- —Tagline
Android 18 VS Captain Marvel is the 78th episode of Death Battle, featuring Android 18 from the Dragon Ball series and Captain Marvel from Marvel Comics in a battle between blonde energy-blasting heroines. Android 18 was voiced by Amber Lee Connors and Captain Marvel was voiced by Terri Doty.
Interlude
Boomstick: I love a powerful woman. Even better, one that keeps getting stronger and stronger. And today, we've got two of them!
Wiz: Android 18, the deadly cyborg killer from Dragon Ball.
Boomstick: And Captain Marvel, the hard-hitting, high flying Avenger. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, & skill to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
Android 18
Wiz: In the Age 763, peace had returned to the Earth. Unsung heroes led by the Super Saiyan Goku had saved the world from an evil galactic tyrant.
Boomstick: Everything seemed pretty hunky-dory, until a mysterious time traveler showed up out of nowhere with a grave warning.
Wiz: In just three years' time, two deadly androids would rise up and ravage the earth, all while wearing the mark of the long-forgotten Red Ribbon Army.
Boomstick: This sounds like it's gonna get complicated real fast.
Wiz: To be brief, the Red Ribbon Army was the greatest military force ever known, even greater than the Earth's entire armed forces combined.
Boomstick: Until a tiny monkey child named Goku strolled through and wrecked their shit.
Wiz: Dr. Gero, founder and lead scientist of the Red Ribbon Army, held a grudge against Goku for over 20 years. Like any mad scientist hellbent on revenge, the good doctor got back to doing what he did best.
Boomstick: Building murder bots!
Wiz: And so he designed some of his deadliest creations to date: Android 17, and Android 18.
Wiz: Though, "android" isn't entirely accurate. 17 and 18 were actually humans once, siblings even. So that makes them cyborgs, not androids. You'd think a doctor with Gero's prestige would know the difference. I'll just chalk it up to a classic case of revenge madness. It happens to the best of us.
Boomstick: Android 18's real name is Lazuli, which sounds like some sort of Italian pasta dish. No wonder she kept the name 18 after brutally murdering her maker.
Wiz: Yeah, Android 18 and her brother were pretty unruly and a force to be reckoned with. Gero, even with his own cyborg body, didn't stand a chance.
Boomstick: With nothing better to do, the twins set off to ravage the world as predicted. But this time, something changed. After witnessing the compassion of the heroes, including a bald, vertically challenged martial artist named Krillin, 18 had a change of heart and joined the good guys.
Wiz: She even wound up starting a family with Krillin.
Boomstick: Nice! Give it up for Krillin! Not only is he punching above his bracket, but he's laying pipe above it as well. Plus, 18 doesn't really age, so that's a serious win.
Wiz: Android 18 is an extremely competitive fighter with numerous deadly abilities. Gero's programming stems from decades of military dominance, granting her incredible hand-to-hand combat skills and mechanically enhanced senses for superb situational awareness.
Boomstick: And she's got the strength to back it up. This chick can embed a person straight into the side of a cliff with a single smack, or shoot explosions out of her hands.
Wiz: She does this by harnessing Ki, a Taoist-inspired life force energy manifested through a person's spirit and vigor. With her Ki, 18 can fire a barrage of energy beams powerful enough to destroy buildings, continents, possibly even planets.
Boomstick: Like the finger beam, haha. Talk about getting finger blasted, am I right?
Wiz: No.
Boomstick: Oh, you know you laughed.
Wiz: Absolutely not.
Boomstick: ...On the inside?
Wiz: Ugh... Android 18 has dozens of other techniques, such as Infinity Bullets.
Boomstick: I know what you're thinking, but it's not a magic gun with unlimited ammo. It's a stampede of energy blasts which are nearly impossible to avoid.
Wiz: Her Photon Strike lays waste to a vast area in an instant. She can even use her husband's signature technique: the Destructo Disc.
Boomstick: It's a Buzzsaw made out of pure energy! Why don't more Dragon Ball characters use that thing?
Wiz: Ki is just as much a defensive tool as well. Android 18 can enhance her strength, speed, and endurance with her energy, greatly surpassing the limitations of her physically body.
Boomstick: Oh yeah, and she can fly!
