Killer Croc VS Tuatara

Killer Croc VS Tuatara
Season	Season of the Croc
Season Episode	2
Air date	18 April 2023‎
Written by	Dark-Carioca
Episode guide
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Description

DC vs. Marvel! A battle between two muscular, large and incredibly powerful scaly reptilian-themed mutated humans who've worked for shady organizations and supervillains!

Interlude

Invader by Jim Johnston

Wiz: The class Reptilia houses a lot of fascinating animals, with attributes that humanity has often tried to replicate for their own benefit, with little success.

Boomstick: Unless you count snakeskin boots!

Wiz: While this is... not what some might call one of those benefitial cases...

Boomstick: At least it benefits this fight, since these two combatants are pretty awesome!

Wiz: Killer Croc, DC's fearsome crocodile man, former enemy of Batman and prominent Suicide Squad member.

Boomstick: And Tuatara, Marvel's large lizard woman, old enemy of Iron Man and former agent of the Mandarin.

Wiz: For this particular matchup, the incarnation of Killer Croc that will be used will be the one from Rebirth, as that is the one that shares the most qualities with Tuatara, and seems to be the one originally used by the one who came up with this matchup.

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.

Killer Croc

Wiz: The Killer Croc from Rebirth combines a lot of attributes from past incarnations with a few tweaks here and there, let's go through all the info offered to us, starting with his childhood as told in the sixth issue of the 2016 Suicide Squad run. Waylon Jones was born in a little town outside Tampa near the swamps. His mother died in childbirth and his father left soon after.

Boomstick: Can relate. Kinda.

Wiz: He was taken in by a deadbeat aunt and bullied by most other children due to his appearance. He only had one friend, Emma, the first person who treated him like a human being. One of his bullies, Alec, disappeared into the swamps and Emma convinced Waylon to use his sense of smell to find him, but when they got there, they found his killer as well...

Boomstick: That is a HUGE alligator! Or... a crocodile? I can never tell the difference.

Wiz: The attack resulted in Emma's death, and when the police and several townsfolk arrived on the scene, they assumed Waylon was responsible, chasing him into the swamps and kicking him out of town.

Boomstick: I guess the giant crodilligator didn't look convincing enough for them?

Wiz: He would later find himself all the way in Coney Island, caged and presented in a freak show, where people constantly gawked and abused him, his only friend there being the daughter of the circus' boss, Julie. He eventually escaped and, some way or another...

Boomstick: Translation: It goes unexplained.

Wiz: ...He became trapped in a life of crime, following a short tenure as an alligator wrestler. Many if not most of his thoughts lingered on the dark side of his mind, growing an intense hatred for humanity and embracing his monstrous self, going as far as turning into an actual cannibal.

Boomstick: Honestly, I don't blame him. Er, his hatred for humanity, I mean, the cannibal part... Eww, definitely not.

Wiz: According to Croc himself, he's had Batman under his foot, stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars...

Boomstick: Though he has definitely amassed a much greater fortune than that, considering he had enough to bid 4 billion dollars in an auction for a unique cache of metahuman intel gathered by many intelligence services like the FBI, CIA and stuff. The guy's a billionaire and he lives in the sewers...

Popup: How he amassed that much money also goes unexplained, but it was most likely through his gangland empire or the various robberies he likely committed.

Wiz: And he has ruled a gangland empire at least throughout Gotham. He had a sidekick called Gator who suffered from the same or a similar mutation as him, but he saved him from the life of crime Waylon was trapped in. To shave a few years off his sentence following his imprisonment, he was recruited into Task Force X by Amanda Waller alongside fellow Arkham Asylum inmate Harley Quinn, this team being among the few individuals on Earth he would honestly regard as his friends.

Boomstick: What are they, some kind of Suicide Squad? Well, not just the two of them. Can't be a squad with just two people, that'd be a VERY lonely squad...

Wiz: Aaanyway, becoming part of the Suicide Squad was actually quite fitting given that Croc's mutation didn't just affect his appearance, but also altered his physiology, making him the team's Big Guns. He can track down scents for hundreds of miles and was gifted with absurd levels of strength and speed, even as a kid he was able to kill that giant alligator with little difficulty. He can travel through large bodies of water like a torpedo, able to propel himself several meters out into the air, like a crocodile or an orca, and he keeps that amazing speed and agility in the surface.

