For a hero with Super in his name, Superman seems to get an impressive number of beat
downs when it comes to battling his superheroic peers.
But he also manages to give as good as he gets.
In fact, there have been many superheroes who have stood very little chance when it
comes to taking on the massively powerful and sometimes invincible Man of Steel.
And sometimes to be honest Clark even manages to give better than he gets, whenever he deems
it necessary to actually unleash the full potential of his powers.
In fact I would argue that Superman only loses battles as often as he does because his morals
keep him in check.
But when you strip those morals away, he becomes an unstoppable beast.
Let’s take a look at some of these moments and some of the moments where he managed to
keep his morals and still whoop some superpowered booties, as we count down the top 10 superheroes
who lost to superman.
So many good ones!
And be sure to stick around for the end of this list where I will have some bonus content
coming your way.
Alright, let’s get counting.
10 Goku
This fight was non-cannon but has been the focus of more than one Death Battle video.
Unfortunately the odds of this happening in the pages of a comic or manga seem slim, but
you hey you never know.
The only reason I’m actually ranking this one so low though is because of it’s non-cannnon
status though.
Because who wouldn’t want to watch this fight and see Superman triumph over Goku at
the very end?
We all assumed these two would have a great fight as they seem so evenly matched.
Both being from very strong alien races, almost the last of their kind.
Goku got bested both times due to his desire to keep it a fair fight.
In one he could have won if he had decided to use kryptonite but he felt like it was
cheating.
9 The Elite
This entire team of antiheroes got Superman’s attention after they started dispatching villains
in a brutal, violent way, even killing them.
Superman being very anti-violence disagreed with their methods and told them to stop it
but their leader Manchester Black, a powerful telekinetic refused, laughing in Superman’s
face.
Much to Kal El’s dismay, the team also seemed to be gaining popularity amongst civilians.
The team and Superman eventually came to blows and just as they thought they had won and
defeated him, Superman reappeared and seemed to hang up his morals momentarily in order
to kill them all.
The whole battle had been filmed and broadcast so Manchester Black at least was able to declare
that this proved that Superman was no better than they were.
But Superman once again managed to turn the tables on The Elite, revealing that hadn’t
killed anyone, just knocked Manchester Black’s teammates out.
And that his zapping of Manchester Black’s powers was temporary and he would eventually
recover.
8 Flash
On the alternate earth 2, Darkseid managed to create a clone of Kal El which even appeared
to possess almost all of the original Kal El’s memories.
This version of Superman was known as Brutaal and while Superman often struggles to win
against the Flash in the main continuity, this version of Superman both outran the Flash
and managed to catch him.
Even worse he aimed to stop Jason Garrick, earth 2’s current Flash from running away
from him but crippling one of his legs.
Ouch.
7 Maxima
Based off a similar interaction in the comics, Maxima of the Royal House of the planet Almerac
offered herself to Superman in the Superman Animated Series.
She told him that they were a perfect genetic match and promised that if he was able to
best her in combat, she would wed him.
He told her he wasn’t interested which caused her to start a fight with him.
He did end up defeating her but this only strengthened her attraction to him more, delighted
she had finally found someone who she deemed her equal.
6 Batman
Usually Batman is the one that beats Superman.
Despite not having super powers himself, he is pretty much always prepared going into
a battle with Superman.
It’s his superior planning skills and ability to be prepared for any outcome that always
gives Batman the upper hand usually.
But what happens when Batman is without this skill?
In the Justice League: Origins storyline from the New 52 we get to see what happens when
Batman and Superman fight for the first time.
Without Batman’s extensive knowledge of Superman, he is left insanely vulnerable to
the superpowered Kal El.
Green Lantern even attempts to help Batman out when all his gadgets that he would normally
use to dominate a fight seem to come up short.
But even Green Lantern and Batman together proved no match for the Man of Steel.
5 Wonder Woman
This one is only ranked so low because it is so brutal.
And it hurts my heart whenever I think about it.
This fight happened in an alternate timeline where Superman and Batman became tyrannical
leaders.
Wonder Woman was one of the few heroes left who was attempting to save their world from
their facist supremacy.
She managed to take out Bruce but unfortunately was no match for the enraged Superman that
she ended up crossing paths was, who was pissed that she had taken out his bff, Batman.
