About

Goku vs. Superman is a long-running debate between the fans of DC Comics' iconic superhero Superman and the main protagonist of the Japanese manga and anime franchise Dragon Ball. Due to their comparable stature as the most powerful characters within their respective fictional universes, the hypothetical question of which of the two fictional superheroes would win in a battle has been debated online for decades through discussion forums and communities associated with both fandoms.

Origin

While many details surrounding the genesis of the fandom rivalry remain unclear, the debate most likely began to gain traction at the turn of the century, sometime after the premiere of Dragon Ball Z in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block in 1998. In the October 2002 issue of Wizard Magazine the magazine included a fight between Goku and Superman as part of their "East vs West" segment which pitted western heroes against Japanese ones (shown below). In the fight Goku emerged as the victor. The earliest known notable example of an online discussion relating to the topic can be found on Newgrounds in a forum thread titled "Goku VS. Superman," submitted by Alakazam on January 23rd, 2003.^[1]

Spread

That same year, DeviantArt user mistermoster uploaded a colored rendition of a fan art illustration drawn by fellow user Chachaman (shown below). Mistermoster later expanded the illustration into a webcomic series^[2] centered around the rivalry between Goku and Superman.

On June 28th, 2006, YouTuber harsh29 uploaded a video depicting a fight between Goku and Superman within the 2D freeware fighting game Mugen (shown below, left). On August 3rd, 2009, YouTuber Vegito1089 uploaded an animation video depicting a fight between Goku and Superman using cropped clips from various episodes of Dragon Ball as well as the Justice League animated series (shown below, right). Due to the outcome of the fight in favor of Superman, many viewers of the video, presumably Dragon Ball fans, disliked the video and left negative comments in the video's comment section. As of July 2015, the video has more than 4 million views, nearly 30,000 comments, with a 3:1 dislike-to-like ratio. Along with these, there have been various other fan-made fights, numbering around 127,000 results on YouTube.^[3]

On May 19th, 2014 YouTuber ERB uploaded a video titled "Goku vs Superman. Epic Rap Battles of History Season 3." as a part of their Epic Rap Battles of History series with Ray William Johnson portraying Goku (shown below). As of July 2015, the video has over 54 million views.

Death Battle

On January 9th, 2013 YouTube based entertainment company ScrewAttack in collaboration with various other individuals and groups, including Team Four Star, uploaded a video titled "Goku VS Superman | DEATH BATTLE! | ScrewAttack!" as a part of their Death Battle series (shown below, left). In the video the two hosts of the series analyze both Goku and Superman's abilities in order to determine who would win in a fight between the two. Around two years after the original video, ScrewAttack announced at the end of their "Darth Vader VS Doctor Doom" video that a rematch between Goku and Superman would be released at SGC 2015. A trailer was later released on July 8, 2015. The full episode was released at SGC 2015 on July 17th 2015. The video was later uploaded to YouTube on July 18th, 2015 (shown below, right).

At the end of each fight Superman emerged as the victor, leading many Dragon Ball fans, as well as others, to post their reactions and counter-arguments (shown below).

Search Interest

External References