Wiz: Unlike most warriors, 18's energy supply stems from a sort of battery within. This system grants her a continuous and potentially endless supply of Ki.
Boomstick: She'll never get tuckered out. In fact, one of her favorite combat strategies is wasting time to make her enemy exhausted, then moving in to finishing them off.
Piccolo: She's making him burn up all his energy and then she's going to attack him.
Wiz: Like many of Dr. Gero's other "androids," it's even possible for 18 to steal her foes' energy for herself by absorbing it through her body, increasing her power and nulling her opponent.
Boomstick: So you can bet she'll always go the distance. Like Rocky Balboa, except, you know, way stronger and way prettier.
Wiz: 18 is tough enough to deflect Goku's Kamehameha attack, even while he's in Super Saiyan Blue form. Also, she can kick hard enough to break Super Saiyan Vegeta's arm.
Boomstick: What's so impressive about breaking an arm? You broke yours once just by falling out of your chair.
Wiz: Uh-huh. You might have missed the "Super Saiyan" part there. Vegeta's extremely high ki levels improve his body to support an impressive amount of weight. Leading up to the fight, Vegeta was training in 450 times gravity, making his weight about 55,000 pounds. That means the tibia in his leg would supporting over 40,000 pounds, the equivalent of eight pickup trucks.
Boomstick: Damn, I wish I had bones like that. I could fire so many bazookas and never have to worry about falling down.
Wiz: On top of that, she's able to use her constant supply of ki to easily match the speed of a Super Saiyan. We've previously established that an Ascended Super Saiyan can fly approximately 340,000 miles per hour, so it's reasonable to believe 18 can do the same.
Boomstick: Man, this ki stuff is seriously awesome. Maybe I should start meditating or something.
Wiz: Do you even know how?
Boomstick: Yeah, all I gotta do is get drunk and sit on the floor crisscross applesauce style, right? Easy.
Wiz: Sure... anyway, just like Vegeta, Android 18's ki allows her to survive serious blows. She's even taken the full brunt of a Super Saiyan ki blast, capable of obliterating an entire building, without a scratch.
Boomstick: Can't say the same for that sweet-ass jacket. Man, 18 is awesome.
Wiz: Awesome? Yes. Unstoppable? Not at all. Android 18 is unfortunately susceptible to a number of weaknesses, including her own programming. Fearing her unruliness, Gero designed her with a remote shutdown system in place, one that both he and Krillin's friend Bulma were able to exploit.
Krillin: Wow. So this little thing will stop them, huh?
Wiz: On top of that, 18 has a reputation of being cold and apathetic, although this is mostly just a guise, as she's always ready to defend her friends and family from threats. She even joined Goku, the man she was originally programmed to kill, for an interdimensional tournament bent on saving the universe from annihilation. It's safe to say the Super Saiyans are not the only blondes protecting the planet.
Boomstick: Believe me, when she gets that look in her eye, you'd better hold on to your Dragon Balls.
Android 18: I know I'm being hard on you, but it's the only way you'll learn.
Captain Marvel
Wiz: Captain Marvel has had many names in her career, but when she was born, she was simply Carol Danvers.
Boomstick: Carol grew up in Boston, and joined the Air Force to pay for college. She quickly "flew" to the top of their ranks before moving on to the Air Force Intelligence. Then she joined NASA! Damn, is her superpower just having really badass jobs? Wonder if she could give me a recommendation?
Wiz: Working at NASA was pretty cool, until aliens attacked! Carol got caught in the middle of a massive battle between the Kree aliens and a Kree superhero named Mar-Vell, known to the world as Captain Marvel.
Boomstick: Whoa, wait. Captain Marvel's secret identity is "Mar-Vell"? Somebody forgot to read "Superheroes For Dummies"! Anyway, during the battle, Carol got stuck in a machine called the Psyche-Magnitron. Which exploded! Luckily, this was one of those explosions that turns you into a superhero.
Wiz: The energy from the blast merged Carol's DNA with strands of Mar-Vell's. She developed an extra Kree brain lobe, and gained most of Mar-Vell's powers, transforming her into a new dynamic superheroine.
