Death Battle Predictions: Goku VS Superman

 

(Blue Igneous)

(ishi_yuki)

(greymerlion2)

(Advert)

(Adam天)

“There is hope after despair and many suns after darkness.” - Rumi

Son Goku, the divine Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball.

Superman, the Kryptonian Man of Tomorrow from DC Comics.

In order to match pure darkness, you need pure hope. You don’t just need a man, you need a hero. But a hero doesn’t just have to come from Earth, heroes can sprout from all walks of life, including the very stars above. And when it comes to heroes, none in Pop Culture has left a mark just as big as these two titans of East and West.

These two heroes not only inspire characters from their own series to fight evil and save the innocent, but also outside their mediums. Without them, we may not even have heroes as we know them today. They’ve inspired countless pieces of media throughout all of fiction, and to some, they are so much more than just pictures in a manga or comic book.

But when these legendary heroes clash (again, AGAIN), who shall make their mark on history and who shall be wiped from the history books once and for all? Will Dragon Ball’s most iconic Super Saiyan finally get to melt this Man of Steel, or will DC Comics’s Man of Tomorrow claim another win against the Greatest Fighter in the Universe? It’s time to find who would win a DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Start…

It is no secret Goku VS Superman has been talked to death already. For this special third round however, Death Battle is spicing things up, though they are being somewhat unclear about what exactly is being used. However we can assume more than just canon material will be used, thanks Ben Singer. 

For this blog, both characters will be fully composited, including all of their appearances in media barring crossovers like Jump Force or Fortnite. For Goku, this includes all of Dragon Ball’s primary canon, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Dragon Ball Heroes, anything with Dragon Ball in the name really. The same goes for Superman (though interestingly, DC composited their various timelines recently), with him receiving all forms of DC media. 

Additionally, to fit the special occasion, this blog will have some distinct formatting. Hope you enjoy the show.

Background

Goku

“No, see, I don't think of it like I'm saving the world. The fact is it's ‘cos I'm usually trying to challenge the strongest warriors I can find. That's how this tournament happened too. But I can't bear the thought of innocent lives getting wiped out just ‘cos I wanna fight the best, so I'll do what I can for them.”

Dragon Soul > Cha-La Head-Cha-la

Off in a mysterious forest, a young boy with a strange monkey tail was left stranded in the middle of nowhere, before being taken in and raised by an elderly man named Son Gohan. The boy, named Son Goku, would exhibit highly violent tendencies until experiencing severe head trauma, which shaped him into the happy-go-lucky boy we know today. He was taught the ways of martial arts by his grandfather, as they lived peacefully together, until tragedy struck. Son Gohan was slain by a great beast that only appeared under the full moon.

For months, Goku was left on his lonesome, until an eventual encounter with a city woman forced him into a quest to recover the seven magical Dragon Balls, which could summon a gigantic dragon named Shenron, who granted anyone a single wish. Throughout this journey, as well as several others, Son Goku encountered numerous enemies in tournaments, wars, revenge quests, and more, who would be converted into allies by Goku’s whimsical charm. Desert bandits like Yamcha and Puar, assassins like Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu, there was nobody who Goku couldn’t befriend. Son even encountered his childhood sweetheart, Chi-Chi, who he promptly married and had a child with.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. When an alien named Raditz revealed himself to be Son Goku’s brother, Goku was forced to learn of his heritage as a planet-conquering Saiyan as Kakarot, giving him little time to prepare for the great battles he would encounter across the galaxy and even the universe. Even after defeating the Saiyan prince Vegeta, Goku and the Z-Fighters had to travel to Planet Namek in order to revive his friends and defeat the space emperor, Lord Freeza, who had previously destroyed his birth planet, Planet Vegeta, and the entire Saiyan race. Throughout his adventures, Goku would achieve legends, raise his sons, combat great evils, and save the entire universe time and time again.

But naturally, the story doesn't end there. Son Goku would soon learn of the realm of the gods through a confrontation with the God of Destruction of Universe 7, Lord Beerus. Goku and Vegeta would continue to fight off deadly threats to the multiverse, achieving godhood and fighting not just for the thrill of it, but for the families and friends they've built up over many years. If there's one thing that Goku has learned, it's that he's not the best, and that's more than okay. Every day is a chance to be better than you were yesterday. And with the entire multiverse supporting him, there's no stopping the continuous improvement of Son Goku.

Superman

“Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us into something better. And on my soul, I swear that until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice are the reality we all share, I'll never stop fighting. Ever.”

Once there was a planet called Krypton, where an advanced alien race known as Kryptonians thrived. They were all fine and dandy, doing things associated with your common 1950s pulp science fiction alien civilization, before Jor-El, the head scientist on the planet, presaged that Krypton was going to explode. In an effort to save his son, Jor-El and his wife, Lara Lor-Van, put their only child inside a correspondingly child-sized spaceship and sent him to a small backwater planet named Earth. The baby, named Kal-El, landed in a small town in Kansas called Smallville and was raised by two loving parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent. He’d been raised by the name of Clark Kent, and raised to think he was just a normal American kid, but one day his powers suddenly erupted out of his body (depending on the version, in some stories he always had his powers, and even remembered Krypton due to super-memory as a baby). From then on he’d become a savior of not just Earth, but of the whole universe. To everyone: from mortal men, to tyrannical gods of death and destruction, he wouldn’t be just a mere man, he would be the Superman.

With his godlike powers alongside other legendary heroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Cyborg, Martian Manhunter and more, he’d save the whole planet and even the universe at large from countless threats. From a creature of pure death whose own evolution makes him immortal, to a fellow Kryptonian who has a knack for making everyone kneel to him in a weird fetishistic way, to an odd alien robot who has a strange obsession with bottling cities like paperweights, to evil mad scientists and politicians with a serious need of Minoxidil, or even the gods themselves, both new and old. Superman has fought them all in pursuit of the highest forms of good: Truth, Justice, and the American way, even for those he has fought against. 

Superman as a constant has changed throughout the years, never being a stable character outside of the basic desires and ideas expressed through the character’s inner essence, that of hope, the striving of humanity into the future from the darkness of the past. Embodying the Nietzschean Overman, Superman is the answer to all those exacerbations associated with the men of today, through being the “Man of Tomorrow”. Such a man has allowed for the greater aggregation of hope against that hatred and fear all too commonplace in today’s society. Whether or not you want to hear it, the world needs Superman. He’s here to stay, too.

Goku VS Superman

In 1998, Dragon Ball Z premiered in America on Toonami. Shortly after, in 2000, Superman: The Animated Series also premiered on Toonami.

To account for its western audience, Toonami had decided to alter Goku's characterization, making him appear more heroic and nice compared to his canon counterpart. Essentially, Goku became a bit more like Superman, with even their fathers being "brilliant scientists". Mixing this in with the fact that Goku's story was inspired by Superman's, comparisons quickly became drawn between the two. So naturally, one question came to mind: Who would win?

And so, the first official Goku vs. Superman was released, and it wasn’t released by Wizard’s Magazine. Around half a year before, Comic Book Universe Battles (basically a less formal VS Battles Wiki) had its staff determine a fight between Superman and Son Goku. Both Goku and Superman obtained so many votes that it completely shattered the system, effectively making our first official Goku vs. Superman fight a draw.

But that's not where the story ends. Half a year later, Wizard’s Magazine featured Son Goku and Superman in their "East vs. West" edition of Last Man Standing, in which they determined that Goku's absurd power as a Super Saiyan would simply be too much for the Man of Steel to handle. Then Outskirts Battledome would calculate the stats of their champions and rule that Superman would win. But naturally, as does often happen in vs debates, this didn't even come close to ending the debate. There was a massive amount of forums, fanart, webcomics, combat simulations, fight edits, all detailing this hypothetical fight between the world's greatest champions. Even with sites and sources dedicated to accurate power scaling, nobody could come to a uniform conclusion, until...

Death Battle had just released their second Q&A on November 4, 2011, where they finally confirmed that they would eventually pit Goku and Superman against each other in a brutal fight to the end. And so, the world waited. And waited. And waited. Until almost exactly one year later, when they announced the match up as the finale to their first season. The fans were ecstatic, the fan bases even more so. Death Battle wasn't just going to conclude this fight, they were going to make the perfect Goku vs. Superman conclusion. Everyone and their mom and dog wanted to see this fight. There was even another prediction blog. And after a short delay, it finally happened, Superman had decisively won...

And shit went wild. Yeah, no, ultimate conclusion my ass, the fans of Dragon Ball and DC Comics somehow became even more divisive than before. It certainly didn't help that both Goku and Superman made a grand return to the front of fictional media soon after, far expanding their original powers. What Death Battle did succeed in, though, was the new stat comparison format. Look up "Goku vs. Superman stats" and you'll probably find dozens of different interpretations of the original Death Battle's listed statistics. Still, with Son Goku achieving both Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue, it's clear that the original fight was outdated in record time. And so, in order to give the fans a show at SGC 2015, Ben Singer realized that a rematch was needed. It was time for Goku vs. Superman 2.

And things became even worse, especially because of their infamous statement on "no limits Superman" and the literal lack of any stats or measurements for Super Saiyan Blue. Needless to say, this wasn't just controversial, it was received very poorly. In fact, Goku vs. Superman 2 was rarely acknowledged in the VS community, especially not in a positive light. For years, it was simply left alone. There were different takes on the matchup, but there wasn't a definitive conclusion.

At least, not until today (or tomorrow, more accurately). This isn't just Goku vs. Superman 3. This is a complete redo of the first two episodes. So needless to say, hold onto your seats, because we're about to take you through this wild ride...

One last time.

Btw, listen to this very cool Epic Rap Battle of History

Abilities

These two wouldn’t be such iconic superheroes without the superpowers to match. Owing to their alien biology, these two can draw on vast reserves of energy to perform amazing superhuman feats.

Goku

Saiyan Physiology

One of the last remaining members of Universe 7’s Saiyan species, Goku’s physiology makes him capable of far, far more than a normal human being. The Saiyan race is naturally built on evolution, allowing Saiyans to grow over the course of combat in order to increase efficiency. They can easily break their established limits mid fight, especially in dire circumstances. Of course, most Saiyans were not able to realize this potential, as Freeza/Frieza held them on a tight leash, only allowing them easy fights or impossible fights that would ensure their doom.

The more Goku fights, the more he grows in power. In the span of under an hour, he could become hundreds to thousands of times more powerful during the Tournament of Power. Additionally, he can gain a large increase rapidly were he to receive a Zenkai Boost after recovering from a nigh fatal wound. It also helps that his Xeno iteration has access to a tail, which significantly helps maintain energy and stamina control. Bursts of rage can also result in absurd jumps of power, pushing around previously comparable foes like they were nothing.

Ki Manipulation (Telekinesis, etc)

Like most other Dragon Ball characters, Goku is capable of manipulating his innate life energy and manifesting it in the form of Ki. With Ki, Goku can fly, enhance his physical ability, fire Ki projectiles, create barriers, lift objects and other people with telekinesis, telepathically communicate with others, read minds, and heal himself. Goku can sense the Ki of other living beings to track them, and additionally can expand the presence of his Ki, allowing him to detect the movement of others through the environment. Goku can also use Ki to perform a variety of special techniques and attacks, which include the following.

Kamehameha: Goku’s most iconic attack, the Kamehameha, is a devastating beam of Ki that he unleashes onto foes. By gathering energy into his cupped hands and firing it forward, he releases a blue wave to attack from upclose or afar. The Kamehameha, like most moves from Dragon Ball, has its own fair share of variations.

Super Kamehameha: By charging up more ki for an attack, the user can do far greater amounts of damage, to the point of instantly KO’ing opponents of similar power. When Goku used this for the first time, he had enough power to shatter the moon.

True Kamehameha: An even more powerful variation of this attack used by Super Saiyan 3 Goku.

Reverse Kamehameha: In case Goku isn't able to fly at the moment, he can fire his beam at the ground and use it for propulsion.

Bending Kamehameha: Goku can alter the direction of his Kamehameha after it has been fired, in case it's been dodged.

Kamehameha Barrage: Goku can fire this variation of the Kamehameha repeatedly.

Feet Kamehameha: Guess.

Limitbreaker Kamehameha: A buffed up Kamehameha used by Super Saiyan God Goku.

God Kamehameha: A powered up variation of the attack made from God Ki.

10x God Kamehameha: A variation of the previous attack when stacked on by Kaio-Ken ×10.

Transcendent God Kamehameha: God Kamehameha but stronger.

Burst Kamehameha: A quicker version of the Kamehameha for when opponents get in too close.

Dragon Kamehameha: When his power is aided by Shenron, Goku can fire a Kamehameha mixed in with the power of the Dragon Balls.

Double Kamehameha: Two Kamehamehas fired at once.

X10 Kamehameha: A red-colored Kamehameha used by Super Saiyan 4 Goku, which is so powerful that the after-effect of the blast will still heavily damage its target.

Kiai: The Kiai technique allows the user to manipulate their energy into the air currents around them. This results in a “push” that can direct said air. This has been used in many techniques but notable ones include:

Shockwave/Soaring Fist: This variation used by Goku is the result of him using the Kiai in his fist. By throwing a punch, he can launch ki infused air like an energy beam. These have proven strong enough to deflect or shoot straight through other Ki attacks.

Spirit Shot: The version used against Burter and Jeice. In this variation, Goku charges his energy and sends it out causing a shockwave on both sides of his body. This blows away any enemies close to him, and works as crowd control if he has multiple opponents.

Solar Flare: Invented by Tenshinhan, by manipulating the light of his Ki, Goku can blind his opponent with an incredibly bright flash of light.

Spirit Bomb (Genkidama): By accumulating energy from the surrounding area, whether it be from living organisms or nature, Goku can power up a technique known as the Spirit Bomb. This attack is an incredibly powerful energy sphere, capable of overpowering foes noticeably stronger than Goku depending on how long Goku gains energy. He can gather energy from nearby planets, suns, and even across the entire mortal universe. Additionally, if Goku wants to, he can absorb the accumulated energy for a gigantic power up rather than an all out attack.

God Bind: Goku can use his Ki to trap an opponent, acting as a form of telekinesis, allowing him to move them as he pleases.

Destructo Disk: Invented by Krillin, Goku can compress his Ki into a sharp disk that can cut through those with dramatically higher power levels.

Hexa Blade: These Destructo Disks can split apart into numerous smaller Disks, often used for more stealthy or surprise maneuvers.

Multiform Technique: A technique Goku learned from Tien where he evenly splits his power amongst clones to gain a number advantage over his opponent. Goku can create up to seven, and interestingly does not seem to have to split his energy in order to create the multiform clones.

Dragon Fist: Goku can create a golden Ki dragon in order to dramatically power up an individual punch, often strong enough to pierce right through those of relative strength.

God Ki

Through the Super Saiyan God ritual, as well as training from Whis, Son Goku learned how to use divine energy in order to gain an array of new abilities.

Healing: Users of God Ki can heal what would usually be fatal wounds in a matter of seconds. Goku was even able to restart his heart after it had been crushed by Hit.

Extrasensory Perception: God Ki users can sense other godly beings that cannot be sensed by normal Ki users. In fact, Goku’s Ki sensing is so solid that he could detect the real Hit after being surrounded by dozens of perfect copies of his energy.

Pocket Dimensions: Those who use God Ki can manipulate or destroy pocket dimensions that they could not while using normal Ki.

Space Time Portals: God Ki users can affect space and time, tearing open holes in the continuum.

Summoning: Users of God Ki are able to open up holes in space in order to summon objects. The most common usage is through the God Meteor technique.

Instant Transmission

Through the use of Ki control, Goku can utilize the technique known as Instant Transmission. With it, Goku can teleport to any location he desires after putting two fingers to his head, as long as he senses a powerful enough Ki signature there. Additionally, Goku has shown to be able to warp to any place he himself can currently see without having to do any special hand sign, like when he instantly warped in front of Cell to perform a surprise Kamehameha.

Goku uses Instant Transmission to teleport instantly between distances ranging from a few meters to light years away. While he often struggles to lock onto an unknown Ki signature when they're more than a galaxy away, a strong enough energy or an energy he recognizes can allow him to teleport outside the living world or even outside of time itself in the Crack of Time.

In the Toei continuity, several guides clarify that Instant Transmission involves the user teleporting to a “teleportation zone” that transcends time itself to reach their destination. This is shown in Return of Cooler and Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan.

In Dragon Ball Heroes, Instant Transmission can also be used to travel through time, given how it escaped the Prison Planet despite the fact that this planet only exists in the future.

Evil Containment Wave (Mafuba)

A sealing technique taught to Goku by Roshi. By telekinetically grabbing the opponent, Goku can nullify their power and seal them in a container as long as said container has the proper talisman. Once trapped, the victim is subject to terrible horrors for all of eternity, having their power nullified and being prohibited from action. While Goku forgot the seal in the anime, it was actually Roshi who forgot it in the manga, and Goku has shown to be perfectly capable of pulling off the move himself when he trained by using it on Turtle and pulled it off against Zamasu in the manga.

Additionally, the technique is not restricted to only being used on evil beings, as Vegeta was able to be sealed well after his redemption arc, as well as Turtle as previously mentioned. As for needing the seal, Goku would have had it in the manga if Roshi had not forgotten, and if he thinks Mafuba is needed for a fight, there is no reason he would not Instant Transmission mid fight to get a seal.

Destruction (Hakai)

A technique Goku learned by watching the God of Destruction, Beerus. The attack can manifest as either large energy attacks, or make instant contact with what the user wants to have destroyed. Upon the technique making contact with the opponent, they will be completely and absolutely wiped from existence. All versions of them will be wiped from all timelines unless they are acausal, their body will be completely erased, and their soul will also be targeted and destroyed. 

A common misconception is that Goku only has access to a weaker variant of Hakai, but this is actually false. The only reason Hakai left Goku without stamina in the fight against Fusion Zamasu is due to Goku having already expended a large amount of stamina during the fight beforehand, and he only stopped erasing Zamasu due to Mai getting in the way. Additionally, the potency of someone’s Hakai is not based on how effective the erasure is, but rather how powerful and precise the attack itself is. Goku has also shown to be able to use Hakai without issue during the Moro Arc, using the technique to blow Moro out of rubble, creating similar sand-like remains like when Beerus and Granolah each used Hakai. Additionally, Goku has used the move in Heroes.

4th Wall Awareness

Goku has broken manga panels, directly talked with the viewer, and has even worked with the audience before to defeat God Broly. Safe to say, he knows we exist. And he wants to fight you.

"Hey, G1! It's me, Goku! I heard you can beat a ton of characters, you even beat Vegeta! Let's fight.”

Resistances

Extreme Temperatures: Vegeta was able to withstand his body being covered by Absolute Zero temperatures without issue, and Goku has survived fighting Broly in lava and being near the sun before no problem. Ki in general has also been shown to vaporize and atomize things, implying high temperatures.

Empathy Manipulation: Goku was unaffected by Ribrianne’s aroma, which normally distracts targets by making them filled with love.

Extrasensory Perception: Those with God Ki, such as Goku, cannot be sensed by those with the ability to sense life energy.

Mental Manipulation: Saiyans like Vegeta have resisted the mind control of magic users like Babidi, and Vegeta even let himself be taken under his control in the first place; the moment Vegeta felt like it, he broke out of that control.

Intangibility: When facing Hit a second time, Goku was able to counter Hit’s energy blasts by blocking them with his own Ki. Hit’s long ranged Ki attacks have shown the capability of phasing through surrounding objects and even their targets.

Hakai: On a few occasions, Goku has survived or resisted the Hakai, once even in his base form. Hakai erases the target’s physical body, destroys their soul, and even removes them from the time stream. So Goku would have resistance to Existence Erasure, Temporal Erasure, and Soul Manipulation. The Hakai even threatened to erase Arale and succeeded in erasing Dr. Mashirito, both of whom have survived narrative erasure. (Debatable)

Paralysis Inducement: Escaped Freeza/Frieza’s Imprisonment Ball at the last moment.

Electricity Manipulation: Tanked Fusion Zamasu’s Lightning of Absolution.

Radiation: Can fight in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, where radiations are exceedingly high.

Poison Manipulation: Goku’s supernatural will allowed him to survive the Water of the Gods.

Battlefield Removal: Numerous beings in Dragon Ball have broken out of alternate dimensions just by powering up, and Goku’s teleportation gives him a lot of range to return if he's sent too far.

Time Manipulation: In canon, Goku is above Jiren, who is so strong that his strength bypasses time, to the point where he can walk through time stops. To add on to this in Dragon Ball Heroes, Limit Breaker Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Gogeta, who Goku should be comparable to, was able to bypass Fu’s time stops by breaking reality. Apart from just power based time breaking though, Goku wields the Key Sword, which gives its user a natural resistance to all uses of Time Power, a time based energy. More details will be given on the individual uses of Time Power later, but the fact Goku can resist it and all his applications means he would have resistances to Time Stops, Time Dilation, Time Acceleration, Time Rewinding, and Power Sealing. 

Pressure Point Strikes: During his fight with Granolah, Goku was able to combat his pressure point fighting style by toughening certain parts of his body and moving his organs around.

Information Analysis: Granolah could not find any weak points in Goku due to the properties of Ultra Instinct.

Gravity Manipulation: Goku was totally unaffected by Hearts’ Supergravity ability and he also broke out of Gas’s Gravity Spell with little issue.

Possibly Magic: Goku broke free of Gas’ gravity spell.

Illusion Creation: Despite Moro’s illusions, Son Goku could sense where the real Moro was.

Spatial Manipulation and Durability Negation: Can tank attacks from Janemba’s sword and Goku Black’s scythe, both of which could cut through time and space.

Age Manipulation: Super Saiyan 4 undoes Ultimate Shenron’s wish to turn Goku into a kid while he's in this state. Super Saiyan 4 does not automatically transform the user into an adult, as Beat and Note retained their normal child bodies in this form.

Power Nullification: People actively using God Ki are immune to Android 21’s power reducing waves.

Sealing: Using Ultra Instinct, broke the seal placed on the Prison Planet during his fight with Cumber.

Transmutation and Matter Manipulation: Vegeta resisted Lagss’ glassification abilities.

Possibly Disease Manipulation: Saiyans are immune to the Extinction Bomb.

