Vox VS. Syndrome | B&B BATTLE BLOGS!
(JackyTheWannabe)
(NinetailsSaturn)
“Revenge, the sweetest morsel to the mouth that ever was cooked in hell.” -Walter Scott
Vox, the CEO of Voxtek and Hell’s media overlord.
Syndrome, the super-killer and archenemy to the Incredibles.
Rejection hurts.
It’s something that many of us have gone through over the course of our lives, to be told we’re not good enough by someone we admire. That kind of pain doesn’t end easily. We can either move on from it and become stronger from the experience… Or, if you’re like these two megalomaniac masterminds, you can dedicate your life to proving yourself better than the one that rejected you until they’re lying broken at your feet. In a battle between these two titans of their industry, who will come out on top? Let’s find out, on DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start
These two are pretty simple to cover, but there are a couple nuances to look at.
For Vox, we’re going to be looking at both seasons of the Hazbin Hotel TV series, as well as the pilot. Though the pilot’s canonicity is dubious, with Charlie meeting Katie Killjoy in the first time in Season 2 as opposed to their original first meeting in the Pilot, it is considered to be “spiritually canon” and provides a reason for the hotel staff having gotten together. It isn’t that important to the debate, but we believed it notable enough due to one of the more famous feats in the series being in it. We’ll also consider certain artist streams where showrunner Vivziepop talks about aspects of the series lore, such as the immortality of sinners, as secondary canon due to being direct author statements that don’t contradict the show.
Meanwhile, for Syndrome, The Incredibles will be our main source of information due to being his only canon appearance, but feats from its sequel will be used (there aren’t any relevant ones lol) when applicable, as it takes place right after the first movie. This means we won’t be considering Rise of the Underminer, as its events contradict those of the second movie. Sadly, this means no planet-level feat from that one machine. We’ll also be briefly looking into Disney Infinity to round out his personal skills, though we won’t be giving him non-standard equipment from it like the creativi-toys.
Edit 12/13/2025: Hi everyone. After the release of this blog we were made aware about the Twisted Tales series, which has a book set in an alternate timeline to the Incredibles series that gives Syndrome a few extra abilities. We looked into it after the blog's release and didn't find anything that would warrant changing the verdict, but please understand there are a couple missing pieces of technology from this blog.
Special thanks goes to:
Vs Battles Wiki (For sources on Vox and Syndrome’s abilities)
Disney Wiki (For Syndrome’s abilities)
Saul’s VS Blogs (For help with Syndrome’s segment)
G1 Death Battle Fan Blogs (For inspiring this project)
The crews at Death Battle, Spindlehorse and Pixar (For creating some amazing series and movies that inspire us to create)
Backstory
Vox
So, you’ve died and gone to hell like most humans. That’s too bad! But it does come with a few perks/punishments, like a fancy new demon form, an immortal body, and let’s not forget, the watchful, protective eye of Voxtek, a megacorporation dedicated to bringing modern amenities and technology to sinners like you. Hell isn’t all fire and brimstone, after all. It has social media, major news networks, and even smartphones! All thanks to Voxtek. Trust us with your Everything.
At least, that’s how most sinners view it and its CEO, Vox.
Before Hell’s favorite TV-head wound up in Hell, he was Vincent Whitman, a friendly weatherman from the 50s delivering the news with a smile on his face. At least, that’s how it was, until Vincent decided he was jealous of the more popular news anchors and talk show hosts owned by the network. But hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? All he had to do was work hard, earn his spot at the top… Or slit a throat or two to get promoted into the place of the mysteriously-deceased members of the network, climbing the corporate ladder until he was killing producers and sabotaging other networks just to grow his own ratings.
This culminated in Vincent forcing Bob Sinclair, the network’s owner, to sign a contract signing the network over to him before dropping him off the edge of his own high-rise. At this point, Vincent was on top of the world. Nobody could tell him what to do anymore, and he turned the network into a monument to his own ego and lust for power, a cult dedicated to spreading his word, to make him shine brighter than the heavens in the skies above…
Up until, in an ironic twist, a poorly-placed television fell from his own stage, smashing into his head and killing him in brutal fashion. Upon waking up, Vincent found himself in Hell’s very own Pentagram City, with a new body now permanently bearing the visage of the TV that killed him. But he didn’t let this keep him down! Seeing an opportunity to take his movement to an entirely new realm, Vincent renamed himself, using his charisma and charm to grow his influence in Hell to become an overlord.
But Vox wasn’t the only rising star - The Radio Demon Alastor, a serial killer-turned-overlord, was making just as much of a splash, knocking down other overlords left and right and broadcasting their screams on his radio show. That kind of power and charisma - not to mention being a master of the very medium that gave birth to Television - inspired Vox, and the two became drinking buddies and (at least from Vox’s perspective) friends. So, Vox offered a partnership. With Vox’s forward-thinking mindset and influence, and Alastor’s reputation and power, the two of them could rule hell together as partners.
…It didn’t go well. Alastor not only laughed in Vox’s face, but mocked his attempt and even his view of them as friends. That rejection stung, and that bitterness turned Vox’s admiration into obsession and enmity, leading him to seek allies elsewhere - Founding the Vees alongside his fellow overlords, the Fashionista Velvette and the Pimp Valentino. With Velvette’s mastery of Social Media and Valentino’s experience in XXX films, the Vees and Voxtek became a dominating force across Pentagram City, quickly rising over the decades to become one of the most powerful factions a Sinner could join… If you didn’t mind having your soul taken and your body exploited, of course.
Voxtek’s influence continued well into the era of Exterminations - Fearing rebellion and attempting to cull Hell’s rising population and the unrest generated by the sinner Lilith, Heaven began to send Angel exorcists down to wipe out demons en masse. Of course, Vox used this as a PR opportunity, contrasting the naive and optimistic Charlie Morningstar, the Princess of Hell and Lilith’s own daughter. Charlie had an optimistic view of hell and its population, and when her Hazbin Hotel succeeded in repelling an Extermination, and even killing the head exorcist, Adam, Vox saw an opportunity. He would turn the hotel’s defense of Hell into a movement against Heaven, to take it over and Annex its real estate, using his media empire to turn public opinion against Charlie when she tried to speak of peace. He would be the face of the revolution, the successor to Lilith: Vox Populi, the people’s voice!
It got to such a point that the entirety of Pentagram City was basically under his thumb, ESPECIALLY when Alastor basically offered himself as a prisoner on a silver platter in exchange for the simple condition of not laying his hands on Charlie, and Vox started to believe himself a god - Much to the chagrin of Valentino and Velvette. Alastor used his position as a prisoner to drive a wedge between the Vees, but even so, Vox had become the most powerful sinner in Hell - Something that even Charlie admitted when he revealed the Might of Lilith, a cannon using Charlie’s father, Lucifer, as its power source, and used it to destroy the gates of heaven and pierce a hole in it from Hell.
However, Charlie’s admission (And Vox placing his hands on her shoulders to mockingly thank her) released Alastor from his contract as Vox’s prisoner, the two engaging in a battle that roared across Pentagram City, leaving it in ruins. In Vox’s madness, in his obsession to finally wipe out his rival once and for all, he exposed himself to the entirety of Hell for what he truly is, his empire being ripped out from under him as Velvette and Valentino turned on him. Forcing him off of his golden throne, Valentino ripped Vox’s head right off its shoulders, leaving the sinner, for now, at the mercy of the business partners he’d been neglecting for so long now.