Boomstick: Except, she didn't even realize it at first. She'd just black out at random times and wake up to hear about a new suspiciously blonde superhero. Hey, Wiz! Maybe I have a superhero side like this. I mean, I black out all the time!
Wiz: Boomstick, you don't have powers. You have a problem. Throughout her adventures, Carol went through several phases of superhero titles. First Ms. Marvel, then Binary, then Warbird, then Ms. Marvel again, until one day, Mar-Vell died.
The sound of a pop-top is heard.
Boomstick: Here's to you, Mar-Vell.
Wiz: To honor her fallen friend, Carol Danvers took up his mantle, becoming the brand new Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel is unbelievably powerful, with superhuman strength and incredible durability.
Boomstick: She learned how to fly planes in the Air Force, but now, she could fly herself! And super fast!
Wiz: Speaking of which, through her time with the Air Force and as a member of the Avengers, she's received years of quality combat training. Not only can she hit hard, she can fire powerful concussive blasts of photon and stellar light energy from her hands, as well as create energy fields.
Boomstick: As if all that weren't enough, Carol can open up an extra can of whoop-ass by absorbing energy. Absorbing anything from electricity to magic can make her even stronger.
Wiz: With these powers, Captain Marvel has done some pretty amazing things. While training with the Avengers, the combat simulation measured that she can deliver a force of 92 tons, almost 10 times the destructive power of a Davy Crockett nuclear missile.
Boomstick: She can survive energy blasts to the face and even the vacuum of space for a long period of time. Once, she flew from Broadway to the end of the atmosphere in only a minute and 58 seconds. That's a lot of ground, uh..., sky to cover in less that two minutes.
Wiz: She claims that's her personal record. Now considering the distance between a New York City street and the exosphere, Marvel must have been flying 247 times faster than the speed of sound.
Boomstick: Carol has taken out characters like Vision, punched Iron Man out of his armor, and even survived two point-blank blasts from the Destructor's beam, which has enough power to punch holes through an Imperial Kree starship.
Wiz: And that's not even the height of her power. If Marvel absorbs enough energy, she can access the powers of Binary, a form she took after losing her powers, getting lost in space, and being experimented on by aliens. Long story. As Binary, she can tap into the power of a white hole and generate star-levels of energy.
Boomstick: And her hair's on fire!
Wiz: Were you even listening? That's like the least interesting thing about it.
Boomstick: Says you. Look at it!
Wiz: Binary was an extremely powerful form, capable of wiping out entire fleets of enemy ships, but one that Captain Marvel does not have easy access to. She initially lost the form after expending all of its energy, and is unable to reach it again without absorbing a massive amount of interstellar energy, such as the infinite energy from a gravitational field of a black hole singularity.
Boomstick: She's too stubborn to just give up though.
Wiz: She's stubborn to a fault, even rushing headlong into situations while ignoring advice from wiser, more experienced friends. Like the time she started a Civil War between superheroes, or when she completely ignored her damaging addiction to alcohol.
Boomstick drinks a beer.
Boomstick: Ahh... Yeah, Carol is a badass with a hell of a lot of power, but if Tony Stark of all people thinks you have a drinking problem, you should probably listen to him instead of trying to fly into space while completely wasted.
Boomstick drinks another beer.
Boomstick: Yeah.
Wiz: Regardless, Captain Marvel is a seasoned hero with a record that most would be envious of. Hell, she's such a pillar, she's named after the publishing company herself.
Captain Marvel lays a smackdown on an alien criminal before pausing and then sending him flying.
Captain Marvel: Anybody else?
The alien then crashes down.
Prelude
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all!
Boomstick: But first, it's time for some scrumptious Blue Apron!
Wiz and Boomstick read out an advertisement for Blue Apron.
Boomstick: But right now, IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all!
Boomstick: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!(The transcript below is exclusive to the YouTube version of the episode.)
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all!
Boomstick: But first, it's time for some scrumptious Blue Apron!
Wiz and Boomstick read out an advertisement for Blue Apron.
Boomstick: But right now, IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!
(The transcript below is exclusive to the Rooster Teeth version of the episode.)
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all!
Boomstick: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!Death Battle
In an unknown mountainous region, Android 18 flies at high speeds searching for something. She finally comes across what she was looking for, one of the seven Dragon Balls. It lies on top of a tall mountain in a tree with Captain Marvel standing in front of it. She steps forward to reach for it, but Carol extends her hand forward.