Dark Ki / Dark Factor: Goku can wield the Key Sword, which was built for the purpose of countering both Dark Ki and the Dark Factor, which were utilized by the Demon Realm. The sword allowed Trunks to nullify and cut through Dark attacks before, showing a clear resistance. It is also likely that this resistance is not simply due to the Sword countering these dark powers, but rather a resistance to how the dark powers can be used. During the events of Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Demigra stated that due to Goku experiencing God Ki during the events of Battle of Gods, he could not control him with his Dark Ki. In the battle between a Dark Factor empowered Fu and Super Saiyan Blue Vegito, Fu stated he could still not defeat Vegito despite wielding the Dark Factor’s power and abilities, meaning Vegito’s Godly Ki logically countered its hax. The most definitive note would be Vegeta and Goku’s encounters with Dark Ki and the Dark Factor themselves, as Vegeta was able to tame the Dark Ki controlling him and utilize it in battle, with Goku doing the same when infected with part of the Dark Factor when fighting Fu.

Mind, Illusion and Perception Manipulation: Dark Ki can create false illusions and mental worlds to trap a person in. Additionally, as mentioned before, Demigra could not use his Dark Ki to mind control Goku in Dragon Ball Xenoverse.

Poison Damage: Dark Ki users can use a move called Bloody Sauce which inflicts the enemy with progressive poison damage.

Physics and Law Manipulation: Dark Ki was used to create the Demon Realm, which in turn follows different laws of logic. Dark Ki has also been used to create a parallel universe that followed distorted laws of reality.

Reality and History Altering: Dark Shenron’s mere presence in the Dark Demon Realm caused distortions and openings in time space. Additionally, characters like Xeno Pan have also been unaffected by their entire timeline being erased.

Transmutation: Dark Ki can be used to transmute beings, even working on super powerful ones that can control time on a whim like Tokitoki. Dragon Ball Ki in general has also been used to block Dabura’s spit, which turns whatever it touches to stone.

Superman

Kryptonian Physiology

Superman is a member of the race that populated the planet Krypton, known as Kryptonians. Such beings were known as being a race of engineers, explorers, and scientists, ever challenging the cusp of possibility for a greater, brighter future. Kryptonians are almost identical to humans superficially, but possess differences based on the evolutionary pressures they were raised in.

Kryptonians due to evolving in an environment with higher gravitational influences, a less enriching atmosphere, and a supermassive red sun (named Rao) has caused them to become hardened physiologically in a certain way that Earthlings cannot dare hope to match. Yet, while on Krypton, under the influence of its red sun, Kryptonians do not seem to possess abilities beyond that of your average human being; once you put them under the influence of other types of solar radiation, you unlock their innate energetic potential, giving them abilities beyond anyone’s wildest imagining.

Such an exposure changes the Kryptonian on a quantum level, changing not only their physical makeups through giving them immeasurable strength, speed, and durability, but also giving them the ability to warp time and space itself. Kryptonian powers once exposed to solar rays of the non-red variety are due to the storage of interstellar energies in every individual Kryptonian cell, with Jor-El explaining them to be psionic, telekinetic, and temporal energies sourced from the stars above. According to The Chief (from the Doom Patrol), Kryptonian abilities cannot and are not explained by simple DNA contents or the fact that Kryptonians possess different organs from humans, instead the conclusion comes that since the abilities are not generated from the material makeup of the Kryptonian body, the energy that makes up this matter (as in their non-material essence) rather explains their abilities.

There exists no upper-limit to how much solar energy a Kryptonian can absorb, as the absorption of more and more solar energy (with this absorption being passive) simply strengthens the aura that Kryptonians spontaneously generate which give them the ability to interact with the world in supernatural ways. This aura is telekinetic in nature, and allows for Kryptonian synapses to communicate with each other instantly without any time delay, and as Batman explains, this probably can only be explained through Kryptonians passively manipulating space itself in the timeframe of planck instances through passively creating wormholes so that they can achieve the effects that are otherwise physics breaking (e.g. traveling FTL). Desaad, similarly, states that Superman through warping the fabric of space-time itself can achieve effects such as flight and superspeed. 

For the more esoteric abilities Kryptonians have used, the explanation that they basically have the ability to do anything as long as their will is strong enough has been put forth before, including the idea that at a certain point, Superman has no limits whatsoever and is not defined by handbook-style stats when it came to his abilities. In the story The Greatest Hero of them All, it is explained that the original Superboy’s ability to always save the day, and do things like travel through time without so much a thought of effort, was explained as “maybe just because I always could do anything I really, truly had to do!” Dream of the Endless repeats this fact, saying that Superman is the “strongest man in the world”, and can do anything, absolutely anything.

This is further seen in the case of H’el, a Kryptonian clone who had been exposure to the solar energy of a Quasar, unlocking his true inner power as a Kryptonian, allowing him to create entirely new timelines according to his will, reshaping it whenever he needed reality to be a certain way, with this constant reshaping even threatening the entirely of all life in the Omniverse. The Kryptonian Martial Art of Torquasm-Rao and Vo also lends credence to this idea, as it unlocks the hidden potential within the Kryptonian mind and expands it to its true actuality.

Such an ability allows for Superman to create entire psychic-based universes that can influence reality through force of will, being able to counteract and fight against the magic of other reality warpers whose wills were imposed on reality, with even entire multiverses (infinite experiences of different universes) being created as information weapons. It also allowed for the self-transformation and adaptation of Superman against a foe, as to gain the capacities of other versions of Superman altogether, although more on this later. 

The final evolution of Superman as a Kryptonian is seen in his stages of life in the future, such as Superman Prime One Million, whose capacities due to constant evolution via solar energy gave him abilities beyond that of all metahumans in the 853rd century, with this evolution eventually leading beyond this, to the point where Superman during the heat death of the universe itself was able to continue the existence of the universe proper, being able to split himself into several fragments with different characteristics and abilities, before merging back to only reach his true potential to rescue that which was lost beyond the 5th dimension. The 5th dimension is itself the cap for all things that can be dreamt up and comprehended by minds in the multiverse, allowing things such as the erasure of the art itself, and yet Superman’s evolution as a Kryptonian even allowed him to go past this. 

Such a fluidity in the abilities of Superman due to being a Kryptonian allowed him to even adapt to higher spatial dimensions, gaining higher dimensional senses (made from the cosmic armor) to correspond to whatever new level he is put within. This seems odd, if it weren’t for the fact that Superman is actually not just a Kryptonian, but also a god.

Superman is actually a direct descendant of the Kryptonian god Rao, the metaphysical embodiment of the red sun that Krypton itself orbits. Such metaphysical embodiments are so powerful they exist within the city of stars, a metaphysical location that allows them to exist on the same ontological function as the Endless, whose existences are themselves summed as the constants of the DC multiverse. Rao is himself the creator of all life on Earth too, fathering the ancestors of all gods that stem from Earth.

Superman himself is sired directly from Rao and was able to defeat Cythonna, a goddess of Krypton while Rao could only banish her after lifetimes of battle. This status as divinity for Superman has even led him to believe that his only place among equals would be found in New Genesis, a world harbored by deities composed of platonic concepts.

Solar Energy Absorption

Kryptonians are empowered by something called the photonucleic effect, a mechanic of physics within the DC universe which describes how Kryptonian beings are able to process the energy coming from solar bodies differently. According to this law of nature, the same physical process which turns Kryptonite radioactive around yellow stars also energizes the cells of beings who are native to red stars, or as Maggin explains:

“Where non-living matter becomes unstable and radioactive with this dislocation, living things develop an enhanced stability. The first thing that happens under the photonucleic effect is that the nucleus of each of an organic creature's cells grows a carapace—a temporary shell that shields it from external harm. This happens very quickly, from the outside of the organism - the cells in direct contact with yellow starlight—to the most internal cells of the organs, in less than the time it takes to draw a breath. For a moment, the organism is suspended in a comatose state, but the moment is too brief to notice. In that moment, the nucleus of every atom in the organism quakes. Each electron in every carbon or hydrogen atom in every molecule of its body jumps outward by one quantum level. The nucleus unbinds, its protons and neutrons and other subatomic particles loosening, expanding the binding space between them by the merest fraction of an angstrom. The molecules of the transplanted being's body do not actually grow, but the physical space that the solid parts of them take up thus increases exponentially without increasing the organism's actual mass or proportions. The organism becomes harder, tougher, more durable, better able to navigate the changed environment in which it now finds itself.”

Effectively, sunlight can specifically change the matter of a being from other solar systems with different types of stars in the DC universe, and a being native to a red star (like that of Krypton’s Rao) once introduced to a yellow star (like the Earth’s sun) would have their eigenstates changed so that the nucleic content of such a being is decohered, creating a larger volume of energy that Kryptonians exhibit throughout their bodies.

According to a similar continuity, yellow, blue, dwarf, brown, and white stars all give Kryptonians unique properties that vary in potency, while pulsars and quasars give power beyond imagining (more on that later). Black holes attempt to consume the Kryptonian completely, while red stars reduce their abilities to something equivalent to a human being.  Such sunlight empowers the Kryptonian to do anything they are usually able to do, empowering their flight, strength, speed, energy projection, etc. Violet suns, for example, even give Superman certain telepathic powers.

Recently, Superman after being exposed to War World’s ‘white sun’ has claimed that its radiation made him stronger than he has ever been, supported by the fact that such an exposure allowed Superman to overcome his weakness to red sunlight in general and also gave him the ability to readily fold space like no-one’s business, therefore giving him direct teleportation. This is similar to the N52 Kryptonian clone H’el, whose exposure to a Quasar gave him specific abilities like teleportation, intricate matter manipulation on a molecular level, advanced telepathy, etc. 

The exact power level Superman gets based on exposure to the sun is almost arbitrary, given the fact that he was able to go from being on the brink of death due to malnutrition to one-shotting the creator of the DC multiverse upon just entering 6 suns for a little while. It should be noted that Superman was going faster than he had ever gone at this point, which, if you look at his speed section, literally means he was moving faster than infinity. This means that Superman was spending less than an infinitesimal fraction of an individual planck instant within these stars, and still was able to internally generate his abilities back to such a level that it even exceeded his average, and was able to even one-shot a higher-dimensional cosmic deity. 

The exact rate of absorption mainline Superman has is also probably above the absorption of other Supermen and Kryptonians, given the fact that Superman existed as the rogue element in every possible timeline which messed up the Forger’s plans, and every time the Forger simply isolated Superman in a pocket dimension with minimal sunlight, where they would eventually die from lacking energy. Yet, the mainline Superman endured, and overcame, indicating that his rate of solar energy absorption is somehow better than every other Kryptonian in the multiverse… somehow.

In such an interesting case, Superman’s solar energy absorption should be above Supergirl’s from Cosmic Adventures in the 8th grade (yes, really), which had her cells supercharged by the equivalent of a “million billion suns” (equivalent to a quadrillion suns), allowing her to grow bigger than the entire multiverse and defeat Mxyzptlk (who is the same in every community) who had become 10th dimensional. Superman could scale above this through being able to metabolize entire universes worth of everything at once, as shown with Mageddon, so Superman being able to pull a stunt like this is not out of the question. 

Additionally, after a certain point, Superman does not seem to need solar energy whatsoever. In many futures of the DCU, Superman is fine despite the Earth becoming a red giant in the future (as shown in Action Comics #1000), or is fine even at the Heat Death of the Universe during two separate occasions after every star had died out for well over a googol years, with Superman still retaining his abilities. In fact, the very idea that when the stars die out, Superman will still nonetheless remain, is one of the entire plot points of one of these stories.

Finally, the fact that ‘stars’ themselves (and therefore the energy Superman absorbs) in DC might even be metaphysical rather than simply physical chemical and quantum processes indicates that the absorption of solar energy by Kryptonians and Superman in particular has more than meets the eye. Sandman: Overture in fact details how there exists metaphysical representations of stars in the DC Multiverse, representing the actual stars in the universe. Among them is Rao, the star of Krypton, and Sol, the star of Earth.

Clark’s importance as a reminder of the despair caused by such life being put around an unstable star like Rao was initiated by Despair of the Endless (even though Superman’s arrival was more so oriented towards hope rather than despair proper), indicating his greater place in such a cosmological idea. Such stars are even able to kill and trap members of the Endless for eternity within metaphysical representations of black holes, which shows their metaphysical significance.

Electromagnetic Manipulation

Superman possesses a variety of visions much superior to that of humans, and all for different purposes, be it damaging a foe or using a form of sensory beyond human. These types of visions include:

Heat Vision: Superman’s heat vision is one of his most famous and powerful abilities. Effectively, he can shoot concentrated lasers of heat out of his eyes, generating heat more intense then the sun. He’s shown great precision in how he can alter the heat vision; the lower the temperature is, the less visible it is. The hotter it is, the more blinding it can appear. He’s also shown control in how he fires it, whether as a narrow beam or a wide area-of-effect attack, or even just shooting straight behind him.

He can also control the heat vision in size and pitch for more practical uses, such as surgical procedures or bypassing durability. It can also be used to hurt intangible beings, vaporize enemies, or even ionize the air around an enemy. It’s powerful enough to beam clash with absolute zero, Martian Manhunter’s martian vision, and the heat vision of Eradicator, which has the power of a sun’s core. And power-wise, it’s harmed some of DC’s heaviest hitters such as Captain Atom, Shazam, Despero, and even other Kryptonians such as Power Girl.

X-Ray Vision: The ability to see through any solid object… except lead (bruh). And due to his x-ray vision being unlike the x-rays of Earth, he does not have to worry about affecting anyone with radiation. The range of his x-ray is so powerful, he can see through things down to a person’s immune system, or all the way out to the entire planet of Earth. Another usage of this ability is detecting things within the body, such as detecting stress points or internal damage. One greater feat Superman can do with his superhuman vision is that he can see the soul of any lifeform. That and his 4-D vision, which allows him to see fourth dimensional perspective. Superman can even see emotion. 

Using his x-ray vision, Superman can create electromagnetic pulses which can destroy any technology he uses it against, as well as use his x-ray vision to create a field of radiation which could act as a force field against the energies of a sentient universe with power over the ultraviolet segment of the emotional electromagnetic spectrum, Umbrax. Superman could contain Swamp Thing’s astral form using the magnetic field generated with his x-ray vision, too.

Superman can even see the future! This is consistent with the fact that x-ray vision allows one to travel object’s tachyonic paths through time, allowing a Kryptonian to theoretically see the entire timeline of one object, and when combined with time travel, allows them to perfectly follow things through time.

Telescopic Vision: Superman can use his vision to see something at far greater distances than the human eye can see, with much superior perception as well. For example, Superman was able to see fires in Kansas all the way from Washington D.C. More impressively, he can watch events from the unlikeliest of places, such as underwater, the moon, and the further reaches of outer space. His vision is so great, Superman can see a scar on the moon that stretches for a million miles as well as the edge of the universe.

Microscopic Vision: Likewise, Superman can also alter his vision to view extremely small objects and images down to the molecular level. He can scan objects and people down to the molecular level, being able to see molecule chains and the compounds that make them. Not only that, Superman can view things down further to the subatomic level, like being able to watch photons collide. He can see the individual strands of a person’s DNA and use that knowledge to identify people. Not only can Superman see a human's genetic marker just from their blood, but he can also see the genetic makeup of alien races like the New Gods.

Electromagnetic Spectrum Vision: Superman can see very much into most of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing him to identify radio and television signals and other broadcast/transmitted frequencies. As a result, he can trace cell-phone signals, frequency links, and UV fluctuations among other things. Because of this, Superman can avoid detection from methods such as radar and satellite monitoring. Interestingly enough, he can also see through invisibility like with Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, view sine waves, and feel imbalances between magnetic waves. Lastly, Superman can use this ability to see the aura living beings produce, such as the heat signature of their footprints and the energy patterns of a meta human.

Super Hearing

Superman can hear any sound at any pitch or volume, allowing him to pick up any noise from across the globe, such as heartbeats, blood in veins, radio signals, wi-fi signals, footsteps on asphalt, etc. One example is that he was able to hear an alarm that lasted a millisecond. More impressively, Superman can hear changes in wavelengths, letting him know when a person has been mind controlled. His super hearing is so precise, he can hear molecules bonding as well as hear a person’s heartbeat in a crowd of 11 million people.

Superman can hear everything in Metropolis at once, allowing him to hear the change in the average pulse rate of the city. He can even hear people fall asleep across the U.S. and listen in to a delta brainwave from a great distance. Speaking of which, Superman can hear news reports from all over the world while underwater, meaning he’s listening to multiple languages all at once. He achieved the same feat, but while he was near the moon instead. In fact, Superman was able to hear someone on Earth shouting his name while he was flying near Saturn.

With enough skill and concentration, he can also block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source or frequency. As a result, it would be futile to ambush him since he would be able to sense it coming. In fact, he can dodge an attack just by hearing a change of the air’s movement. This amount of control has allowed him to attune his hearing to a specific person’s voice to save them from trouble. Having to search for a specific sound with his hearing is described as panning for gold.

Super Smell

Lastly, Superman’s sense of smell is also at superhuman levels. He can smell brownies being made specifically in North Dakota all the way from the Justice League’s Watchtower satellite. Superman can tell when enemies are a hard light projection instead of being the real deal just by their lack of scent. He can tell a volcanic eruption was taking place just by smelling sulfur discharging in the ozone layer. Lastly, Superman can smell a person’s tears.

Non-Physical Interaction

In the past, Superman has been shown interacting with non physical entities like holograms (as seen above) and even to things like ghosts and other non corporeal beings like the Phantom Stranger. He has been able to use his powers to freeze astral projections and ghosts. He was able to use his telekinetic bio-electricity to contain Swamp Thing’s astral form even as this astral form exists as fractal geometries and pure information. Superman can even see people’s souls, and could absorb the souls of those within the Phantom Zone in order to gain enough power to beat the Eradicator.

Super-Breath 

By exhaling air from his lungs, Superman can generate hurricane force winds strong enough to the point where he can blow a being made of smoke into outer space. He can speak at hypersonic frequencies and duplicate certain other sonic frequencies. Superman can reverse the process of his super breath by pulling large volumes of air or vapor into his lungs, such as inhaling fire and smoke as well as a lethal amount of Joker’s laughing gas.

Astral Projection

Kryptonians in the Phantom Zone, despite lacking a body due to being trapped in such a void, are nonetheless able to telepathically project their spirit in a form of Astral Projection in order to interact with the waking world, with Clark being no different. As a teenager, despite being stuck in the Phantom Zone, he was able to project a telepathic projection of himself into the physical world, which could affect technology through the electrical energy of his brain-waves, allowing him to control his Superman robots as well as Typewriters.

It is likely that if Superman were ever stuck in a situation where he could not escape physically, he could do a similar trick in order to gain help from his familiars. Additionally, using Torquasm Rao, he was able to manifest a telepathic projection of himself in order to fight with the Eradicator, and using the same technique, Clark was able to teach Lois how to project her spirit across the universe through the absorption of the non-local energy of the cosmos into her body.

Freeze Breath 

Superman can also freeze his breath to chill a target or freeze them solid. He’s shown the ability to use his freeze breath as a counter measurement to heat and fire, such as when he heated the core of an Imperiex Probe’s armor to break it down, which are pure forms of energy contained within a colossal suit of armor. He can extend the range of his freeze breath to an entire planet’s surface. His freeze breath has overpowered numerous DC heavy hitters, such as Bizarro, Green Lantern John Stewart, a cannibal planet by giving it a brain freeze with his freeze breath, Darkseid, Wonder Woman (shown above), can affect ghosts, and was even cold enough to freeze and shatter the astral form of Zatanna… damn.

Super Flare

Often used as a last resort power, Superman can use the solar energy stored in his body/cells into an all out area-of-effect attack, releasing a gigantic burst of explosive force and energy. He cannot use it more than once at a time however, as it leaves him severely drained of his Kryptonian abilities as the drawback. In earlier uses, Clark would lose his powers and be rendered vulnerable for up to 24 hours, but the Justice League have lent their hand in helping Clark in reducing this timeframe, by using the super flare in more controlled environments and in smaller bursts. As of late, he’s been able to control his super flares so well, his powers remain intact.

Supernatural Willpower

The spirit and will of Superman is perhaps one of the Man of Steel’s most well defined attributes. Through well-raised optimism and no desire to give up, Superman’s feats of willpower have defined who he is for time and generations. He not only has the willpower to break through his own limitations and achieve the impossible, but also impose his own barriers on himself, make sure his power doesn’t cause tectonic plates to shift with a mere flex, or harm innocents in any way. But when faced with a seemingly impossible task or powerful foe, those limitations are abandoned to find a way. Some of his most well-defined feats of willpower can include:

- His willpower has been described as infinite (image above).

- Undid the reality warping effects of Emperor Joker through his ‘manifest faith and will’

- Reversed the magic of Etrigan the demon with his willpower and conviction

- Was stated by Hal Jordan Spectre to have the strongest willpower in creation

- His will is stated to be stronger then his own muscles

- Was unaffected by a transference of Batman’s experience of an eternity of torture (due to it permanently breaking Bruce) after the events Emperor Joker

- Superman was a successor to the Green Lantern Abin Sur due to his willpower but it only went to Hal Jordan due to Clark not being from Earth

- Overpowered Green Lantern Guy Gardner’s willpower with his own, making his Green Lantern ring his own. By way of reference, Guy Gardner’s willpower is so strong, he has overpowered the influence of a Yellow Lantern ring, and withstood a neurasthenic antimatter antibody that can graft onto the fabric of space, and attack the sentient nervous system to cause physical, mental, and emotional damage

- Lends his willpower to Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner to charge their rings

- Powered the rings of four Green Lanterns (including Hal Jordan) by 20%

- Stated to have the strongest willpower on Earth

Vibration Manipulation

Thanks to his super speed, Superman can vibrate his molecular structure to achieve various effects. One common use he has with this ability is vibrating his molecules to phase through enemy attacks. Superman as a teenager could phase through objects through vibrating his molecules through them. However, he can also use this ability for offensive purposes such as destroying someone from the inside out. Aside from those, Superman also used his vibration manipulation for more wilder effects.

