Boomstick: And Doctor Doom, King of Latveria and doom of the Fantastic Four.
Wiz: The intellect of these two evildoers is unmatched in their own worlds.
Boomstick: But what happens when the geniuses of these spiteful nerds collide?
The answer can be found in season eight's tertiary outing where the biggest names in comics trade blows once again; the chosen weapons this time, megalomaniacal masterminds whose geniuses are matched only by the technology forged with their own hands. Both men are well-acquainted with this series, having been featured in episodes past, but now is time to take mortal men aspiring to be something greater and pit them against one another. Now is time for Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom to match their machines and their unrivaled intelligence in a death battle.
First up to the plate is the supervillain businessman Alexander "Lex" Luthor. Born in the rural Americana of Smallville, Kansas, Lex's childhood was one highlighted by his abuse at the hands of his father. From there, his story differs depending on the continuity: some accounts paint Lex as a former friend of Clark Kent before blaming Clark for his premature hair loss, while others portray Luthor as a businessman who earned his own fortune after motivating himself to escape his father's wickedness. Whatever incarnation of the character is chosen, they all lead Lex to chairing his own multinational conglomerate, LexCorp, stationed in Metropolis. LexCorp had a firm grip on the city by the time the Kryptonian hero Superman arrived to Earth, and with his presence came Lex's deep-seated vendetta against the hero. From Lex's perspective, humanity will grow complacent and weak should it rely on Superman to solve the problems of the world. Thus, Lex has since taken it upon himself to remove Superman from the lives of mankind, using his unfathomable genius as a means to this goal.
Lex was already a gifted inventor before the rise of Superman, but the superhero's existence only pushed him and his intellect further. The most versatile and combat-ready of Lex's creations is the warsuit. An technological marvel of an armor, the warsuit is equipped with several weapons, projectile and melee, physical and energy, to give him an edge when facing foes beyond Superman. For utilitarian features, the warsuit features protective force fields, jet propulsion for flight, and a kryptonite-based arsenal specifically designed to weaken Kryptonians. Lex has fueled the warsuit through several means, but his most recent power source stems from a Mother Box, one of many supercomputers designed by the transdimensional New Gods. So advanced is this technology that the Mother Box grants Lex instantaneous creation and reconstruction of the warsuit; it also provides him with teleportation through manipulating quantum mechanics. Outside the warsuit, Lex has a smaller array of weapons that are no less effective; highlights include lasers, robotic decoys, and dimension-shifting barriers. However, the most impressive part of this lineup is the Everyman Project, a serum designed to give its user powers comparable to Kryptonians.
With or without the warsuit, Lex regularly faces off against some of the greatest in the DC universe; on his own merit, Lex has survived intensive torture and being shot out of helicopters in mid-flight. These feats become more impressive when he dons his armor, being able to match several individuals who possess the power of the universe-spanning Lantern Corps. Larfleeze, who has the entirety of the Orange Lantern Corps's power supply to himself can cross the universe in under an hour; similarly, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner can create a barrier capable of containing the Big Bang itself. The fact Lex can be measured to these Lanterns is a testament to his skill, and moreso the lengths that drive Lex to put an end to the hope Superman brings. Having gone to a future adopting his ideals and taken on the mantle of president in the hopes of controlling and even becoming Superman, Lex's battles serve a noble purpose in a twisted way. He applies his intelligence so that mankind as a whole can realize its potential just as he has for himself, whether or not they choose to accept losing their greatest symbol in the process.
With that said, the episode moves on to cover Doctor Victor von Doom and his origins in the central European nation of Latveria. Victor's parents were taken from him at a young age; father Werner while escaping from a vengeful baron, mother Cynthia when the demon lord Mephisto claimed her soul. The newly orphaned Roma would pull himself through the tragedy by creating inventions of such caliber that he was gifted with a scholarship to Empire State University. During his time in America, Doom developed an antipathy for his dormmate, Reed Richards; Doom saw Richards as egotistical, a narcissist obsessed with himself and no more. Doom's technological prowess continued despite this, ultimately leading him to construct a machine that could communicate with the dead. Despite warnings of faulty calculations, Victor used it anyway, triggering a catastrophe that scarred him. Doom was expelled and chose to travel the world until he reached a Tibetan monastery. There, the monks within crafted a suit of armor for Victor, and, reborn as Doctor Doom, he returned to Latveria and overthrew the baron that took his father. Emboldened by this success, Doom has since sought to bring the world under his control, only to be met with opposition by the Fantastic Four, and the team's leader, Reed himself.