Boomstick: On top of this, his endurance is insane, he can fight for hours on the surface or even in the Atlantic seafloor while holding his breath, which he could do forever as a kid according to himself, regardless if he's going up against opponents comparable to him. He's been stabbed through the gut and had huge holes blasted through his body and just kept going!

Wiz: Indeed, Killer Croc possesses an incredible healing factor, able to regenerate the aforementioned giant holes through his entire body in seconds and heal 90% of his body covered in third-degree burns after a trip to the Sun's surface in a matter of days or weeks. The Sun also emits huge amounts of radiation and yet Croc either quickly healed from it or is immune to such things, which would be fitting as there are many reptiles that have shown resistance or straight up immunity to many kinds of radiation.

Boomstick: And while he may appear dumb, this incarnation of Croc is actually pretty damn smart both generally and as a fighter. As noted by Amanda Waller and Batman, he only likes talking dumb and acting like a monster because it scares others, this gives him power and/or makes them underestimate him.

Popup: This level of intelligence is consistently carried through a few writers, but most notably the one who introduced Croc in Rebirth and into the Suicide Squad (Rob Williams), who wrote him for the entire 2016 run and created this bit of information that consequent writers would use with Croc.

Wiz: During a notable one-man mission in an island full of mutant animals, his sense of smell and his survival instincts could tell him a lot about how the island came to be, that the perpetrators were still present on the island and that they were using electricity unseen by most, even teams of experienced soldiers who came there before him, perfectly analyzing the situation. Even something as simple as deceiving people into making them believe he's the big bad monster says a lot about his character and his intellect, especially since it largely works on others, even the astute Dark Knight.

Boomstick: That's quite the arsenal of abilities on an already pretty badass dude, but he can't really be that strong, can he? Dude's a Batman villain, after all.

Wiz: Well, yes and no. He does mention in passing that he's confronted Batman, but most of his appearances in Rebirth suggest their relationship is a bit more amicable, less recurring and somewhat different compared to past incarnations of the character. Having formed part of the Suicide Squad and confronted a lot of heavy-hitters beyond Gotham, Killer Croc isn't just your average superhuman mutant anymore. All things considered, he's stepped up quite a bit.

Boomstick: Holy crap, how did we go from dude with skin disease and regular Batman villain to this?

Wiz: And we aren't done just yet...

Boomstick: Wait, what?!

Wiz: Unfortunately, nowhere in Rebirth could we find an explanation as to how Killer Croc became such a force to be reckoned with, so all we have are assumptions and theories...

Boomstick: You say that like we can't just write it off as "writers goofed up"!

Wiz: My own personal theory on this sudden boost in power is that, previously in the New 52/Post-Flashpoint continuity prior to Rebirth (Rebirth is supposed to be a continuation/reboot/mish mash of what came before), Croc was briefly turned into the Hydra early on in that reality.

Boomstick: ...I'm sorry, what?

Wiz: Yes, the mythical Hydra, and it's a very, very long story so we'll skip over how that happened.

Boomstick: Guess we'll get to that in some other episode...

Wiz: Croc in this Hydra state was immeasurably powerful, so much so that Wonder Woman herself, who struggled to take him on, could only think of two or three other people, referencing Superman and Green Lantern primarily, that could take it down. The Hydra eventually regressed into Waylon's body and was seemingly contained for the remainder of that continuity.

Boomstick: And that theory of yours is...?

Wiz: To obtain this level of strength and regeneration, it's possible that Croc somehow tapped into the Hydra's godlike might, gaining the power he now has. It would fit the fact that he became one with all the Source Wall's power and survived, whereas entities like Darkseid were completely drained of their power after simply being trapped for a brief time in the Source Wall. Additionally, in the second issue of the 2016 Suicide Squad run, fellow Suicide Squad member Enchantress briefly refers to Croc as a "relentlessly brutal death deity", which is in line with the descriptions given to Croc around the time he began to evolve into the Hydra or was still tied to it and able to become it.

Boomstick: And here I thought we weren't getting the "long story"... But as Mr. Glasses just said, this is just a theory, a Death Battle theory!