For instance, he can render himself invisible by vibrating at a rate of oscillation. Most impressively, Superman saved the omniverse by vibrating the ghost of a dead parallel Earth from his reality. Superman was even able to erase Darkseid’s soul from existence, which was infecting the entirety of reality itself, through vibrating his vocal cords to cancel out the frequency at which Darkseid’s godhead was vibrating. He could also whistle at a certain vibrational frequency to make people paralyzed.

Space-Time Manipulation

Using his superspeed, Superman can manipulate space-time, granting him the ability to time travel. He can travel into the future by flying at superspeed clockwise with the Earth’s rotation. Superman can also send the people around him into different time periods simply by spinning at superspeed. Superman can seal cracks in space using his heat-vision and even plug holes in space-time using his own static electricity. His flight pierces space-time and creates micro-wormholes which allow him to halve distances in planck time.

Superman can even teleport billions of light years through space warp in order to not waste a nanosecond, and is able to open up boomtubes to the source wall through simply flying. Superman could also tear holes in the continuum of space-time to reach Lex Luthor after being teleported to a star system with a red sun, saying that space-time as a concept does not concern him.

Superman is a nexus being on a nexus planet whose pure force of wills is able to change the events of time and fate itself. The timeline itself warps around Superman and all versions of every possible universe exists only to preserve a version of Superman. 

Matter Manipulation

Superman has been shown manipulating matter in very odd ways, such as crushing a piece of coal into a perfectly cut diamond… somehow. His heat vision also has shown degrees of manipulating matter, such as replacing the effects of the Sun or causing molecules to become agitated, thereby damaging their molecular structure. Superman, using his heat-vision, was even able to excite the quantum field to create virtual particle pairs of antimatter and matter in order to escape the functional equivalent of a Black Hole’s event horizon.

In order to teach a boy that miracles actually existed, Superman was capable of using his speed to change the wavelengths of the atoms within materials, making it so that the streets were gold and the moon was green. Also, the traditional ‘turn coal into diamond’ trick was even reversed one time, with Superman being able to rub diamond in order to turn it back to coal, which would require the reversal of the laws of thermodynamics. 

Telekinesis 

As seen above, Superman, for some reason, has the ability to bastardize the sport of baseball and any conception of fair play by moving objects with his mind. Dick move, Supes. Jor-El explains that Kryptonians have their abilities, including telekinesis, from solar energy, with Superman utilizing his Kryptonian martial arts even being able to put up a telekinetic barrier in order to stop physical attacks. 

Superman’s bio-electric aura was translated into a form of tactile telekinesis for Superboy, whose abilities allow him to manipulate any object with simply his mind. Superman’s ability to lift heavy-objects corresponds more to the force of will he has with his telekinetic aura rather than actual strength from his muscles, which corresponds to his ability to fly, too. 

Telepathy

Because Superman needs to have every single superpower ever thought of and more, he’s also a proficient telepath. Such an ability can be broken down into multiple sections, including hypnosis, illusions, psychokinesis in general, etc. As Jor-El explains, Kryptonian abilities are inherently psionic in nature, generated from the rays of the sun. Superman’s brain is bursting with psionic energy to the point where even he is unaware of the full amount of psychic energy he produces, being compared to the light of a star to telepaths who can see psychic energy. Superman can telepathically mind control other individuals if he is restrained physically, and has the ability to hypnotize people, mesmerizing them with a variety of effects. 

To use his hypnosis, the Man of Steel shoots beams from his eyes at his intended targets. Thanks to the Kryptonian properties of his glasses, he can automatically project his subconscious desire of having his Clark Kent persona be seen as a weaker man compared to Superman. He can also affect himself with his super hypnotism, meaning that Superman’s telepathy is more layered than any of his resistances (see Superman’s resistances section, in particular the section on Telepathy, to see just how impressive this really is).

Superman was even able to hypnotize Batman into thinking that a demon that was possessing him was actually the spirit of Joe Chill (the thug who murdered his parents), so that he could gather enough willpower to fight against it. Superman can even erase your memories by just looking at you and whispering the hypnotic suggestion, and can erase your memory by kissing you. 

However, this is just scratching the surface of Superman’s mental abilities. Using Torquasm Rao and Vo, Superman could create psychic-based universes to fight against Dominus, a being whose reality warping abilities allowed him to make his, and his enemy’s, thoughts into reality. Dominus’ mental abilities were so vast in comparison that he could warp the experience of all minds in an infinite multiverse, yet Superman could defeat him with his own mental abilities.

Soul Manipulation

If battling a spooky ghost and his own raw power will not suffice, the heat of Superman’s heat vision can become hot enough to burn spirits, as seen above. Superman was even able to shatter Darkseid’s soul through the vibrations of his vocal cords. Superman was able to shatter Dominus’ spiritual body, which was composed of all the souls of those he had previously killed.

Superman can even absorb the souls of those around him in order to gain more power. Finally, Superman could destroy the Phantom Zone, which exists as the Oversoul’s own ability of abstract thought, the interface between this abstract intelligence and the main universe, which contains the spirits and souls of those lost. 

4th Wall Awareness 

Yep, of course Superman knows about us. He’s been winking at us specifically for years, and he knows we exist… so have fun sleeping tonight with that bombshell. Ever since the silver age, he has been aware of the reader’s presence and their knowledge of the events that only he was aware of. This is not even an old thing either, as he has done it recently, many times over. To get even more meta than this, Superman has even lifted the comic book panel with other characters in it! He has even literally broken the fourth wall (as in, a wall that represented the viewer’s point of view), and crossed it to traverse comic book eras. 

“Goku, you can't fight the G1 team. They have no powers, stop!”

Resistances 

Electricity: As shown above, unaffected by lightning. Could tank millions of volts of electricity and was subsequently unaffected.

Extreme Temperatures: Was unaffected by the Kryptonian goddess Cythonna instantly converting energy to matter in freezing him solid. Using his solar energy (through his heat vision), was able to counteract Captain Cold’s absolute zero field. Was even able to break out of ice which froze time itself around him. Survived the Heat Death of the universe during the Black Hole era after all stars had died out within the entirety of the cosmos. Survived diving into the core of a red star in order to defeat Superboy Prime with Kal-L. Survived the Big Bang, which reached a temperature of 1032 Kelvin.

Matter Manipulation: Was unaffected by Doomsday’s presence, despite the fact that Doomsday’s aura could passively decohere the molecular structures of things around him. Was able to tank multiple blasts from an extraterrestrial fire which could transmute the objects it touched into the same type of fire. Withstood the effects of a particular type of ice which could turn other beings and objects it touched into the same specific type of ice. Withstood several attempts to magically transmute his body into salt, reversed through pure will-power a magical attempt to transmute him into a demon, withstood a vortex which could transmute matter into energy, tanked alien technology which would disrupt molecular structures, tanked a radiation storm which could transmute and change every atom touched by it.

Spatial Manipulation: Was able to punch his way out of an energy field designed by Lex Luthor which could reduce his spatial dimensionality into pure flatness. Was able to survive the entire space-time of the universe collapsing in on itself and was able to break through the barriers of space and time in order to return to the present. Was able to survive within Darkseid’s singularity, which was due to the fact that his true form was pulling all space-time continuums into himself, survived Emperor Joker pulling all space-times into a singular point of infinite gravity.

Time Manipulation: Has been bounced around so many times throughout the timeline that he has become immune to chronal distortions in general, which includes resistances to:

- Time Dilation (has counteracted a temporal modulating field which could slow down time around him, was unaffected by Hal Jordan’s ring dilating time into an instant suspended between the eternities of the past and future)

- Time Stop (broke out of full chrono-suspension which froze time around him completely)

- Time Loops & Rewinding (overcame Vandal Savage’s weaponization of Hypertime, which trapped Superman into an endless fabric of yesterdays—a loop that never ends—a loop that never crossed Vandal’s own individual timeline so that he might achieve victory in the present. Clark overcame this due to the fact that in every possible timeline, he succeeded in getting home to his family.)

- Time Acceleration (Was able to resist against and eventually bypass the barriers of space and time after the conceptual embodiment of Death sped up the universe’s timeline to its eventual destruction and entropization.)

- Temporal Paradoxes & Causality Manipulation (no matter how many times Dr. Manhattan changed the timeline around Superman, Superman’s existence would be maintained, with the Metaverse changing around him in order to preserve his existence, resisted the attacks of Vyndktvx despite the fact that he was simultaneously attacking Superman at every point of his timeline at once, could not be erased from the timeline or have his timeline edited at all by the Time Trapper’s attempts (in order to defeat the Legion, influenced by Superman), even as the Time Trapper is the embodiment of a sentient parallel rogue timeline whose capabilities include the ability to warp all possible timelines to facilitate whatever event he wants to occur.)

Empathy Manipulation: Resisted a magical crystal’s capabilities of manifesting someone’s primal fear, resisted the Hollow Men draining him of the very emotion within his soul, including his hope.

Reality Manipulation: Resisted Mxyzptlk’s magic getting rid of reality itself as well as his attempts to warp Superman away from reality, resisted Dominus’ attempts to warp his reality using his own thoughts and desires with Beta Waves, and was even able to reflect that ability with Alpha Waves.

Plot Manipulation: Resisted Retconn corp’s attempt to edit his narrative during the events of Milk Wars, was the only story in the DCU to survive Mandrakk, the end of all stories, from consuming his narrative, resisted Mxyzptlk’s attempts to erase him from reality, even as Mxyzptlk’s erasure has erased the very comic book art, and even the pencil from the artist himself.

Existence Erasure: On multiple occasions, Clark has withstood Darkseid’s Omega Beams; concentrated beams renowned for their “total wipeout”, erasing not only the target from existence but all traces of their existence, including the memory of them, with no chance of rebirth or redemption. Mister Mxyzptlk has also failed to erase Superman from all of reality and memory. Clark has even defied Aethyr's attempt to "erase'' him and absorb the spiritual essence that defines his being, preventing his identity from fading away. Dominus was unable to “uncreate him”.

Despite numerous attempts, Time Trapper has also been unsuccessful in erasing Superman and his impact on the timeline from the annals of history. Though he was being erased by the Overvoid into ‘less than a thought’, the same plane that can erase the Spectre, he heard Lois’ voice and was restored. His “story” was the only story left after Mandrakk, the personification of “isn’t”, ate and erased all stories in the DCU. Such narrative erasure would be layered, since it would include beings who have survived narrative erasure before like Superboy Prime, who was able to come back from being erased from the art and the story itself.

Illusions: Could use Torquasm Rao and Vo in order to see past and block illusions, saw through Dominus’ attempts to trick him through illusions, shattered through Neron’s infinite collection of illusions upon being aware of his love for Lois. Broke free of Brainiac’s illusions.

Telepathy: Resisted a telepathic assault from the Martian Manhunter when it downed most of the Justice League, resisted an extraterrestrial force’s telepathy, which was able to affect Green Lanterns’ Kilowog and Hal Jordan, resisted a mental intrusion from Brainiac, who was able to psychically incapacitate a bunch of New Gods at once. Just looking into his psyche caused the Martian Manhunter to fall to his knees while grasping his skull in pain, most impressively, Superman’s mind was immune to Emperor Joker’s madness infecting creation, despite the fact such a madness is equal to the anti-life equation, and was able to infect the mind of the Spectre while possessed by Hal Jordan.

Poisons: Due to his Kryptonian immune system, is immune to basically every poison, to the point where he could only get drunk after he had been depowered. Has also absorbed an entire room full of Joker’s lethal laughing toxin and was subsequently unaffected.

Extrasensory perception: Could consciously make it so that his mind was hidden from Martian Manhunter’s sensing.

Biological Agents: His immune system could resist pathogenic mutagens so potent that they could bypass even the Flash’s phasing. 

Anti-Matter: Shrugged off a point-blank blast of anti-matter from the Anti-Monitor during the events of Darkseid War. Tanked a hit from a position generator, with positions being the antimatter equivalent of electrons. Survived Composite Superman turning half of his body into antimatter while retaining the other half as positive matter.

Absorption: Superman resisted the Hollow Men taking away his powers, emotions, color, energy, life-force, willpower, dreams, and imagination. Survived the absorption powers of Parasite. 

Power Nullification: Immune to the abilities of Psi-Phon, who can analyze the brain of superhumans to find the area that controls their powers, shutting them off. Resisted the Hollow Men taking away his powers, emotions, color, energy, life-force, willpower, dreams, and imagination.

Sealing: Through his strength and willpower, could break free of the Source and escape the Source Wall, a feat Highfather believed to be impossible. Superman could also break free of a Hypertime trap devised by Vandal Savage which trapped him within his own history, and, through the power of love, escaped Neron’s false realities and illusions, even after they reduced him to an immaterial thought.

Evolution Manipulation: Bizarro has many instances of turning people Bizarro upon touch, and Superman has taken this ability head-on. Resisted Gorilla Grodd’s attempt to devolve him via the Morphogenetic Field. Disciple devolved the whole Justice League, but failed to devolve Superman.

Conceptual Manipulation: Has resisted the very concept of his death attempting to destroy him on conceptual levels, as well as resisting Retconn attempting to change the very concept of his existence as Superman.

Death & Age Manipulation: Could not be killed by death itself despite accelerating the age of the universe, the concept of Death itself says that despite the fact that worlds will dissolve and universes will perish, Superman is the one anomaly out of all creation, being able to turn himself young after Death even turns him into an elderly man.

Soul Manipulation: Resisted the Hollow Men draining his soul & life-force into nothingness, alongside his powers and emotion. Tanked soul-targeting attacks from Etrigan. Has survived Silver Banshee’s scream, which can disrupt the esthetic fibers of souls themselves.

Mathematics Manipulation: Superman can move in and beyond the Monitor Sphere, which is beyond mathematics. Superman has also resisted having his  mathematical formula representing his very being as an archetype edited by Retconn.

Information Analysis: Lex Luthor was incapable of analyzing Superman despite his ‘anti-Superman’ technology, claiming he is difficult to control and unpredictable. For reference, Lex Luthor has technology capable of analyzing things on a molecular scale to see if they're extraterrestrial, analyzing possible outcomes in situations, an analyzing changes in the pattern of the fabric of the universe, and analyzing extra-dimensional and inter-dimensional facilitations.

Paralysis Inducement: Resisted Kalibak's Nerve Beam, which activates all its target's pain receptors. 

Physics & Law Manipulation: Can exist in Hyperspace, which exists beyond space and time itself, lacking physical laws and distorting reality itself.  Was unaffected by Mxyzptlk getting rid of reality, physics, and gravity in his own realm.

Memory Manipulation: Superman has shown he has mental defenses in his mind via barriers. He’s resisted Dominus’ attempts to influence him into killing despite not wanting to, resisted the mind control of Hector Hammond despite it affecting heroes such as the Justice League, Firestorm, John Stewart, etc. He’s also resisted the mind control of notorious Justice League enemy Despero, who has mind-controlled over half the Justice League before.

Battlefield Removal: Was able to return to the present through transcending creation and bypassing the barriers of space and time once dislocated into the future where all life and stars had died out in the universe, and was able to escape weaponize Hypertime after being trapped there by Vandal Savage. Was able to even escape the primal void preceding all universes and dreams after being dumped there by Neron and left to die.

Possession: Superman has resisted possession attempts from various magical beings such as Neron and Eclipso, the latter of which can possess Zatanna, Etrigan, and the Spectre. 

Electromagnetic Manipulation: Superman was barely halted by Repulse manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum to take away his sight and yellow sun radiation. He was later completely unphased when Doctor Polaris tried it on him.

Radiation: Shrugged off radiation blasts from Atomic Skull, which can vaporize a target. Survived being in the center of a radiation storm caused by Mister Mxypltzk.

Sleep Manipulation: Resisted Starro the Conqueror’s sleep inducing abilities, which put almost everyone in North America to sleep.

Vibration Manipulation: Superman tanked the vibro-cannon, which could make every molecule in his body shudder via vibrations. Resisted having his molecules phased through by Barry Allen’s vibrations due to their high density.

Gravity Manipulation: Superman has survived in black holes almost routinely, even ones that can become gravitational anomalies caused by Brainiac. Can operate in a realm without gravity itself.

Magic: Despite having no specific physiological response against magic, Superman has consistently shown to have resistances against magical attacks. With just his willpower alone, Superman was able to resist a demonic spell meant to overpower him and make him feel powerless. However, that’s not all. Superman was able to power through Disciple’s magic attack that de-evolves a person, which had affected other Justice League members Martian Manhunter, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, and Wonder Woman. Thanks to his Kryptonian heritage, Superman was also able to break free from a magic gemstone that sealed away his soul. He has also endured magic-based attacks from several magic users from Tullus the Damned to Felix Faust to Circe.

Skill

All those powers wouldn’t be much good without the skill to match. Fortunately for the planet, both heroes have plenty of training and martial artistry to face any challenge, both physical and mental.

Goku

Experience

Goku has been actively fighting foes ever since he was a kid, from grabbing man sized fish in the rivers of Mount Paozu, to battling time obliterating demon gods. In his over fifty years of fighting, he has trained under Roshi, Korrin, Kami, King Kai, and Whis, honing his endurance, agility, strategy, energy control, and instinct to incredible levels. He has battled foes who have been fighting from thousands to millions of years, and has dealt with a variety of powers and fighting styles. Magic, time manipulation, regeneration, energy manipulation, soul powers, elemental control, illusions, reality warping, Goku has seen it all and come out on top without issue numerous times.

Martial Arts

Goku has been practicing and enhancing his martial arts skill since the day he was born. His primary style is the Turtle Hermit martial arts style taught to him by Roshi, which he has stuck with ever since it was first taught to him. The Turtle Hermit style focuses on endurance and precision, conserving energy only for when needed rather than wasting it on lesser attacks. His martial arts talent has competed with Hit’s quick kill assassin like style which he has honed for a thousand years, and Goku himself is as good at the style as Roshi himself, who has practiced it for hundreds. Most notably, Goku directly competed with his Grandpa Gohan when Goku was a kid, which as impressive as Gohan has been stated to be a master of all martial arts disciplines known on Earth.

Techniques

Goku knows a variety of special hand to hand combat techniques that he can utilize in battle, ranging from practical to unorthodox.

Rock, Scissors 'N' Paper: Goku shouts "Jan Ken" followed by either "Gu", "Chyoki" or "Pa". Followed by either a punch, a poke to the eyes, or an open palm strike respectively.

Super God Fist: Goku charges Ki in his hand and delivers a powerful punch. 

Double Axe Handle: Goku cups his hands together and then slams them into his opponent.

Pressure Point Attacks: An attack that targets specific weak points in an opponent. By striking these specific points, one can stun, paralyze or even kill an opponent.

Headshot: A deceptively simple attack where Goku flicks his opponents forehead. Which, given his immense strength, is enough to send most people flying.

Super God Shock Flash: A powerful punch to the gut that can launch an opponent away with a powerful shockwave (not the universe shaking kind).

Grudgeless Strike: Goku moves around at a rapid speed before launching himself at an opponent and delivering a powerful punch to the face.

Godly Strike: A powerful upside down strike.

Dragon Throw: Goku grabs one of his opponents limbs and spins them around before throwing them away.

Full-Nelson: Goku grabs his opponent from behind, restricting their movement and allowing others to attack.

Dragon Flash Fist: Goku charges forward and delivers an overhead punch. He can also perform a downward kick called Dragon Flash Kick.

Flurry Kick: Goku propels himself up with a flurry of kicks.

Divine Void Strike: Goku charges forward and strikes an opponent with his elbow.

Back Throw: Moves forward to grab the opponent and throws them behind himself.

Dragon Storm: Performs a combination attack then teleports behind the opponent and performs a weaker variant of the Dragon Flash Fist.

Dragon Flurry Fist: Goku performs a charged punch and follows up with a shockwave blast.

Ultra Instinct:

Secret Sensation: A counterattack where Goku evades an incoming attack before sliding behind the opponent and following up with his own attacks.

Unrestrained Will: A recovery attack where Goku appears in front of the opponent and fires a charged punch.

Godly Display: Goku vanishes and moves forward at unfathomable speed, appearing behind the opponent and attacking them with invisible blows.

Autonomous Fist: Goku moves forward and unleashes a flurry of blows.

Godly Strike: Leaps forward and attacks the opponent, sending them flying away.

Embodied Light: Goku vanishes and charges at the opponent, striking them with unseen shockwaves.

Unencumbered Mind: Goku leaps around his opponent before following up with either Godly Strike, Transcendence, Embodied Light, or Kamehameha.

Guiding Impulse: A counterattack where Goku throws the opponent behind himself, teleports in front of them and unleashes a barrage of attacks.

Intelligence and Strategy

While his book and street smarts are rather lacking, Goku’s intelligence in battle is absolutely remarkable. Goku is able to instantly formulate plans to counter numerous foes, getting past hurdles raw strength could never overcome. He has used feints, misdirection, and sneak attacks to get the upper hand numerous times. One example would be when he could not get an opening on Jiren due to his superior stats, so he utilized landmines instead to surprise him.

In that same fight, he threw Destructo Discs that seemed to have been broken apart by Jiren, only for them to come back and cut the ground Jiren was standing on, almost eliminating him from the Tournament of Power. Said tournament has other good showings as well, such as Goku throwing rocks instead of beams to deal with a reflector, him firing a tracking Ki blast to keep Kale busy while he beat up Caulifla, and him misleading Universe 9 warriors into hitting each other to throw off their teamwork.

Goku is not only good at making offensive moves in battle, but also defensive ones. He is a master of reading opponent’s movements, such as when he was able to predict the attack patterns of four Tiens at once. He was also able to predict Hit’s invisible, undetectable, and intangible energy attacks, blocking them based only on where he thought the attacks would be.

Goku’s most notable case of prediction would be when he predicted Hit’s attacks during the Universe 6 Tournament. In that fight, Hit was landing his attacks via skipping time for 0.1 seconds, basically getting free hits due to the enemy being a statue. Despite this, Goku was able to predict where Hit would aim his attacks and block accordingly, despite the fact he should have been stuck as a statue from Hit’s perspective. Even if Goku were to be hit, he also knows how to slightly shift his vitals to avoid dangerous pressure point attacks.