Captain Marvel: Get back. This orb is coming with me!
Android 18: Give me a break, lady. I've been looking for that thing all day!
The now angered Captain Marvel flies in the air and starts charging her energy.
Captain Marvel: Don't make me hurt you.
Android 18: Yeah, good luck with that.
Captain Marvel charges towards 18, who disappears in an afterimage and kicks Carol forward. When she goes forward to hit Marvel again, the superheroine punches her back. Carol tries to kick 18, but the android grabs her and tosses her forward and then catches up to punch her down.
The two clash with each other at high speeds while flying, but 18 traps Carol in a wind vortex and punches her forward. Marvel charges her energy and launches a large beam at 18, who dodges it. Carol appears right in front of 18 after the beam to punch her down. The two women repeatedly clash punches and kicks and appear on par with each other. The two stop in the middle of a punch near a mountain.
Android 18: I really don't have time for this...
18 disappears in an afterimage right behind Carol and grabs Captain Marvel by the hair.
Captain Marvel: Ouch! Hey!
She tosses her opponent into the nearby cliff side and punches her into the tree with the Dragon Ball.
Android 18: What a pest...
Captain Marvel appears in front of the cliff now angered.
Captain Marvel: No fair! That's playing dirty!
Android 18: Time to clean up then!
18 launches some Infinity Bullets that Carol easily dodges. She then launches a large ki beam that Carol absorbs, transforming her into Binary.
Captain Marvel: Surprise! Thanks for the energy!
Binary punches the nearby mountain, blowing it up and sending the debris that knocks 18 down. Binary quickly flies towards 18 and kicks her forward while charging up another energy blast.
Captain Marvel: I can take whatever you give and dish it back twice as hard!
Binary launches numerous beams at 18, which the android dodges and blocks. They prepare to punch each other again, but notice a large rock above them about to crush them. Binary flies away while 18 slices the rock in half with Destructo Disk. Binary appears right above the rock that 18 destroyed. She launches her most powerful beam attack right down at the android, laughing.
Captain Marvel: Have a taste of your own energy!
The beam creates a large crater in the ground and seemingly destroys 18. But Carol is surprised by something that appears when the dust clears.
Captain Marvel: What?
18 appears unharmed, as she was able to absorb most of Carol's attack.
Android 18: Surprise, I can do it, too!
18 yells as she powers up and hits Binary harder than before. She knees the superheroine upwards and breaks both of Carol's arms with two kicks, leaving her opponent screaming in pain as she knocks her back to the ground. Carol struggles to get up.
Captain Marvel: No fair. I can still...
18 comes back down and curb stomps Carol's head into the ground, bursting her head open and killing her.
Android 18: And that's that.
Android 18 struggles to find the Dragon Ball she and Carol were fighting over, as it's been covered in Binary's blood.
Results
Boomstick: Ouch! Now that's a crushing blow!
Wiz: Captain Marvel may have been one of the Avengers' mightiest warriors, but she couldn't stand up to the power, speed, and expertise of Android 18.
Boomstick: First off, the numbers don't lie. When it comes to speed, Carol's best record put her in just under 200,000 miles per hour, but 18 could move over 100,000 miles faster.
Wiz: Most apparent of all, Marvel's durability and strength feats simply pale in comparison to 18's. The only way Marvel's power could match 18's was to absorb enough energy to reach her Binary form.
Boomstick: But 18 is no stranger to that technique. There's no doubt she recognized what Carol was doing, and stopped feeding her energy. Even if Carol had somehow achieved the full force of Binary, that wouldn't have guaranteed a win. I mean, the last time we saw Binary in the comics, she was taken down by some alien guns. Guess she's not as good at absorbing energy as she thought.
Wiz: With superior speed, strength, tactics, and endurance, Android 18 simply wore Captain Marvel down until it was time to go in for the kill.
Boomstick: And that's why Captain Marvel lost by T. Ki. O.! God, that one was awful!
We cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: The winner is Android 18.
