough to compare to the world's largest cruise liner, the Symphony of the Seas, which weighs an incredible 228,000 tons.
Boomstick: He's fast enough to keep up with Wonder Woman and swim around the whole planet in just an afternoon. Oh, and he even fought the ancient dead king of Atlantis, Atlan. This guy was so strong, he sank Atlantis centuries ago with one blow from his scepter, and Aquaman held back a repeat of the same attack! With his bare hands!
Wiz: While there's no official size for DC's Atlantis, it is officially considered a continent. Therefore, it has to have a greater landmass than Greenland, the largest island in the world. This means Atlantis must consist of more than 836,000 square miles. To sink or destroy it, Atlan must have been outputting potential energy averaging more than 155 trillion tons of TNT.
Boomstick: Damn! Everyone's always makin' fun of Aquaman, but he's pretty badass.
Wiz: Well, he does have one rather lame weakness: he's essentially fueled by water. If he's away from water for too long, he'll start to dry out, lose his powers, and eventually die.
We cut to Boomstick.
Boomstick: He lives under the sea, he wears yellow, and he's absorbent?! Wiz, I figured it out! (begins to sing) Oooooooh!~
Wiz quickly shuts him up.
Wiz: NO! He's not SpongeBob. Moving on.
We cut back to the analysis.
Boomstick: Well, Aquaking has found some ways to work around the water problem. He can hydrate himself with blood! God damn, that's hardcore.
Wiz: Even with his flaws, Aquaman is always pushing forward to protect his people. He may seem strange and silly, but he truly is a worthy king of Atlantis.
----
Aquaman: (to Superman and Lois Lane) Tell the surface dwellers to respect the sovereignty of my seas, or we'll return and finish what we've started.
----
==Namor the Sub-Mariner==
Wiz: We all know this story: a wayward sailor meets a mermaid princess, and they fall in love.
Boomstick: Except this time, the Fish People got to be wedding crashers and dragged the princess back to her secret home of Atlantis. Her dad was pretty pissed. But, he got even more pissed when he found out that uh, daddy's girl had already been knocked up, and popped out a brand new kind of superhero: Namor the Sub-Mariner.
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Announcer: ♫Lord Namor of Atlantis is the prince of the deep!♫
----
Wiz: Unlike the strangely similar aquatic superhero DC would create two years later, Namor would grow up among his fellow Atlanteans from the start. As the Prince of the Ocean, he received an impressive royal education, along with a sizable distrust of humankind.
Boomstick: Yeah, I'd have a problem with humans too if some of the first people I ever met were Nazis.
Wiz: As the rightful heir to the throne, it was Namor's duty to protect Atlantis. And with his mixed heritage, he had plenty of unique abilities to do so.
Boomstick: He's got superhuman strength, speed, and durability. He can store water in his body and shoot it out of his pores like a... human sprinkler, which is gross.
Wiz: Far more impressively, he can telepathically communicate with all types of marine life, including other Atlanteans, and can persuade them to follow his commands. Whether it be a squadron of armored sharks or a giant killer whale, the creatures of the sea follow the First Mutant's lead.
Boomstick: Did you say "mutant"?
Wiz: Yes. Technically, Namor is a three-way hybrid of human, Atlantean, and mutant genes. Unlike other Atlanteans, he possesses the mutant power of flight.
Boomstick: Oh, is that why he's got those tiny little wings on his feet? I always thought those were, like, little rudders.
Wiz: Nope. He flies with them.
Boomstick: Wow. That is dumb.
Wiz: Namor can also mimic the abilities of marine life, sensing lateral lines like fish or absorbing and discharging shocks like an electric eel. And for even more power, he wields his legendary Trident.
We cut to Boomstick.
Boomstick: All right, how many tridents does this guy have? Let me guess, four?
Wiz: Just one. The Trident of Neptune.
Boomstick: But I thought the other guy had a Trident of Neptu... Oh! I think I just figured out why Aquaman had two different tridents.
Wiz: There ya go.
We cut back to the analysis.
Boomstick: Well, this trident's got a bunch of cool magic powers. It can control water, shoot lasers, turn people invisible, and if Namor needs some backup, he can animate objects and his surroundings to create living beings to fight alongside him. And that's not even the only magic doohickey Namor has! He can use the Horn of Proteus to summon sea monsters like Giganto, which is a super whale with arms! Look out, Birds with Arms, I'm startin' a new subreddit.