Adaptability

Calling Goku a quick learner would be a massive disservice. Goku is capable of mastering new moves and learning new fighting styles in seconds after just seeing a move once. He was able to use the Kamehameha after seeing Roshi use it once, despite the fact that it took Roshi fifty years to be able to perform the technique.

He also learned how to use Beerus’ Hakai so he could destroy Zamasu also after only seeing it once, which is even more absurd considering the potency of Hakai. Goku’s greatest feat in terms of adaptability though would be during the Tournament of Power. Through his technique, ingenuity, and constant battles, Goku was able to achieve the true white haired form of Ultra Instinct after three fights with the inferior version, each fight lasting less than a minute.

The reason this is so absurd is that, in comparison, Gods over seventy million years old who have spent most of their godhood trying to learn Ultra Instinct have not even come close to learning how to perform the lesser variants, let alone put said variants into practice.

Superman

Experience

Superman has been saving the world ever since he was a child, and has grown more competent in his abilities to defend humanity as he has grown older. Superman has fought in Valhalla with Thor and Wonder Woman for 1000 years, and liberated Mongul’s slave planet War World as a depowered gladiator, showing he has long periods of experience both with and without his powers.

Additionally, Superman has fought and defeated opponents from beyond time and space itself, concepts with an immeasurable experience of fighting amongst themselves as gods. An example being Darkseid, the embodiment of evil and tyranny itself, whose conflicts against New Genesis predate the universe itself. Despite experience spanning billions of years, he has been constantly bested by Superman in combat. He has also beaten Brainiac, whose brain contains the history and experiences of entire cultures, planets, and galaxies.

In actuality though, Superman has spent an immeasurable number of years bouncing between timelines and heat deaths due to the general weirdness of DC’s state of canonicity when it comes to the state of the current timeline. Nonetheless, the fact that Superman has been defending the world for so long has allowed him to mature to the best of his ability as a warrior and a tactician, generalizing his capabilities to a level of genius that’s almost unparalleled.

Given Superman’s extremely long literary history, he has effectively encountered everything under the sun when it comes to abilities. Body swapping, mind manipulation, reality warping, magic, super-karate, mathematics manipulation; you name it, he’s beaten it. 

Intelligence and Strategy

As a result of his brain’s processing speed far exceeding a human’s at a precise manner, Superman possesses genius-level intelligence and a thought process capable of solving problems by expressing them and their solutions in ways that a computer could also execute. Because of this, Superman can expertly analyze information after reading them from machines. In fact, just by carefully using his heat vision, Superman can reprogram machines, such as when he used his heat vision to reprogram one of Brainiac’s force field projectors emit a counter frequency for a signal scrambling languages.

Speaking of languages, Superman knows many languages native to Earth, including Serbian, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish. Superman’s brain can instantly comprehend and decode new languages he encounters, even ones from different species. He also knows Kryptonese, the language native to his homeworld Krypton, and can learn other alien languages in five minutes just by using his X-Ray vision.

However, Superman’s intelligence continues to be incredibly impressive. For instance, he created a giant chess robot that not only thinks and plays at the speed of lightning but can also plan millions of moves at once. Despite this, Superman was still able to beat the robot. With a single glance, he was able to find a flaw in a villain’s complex math equation. To stop a hurricane, he combined his powers with “super science”. Additionally, Superman was able to create a machine that uses modulated radio frequency waves to transfer some of his powers into someone else’s costume.

What further assists Superman’s intelligence is his superhuman memory. In fact, his memory has such a perfect recall, he can read full texts of various subjects found in microdots he planted within the periods of a novel and commit them to memory. Within just a few seconds, Superman was able to memorize every nut, bolt, and circuit of the Miracle Machine. Superman even has a perfectly photographic memory. Finally, it’s Superman’s perfect memory that allowed him to defeat Darkseid in Final Crisis by destroying his Godhead.

Superman has even sat on the Mobius chair and was unaffected by its effects, despite the fact that if one sits on it, it overloads the user’s brain with so much information that they are effectively trapped to the chair indefinitely, with one case being Batman himself. Superman has beaten Lex Luthor in chess and has constantly out-smarted him. In fact, he was in Smallville a research partner with Lex with regard to building machines, and has even saved Lex once he had built his machine wrong so it could malfunction.

Lex Luthor comparatively is the smartest man in the world, whose intelligence once implanted into the Joker was even capable of making him sane. Superman’s brain was even able to comprehend all data in the entire universe, despite the fact that computers orders of magnitude more complex than others which could build entire stars failed at the task. Once Bizarro, a failed clone of Clark, had unlocked the true potential of his brain, no mystery in the Omniverse could be hidden from him. 

Not only is Superman extremely intelligent, but he’s also a great strategist. Throughout his many fights, Superman has used his intelligence to create strategies in order to defeat his enemies (such as consistently outsmarting the 5th dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk) or solve dangerous situations, which includes having to be resourceful and make deductions without his superpowers or building an impromptu weapon to destroy a machine he couldn’t harm.

Martial Arts

Superman has learned from the very best the DC universe has to offer, including Batman and Wonder Woman. While body-swapped, Superman was able to (without any powers) defeat Kobra, a master of every martial art in the world. Superman has also defeated Brainiac in many of his encounters, despite the fact that Brainiac has in his brain the aggregated information from millions of individual civilizations within the universe.

He has also defeated alternate universe versions of Batman while under red sunlight in hand-to-hand combat, despite the fact that versions of Batman have mastered every martial art in their individual worlds. Wonder Woman cannot explicitly defeat Clark in combat, even though Diana has defeated many times in battle her brother Ares, who is the embodiment of conflict itself, knowing every strategy, tactic, and martial art from the beginning of time. He has also defeated the Shazam Who Laughs in a fight (alongside an infected Supergirl) even though this Shazam was able to defeat Ares.

As a teenager he even defeated the Karate Kid (no, not that one) in a one-on-one fight. For context, Karate Kid has mastered every form of martial art in the entire Galaxy during the 31st century. Superman knows how to use pressure points against opponents of a similar power level, and was able to defeat Kryptonite Man possessing Batman using pressure points. Superman has trained with the greatest fighters of the universe, including Wally West (in speed training), Dick Grayson, and even Muhammad Ali. 

Superman has had experience wrestling as a teenager, and uses grappling techniques against competent wrestlers like Conduit. Superman was able to learn the Kryptonian arts of Torquasm Vo and Rao in mere moments while it took the most competent Kryptonian warriors years, and without his powers he was still able to take on groups of foes and dodge and deflect bullets, to the point where it made them believe he still had his powers. While powerless, could defeat Zade, a villain who has fought Superman when he still had his powers.

As Superman is above Karate Kid, he should also be above his fellow Legionnaire Brainiac 5, whose brain could contain a portion of the knowledge contained in the Codex Omniversa, which has records on multiple multiverses and their cultures. It is safe to say that Superman’s martial arts prowess is almost unparalleled.

Torquasm Vo and Rao

Torquasm Rao and Vo are two manifestations of one Kryptonian martial art, one concentrating on the mental, the other one through the physical (as shown above). Such a technique was practiced by Ancient Kryptonian warriors, giving them the capacity to fight without being awake and thinking. They would enter into the Theta state, a type of consciousness control which allowed the practicing warrior to hone his mind into the perfect weapon. The adept would enter and maintain a hyper-alert and hyper-calm state of consciousness which would allow for perfect control and supremacy in battle. 

Torquasm Rao allows one to open up the meridians and allows the non-local energies to flow through the body, opening up the hologram of your mind, blasted open by the overflow which brings the universe into itself. Such an experience expands the universe into patterns of light, allowing the music of the spheres to vibrate through every one of the user’s cells. Such an experience trivializes all time into non-existence, as well as removing all individuality and instead dissolving you back into the universe.

Such an art allows one to bring the life-force of the universe into themselves to purity their form and spirit, bringing thanks to the creator of life itself. The Theta state allows Superman to dispel illusions, and use astral projections to fight against others in the psychic and spiritual plane.

Using Torquasm Rao and Vo, Superman fought against and defeated one of his greatest foes, Dominus. Dominus was able to make thoughts and desires real, and uses these abilities to make the thoughts and desires of his enemies into realities to use their own thoughts against them. Superman, in rejection to this, used Beta waves to shut off Dominus’ mind from being able to look into his own in order to use his thoughts to make new realities, and used Alpha waves to deflect the reality warping powers back against Dominus.

Using this ability, Superman was even able to transform into different versions of himself from different points in his own timeline, with such an ability allowing for Superman to create entire psychic-based universes that can influence reality through force of will.  Eventually such powers allowed Superman to defeat Dominus through creating a copy of the Phantom Zone, and trapping him within it for eternity. 

Esoteric/Non-Canon Abilities

If there’s one trait that defines a true long-lasting fictional hero, it’s random abilities that have only been used once with no explanation, or version exclusive stuff that diminishes how many brain cells you have. Especially when dipping into the true breadths of their history and all their media, you’d be hard pressed to find characters with more tricks up their sleeves.

Goku

Hero Switch

A special device created by Xeno Trunks and Leggings. It is a bracelet-like device that essentially acts as a bridge between the real world and the world of the Dragon Ball Heroes video game. It can allow a person to enter the world of the game, and take on the appearance and powers of their avatar. It also works the opposite way, allowing one to access the power of their avatar in the real world.

While not outright stated, it is likely that the Hero Switch is what allows the use of DBH cards in the real world, allowing the user to summon various Dragon Ball characters. It should be noted that despite how other characters fight, Goku’s own nature causes him to rarely use the Hero Switch in terms of building a team. Despite this, we are able to see the different types of teams Goku can bring to the table. It is entirely possible for Goku to summon other versions of himself, including transformations/fusions.

It should also be noted that the Hero Switch allows one to edit or change their own moves, or those of who they summon. This even goes as far as to allow you to transform into other characters entirely.

Card Abilities

In the world of Dragon Ball Heroes, numerous Dragon Ball characters have had abilities depicted through trading card form. These offer numerous different abilities for Goku to use after fulfilling minor conditions. These abilities can grant bonuses such as damage reduction, stamina and ki restoration, status effect removal, damage increases, and more. If you want to see all the cards that reflect Goku’s additional powers and check specific ones, check out this website and search “Goku”.

Key Sword

The Key Sword is a powerful blade created by the Gods designed to counter and seal away the Demon Realm. While Goku has not shown to directly use the Awakened version of this item, he more than likely should be able to use it, considering he has enough abilities and power to do so like Trunks. The Key Sword allows Goku to utilize a numerous amount of abilities:

Darkness Dispersion: The sword is shown to cut through Dark Ki on multiple occasions. Including nullifying dark magic that can mind control or suck the souls out of foes. More info on why this is important later.

Power Nullification: The Key Sword is capable of weakening the power of the enemy. Being pierced by the Key Sword also halves the guard stat of an opponent in the Dragon Ball Heroes game.

Power Sealing: The Key Sword can seal off the enemy’s abilities for a period of time. It’s potent enough to seal off Mechikabura’s super form and even his re-acquired youth.

Key Sword Lock: An ability where the sword sends five spectral copies of itself to bind the opponent and seal their abilities.

Space-Time Travel: The Key Sword is able to travel across space-time by itself in order to reach its wielder.

Phasing: The Key Sword was able to phase through Chronoa to directly attack the Dark Ki inside her being.

Barrier Suppression: The Key Sword can suppress barriers to allow others to bypass them.

Energy Projection: The Key Sword can fire massive lasers from itself.

Power of Light: Given the “Power of Light” by Demigra, the Key Sword is able to forge energy into chains to either seal or bind an opponent. This also allows for grabbing items or others at a long range.

Time Power: Upon awakening, the Key Sword was powered by “Power of Time” by both Chronoa and Tokitoki. As it showed off the power of the Time Labyrinth, it is clear it gained the actual time-based abilities and not just a power amp. Thus, it should have access to all the abilities Time Power has to offer.

Time Freezing: Time Power can freeze the bodies of others with a technique called “Freeze”.

Time Dilation and Acceleration: Time Power can both speed up or slow down time for a given space or target.

Time Rewinding: Fu could use Time Power to rewind all of existence to 0.

Space-Time Portals: Tokitoki has used Time Power to create portals for traveling across space-time. He can even reach locations outside of space-time like the crack of time.

Power Sealing: Tokitoki’s ki was capable of sealing the powers of the Gods of Destruction.

Healing: Chronoa can temporarily “rewind the time” of injuries, essentially delaying their presence on someone. Likewise, Tokitoki can speed up time to fast-forward the healing process.

Time Labyrinth: A move in which the user traps the enemy inside a timeless void called the Time Labyrinth. This sealing is ludicrous, with Chronoa being able to seal an entire universe (the Demon Realm), that is disconnected from the ordinary flow of time and follows different rules of science. Even people who can hop between space-time on the fly are unable to escape the seal. The stronger version used by Trunks when he wielded the Key Sword is called Eternal Time Labyrinth, and was potent enough to seal Mechikabura at the peak of his power, alongside all of history that was contained inside of him.

Power of Darkness: Alongside the other powers used to awaken the Key Sword, it comes equipped with “The Power of Darkness” or demonic energy from Demigra. At first it may be questionable whether or not Goku can use the dark powers the sword should have access to, considering they’ve never used the sword’s Darkness before. However, they have a magnitude of experience fighting against enemies who can use many of the various dark abilities, such as Gravy and Salsa, and in the Dragon Ball Xenoverse games, characters who are randomly given Dark Ki are capable of using various dark techniques without any training or background knowledge.

To add on to this, one of Vegeta’s many transformations, Super Saiyan Blue Berserker, involves the use of Dark Ki, and Vegeta pulled off this control very rapidly. Goku also quickly gained control over the Dark Factor, a stronger version of Dark Ki, when he came into contact with it. Considering this and the Key Sword’s access to other abilities that are capable by the powers bestowed upon it such as the time related ones, Goku should logically be capable of using these various dark powers:

Battlefield Removal: Dark Ki can be used to forcefully teleport people across space-time.

Mind/Morality Manipulation: Dark Ki can be used to control someone’s mind.

Illusion/Perception Manipulation: Dark Ki can create false mental worlds within someone’s mind, making them fight an unreal battle.

Intangibility: Dark Ki can be used to perform a move called Peeler Storm in which the user temporarily becomes intangible as they attack the enemy with razor blade-like energy attacks. 

Poison Manipulation: Dark Ki can be used to perform a move called Bloody Sauce which inflicts the enemy with progressive poison damage.

Physics and Law Manipulation: Dark Ki was used to create the Dark Demon Realm, a universe that operates on different laws of physics. 

Pocket Dimensions: Dark Ki has been used to create pocket dimensions. Said pocket dimensions can contain fake enemies and work on different flows of time.

Transmutation: Dark Ki has been used to transmute powerful beings like Tokitoki into tiny orbs.

Superman

Super-Ventriloquism

Superman has the ability to perfectly mimic another's voice and project it onto something else - Super-Ventriloquism! Not all of Clark's powers have to be that deadly.

Duplication

After losing his powers in 1978’s Superman #125, Superman finds that he can shoot a mini-Superman from the palm of his hand…yeah that’s it. In a possible future, this ability took an interesting turn. As Superman developed as the universe died, he used his powers to support the core of the universe, and duplicated himself into other versions (known as super-sentries) with distinct appearances and abilities from ‘Superman null’ (the prime Superman)  in order to facilitate saving the world without being there. He was eventually able to merge them back into himself after the deed was done, and the last individual in the universe died. 

Shapeshifting

Superman has the ability to perfectly control all the muscles in his body to change the shape and form of his body, or just his face if need be. Uses for it would be to disguise himself, and Clark’s kryptonian physiology combined with his iconic spectacles can even give him a weird hypnotic ability to think that Clark Kent looks nothing like Superman… but I mean, if you can shapeshift into an alien  why would you need to hide your identity… when you can just change your face?

Resurrection & Immortality

Superman is able to resurrect himself off of the concepts of heroism and hope, something that can be seen when the Xandrians used their technology to erase the concept of Heroism; in turn, preventing any of the Justice League of America from ever existing. Despite this erasure of Superman, he was able to come back into existence when two boys began to recall the story of Superman. The Xanadrians fear not just Superman, and not just the drawing of Superman, but the idea of the Man of Steel.

The idea of Superman being brought to life as a story, allowed him to come back, defeat the aliens, and ultimately save the day. Something similar happened when Superman was trapped in a series of false realities by Neron. At the end of the story, Neron took Superman to the void which underpins all dreams and realities, reducing Superman to an “insubstantial spirit” and “vague thought” which was on the cusp of being “erased from the dream of existence”. Despite this, Superman was able to regain his composure and body upon hearing the sound of Lois’s voice, and escape the void into reality to reach her.

Superman has even overcome the conceptual embodiment of his own death, even as this concept was destroying the entire universe around him, accelerating time by billions and billions of years. Superman has been seen by flash mourning the death of earth billions of years into the future as he was outrunning his own conceptual embodiment of death.  After the Death of Superman, Pa Kent died himself and went to heaven, and proclaimed to Clark that the only reason why he was in Heaven was due to the fact that he was raised as a human possessing the concept of mortality. 

Reality Manipulation

In some instances, Superman has used his abilities to manipulate and fix reality. By using the electromagnetic field via rubbing his hands together, Superman can fix tears in reality, and in many cases Superman has used his heat vision to patch it up entirely, or affect it if need be. In the Elseworlds story Superman: The Last God of Krypton, we learn very interesting facts about Superman’s kryptonian lineage. 

The Kryptonian God Cythonna sought out Kal-El on Earth after having found out Krypton is destroyed, and during their fight, when Cythonna realizes he is of the House of El, she enters a fit of rage, as the House of El is the descendant of her greatest enemy, the Kryptonian Sun God Rao. Rao shaped the universe and many concepts from pure chaos, and Kryptonian Gods that descended from him, therefore including Superman, inherited his “spark” and can use his abilities, many of which involve manipulating reality, or creating pocket dimensions with their own laws, physics, and fundamental forces of nature. 

Adaptation

Superman, due to his invulnerability and superhuman nature has shown high amounts of self-sustenance and survivability, capable of existing and fighting in virtually any space, even ones where there is no time or space in the first place. In his fights, Superman has shown many instances of adapting to foes. In the scan above, Superman was able to adapt to Apokoliptian monsters that could adapt to Flash throwing rocks at light-speed. While in the Theta State in the fight against Dominus, Superman claimed he could adapt to anything Dominus threw at him.

Magic

Superman has taken time to learn magic in the form of spells, he himself implied so that he has trained with Zatanna on various types of magic including elemental spells, demonic magic, and a ‘cut anything’ spell. 

Causality Manipulation

Superman has shown in various instances to manipulate the relationship between cause and effect. He rewrote history and timelines with his punches in his fight against the Golden Age Superman, and his willpower is potent enough to change and influence the preordained flow of time itself. 

Higher-Dimensional Manipulation

The ability to manipulate, destroy, or affect greater spatial and temporal dimensions greater than a 3-D space. Superman, alongside the rest of the Justice League momentarily created with their faith an extra-dimensional heaven made of the information gathered of the predominant concepts of every culture in the universe.

Conceptual Manipulation

The ability to manipulate, create, or even destroy abstract concepts. Superman himself embodies many righteous concepts such as hope, and the hope of the people of Earth. One of his more famous instances, though many do not realize, is when Clark canceled out the soul of Darkseid in his true form via counter-vibrations.

Darkseid himself is from the Sphere of Gods, a Platonic, archetypal world (of which, Superman has also affected with his heat vision), and has access to the Anti-Life Equation, which controls the will and destiny of all living beings. Superman's love for Lois Lane binds all of creation together and gives it meaning. 

The “Story of Superman” 

At the end of the day, there exists an ultimate and superordinate principle: good triumphs over evil, wrong over right, hero over the villain.

In DC, this principle is known and believed to be necessary instead of simply a trend. It is just the way the world is, like gravity, or the sky being blue, and the Earth round. The entirety of the multiverse is based on the North Star of hope, with hope being that which triumphs over anti-life: the beast of judgment, the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds, of everything.

The entirety of the multiverse in DC sums up to what is essentially a machine, a rotary phone (yes, really), which when dialed can determine the fate of everything. Once stranded, beyond the multiverse itself, within the cold clutches of the Overvoid, that which is beyond the story itself, the only rescue is to dial for Hope. And in this dialing comes the ultimate expression of this idea, the Story of Superman, of the orphan jettisoned off from a doomed planet. 

Such a concept, of ‘Superman’, exists as the ultimate summation of all positive attributes, the super-aggregate of all ‘good’ concepts versus those which are negative, protectiveness, preservation, beauty, youthfulness, purity, and even existence itself, as opposed to the negative predicates which are their opposites, such as predation, evil, corruption, and non-existence. Upon the supreme intelligence inspecting itself to discover that someone drew on it, the origin of story itself, it responded through the ‘scabbing over’ of the flaw (all story) with divine metals, resulting in the better story, one designed to be unstoppable, indestructible, the story of a child rocketed to Earth from a doomed planet.

As such Superman represents the ultimate suit of armor around the multiverse, a concept generated to be capable of instantly adapting against any threat, designed for a single purpose: to protect all existence against the ultimate enemy. 

That ultimate enemy? The end of all storytelling itself, the destruction of all narratives into being that which ‘isn’t’, instead of that which ‘is’. Superman’s ultimate purpose is through the continuing of the story itself, to make straight that which would end everything, to make sure the world ends in ‘to be continued’ instead of remaining dead and mute. As stated again, Superman is the ‘antibody’ of the multiverse, its premier defense mechanism against that which threatens it and its story, the man of action aimed against that which intends to destroy it, with the entirety of the multiverse built on Superman.

Superman’s narrative as a result is the most ‘pristine’ of all superheroes, descended directly from the concept of superheroes itself, giving itself a mathematical formula impossible to edit, despite the enemy’s ability to hijack, manipulate, alter, and composite fragments of any reality, fictional or otherwise. This concept is so important that even if it were to be erased from the conception of humanity in general, its intuitional necessity, the fact that it is necessary for someone like Superman to exist, would manifest Superman into existence as a result. 

