Captain Underpants vs Powdered Toast Man (Scholastic vs Nickelodeon)
“I think I sharted myself.” - Arin Hanson
Captain Underpants, the cranky principal turned Waistband Warrior.
Powdered Toast Man, America’s #1 starchy superhero.
When it comes to Superman-inspired characters, your first thought is probably all the cynical twists on the iconic boy scout. But luckily, not every instance has to be that way, as these two beloved heroes pay homage and respect to the Man of Steel all while having their own fun and gross spin on it. They may not pull off their saves with the same gusto or maturity as their contemporaries, but underestimating them will be the gravest mistake you’ll make. So when the power of cotton and polyester come toe-to-toe with carbohydrates and sugar, which one of these spandex-wearing titans will come out on top? Can Captain Underpants wedge out a win, or will Powdered Toast Man be b-ready to claim a victory? Let’s find out who would win this Deliciously Dastardly DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start…
For Captain Underpants, our main sources of research will be the original book series, the spinoffs Super Diaper Baby and Dog Man if relevant, all seasons of the Netflix series and the Dreamworks film. Powdered Toast Man will of course have the Ren & Stimpy cartoon to look at, but we will also be looking at the comic books by Marvel Comics (don’t worry, that doesn’t mean what you think it means, see the Scaling section for more context). However, most other crossovers like Nickelodeon All Star Brawl and Smite won’t be discussed. Additionally, while there have been full episodes of the Ren & Stimpy reboot leaked and mostly available online, since they have not been officially released, we will not be including them in this blog.
Also, flashing lights warning for certain clips in Powdered Toast Man’s sections.
Background
Captain Underpants
“I stand for truth, justice, and all that is pre-shrunk and cottony!”
In a galaxy far, far away, a planet known as Underpanty World was tragically ending due to the Wedgie Warlords. To ensure their child’s survival, Daddy Long Johns and Princess Pantyhose sent him to planet Earth. From there, he would be raised by a family of dolphins, growing up to become the waistband warrior himself: Captain Underpants!
…well, at least that’s the story that Harold Hutchins and George Beard came up with. See, for the two young boys, life couldn’t be any more epic; pulling off one grand prank after the other, making each other laugh with their silly comics, what could possibly ruin all that? Well, there is one thing: their mean old principal, Mr. Krupp. Fed up with his constant nagging and threatening to expose their mischief to the school’s football team, the two boys decided to pull off the prank of all pranks. Using a hypnotization ring, the boys were able to put their principal under their command, and their first demand was to become the superhero of their own creation: Captain Underpants himself.
At first, the two boys had a good laugh about the predicament, but the humor soon wore off as soon as Krupp began genuinely believing that he was a superhero and not a grown man in his underwear, running off to go and fight crime. Initially, George and Harold were tasked with saving Captain Underpants from the likes of Dr. Diaper and the Turbo Toilet 2000. However, upon drinking a mysterious juice from some aliens disguised as lunch ladies, Captain Underpants gained permanent superpowers, now truly the hero he thinks he is. And so along with George and Harold, Captain Underpants fights all sorts of nefarious evildoers, like the preposterous Professor Poopypants, the wicked Wedgie Woman, or whatever wacky invention the maniacal Melvin Sneedly comes up with.
While he may not save the day with the same amount of style as your average superhero, there’s no doubt that Captain Underpants will do anything and everything to fight for truth, justice, and all that is pre-shrunk and cottony.
Powdered Toast Man
Are you feeling tired? Listless? Got no energy? Well, how would you like to have as much energy as America’s number one superhero? Try some Powdered Toast, advocated by none other than the carbohydrate crusader himself, Powdered Toast Man!
While not much is known about Powdered Toast Man’s past aside from the fact that he’s been doing superhero work since he was a lad, there’s one fact that couldn’t be more true: he loves powdered toast, so much so that he not only really wants you to make it a part of your balanced breakfast, he’s also MADE of it. Powdered Toast Man is constantly fighting all kinds of crime and saving lives in the only way he knows how: in style and while indirectly promoting his sugary product. Whether it’s saving a kitten by crashing a plane, becoming the president of the United States by chopping off the former president’s penis (yes that really happened), or stopping whatever devious scheme Dr. Dough-Naught has planned, there’s nothing Powdered Toast Man won’t do to deliver some certified powdery, American justice!
So next time you find yourself without a nutritious breakfast to eat to get you ready for the day, try some Powdered Toast to get you right! Just, uh… don’t ask where it comes from.