Trivia
Production
- The connections between Android 18 and Captain Marvel are that they are both powerful, blonde heroines who use can fly and use energy-based attacks which they gained from scientific causes (Dr. Gero's experiments and the Psyche-Magnitron, respectively). Both also help protect Earth, being some of the most powerful members of a heroic team (the Z-Fighters and the Avengers, respectively).
- Death Battle themselves mistakenly believed this matchup to have the connection of both being able to absorb energy, though 18 is only able to do this in Dragon Ball Xenoverse.
Easter Eggs
- A clip of Dr. Brief is shown on screen when Wiz says "To be brief" as a pun on his name.
- Captain Marvel getting her arms broken by Android 18 with one kick each is likely a reference to how the latter did the same to Vegeta.
Errors
- In 18's "Background" slide, Marron's name is misspelled as "Maron".
- Coincidentally, in an episode of Dragon Ball Super that premiered just three days before this episode, Android 17 made a similar mistake of mispronouncing Marron's name as "Maron", which caused 18 to threaten him.
- Ben Singer later stated in the episode's comment section that they miscalculated Android 18's speed and that she is able to go much faster than what they portrayed in the episode. He re-estimated her speed to be 15,300,000 miles per hour.[1]
- He was also questioned on how 18 was able to absorb energy in the episode when she wasn't able to in Dragon Ball proper. He stated that because she did it in Xenoverse and the other Androids were built similarly, it wouldn't be a stretch to say she had it as well, but warns the other viewers that it didn't impact the results that much.[2]
Other
- This is the sixth Marvel VS non-DC-themed episode, after Thor VS Raiden, Beast VS Goliath, Darth Vader VS Doctor Doom, Wolverine VS Raiden, and Deadpool VS Pinkie Pie, and with the next 14 being Shredder VS Silver Samurai, 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, and Galactus VS Unicron.
- This is the third time the non-DC character wins, after Beast VS Goliath and Wolverine VS Raiden, and with the next seven being Shredder VS Silver Samurai, Carnage VS Lucy, Deadpool VS Mask, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, Iron Fist VS Po, and Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon.
- This is the first Dragon Ball VS Marvel-themed episode, with the next two being Hulk VS Broly and Thor VS Vegeta.
- This is the ninth Females-themed episode, after Rogue VS Wonder Woman, Felicia VS Taokaka, Chun-Li VS Mai Shiranui, Zelda VS Peach, Ivy VS Orchid, Yang VS Tifa, Cammy VS Sonya, and Amy Rose VS Ramona Flowers, and with the next 12 being Raven VS Twilight Sparkle, Black Widow VS Widowmaker, Weiss VS Mitsuru, Black Canary VS Sindel, She-Ra VS Wonder Woman, Batgirl VS Spider-Gwen, Blake VS Mikasa, Korra VS Storm, Harley Quinn VS Jinx, Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, Phoenix VS Raven, and Ruby VS Maka.
- This is the first episode since Green Arrow VS Hawkeye to be animated by Zack Watkins.
- This is the third Anime/Manga VS Comic Book-themed episode, after Goku VS Superman 1 and Goku VS Superman 2, and with the next 13 being Carnage VS Lucy, Optimus Prime VS Gundam, Mob VS Tatsumaki, Genos VS War Machine, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Saitama VS Popeye, Thor VS Vegeta, Magneto VS Tetsuo, Trunks VS Silver, Frieza VS Megatron, and Goku VS Superman (2023).
- This is the first time that the Anime/Manga character wins, with the next four being Carnage VS Lucy, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, and Frieza VS Megatron.
- This is the first Hitotsubashi VS Disney-themed episode, with the next six being Carnage VS Lucy, Genos VS War Machine, Obi-Wan Kenobi VS Kakashi, Hulk VS Broly, Thor VS Vegeta, and Darth Vader VS Obito Uchiha.
- This is the first time the Hitotsubashi character wins, with the next three being Carnage VS Lucy, Hulk VS Broly, and Darth Vader VS Obito Uchiha.
- This is the third Cyborg VS Human themed episode, after Darth Vader VS Doctor Doom and Wolverine VS Raiden, and with the next three being Genos VS War Machine, Cable VS Booster Gold, and Darth Vader VS Obito Uchiha.
- This is the second time the Cyborg character wins, after Wolverine VS Raiden.