This story explains the ultimate purpose of Superman’s character: the idea that he always wins, no matter the odds. Or in the words of Mr. Mxyzptlk, “What’d I tell ya? Superman always wins.” Or in the words of Morrison themselves, “Superman always saves the day or he's not Superman. It's a self-perpetuating idea.” In this Superman serves as the “internal rule” to homeostatically reset DC comics after being unmade, also explained in the event Doomsday Clock as being the ultimate fact of the multiverse’s growth, every time there is a change in the metaverse (the prime universe), the multiverse grows, to preserve every era of Superman. The  metaverse forms around this one and only son, Kal-El. 

Ultimately this serves as the explanation for why Superman fluctuates as he does, for his power adapts against whatever threat he is facing, and the general conclusion that Superman nonetheless gains enough power to surpass his opponent due to an internal narrative surrounding both characters. Superman’s ultimate purpose is to be that which struggles against evil and nonetheless overcomes it at the end, for everything to end with a happy ending rather than a bad one. That’s why he fights for truth, justice, and freedom, that’s why he's Superman.

Now, what would this mean for a context of ‘who-would-win’? It’s complicated. You probably should not use this to generalize to all characters whatsoever, insofar as Superman would necessarily win against, say, SpongeBob, simply because he always wins and that’s that. It is much more complicated than that. A more concise formulation would be the idea that Superman represents the narrative-essence of DC comics itself, and as such, when you’re fighting Superman, especially at his higher forms, you’re fighting what is essentially the entirety of DC’s narrative made flesh into a singular superhero.

It’s less, ‘you’re fighting someone whose ability automatically subordinates you to him, and therefore he wins’, and more, ‘you’re fighting someone with the entire narrative-essence of a multiverse of 80 years of content and constant exploration, so you’re likely to lose.’ The ultimate expression of Superman is DC comics, and DC comics is Superman. The Story of Superman is the absolute expression of that multiverse, and hence once you're put up against Superman, you’re put up against the multiverse he represents, and that multiverse has a lot of ammunition to throw at you, with regard to a who-would-win debate. 

Of course, this is just an interpretation of the evidence coming from a few select authors of DC. Such as Morrison, Maggin, Johns, Casey, and others. On the other hand, writers that have a much more conservative standing on what these characters would mean would likely disagree, e.g. Byrne, Bendis, Jurgens, Busiek, etc. It’s just an unfortunate fact that Superman is not a consistent character at the end of the day, and so he has inconsistent characterizations when it comes to his place in the multiverse at large, even if they all agree he serves as an inspiration at the end of the day.

Quite a lot of this serves some of these writer’s greater philosophies in life, as seen in Morrison’s book Supergods, in which case these superheroes are larger-than-life ideals that represent ancient mythologies in the modern day, with Superman being its figurehead. At the end of the day, this is all subjective, and anyone is able to take whatever interpretation they take from this evidence, whether higher or lower.

What the fuck?

(For this reason above all, their capacity for good…

I have sent them you, my only son.)

The above image is apparently the true form of Kryptonians in general, as manifested by Jor-El, Superman’s father, after Clark had attempted to investigate UFO sightings in Smallville. Jor-El explains that no pretense can change Kal’s essential nature, the truth of what he is. Such a being has lived inside Kal-El for all his time, with there having been no distance between them, as the father and the son have been one and the same all along. Earth’s image of what ‘Superman’ really is is limited, with Clark’s human mind even not being able to overcome the truth of what he really is, and what Krypton represents.

The universe is merely a hologram projected by the mind, with time not being something that truly exists as fundamental, therefore allowing one to cross the boundaries of space and time effortlessly, even to and from Krypton. The true form of all beings is therefore summed up in these consciousnesses from deeper parts of reality, where even spatial dimensionality is too limited of a concept to encompass them. 

Such beings are both real and non-real simultaneously, with reality being able to be bent into infinite directions and dimensions. The true form of Jor-El is manifested as a “materialized psychism”, projected from the collective unconscious, something neither objective nor subjective, but omnijective.  Upon the realization that Superman even chose to come to Earth before he was born as an act of love, the ethereal being which is Jor-El manifests back into his human form as Clark sees it, rocketing Superman back to Earth from the true form of Krypton, with Superman finally accepting such a being as his true father, Jor-El, and him as his son.

Now what does this mean? No one really knows. Clark is as uncertain about what Superman is as anyone else, but the difference is that he’s finally at peace about his true nature. Superman is a mystery that can never be solved, and at the end, that’s alright with Clark, as it always was meant to be.

Forms

When a villain is really putting on the pressure and has the world at risk, Goku and Superman can assume even greater levels of power, pushing them well beyond their normal limits.

Son Goku

Kaioken

Taught to him by King Kai, Goku can use the Kaioken to multiply his strength, speed, senses, and every other trait he uses in a fight. However, this comes at the risk of damaging his body if he's not careful. The normal Kaioken multiplier is by a factor of two, but Goku was also able to amp it up to 20 times against Freeza/Frieza. Additionally, there is one instance in which Goku actually used Kaioken times 100 against Lord Slug, while he possessed Piccolo’s power. Kaioken can also be stacked on top of all of Goku’s other transformations, though the consequences on his stamina will vary depending on the strength of the form.

Great Ape

When Goku looks at the full moon, he transforms into a giant ape, which can only be stopped via destroying the moon or cutting off his tail. During the events of the Dragon Ball GT however, Goku turned into a Golden Great Ape instead. It is unluckily a full moon would ever make Goku transform into either of these forms however, due to him having mastered…

Traditional Super Saiyan forms

Over the years Goku has attained a variety of Super Saiyan transformations. This section will focus on the original golden haired ones.

“False” Super Saiyan

When pushed into a corner by Lord Slug, Son Goku accessed the power of a Super Saiyan a bit too early, creating an incomplete but still powerful variation of the form. Fun fact, this was created because Toriyama hadn't decided on the design for Super Saiyan yet. It is because of that that the form does not actually have an official name, and has been dubbed by the fans as “False Super Saiyan”.

Super Saiyan

Awakened by rage and only appearing every one thousand years (initially), the legendary Saiyan form of legend was thought to be an impossible hurdle for any warrior to reach. However, Goku is no ordinary warrior, and due to the death of his close friend Krillin, Goku unleashed the most iconic transformation in fiction: the Super Saiyan. The form offers a massive enhancement to all stats (by fifty times to be specific) similar to Kaioken, letting Goku massively rise in power. On top of that, it enhances the user’s senses.

Super Saiyan Grades

There exists multiple different evolutions or “grades” of the original Super Saiyan form. Grade 2 provides a stat increase, while Grade 3 provides a further increase in power at the cost of a speed decrease. Goku never bothered mastering either of these though, due to him instead discovering Grade 4. Grade 4 is stronger than Grade 3 and faster than 2, while having 0 stamina drain compared to his base form and looking exactly like his normal Super Saiyan form. After the Cell Saga, Super Saiyan Grade 4 is the variant of the normal Super Saiyan form Goku always uses.

Super Saiyan 2

First attained by Goku’s son, Gohan, this form doubles Goku’s power as a Super Saiyan, multiplying his base stats a hundred times faster. However, while it's stronger, the stamina drain returns. 

Super Saiyan 3

Achieved during his training in Heaven, Goku used this form to battle Majin Buu. His power quadruples compared to Super Saiyan 2 (meaning a 400 times multiplier to his base stats), but at the cost of a severe stamina drain. It’s difficult for Goku to even regain enough energy to continue fighting in this form. For these reasons, Super Saiyan 2 and 3 are rarely used by Goku, typically used in short bursts in order to test his opponent's strength.

Super Saiyan 4

Originating from a dramatically different line of transformations, Goku’s Great Ape power and Super Saiyan power are combined and evolved into this animalistic state of being. Super Saiyan 4 is dramatically stronger than Super Saiyan 3, capable of completely reversing a stomp against Baby Vegeta, who had transformed twice before their rematch. However, while Goku keeps his logical mind in this state, he also becomes more vicious, occasionally resulting in somewhat reckless decisions.

Super Full Power Saiyan 4

By absorbing the power of other powerful beings on the level of a Super Saiyan, Goku’s Super Saiyan 4 transformation is amplified into Super Full Power Saiyan 4.Though he typically cannot hold it for long, the amplified power compared to a normal Super Saiyan 4 definitely makes up for that issue.

Super Full Power Saiyan 4: Limit Breaker

By absorbing the energy of his allies while fighting Janemba, Goku was able to enter an even higher state compared to the previous form, in the form of Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker. This powerhouse of a state can even keep up with the main timeline Goku’s Ultra Instinct Omen form, and unlike the previous Full Power variant, Goku can access this form whenever he pleases.

Super Saiyan God Forms

Super Saiyan God

By absorbing the power of five pure hearted Saiyans, Son Goku rose from mortality to godhood in record time. As a Super Saiyan God, Goku gains access to the plentiful abilities of God Ki and becomes dramatically more powerful, making forms like Super Saiyan 3 irrelevant.

Super Saiyan Blue

After accessing the power of a Super Saiyan God in his base form and transforming into a Super Saiyan, Goku became capable of combining the forms to create Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, later renamed to Super Saiyan Blue because of the long name (unironically made Goku bite his tongue). While this form drains stamina far more than Super Saiyan God, the additional power makes it more than worth it. 

Additionally, Goku can contain all of the energy Super Saiyan Blue releases inside of himself, mastering control of the form and unleashing far more power, at the cost of an even greater loss in stamina.

In the New Space-Time Arc from Heroes, Goku could also absorb the Universe Tree’s power and add to his Super Saiyan Blue form, significantly increasing his power and allowing him to overcome opposing Universe Tree energy-wielding entities, though he can’t use that anymore due to the Tree being destroyed later on (looks dope tho).

Ultra Instinct

A power that originated with the angels, this is easily Goku’s most powerful traditional form. His first use of this form was through Ultra Instinct Sign, which made him react to attacks instantaneously through his body’s natural instincts, though he struggled to apply this to his offensive power. However, by the end of the Tournament of Power, Goku overcame that weakness and unlocked the improved silver haired version of Ultra Instinct, which aided in the defeat of Universe 11’s Jiren.

This form is the pinnacle of Goku’s combat skill and experience, allowing him to pull off complex combat maneuvers and strategies without wasting a single unit of time thinking about it, since those actions are instead done through sheer instinct. The form is able to compensate for large gaps in power and speed due to how effective its instinctive reactions are, and the reliance on Instinct also means reading Goku’s movements or thoughts becomes pointless.

He has slowly worked on improving the stamina problem, increasing the time limit from one minute to several. Additionally, Goku can apply the form’s instinctual benefits exclusively to his weaker forms, giving himself the incredible dodging and enhanced striking power without having to go all out. 

To explain what this means, let's actually use some analogies. Essentially, think of Son Goku’s decades of combat history and experience as a catalog, or library, for him to pull moves, strategies, attacks, defenses, techniques, etc from. When fighting normally, Goku often relies on his reflexive reactions to choose a few go-tos for dealing with most situations. But occasionally, he will be pit against a more unique scenario in which he is forced to search through this library as quickly as possible to search for the best move to use. However, since there's just so much information, Goku usually is forced to compromise with a move that's simply good enough and might get the job done.

Meanwhile, with Ultra Instinct, Son Goku’s body and spirit immediately know which pages to pull from this massive library without him having to even think about it. For situations that he has already dealt with before, Goku no longer has to rely on his reflexes, and instead already has a move or strategy planned out before he himself even knows it, essentially reducing his response time to zero. And with more unique situations, Goku’s body essentially goes through this library in an instant, choosing the best possible plan of attack and turning it into a reflex instead of a thought.

With Ultra Instinct, Goku can launch air projectiles at his opponents, and can create illusionary after images. His usage of telekinesis improves to such an extent that can turn rock formations to dust with a hand movement and he can stop Granolah in mid air. The durability of his energy barriers improves drastically, as they can now block out attacks from opponents far more powerful than him, like Gas. Goku can also create energy arms for longer reach. His mere punches can send shockwaves across the planet and he is also the master of surfing. The form’s aura can form a miniature galaxy. Ultra Instinct can move in frozen time and destroy a frozen time-space created by the former Supreme Kai of TIme, Aeos.

Furthermore, when Goku’s emotions are out of control, he can also enter True Ultra Instinct to make the most use out of his creative and emotional Saiyan instincts. In this state, Goku isn't as likely to rely on martial arts, but makes up for it with an absurdly unpredictable fighting style, taking hits similarly to Vegeta’s Ultra Ego, and dealing back the damage he takes. 

Ultra Instinct Avatar

His full power though has still been regarded as his peak above True Ultra Instinct however, with it releasing a giant energy construct of Goku to fight. This energy construct can act independently of Goku, and fight even when Goku is knocked out or lacks control of his body. The Ki Avatar has enough power to wrestle with Moro using the Earth as his body, who was about to detonate with enough power to destroy the Milky Way Galaxy. Goku can also use the Avatar to throw people into space.

God Fusion Goku

Originating from “Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D at Super Tenkaichi Budokai”, God Fusion Goku is the result of a last ditch effort to defeat God Broly by fusing with the audience watching. God Fusion Goku is a situational ability, as Goku needed to wish on Shenron to be able to use it. However, as alternate Gokus such as CC or Xeno Goku can instantly summon the dragon, God Fusion should be available for use. In terms of power, God Fusion gave Goku enough power to effortlessly defeat God Broly.

Superman

Sun Dipped

Naturally, as Superman's power derives from the solar energy his body absorbs, the closer he is to the sun the more powerful he will become, and when he enters a star, he becomes absurdly stronger. In fact, his power will increase exponentially while Clark is charging his solar energy. At one point, Superman was near death's door, yet flying through multiple stars within a very short timeframe gave him enough power to defeat the World Forger, the creator of the DC multiverse!

As such, the multiplication of Superman’s power due to sun dipping seems to be infinite, but for finite estimates, see this blog for a finite exponential multiplier and the way it is calculated, with it concluding that Superman could get 6.5 quadrillion times more powerful each second he is inside the sun!

Superman Blue

Dude thinks he’s Megamind with that quote

At one point, Superman used a blue containment suit upon experiencing power fluctuations, due to exposure to the Bottle City of Kandor mutating him into a being of pure energy. During a fight with Cyborg Superman, he got split into Superman Red and Superman Blue, with Red being more hot headed and Blue being more analytical. Superman’s son Jon has even begun to develop similar abilities within certain mental states, indicating that this might not be locked off from Superman forever. In this form, Superman gains abilities such as:

Technology Interaction: Superman Blue can travel through a phone and out a cellphone and create EMPs that take out the power in an entire city.

Spectral Analysis: Can analyze the density and thickness of materials around him, and analyze what opponents’ physiology are composed of.

Superhuman Senses: Superman Blue can sense and see radiation trails, laser signals, heat, psychic energy, energy signatures, or an EM field.

Teleportation: Superman Blue can effectively teleport by becoming lightning to jump between locations.

Repulsor Blast: A burst of blue energy powerful enough to knock back numerous Cyborg Supermen.

Tractor Beam: Used to pull enemies towards Superman Blue. Strong enough to pull Metallo towards him and move a piece of the Source Wall.

Magnetic Field Manipulation: Superman Blue can magnetize all the metal in his house or manipulate magnetic pulses.

Gravity Manipulation: Increased gravitational pressure to send Metallo underground.

Lightning Manipulation: Can manipulate and absorb lightning. His blasts are strong enough to burn the Martian Manhunter and blow apart part of the Source Wall. Once absorbed the electricity potential of the clouds, he blasts through 20 feet of crystalline material.

Energy Vision: High energy beams from his eyes that can melt high energy cables.

Energy Projection: Can use energy in a variety of useful ways like making energy shields or energy constructs. He’s used this to prevent intangibility from going through, repel magic, or block atomization via force-fields that would have killed him.

Energy Absorption: Capable of absorbing and redirecting energy. Was able to drain the energy from Parasite and can absorb energy, lightning, heat, nuclear explosions, and radiation. 

Light Manipulation: Superman Blue can produce blinding lights in huge bursts.

Intangibility: Can phase through solid objects, or to avoid attacks. Anyone attempting to harm him while he is intangible will lose their momentum for Superman Blue to absorb. Has phased out of a piece of the Source Wall, and phased through Lobo’s assault.

Telepathy: Read the mind of a computer-like entity.

Shapeshifting: Can alter himself to appear harder to see in the dark, or use his electrons to make a whole new costume. Also able to alter his size and grow larger.

Dimensional Travel: Was able to create and travel through a dimensional portal.

God of Strength

During the events of Darkseid War, Superman experienced exposure to a solar pit in an attempt to recharge his powers by him and Lex Luthor, with an unexpected result of turning him into the God of Strength. In this form, Superman becomes immune to kryptonite (as shown above), and gains an additional amount of strength from his solar energy. He was able to draw blood from Mobius (Anti-Monitor) in this form, who got back up from an all-out attack from the Green Lantern Corps with ease. He can also manipulate the solar energy from the solar pit, which has been called the most powerful solar energy in existence, and can channel it into a super flare, though that will revert him back to normal.

Final Son

Inside the center of the sun, New Apokolips had Superman trapped in a machine built by Mister Miracle and orchestrated by Darkfather, exposing Superman to shades of kryptonite color that Clark didn’t even know exist, attempting to eradicate his kryptonian cells and replace them with Anti-Life cells from the Anti-Life Equation. The procedure would have turned him into a new Darkseid, if not for the intervention of Batman and company, saving Superman, but not before his right arm was infected with the Anti-Life cells. Under this transformation, Superman could tap into the Omega Effect, and even use Omega Beams. 

Superman Avatar

After absorbing energy from the Orphan Box Metallo had at its core, Superman created an energy Avatar capable of manhandling Metallo. The energy avatar can block out the effects of Kryptonite, and Superman can attack while using it to restrain someone, such as using a barrage of Heat Vision. Superman has described the avatar as his way of “showing off”.

Equipment

Not every hero can rely on just their natural powers to save the day. Both of these characters have had many tools to help them out across their storied histories, whether it be weapons or remedial.

Son Goku

Power Pole

A magical length changing pole given to Goku by Grandpa Gohan that is able to grow hundreds of times its original length, even extending from the Earth’s surface to the moon. It is stated to be unbreakable, with Goku being fantastic at using its unique properties for close quarters combat.

Senzu Beans

Senzu Beans are magical beans that when consumed can bring a person back to a peak physical condition. This heals wounds, restores any lost Ki and stamina, and in the case of Saiyans provides a method of using the Zenkai boost to get stronger. It is also implied that if Future Gohan took a full Senzu after losing his arm, instead of giving it to Trunks, it would have been restored as well.

Zeno’s Button

A button that allows Goku to either summon the Omni King of the Dragon Ball multiverse or transport himself to Zeno directly. Though useful for a few situations, Goku is highly unlikely to use this, as he almost always prefers to fight his own battles. Besides, he gave it to Fortuneteller Baba anyways.

Artificial Saiyan Tail

In Dragon Ball Kakarot, Goku in an effort to teach Gohan how to fish with his tail, had Bulma create a fake Saiyan Tail. The tail functions similarly to an actual Saiyan Tail, being able to extend and move around. However, it does not allow Goku to access the Oozaru transformation.

Superman

Suit

The iconic suit of the Man of Steel, so strongly grafted onto his skin it is ‘immune to the most powerful of forces.’ Made from an invulnerable fabric and kindly sewed together by the Kents, the suit provides a surprising amount of uses. The seat belt from the rocket that took baby Clark to Earth ended up becoming the belt on his costume, and the upholstery compartment became his boots. The cape protects him from heat, cold, the perils of space, and can even block radio frequencies or wrap up a foe. 

Kryptonite

At times, Superman himself has used kryptonite against other kryptonians. Green kryptonite in particular has a variety of effects it can induce on a kryptonian target, including flu-like symptoms, or sapping of strength until death if exposed to the radiation for too long. One misconception is kryptonite is only harmful to kryptonians, but prolonged exposure can induce carcinogenic effects to humans.

Phantom Zone Projector

The Phantom Zone Projector is a device created by Jor-El, Superman’s father, to transport the most dangerous criminals of Krypton into an interdimensional prison called the Phantom Zone. The Phantom Zone is a timeless realm that exists outside the space-time continuum of vast near-nothingness, barren of any physical material. People sent to the Phantom Zone become a consciousness without a body where they can never age, die, or escape.

They essentially become immortal prisoners who no longer need food, sleep, or air. Superman keeps the Phantom Zone Projector in the Fortress of Solitude and will only use it on beings too powerful to imprison on Earth or anywhere in the universe. The Projector was even able to slay the true form of Mxyzptlk after he had attempted to escape its clutches through saying his name backwards, splitting him in half between two dimensions, killing him in both.

Mother Box

Mother Boxes are sentient, miniaturized, portable, autonomous supercomputers that were created from Element X for the gods of New Genesis. Since all Motherboxes are the same, any feat or abilities another one has done should be comparable to the one Superman possess, these would include:

Danger Sense - The Mother Box can sense incoming danger, similar to Spider-Man’s spider sense.

Teleportation - People can use the Mother Box to teleport to different locations by creating Boom Tubes. Any person possessing both a Mother Box and a sample of Element X can automatically create a Boom Tube capable of transporting individuals or groups intra-/inter-galactically, or inter-dimensionally.

Molecule Manipulation - The Mother Box can passively reassemble the molecules of the user to survive in harsh environments they normally can't. It is strong enough to overcome the natural matter manipulation immunity that New Gods biologically have. In addition, the Mother Box can manipulate quarks, reconstruct matter on the atomic level, create a web of microcosmic atoms, bind and unbind atoms, manipulate atoms, create micron particles, create a mini-mother box, etc.

Matter Manipulation - Mother Boxes are highly effective matter manipulators which grants the user complete control of the atomic structure of themselves or another object. This also includes healing factors, phasing through solid objects, shapeshifting, and mass absorption.

Telepathy - Mother Boxes can be used to communicate or influence minds using thoughts. They can also rewrite or recover memories, protect from mind control, mind control, create illusions, and clear emotions from sentient beings.

Technology Manipulation - Just like supercomputers, Mother Boxes can be used for the same purposes of research, storing data or retrieving data however its superior advancement allows it to upgrade other technology or even living sentient beings as well as hack other technology.

Time Manipulation - The Mother Box can allow people to travel through time and protects them from space-time distortions.