Experience & Skill
Captain Underpants
Captain Underpants may look like a buffoon in his underwear… and he is, but he has a surprising amount of ingenuity when it comes to a fight. He’s fought a variety of different foes of all sizes over his escapades in crime fighting, from evil toilets, alien lunch ladies and giant talking dandelions. He’s been seemingly fighting these weirdos and many more for several years at this point across multiple books and cartoon seasons, meaning that he’s quite experienced in dishing out his patented cotton-powered justice. In terms of skill, Captain Underpants is a pure brute, typically resorting to punching things out before coming up with a proper strategy, typically employed by George & Harold figuring out a villain’s weakness. This ultimately shows Underpants’ blind spot in that he’s not exactly the brightest or the most refined fighter, but with strength that can put away some of the nastiest villains out there, it more than makes up for those shortcomings.
Powdered Toast Man
While not much is known about Powdered Toast Man’s overall experience given his limited appearances, there are some context clues we can pick up on. Before he was a Powdered Toast Man, he was merely a Powdered Toast Boy, implying that he’s been in action for quite a long time. And to his credit, it does show with his expertise in crime-fighting and justice-delivering. He knows his powers and physiology inside and out, able to make optimal use of them in whatever situation calls for it. In fact, PTM can be a bit… too creative with his sense of justice, like when he, as mentioned previously, caused a plane to crash, causing a chain reaction which ended in stopping the truck that was about to run into a poor little kitty. Or when he decided the best course of action to save the president from a sticky situation was to use the old tooth-string trick with his zipper. While these instances do seem idiotic (and they are), it does show that Powdered Toast Man does have some twisted sense of ingenuity, and a determination to carry out his goals no matter what.
Equipment
Captain Underpants
Cape
Typically hastily-made from nearby red fabric once he transforms, Captain Underpants wears a red cape to help him fight evil in “style.” Aside from aesthetic purposes, he can also use it as a parachute to slow down his descent.
Utility Waistband
The underwear that Captain Underpants wears isn’t just to cover up his private parts; it also acts as a utility belt to hold all of his gadgets and weapons. With just a push of a button on the waistband, he can pull out whatever he needs to dish out some polyester punishment. These weapons include…
Underwear
Befitting of his name, Captain Underpants can utilize underwear in a battle. Luckily, he doesn’t use his own (well, not anymore anyway), but rather he seems to have an infinite supply of underwear at his disposal. He can fire it off at enemies like a slingshot, use it to launch himself or enemies across far distances, tie a bunch of them together to create a whip, or trap enemies within the underwear like a net and even blind them.
Toilet Paper of Justice
Continuing with the bathroom motif, Captain Underpants keeps quite a lot of toilet paper in his arsenal for a variety of uses, none of which involve wiping his butt. He can essentially use it as a rope, able to tie up enemies like a lasso or use it like a grappling hook to swing around Spider-Man style.
Tiny Toilet
The Tiny Toilet is… well, a miniature toilet that can spray a special type of water that can rust metal almost instantly.
Magic Amulet
After accidentally swallowing a magic amulet when he was a baby, he gained immunity from starch. All he needs to do is say “I SUMMON THE POWER OF UNDERPANTYWORLD!” to ward off its effects, though apparently it doesn’t actually take away his powers, he only thinks it does. You could consider this useless, but it does make Captain Underpants believe he’s immune to starch upon saying it, so… it works itself out?
Powdered Toast Man
Powdered Toast
As you’d expect, Powdered Toast Man carries around his own product to not only advertise, but to use in a pinch, as it can restore him back to his fighting-fit self in no time.
Butter Knife
While not a particularly deadly weapon given its very nature, Powdered Toast Man carries around a butter knife to help him scrape off his head flakes to create the eponymous food.
The Rye Plane
A bi-plane with bread instead of wings that PTM can use to travel the world. They’re probably super stale and gross.
Giant Powdered Toast Man Robot
Evangelion if Anno locked tf in
When threats become too big to fight, Powdered Toast Man can bring out a giant robot in his image to fight any opponent of any size. It’s powered by breakfast ingredients like flour and eggs, stands at about half the height of the Washington Monument, and can fly. PTM used this to defeat Bing Bong, a giant chocolate ape created by Dr. Dough-Naught.
Abilities
Captain Underpants
Superhero Physiology
After drinking “Extra Strength Super Power Juice”, Krupp managed to gain proper superpowers identical to that of George and Harold’s comic books. These include super strength, super speed and super durability, as well as the ability to breathe in space, endure harsh winters, and a variety of other abilities as listed below. However, all these come at a bit of a catch, being that Mr. Krupp will only turn into Captain Underpants at the snap of a finger. Luckily, the snap doesn’t need to come from someone else, as Krupp has shown that he can do it himself, and even trying to snap again won’t knock him out of the hypnosis. Additionally, it’s later implied that the juice’s powers also apply to Krupp himself even when he’s out of his superhero persona, meaning that the Captain Underpants persona is more of a state of mind than a proper transformation.