Wiz: The Giganto is strong enough to withstand the blast of an atomic bomb, and yet, it still pales in comparison to Namor's own strength.
Boomstick: No kiddin'. The Sub-Mariner is strong enough to match the savage Incredible Hulk, whose lifted 150 billion tons of rock for over a minute. If that's not good enough for you, how about the time Namor held up a whole frickin' island all by himself!
Wiz: He's quick enough to catch the Human Torch, absorbed and discharged electricity powerful enough to injure Doctor Doom, took on Thor trident to hammer, survived a mountain falling on him, and even resisted the mind-control powers of the Purple Man. See, Boomstick? In the grand scheme of things, little winged feet aren't so bad when you could have been called "Purple Man".
Boomstick: Alright, Namor is pretty awesome for an elf in a speedo.
----
Billy Eichner: (while dressed as Namor) Excuse me? This is not a speedo, Jimmy. Okay? These are my "Panties from Atlant-ies".
----
Boomstick: Too bad he gets a bit, uh, unstable if he's out of the water for too long.
Wiz: True, Namor's had a strange history of shifting personalities. Sometimes even playing the part of villain. Apparently, his bouts of anger stem from a strange bipolar defect brought on by oxygen imbalance. Which, last I checked, isn't quite how bipolar disorder works.
We cut to Wiz and Boomstick.
Boomstick: No, Wiz, I have the same kind of problem. I get super evil and grumpy when I haven't had a beer in at least 24 hours.
Wiz: 24?
Boomstick: Uh... 12... six... two... Screw you.
Wiz: Boomstick, that's a chemical dependency.
Boomstick: Ah, Just like my personal hero, Bane!
Wiz: You're missing the point.
Boomstick: (imitating Bane) Oh, you think the point is your ally? But you merely adopted the point. I was born in it. Molded—
Fed up with Boomstick messing around, Wiz nonchalantly takes the Trident of Poseidon and stabs him in the foot while he's talking.
Wiz: How about that point?
After a brief silence, Boomstick screams in pain before we abruptly cut back to the analysis.
Wiz: At the end of the day, as long as there is water in his veins, the Avenging Son is a heroic king of his people and a terrifying opponent.
----
Namor: Know that I am Namor, ruler of the kingdom of Atlantis. Your time in the sun is over.
----
==Prelude==
==Death Battle==
At an indoor public pool, Namor is seen relaxing in a beach chair next to the water.
Aquaman: Look out below!
With his trident in hand, Arthur Curry cannonballs into the pool and ends up splashing water on Namor, greatly angering the mutant.
Namor: Peasant! You dare splash the Prince of Blood?
Aquaman sticks his head up and spits out water.
Aquaman: Plenty of space around the pool, Spock.
Namor roars as he grabs Neptune's Trident and fires mystic blasts at DC's King of Atlantis. Aquaman swims downward and uses his trident to conjure a force field and shield himself from the projectiles. He then creates a waterspout and begins hovering over the pool.
Aquaman: You may be a prince, but I'm the King of the Seven Seas.
Arthur redirects a water tornado at the Sub-Mariner, who uses his trident to shield himself before diving down into the water and striking Aquaman with his trident. Aquaman pushes Namor back and counters his follow-up attack.
Namor becomes even more enraged and carries his opponent into the sky. While flying, he lands multiple blows on Arthur before punching him down to a nearby beach and uses his trident to summon two large rock monsters.
Namor: Die! Imperious Rex!
Aquaman dodges the monster stomping him before avoiding another one of Namor's beams. One of the monsters creates a powerful, water projectile that Arthur turns into ice before leaping out of the way to dodge lightning.
Aquaman: I will not submit!
Arthur raises his trident and covers the blue sky with stormy clouds. Two large lightning bolts strike the rock monsters and disintegrate them. One of the bolts hits Namor, but he simply absorbs the attack before redirecting it at his opponent, launching Aquaman into the ocean.
As Aquaman recovers from the attack, Namor enters the water.
Namor: Everyone has their place, that's just how things are. You should understand yours!
Namor sends the surrounding fish to attack his enemy, but Aquaman summons a horde of sharks to devour them.
Aquaman: You are such a terrific dumbass!
After petting one of the sharks, Arthur uses his super-speed to attack Namor in multiple directions while summoning a horde of sharks and piranhas to circle them. He then summons a dolphin to swim him above the ocean so he can dive downwards and push Namor towards the dark depths of the sea. The Sub-Mariner eventually pushes Arthur back as the two are surrounded by anglerfish.