Energy Manipulation - Mother Boxes can be used to track, convert, absorb, drain, project and redirect energy. Users can also create their own electromagnetic fields and generate an EMP up to 50 meters wide.

Force Field Generation - Users of the Mother Box can create force fields to protect themselves and others.

Healing - Mother Boxes can heal the injured, the sick, or the dying, even at an atomic level.

Reality Warping Resistance - The Mother Box protects the user from reality warping.

Various Cosmic Senses - The Mother Box grants anyone the ability to see through time and sense events from far away.

Armors

Unchained Armor

During the events of Superman: Unchained, Clark comes into possession of an Earthstone, and with help from the Fortress of Solitude, makes an armor for Superman to fight against General Lane and his anti-kryptonian weapons. Additionally, it comes with an energy mace that can be thrown or extended by a cord, and an energy shield.

Lead Suit

To protect himself from exposure to kryptonite, Superman would put on a full-body lead suit (see above). Not only that, it’s extremely durable against rounds of kryptonite bullets. Despite wearing a full-body suit, Superman can still shoot his heat vision through the suit’s helmet. Finally, if the lead suit gets damaged, it has a self-repair function.

The Miracle Machine

A machine used during the events of Final Crisis, the Miracle Machine can transform the thoughts of an individual into reality through power and will. Brainiac 5 had Superman look into the Miracle Machine to analyze its schematics. Darkseid referred to it as a ‘cargo cult Mother Box’, modeled in the image of a Mother Box with technology that underpins it, while implying one does not understand its usage, but for Superman that is the exact opposite. The Miracle Machine could calculate the life-equation, the opposite to the anti-life equation, and was used to remake the multiverse after all stories had been consumed by Mandrakk.

The Sword of Superman

The third in a series of Super-Swords, the Sword of Superman was made to travel from the beginning of time to reach Superman in his hour of need. Basically, during the Big Bang, remnants of primeval matter that eventually winded attached to baby Superman's escape capsule when Krypton was exploding.

Well later on into his career as Superman, during a fight with a powerful villain known as King Kosmos, when he was briefly knocked unconscious and drifting towards the Earth, the sword came to him and rejuvenated him. Later on, the Sword tried to merge with Superman, but Superman rejected its attempt, but implied that during the merging, he knew everything in the universe, and a full merging would have resulted in him becoming an entity beyond the universe itself.

Support

Because at the end of the day, the true greatest power is friendship. Neither character would be who they are without those backing them up, and that applies just as well to a DEATH BATTLE.

Goku

Nimbus Cloud

A trusted companion Goku has known since his younger years that can only be flown on by those pure of heart. With a simple loud call, Goku can summon Nimbus to come help him fly around the battlefield. While Ki based flight kind of invalidates the fluffy cloud, it can still be helpful in a pinch were Goku not to have access to traditional flight.

Hero Switch Summons

Through his Hero Switch, Goku is able to summon numerous characters from across the Dragon Ball franchise to aid him in battle. We know that these characters are capable of having full fights rather than just singular attacks as well, based on Beat’s fights in the Dragon Ball Heroes Manga. These summons include powerful characters such as his rival Vegeta, Penguin Village’s gag goofball Arale, plenty of variations of himself, and even the top tier of the franchise, the Omni King Zeno.

While Goku can summon pretty much every relevant Dragon Ball character with Subspace Summons, he states he typically prefers to fight alone rather than relying on card based allies during big fights. Though that doesn’t mean he won’t result to pulling out a deck if the situation demands it.

Wish Granting Dragons

Goku is able to summon all six of the wish granting Dragons we have seen in Dragon Ball. These Dragons can directly aid Goku in combat, attacking enemies, and notably, can grant wishes to aid him in battle. They each have distinct traits, so it is important to go over each individual Dragon.

Shenron: The classic iconic dragon that is summoned when all seven of the Dragon Balls are gathered. He can grant wishes such as immortality, resurrection of the dead, restoration of energy, and can even create cosmic bodies such as the moon. Shenron can only grant two wishes at a time whenever he is summoned.

Porunga: The Dragon from Namek that Kami remembered while making Earth’s Dragon Balls. He can only be summoned via the Namekian Dragon Balls rather than the normal Earth Dragon Balls, with him being able to grant three wishes instead of two like Shenron.

Ultimate Shenron: Introduced in GT and summoned by the Black Star Dragon Balls, Ultimate Shenron is a red scaled and uniquely blue eyed Dragon far larger and more powerful than Shenron or Porunga. While Ultimate can only grant one wish, that wish is significantly more potent than any wish the other two dragons are capable of granting, with their wishes not being able to undo wishes made by Ultimate. As a caveat though, if the Black Star Dragon Balls are not returned to the planet the wish to Ultimate Shenron was made on in the span of a year, that planet will be doomed to explode.

Black Smoke Shenron: The Dragon summoned by the Dragon Balls when corrupted by negativity, Black Smoke Shenron’s goal was to spread that negativity universe wide. They seemingly have the same powers as Shenron normally does.

Dark Shenron: A Heroes original Dragon summoned by the Dark Dragon Balls, Dark Shenron is clearly far more powerful than the previous Dragons. Its mere presence is so strong it warps space and time, and the dragon can perform feats like unsealing entire universes. Additionally, each of the individual Dark Dragon Balls is capable of corrupting and empowering a target, making them run wild with Dark Ki.

Super Shenron: The strongest Dragon of them all, Super Shenron is the original Dragon all others descended from or were based on. Being far larger than numerous galaxies, Super Shenron has no limitation to his wish granting power. It has restored planets to their prime condition, instantly killed the new time-space creating Universe Tree, and has even brought back seven Universes and their inhabitants instantly even after they were erased by Zeno. This is additionally impressive considering Zeno’s erasure should be significantly superior to Hakai, which erases whatever it hits from all of existence, both spiritually and temporally.

The Audience

He’s pointing at you, for reference.

No, this is not a joke. Goku has been able to directly communicate and work with the audience, even fusing with them via a wish to Shenron, creating God Fusion Goku as previously mentioned. And not just a single member of the audience either, as he was able to fuse with the entire audience that was watching him fight Broly.

Superman

Superman Robots 

Robots that possess a fraction of the power of Superman himself, commonly used as substitutes for Clark on various missions, particularly ones where kryptonite is involved, such as handling a kryptonite safe on the moon. They are also capable of construction and building. Such robots were even capable of going against the entire JLA and no-sold all their attacks.

Legion of Super-Pets

The iconic team of super-powered pets! The members of which include Krypto the Superdog, Streaky the Supercat, Beppo the Supermonkey, and Comet the Superhorse. Krypto and Beppo are Kryptonian in nature, and possess the baseline Kryptonian abilities such as flight, heat vision, and freeze breath. Comet was augmented by potions from the Wonder Woman villain Circe, giving him superhuman characteristics and other abilities such as metamorphosis and telepathy. Streaky was a more unique case, being exposed to the X-Kryptonite substance, gaining abilities such as energy projection and enhanced intellect. 

The Bottle City of Kandor

Originally a Kryptonian city shrunk by Brainiac, Superman was able to preserve it and take it to the Fortress of Solitude, until it was able to return to normal size once more. On Krypton, people saw this city as a chance to start anew, and pick themselves up on their own two feet due to its influence on Krypton. Once released, these Kandorians would gain the powers of Superman, and would be able to help him in battle.

Super-Sentries

As Superman developed as the universe died, he used his powers to support the core of the universe, and duplicated himself into other versions (known as super-sentries) with distinct appearances and abilities from ‘Superman null’ (the prime Superman) in order to facilitate saving the world without being there. He was eventually able to merge them back into himself after the deed was done, and the last individual in the universe died.

The Audience

After being connected to every mind, Superman was able to telepathically communicate to all consciousnesses in order to defeat the 5th dimensional demon Vyndktvx. At the end, he looked the audience in the eyes, and was able to get everyone to say their last names to banish the devil forever. Such people who responded in collaboration with Superman include the writer of the issue (Nosirrom Tnarg, or Grant Morrison) and the artist (Selarom Hplar, or Ralph Morales), whose hand you can even see in the second panel. As in, Superman can even ask you, the artist, and the author to help him! 

Feats

Son Goku

Overall

• Defeated a giant fish, Oolong, Yamcha, Nam, Tao Pai Pai, the entire Red Ribbon Army, Krillin, Tambourine, Demon King Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, Nappa, Dr Wheelo, Lord Slug, Recoome, Burter, Frieza/Freeza, Cooler, Android 13, Broly (Z), Yakon, Majin Buu, Hirudegarn, Botamo, Trunks, Zamasu, Bergamo, Roshi, Gohan, most of Universe 9, Kefla, Jiren, Mira, Cumber, Fu, Moro, Gas, Xeno Bardock, Demigra, his Time Patroller counterpart, Luud, General Rildo, Baby, Super 17, the Shadow Dragons, Omega Shenron, and more

• Won the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai

• Consistently considered the most reliable members of the Z-Fighters

• Saved the world, galaxy, universe, and multiverse on numerous and repeated separate occasions

• Became one of if not the strongest Saiyan in the multiverse

• Has been considered as a candidate for Universe 7’s next God of Destruction

• Has turned Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chiaotzu, Piccolo, Vegeta, Beerus, Hit, Jiren, Super Broly and Granolah from enemies into new allies

• Started a family and raised two of the strongest Saiyans as his sons

• Aided in the victory of the Universe 6 vs. Universe 7 Tournament and the Tournament of Power

• Helped the next generation of heroes rise up for when the time calls

• Totally beat half of Marvel that one time

• Is so hyped up that asking if someone can beat him is actually a meme

• Is overall a cool dude

Power

Original Series

• Lifts and tosses a car

• Picks up a large boulder and shatters it

• Breaks down a stone wall with a kick

• Breaks a helicopter in half

• Holds back Tao’s Dodon Ray

• Splits a large boulder in half

• Tosses King Piccolo hard enough to bring down the top of a house

• Could shatter the moon with his Super Kamehameha

Dragon Ball Z and Toei Anime/Movies

• Countered Vegeta’s planet-busting Galick Gun with a times four Kaioken Kamehameha

• Alongside Krillin, changed the directory of a planet-busting spaceship

• Shared his energy with numerous other planets

• Spirit Bomb created an explosion so massive it was scene from space

• Bounced back Freeza’s planet busting 100% Death Ball

• Threatened to destroy the planet with his Kamehameha against Perfect Cell

• Has trained under 10 times Earth’s normal gravity, 100 times, and even trained while wearing 40 ton weights

• Reflected back Cooler’s Supernova, which caused a massive explosion in space

• Shook the Earth while transforming into Super Saiyan 3, his Ki being so great it was felt from Otherworld

• Shook the afterlife while transforming into a Super Saiyan 3 against Janemba

• Affected the World of the Kais, which is a tenth the size of Universe 7, during his battle with Kid Buu

Dragon Ball Super

• Punched through King Kai’s Planet

• Clashed with Beerus hard enough to threaten the entirety of Universe 7 (At least 3 -15 times universal, possibly 365 - 1755 times universal)

• Alongside Vegeta, altered the World of Void with a Kamehameha combined with a Gamma Burst Flash

• While the World of Void’s size is pretty divisive, it was capable of holding Super Shenron, a being who dwarfs galaxies in size

• Tossed Broly over his shoulder hard enough to cause an earthquake

• Punched Moro so hard he created a planetary shockwave

Dragon Ball Heroes

• Threatened all of time just by transforming into a Super Saiyan 4 (Multiversal+)

• Destroyed the Prison Planet in his fight against the evil Saiyan Cumber

• Almost brought down the Crack of Time as a Super Saiyan 3 alongside the Time Patroller during their fight with Demigra

• Threw his opponent through numerous planets, destroying each of them

• Annihilated an entire galaxy alongside Vegeta as Super Saiyan Blues

Speed

Original Series

• Traveled to the moon using his Power Pole in only a few seconds (12.8% SoL)

• Dodges 3 pistol shots 

• Deflects automatic gunfire

• Reacts to missile fire

• Catches a Dragon Ball before it can fly away

• Perceives Roshi and Krillin’s fight, which was too fast for the human onlookers

• Moved faster than Tenshinhan’s Solar Flare

• Dodged Piccolo’s Ki beam as it crossed hundreds of kilometers in seconds (Mach 1755.1)

Dragon Ball Z and Toei Anime/Movies

• Could cross the 1 million kilometer Snake Way in only 2 days (Mach 16.9)

• 1 million kilometers as the designated distance comes from a one time statement, and it is possible, if not absolutely, far longer than the legend would imply

• Reacted to meteors while traveling to Namek on his spaceship (At least 223.7c, likely far higher)

• Alongside Pikkon, flew from Grand Kai’s Planet to Hell in under a minute (74.9 Quadrillion c)

• Absorbed energy from across the universe for his Spirit Bomb against Kid Buu (100.2 - 489.2 quadrillion c, potentially Infinite speed)

• In Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, fought Buu so fast that this energy appeared completely motionless

• Launched a baseball nearly 70 million miles away (375c)

• Blasted Cooler into the sun (12.4c)

Dragon Ball Super

• Fought Beerus while flying to the Earth’s stratosphere in seconds

• Moved in tandem with shockwaves created by his punch clash with Beerus, which traversed Universe 7 (358 quadrillion - 507 sextillion c, possibly infinite speed)

• Fired a Kamehameha that escaped the Pretty Black Hole, which not even light or his Instant Transmission could escape (At least FTL, possibly infinite)

Dragon Ball Heroes

• Fought Aeos at such a speed that her future sight quite literally could not see Goku’s future 

• After his battle with Cumber, flew to Zeno’s Palace from the Prison Planet, which only exists in the future, meaning Goku had to fly back in time (Immeasurable)

Durability

Original Series

• Gets sent crashing through several stone pillars

• Tanks an RPG explosion

• Survives Roshi’s Thundershock Surprise

• Survives being smacked hard enough to cause a crater

• Survives a blast from King Piccolo that creates a large crater

• Unharmed by a flamethrower

• Tanked Piccolo razing Papaya Island (15.7 petatons of TNT)

• Kept fighting with a hole in his shoulder

Dragon Ball Z and Toei Anime/Movies

• Endured numerous bones being shattered by Great Ape Vegeta

• Man, this was worse than the time Goku was in high school, and all the guys called him Geeko, and he was Piccolo’s slave. He couldn't get Chi-Chi to like him, and– Oh, wow, I hit that rock harder than I thought.

• Got kicked by Freeza hard enough to create a mini whirlpool

• Survived a large mountain being hurled at him

Dragon Ball Super

• Survived getting bombarded with Katchin cubes by Fusion Zamasu

• Survived being caught in some sort of black hole created through his Spirit Bomb

• Survived the Pretty Black Hole, which not even light or his Instant Transmission could escape from

• Survived being ragdolled by Super Broly for a good bit

• Could withstand lava

• Survived having a hole punched through his chest

• Endured a several hour sparring match against Vegeta

Dragon Ball Heroes

• Alongside Vegeta, fought at full power against energy clones for an entire week

Superman

Overall

• Defeated Lex Luthor, Bizarro, Brainiac, General Zod, Lobo, Arion, Ultraman, Superboy Prime, Doomsday, The Keeper, Anti-Monitor, Darkseid, Mxyzptlk, Vyndktvx, Time Trapper, Mordru, Orion, Captain Marvel, Parasite, Cyborg Superman, Manchester Black, Atomic Skull, Silver Banshee, Solomon Grundy, Mongul, Toyman, Livewire, Ultra-Humanite, Kalibak, Imperiex, Lady Blaze, Titano, Maxima, Jaxon the Mighty, The Prankster, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Black Adam, Metallo, Green Lantern, Chemo, Etrigan, the Galactic Golem, Rogol Zaar, other Supermen, and of course, even the wretched dictators of the 20th century. He has even defeated the concept of his own death, try that one on for size

• Founding member of the Justice League of the America in some continuities, member of the Justice Society, the Legion of Superheroes, the All-Star Squadron, Justice League International, the Authority, and many others

• Saved the planet, the universe, and the multiverse on countless occasions

• Exists as the center of the DC universe

• Is the primary reason for humanity reaching the heights of Krypton in the future (e.g. the Legion of Superheroes) instead of going extinct as many species do around the universe

• With his arrival in some continuities, heralded the beginning of the “fifth world”, the age of men as gods

• Fought against the KKK and racial discrimination

• Friends with Quicky and Bugs Bunny

• Has met the Avengers and gained their respect

• A good friend, a good teammate, and a good father

• Inspired several other people to become heroes in the DC universe

• Saved people from ending their own lives on numerous occasions

• Helped Santa Claus save Christmas

• Overall a cool dude

Power

(More powerful than a locomotive!)

Misc. Cosmic

• (Post-Flashpoint) Bench pressed 5.962 sextillion metric tons (the weight of the Earth) for 5 days straight without exposure to sunlight  

• (Post-Flashpoint) The only method to truly test his upper strength would be through tapping into a pandimensional wormhole whose energies could swallow the Earth whole

• (Post-Flashpoint) Shattered chains of Kerenthium steel, which is the strongest metal in the universe, forged in inverted black holes; such steel is used to haul stars across galaxies

• (Pre-Crisis) In an alternate future, drilled the Earth in half

• (Post-Crisis) With help from Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, pulled the Earth

• (Post-Crisis) Stopped an asteroid that had a relative load of a five thousand megaton bomb

• (Post-Crisis) Claims to be capable of shattering a planet

• (Post-Crisis) Was able to create and move the key to the Fortress of Solitude, which is made from the core of a star

• (Pre-Crisis) Blew the Earth back into its proper orbit by breathing really hard

• (Pre-Crisis) As a teenager, threw a neutron star weighing trillions of tons into another galaxy a billion light-years away

• (Post-Crisis) Physically held a miniature black hole in his hands with assistance from John Stewart

• (Pre-Crisis) Sneezed away a Solar System after being exposed to magic itching powder

• (Post-Crisis) Absorbed enough Solar Energy to wipe out half a Galaxy

• (Pre-Crisis) As a teenager, pulled a Galaxy over his shoulder

Universal

• (Post-Crisis) Nearly destroyed two entire universes while battling his Golden Age self during the events of Infinite Crisis

• (Post-Crisis) Helped contribute to the energy of a Big Bang during the events of Zero Hour

• (Pre-Crisis) Pushes against the Big Bang, as well as destroying an object unaffected by its explosion

• (Post-Crisis) Was able to overpower the concept of his own death, which destroyed the entire universe via entropy

• (Post-Crisis) Was able to contend with Silver-Age Mordru, who had all the magical power of an entire universe

• (Post-Crisis) Was able to fight the Red King for an extended period of time, with the Red King being able to destroy entire realities containing universes

• (Pre-Crisis) As a teenager, collided with another Kryptonian to such a degree that it produced a 1 million decibel shockwave as an after-effect (3.539899904 times Universal)

• (Pre-Crisis)  Was scientifically tested to have a voice which could reach over 1 million decibels (3.539899904  times Universal) 

• (Pre-Crisis) Could scream with 10 billion decibels worth of sense-shattering sound while in the Fortress of Solitude after being doused with Kryptonite (10999999928 times Universal) 

• (potentially hyperbole, see before the verdicts for the above three feats)

Multiversal+

• (Pre-Crisis) Restored an infinite amount of timelines with his fight against Jaxon, due to it counteracting the Green Lantern Corps’ rerouted energy which wiped out all possible timelines except one

• (Post-Crisis) Destabilized Lady Blaze’s dimension with his heat vision to the point where the many mystic dimensions of the multiverse were disturbed, with Raven herself considering only Trigon being able to do such a thing

• (Pre-Crisis) Superman lobotomized Maaldor, a living universe capable of destroying all other dimensions in the multiverse

Omniversal

• (Post-Flashpoint) Defeated the Darkfather in one-shot, a Dark Multiverse version of Batman who became Darkseid, with Darkfather possessing the Anti-Life equation  

• (Post-Flashpoint) While split in half, fought the 5th dimensional demon Vyndktvx in a conceptual battle happening across past, present, and future, in all the different worlds there are, all at the same time, in order to save the entirety of creation  

• (Post-Crisis) Shattered the primal void once being set there by Neron, with this being the ultimate foundation for all universes and dreams within the minds of men and gods

• This void exists as the pinnacle of existence in DC, the end-point of the infinite hierarchy of dreams, where all individuality stops existing whatsoever 

• (Post-Crisis) While at his weakest, powered the Miracle Machine with his own life force, which recreated the entirety of the DCU after it had been consumed by Mandrakk

• The Miracle Machine calculates the life equation, which is the opposite of the anti-life equation, and one half of the dyad which immediately emanated from the monad which is the Source

• (Post-Crisis) Lifted the Book of Limbo with Captain Marvel

•  The Book of Limbo contains every possible book and ‘only has one story’, with all the other ones in it. It was written by a Monkey within Limbo, who, due to having infinite time, was able to write anything and everything that could be possibly written on a typewriter. It is said that the Monkey will eventually write everyone out of Limbo, even though Limbo is the set of all possible characters that have not been told in a story yet. This is a reference to the Infinite monkey theorem, which states that eventually a monkey given infinite time will go through all possible permutations of English character strings and write down a famous work of art, such as Shakespeare. These writings in DC are self-referential and contain the realities that are described by the stories Rox Ogama is contained within the book itself.

• (Post-Flashpoint) Shook the Phantom Zone while fighting Rogol Zaar and even said he was capable of destroying the Phantom Zone if he really put his head to it 

• The Phantom Zone is a dimensionless structure in the Godsphere, and exists as an equivalent to Comic Book Limbo, which contains the set of all characters not yet written 

• (Post-Flashpoint) Was considered by Dr. Manhattan as legitimately being able to kill him with one punch, as it was impossible for him to ascertain whether or not in his future vision Superman killed him with a singular hit, or he just destroyed the entire multiverse

• (Post-Crisis) Could mend Boomtubes and destroy a cube that was made out of the same material Boomtubes are composed of, even as Boomtubes are stable enough to increase beings to sizes which infinitely surpass the mortal multiverse

• (Post-Crisis) Was able to generate energy with his vocal cords which could shatter the true form of Darkseid’s godhead 

• (Post-Flashpoint) After momentarily sundipping, was able to one-shot the World Forger and destroy his replacement multiverse 

Speed

(Faster than a speeding bullet!)