Flight
Underpants’ most used ability, the Captain can take flight to get to wherever he needs quickly, his flight speed even being compared to that of lightning.
Wedgies
Captain Underpants can give wedgies to his foes for maximum discomfort, even ones that don’t have underwear, inexplicably enough, like the Turbo Toilet.
Cotton-Powered Vision
While not an ability that’s ever been particularly elaborated upon, Captain Underpants appears to have some sort of enhanced perception, allowing him to spot George & Harold from miles away.
Laser Vision
While not an ability personally shown by Captain Underpants, both Diaper Dog and Melvin Sneedly were able to utilize the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes when they had gained his powers, implying that he’d be capable of the same thing.
The Underpants Dance
You’ve seen the Twist, the Macarena and the Funky Chicken, but get ready to feast your eyes on the Underpants Dance. All it really does is irritate anyone who watches it, which… yeah, it is pretty annoying.
Limited Hammerspace
Again, not really an ability that’s ever elaborated upon or really brought up again, Captain Underpants in George & Harold’s comics seemed to be able to pull out objects from out of nowhere, like when he threw a spider at a giant talking toilet, then tricked her into beating herself with a sledgehammer, both of which he grabbed from thin air.
He also once pulled out spinach. Bro MIGHT be Popeye.
Limited Fourth Wall Awareness
As is the case with other characters in this series, Captain Underpants is somewhat aware that he is fictional, able to reference things like the page numbers, various tropes or the Flip-O-Ramas themselves.
Resistances
Sleep Manipulation: After being put to sleep by DJ Drowsy Drawers, Krupp was woken up by George snapping and turning him into Captain Underpants
Extreme Cold: Only described the weather as being “a bit nippy” while traversing harsh winters
Radiation Manipulation: Jumped into toxic waste and did not suffer any serious side-effects… other than growing a third ear.
Powdered Toast Man
Powdered Toast Physiology
Powdered Toast Man doesn’t just love Powdered Toast, he’s also straight-up made of it. While unknown exactly how he got these starchy superpowers, he’s shown to use his unique body in a number of different ways, like making the slices that make up his head pop off to avoid any oncoming attacks, or read hidden messages embedded in olive loaf by placing it in between his head’s bread slices. He’s also powered by the very thing he advertises, able to absorb large amounts of it to replenish his power, and will even be temporarily depowered if he doesn’t have enough in reserve. More impressively, Powdered Toast Man can turn into powder itself, able to go through small openings like keyholes and reconstitute himself back into his physical form pretty much instantly.
Powdered Toast Creation
By removing the front part of his head, Powdered Toast Man then takes a butter knife and scrapes the flakes off onto a plate, which miraculously turns into Powdered Toast. He can even do it from his feet (oh god i’m gonna throw up), implying that multiple parts of his body can produce the toasty goodness.
Flight
Like any good superhero, Powdered Toast Man can use flight to get to wherever he needs to go quickly. He can obviously fly forwards if he wants, but he tends to fly backwards, upside down, or even upright. Either way he goes, he typically takes off by either a mighty leap, farting, or launching himself out of a toaster.
Raisin Breath
When a dastardly foe is approaching him from a distance, Powdered Toast Man can fire off rapid-fire raisins from his mouth, powerful enough to blow an airplane out of the sky.
Super Oleaginous Butter Pats
By opening his head, Powdered Toast Man can send out small butter pats rapidly like a machine gun, enough even being able to destroy the United Nations building.
Hyper-Corrosive Croutons
By using his armpit to make a fart sound, Powdered Toast Man can fire out croutons that are stated to be corrosive, using it to instantly knock out Muddy Mudskipper.
Nuclear-Powered Hyper-Acidic Marmalade
Powdered Toast Man can fire out a stream of marmalade from his belly button, which was fast enough to reach England in a few seconds and strong enough to blow a large hole in it and cause it to sink.
Eye Crusties
By supposedly blinking really fast, Powdered Toast Man can fire off eye crusts, though it seems to be better suited for close range rather than long.
Powdered Toast Toe Jam
Powdered Toast Man can fire off a mysterious green liquid from his toes (oh god i’m gonna throw up again), used to render Flammable Pajama Man helpless.
Membrane Breading
If that last one wasn’t gross enough for you, Powdered Toast Man can shoot out a large chunk of snot from his nose to ensnare enemies.
