Karen: We recently asked that age old question, who would win in a battle between Hulk and Thor? You gave us your answers, with Thor barely eking out a victory over Hulk.Now we turn to the DC universe. In a battle between Superman and Capt. Marvel (we're talking the Shazam guy here, not the Kree!), who walks away? The Man of Steel vs. The Big Red Cheese -who ya got, and why?
Doug: While the Rich Buckler cover on the right is pretty wonderful, the splash from Kingdom Come may be the Best. Image. Ever. At least for this argument -- look down and love.
Let's face it, Supes is no martial artist. His strategy is hit softly, try to reason, hit a little harder, try to reason some more, then hit a little harder... Someone like the Big Red Cheese is going to give him a hard time.
ReplyDeleteHe also has a tendency to hold back. Much of the reason Doomsday had to be created was so that he would be able to go all out against whoever "killed" him.
I think Captain Marvel has an edge or these two reasons.
I love the battle in Kingdom Come (one of the few parts of the series where the layouts had really effective storytelling IMO), and if Supes' second rounding of trying to talk Billy out of fighting had failed, there's a good chance that a roughly Golden Age power level Supes would have continued to have gotten his ass kicked.
Captain Marvel, no doubt. Not only for the reasons Mr. Goebelbecker posted above; somewhat-mystical powers and yellow sun-saturated Kryptonians don't mix....
ReplyDeleteInteresting -that's two supporters of the Captain here, yet our sidebar poll shows only one vote for him!
ReplyDeleteKaren
Superman would win. But in the battle of their villains, Sivanna could take Luthor!
ReplyDeleteI'm torn. Captain Marvel's such a dope. I guess it depends on which Superman we're talking about, too. Remember, they depowered him a bit in the Bronze Age, and depowered him further when Byrne took over. Don't think Marvel's ever undergone any such downsizing of his power's.
ReplyDeleteMr. Tawky Tawny or Streaky the Supercat? Discuss...
Lord I can really hate on DC.
Doug
No one has mentioned heat vision...or super-breath. Honestly, I think if Superman doesn't hold back, he wins this.
ReplyDeleteKaren
According to Harvey Kurtzman & Wally Wood, Stuporman wins in a knockout! Well, mainly because he tricks Captain Marbles into knocking his own head off. But Lois Lame still won't give Cluck Kent the time of day. (I have the hardcover copy of that old Mad comic somewhere but I'm too tired to go get it just now).
ReplyDeleteOf course, in the marketplace back in the '40s & early '50s, Captain Marvel beat Superman in sales, but Supes' legal team finally managed to whittle the Big Red Cheese down to size. Poor ol' Billy's alter ego just ain't been the same since then.
As for present circumstances, I suppose Captain Marvel would win as long as he doesn't let Superman trick him into saying his magic word at an inopportune time.
The votes are in, and by a 15-10 count, Superman has been declared the winner! Thanks for your votes as well as your comments!
ReplyDeleteThey can both be "goody-two shoes" types, but I have to give the edge to Superman, if for no other reason than as one of the classic characters of DC, no writer there is going to let his rival beat him. Notice the number of stories -- Distant Fires, Kingdom Come -- where the Big Red Cheese ends up on the wrong side, fighting Superman. It shows the fix is in for Superman.
ReplyDeleteHmm. The Last Son of Krypton vs The World's Mightiest Mortal?
ReplyDeleteIf we go straight by their feats, Supes would win. The best Cap ever did was towing the Earth a few centimeters from its former place. Meanwhile, the teenaged Superboy (who is much weaker than his adult self) was towing around lots and lots of planets on a self-made chain around the cosmos...
If we go by overall power, Superman wins. Heck, 200% of Superman's power once proved sufficient to nullify the combined power of both the whole Green Lantern Corps and the Time Trapper and simultaneously removed the Great Disaster reality from all of Earth-One's alternate time-lines except one! That's a multiversal feat, you know.
If we go by their versatility, Superman wins. He has lots and lots of powers to begin with. And he can even effect new powers by mixing his old powers or using them in a clever way, such as when he transformed the molecular composition of a whole world's surface simply by shouting in a certain way in the second LSH tale.
Compared to that, The Big Red Cheese is a one-trick pony.
If we go by their brains, I'd say Captain Marvel has a 50-50 chance of beating Supes. Granted, Supes is much more intelligent; but Cap is far wiser: more no-nonsense than Kal-El. He doesn't fool around with villains, doesn't pay weird games with his lovers, plays the fall-guy in his secret ID or that kind.
To make it short: Supes wins 7/10, at least the first few fights. After that, when Cap starts to prep-time, all bets are off-- and since Cap's more ruthless than Supes to begin with, Superman would have a *big* problem.