Clark didn’t just beat Wonder Woman, he destroyed her.
He demolished her shield, blasted through her bracelets and ended up strangling her
with her own lasso of truth.
Devastating.
4 The Hulk
Any battle with the Hulk proves interesting as not many can take on the green giant and
come out victorious.
While he’s Marvel and Superman is DC, we all bow down to the Hulk’s strength.
In other words, if a hero can beat the Hulk, it means something.
Namely that they are one of the strongest in existence, because Hulk is on another level
when it comes to his strength.
During this crossover, Bruce Banner ended up being agitated by Lex Luthor and transforming
into the Hulk in Metropolis.
With innocents in danger, Superman swooped in and was forced to fight the Hulk out of
the area.
Superman fought him all the way to his Fortress of Solitude but found himself unable to calm
Hulk down and was forced to beat him by punching him so hard that he was knocked into the Phantom
Zone.
Now that is some strength.
3 Doctor Fate
This battle was a surprisingly quick one.
You would think that it wouldn’t even be a fair fight for the Man of Steel due to his
weakness to magic.
A weakness that really only exists to prevent him from being so overpowered.
Remember the original Superman before the 80s?
No weaknesses and just seemed to have a limitless amount of convenient superpowers.
Those were the ultimate days for our caped vigilante.
No longer forever.
Superman was retconned to someone who had limits and weaknesses to make him a more interesting
character.
After all, everyone enjoys reading about a struggle.
This battle between Doctor Fate and Earth 2’s Superman, the Kal El clone known as
Brutaal was not that though.
Not much struggle involved.
Superman snuck up on the magical hero and smashed his helmet, which is Doctor Fate’s
power source basically, therefore in so doing, he instantly defeated him.
2 Thor
In JLA slash Avengers from 2003 we saw the two famous superheroes from competing comic
book powerhouse publishers come to blows as they raced one another to prevent the opposing
team from seizing the 12 items of power.
In the series we saw a battle that put Thor up against Superman in the Savage Land in
a one-on-one fight over the Cosmic Cube.
These two strong characters had always been a heated topic of debate for fans, who mulled
at who would be who should they come to blows in a crossover.
The answer?
Superman proved to be the stronger after stopping an attack from Thor and KO’ing him in battle.
Ending the famed debate once and for all.
1 Shazam
In the Injustice: Gods Among Us video game we saw these two similar heroes come to blows.
While many might think that Shazam having magic at his disposal would allow him to make
quick work of Superman, being that Superman’s weakness is magic, turns out they’d be wrong.
In Injustice we see a darker side of Superman, one who is no longer holding back his power.
He freezes Shazam’s mouth shut and melts his brain with his heat vision after Shazam
disagrees with the Man of Steel.
Yikes.
Remind me to never get in an argument with Injustice Superman.
Thanks for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
Who would you most want to see Supes fight?
What are some of your favourite Superman fights?
What do you think is Superman’s greatest strength or weakness?
Let us know in the comments below.
And speaking of comments, it’s time to turn to some comments from one of our latest lists,
top 10 super powers you never knew Cyclops had.
Karmabum21 writes, “Cyclops doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
I blame writers who antagonized him in order to make Wolverine look more heroic.
I really hope Hickman’s run brings him back into the spotlight as being the highly skilled
fighter and tactician he really is.
Hashtag, Cyclops was right.”
I feel like we are definitely going to see him get a boost in the comics.
I have already seen where a couple great moments for him so far in House of X and I feel like
the new X-Men is all about breathing life into lesser known characters and the golden
oldies we have loved for a long time.
I feel you and I believe those good ol glory days we’ll be coming back to Scott.
Otto comments, “I’m gonna say it.
He’s an angry laser pointer.”
Lol!
I love this so much.
He can be like an angry laser pointer at times.
But he usually has a reason.
Or a circumstance or person pointing him in his target’s direction.
Angry laser pointer.
Brilliant.
And that’s all the time we have for comments today.
Be sure to comment below for a chance to have your words features in a future list.
And if you haven’t already, smash that sub and ring that bell so you never miss out when
we do post those shiny new future lists.
This has been top 10 nerd and I’m your host, Amanda McKnight.
You stay nerdy, YouTube.