Danger Sense
Through some sort of sixth-sense, Powdered Toast Man can be notified of any danger through a variety of different ways. He can have it be told to him through Powdered Toast, his underpants inflating and deflating, and even his intestines being strewn out in the shape of the word. He can also be notified through different phones that just so happen to be lying around, like his bread-phone, his own tongue which is shaped like a phone, a phone in his cereal, and even a nearby penguin.
Regeneration
couldn’t find a decent gif for this so I had to improvise
Powdered Toast Man is a tough toast to crack, able to reconstitute himself in a variety of different ways. As mentioned before, he can remove his head from his shoulders and seemingly function just fine, recover instantly from ripping off parts of his own face, and can regularly reconstitute his body after turning into a cloud of powdered toast, implying that as long as there’s some semblance of toast particles, he can come back good as new. Additionally as also previously mentioned, he was able to have his intestines pop out of his stomach and just rolled them back inside.
Fourth Wall Awareness
Similar to Ren & Stimpy, Powdered Toast Man is aware that he’s in a cartoon, and has even talked to the narrator of his episode, telling him he’ll… rip his skin off… and used him as a human shield in the comics… are we sure he’s a good gu-
Feats
Captain Underpants
Overall
Gained superpowers and became a legitimate hero
Managed to get away with public indecency
Helped save the planet on multiple occasions
Stopped Dr. Diaper from destroying the moon
Defeated Professor Poopypants, Wedgie Woman, the Turbo Toilet 200 and the Dandelion of Doom
Beat SpongeBob in a rap battle
Power
More powerful than boxer shorts!
Speed
Faster than a speeding waistband!
Can fly with “lightning speed”
Stated to be too quick for Sir Stinks-A-Lot, who can fire lightning rays
Durability
Deals with being punched around by giant monsters constantly
As a baby, survived crashing on Earth after being flung from Underpantyworld
Survived a beating from Turbo Toilet even without any powers
Survived a fart that sent him all around the world (233.72 kilotons of TNT)
Survived the explosion of the Super Fart Bomb, which was going to cause “global fart-icide”.
Powdered Toast Man
Overall
Saved many boring breakfasts with Powdered Toast
Saved the Pope from an evil fish
Became the president of the United States
Saved the world’s Powdered Toast supply
Defeated Waffle Woman, Flammable Pajama Man and Dr. Dough-Naught
Met Spider-Man
Power
Accidentally blew up the United Nations building
Downs a plane with his Raisin Breath
Lifts and crushes a giant waffle iron
Sunk England with his Nuclear-Powered Hyper-Acidic Marmalade (based?)
Broke off portions of the planet as a side-effect of his fight with Waffle Woman (34.35 ronnatons of TNT)
Speed
Regularly flies to different parts of the world in mere minutes
Can fly at “warp speed”
His marmalade laser can reach England in mere seconds (Mach 4424)
Dodged a blast from Waffle Woman’s Radioactive Syrup Launcher
Launches out of the Pop-A-Matic and flies from Antarctica to Metropolis at “sub-atomic” speeds
Durability
Ren states PTM can survive being rammed by a bullet train going 375 mph
Took hits from Waffle Woman
Survived being electrocuted
- His giant robot can take hits from Bing Bong
- Largely unphased by his intestines spilling out
Scaling
Captain Underpants
George & Harold
George and Harold are the two boys that gave Mr. Krupp his powers to begin with when they hypnotized him into thinking he was a superhero. Despite just being two regular children, however, the two have shown off some impressive feats before, and given that Captain Underpants is powered by alien juice, he should naturally upscale pretty much anything the two troublemakers are capable of doing.
Super Diaper Baby
Billy, A.K.A Super Diaper Baby, is a baby who gained the powers of Captain Underpants after drinking the same juice he did. While Billy technically isn’t a real baby and is just a comic that George & Harold came up with, given that Captain Underpants’ power and abilities come from their comic as well, it’s likely his power compares to that of how they portray Super Diaper Baby too. See Before the Verdict for more context.
With help from Diaper Dog, pushes the Earth away from the sun and back to where it was later (97 Yottatons of TNT)
Various Villains
Throughout the years, Captain Underpants has gone toe-to-toe with some of the nastiest (literally) villains out there, and despite often struggling at first, he’s always been shown able to outmuscle them time and time again. Thus, he should be well-within the range of their feats, and is even likely much stronger than some.
Robo Harold kicked a kickball to Uranus, which took “five and a half books” to reach
Turbo Toilet 2000 flew to Uranus to Earth in two weeks (Mach 6266 - Mach 7712) (what’s with this series and Uranus…?)