Ironically, Vox got exactly what he was trying to get - All of Hell united, joining against him and combining their power to stop his doomsday weapon from overloading and wiping out all of demonkind. It’s hard to say what Vox’s fate will be, but one thing’s for sure: Sinners don’t go down that easy. As long as Vox is still alive, he’ll still be scheming to regrow his empire and regain that bright shine of his.
Syndrome
A genius, a technological mastermind, a hero in his own right, the greatest who ever lived. This is what Syndrome wants you to think of him, a man who reaches out to the common people, who helps all despite never being blessed with powers himself. Someone who, when he retires, will give his technology to the public, for the good of mankind, so no one could feel powerless in the face of evil, and everyone can be super!
…but that’s not what he is.
Let’s take a step back. It’s the mid-1900s, the golden age of heroes, where the world is plagued by villains, but saved by heroes who want to make the world a better place. In an environment like this, it only makes sense that a young man named Buddy Pine would develop an obsession with the caped heroes that he had grown to look up to. They were everything to him, his idols, his aspirations, but one man stood above the rest of them: Mr. Incredible.
Buddy wanted nothing more than to be the sidekick of his favorite superhero. At the age of ten, he dressed up in a costume and would make his move, sneaking into Mr. Incredible’s car and introducing himself as “Incrediboy”, the new sidekick of Mr. Incredible, to form a dynamic duo that would strike fear into the hearts of criminals everywhere!
Mr. Incredible promptly ejected him out of his car and drove off. Later that night, when Mr. Incredible was going against the demolitionist villain Bomb Voyage, Buddy would appear again, this time with a pair of rocket shoes he invented in an attempt to prove himself as a worthy sidekick. Buddy’s intervention would, however, lead to not only Bomb Voyage getting away, but almost causing a train full of passengers to derail. Mr. Incredible had enough of this, and told the police to take him home. This blatant rejection of Buddy, from his favorite hero, was the start of a slippery slope into villainy.
For the next fifteen years, Buddy would hone his technology, developing and trafficking weapons in order to gain an obscene amount of wealth, enough to buy his own private island, paramilitary force, and the ability to work on his own inventions in private. Despite the money, despite the power, he never forgot what Mr. Incredible did to him. On that day, fifteen years ago, the eager and optimistic Buddy Pine died, and Syndrome, the bane of all heroes, was born.
Syndrome had a plan, too; Project Kronos. It was a plan to both wipe heroes off the map and make sure that there would be no more real heroes, only those of his own making, using technology of his own design. To do this, though, he needed a device to eliminate the competition; a monster of his own making, that he could control, and only he could beat. This would later become the Omnidroids.
It was the swinging sixties now, and with heroes going into a forced retirement, and with the help of his agent, Mirage, it would be easy to lead these old heroes to his private island, Nomanisan Island, where he would ambush them with his Omnidroids and put them to the test. Test after test, hero after hero, droid after droid, Syndrome was closer and closer to forming the ultimate hero killing machine. There was just one last super to test it on.
Enter Mr. Incredible. Back from a decades long retirement, he was found by Mirage and taken to Nomanisan island, like so many other heroes before him. Unlike those heroes, though, when he was ambushed by the Omnidroid, Mr. Incredible survived, unbeknownst to Syndrome. It was after this that Mr. Incredible was able to discover Project Kronos, and got caught by Syndrome soon after.
By the time Mr. Incredible was caught, and later freed by his family, Syndrome had already perfected the Omnidroid, and was ready to execute the final phase of his plan. After all, if it could stop Mr. Incredible, his favorite hero, what else did he need to prepare for? The final step was simple; send the droid into the city and destroy everything. Then, he’d swoop in, stop the droid, and become a hero. It was supposed to be the perfect plan.
Unfortunately for him, his plan blew up in his face. The Omnidroid damaged the control mechanism and went on a rampage. Syndrome managed to knock himself out, and the Incredibles saved the day, foiling his plans. He wouldn’t go down without one final gambit, though.
Going to the house where the Incredibles lived, he would try to kidnap their baby, Jack-Jack, to take him in as a sidekick and protégée, a gift that Mr. Incredibles refused him all those years ago. As he was about to take Jack-Jack to his jet, the baby’s powers activated, and a struggle between him and the infant ensued, where Jack-Jack would be dropped and rescued by his family.
As Syndrome vowed revenge, Mr. Incredible threw a car at his jet, knocking him off the plane and getting his cape stuck in the turbine, pulling him in and killing him instantly. Apparently he didn’t get the memo: No capes.
Despite his plans falling down around him, and ultimately meeting his end, he was still a scourge to heroes and civilians alike, with a masterful plan that almost won in the end. So hero beware, because whether you’re retired or back in the action, if Syndrome doesn’t leave you dead, he’ll make sure you never get your time in the spotlight again.
Because if everyone is super, then no one will be.
“You sly dog! You got me monologuing!”
Skill/Experience
Vox
Voxtek was founded in 1952, which means Vox has been an overlord making deals and ruling his territory for a solid 7 decades now, and an overlord can’t get to a position like that for free. Most fodder demons in hell end up with their soul held by an overlord, with each one holding control over millions of souls, and Vox is one of the most prolific of them, with the fighting experience to match. He not only has enough reach and knowledge to constantly follow around and stalk basically any individual in hell by controlling TVs, but he’s been battling other demons like Alastor for years, having even won some of those fights.
Alastor himself is no slouch, being the most powerful sinner in hell who’s knocked out plenty of other overlords, and who was able to hold his own against an Archangel like Adam, someone literally immune to his attacks. When Vox has to fight, he knows to pull from his environment and use his powers to maneuver around the battlefield, using his razor claws and nearby technology to his advantage. He’s also quite adept at causing pain, targeting Alastor’s stitches to reopen the wound Adam gave him.
Of course, being a fighter isn’t his specialty. Vox is a CEO and cult leader who owns most of the electronics in hell. He was able to turn all of Pentagram City against the princess of hell and her hotel, even after it earned city-wide fame by stopping the exterminations (Which is extra impressive considering that Pentagram City has a population in the hundreds of millions at least, possibly in the billions, as we’ll get to later). His media empire got so large, that in a matter of weeks he was able to get the entire city under his control.
If Vox wants someone dead, he’s very good at making plans to take out those in higher positions than him, all in different ways. As a human, he committed murders by slitting throats, sabotaging equipment to cause gas explosions and shark attacks, or killing someone with studio equipment. He was even able to overpower and kill his two producers, hanging them both at the same time with a microphone wire.
Overall, while fighting isn’t Vox’s main claim to fame, he has plenty of ways to put himself in positions of power without raising a single fist, and he certainly knows how to hold his own when it comes down to it, given his showings against Alastor.
Syndrome
Truthfully, it’s hard to tell all that Buddy’s been through during the timeskip, before he finally became Syndrome. What we do know was that he was hard at work developing weapons to sell to other countries, which is how he made his fortune. It’s likely that he at least has some knowledge on modern (well, modern to him at least) warfare and how battles are carried out. Outside of this, though, we don’t have much to go off of outside of the events of the movie.
What the movie does give us, though, is a long streak of luring in and killing heroes, all with his Omnidroids. This means that he likely has some knowledge of battle tactics in order to get the jump on these heroes, whether they’re retired or not. Syndrome was able to take out some of the best heroes in his universe, such as Gazerbeam, Hypershock, and Gamma Jack. He made improvements to his drones for each failure, showing that he knows what goes into a fight.