• (Post-Crisis) Could escape the Source, despite the fact that it specifically lacked any direction and is above spatial dimensionality in general (and therefore concepts of space and time) (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Crisis) Was able to escape the primal void beyond space and time, the foundation of all universes and dreams, despite being dumped there by Neron (Immeasurable)

• (Pre-Crisis) Could tear through the very fabric of space and rip through toward the future, through the worst of all possible futures that might bewilder humanity, until finally reaching the year 2975 (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Crisis) Has on a few occasions sped up his reaction speed in order to not be affected by time dilation

• (Pre-Crisis) As a teenager, was able to consistently break the time-barrier on a whim, and travel into the past (Immeasurable)

• (Pre-Crisis) Traveled through time through sheer speed to reach the year 1971 to give people milk (lmao) (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Flashpoint) Could fly into and enter the 5th dimension proper in order to troll Mxyzptlk (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Crisis) Could react to Wally and Barry running faster than they ever had before, entering a state of pure information while outpacing the Black Racer, the conceptual embodiment of death, through the 4th dimension (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Crisis) Can react to and destroy reality blitzing missiles which were traveling from conceptual Monitor nanotechnology into the multiverse before Lois’ heart could beat once (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Flashpoint) Can react in an attosecond

• (Post-Flashpoint) According to Batman, can halve distances in Planck time 

• (Post-Flashpoint) Was able to process the entirety of all data in the universe in at least the greater part of a day, in an attempt to calculate the location of a zetabeam, which exists everywhere at once (6.1 Quattuortrigintillion c)

• (Post-Crisis) Has flown from Apokolips to Earth without a Boomtube 

• (Post-Crisis) Has experienced an infinite amount of universes simultaneously while fighting Dominus (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Crisis) Could exist in an ‘eternal now’ where all moments existed simultaneously, allowing him to move across a quantum sea to push through the boundaries of space, memory, and emotion, bringing him to the ‘final barrier’ that could not be passed, the concept of death itself (Immeasurable)

• (Pre-Crisis) Traveled into the future by flying “swifter than time itself”, breaking through the barriers of time and space (Immeasurable)

• (Pre-Crisis) Flew so fast he broke time and space in pursuit of Supergirl, traveling out of the universe and beyond “the very bounds of infinity,” eventually flying into the Spectre after he had been dispatched by the Presence to stop him from bypassing the veil into the afterlife (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Flashpoint) Can escape a prison of weaponized Hypertime, which is the temporal equivalent of the “omniverse” (Immeasurable)

• (Post-Flashpoint) In moments, Superman can cross distances that cease to be distances (Immeasurable)

Durability

(The Man of Steel, Superman!)

Misc. Cosmic

• (Post-Flashpoint) Took hits from Batman’s Justice Buster which had miniature red stars in its knuckles

• (Post-Flashpoint) Withstood being in the middle of a Black Hole

• (Post-Crisis) Lived through an explosion that was worth 50 Keplar Supernovas

• (Post-Flashpoint) A heavily weakened Superman shrugged the energy off from Umbrax the living Galaxy

• (Post-Crisis) Was only knocked out by an infinite mass punch’s recoil (which destroyed a constantly accelerating object the size of a moon)

Universal

• (Post-Crisis) Survived the whole universe collapsing in on him during the heat death (539 Novendecicentillion times Universal) 

• (Post-Crisis) Tanked attacks from Blackstar, a being who had power over the energy of the cosmos 

• (Post-Crisis) Survived Aztek’s 4th-dimensional sacrifice play 

• (Post-Crisis) Upon sundipping, was stated to be able to survive Brainiac 13’s new power and eventually kill him, with Brainiac 13’s plan upon the absorption of the Imperiex being the total cyber-conversion of the universe in hours 

• (Post-Crisis) Was stated by WoG to have been able to survive and eventually defeat Imperiex (who contains an entire Big Bang) on his own if he had taken down his mental inhibitions during Our Worlds at War

• (Post-Crisis) Took hits from the Entropy Aegis, which has the power to remake the entire universe

Multiversal+

• (Pre-Crisis) Survived hits from Jaxon, whose energies (alongside Superman’s own) regenerated an infinite amount of timelines

• (Pre-Crisis) Tanked infinite barriers of reality being destroyed by tissue paper as he was traveling faster than infinity

• (Post-Crisis) Tanked shattering into infinite realities spawned by Neron and fragmenting them (confirmed to be actual universes alongside simultaneous mental experiences by WoG)

Omniversal

• (Post-Flashpoint) The Anti-Life Equation combined with various isotopes of Kryptonite from the Dark Multiverse was unable to kill Superman, and was simply used for torture by a Dark Multiverse version of Batman fused with the Omega Effect 

• (Post-Flashpoint) A heavily weakened Superman was able to survive a blast from the Anti-Monitor

• (Post-Flashpoint) Tanked a blast from Darkseid’s Omega Beams while he possessed the Anti-Life Equation 

• (Post-Crisis) Withstood the resulting energy from the the Source Wall exploding 

• (Post-Crisis) Tanked blasts from Gog’s staff, which contained the emerald energy of the guardians of the universe, the cosmic power of the source, and the magical night of Zeus and Shazam combined 

• (Post-Flashpoint) Was able to survive and overpower Mxyzptlk’s 5th dimensional magic attempting to obliterate him

• (Post-Flashpoint) Survived being hit with the entirety of magic in the multiverse, the entirety of the Speed Force, and the entirety of the Emotional Spectrum merged within a singular person, and was able to subsequently match this person’s attacks with his heat vision, though he did note that he couldn’t sustain for long due to the magic present

• (Post-Crisis) Survived a blast by Gog which breached the walls of Hypertime

• (Post-Crisis) Survived a mystical explosion which killed Lady Blaze herself

• (Post-Crisis) Survived as the last character in the DCU after Mandrakk the Dark Monitor sucked every other narrative dry, essentially being the only character left after the entire omniverse was erased during the events of Final Crisis 

• (Post-Crisis) Survived being in the primal void after being sent there by Neron, despite the fact that this exists beyond creation and reduces individuality into nothingness, the reduction into the emptiness that exists before form and thought 

• (Post-Flashpoint) Could not be destroyed by Vyndktvx’s 5th dimensional magic, despite being attacked simultaneously during all time-periods at once, as well as being exposed to red sunlight and kryptonite (and being put up against a copy of Superman Vyndktvx was incarnate in, the thought of a Superman better than Superman, a thought that gets more powerful the more you think about it)

• (Post-Flashpoint) Was able to facilitate the unification of gravity with electro-magnetism through running an electric scalar field in his body which extended to the 5th dimension, destroying a 5th dimensional super-weapon 

• (Post-Crisis) Breached the essence of Mageddon and absorbed its warhead, a warhead so potent that it was causing the Pax Dei to gather around the Presence to engineer a new creation lest the old one fell to the warbringer

• The Pax Dei represents the Heavenly Host of God, the army of the Presence; such an army was the military force which ultimately cast down Lucifer Morningstar from Heaven

• (Post-Crisis) Survived being in the Source itself, with the Source being the ultimate energy source which created the entirety of DC comics. There exists no direction in it whatsoever, and no living beings could ever exist in it (until Superman, of course). 

Scaling

These two are not the only power houses within their respective series of course. Numerous other characters in both Dragon Ball and DC, who Goku and Superman compare to, have performed very noteworthy feats.

Special images by Blue Igneous.

Son Goku

Other Saiyans

Goku has consistently matched or beaten every other Saiyan he has fought, including Vegeta, Cumber, Gohan, Broly, and more. With him fighting the strongest in the universe, Gas, and gaining so many impressive power ups and forms across the years, it is safe to say Goku should be at the peak of his race.

Additionally, Goku in Dragon Ball Heroes has been depicted as superior to some Fusions. In Ultra Instinct, he performed better against Cumber than a Super Saiyan Blue Vegito did, and later on used the God Tree’s power to beat Fu, who previously had matched two supercharged Gogetas.

• King Vegeta destroyed several planets 

• Saiyan Saga Vegeta powering up had enough raw power to destroy the Earth

• Vegeta could merely point at planets and make them explode

• Vegeta effortlessly dodged lasers under 150 times Earth’s normal gravity

• Vegeta tanked being in the epicenter of Nappa’s city busting explosion (51.9 teratons of TNT)

• Vegeta kept up with Dr. Wheelo as a Super Saiyan 2 and blitzed him as a Super Saiyan 4, who he described as being comparable in speed to Instant Transmission (Immeasurable) (Debatable)

• In Dragon Ball Heroes, Instant Transmission transcends space and time, allowing Goku to teleport away from the Prison Planet (which only exists in the future) and back to his time. This feat being used for speed could be seen as illogical however, due to the possibility Vegeta was simply speaking in hyperbole to emphasize how fast Wheelo was.

• Super!Broly output so much energy that the universe could not handle it and he was thrown into the Dimension of Swirly Lights

• Broly then destroyed this dimension

• Z!Broly wipes out a galaxy within South Quadrant

• Paragus believes Z!Broly, if out of control, would destroy the universe

• Trunks reacted to Mechikabura’s time-encompassing black hole (Immeasurable)

• Kefla stated she could destroy the universe with a single blast

• Vegito Blue split the Universe Tree

• Vegito Blue dodged Fu’s Infinite Time Slash

• Gogeta Blue and Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta collided Kamehamehas with so much force that it shattered reality across space

• Super Saiyan Gogeta created a big-bang level explosion upon his creation and lighted up the entire Underworld (39.7 quettagigaFOE)

Goku Black, Zamasu, and Fusion Zamasu

Goku directly fought all of Zamasu’s forms, pushing back Zamasu, matching Goku Black, and later surpassing Fusion Zamasu. Thus, he should naturally scale to every form of the Zero Mortal Plan’s creator.

• Goku Black obliterated a continent

• Goku Black created a rift in reality with his scythe, bringing in numerous clones

• Zamasu could casually cut an alien in half

• Both Zamasu and Goku Black destroyed the Super Dragon Balls

• They also had to gather the Super Dragon Balls in the first place, meaning they probably had to push them across universes

• Fusion Zamasu threatened to wipe out the galaxy, and potentially every galaxy

• Infinite Zamasu merged with the universe, spreading and affecting alternate timelines (36 times Universal at minimum, and possibly Immeasurable)

• Fusion Zamasu can react to and move in tandem with Zeno’s timeline encompassing blast (Possibly Immeasurable)

• Later on, other fighters such as Freeza and Dyspo move too fast for this casual Zeno to perceive, supporting this scaling

The Dark Factor & Its Users

Goku has surpassed Trunks, who was able to fight and match Mechikubara after he had utilized the full power of the Dark Factor. Goku himself also defeated a Dark Factor powered Fu while using the Power of the Universe Tree, and later battled a Dark Factor powered Demigra. Safe to say, the most evil power in the multiverse is something Goku can match.

• Mechikabura created a black hole that sucked up all of reality (At least Multiversal+, likely far higher, and Immeasurable)

• Fu was capable of rewinding all of existence to nothing with his Time Power

• Dark King Fu absorbed the power of Dogidogi and Tokitoki, whose power could restore all of time after it had been absorbed by Mechikabura (Multiversal+ and Immeasurable)

• Dark Shenron’s mere presence spread his aura throughout all of time itself (Multiversal+ and Immeasurable)

Miscellaneous

Goku is easily one of the most powerful beings in all of Dragon Ball history, with only Zeno, the Grand Priest, the Angels, and maybe the Gods of Destruction being stronger. Thus he should scale to any other significant feat in the franchise.

• Doctor Wheelo’s maximum power, according to the Daizenshuu, has enough energy to wipe out Earth

• First Form Freeza destroyed Planet Vegeta (4.9 quettatons of TNT)

• Perfect Cell shook the universe by powering up and threatened to destroy the solar system from Earth.

• Cooler reacted to Goku while he was in the middle of using Instant Transmission (Infinite)

• In Toei, the Daizenshuu clarifies that Instant Transmission works by traveling to another realm to teleport where you want to be, with the Son Goku Densetsu describing the realm as transcending time. Cooler would likely have to be reacting within infinitesimal time to perform this feat

• Majin Buu, on numerous occasions, has threatened the entire universe and universe-sized realms.

• Toppo affected the World of Void with a single attack.

• Jiren’s power completely transcends time, and he can even attack Broly in the middle of a Time Skip.

• Cell MAX created an energy ball with a gravitational pull similar to a black hole.

• Everyone and their mom has destroyed or created a moon at one point.

• Chamel threatened to destroy the entirety of the cosmology (At least Multiversal+, likely far higher)

Superman

The Justice League of America

Superman has been a part of several teams throughout the ages, however the most iconic and legendary team of them all is the Justice League of America! All the way from the Scarlet Speedster to the Dark Knight himself has joined this League. There are numerous statements about Superman being the most powerful member of the Justice League and even statements saying if Superman fought all of the League and didn’t hold back, the League would be toast.

• Kyle Rayner contained the energies leaking from Imperiex, which is worth the destruction of entire galaxies

• John Stewart once made an entire Solar System

• Hal Jordan sent SoS probes across the universe in a heartbeat (37 duodecillion c)

• Wonder Woman punched a sundipped Kryptonian Batman to the Moon from Earth

• Wonder Woman pulled J’onn out of a Black Hole with her Lasso of Truth

• Wonder Woman punched and hurt The Batman Who Laughs with “Star Shaking impact”

• Wonder Woman blocked trillions of godshards flying at her from the edge of the universe (52.594 - 315.569 quintillion c, likely infinite)

• Barry Allen and Wally West’s race nearly ended the multiverse via sheer speed

• Wally West punched a White Martian from Mount Rushmore to Africa

• Hawkman was quick enough to hit the speedster Baroness Blitzkrieg with a Shuriken 

Other Kryptonians

Despite Krypton being nothing more than a bunch of space dust at this point, there are still quite a few Kryptonians who still exist in the Universe. And Superman being the strongest Kryptonian ever, should scale to all of them, from his anger filled cousin Supergirl to the Genocide happy General Zod.

• Supergirl has fists with the mass of moons and legs that burn with the power of stars

• Supergirl tore off pieces of the Anti-Monitor’s armor 

• Supergirl can tag Barry Allen while he was sprinting

• Supergirl kept up with Wonder Woman for a bit in combat

• Supergirl killed a dozen clones of herself while under a Red Sun

• Supergirl can fly through time (Immeasurable)

• General Zod knocked away Martian Manhunter with a swing of his arm

• General Zod no sold a mace smack to the back of the head by Hawkman, it just made him pissed

• General Zod hit Doomsday so hard it blew up the surrounding city

• General Zod beat up Kyle Rayner until he was a bloody mess

Rogues Gallery

Like any good Superhero, Superman has quite the legendary and powerful list of Villains. All the way from 5th Dimensional Imps, to a Cyborg version of himself, to a being whose borderline unkillable and the literal personification of the concept of evil. Superman has handed his Rogues Gallery all kinds of Ls.

• Doomsday’s punches registered as seismographs all over the world

• Doomsday once punched his way out of the Phantom Zone via sheer strength (because he’s built different)

• Doomsday battled and slaughtered a whole squadron of Green Lanterns alone, and even withstood blasts from the Guardians of the Universe

• Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes

• That's as many as four tens

• And that's terrible

• Lex Luthor snapped Brainiac’s Neck

• Lex Luthor when merged with the Zone Child was going to destroy the entire universe if he wasn’t stopped

• Superboy-Prime survived a blow from the Anti Monitor

• Superboy-Prime also punched his way out of the Phantom Zone (because he’s built different²)

• Brainiac razed a whole city then terraformed the planet

• Brainiac channeled enough temporal energy to reset the Multiverse

• Brainiac averted the collapse of the entire Multiverse

• Darkseid was unharmed from a blast by Black Mary Marvel who had the powers of Zatanna, Black Adam, The Wizard and Klarion

• Darkseid casually created infinite realities just to make a single guy suffer

• Darkseid was merging the whole DC Multiverse into himself

• Darkseid can tank an infinite-multiversal attack from Alan Scott

Miscellaneous

As one of the strongest and most iconic superheroes in DC Comics, Superman has tangled with more characters than you can imagine, ranging from users of the Anti-Life Equation to the World Forger. Matching their powers and coming out on top.

• One shot Auter.io, who created a archive of all realities and could destroy them all if he wanted

• The World Forger has created Hypertime, a higher-dimensional cosmological structure that embodies ‘higher-dimensional’ time and is the temporal equivalent to the omniverse

• Dominus was able to create his own copy of the Phantom Zone

• Knocked out Barbatos, who was able to destroy all stories in the DCU and the Dreaming in general

• Went back in time to defeat the Crisis on Infinite Earths Anti-Monitor with other heroes during Convergence, with the Anti-Monitor originally destroying the entire Pre-Crisis multiverse, alongside being able to stalemate the Spectre while creating concepts beyond the imagining of his master

• Superman defeated Arion, who, along with other sorcerers, mastered all the many-colored threads, which represent all possible permutations of magic from the abstract source of magic itself. Upon this mastery, Arion and others made the threads into a magical artifact that could be utilized by others. Arion could also merge the reality of Darkworld with Garn’s own consciousness

• Superman harmed Emperor Joker, who was going to destroy the entirety of the DCU, as well as subjugating the Hal Jordan version of Spectre and corrupting him, and was equal to the Anti-Life equation itself

Cosmology

Dragon Ball

Primary Macrocosm

The canon cosmology of Dragon Ball is absurdly bigger than our own universe. Universe 7 alone features the mortal universe, the Otherworld, the Demon Realm, a handful of pocket dimensions, and more. With those first three realms each being universal in size at minimum. Additionally, the Otherworld contains Heaven, an absurdly large and beautiful planetoid the size of a universe. Despite this impressive structure being so large however, it cannot be seen from some points of the Otherworld, implying the Otherworld is so large that a Universe sized cosmological body is miniscule within it. 

There are also statements implying Dragon Ball’s various universes are infinite in size. Such statements in reference to the universe include, “An infinite space filled with light and darkness.”, “The darkness that stretches out into infinity and illuminates galaxies.”, “The endless, expansive space wrapped around every celestial body that exists in the Living World.”, and it has been stated that “The Kais govern the infinitely expansive universe [of the living world].”

As for cosmological bodies within the universe, guidebooks also state “Within the universe, there are ‘nebulae’ composed of innumerable stars, and there are ‘galaxies’ composed of innumerable nebulae”. And as for the Kai’s supervision of the cosmology, “The division of galaxies into east, west, north, south, is a unit used by Kami and Kaio of the heavenly realm for business purposes in order to supervise the infinite number of galaxies that exist in outer space.” There is contention over the validity of these statements though, and arguments involving Bulma stating the universe has an edge.

It is also worth addressing that Dragon Ball’s primary cosmology features more than just the Universe 7 Macrocosm, with there being twelve in total, with each macrocosm featuring its own living world, afterlife, pocket dimensions, and so on. These additional locations have been affected at the same time as Universe 7 in the past by beings like Infinite Zamasu.

Alternate Timelines

Dragon Ball also has multiple timelines. A handful of them are elaborated on in main Dragon Ball canon, but non-canon media like Dragon Ball Xenoverse or Dragon Ball Heroes actually goes a step further. There is a minimum of 74,434,925,761 timelines, but there also exists plenty of evidence to suggest infinite timelines. While the Vault of Time is limited in the number of timelines it can contain, it does not contain every timeline, as numerous others exist outside of the Vault in the form of branched off realities accessible via Time Machine only that take the form of Xenoverse’s Parallel Quests. Fu’s rifts in time are likewise disconnected from the normal flow of time and the Time Nest, and are their own realities.

It is directly stated that history contains infinite branches, all separated from the true main timeline. Fu also states that history is not linear or finite, and is formed from “a vast network of countless events.” This is also supported by the original manga’s idea of multiverse theory, where differences in events will result in different timelines.

Crack of Time

The Crack of Time is a realm existing above all of time due to the fact that it contains all of existence within itself. It is stated to be separated from the dimension of time, and has been described as “superdimensional” in promotional material. It cannot be accessed through normal means, nor can it be escaped through normal means. Though, Goku was still able to use Instant Transmission to teleport into it. Somehow.

DC

When it comes to DC’s cosmology, it's no surprise given its vast history that it would end up being one of the most sophisticated and intricate creations you’d ever see. It starts from a singular point; the prime universe, an infinite and never-ending universe, is the main universe that exists alongside 51 other primary universes that exist as the “core” Multiverse.

There are up to an infinite number of these universes in total, when considering the grander scope of DC’s Multiverse, and every one of these universes produce an infinite number of timelines that branch off and expand with every non-event, decision, and possibility that could occur. These universes also contain many geometric dimensions, making them a much more complex space than any traditional universe. It's even stated that, as a whole, reality can be bent into an infinite number of directions. These layered realities exist within larger, localized multiverses, called the Orrery of Worlds.

Surrounding all universes and realities is the Bleedspace, a higher dimensional space that literally bleeds throughout like a foam. This is considered the lifeblood of the multiverse, which even has incredible healing properties. The Orrery and Bleed also contain an innumerable amount of higher spatial dimensions. Atop both of these constructs would be the Speed Force, the kinetic boundary between the present and the time barrier. The Speed Force exists across every dimension, every universe, and every era.

Beyond the Speed Force, we have the Sphere of the Gods, also known as the Godsphere. This is a conceptual realm of Archetypal powers that houses entities of jungian or platonic-esque nature. This overarching realm is formed out of pure possibility, and is home to all mystical and spiritual energy in the DC multiverse. Next would be the Collective Unconscious, a collective, ideal form of mortal souls. Its crest lies beyond real space and time.

Above that would be Comic Book Limbo, a realm where the forgotten of the Orrery end up in. Limbo has no stories left to tell, and essentially lacks time and space. Layered above even Limbo would be the Monitor Sphere, which houses Nil, the home of the Monitors. Space, time, scale, and everything is realer and more profound within Nil. It’s a fundamental and archetypal world, and it is where form and meaning ultimately surrender to the Overvoid. 

Beyond the Monitor Sphere, we have the World Tree, also known as Yggdrasil, this structure is one of the foundations for all of creation and is a reflection of meaning beyond understanding itself. Yggdrasil is the source for various concepts vital to creation, such as the elemental concepts sources known as the Red and the Green. Yggdrasil has an antithesis however, in the form of Maha Pralaya, known as the unmanifest void of nonexistence before creation.

