[Certain]

Dominate: I had such a hard time getting past the misspelling of S.H.I.E.L.D. OK, now that I've breathed into a paper bag for a few minutes, this verse otherwise was excellent. It felt very relevant to the world right now. There were the jokes about sexism and white male privilege, the on-call aspect, the "solemn nod when it feels appropriate," the note at the bottom. Then there was the humor, which was toned down a bit and restrained in the right ways to work as a parody. I've read a lot of job requirement forms, and your parody was spot-on. Moreover I think the entire verse spoke as a criticism of the sexism of comic-book culture, which again is a very timely and topical commentary on society. I don't think this verse quite hit the laugh-out-loud perfection of the very best comedy and parody topical verses, but it had a demanding stylistic format to adhere to as well. Given your (assumed) lack of experience with this style of writing, it was particularly impressive.

dead man: Man, you've brought it lately, basically since you lost to me. Your words are so damn smooth. Nobody matches you in that sense. You make "solipsistic" seem fluid and natural. That's a big edge in any battle, essentially giving you a pass toward personal introspection whenever you want because you know you will write it better than your opponent. You hit this topic out of the park, better than I did, and I'm egotistical and liked my verse. You began and ended better, though maybe your thesis statement wasn't as clearly outlayed. You often avoid centering your verses on a single prismatic idea, which I think can make things feel like they're floating in the ether. Here, you let the topic serve as a unifying force, but as a result, the verse didn't connect quite perfectly without the topic. Dominate wrote about the topic but wrote independent of the topic. This was a great battle, even better than your battle with NYCSPITZ that I previously called battle of the season. I am going to lean toward the conceptual and specific take, but not for those reasons. The thing that struck me about Dominate was his social critique, more than his creativity and sense of humor. His message was more poignant and relevant while also subtle. Great battle, and dead man has done more than enough to earn the win through a more accessible verse. But I don't often lean on accessibility in my reading.

Vote: Dominate