That said, fighting isn’t his specialty. He’s a man with no powers, which means that his tech was always what got him through his conflicts. It makes sense, too; Syndrome is a genius, able to build complex weapons with the limited technology he had at the time (remember, The Incredibles take place during the 60s), and was able to make devices that surpass anything in the commercial, or even military market at the time. He had all sorts of countries practically begging to buy his weaponry from him, and he even mastered zero-point energy, using it as energy for his gloves to give him essentially his own superpowers.
Not only does he have his technological genius, but he also has his manipulative abilities. It wasn’t like he jumped these supers in the middle of the street; he had to convince each one, individually, to come to his island, likely under the guise of doing hero work. This was during a time where hero work as a whole was illegal, so it likely took major convincing to have people upend their lives for this opportunity. We saw the stakes he’d go to with Mr. Incredible, and it certainly wasn’t his first rodeo.
Equipment
Vox
Lightning Rod
“Trust US with your weather.”
A replica of the lightning rod he used as a weatherman. Though he doesn’t tend to use it in combat, he killed the owner of his network with it as a human, and can conduct his electrical abilities with it, forming a sphere of electricity with it in his song.
Voxtek Spy Drones
“Trust US… With your public image.”
A seemingly superior version of the commercially-available VoxTek voyeurscopes, Vox uses these drones not only as cameras for his shows, but to keep an eye out on his targets from afar. These drones are not only strong enough to bust through walls, but to carry a house-sized TV heavy enough to make a crater when dropped.
Limo
For when the Vees need to get around in style. It’s not all that useful in a fight, but damn does it look sick.
Spy Cameras
Besides his drones, Vox has plenty of other spy cameras, like the one he gave Sir Pentious in order to spy on the hotel.
…Okay look Equipment isn’t really Vox’s thing
V-Tower
“I gotta send a message of who’s really in charge of things now.”
The media tower/high-rise the Vees make their main base in. Down in the basement is a massive chamber swimming with cyber-sharks (more on those later) and connected to all the TV in hell, which Vox can hook himself up to in order to make city-wide broadcasts.
Syndrome
Rocket Boots
Buddy’s first invention, now perfected and giving a nice, slick appearance to make it look just a bit cooler. To keep things simple, these let Syndrome fly around the battlefield and avoid threats on the ground, making it borderline impossible for Mr. Incredible to engage him in battle under normal circumstances. The only problem is they’re a bit fragile, to the point where even Jack-Jack could break them quite easily. This causes him to fly unevenly, often crashing into something as a result. Some things never change, huh?
Zero Point Gauntlets
“It’s cool, huh? Zero point energy. I saved the best inventions for myself.”
The most iconic part of Syndrome’s arsenal (that he personally carries with him), the zero point gauntlet is capable of shooting a beam at people that, when hit, freezes them in place, making them incapable of moving in any way, shape or form. It also seems to completely halt their gravity, allowing Syndrome to toss them around like a ragdoll. They’re strong enough to stop Mr. Incredible, throw him off into the distance, and even lift an entire tanker truck, and they’re even capable of shooting energy blasts.
Explosive Device
“Try this one on for size, big boy.”
An explosive device that he keeps on one of his wrists. It’s activated with a press of a button, and seems to explode on contact. Syndrome used this to try and kill Mr. Incredible, but our hero got away just before the explosion.
Wrist Probe
Manta Jet
This jet, shaped like a manta ray, was used to carry people around for the most part. It took heroes to Syndrome’s island, and it took Syndrome to the mainland when he needed to play hero or meet with people. This was also what he tried to take Jack-Jack into at the end of the movie. Consequently, this is also what killed him. It’s unknown if it would help him in battle, but it’s got an autopilot, drop pods, and can travel underwater.
Velocipods
(I swear this is the best Image I could get on short notice)
The velocipods are likely something of Syndrome’s own design, as they were only ever seen on his island. They’re flying vehicles with a deadly spinning blade surrounding them, allowing them to cut through thick jungle foliage as well as trees. The open cockpit also has controls to operate the two front guns of the velocipod, in case the spinning blade of death wasn’t enough for the pilot. Since Syndrome made these, and his guards have access to them, it’s safe to assume he does as well.
Abilities
Vox
Sinner Physiology
Vox is a Sinner, just like everyone else that gets sent to hell when they die, and as part of their eternal punishment in Hell (exterminations notwithstanding), that comes with a few key traits that sets him apart from mere mortals. This includes superhuman strength and speed, as well as an enhanced pain tolerance and plenty of natural weaponry - In Vox’s case, his fingers are metallic claws, tough and sharp enough to tear through metal.
Most notably, however, Sinners are immortal. They can be poisoned, shot, crushed, ripped apart, and even devoured, but eventually they’ll just pull themselves together again. Vox in particular has had his chest ripped open and his wires pulled out by Alastor and was fine, as well as surviving when his head was ripped off by Valentino, with his head even able to hop around afterwards. The exception to this immortality is angel weapons, which are able to negate demonic regeneration and permanently kill them.
Granted, this regeneration takes time (Velvette needs to use spare models for her shoots until her head one can regenerate from being pulled apart by Valentino, which implies it takes at least a few hours), but it ensures that no matter what happens, a demon isn’t going to stay down unless you have special angelic weaponry to make that happen.
Also, He’s got Gills. That’s pretty cool.
Soul Deals
(Bisexual lighting for an Asexual and the gayest TV in hell is crazy ngl Wiz)
Sinners start at the bottom of the rung when they arrive in hell, but to get ahead, they can make deals to their advantage. Deals in the world of Hazbin Hotel are a powerful thing - You can even get souls out of them, with Overlords like Vox owning millions of souls. If Vox makes a deal with someone, he can force them to do what he says in order to fulfill the terms of the contract, which manifests as things like collars or handcuffs around a person as seen in the season 2 finale. However, if one party breaks the terms of the contract, their control over the other party’s soul can be broken - For example, the deal Vox made with Alastor was rendered void when Vox put his hands on Charlie’s shoulders, and Alastor’s deal with Rosie was nullified when he got Charlie, the princess of hell, to admit Vox was the strongest sinner.
Still, Alastor is a mastermind and manipulator, a far cry from your average demon. From the Voxtek website, we can determine that Vox has his employees work 18-hour shifts, without them being able to do anything about it, and with how many souls he owns, you can bet he’s gotten very good at getting others to do what he wants.
TV Heads
(We love dudes with TV heads on this Blog)
Vox isn’t just an immortal demon: He’s a goddamn Cyborg with a TV for a head! Vox has had plenty of heads over the years, constantly upgrading his own body in order to keep up with the times, with his current model being a sleek flatscreen smart TV. It isn’t just for show either, as Vox’s cyborg body has a variety of extra functions to it:
Internet Connectivity: Vox can receive calls and emails on his screen, which he can then project in order to read himself. He can even transfer calls from his screen head to other devices.
Voice Manipulation: Vox is able to change the quality of his voice to add static to it, or play sound effects from his own body. He’s even able to mimic people’s voices, like pretending to be Charlie in order to lure Lucifer into a trap. However, someone who can hack his systems like Baxter is able to mute him remotely, which takes him some time to fix.
