DC vs Marvel – Round 2

Black Manta vs. Nico Minoru is such a beautifully uneven emotional cocktail. “Vengeful high-tech submarine murderer” vs “goth sorceress whose magic is powered by trauma and poorly negotiated consent with a spell-staff.”

Black Manta

Absolute menace. Zero jokes, zero hesitation, zero air holes in that helmet. The man hates Aquaman so much that it rewired his personality. He is a weapons engineer with submarine-level tech, laser beams that would make Stormtroopers weep in envy, and enough sheer rage to boil the ocean.

Nico Minoru

Runaways royalty. The Staff of One gives her magic—but only once per command. Say a spell twice and it fizzles… so she has to get creatively unhinged mid-fight.

Emotionally? She is a pressure cooker wrapped in black eyeliner. Practically? She can bend reality if she can word it cleverly enough.

How this fight goes

Black Manta starts underwater because of course he does. He is like a shark with student debt.

He fires lasers. Nico, being a goth raised by supervillain parents, immediately goes for spellcasting like she is in a poetry slam run by demons.

Nico: “Freeze!”

Staff: okay

Black Manta: encased in ice, annoyed but still functioning.

He breaks out with tech the way an angry dad breaks a lawnmower.

Nico tries “Bind him!” but the Staff goes, “Used something similar two fights ago. Nice try.”

This is where her creativity saves her. She starts pulling chaotic linguistic gymnastics: “Make him buoyant!”

“Turn his helmet into tofu!”

“Teleport him thirty feet to the left!” Each spell hits like a wild improvisation that should not work but somehow does.

Black Manta counters with pure durability and marine engineering. If Nico gets overwhelmed for even a second, she is toast.

But here is the kicker: Manta has no magic defence. His whole vibe is “mechanical brute force plus unresolved hatred issues.” Nico’s entire kit is “magic that bypasses physics.” So eventually she lands a spell that is both weird enough and brilliant enough.

Something like: “Reverse his gravity!”

Or, “Unmake his aggression!”

Or, “Make the sea allergic to Manta!”

Manta goes flying. Very dignified. Very villainous. Very angry.

Black Manta vs Nico Minoru → Winner: Nico Minoru

Power: Manta 8 vs Nico 7.5 (variable)

Messiness: Manta 5 vs Nico 9

Banter: Manta 0.0004 vs Nico 7

Nico advances.

(score card)