Little if any doubt should exist as to Doom's intelligence and all it can create. Among his many creations are the infamous robotic duplicates Doombots, designed to look and behave like the real thing. The titanium suit of Doom is similarly outfitted with various devices; neurological functions and electricity generation are among some of its functions. All of this is matched by the same ingenuity which has defined Doom since his origins. Bombs which temporally displace the user, antimatter handguns, gadgets that alter and enlarge matter, staffs made of cybernetic viruses, all these pieces comprise some of Doom's arsenal, but the greatest weapon at his disposal is the cosmic power siphon; as its name suggests, this cannon absorbs the energy of any being, even cosmic deities, and transfers it into Doom's armor. Even sorcery is a field which Doom specializes in, having inherited his mother's affinity for the supernatural. With teleportation, magic barriers, surges of energy, and the ability to swap minds with anyone in proximity, this merging of technology and magic ensures Doom's viability on the battlefield.
For many reasons is Doom considered one of the greatest enemies not just toward the Fantastic Four, but to peace and order in the entire Marvel universe. The Latverian overlord's agility keeps pace with Thor and the universe-crossing hammer Mjölnir; Reed, able to react to intergalactic lasers fired by cosmic entities, is still slower than Doom in comparison. His own armor's worth, meanwhile, helps him take on universal threats like the Sentry and prior combatant the Incredible Hulk. Doom's expertise in science and the arcane is matched only by his ambition, and several times has this ambition been rewarded with great power. This constant quest for control ended up giving Doom godlike dominion over the multiverse, until Reed stole this power from him; losing the power he so lusts after is a fate that often befalls Doom. Surprisingly, this loss did nothing to quell the king's hate for Richards, but instead humbled him. Taking on the mantle of Iron Man for a time, Doom proved his capacity for good before inevitably reverting to his old ways. Be it as hero or villain, Doom will do as he pleases and can easily demonstrate what happens to those who oppose his wants.
- Servo-Guard robot: Your plan to destroy them has failed, master.
Doctor Doom: "Failed?" (telepathically blows up the robot) Doctor Doom does not "fail."
With both malevolent intellectuals and their myriad arsenals laid out, the time has come. One advertisement for Bluechew ED treatment later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
The battle to come opens in the silence of LexCorp's basement as its founder, one Alexander Luthor, studies his personal projects. An explosion rocks the basement as Doctor Doom of Latveria welcomes himself in. Drawing a laser pistol, Victor makes clear the terms of his business proposal: LexCorp's assets handed over for the people of Latveria. Lex weighs his options and finds potential in Latveria, but as a new branch of his corporation. The CEO primes a ray gun of his own and right after Lex announces his own intent, the genius supervillains open fire on one another.
FIGHT!
Beams of magenta and emerald light streak through the basement as both men dodge the other's lasers. With a well-aimed shot, Lex blasts the gun out his foe's hands, but Doom is undeterred. Instead, the scientist sorcerer charges his magic into an armored palm, firing the same instant Lex shoots another ray. The two beams collide in a blast that demolishes the basement. As the dust settles, the LexCorp CEO and the king of Latveria are nowhere to be seen; that changes when Lex leaps out a capsule and conjures the warsuit around himself. Stepping over the broken remains of his decoy, Luthor watches as Doom teleports back into the ruined basement before both ready themselves for another round of battle. Doom summons his techno-virus staff, Lex extends his warsuit's gauntlet blades. Though the bane of Superman lands a few direct hits, the blades are soon shattered from the force of Doom's strikes. The corporate mastermind gains some distance to expel the staff's virus and create a barrier around himself.
As Victor jumps in for another blow, the warsuit's barrier catches him, compressing the Roma into a two-dimensional space. As Doom whirls helplessly in the barrier, Superman's archnemesis charges a laser at his foe, unaware of a gaunlet-clad arm jutting out the barrier. In this arm's hand, a crackling orb. The blinding jade light makes impact with the orb, replaying the last few seconds of the fight; this time, the beam strikes the barrier and dissipates it entirely. Doom emerges, floating in the air as he gloats about his bomb shifting him through time before pulling himself back. Fully outstretched, the Latverian unleashes a dropkick upon Luthor's bald head. One dropkick leads to another, the Metropolis businessman knocked across the battered room. Lex catches on quickly, though, and once he steadies himself, smashes Doom into the floor. Any effort on the Roma's behalf to fight back is cut short as Lex tosses him into the air and fires another beam to no avail.