TV Functionality: Obviously, Vox can display images on his screen, including his hypnotic eye (more on this in a bit), as well as mimicking other people’s faces.
Electrokinesis
All overlords have their own unique brand of magic, with its own shape and element. Valentino has his red smoke, Velvette has hardlight constructs, Husk has card tricks and stage magic, et cetera. Vox’s magic is based around tech and electricity, fitting for his role as a TV producer and media overlord. In particular, Electricity is his bread and butter, with him having quite a few uses for it. The electricity he creates is powerful enough to create craters in the ground and blow up buildings, and hot enough to light cigarettes or burn newspapers with a spark - At least 451 degrees fahrenheit. Impressive, considering it only takes a third of that to cause 3rd-degree burns.
Physical Enhancement: Vox enjoys electrocuting people at close range, and has a habit of enhancing his body with electricity. He can use this to move at incredible speeds to get the drop on foes like Alastor, and zap anyone that gets too close to him. Awfully fitting, as he once killed a man on earth with a lightning rod, knocking him off a building before he got struck by lightning mid-fall.
Electrocution: Using the wires that come out of his body, Vox can electrocute people he catches in them, doing so against Alastor in their first fight in Season 2.
Electric Projectiles: Though Vox prefers to get up close and personal in a fight, he can still create shockwaves of electricity and shoot lightning, being able to destroy a bridge with a wave of electricity and send cars flying during his final fight with Alastor.
Power Surges: Vox is able to knock out power across all of Pentagram City when connected to his Tower, having done so in a rage in Episode 2 during his verbal feud with Alastor.
Flight: Vox is able to fly by projecting lightning (or maybe it’s blue fire, but it looks like his lightning and is the same color) from his feet. It’s not something he seems to enjoy using often, though.
Electric Form: One of the most notable uses of this power, Vox is able to turn his entire body into electricity, metal head and all, in order to travel through technology like security cameras - Much to the chagrin of Velvette, who still has to walk around after he leaves. This can even be used offensively, turning himself into a living lightning bolt to slam down on opponents and blow them up, essentially telefragging them as we saw him do to a poor sinner in his first fight against Alastor.
Technopathy
Beyond just controlling electricity, Vox can manipulate technology itself. He’s an expert on electronics, and has displayed plenty of different uses of it, such as:
Wires: He has several wires sprouting out of his back that he can use like whips or lassoes to tie foes up and give them a Zap, as well as connect them to other technology in order to control it. Additionally, his head has ports in it, letting him manipulate the wires of other technology to plug it into himself.
Projection: Vox is able to watch pretty much anything in Hell by projecting his senses into televisions. Within these TVs, he’s able to do things like change his outfit at will, interact with programs, and show off whatever he wants to his audience, or even keep an eye on his viewers through their very screens. Beyond just TVs, however, Vox can also connect to security networks and watch people through them.
Machine Control: By hooking his wires into machinery, Vox can directly control them. This even extends to machines as powerful as the Might of Lilith, which Vox was able to control and move around at high speeds, something he struggled to do manually beforehand.
Hologram Manipulation
Vox doesn’t need a TV to control your screen - He can just make his own by projecting holograms. These light constructs are incredibly versatile, allowing him to create things like stairs to walk up, a flowing cape, wings that allow him to fly, or more conduits for his Hypnotic gaze (again, we’ll get to it, I swear). These holograms can also be used to do things like read his Emails and operate computers.
Also, they just look really fucking cool.
Hypnosis
Perhaps Vox’s most insidious ability, he’s able to use his eyes to hypnotize just about anyone. Vox was able to control most of Pentagram City with these, and he can instantly hypnotize an entire group of reporters using them. More terrifyingly, these can be used to erase memories from a hypnotized person, as he was able to make Angel Dust into a sleeper agent who didn’t remember anything he did while under control.
This control can be broadcast through the holograms he creates, or through other TV screens, even while Vox himself is busy doing other things, so no matter where you go in Pentagram City, there’s no escaping Vox’s watchful eye.
Demon Form
Most demons have a true demon form that they take in moments of extreme rage, or when it’s time for them to start taking things seriously. In Vox’s case, his true form sprouts plenty of wires from his back, as well as a projection of metal with four legs on it like a Bacteriophage. He grows to be a good full story tall, with his arms increasing greatly in size and screens floating behind him.
In this form, Vox’s destructive capabilities increase immensely, with individual wires capable of picking up and tossing around cars like toys. He’s strong enough to smash the sides of buildings just by landing on them, and one swipe can send Alastor flying across town. In this form, his control over electricity also visibly increases, able to create massive electric explosions around himself to clear the rubble Alastor trapped him in, or to send dozens of cars flying at his opponents at once.
Syndrome
Tech Specialist
A basic ability he got from Disney Infinity, these will be used as they are abilities that are inherent to Syndrome, rather than a feat that he’s getting due to explicit crossover shenanigans. This one is Tech Specialist, which allows him to hack into terminals or wield weapons that are generally too advanced for other people. Basically, it gives him some hacking feats, which feels like something he would have in the movie as well. This is more just supporting feats than anything substantial.
Heightened Senses
Another Disney Infinity ability, it’s actually hard to see this one work in action, but what it does is give Syndrome a mild danger sense, where he’ll be able to sense danger coming before they sense him. It seems like the most utility he’d get from this is not getting jumped in the middle of a fight. Listen, we had to give him something in this category.
Support
Vox
Cyber-Sharks
This guy has a thing for sharks, as it turns out. In fact, V-tower is full of biomechanical sharks created by Voxtek, which are powerful enough to tear sinners apart. He likes to feed people to them, and at least some of them are capable of flight. Additionally, they have cameras, and are able to spot intruders and alert the Vees to their presence.
There’s one very special one that Vox is extra fond of…
Shok.wav
(No, not that one, despite the one big eye.)
"Who's the best and biggest demon shark in the world? You are. You are. You're my little Shok.wav!"
A massive, building-sized robot shark and Vox’s favorite pet, referred to affectionately as “the best and biggest demon-shark in the world”. Shok.wav is capable of flight and on his own can keep up with a powerful demon like Alastor, with his razor fangs being capable of brutalizing Sinners in one bite, and his body is strong enough that he can tear through the ground and buildings, essentially “swimming through” solid objects like they were water. Its tail alone can send demons flying across the city. He’s smart enough to alert Vees to intruders, detect injuries on Vox, and recognize Vox as his “father”. Given that he was pressuring Alastor even more than an amped-up Vox himself was, there’s no doubt that Shok.wav is one of Vox’s biggest trump cards.
Syndrome
Omnidroid
“It’s bigger! it’s badder! Ladies and gentlemen; it’s TOO MUCH for Mr. Incredible!”
Y’all knew what you came here for. The Omnidroid is Syndrome’s magnum opus, the piece of the puzzle that makes Project Kronos even possible. This machine has seen more than a few iterations over the years. The one that we see in the climax of the movie is actually the tenth version, fit with a handful of weapons, an advanced AI, and a shell that is so tough that even Mr. Incredible can’t break it. The AI is one that adapts overtime, meaning that the longer someone fights the Omnidroid, the more it adapts to them and develops a way to beat them. If you’re in the fight for too long, you’re going to have some trouble. It’s not like you’re going to be wrapping up a fight with this thing in a minute’s time, either. It had a variety of features and weapons as part of its makeup, including:
Laser Guns: Built in right near the robot’s sensors, these laser guns are capable of blowing up tanks with enough concentrated fire. In the video games, the Omnidroid is capable of firing incendiary and rapid fire laser beams from these laser guns, burning anything in its path. The Omnidroid v.8 had similar blasts, so it’s likely true that the most recent model is also capable of this.