Wiz: Er, indeed. Regardless of where this newfound strength came from, one thing is clear about Waylon Jones...

Boomstick: Do not mess with Killer Croc!

Tuatara

Wiz: I know who you might be thinking... just who is "Tuatara"?

Boomstick: An obscure Iron Man villain from the Dark Age of comics in the 90s.

Wiz: Oh, I'm surprised. You knew of this character, Boomstick?

Boomstick: It's in the script, moron.

Wiz: Oh, right... Well, back on track... Araoha Tepania, according to the Marvel Atlas, was born in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. There is no information on her childhood or generally background beyond achieving the rank of Commander and working as an agent for Iron Man's archenemy the Mandarin, but from birth, she was bonded with a tuatara lizard, through either mystical or technological means, leading to her having a partially scaly human appearance.

Boomstick: Bonded with a what now?

Wiz: A tuatara, a reptile endemic to New Zealand, considered to be a living fossil that's been around since the Triassic separate from other orders within Reptilia like lizards and snakes, which are their closest relatives. It can live over a hundred years and it has a third eye thought to be useful in absorbing ultraviolet rays to produce vitamin D and/or to determine light/dark cycles, and help with thermoregulation. In the eyes of the Māori (the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand), the tuatara were held as ariki (God forms) and regarded as the messengers of Whiro, the god of death and disaster. Today, they are viewed as the kaitiaki (guardian) of knowledge.

Boomstick: Cool, didn't know you had knowledge on random lizards from parts unknown.

Wiz: It's in the script, you imbecile.

Boomstick: Touché.

Wiz: This mythology is mostly unrelated to Araoha whose mission was to capture and keep various scientists and inventors from throughout the globe to build special equipment and machinery that would aid the Mandarin, including Tony Stark whose alliance with the Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. allowed him to escape from this facility. This mystical godlike side to the tuatara lizard however likely ties into Araoha's main abilities. As a mutate and shape-shifter, she can morph into a form she simply refers to as Tuatara, enhancing her physical prowess while retaining all her military and combat training, aiding her colossal size.

Boomstick: Now we're talking!

Wiz: And even though she only appeared once, she left a pretty notable impression on Iron Man, as someone worthy of a rematch. Tuatara couldn't crack open Iron Man's Model 16 armor but she was mostly stalling him and the Black Widow to make sure her headquarter's databases were slagged, but it's not unlikely that the Mandarin had ordered her to kill Iron Man as he has a tendency to use other beings against the Armored Avenger. The reptile she bonded with didn't grant her any special abilities as far as we're aware, other being a good digger, though that's not exactly combat-appliccable as she only used this ability to escape S.H.I.E.L.D., but she remains a formidable warrior all the same.

Boomstick: Dang, she gets compared to the Hulk of all characters? That's pretty sweet.

Popup: For comparison, the last time Iron Man fought Hulk, he had attained a new personality and form known as the Merged Hulk, and Stark fought him with the Hulkbuster armor, though it's worth noting that it wasn't particularly effective and likely wouldn't have 'busted' that incarnation of Hulk, arguably the strongest up to that point. Before that, he'd fought a Bannerless Hulk in the Silver Centurion armor, but didn't stand much of a chance there even with the aid of other powerful Avengers by his side.

Wiz: Admittedly, the Hulk isn't the best bit of scaling that could be offered to us, since a surprising amount of characters get compared to him yet more than half of them aren't exactly on the same level as the jade goliath.

Boomstick: Still, to be able to take on Iron Man like that and get that much hype, it kinda sucks she wasn't used ever again and was only relevant for one issue over 20 years ago... This gal takes repulsor blasts to the face like they're a sweet breeze and just smiles at them, how could you not use her more?!

Wiz: Indeed, she may be lacking in appearances, but Tuatara is one powerful reptilian warrior that most on Earth-616 wouldn't want to be unprepared for in a fight to the death.

Pre-Death Battle

Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set! We've run the data through all possibilities!

Boomstick: It's time for a DEATH BATTLE!

Death Battle

Deep underground, near Stark Tower in the Flatiron District and beneath a restaurant where Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff are having a friendly reunion after so long, one of Stark's old enemies has made a return, and has been spying them from down below.