Namor: Let's see who's power truly controls the sea, shall we?
Aquaman: I dig it!
The two Atlantean kings swim towards each other and clash their tridents multiple times, seemingly resulting in a stalemate.
Namor: Well, seems we're evenly matched.
Aquaman: Or maybe I've been saving another trick...
Arthur uses his telepathy to give Namor a seizure, leaving the Marvel mutant highly vulnerable.
Namor: No! You... control me!? Impossible!
Aquaman then commands the anglerfish to finish off his foe.
Aquaman: Have at 'em boys!
Namor is mercilessly ripped apart by the anglerfish until his disembodied head starts floating out. Arthur tosses his trident and catches the head on the middle prong.
Aquaman: Dinner's on the king tonight!
Arthur swims off and leaves the head behind as the anglerfish continue to eat the fallen Namor.
==Results==
Boomstick: Oh man! Am I underwater, or am I just sweating so much from how intense that got?
Wiz: Aquaman and Namor's powers were so similar and well-matched, this fight could've reasonably gone in either one's favor. In fact, neither had many powers that the other did not possess in some way.
Boomstick: Like how Namor had his mutant wing feet, but Aquaman's magic trident could let him fly, too.
Wiz: Still, while Namor could certainly have won this in some circumstances, Aquaman had the potential he needed to take the victory more times than not.
Boomstick: Namor can match Savage Hulk, who held up 150 billion tons. But remember, Aquaman stopped Atlan's continent-crushing attack, which had a potential energy over 150 trillion tons of TNT.
Wiz: Not exactly a one-to-one comparison, but consider Namor's own similar feat: Keeping the island Utopia from falling. We can estimate the island's size and weight using this panel, coming to a little over 178,000 tons. Considering the weight applied as force through the pillar Namor was pushing up, this means the potential energy exerted onto Namor would only be 1,425 tons of TNT. The energy Aquaman stopped was 109 billion times greater.
Boomstick: Sure, Namor was fast enough to easily catch up to the Human Torch, who flies over 140 miles per hour on a normal day, and sometimes even thousands of times the speed of sound.
Wiz: But Aquaman has routinely kept pace with Wonder Woman, who has been frequently shown to move thousands of times the speed of light.
Boomstick: Yeah, but none of that strength and speed would matter if the Sub-Mariner just ordered a bunch of sharks to eat him first, right?
Wiz: Namor could command sea life, sure, but Aquaman could directly dominate their minds and force them to act on his will. And while Namor can telepathically communicate with other Atlanteans, he could not create hemorrhages or seizures like Aquaman could. Though Namor could certainly resist these mental attacks similar to how he survived the Purple Man, this is still solid evidence that Aquaman's telepathy was more powerful.
Boomstick: Oh, and don't forget, Aquaking can make his underwater buddies physically stronger with the Clear, while Namor was stuck commanding plain-old everyday fish.
We cut to Wiz and Boomstick.
Wiz: Overall, while their extremely similar powers were so closely matched, Aquaman had the edge in just enough of them to prove himself the strongest king of the sea.
Boomstick: Aquaman could "sea" victory, but at least Namor "tried-ent".
We cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: The winner is Aquaman.
==Original Track==
===Composition===
The track for this fight is "Kings of the Sea" by Therewolf Media. It starts with the instrumental opening to Smash Mouth's "All-Star" (which was done to reference the music one would hear in a public pool, as the fight starts in one) before it transitions to grand violins mixed with ambient rock to fit the two rulers of Atlantis in and out of the water.
===Title===
The title references how both Aquaman and Namor are the Kings of Atlantis in their respective universes and their control over sea life.
===Cover Art===
The cover art done by Luis Cruz depicts both combatants' tridents crossed in an X-formation with waves coming out on both sides, showcasing their weapons and their connection to water.
==Trivia==
===Production===
*The core connections between Aquaman and Namor are that they are both comic book kings of Atlantis and masters of the seas. Both are also the royal offspring of a human father (Thomas Curry and Leonard McKenzie, respectively) and a royal Atlantean (Atlanna and Fen, respectively), wield a trident as their weapon of choice (including the Trident of Neptune), and have similar skill sets, including the ability to telepathically communicate with marine life. In addition:
**Both have fought Nazis in their early days.
**Both officially fought each other in the second issue of the DC vs. Marvel crossover event, where either the creative team or the readers voted on the winner. During the phase of battles decided by the writers themselves, Aquaman won by immobilizing Namor with a giant whale.