Limbs: Like an octopus, the omnidroid has several, tentacle-like limbs that it can use to stab, crush, stomp, and destroy anything in its path. The robot has six of these limbs, and they even come complete with rocket boosters so the Omnidroid can shoot them out like projectiles. The robot can also spin the end of these limbs, using the “toes” as blades to cut anything in its path.
Ball mode: If the Omnidroid needs to move quickly, it can pull itself into its body and become a perfect ball before rolling around as a means of locomotion. Like a really deadly armadillo.
Multi-Sensory Display: Something that the other omnidroid models had, dating all the way back to the first one, it’s likely the latest model also shares this. It’s unknown really what this is, but it’s likely related to how the droid senses the environment around it, allowing it a higher perception than other models.
Feats
Vox
“You could call it a cult. But I'd say it was more of a movement. And I was the center of it, and I swear I'd never felt closer to being a god. That's a feeling that I'd give anything to get back. And a feeling that I'd love to share with both of you.”
Overall
As a human, took over a major TV network by killing his way to the top
Created the biggest Media empire in Hell
Turned Pentagram City against the Hazbin Hotel despite their feats against Heaven
Was a rival to Alastor, perhaps the most powerful and feared sinner, for decades
Drew plenty of Overlords to his side in his campaign, including Velvette, Valentino, Prick, Hatchet, Zeezi, Maestro, and Carmilla Carmine
Lured Lucifer into a trap to power the Might of Lilith
United Hell against Heaven and blew its gates wide open
Strength
As a human, was able to lift two grown men up by a microphone wire
As a human, used a stage light as a hammer to kill his rival
His claws can tear through metal when he’s angry
Caused a power surge that blacked out all of Pentagram City (927.6 Kilotons ~ 989.5 Megatons, See Before the Verdict)
Blew a Sinner to pieces by shooting into him as a lightning bolt
[Shok.wav] Moved at speeds enough to generate this amount of Kinetic Energy (73.6 Tons)
[Shok.wav] Tore through buildings like he was swimming through water
[Shok.wav] tore up Alastor’s arm
Speed
Sidestepped a glass thrown at him by Val
Can travel as electricity through wires (50% ~ 99% Lightspeed)
Repeatedly moved faster than the eye could track
Blitzed a weakened Alastor and caught him off-guard with his wires
[Shok.wav] Crossed the distance from V tower to Vox in an instant (Mach 3.28)
[Shok.wav] Pressured Alastor, eventually catching him
Durability
Got hit by Alastor hard enough to make a smoke-filled crater in base form
Can survive using himself as a lightning bolt and making craters
Syndrome
“See? Now you respect me, because I’m a threat. That’s the way it works! Turns out there’s a lot of people, whole countries who want respect. And they will pay through the nose to get it.”
Overall
Created all of his own tech
Became a multi-millionaire arms dealer and weapons smuggler
Lured several experienced superheroes to his island to be slaughtered for Project Kronos
Perfected an Omnidroid that the military couldn’t put a dent in.
Defeated Mr. Incredible on multiple occasions.
Power
By himself:
As a kid, could fly despite Mr. Incredible grabbing his cape
Zero-point energy could lift a tanker truck (At least 33 tons)
His explosives can displace large amounts of water (8.02 tons)
The Omnidroid
Earlier models could kill several superheroes and even overpower Mr. Incredible.
An earlier model could throw Mr. Incredible into a tree hard enough to break it in two
That same earlier model could throw, stab through, and break rocks with ease
The v.10 can do similar and throw cars with enough force to blow them up
Speed
Dodges a thrown log from Mr. Incredible, and froze him before he could close the distance
Freezes the whole family in place before they can react, and even does it twice
Durability
Syndrome
Omnidroid:
Scaling
Vox
Hellborn
The natives of Hell, those who were born here instead of going to hell directly. This includes Baphomets, Hellhounds, Imps, Succubi, etc. Hellborn are on a lower rung of society than Sinners in Hell’s often strength-based society, and as a powerful city-ruling overlord, Vox should be much stronger than most Hellborn that we see.
Valentino’s Robo-Fizz can physically contend with Cherri Bomb
Millie made a crater, and can easily dismember humans
Sinners
At the apex of his power, Vox was the most powerful sinner in hell, and even without that, he’s been a consistent rival to Alastor. Given that, it’s safe to scale him to comparable Overlords, and especially to much weaker non-overlord Sinners.
Pilot!Sir Pentious survives the destruction of his airship, which makes a large crater (2.26 Kilotons)
Alastor creates an explosion that sends Sir Pentious flying across pentagram city
Alastor reacted to Adam’s guitar attack and blocked it, though it broke his staff
Husk and Angel dodge bullets from multiple angles in a gunfight
Pentious’ fully charged Death Ray might have harmed Adam (See Before the Verdict)
Niffty stabbed Adam through the back with an angelic dagger (See Before the Verdict)
Valentino tore a sinner to pieces with his bare hands
Velvette and Valentino, alongside Charlie and 11 other Overlords, were able to contain the overloading Might of Lilith, which would have taken out half of Pentagram City (777.85 Megatons - 9.58 Gigatons per person)
Adam
Syndrome
The Incredibles
Surprise surprise; the villain of the movie scales to the protagonists. Well, not exactly. Syndrome isn’t a Super, and because of that he would naturally fall behind characters like Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible himself, but the Omnidroid was able to take all of them at once, as well as Frozone, so it should more than scale to these characters. Not only that, but Syndrome has been able to tag the family with zero point energy twice, so he should at least scale to their reactive speed.
The family's super suits protect them from a plane explosion (.03 tons)
Elastigirl could react to and outmaneuver missiles while piloting
Violet's shield can take blasts capable of exploding buildings
Violet can bring her shield up in time to block automatic gunfire
Frozone
Frozone is generally considered comparable to the other members of the Incredibles, and other supes in general. He also helped them stop the Omnidroid that was attacking the city in the first place, so the droid easily scales to this.
Various Superheroes
Again, the Omnidroid has killed multiple heroes throughout its various iterations. Mr. Incredible himself has often been considered the strongest or most dangerous hero by the government, and you know those guys don’t mess around. These heroes all seem to be equals amongst each other, so it’s fair to say there’s an argument for scaling here. We’ll go over their feats for the sake of being thorough.
Hypershock can create seismic waves up to magnitude 6 (15 kilotons) (See Before Verdict)
Thunderhead can control weather conditions, including extreme storms
Gamma Jack can create radiation blasts up to 100 meters (44.55 tons)
Gazerbeam shoots lasers (Lightspeed)
They are referred to as laser beams, burn instead of destroy, and he even has a weakness to reflective surfaces. When lasers are described in the Incredibles verse, they seem to be actual lasers for the most part
Universal Man could alter his density to be like a black hole (See Before Verdict)
Weaknesses
Vox
(Guess he should have quit while he was ahead.)
“As long as I wipe that smile off Alastor’s fucking face… I don’t care what happens.”