Melvin, with Captain Underpants’ powers, casually claimed he could fly to the moon
Mr. Meaner can turn into a star and led a group of star people against a horde of black holes
He also flew to the stars in just one second (133 Million C)
Professor Poopypants created a bomb that replicated the Big Bang (Debatable)
Powdered Toast Man
Ren & Stimpy
The protagonists of the titular show, Ren & Stimpy are typically portrayed to be weaker than Powdered Toast Man. Despite this, they have shown off some impressive feats themselves, all of which PTM should naturally upscale.
Stimpy hits a golf ball from an asteroid to Earth (746.65 tons - 4.69 kilotons of TNT)
Are seemingly fine after surviving being rammed with 20 billion “pounds of thrust” (21.2 tons of TNT)
Survives a nuclear power plant explosion
Survives being blown into space (65 kilotons of TNT)
Lives after passing through a black hole (Debatable)
Spider-Man
So, remember when I said the whole Marvel thing wasn’t what you think it was? Yeah, this is what we were talking about. Yes, believe it or not, Powdered Toast Man once came face-to-face with the web-slinger himself when he was being mind-controlled by Dr. Dough-Naught. While Spider-Man did come out the victor thanks to figuring out PTM’s weakness, Powdered Toast Man not only held his own during the fight, but he was also confident that he would’ve beaten Spidey had he not been under Dough-Naught’s control, and even proceeds to knock him out. Now if you’re scratching your head thinking that this is just some random one-off crossover, then you’d be surprised to know that this event was referenced in another comic, and an issue later on even has Ren and Stimpy dress up as Spider-Man.
Ultimately, this won’t have a huge effect on the verdict considering that pretty much all of Spider-Man’s feats and scaling are mostly street-tier, so feel free to ignore this part if you want, but we felt like including it for completionist’s sake. Also because it’s funny.
Survives a mountain-busting explosion (606 kilotons of TNT)
Dazzler, who can move at lightspeed, claims that she’s never seen anyone as fast as Spider-Man
Tanked an exajoule worth of energy (239 megatons of TNT)
- Can take on the likes of Daredevil, who can perceive nanoseconds (3.3 - 5.6c)
Weaknesses
Captain Underpants
Captain Underpants has some key weaknesses, the biggest one being that if he ever comes into contact with water, he will revert back to Mr. Krupp persona, who isn’t quite as ready to spring into action. And while he’s certainly not the dumbest, he still isn’t quite the sharpest tool in the shed, and can even get distracted from his main goal over something quite trivial. Captain Underpants was even dumb enough to believe that he’s weak to starch, and that the only way to ward it off is to say a phrase. Finally, and more esoteric, he’s allergic to bees, though it doesn’t seem to hinder his overall performance.
Powdered Toast Man
Despite his… uh… respected legacy, like every great and relatable superhero, Powdered Toast Man is not perfect. He has a few key weaknesses, namely milk, as it will cause him to become soggy and weak, though he can counteract this by replenishing his powdered toast reserves. He’s also been shown to outright become incapable of moving if he becomes burnt toast, the only way to free him being someone else scraping off the burnt ends. Ultimately though… he’s just an idiot. He’ll constantly think of the dumbest and most nonoptimal option possible to solve something, often leading to unneeded collateral damage, and tends to try and outmuscle people before coming up with a proper strategy to beat them.
Before The Verdict
Is Captain Underpants the same as the in-universe comic Captain Underpants?
If you’ve ever looked up how strong Captain Underpants is, you might notice that people tend to separate the version of the character in the in-universe comics written by George & Harold and the one we see in the story’s “real life”, so you might’ve been wondering why we were including both versions’ feats and scaling as one. This is because there’s actually some evidence to prove that Captain Underpants in the story’s real life is comparable to his comic book counterpart. Certain feats in the show’s real life are actually consistent with and even above the ones shown in the comics, like the toilet robot star explosion and Meaner being able to turn into a star. Based on these, it wouldn’t really be that big of a stretch (pun intended) to say that Captain Underpants could pull off feats from the comics like Super Diaper Baby pushing the Earth or flying to Uranus quickly, even if neither of them ever actually happened. Additionally, the plot of the second Captain Underpants book revolves around an invention Melvin created that could bring 2D images to life, those of which include the Turbo Toilet 2000 from George & Harold’s comic, which is portrayed as pretty 1-to-1 with the one in the original comic, and Captain Underpants even ends up beating the Turbo Toilet in a rematch later on when he gets his superpowers. Thus, you could think of these more as statements that are ultimately consistent with what we see in the series’ real life.
