Death Battle is a video series produced by Screwattack Productions, which uses animation and sometimes live action actors to depict battles between fictional characters from different genres. Usually, the characters in question have a connection of some sort. For example, Ryu from Street Fighter has faced Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, while DC Comics Joker has faced Twisted Metal's Marcus "Needles" Kane, aka Sweet Tooth.
In 2018, they announced and produced a battle between Elfen Lied's main character, the Diclonius Queen Lucy and Marvel Comics sadistic symbiote-enhanced serial killer, Cletus Kasady, more commonly known as Carnage. This pairing was suggested because both are known as prolific and gruesome killers who do not show restraint when dealing with an enemy.
As is common with Screwattack's fictional crossovers, the origins and backgrounds of the combatants, as well as their powers and accomplishments, are examined, albeit with two semi-sarcastic in-house characters offering commentary. A sad commonality, though on different ends, is revealed when Carnage's history (he was a serial killer long before attaining super-powers) is shown to include his brutal murder of a family dog when he was only a child, echoing the incident that finally pushed young Lucy over the edge. Indeed, many an Elfen Lied fan has commented that Lucy's bully ringleader Tomoo exhibited many traits shown to be indicative of future serial killers, animal cruelty being one of them.
Since Carnage is the older of the two characters, his sourcing was multiple and varied, from comics and cartoons, and while information about Lucy was taken from both manga and anime, the producers make it clear that they are relying on the manga accounts of Lucy's powers, especially at their peak.
The battle itself is depicted as taking place as the pre-maturity Nyu is waiting at one of Kamakura's train stations, though usually this incarnation of Nyu was not out and about unescorted. As the train arrives at the station, a gruesome reveal shows that Carnage has slaughtered the passengers. Attempting to kill Nyu by firing symbiote-created projectiles, Carnage instead manages to awaken Lucy, who, despite Carnage's range, is able to keep him from striking anything but glancing blows. This version of Carnage lacks the infectious projectiles seen in the recent Spider-Man Red Goblin arc. He is however fully able to completely regenerate repeatedly after being sliced to pieces by Lucy. This may be an exaggeration, though only slight, of Carnage's abilities in other mediums.
The two seem at a stalemate that does not bode well for Lucy. Carnage will not tire and Lucy is taking damage. Ultimately, Lucy ends the conflict by a method used late in the manga series. She slams the nearby ground with such terrific force from her vectors, a localized fission event completely incinerates Carnage. While this outcome was far from universally accepted by commenters on YouTube, it is an impressive win for Lucy, this against an enemy who, in another crossover, was said to unnerve Batman himself. If Screwattack decides to revisit Lucy as a combatant, this article will be updated to include it.
Carnage VS Lucy (Marvel VS Elfen Lied) DEATH BATTLE!
Trivia
- Carnage is a foe of Marvel's flagship character, The Amazing Spider-Man. As the iconic character Venom (technically the 'father' of the Carnage symbiote) is a darker version of Spider-Man, so is Carnage a darker version of Venom. The relation of these three characters to each other is not wholly unlike that of Nyu, Lucy and the DNA Voice, although Carnage is with rare engineered exceptions, wholly irredeemable.
- Lucy's use of the same power level that sank the island containing the Diclonius Research Institute did not seem to affect her body's integrity for this non-canon excercise. Indeed, her power usage would have had to have been much lower and more contained than in that instance, since the Kamakura Area is all coastline and therefore potentially vulnerable to ocean-born catastrophe. Also, presumably once the fight started, the station was cleared of non-combatants rather quickly. Those aboard the train Carnage arrived on were already dead.
- One of Elfen Lied's recurrent themes is brought up here: the use of trains and train stations. In the first piece of both the manga and the anime, Kouta arrives by train. A train stop is seen when Kouta and Yuka search for the missing Nyu, and when Mayu is considering whether to move into Maple House. Needless to say, young Lucy conducts her own slaughter aboard a train during certain pivotal events only revealed in flashback.
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