Vox is certainly powerful, and one of the most threatening sinners in hell, but with that reputation and power comes an ego to match. He’s a megalomaniac, and when someone strokes his ego, as seen with Alastor, it’s quite easy to make him alienate his allies and get them to turn on him. Despite being able to survive as just a head, he was mostly rendered helpless once Valentino decapitated him. Ironic, due to Vox often relying on manipulating or being supported by others.
Additionally, like all demons, Vox is vulnerable to angelic weaponry, which negates his immortality and can permanently kill him. And though he has remarkable control over his mechanical body, a skilled enough hacker can mute him, which is really aggravating to the poor TV head.
Alastor is a sore spot for him, to the point where the verbal fight between them caused Vox to get so mad that he caused a power surge across all of hell. However, he’s good at keeping his anger in check when making public appearances… until an opportunity to get a rise out of that damn deer arrives, as Alastor quite easily tricked him into a deal that would ultimately benefit Alastor and screw Vox over. He was willing to throw away everything, even his own life, in order to get a chance to finally prove himself better.
Syndrome
(Apparently his weakness is babies)
"It tore me apart. But I learned an important lesson. You can’t count on anyone. Especially your heroes.”
The most obvious weakness for Syndrome is his lack of powers. While other people similar to him often have at least something else to back them up, whether it be mildly superhuman characteristics or just something outside of tech, Syndrome has nothing. Without his tech he would just be a normal guy on the street with a big ego. It doesn’t help that, with both his rocket boots and remote controller breaking, it seems that his technology can be a bit on the fragile side, meaning well placed hits could render him useless.
Like any supervillain with grand ideals, he also has an ego, allowing himself to monologue and gloat instead of just getting the job done. There were several times he could have killed Mr. Incredible, but kept him alive all the same, because he wanted to rub his victory in the face of his favorite hero. Every time Mr. Incredible got away to foil Syndrome’s plans some more was because Syndrome just couldn’t finish him off, or let his emotions get the better of him.
Not only is Syndrome arrogant, but he’s also incredibly petty. The entire reason why he became a supervillain was because Mr. Incredible denied him from being his sidekick. It was the one thing that he could never let go of, no matter how powerful and rich he became. Because of this, he turned to a life of crime and villainy. In the final battle, if Syndrome just turned tail and went home, he would have lived, but instead he chose to try and kidnap Mr. Incredible’s baby, and in doing so sealed his fate. He just never knows when to give up.
Before the Verdict…
Hell’s Population
The exact population of Hell (Specifically Pentagram City, where all sinners are confined) is never stated, but nailing it down is incredibly important to the two largest feats that Vox has and thus nailing his exact level of power: The Might of Lilith overloading and the power surge that Vox himself caused. There are two ends that we use for the calculations in this blog.
https://www.theworldcounts.com/populations/world/deaths
About 60 million people die every year, and I'll be assuming half of those go to hell. It's implied more people go to hell than to heaven, so assuming 30 million is a safe estimate. We know that the extermination is, at least to some degree, based on culling overpopulation and keeping hell's population the same, and that it's increased with the human population with the latest one being more brutal than before.
Carmilla Carmine says about 16% of Hell's population was wiped out, so we'll assume that 30 million makes up about 16% of Pentagram City's sinners. This would make the total population of Hell about 187.5 million (The calculation for Vox’s power surge erroneously listed it as 18.75 million, so the result of the linked feat should be 10x stronger).
However, in season 2, a lyric from the final song implied that Hell’s population may be even larger than that.
Raise your voice
Light the fire
'Til our hopes and fears reach a billion ears
This would imply that Hell has a population of 1 billion instead, which would notably increase the yield for each feat. As it’s hard to say how flowery this statement is given its place in the story, just to be safe, both important feats relying on Hell’s population have been given two results to account for both ends of the population.
Adam Scaling??
(Thank Satan for Alastor beating the fraud allegations in S2 am i right)
So, this is a somewhat contentious point. Obviously, Adam is a powerhouse despite his crude personality. He was able to shatter the barrier Alastor placed across the hotel, broke his staff, and beat him without too much difficulty. It took Lucifer’s appearance to take him down, but ultimately, Niffty stabbed him in the back, killing him with an angelic dagger. Given this, it’s hard to say anyone should scale to Adam, right?
Well, it’s not quite that simple. Adam seemed threatened by Sir Pentious’ death ray were it to fully charge, saying himself that it could have been ugly. And though Adam had taken severe damage from Lucifer, Niffty (someone comparable or weaker than Alastor) was still able to pierce him through the back and through his outfit. Additionally, though Adam did break Alastor’s staff, if you look back at the scene, you can see that it did successfully block his attack which otherwise left craters in the ground around Alastor. This implies that, while overall weaker, certain top echelon demons are still able to at least somewhat compete with Adam in AP.
The fun thing about all of this is, though, that even the low end of Vox’s power surge feat is actually higher than Adam’s vaporizing Pentious’ airship - Fitting, considering Alastor was able to deal with the airship with similar ease. So even without scaling to Adam… Nothing actually really changes, honestly.
Might of Lilith
In the Season 2 Finale of Hazbin Hotel, Vox unveils a weapon born from a collaboration between Voxtek and Carmine Industries: The Might of Lilith, an earth-shatteringly powerful weapon capable of reaching heaven and piercing a hole right through it. It’s the main setpiece of the finale, with the efforts of the Hazbin Hotel staff dedicated to stopping it. Vox himself directly pilots it in his fight against Alastor, taking control of it and firing it around.
So… Why wasn’t it included in his equipment section? Well, there are a few reasons.
For one thing, this weapon requires a lot of prep time and was quite situational to setup. Not only did it require help from Carmilla, who aided him for all of two episodes, but it required Lucifer himself to be captured to use as a power source, someone far beyond Vox’s typical paygrade that he had to lure into a trap and use Carmilla’s angelic weaponry to create. Voxtek doesn’t have access to the angelic metal or weapons development knowledge needed to make the cannon itself.
Second, the machine is large and immobile. Even though it can change where it’s aiming, and even sweep across the city, it’s locked to one spot in the plaza outside V tower. Even when Vox took control of it, he couldn’t move it away from its spot.
Finally, Vox ended up destroying the machine himself. The sheer crashout of losing to Alastor even as the strongest sinner led to him spamming the machine over and over again, and in a matter of minutes, it had overloaded, requiring all of the overlords present, as well as Emily and Charlie, to work together to stop it.
So, overall, it’s far from standard for Vox to have and was gone in the same episode it debuted in, so we won’t be giving it to Vox for this fight. Trust us with the knowledge that it wouldn’t change much anyway.
Hypershock Magnitude Waves
One of the more iconic feats that doesn’t actually happen onscreen is Hypershock creating magnitude 6 waves with his fists, and can seemingly go higher with his hammers. The Omnidroid was able to defeat Hypershock in an earlier model, which is a pretty simple scaling chain. There’s an argument to be made that we don’t know exactly what happened with the fight, and anything could have happened. While this is true, if it was anything like Mr. Incredible’s fight with the robot, Hypershock was likely capable of getting a hit or two in before dying, and there’s no reason to say he wouldn’t take it seriously given the briefing Mr. Incredible got from someone like Mirage. Assuming he was given the same briefing, it’s likely he would try to go as big as possible off the bat, especially once it was obvious his life was on the line.
Overall, it’s likely fair to say the Omnidroid, at least in durability, scales to the magnitude 6 waves, and since later Omnidroid models are not only superior, but are capable of damaging themselves, later models likely upscale by at least a small amount in both AP and durability.