The son of Cynthia prepares his next attack, taking the rubble around the arena and expanding it to the size of boulders. Doom then casts this avalanche upon his enemy, who puts up a brief resistance before being pinned to the wall by the rocks. It takes Victor slamming a fist into his torso for Lex to break free, and though the warsuit is shattered, the head of LexCorp surprises Doom by forming another one from nothing. Lex capitalizes on this shock by closing in on Victor and electrocuting him. The literal shock is then capitalized on with a series of punches that gradually knock Doom away. Scanning the warsuit, Reed Richards's nemesis becomes awestruck seeing the Mother Box that powers it. Victor accepts an ensuing punch to his masked visage, as it gives him the opening to grab hold of the warsuit's right arm. The king's power siphoner kicks in, draining the energy out the Mother Box and channeling it into his own armor. Empowered by the New God technology, Doom does away with the warsuit and prepares a final fist. What should be a decisive end is instead the scene of Victor's punch caught barehanded; with no other options, Lex activates the Everyman Project on himself.
With the powers of his greatest rival, Lex takes to the air, punching Doom through each floor of LexCorp and out through the roof. In midair, Luthor grabs onto Victor's mask and slams him into the asphalt outside. Hammering that same mask with violent punches, Lex prepares to remove it from Doom's armor when a golden flash escapes the Latverian's eyes. Victor's voice, now coming from the empowered Lex, taunts the Metropolis overlord before driving a fist through his own torso. Doom uses the mind transfer once again to trap Luthor in his own body, and all the CEO can do in holler in terror knowing what awaits. A spear comprised of the Mother Box's energy leaves Lex impaled on the twisted rebar of what was once LexCorp. With a final upward swing, waves of energy close in on Lex, slicing him and his building into unassorted rubble. Doom watches the destruction and, having no further use for the New God power, dismisses it just as he does his foe.
KO!
With the fight's ending comes its retrospective. With Larfleeze's flight speed being five quintillion times faster than light, compared to Mjölnir's two quintillion, Lex was theoretically twice as fast as Doom. The warsuit was also stronger than Doom's armor, letting him stay in the fight for a while. That said, the fight begins to tip in Victor's favor with his greater durability surviving against his universe's heaviest hittiers, and that advantage only becomes steeper when factoring in his other abilities. Lex may have had ways around some of Doom's weapons, but he had no answer against powers like Victor's various molecular manipulation gadgets and neural disruptions. Lex has also proven himself susceptible to mind-swapping tactics, and in a precarious situation, Doom would be free to use the mind transfer at his own leisure. While the Mother Box would help bridge the gap some, that is a piece of technology that even a genius like Luthor has not fully understood the uses of. A greater threat against the Mother Box would be Doom's cosmic power siphon; beings like the Silver Surfer and Galactus have had their powers drained by this device. Even the Beyonder, whose power exceeds that of the entire Marvel multiverse millions of times over, had the entirety of that power taken from him through the siphon. Against such a tool, the Mother Box's energy could easily be stolen. With greater defenses, Victor could easily wait until the precise moment to use much of his trickery to overwhelm Lex. As powerful as these men were, Doom's greater defenses, wider array of powers, and power-draining abilities are how a winner and loser keep their streaks going.
Wiz: The winner is Doctor Doom!
Lex Luthor vs. Doctor Doom contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Perhaps an unintentional one, but Doom's VA, Steven Kelley, also voiced another egomaniacal overlord two seasons ago. One of the lines Doom drops during the battle sounds oddly similar to one of his most iconic lines.Doctor Doom: But enough talk. Let us end these charades!
- Actually a Doombot: Ironically used against Doom, with his initial opponent being a Lexbot while Lex gears up with his Warsuit. Doom remarks on its ingeniousness (and of course, the fact that it's not as ingenious as his own doombots).
- Badass Boast: Plenty, given who's fighting, but the best example is Doom's finishing line:"This power, it's like that of the gods: Beneath me."
- Big "NO!": Lex lets out a HUGE one during his Villainous Breakdown after Doom manages to crush his heart during the below mentioned "Freaky Friday" Flip.
- Brick Joke:
- Boomstick calls Lex a "dickbag" for adorning a large L on top of the LexCorp building. Later on in the fight itself, the L is knocked off the building and plays a role in Lex's demise.
- Wiz demonstrates Lex's dimension-shifting technology on Boomstick, turning him into a paper person. Near the end of the episode, it seems as if the tech has worn off when his hand suddenly goes limp and folds in on itself.