Tuatara: "At last, I have both of you together, at your most vulnerable. After my loss so many years ago, the Mandarin no longer trusted my services, but everything I've gone through to get here and enact my revenge will soon be forgotten, once I walk away from this battle with your heads as trophies. The explosion that will take out this entire block and half this city will make everyone remember Araoha Tepania as the one who killed Iron Man and the Black Widow!"

Killer Croc: "Yeah, uh... Sorry to interrupt, crazy lady, but I can't let you do that."

Tuatara turned around surprised. She didn't think anyone could sneak up on her, especially not someone as large as this scaly mutant before her, who emerged out of the sewers' murky waters.

Killer Croc: "See, I'm on a mission here and I need the city block above to remain intact, so unless you wanna mess with the rest of the Suicide Squad or even worse, Waller herself, you'd better split."

Tuatara: "Nothing will move me. Try to stop me and you die."

Killer Croc: "Alright! Challenge accepted, then."

As Killer Croc lunges at Araoha, her body lights up and the fight erupts into the streets above.

Tuatara: "You've cost me my vengeance, but I will have another opportunity. You, however, will not live to see another day!"

Killer Croc: "Spooky. Wasn't expecting you to get this big, but I've fought bigger."

Tuatara and Killer Croc traded blows, the shockwaves of which quaked the earth and shattered nearby windows.

Having watched all this happen, the rest of the Suicide Squad continued to observe from a nearby skyscraper.

Deadshot: "Okay, Killer Croc is now out on the street fighting a bigger, greyer and more pissed off version of him. Let's join in."

Harley Quinn: "Come on Floyd, we can wait around a bit and enjoy the show for now, no?"

Captain Boomerang: "The clown makes a point, mate."

Deadshot: "Heh, I guess if nothing else we'll at least get to watch a lot of those pretentious New York heroes get their skulls caved in by Croc and this thing if they try to stop them. Waller won't be happy but eh, screw her."

Tony Stark and Natasha had already left the scene, with the former having donned his latest Iron Man armor and flown around the block, recognizing a familiar dark figure watching the scene on top of a gargoyle: Batman.

Iron Man: "Hey Bruce, long time no see."

Batman: "Shouldn't you be trying to stop them? I don't have the gear for this at the moment."

Iron Man: "I've scanned the area and their trajectory, Tuatara's pushing Croc into a mostly empty park. Tuatara and I have unfinished business but figured I'd wait for them to tire each other out first, then knock her out. I see her winning this one."

Batman: "MOSTLY empty?"

Iron Man: "Only a few bird nests, that's the non-empty part of it."

Batman grunted, then smirked in response to the witty reply.

Batman: "What can you tell me about Tuatara, since you've faced her first-hand?"

Iron Man: "VERY strong, nearly beat me a few dozen models back, in my old Counter-Earth armor. Shouldn't be as big an issue now, but I'd rather not risk it. What about Wally Gator there?"

Batman: "A good man wearing the thick skin of a monster, I hope Waylon does the right thing here. I have faith in him."

Tearing through the earth and ripping apart any streetlight or parked car in their way, Killer Croc and Tuatara continued their battle into the mostly empty park.

Tuatara: "Your appearance is starting to become familiar to me... Killer Croc, correct? A recent addition to Amanda Waller's pack of irredemable rabid dogs. I was always more impressed by the giant humanoid shark, myself."

Killer Croc: "King Shark, right. Met 'im a couple of times. Whereas you lady, I have no damn clue who you are!"

With a right backhand from Tuatara, Killer Croc was sent flying out of the park through the building nearest to them, as the former's voice echoed through the streets.

Tuatara: "The name's Tuatara! Remember it well! It will be the name you'll carry with your headless body on your way to Hell, disgusting mutate!"

Killer Croc jumped out of the hole Tuatara had made through that building, giving her a punch that matched her previous one and sent her deeper into the park.

Killer Croc: "Pot calling the kettle black, no?"

As Tuatara recovered her strength and got back up, she was immediately tackled by Killer Croc into the park's nearby lake. Thanks to his ability to hold his breath for several hours and fight underwater without issues, Croc proceeded to hold Tuatara's massive neck, big enough to be gripped by both Croc's arms and legs, choking her. This underwater struggle results in Tuatara losing most of her armor.