BLACK HOLE SCALING???!! (no)
A classic point of contention for the verse’s scaling, Universal Man is capable of turning himself into something nearing a black hole, which you could say is justification for something nearing tier 5. This seems unlikely, as not only would this be a massive stretch, and a considerable outlier given their other feats, but this is also likely a case of either flowery or just comparative language to get a point across. Odds are, Universal Man just becomes a gravity well, which is similar to, but not actually a black hole. It’s still a potent power, but it’s not something that’s going to destroy the world if put in the wrong hands. If that was the case, he would probably be considered the strongest and not Mr. Incredible, who by all accounts is just a guy who punches good.
Laser Timing?
(I don’t think this is worth whatever they’re paying you)
So we’re not buying the planet level feats but we are buying the FTL feats? For the Incredibles? Seriously?
Yes, actually! A lot of the lasers that have been shown in The Incredibles (mainly from characters like Gazerbeam, Jack-Jack, and the Omnidroid if you look at the games), actually follow the standards of normal lasers. They travel in straight lines, they burn instead of break, and they bounce off of reflective surfaces. These are all normal properties of lasers, and as for consistency, and whether they scale to Syndrome, it’s not like only the supers are the ones doing it, or top tiers like Mr. Incredible; the babysitter Kari, and even a random raccoon were able to do it. This not only implies consistency, but it implies that a normal person like Syndrome should also be capable of this. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be at least comparable to a random kid or a raccoon.
Maybe everyone is just a little bit super after all…
One Last Thing...
Our Verdict
Both of these characters are relatively simple to cover, each one having a couple major feats that determine who wins in each category.
First, strength. Vox is quite the heavy hitter, with him and Shok.wav having some of the better feats in Hazbin Hotel. Shok.wav in particular was able to cross the distance between Vee tower and Vox in a matter of frames, moving fast enough to generate a kinetic energy of 73.6 Tons. Comparatively, Syndrome’s best direct feat is from the large amount of water his explosives can clear, giving him a feat of about 8 Tons. This would make Shok.wav, and Vox by extension, a little over 9 times stronger, but the Omnidroid has a similar feat of durability, being able to survive an impact that left a massive creator, totalling 72.9 Tons. In terms of just pure physicality, this would put Vox (Since he should be comparable to or stronger than Shok.wav himself) at notably stronger than Syndrome, but basically identical in strength to the Omnidroid…
But the discrepancy starts to arise when we consider the feats accomplished with magic alone. One could make an argument that Hellaverse don’t scale physically to their magic, given someone like Stolas is considered to be stronger than any sinner, but was overpowered by an imp like Striker when bound by holy rope. However, these two magic systems aren’t necessarily the same, as Stolas’ power was highly tied to his Grimoire, rather than owning souls like Vox.
Sinners grow in strength directly with the amount of souls they have power over. Characters like Alastor can directly tank magic attacks from Vox and vice versa without exploding into bits, which means their durability should be at least comparable. This is where things start to become more dicey for Syndrome, as Vox was able to cause a power surge across all of Pentagram City. Given Hell’s population, that would be anywhere from 900 Kilotons to almost 10 Megatons, LEAGUES above Syndrome or the Omnidroid’s best direct feats and certainly enough to fry them both if Vox landed a hit. But Syndrome isn’t fighting with his own strength - The Omnidroid has killed plenty of notable heroes in the Incredibles universe, so perhaps some of the feats he scales to could potentially rival Vox?
Well, no.
The best statements we have from Supers in the Incredibles are Hypershock’s ability to create Magnitude 6 seismic waves, which can reach 15 Kilotons, and Universal Man’s ability to become similar to a black hole. However, as we discussed in “Before the Verdict”, this isn’t comparable to a true Black Hole, so we can’t gather any specific feats from it. While certainly impressive, it falls short, reaching a mere 1/60th of Vox’s power surge feat. Making this even worse is that Vox certainly scales to other overlords like Valentino and Velvette, who both contributed equally to the containment of the Might of Lilith overloading. Vox, who became the most powerful sinner in hell, should at least be comparable to them, meaning his magic should be able to output 777 Megatons of energy at a low end, if not far higher.
No matter what way you slice it, Vox is at absolute worst comparable to the Omnidroid physically, and with his magic many times stronger. Vox takes Strength.
Speed, however, is another story, and it’s a far simpler matter with much less room for debate. In terms of Speed Feats, much weaker characters in Hazbin Hotel are capable of dodging bullets, or moving so fast they catch fire, which puts lower-end sinners and hellborn at around Mach 5 with direct feats. Vox in particular, however, is able to move through wires as electricity - highly impressive, considering the speed of electrons in a wire is anywhere from .5 to .99 Times the Speed of Light.
However, that’s not quite up to par for the Incredibles universe. Even non-superhumans in that universe have cartoonish reaction time, able to avoid and block Jack-Jack’s laser eyes. As discussed in “Before the Verdict”, these lasers meet all the typical requirements to be considered Lightspeed, as odd as it may seem. Given that Syndrome is a trained combatant and the Omnidroid itself has wiped out plenty of Supers that should have much better reactions than these normal humans, his and the Omnidroid’s speed should be, respectively, comparable or superior to 1.37 Times the Speed of Light.
This isn’t a particularly high gap by any means, anywhere from about 30% to 2.5 times faster, but it’s still significant, especially given Syndrome’s comparable mobility and certain abilities like Zero-point energy and the Omnidroid. Syndrome takes Speed.
So, that’s their physicals. However, their experience and skill plays a different, but still important role. Let’s talk about their Mentality.
Mentality
First, intelligence. On paper, this seems like an easy win for Vox. As the CEO of a major tech company like Voxtek, he seems like a shoe-in for intelligence. However, it isn’t so simple. Like most CEOs, Vox doesn’t actually contribute much to his company and their products, being more of a manager than anything else. The most impressive things in Voxtek are developed by his employees, like Baxter developing Voxtek’s servers that can reach Heaven to pirate their TV channels.
By comparison, Syndrome is a technological genius. He’s a weapons developer who actually built all of his own technology, including rocket boots, zero-point energy, and advanced adaptive AI like the Omnidroid, which he used to take down pretty much every superhero he got his hands on. This category is pretty simple and clear-cut - Syndrome is the better scientist, and should take the edge in Intelligence.
However, things change when we look at their Experience.
Make no mistake, Syndrome is no slouch - He’s a professional hero serial killer, who started an underground weapons empire, wiped out many of the planet’s greatest superheroes, and spent fifteen years becoming one of the biggest threats the world has ever seen. However, compared to an overlord like Vox, that’s small time.
Voxtek was founded in the 1950s, and Hazbin Hotel takes place in the modern day. Unlike someone like Alastor, who spawned into hell already powerful, Vox started with nothing and had to work his way up from there. He was already considered a rival to Alastor, someone that the Radio Demon respected, before their falling-out, so he’s at least been fighting for that same amount of time. Unlike Syndrome, who prefers to let his Omnidroids and henchmen do the fighting for him, Vox has no qualms about getting up-close and personal when the situation calls for it.