What lies beyond all of this is the Source Wall. This is the very edge of creation, and is an actual barrier that surrounds the multiverse. It is the border of reality, existing in all realms and transecting all dimensions. It is also described as extradimensional, and exists simultaneously both everywhere and nowhere. There is also the Sixth Dimension, a plane of existence set in motion by Perpetua. This sixth dimension is beyond imagination, and is heavily implied to be beyond the Source Wall altogether.

Beyond all things in DC Comics however, must exist a grand and all-powerful creator, known as the Presence. While he has appeared in various aspects to lower beings, he is, in reality, eternal and infinite. The Source is his very energy, and was there in the beginning. It is both all, and “beyond the all”. The Overvoid is on a similar level of existence, in which it is the canvas where the Source’s energy is expelled to create all things, all stories. 

Weaknesses

Son Goku

Goku is a very well rounded fighter. He has incredible strength, speed, intellect, abilities, and so on. While some of his forms can drain stamina faster than others, he can still hold them for long periods of time anyways. Goku’s weakness is not an absolute defect in his nature as a Saiyan, but rather the fact he is not truly a perfect fighter. Enough damage will knock him out, he cannot fight forever, and he can not survive a fatal wound. As impressive as Goku is, he still has a ceiling to reach. Though honestly, he would not like it any other way.

However, even with all these physical weaknesses, one key flaw does hold Son Goku back the most: his nurture-based humanity. For as good a person Goku is, he still has innate bouts of selfishness, causing him to make rash decisions which can spiral out of control. Such as the time he threw Gohan into the ring with Cell, not knowing his son didn't like fighting. Or the time Goku let Freeza/Frieza power up to 100% in order to properly humiliate him to avenge Krillin.

Superman

Clark is an extremely powerful person, able to do things that would be incomprehensible to the average human being, however he is not limitless by emotional, spiritual, and mental means, and would be the first to admit such. Due to his Kryptonian physiology, he is inherently weak to certain types of solar radiation and the radioactivity of different strains of Kryptonite, however, the biggest weakness Clark possesses is one simple fact: he is unable to save everyone, despite all his innate and intricate powers. 

Superman’s emotional vulnerability is in majority his biggest weakness, as he has a heart of gold, and is therefore susceptible to attacks that harm those he loves, or cherishes. Despite this fact, this heart has allowed him to take what he loves most and use it for motivation even in his more dire hours, the last hope left in the darkness once everything else has been taken away.  

Before the Verdict

Why isn’t Goku being given his Universe Tree form?

Goku was only able to use the Power of the Universe Tree for a single short fight against Fu. The power up came from a force Goku cannot normally obtain, was one time only, and vanished forever after the fight. In contrast something like Final Son Superman lasted for an entire story arc. If given to Goku, Superman would need to be given something like the White Lantern ring he had in a single issue. Furthermore Superman has a similar form he gained in Dark Crisis, by absorbing a false reality created by Pariah. This gave Superman a “cosmic” form akin to Goku’s universe tree amp. Both forms were short lived.

Why is Super Dragon Ball Heroes being used?

Aside from Death Being hinting at using it, a SDBH guidebook states the DBS Anime existed in SDBH parallel to the storyline prior to CC Goku's debut and it also states that CC Goku is directly from the end of the DBS Anime.

Are all eras of Superman canon?

DC comics has undergone multiple retcons and different writing eras over the years. As of recent, multiple events (like Convergence, the Rebirth Era, and Death Metal) have combined the once separated eras into a singular overarching narrative. Scott Snyder has gone on record a few times to explain what this entails:

https://www.gamesradar.com/scott-snyder-explains-how-dark-nights-death-metal-shows-what-dc-is-all-about-for-2021-and-beyond/

“My feeling is what we wanted to do with it was say that every story that happened in mainline continuity, not on another Earth - not like Red Son, for example, which has always existed on a separate Earth, an 'Elseworld' story for Superman - but every story that happened on our Earth in various eras is now remembered in one way or another by these characters.

So, all of history is part of their collective memory, an individual memory. So, what they can do is that any character can reckon with, deal with, seek out solace from any memory from DC's past. What we wanted to do is say every story that you've ever loved is now within this character's history and memory going forward.

What that allows us to do as well is build outward. It's almost like if all history is said, and there aren't alternate memories and alternate histories in different ways, then you can build outward from this one tree into all these different branches.

So, that was the idea - to be able to expand the multiverse, expand the characters' missions and adventures by having history behind them set. There's only one version of each character in terms of like, Barry Allen is Barry Allen. He remembers all of Barry Allen's memories from the past, and now he can go on to even greater things as the Flash because of that. His mission will be expanded in really cool ways.”

He says all stories except elseworlds are part of the mainline continuity for these characters post Death Metal in this case, with all the crisis events being basically ‘knots’ in the one timeline, which locked the memories and the events of the timeline from cohering with each other. Diana unknots the timeline and all the memories cohere with each other into one timeline. This is backed up by other sources too. A promotional statement released after Death Metal says outright:

“DC's heroes saved all of reality from the brink of destruction and shook loose the very fabric of space and time. The entire history of the DC Universe has been restored. Every epic battle that ever happened is part of one timeline where everything matters!” 

Definitively placing all these events into one timeline. A similar promotion released on the DC website for Infinite Frontier notes that Darkseid has “leveled up” into a merged version of all his past selves who remembers everything, even specifically singling out the pre-Crisis era as part of this. Arguably most important is that this is backed up within the comics themselves too, as the recent Mark Waid World’s Finest run places Supergirl within the same age group as Nightwing, and replaces both her post-Crisis and New 52 backstories with a new past based directly on her pre-Crisis origins. The 2023 Doom Patrol run also depicts Superman as having been active as Superboy in his younger years, a Silver Age element of his history which was famously retconned away by Byrne for the Post-Crisis era. In essence, all of Superman’s feats should be viable for him currently.

Why does Superman have decibel feats for his stats?

Technically in these instances they are very much unlike other decibel feats. The two one-million decibel feats were measured in-verse with scientific instruments, and it’s possible that given the fact that both were equipped to measure such a thing, they were also able to absorb any of that sound without that much damage. In the instance of Superman’s voice reaching that level, the instrument used to record that decibel measurement was specifically made for measuring such a thing, meaning it’s likely it could absorb any of the given sound. As for Superman colliding with another Kryptonian, it’s also possible that both their bodies could have absorbed a majority of the energy in the impact. 

DC comics has had attacks happen on the Earth which are quite literally infinite multiversal rather than some arbitrarily value, and hence to say that it would be inconsistent for these feats to be legitimate because the Earth would have blown up is likely wrong. To use an example for another verse, Dragon Ball’s Macrocosm punch feat didn’t even destroy the Earth, despite it being able to destroy a universe dozens of times larger than ours.

For the ten billion feat, although it wasn’t measured by a scientific instrument, it was rather said by the narrator (who in Superman stories is consistently reliable), and the fact is that the noise in that instance happened in the Fortress of Solitude, which is constructed by Kryptonian technology, meaning that it’s likely that it could have absorbed any of the energy before it destroyed the Earth. 

Additionally, the sound in that instance destroyed several weapons in Superman’s trophy room, despite the fact that those weapons have been used in the past to hurt Superman, and therefore could withstand their own energies going through them, so saying that they have herald level durability would be valid, and therefore such a scream destroying them would have to be ten billion decibels or more. Nevertheless, it’s entirely possible that the writers just didn’t understand what a decibel means fully, but in this case you can apply the death of the author. In any case, it’s up to one’s interpretation, like everything else in versus.

Bonus Fan Art

(Adam天)

(Brobuscus)

(ishi_yuki)

(Electrik)

Verdict

Stats

Starting with Goku’s canon stats, he should currently scale to all major and important feats in the series apart from any destruction Zeno has performed. This includes massively upscaling multiple cosmic feats, most notably being his near destruction of the universe during his fight with the God of Destruction Beerus. The result of this feat gets as high as you have the primary Dragon Ball macrocosm, ranging anywhere from low multiversal to massively high into multiversal. The speed also has a large range, as at minimum the shockwaves were traveling over two hundred quadrillion times the speed of light, and at most, infinite speed.

As mentioned before, Goku would be upscaling these values massively, and scale to other cosmic feats such as Zamasu spreading across a timeline, or the Gods of Destruction threatening multiple macrocosms during their fights. Feats such as Zamasu’s timeline spreading can also be used to argue canon Goku having Immeasurable speed without needing to rely on infinite macrocosm size, though that is dependent on one’s thoughts on if timeline consumption/destruction counts as an immeasurable feat.

That is just Goku’s canon stats however. As we are including Dragon Ball’s expanded non-canon media, Goku is able to reach far higher stats. In Dragon Ball Heroes in particular, he is able to fight beings who threaten Heroes’ entire expanded cosmology like Chamel, Mechikubara, and Fu. Dragon Ball Heroes’ cosmology is stated and implied to have an infinite number of timelines, contrary to the primary canon’s finite amount. Additionally, characters like Mechikubara are able to expand their energy across all of reality, spreading through infinite time across infinite distance. This would get Goku’s stats with more material mixed in Multiversal+ and Immeasurable speed at the very minimum.

Arguments do exist for going slightly higher than this, due to the Crack of Time, a realm that exists above the entirety of the Dragon Ball cosmology (including previously mentioned infinite timelines). It has statements calling it “superdimensional”, and surpasses the concept of time. This could lead into arguments regarding dimensional tiering, ranging from 4th to 5th dimensional depending on if you consider time as the 4th dimension.

As you can tell though, this is all very semantics focused and there is not too much evidence to suggest applying dimensional tiering, making it a subjective topic and not something to lean on. Regardless of whether or not this is leaned into, the Crack of Time being above the rest of the cosmology and Goku scaling to characters who can affect and destroy it would put him a layer above Multiversal+. It is also worth addressing Goku would upscale these cosmic values as well, as he gets stronger after facing the cosmic characters mentioned previously.

But when it comes to the Man of Steel, Superman simply is in a league of his own when it comes to raw power. When it comes to lifting strength, Superman has pushed entire galaxies worth of planets on his back as a teenager, has lifted the weight of the earth for days, and has even broken the strongest metal of the universe, even though such metal is used to haul stars across different galaxies.

Even if you were to scale Goku to Fu in potentially lifting a universe, Superman has lifted infinite-sized tesseracts before, and has lifted the Book of Limbo, which is bigger than infinite universes. Such a book contains every possible story possible, along with infinite information, meaning his capacity of outputting force is almost unparalleled.

For finite ends, Superman has survived the collapse of the universe during the black hole era, which means that it would have been expanding for well over 10100 years, which makes the universe implosion well over a centillion times universal. Superman has done things like break through infinite barriers of space-time through passively flying with his super-speed, without attempting to apply any specific force with his strength, alongside shattering infinite realities as a spirit once he faced off with Neron. Such showings would put Superman in the infinite multiversal ranges quite casually, yet Superman does not stop there. 

With his voice alone, Superman could generate the vibrations necessary to shatter Darkseid’s soul, even as Darkseid was pulling all universes into himself within a singular infinite singularity. Such a soul existed as a platonic form in the fourth world, above the infinite vibratory germ worlds of the Orrery. Superman stated he could even destroy the Phantom Zone, a world without any spatial dimensionality whatsoever, existing as the manifestation of the Oversoul, a metaphysical consciousness whose mind creates universes through simply thinking about other possibilities, alongside being able to survive in the Source, which is the divine energy from which all multiverses originate. 

Most impressively, Superman at his weakest was able to power the Miracle Machine with his life-force, which exists as an omni-computer which could calculate the life-equation, a mathematical expression which could remake the entirety of creation after it had been consumed by Mandrakk. Such a creation would include the infinite directions and dimensions that reality can exist in per vibrationary planes, meaning that Superman was capable of scaling to the entirety of DC’s cosmology while he was on Death’s doorstep.

This is also seen once he fought the 5th dimensional demon Vyndktvx in a battle happening simultaneously in every world in order to save the entirety of creation in general. Superman has even absorbed the essence of Mageddon, a super-weapon so dangerous that it was causing the army of God to evacuate creation to make a new one, even though the same army was able to take down threats like Lucifer Morningstar.

As for speed, Superman has traveled across the universe and back quite easily, alongside being able to compute all information in the universe in the greater part of one day. Such a feat would get absolutely ridiculous values, well over a hundred zeros times faster than the speed of light itself. Superman has also broken the bounds of infinity in attempting to reach Supergirl, traveling across infinite planes as a result, and has even broken down the boundaries of space and time in order to defeat the concept of his own death.

He has escaped the primal void preceding all universes despite being dumped there by Neron, and has even crossed the entirety of the multiverse within the span of a singular heartbeat. He has traveled through time through sheer speed dozens of times over, and has even raced the Flash a few times, and won. It is safe to say that Superman’s speed is incalculable, although the immeasurability of Superman’s speed is to another level.

Given the fact that he has escaped regions above all vibrations themselves (like the Overvoid), and such vibrations are supplied by the speedforce, the embodiment of all speed itself, that means that Superman should likely infinitely outpace most of the immeasurable speed feats you already know exist from DC. As such, it would seem that Superman has Goku beat, in strength and speed.

Arsenal & Abilities

When it comes to both of their arsenals and abilities, both have quite a lot of powerful and unique tools at their disposal. When it comes to Goku, he could use his Power Pole to capitalize on Superman’s (frankly inconsistent) vulnerability to mystical attacks. With the Senzu Beans he could heal injuries, and he has access to tons of summons, from a dragon who dwarfs whole galaxies in size to Zeno-sama himself. And with his techniques like the Mafuba, all his various Ki Techniques, and all of his higher forms of power like Super Sayian, Super Sayian God, Ultra Instinct, etc., he has quite a lot to offer. That is not even getting into the crazy powers something like the Key Sword provides.

But Superman’s arsenal and abilities simply outdo Goku’s. Superman’s robots were capable of fighting on par with the Justice League, who themselves have feats far above Goku, meaning that Goku will have a hard time dealing with them, and could likely be beaten by them himself. Superman’s Phantom Zone projector could send Goku into a state of nothingness, where he would only exist as a formless spirit for eternity, with no capability to escape, as even the fifth dimensional imp Mxyzptlk was killed in attempting to teleport out of it.

Superman could also build the Miracle Machine to simply wish Goku out of existence, or use his Motherbox to boomtube Goku into another dimension. But the main thing here is Superman’s abilities and resistances. With Superman’s hypnosis, which can bypass even his own resistances (which are quite frankly insane in potency and layers), he could simply hypnotize Goku into making himself power down so Superman could instantly kill him, or he could hypnotize Goku to go into space to die from the lack of oxygen, etc. 

Superman could absorb Goku’s oxygen with his super-breath which would cause Goku to die from the lack of the vacuum, he could lobotomize Goku using his heat-vision in combination with his microscopic vision, he could send Goku outside the Omniverse through using his internal vibrations, he could cancel out Goku’s existence with singing, etc. Even with Goku’s esoteric equipment, they’re not helping him, as Superman can use his X-Ray vision to fry all technology around him, which would inevitably include Goku’s hero switch and his cards, which would shut down a majority of Goku’s options.

Superman could even theoretically accelerate the production of virtual particle & anti-particle pairs within Goku’s body using his heat vision, instantly causing him to have his body turn into pure energy. Hypothetically, Superman could just trap Goku into a psychic-based universe which he could never escape from like how he did to Dominus with Torquasm Rao and Torquasm Vo, etc. There’s nothing Goku could really do to counteract all of Superman’s special abilities. 

Now, on the other hand, Superman pretty solidly resists Goku’s abilities, even with the Key Sword and things with Heroes. He has resisted being sealed, both his body and his soul, within places like the Source, and has resisted being BFR’d to places beyond time like Hypertime, which means he would be capable of escaping the Time Labyrinth.

He has resisted being erased from reality by beings like Darkseid with his Omega Effect, Mxyzptlk, Dr. Manhattan, and Mandrakk, even when these instances of existence erasure have been physical, spiritual, temporal, and even on a layered narrative level. Even Dimensional Domain would not work, as Superman has resisted having his energy, willpower, and life-force drained by the Hollow Men and Parasite, alongside having his very soul and powers drained too, meaning he would resist the power sealing and nullification abilities of the Key Sword. 

Superman has resisted having his mind attacked from numerous sources in the DC universe from telepaths like Martian Manhunter and even Emperor Joker, has seen through illusions, and has even stopped people from looking into his mind in the first place. Superman’s temporal resistances are quite insane too, allowing him to overcome temporal erasure, rewinding, acceleration, time stops, time slows, temporal paradoxes, etc., meaning that all of Goku’s time abilities using his heroes abilities would be useless.

Superman has stopped himself from being transmuted into even magical entities and elements like salt, is immune to poisons and toxins, and can stop intangible things like the Flash from going through his molecules. Superman has even survived in places where the laws of physics and reality did not exist, or were significantly altered, and resisted having his own essence being changed by beings who could manipulate reality and physics themselves like Mxyzptlk and Dr. Manhattan. It is pretty safe to say that Superman can tank basically everything Goku can throw at him, while Goku cannot say the same for Superman.

Tertiary Factors

When it comes to other factors like experience and intelligence, while Goku isn’t lacking in any of these categories, Superman yet again comes out on top here.

Superman has fought with some of the greatest martial artists the world has ever known, and learned from them in many ways, while even being able to defeat them in combat. While Goku is known to have defeated masters of martial arts like Gohan and Roshi, Dragon Ball’s martial arts are much more… ‘realistic’, compared to DC’s. An example being the Legionnaire Karate Kid, whose capabilities in martial arts allow him to fight multiverse-busters despite just being an average human physiologically, basically allowing him to keep up in strength and speed to Kryptonians and Daxamites, and yet Superman as a teenager was able to defeat him in a fight.

Karate Kid himself knows all martial arts in the entire galaxy within the 31st century, and should be more skilled than Brainiac 5, whose memories include the experiences of several multiverses. Superman is also a great wrestler and has grappled with some of the greatest fighters DC has to offer, which in this case would allow for Superman to have the advantage over Goku in hand-to-hand, considering the fact that lifting strength, which Superman has a huge advantage in, takes precedent in such altercations. 

For experience, Goku has been fighting for decades, and has fought against foes whose growth capacities are quite frankly insane, like Frieza. He has also fought against beings who have lived for centuries and millennia, and in the case of Beerus, for millions of years. Although Superman would take this category too, given the fact that he has lived for thousands of years, withstood an infinite multiverse worth of experience while fighting Dominus, has lived for well over a googol years in a fight against his own Death which took him to the Heat Death of the universe, etc.

Superman has fought foes who have existed for billions of years and have even originated from outside of time itself, like Darkseid and Orion. Superman in his 80 years of existence has also definitely fought foes with more unique abilities than Goku or even Dragon Ball has ever seen, and yet he has triumphed over them all. 

As for intelligence, while Goku is far from stupid, constantly being able to learn new techniques just by looking at them once, and being able to create new strategies to defeat new opponents, Superman has been shown to outmatch Goku in this category. Superman once learned how to perform lung surgery, a practice that takes a normal human ten years of training to learn, in about five minutes. Superman was able to reverse-engineer the Miracle Machine, a piece of technology so complicated that it makes Green Lantern rings look like trash, just by looking at it once. Superman has constantly and consistently outsmarted genius foes like Lex Luthor, whose intelligence is so insane that he was able to create time machines in prison using orange juice containers.

Superman has worked on and created pieces of alien technology that can affect cosmological realms which would trivialize the entirety of Dragon Ball into nothingness, could learn entirely alien languages just by hearing them once, has tabulated all the information in the universe within his brain even though supercomputers which could build entire star systems failed attempting the same task, etc. As for strategy, Superman has led the Justice League and the Legion of Superheroes to victory over their enemies dozens of times over, even as these enemies have access to advanced and god-like technologies, like the ones of the Controllers or Apokolips. It is safe to say that Superman’s super-brain just outdoes Goku.

Conclusion

“Here on Earth, we like to live together in peace and harmony. Although that’s not always been the case. We’ve had our fair share of enemies, trust me. But I don’t think that you’re one of them. For some reason, I can just tell. You can stop fighting. You don’t have to listen to what the others tell you to do.”

Advantages:

• “Can he beat Goku though?”

Disadvantages:

• Yes, Superman can.

“Why do you lose every time? It’s simple. You have the power of a god, but you don’t understand the basic rules of the trick. For every action—there’s an equal and opposite reaction. For every you—there’s someone like me to fight back. And I don’t give up.”

Advantages:

• Beats Goku in a fight…

Disadvantages:

• …but not in a rap battle (also loses to Sasuke)

So with all that being said… yeah Superman just kind of wins. While Goku is no doubt a fantastic fighter and someone who saved the universe and even the multiverse numerous times over, Superman just has everything going for him and then some. In terms of stats, Superman is far stronger and faster. Abilities and arsenal, Superman trumps Goku’s in nearly every way. Other factors like experience and smarts, yet again Superman has gone laps around Goku.

Goku really has no realistic means of putting down Superman for good. Even if we only limit Superman to feats he’s done on his own with no scaling, the odds would still be in Superman’s favor in that scenario. No doubt Goku is strong, he 100% is, but when he’s placed in a VS match against a character who has nearly a century worth of media, it’s hard to argue him getting the win over the Man of Steel.

Goku was truly a mighty fighter and definitely deserves to be called “The Strongest Fighter in the Universe.” But Superman’s overwhelming stats, superior abilities and arsenal, and skill and intelligence simply triumphed in the end. It appears that while Goku would get to have the fight to make him feel Alive… he simply couldn’t Steel himself to make this battle of the ages… Drag-on.

The winner is Superman.

Final Tally

Team Goku (1) - Advert (you get one, buddy)

Team Superman (12) - SneedFormerlyChuck, TrexGamer, AdamPrimus, Bang, Coach Boomer, Guruguru wa, ishi_yuki, The Monster King, MomoUra, VampyreNVRmore, Gamer Brutality, greymerlion2

Undecided (1) - Blue Igneous

The True Ending

Credit to Neodusk for this comic