Killer Croc: "My guess is, if you're anything like a tuatara lizard, you probably aren't semi-aquatic like me."

Thanks to her superior size and skill, Tuatara was able to break free of his hold, though barely. She barely escaped Croc under the water and into the lake's shore, as the water wasn't deep enough to be totally problematic.

Angered, Tuatara punched the ground, creating a small crevice that drained the lake of most of its water. Killer Croc just stood there, in the empty lake, as Tuatara approached him.

Their eyes lock, they each draw breath. Their blows land with immense force, but testing and assessing each other's skills. A feint. A counter. A shift.

Tuatara: "I'm impressed you've lasted this long, my strength is not unlike that of Earth's stronger Gamma mutates."

Killer Croc: "Yeah, I could probably go for a few rounds with Hulk too, but let's be frank, neither of us would win that in the long run."

Their talk continues as they trade fists; flurries of hooks and uppercutts and an endless assortment of moves, being parried or dodged. In their minds, they can both tell this isn't exactly an easy fight, and could go on forever. Killer Croc can tell Tuatara's skilled and bigger than him, but Tuatara's blows upon landing don't have quite as major an effect against Croc's impenetrable hide, and he's experienced enough to match her, so she proceeds to taunt him, to see if getting under his skin will help her achieve victory.

Tuatara: "You'd be better off yielding, Killer Croc. I've gone toe-to-toe with Iron Man and I've wasted enough of my time with you... A second-rate criminal like yourself is unworthy of my best."

Killer Croc: "I'm sorry, second-rate criminal? Lady, you go on about Hulk and the Mandarin and Iron Man and whatever like that's supposed to mean anything to me, and while I've heard of the guy, the Invincible Iron Man, the "Golden Avenger"... I've never heard of you, not once. You know who I really am?"

Putting all of his strength into one punch, Croc punched Tuatara in the lower jaw with a solid jab, sending many of her teeth flying or knocking them loose, and dropping her to her knees.

Killer Croc: "I am King Croc! I've conquered Batman and Gotham, amassed billions, ruled an empire... I've served my country under Task Force X, I've gone up against the king of Atlantis, Kryptonians and friggin' Wonder Woman, I bested the demigod son of the Shark God Chondrakha... I've saved the world and the entire Universe damn near all by myself more times than your tuatara brain can probably count, heck I've become one with the Source Wall and possessed unimaginable and limitless power. But above all else, lady, I'm Waylon Jones, and in my heart, in the hearts of my friends and teammates, and in the heart of June Moon, I know... not only am I 'worthy' of your best, I am better than you!"

With his powerful jaws, Croc proceeded to bite her skull, tearing a big chunk of it including one of her eyes. While she's paralyzed by the pain, Croc follows up with a punch through the hole his jaws just left, punching into her skull and clawing through Tuatara's brain. She drops unconscious, and soon-to-be dead.

Killer Croc: "And just in case you've got a better healing factor than mine..."

With his giant foot, Croc stomps what remains of Tuatara's head, splattering it into a bloody crater. A curious crowd with phones and shocked faces stare from a few hundred feet away, and he cheekily raises his fist victoriously.

The two closest heroes cautiously approach the scene.

Batman: "Damn it, Waylon... I knew I should've intervened..."

Iron Man: "Holy s$%t! I didn't expect your guy to be this brutal, Bruce..."

Amanda Waller watched the destroyed battlefield from her headquarters through several monitors, annoyed at so many heroes being there as witnesses, along with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier secretly in perimeter. The Suicide Squad retreated as fast as they could.

Amanda Waller: "Great, not only do I have to deal with a dozen idiots in spandex to clear this mess but with Fury of all idiots in spandex as well..."

Results

Boomstick: Damn, that was brutal! Then again, he is kind of a psycho cannibal man-crocodile...

Wiz: Tuatara was a formidable opponent for sure, but her one appearance was never going to stack up well against Rebirth Croc's half-decade long list of appearances and, more importantly, longer list of feats.

Boomstick: Against any other incarnation of Killer Croc, minus any weird extra transformations, she would've most likely been able to pull the win, probably with ease, but this was a special case.