*Starting with this episode, the "FIGHT!" graphic for when a battle starts has been removed.
**It was later explained that it was removed so that there would be more ways to write the start of the fight.
**The "FIGHT!" graphic would eventually return for Goku VS Superman (2023) onward, only instead of it being used at the start of the fight, it is instead used at the end of a short preview of it that plays at the beginning of the episode.
*Starting with this episode, Wiz no longer says "Let's end this debate once and for all!" and instead says "And we've run the data through all possibilities."
**The old line however would return specifically for Cole MacGrath VS Alex Mercer, as that episode's script was written in 2013 in-universe.
*Boomstick comparing Aquaman to SpongeBob in his second analysis cutaway would become rather humorous in hindsight, as the latter would fight the "lame" version of Aquaman over three-and-a-half years later in Season 9.
===Easter Eggs===
*Right before the fight starts proper, Aquaman insultingly calls Namor "Spock", referencing the Human-Vulcan hybrid from the Star Trek series, as both he and Namor are half-human hybrids with pointed ears.
*During the battle, Aquaman and Namor end up on the same beach that Roshi and Jiraiya fought on, with the Kame House even being seen in the background when the golems appear.
===Errors===
*Despite the episode being titled "Aquaman VS Namor", the series names in the parentheses are written as "Marvel VS DC Comics" instead of the other way around to match the combatants.
**This makes it the fourth episode where this has happened, after Fulgore VS Sektor, Wolverine VS Raiden, and Flash VS Quicksilver, and with the next one being Galactus VS Unicron.
*The footage of Namor "shooting lasers" with his trident is actually footage of GameUnboxingReviews' custom recreation of Namor in LEGO DC Super-Villains shooting water, as Namor has never been in any LEGO Marvel media prior to the episode's release.
*While Aquaman calls the group of anglerfish at the end of the battle "boys", they are actually all female anglerfish, as male deep sea anglerfish look like this.
===Other===
*This is the 16th Marvel VS DC-themed episode, after Rogue VS Wonder Woman, Batman VS Spider-Man, Batman VS Captain America, Deadpool VS Deathstroke, Iron Man VS Lex Luthor, Green Arrow VS Hawkeye, Flash VS Quicksilver, Hulk VS Doomsday, Venom VS Bane, Thor VS Wonder Woman, Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099, Black Panther VS Batman, Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate, Nightwing VS Daredevil, and Thanos VS Darkseid, and with the next 13 being Captain Marvel VS Shazam, Ghost Rider VS Lobo, Miles Morales VS Static, Cable VS Booster Gold, Winter Soldier VS Red Hood, Batgirl VS Spider-Gwen, Lex Luthor VS Doctor Doom, Batman VS Iron Man, Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, Black Adam VS Apocalypse, Ant-Man VS Atom, Phoenix VS Raven, and Martian Manhunter VS Silver Surfer.
**This is the first time there have been two in a row.
**This is the second Marvel VS DC-themed Season Premiere, after Black Panther VS Batman, and with the next two being Miles Morales VS Static and Ant-Man VS Atom.
**This is the ninth time that DC wins, after Batman VS Captain America, Flash VS Quicksilver, Hulk VS Doomsday, Thor VS Wonder Woman, Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099, Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate, Nightwing VS Daredevil, and Thanos VS Darkseid, and with the next five being Captain Marvel VS Shazam, Miles Morales VS Static, Cable VS Booster Gold, Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, and Phoenix VS Raven.
*This is the first Water-themed episode, with the next one being SpongeBob VS Aquaman.
Category:Death Battles
Category:Season 6 episodes
Category:Season Premiere
Category:DC episodes
Category:Marvel episodes
Category:Animated Sprite battles
Category:Fights animated by Luis
Category:Fights animated by Zack
Category:Fights animated by Kayas
Category:Fights animated by Kiid
Category:Fights with voice actors
Category:'Marvel VS DC' themed Death Battles
Category:'Disney VS Warner Bros.' themed Death Battles
Category:'Heroes' themed Death Battles
Category:'Hero VS Anti-Hero' themed Death Battles
Category:'Element' themed Death Battles
Category:'Protagonists' themed Death Battles
Category:'Comic Book' themed Death Battles
Category:'Magic' themed Death Battles