Universal Captain Underpants?
In the 10th Captain Underpants book, Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers, in order to stop Poopypants from setting off a bomb that would’ve destroyed the galaxy, George & Harold’s pets Crackers and Sulu send him and his bomb to the beginning of time. The bomb then goes off, which then creates the entire universe, the bomb itself even being compared to the Big Bang, or the Big Ka-Bloosh as the book calls it.
Some people have used this to argue that Captain Underpants could compare to the power of the bomb, considering he’s been consistently able to overpower Poopypants’ machinery in the past. Unfortunately however, there are some flaws with that logic. For one, the destructive power of the bomb is just far above pretty much anything Tippy’s other machines have been capable of producing, so the idea of Underpants scaling to it just off of that idea is a bit of a stretch. The other big elephant in the room is that it was highly implied that Tippy did not survive the explosion, as we never see him in a Captain Underpants book in a major role after this incident. This is further supported by Supa Mega Tippy, an alternate version of Tippy, saying that he would’ve died to a much weaker bomb had he not teleported away from it.
However, note that earlier I said we don’t see Tippy in a major role, as there are some cameo appearances from him in Book 11 and Dog Man, which could imply that he somehow survived. But it’s also not really something acknowledged in the main series ever again and it’s not really explained how he managed to get back to the present, so you could similarly just write it off as nothing more than a silly little cameo that the author just wanted to include without any real narrative implications.
Ultimately, there are different ways you can interpret this feat, but for our purposes, we won’t be including it as a part of Captain Underpants’ stats, since due to everything surrounding the feat, it’s just too inconsistent to say that he should fully scale.
Commander Hoek & Cadet Stimpy
Throughout the Ren and Stimpy cartoon and comic series, there are special episodes that portray the titular characters as space-faring adventurers that solve all sorts of problems across the universe. There are quite a few impressive feats throughout these episodes and comics, like ship traveling and even a black hole. However, there’s just a teensy bit of a problem with using these episodes; in the very first entry in this series, it’s established that Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy are actually episodes of an in-universe TV show that Stimpy likes to watch, with him and Ren acting as stand-ins for the main characters. Thus, it’s unlikely that the ones we see in these episodes are the same as the ones in every other entry.
Now you may be wondering why we’re skeptical about these feats but are using ones from Captain Underpants’ in-universe comic. As we’ve explained above, there are actually explanations as to how the Underpants in the real world should be comparable to the one in the comic, but Ren & Stimpy unfortunately don’t have that luxury, as there’s not a whole lot of evidence to suggest that the Ren & Stimpy in the space episodes are the same as the ones in the show’s real world, especially since the overall scale in these episodes is vastly different to the ones in the show’s regular episodes.
So while there are some feats that could likely get Ren & Stimpy and Powdered Toast Man into cosmic levels of power, there’s just a little too much evidence against them that we can’t in good conscience give it to them.
UNIVERSAL COMB??????
This dude buys a comb that’s stated to survive the universe imploding. Problem is, it’s literally shown to us that Powdered Toast Boy can’t break it. It’s so Powdover.
Verdict
Stats
Starting off with stats, Captain Underpants and Powdered Toast Man are surprisingly (or unsurprisingly depending on how you view things) pretty darn powerful. Let’s start with the Captain first. Even as a child, Captain Underpants was able to survive crashing into Earth after being launched from a planet outside of our own galaxy, and he only got stronger from there. He’s strong enough to beat up giant robots, evil giant dandelions and lift up buildings with no trouble whatsoever. But okay, you probably want a bit more than some dinky building-lifting feats. Well, how about Super Diaper Baby, a baby that has the same powers as Captain Underpants, pushing the planet a considerable distance away from the sun and then pushing it back moments later? As we’ve established earlier, Cap should be able to replicate a lot of the feats from George & Harold’s comics, so at minimum, he should be around the Planetary range. However, even if we were to disclude this feat, Cap has an even more impressive feat in clogging a robot toilet, causing it to explode into a star. Not only that, but he was even able to survive the explosion, and this was a feat that actually did happen in the series’ real life, so even if you think the Captain Underpants from the comics is different from the one in the shows’ real life, this would actually mean the latter is stronger.