Wiz: Tuatara did hold some advantages over Croc: She was a fair bit bigger, thus harder to battle and wrestle against for an opponent more relatively normal in size, though Croc's experience with giant opponents like Zod, the Red Wave Beast or a giant gorilla somewhat negated that advantage. The fact that she could match Tony Stark in combat, a man who has received extensive training from Captain America and been praised in combat by other top-tier martial artists, meant that she was most likely more skilled than Croc, though with the latter's healing factor in mind, most killing blows or lethal attacks wouldn't have been successful or lasted long, unless she somehow managed to behead him right off the bat, as that appears to be one way to kill him for good.

Boomstick: Even with Tuatara's martial arts skills in mind, Croc is still an excellent fighter and, most notably, the more experienced of the two: having fought monsters, extradimensional beings, immortals, and members of the Justice League including Batman himself (he even killed a perfect clone of Batman)... But he's more of a brawler at the end of the day and his wrestling techniques likely wouldn't have been as effective on a larger target.

Wiz: Tuatara taking on Iron Man and being compared to the Hulk is certainly a lot of praise, but with the former, Model 16 isn't especially impressive and it's hardly comparable to the Hulkbuster as far as powerhouses in Iron Man's arsenal go, and the Hulk statement is mostly that, a statement. From Iron Man, a credible source who has fought the Hulk several times, but how well Tuatara would do in that fight and which Hulk state or form Stark is referring to (Bannerless, Savage, Merged, etc) is hard to gauge.

Boomstick: Croc, meanwhile, has plenty of feats to go through and few to no statements that simply hype him up. We have seen him take on General Zod and Leaguers willing to kill, or characters who can hurt those guys like Cosmonut and King Shark, characters that could also debatably do pretty well against good ol' jade-jaws.

Wiz: Canon crossovers like JLA/Avengers arguably make it so the two are relatively comparable in strength, at least. If we were to ignore the simpler scaling, like who fought the more impressive individual based on feats: around the same time Stark fought Tuatara, Iron Man's Model 16 was nearly melted through by Firebrand's intense heat and nuke-like eruption that could've devastated a small island, but it endured Tuatara's blows pretty efficiently and Iron Man himself said that he was mostly having fun with her.

Boomstick: While Croc fought and injured the Red Wave Beast, who was going to destroy the world and visibly caused an explosion the size of Texas on the Moon and tanked that like a boss! Nevermind the Leaguers and King Shark and the like, who weren't having fun but actively wanted to kill him!

Wiz: The difference between the two is quite glaring, and in terms of energy output between the island-busting nuke and the country-sized Moon explosion, even if we highball the former and lowball the other, would still make Croc dozens of times stronger and tougher.

Boomstick: In the end, Croc was just tua much for Tuatara.

Wiz: The winner is Killer Croc.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Killer Croc — Winner

+ More feats
+ More experienced
+ Healing factor
=+ Comparable in strength, but likely stronger
- Smaller
- Likely less skilled

Tuatara — Loser

+ Bigger
+ Likely more skilled
=- Comparable in strength, but likely weaker
- Lacking in feats
- Less experienced

Trivia

• The connections between Killer Croc and Tuatara are as follows:
  • Both have had rivalries and fought against their respective heroes' armored billionaire playboys, who have been featured and fought one another in Death Battle before, Batman and Iron Man.
  • Both are immensely powerful, but the source of this great power is a bit of a mystery and generally theoretical.
  • Both have had scaly skin and reptilian qualities since birth.
  • Both are quite large and muscular (Araoha in her Tuatara form, at least).
  • Both are named after reptiles (a crocodile and the tuatara lizard).
  • Both have worked for shady organizations and more well-known supervillains (Amanda Waller's Task Force X and the Mandarin's empire).
  • Both are also tangentually tied to gods of death.
• Killer Croc wasn't allowed to use any of the transformations he's had in Rebirth (such as his Source Wall-empowered form) as they require preparation.

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Dark-Carioca’s Season of Killer Croc
A season dedicated to Killer Croc, to celebrate his 40th anniversary! Having had some experience with the character, I figured I could write a few entertaining battles in his honor... even if he may lose some.