Additionally, even as a human, Vox spent years as a serial killer without ever getting caught, and even organized a cult around it. While Syndrome is certainly smarter with technology, he’s never showcased the same kind of personality and manipulative skills that Vox has. Now, Vox has been tricked before, Alastor did just that to him in order to break their contract. However, just like Mister Incredible is for Syndrome, Alastor is a particular weak point for Vox, that Syndrome wouldn’t really know about or even be able to capitalize on.
Given his decades more of experience, and the combat skill to match, it’s pretty obvious that Vox takes this category.
First, their actual abilities. It’s obvious that these two have plenty of options for going in for a fight, and both of them have a pretty similar set of base abilities. Throwing shit around? Syndrome has his gauntlets for that, and Vox can do it with his wires. Detecting foes? Both of them have drones that can do that. Flight? You bet they’ve both got those sick rocket boots. And in a fight, both of them can just blow people to smithereens with bombs or lightning powers.
To determine who has the greatest advantages here, we have to look at their respective trump cards.
Syndrome’s biggest advantage is his Zero-point energy. This energy field is capable of completely paralyzing his targets and seemingly preventing their powers, as Violet, an energy manipulator, wasn’t able to create her forcefields while she was being locked down by its effects. Plus, it’s able to hold down foes like Mister Incredible, who’s far stronger than Syndrome himself. Really, all he needs to do is point at Vox or any of his support, and he’s got them locked down. Thanks to his advantage in speed, this isn’t much of a problem to do.
The problem lies in what happens after. Even assuming Vox can’t break out of it with any of his abilities, Syndrome still has to capitalize on that advantage, and for all of his interesting gadgets, he just really doesn’t have any access to angelic weaponry, or an equivalent tool that could help keep Vox down for good. Sinners can regenerate from just about anything given enough time, and we’ve seen Vox survive as just his TV head. That’s not great for Syndrome, considering Vox’s own trump card: his Hypnosis.
Now, we don’t exactly know the limits of Vox’s hypnosis, but we do know it doesn’t seem to work on people comparable to himself. Angel was susceptible to it, and he’s been able to hypnotize massive crowds of people, but it doesn’t work on the likes of, say, Valentino. That said, Syndrome is for all intents and purposes a normal human, and Vox can project his hypnosis across other screens, not just his own head.
While supers in the Incredibles universe can have mind control, we don’t exactly know how Syndrome dealt with Psycwave. We do know Operation Kronos considered her to be an extremely low threat, but more than likely, that had to do with her powers just not working on a machine like the Omnidroid. All Buddy would have to do is sit back and let his machine do all the work, something he doesn’t really have the benefit of here. Unlike most Supers, Vox has multiple separate powersets in one, several of which the Omnidroid has no counter to.
The thing that really seals the deal here is his Technopathy. Surprisingly enough, no heroes in the Incredibles universe that we know of had technology-manipulating powers - Besides, ironically, Syndrome himself with his ability to control the omnidroid. If Vox doesn’t just blast it apart himself, he has very easy methods of just getting inside the Omnidroid to disable it, or even doing the same to Syndrome’s tech, which has no known defenses against such a thing. All it would take is a little time for Vox to start going after Syndrome’s big weak points or just hypnotize him outright, and Syndrome wouldn’t have any way to reliably counter
Overall, both sides have some notable abilities, but Vox just has all of the exact tools he needs to take the edge in this category.
Which brings us to our final category, their support. Both Vox and Syndrome have a bunch of support in this fight - Camera drones, Velocipods, Cyber-sharks, etc. However, all of those pale in comparison to their two battle partners… Namely, Shok.wav and the Omnidroid. And this one should be obvious, right? The Omnidroid has far better showings, with a wider variety of abilities to boot. Comparing it to a mechanical shark that really only does one thing, it should be obvious who has the better backup here.
However, things aren’t so simple. Remember, if the Omnidroid decides Syndrome is a problem, it has no qualms with simply disabling his control over it and running rampant to become as much of a problem for Syndrome as it is for Vox. And considering it’s also Syndrome’s only meat shield (Remember, Vox is far tougher than Syndrome), Vox can always just disable it to leave him pretty much defenseless.
By comparison, Shok.wav is loyal to Vox, considering him as a father as we’ve seen in his HUD. While his size and clumsiness has definitely proven a burden on Vox before, knocking him around with his tail, it doesn’t actually hurt him that much in this fight, and his loyalty and overwhelming power compared to the Omnidroid earns Vox a surprising win in support.
Summary
Vox
Advantages:
Far stronger than Syndrome himself
Far stronger than the Omnidroid with magic
Has decades of experience over Syndrome
Wider variety of powers, including multiple trump cards
Could always just control the Omnidroid or disable Syndrome’s technology
Shok.wav is much less likely to turn on him
His cape is just a hologram (All of the benefits, none of the drawbacks)
Disadvantages:
Notably slower
No counter to Zero-point energy
More of a close-range fighter
Alastor basically ragebaited him for two seasons straight
Syndrome
Advantages:
Notably faster than Vox and Shok.wav
Better technology
Could easily lock down Vox with Zero point energy…
The Omnidroid is more versatile than Shok.wav
Can fight more effectively at a range, and stay there for a time thanks to his
Actually threatened the person he was obsessed with
Disadvantages:
Physically frail and can be taken out in one hit
Even the Omnidroid doesn’t match up in strength or durability
…But has no way to capitalize on that thanks to the gap in power
No counter to Hypnosis or technopathy
The Omnidroid can easily be turned on him
Far less experience
Has a cape
This was a surprisingly interesting debate with a lot of angles to consider, but when all the data is laid out, the verdict becomes pretty clear-cut. Syndrome is notably faster, and his ranged fighting style means he could easily avoid Vox’s attacks and lock him down with Zero-point Energy. However, the problem lies in actually capitalizing on that. Thanks to Vox’s overwhelming advantage in durability, there isn’t actually a lot that Syndrome can do to kill him. Even the Omnidroid, as fearsome as it is, doesn’t have an answer to this.
If we give Syndrome all the benefit of the doubt while being extremely conservative for Vox and limiting his physicality to Shok.wav’s feat, it’s possible that he could lock Vox down long enough for the Omnidroid to tear him apart. However, not only would Vox be able to eventually regenerate, it’s just as likely that a single hit from Vox would eventually catch Syndrome, as the speed gap isn’t so high that Vox is going to get blitzed, and all he needs to do is catch Syndrome in front of a screen, or take control of the Omnidroid directly. As he was able to take over the Might of Lilith with his wires, it’s not like he can’t control something much more powerful than he is. And again, that’s being EXTREMELY generous to Syndrome, as there’s no reason not to physically scale Sinners to their magic.
For secondary factors, Vox’s greater abilities give him much more reliable options of ending the fight with his hypnosis and technopathy, and Shok.wav would easily be able to distract the Omnidroid long enough to give Vox time to make that happen. It’s not even out of character, as even against someone he’s as obsessed with beating as Alastor, he was willing to let Shok.wav distract him while he went off to get the Might of Lilith. And while Syndrome is certainly a smart and cunning opponent, that’s exactly the kind of games they play in Hell, and Vox has been doing that for decades more than Syndrome has.
Overall, Syndrome’s speed and ranged options certainly made him a pesky foe, but Vox’s overwhelming power, dangerous magic, and decades of experience as an overlord were enough to take the win.
Vote Tally
Team Vox: 4 (NinetailsSaturn, JackyTheWannabe, PokeSega64, Overlord775)
Team Syndrome: 0 (This is what you get for wearing a cape, Buddy)
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