As for Powdered Toast Man, he does have significantly less to work with given his limited appearances, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the muscle to back up his reputation. He’s able to dent a giant waffle maker, cause planes to crash, and even sink entire countries… accidentally, all with the power of Powdered Toast. His biggest and best strength feat, however, is when he and Waffle Woman’s fight caused parts of the planet to be shot off at extremely high speeds. This would put Powdered Toast Man’s attack potency at bare-minimum planet level, however calculations for this feat have gone up to even Dwarf Star level. This also wouldn’t be terribly inconsistent, as Ren was able to make an explosion so big that it could be seen from space which, while not quite at the Dwarf Star feat’s level of power, still means Powdered Toast Man should also be at least within those ranges. So with Star vs Dwarf Star, Captain Underpants should solidly edge out in strength.
Speed is fairly clear cut as well. Captain Underpants, once again, scales to Super Diaper Baby, who not only pushed the Earth away from and back to where it was in a relatively short time, but would have flown to Uranus to get a kickball within 15 minutes. Even assuming it took 15 minutes to get to Uranus and not the trip back, SDB would still need to be moving at speeds 9.6 times the speed of light to do so. Powdered Toast Man, meanwhile, was able to blast his marmalade laser to England in an extremely short time, resulting in Massively Hypersonic speeds; Waffle Woman was even able to dodge this attack, so PTM by proxy should scale. More impressively, he was stated to be able to move at “sub-atomic” speeds. While we can’t really put a solid number on that statement, we can compare PTM’s speed to that of a subatomic particle, which can move at speeds near the speed of light. This puts a pretty easy comparison between the two: Powdered Toast Man can go close to the speed of light, while Captain Underpants can move beyond it, especially scaling to Mr. Meaner, who could fly at speeds over millions of times the speed of light.
Overall, Captain Underpants should quite solidly take stats in pretty much every regard. His fairly consistent Star level feats and scaling outshine (no pun intended) anything Powdered Toast Man can handle, and is significantly faster as well even using lower ends. And even if you wanted to be generous and say that Powdered Toast Man could compare to Commander Hoek & Cadet Stimpy’s survival of a black hole, you can argue a similar thing with Captain Underpants scaling above Mr. Meaner, who fought black holes, ultimately making the two roughly equal in that regard, but Powdered Toast Man would still be much slower. So even using both at their theoretical peak, Captain Underpants has this category under wraps.
Arsenal & Abilities
While these two typically rely on brute strength to get the job done, they do have more than just their fists to do the talking. Captain Underpants in particular has quite a few pieces of equipment at his disposal to get him out of sticky situations, like a seemingly endless underwear supply, a toilet that can spray metal-rusting water, and even seemingly stuff that he can pull out of nowhere with his limited Hammerspace. Powdered Toast Man on the other hand really only has his giant robot as a real reliable combat tool, which could serve trouble for Underpants at first, but fighting a giant robot isn’t exactly the weirdest thing he’s ever done, so he could likely deal with it once he finds his bearings. However, one aspect that Powdered Toast Man does excel in is his variety of long-range abilities. From croutons, marmalade and butter pats for long-range attacks and snot to ensnare his opponents in, Powdered Toast Man has plenty of options to keep Captain Underpants at bay. While he does have underwear to fling to counteract it, PTM’s superior range and variety is something CU may very well have an issue getting around. This is further exemplified when it comes to Powdered Toast Man’s various liquid-based attacks, which could very well turn Underpants back into Mr. Krupp. We’ve seen that it’s not strictly water that turns Krupp back, so stuff like the marmalade and toe jam would likely do the trick. Sounds pretty bad for Underpants then, right?
Well, as we’ve mentioned earlier, the Captain Underpants transformation doesn’t really grant Krupp superpowers, rather it’s always something that he has even when he’s not hypnotized. An example of this can be seen when he survived a big fall even after being snapped out of his hypnotism, the book even explaining that Krupp was protected by his powers. So ultimately, even if Powdered Toast Man “depowered” Captain Underpants, it wouldn’t really do a whole lot since he’s still significantly weaker and couldn’t really harm his opponent. You might think that this would make this matchup a stalemate since Powdered Toast Man can’t actually kill Krupp, and Krupp wouldn’t really try to fight back despite being way stronger. However, we’ve seen in the series multiple times that Krupp will turn into Captain Underpants at any sound of the snap of a finger; not just George & Harold’s. With that, it would only be a matter of time before either Krupp or Powdered Toast Man do it accidentally.
However, another issue Captain Underpants may run into is Powdered Toast Man’s regeneration. Being a cartoon character, PTM’s able to recover from quite a few nasty injuries like ripping off his own face, and can even turn into toast particles and reconstitute himself instantly. This kind of healing factor isn’t really something Captain Underpants has, nor is it something that would be easy for him to deal with. Not to mention the fact that Captain Underpants has lesser showings of stamina than Powdered Toast Man, who was able to fight with Waffle Woman for seemingly hours on end without breaking a sweat, so you could argue that Powdered Toast Man could just outlast his opponent. But it’s a bit of a no-limits-fallacy to say that he could win just off of that, as it’s much more likely that Captain Underpants could overtax PTM’s healing factor enough to make sure he couldn’t heal from his injuries.