- The Bus Came Back: With fights barely episodes apart from each other in season two, the episode's combatants make their return after six years' time.
- Call-Back:
- When Doom destroys Lex's first warsuit, he remarks "What a farce!". That's the same line he used after Darth Vader destroyed a Doombot of his several episodes back.
- Doctor Doom's closing statement for his segment is the same clip, albeit slightly altered, that was used in his last Death Battle, complete with same line.
- Similarly to Iron Man back in Season 2, Doom scraps Lex's warsuit permanently by absorbing and using energy from it's own power source, the Mother Box. Only this time Lex is able to keep fighting.
- The fight begins with Lex's work in his lair being interrupted by Doom, who demands resources for his own use. Ironically enough, this put Lex in the same position as his old opponent back in Season 2, where Iron Man responded to Lex breaking into Stark Industries. The climax of the battle takes place after Lex knocks Doom out the building, causing it to spill onto the streets, and ends with the building both were fighting in utterly destroyed.
- As with Iron Man, Doom does manage to get off a Badass Boast comparing himself to a god.
- Continuity Nod: Given the fight scales Lex to Green Lanterns, Boomstick refers to them as a band of green boot-stompers in reference to that episode's killing blow.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In the end, Lex stood no chance against Dr. Doom. Although Lex's suit was a tad stronger and faster than Doom's, Doom had a multitude of ways to end the fight before it even starts; he could turn Lex to chrome, blast him with antimatter, scramble his nerves, or swap minds with him, all of which Lex would be unable to defend against.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip:
- Happens to Wiz and Boomstick while discussing Doom's ability to do the same, courtesy of DUMMI. Boomstick loses balance on Wiz's two matching legs, and Wiz's alcohol tolerance apparently carries over with him.
- Used to set up the killing blow, Doom swapping minds with Luthor to exploit his Superman-level powers against himself.
- History Repeats: Lex loses to Doom for the same reasons he lost to Iron Man. Lex may have been more powerful in strength, but his abilities were much less varied and his opponent was able to last long enough to use abilities he couldn't counter.
- Magic Versus Science: Downplayed as both men are well-versed in technology, but whereas Lex is full science, Doom supplements his gadgets with mystic abilities. With his ace in the form of the mind transfer, Doom wins this round for magic.
- Mythology Gag: In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Doom's foot dive is infamous for how easily it can be spammed and chained into another foot dive. It sees just as much overuse when he pulls it off in the fight.
- Ironically enough, Lex uppercutting Doom into the sky, grabbing his head, and diving back to the ground with him brings to mind his enemy Superman's Limit Break in Injustice 2. That in and of itself was a reference to Man of Steel, and was actually homaged in Superman's rematch against Goku.
- Rasputinian Death: Lex has a rather creative one at the hands of Doom, first being subjected to a "Freaky Friday" Flip in which Doom crushes Lex's heart, then is slammed and impaled on his building's own logo, and is then quickly sliced to pieces before his remains were likely caught in the LexCorp building's explosion caused from the energy slash Doom used.
- Shout-Out:
- Lex's alias of "Sexy Lexy" is noted as part of his background.
- The way Doctor Doom uses his "Freaky Friday" Flip ability in the climax is almost identical to what Captain Ginyu from Dragon Ball Z did against Goku — crushing his body's heart then swapping bodies to cripple the opponent — with the key difference that Ginyu did it to his own while trying to take Goku's for himself, whereas Doom did it after swapping to Lex's body for a moment, before going back to his own. On top of that, Boomstick outright refers to said power as "pulling a Captain Ginyu" in the post-battle commentary.
- Smug Super: Both combatants have egos the size of Earth, and the power to back them up.
- Take That!: When Wiz brings up Lex's Phantom-Zone Picture barrier, Boomstick is quick to call turning two-dimensional a "weeb's wet dream".
- Also, when Wiz brings up the time Lex ran for president, Boomstick criticizes the idea of an evil billionaire president who hates aliens. Does This Remind You of Anything?
- Victory by Endurance: This is how Doom triumphs over Lex. While Lex is stronger than Doom thanks to his Warsuit and the effects of the Everyman project, Doom has been able to endure blows from beings of similar power like the Hulk and Sentry. This let Doom last long enough to figure out how to use his abilities to turn Lex’s own strength against him.
- Visual Pun: Lex gets launched into the LexCorp sign and is skewed by rebar sticking out of it. In other words, he took the L.
- Voices Are Mental: In both body-swaps mentioned above, the characters swap voices along with minds.