So overall, while Powdered Toast Man does have his fair share of advantages in variety, stamina and survivability, Captain Underpants has his own ways around all this with his variety of equipment and counters to his potentially-crippling weakness.
Tertiary Factors
For the most part, these two are down-the-middle in terms of other factors than stats and abilities. In terms of experience, Powdered Toast Man has been doing superhero work ever since he was a boy, while Captain Underpants only started his work in his adult years, so the former should easily take that aspect. When it comes to intelligence, neither are exactly the most tactical strategists in the world; they typically just brute-force their way out of a problem and come up with a strategy later. However, while we have sort of painted Captain Underpants as a buffoon, he has had his moments in the past where he’s shown to come up with a plan even if it isn’t the most complicated, like when he figured out Melvin’s underwear will shrink in water, so tricked him into going into it. Plus, Captain Underpants typically fights villains that have some sort of obvious weakness, and Powdered Toast Man would be no different for him. Meanwhile, the only way for Powdered Toast Man to figure out Underpants’ weakness is through trial and error, as his weakness isn’t super obvious. That being said, Powdered Toast Man is generally a bit more clever in terms of problem-solving on the fly, like the aforementioned cat and president plans he came up with. Basically, Powdered Toast Man definitely overtakes the Captain in overall combat experience, and should tie him in overall intelligence as well.
Conclusion
Captain Underpants
Advantages:
Equal in strength at the very worst, but much more likely way stronger
Vastly faster
Bigger variety of equipment
Has workarounds to his weakness
Turning back into Krupp wouldn’t actually weaken him
Legitimately amazing Weird Al theme song
Equal:
Likely similar in intelligence and cleverness
Disadvantages:
Less versatile abilities
Not as experienced in superhero work
Less impressive showings of stamina
Regeneration would make Powdered Toast Man difficult to put down
Never got that second movie
Powdered Toast Man
Advantages:
Potentially equal in strength using high ends…
Wider variety of abilities
Has more experience in the field
Better showings of stamina
Harder to put down for good due to his regeneration
Can literally WaveShine in NASB
Equal:
Likely similar in intelligence and cleverness
Disadvantages:
…but high ends are extremely dubious and likely loses in strength
Slower no matter what
Inferior weaponry and equipment
Far more exploitable weaknesses
Wouldn’t actually be able to take advantage of Underpants’ weakness
John K.
To summarize everything we’ve been talking about, even while giving Powdered Toast Man a massive benefit of the doubt, Captain Underpants’ own feats and scaling outmuscle anything showcased in the entirety of Ren & Stimpy thanks to his consistent star-level feats, and could potentially get even higher. Putting aside the stat difference, Powdered Toast Man only has so many advantages in other factors; while Captain Underpants would have a hard time coping with his opponent’s healing factor, Powdered Toast Man’s long-range attacks would only serve as deadweight for so long before the Captain gets close, and while PTM could potentially find an opening by de-hypnotizing him and potentially outlasting with his superior regeneration, Captain Underpants not only has ways to re-power himself, but it still wouldn’t be enough to net a win, as Krupp is still just as durable as the Captain himself, and at that point it would only be a matter of time before he snaps himself back to his hero persona and overtaxes Powdered Toast Man’s regenerative abilities until he can’t come back anymore.
Powdered Toast Man’s bravado was certainly enough to give Captain Underpants a good fight, but ultimately, there’s only so much he can do against the waistband warrior’s superior strength, speed, and combat prowess. Looks like Mr. Krupp had everything he kneaded to make the starchy savior’s hopes and dreams crumble.
The winner is Captain Underpants!
“TRA-LA-LAAAAAAAAA!!!~”
Special Announcement/Next Time(s)
We’ll get to the next two matchups (yes, two this time!) in a bit, but I’ve decided to take a page out of a few others’ books and do a little poll to decide what matchup will come after that. These matchups are primarily ones I have an interest in covering, but mainly wanted to see if it’s something people actually would like to see. I’ve also left an option for you to suggest other matchups you’d like to see if the selected options aren’t quite your fancy or you feel as if there’s another one that you’d be interested in seeing get covered down the line. The results will be revealed at the end of the next blog, so click here to cast your vote.
As for what those next ones are?
Source/Credit List
Various Respect Threads, including:
VS Battles Wiki
Character Stats and Profiles Wiki
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