For over eighty years now, Superman has been fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Sometimes, these fights aren't so bad. Stopping a random mugging or your run of the mill bank robbery doesn't make the Man of Steel sweat.
But every now and then, Superman finds himself in a real knockdown drag-out kind of fight. The kind of brawl that no one but Superman could survive, and one bout that even he couldn't get out of alive. These are the battles that cement Superman as one of the most powerful heroes in the DC universe, showing off just how strong he is. Ripping off a car door is nothing for a man who can literally push planets out of their orbit. These are the 10 most brutal Superman fights, ranked...
10 Superman vs Bar-El and Lilo
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman is filled with some of the most exciting battles of Superman's career. From having to take down Parasite while stuck in his Clark Kent identity doing an interview with Lex Luthor to the final confrontation between Lex and Superman, this twelve-issue series was filled with great moments.
Superman's battle against fellow Kryptonians Bar-El and Lilo stands out as a really nasty battle. Worried about the damage three superpowered Kryptonians could do to Earth, Superman takes the fight to the moon, which quickly gets shattered into pieces. To save the Earth from the drastic change in the tides and gravity that would come with the destruction of the moon, Superman sews the lunar satellite back together using all of the bridges on Earth.
9 Superman vs Muhammad Ali
When an alien race called the Scrubb come to Earth and demands proof that humans are not dishonorable, war-like and aggressive beings that will one day pose a threat to their planet. For some reason, the Scrubb believe that by having Earth's greatest champion fight their own champion, this will prove that humans aren't violent. Either way, both Superman and Muhammad Ali volunteer to battle the Scrubb champion.
In order to decide which of the men will fight the Scrubb champion, Superman and Muhammad Ali agree to fight each other. To make it fair, the fight is held on the Scrubb homeworld, which orbits a red sun, draining Superman of his powers. Without his superpowers, Superman is no match for Muhammad Ali, and gets his butt beat something serious.
8 Superman vs Xenomorph (Superman/Aliens)
When a transmission from a Kryptonian city reaches Earth, Superman takes off to find the last remnants of his home planet, hoping that there will be survivors. The journey takes the Man of Steel away from the yellow rays of the sun that power him, and soon enough, Superman is less super and more man. That's when the Xenomorphs show up.
While weakened, Superman gets the facehugger treatment and becomes the incubation chamber for an Alien. With time dwindling, the Man of Steel must fight his way out of the Alien hive and get close enough to the sun to regain his full strength before the chestburster inside his stomach hatches.
7 Superman vs The Elite
When the Elite, a new team of superheroes led by Manchester Black, starts becoming popular, Superman finds himself being one of the few who don't like them. This isn't a jealousy thing for Superman, it's the methods that the Elite use that keeps the Man of Steel from being a fan of the new group; mainly just how happy the Elite is to kill people.
When Superman confronts the Elite over their methods, the team attacks the Man of Steel, beating him brutally while the people of Earth watch on TV. While this is one of the most horrific battles Superman has ever been a part of, much of it falls into the hero's plan to show the world why a group like the Elite shouldn't be celebrated.
6 Superman vs Batman
Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most loved comic stories of all time. Telling the tale of an old Bruce Wayne coming out of retirement to become Batman once again, the story sees the Dark Knight go darker than he ever had before, leading to a final confrontation between Batman and Superman.
Leading up to the fight, Superman barely survives a nuclear explosion, and while Batman's power suit makes him stronger than usual, the Caped Crusader still wouldn't be much of a threat to the Man of Steel. One well shot explosive arrow filled with Kryptonite dust from Green Arrow makes things a little fairer. While Superman ends up walking away from the fight with a few bruises, it is Batman who really takes the brutal beating. But, Batman being Batman, you can be sure that was all part of his plan.
5 Superman vs Shazam
A fight between Shazam and Superman is sure to be a nasty little battle, but when Shazam is being controlled by Lex Luthor, you can bet that it'll be one for the ages. In Mark Waid and Alex Ross' seminal story Kingdom Come, the final battle of the heroes comes down to these two titans facing off.
With his magic-based powers, Shazam is a serious threat to the Man of Steel, and the lightning strikes of the Big Red Cheese nearly take Superman out for good. Kingdom Come is filled with amazing moments, but the battle between Superman and Shazam may well be the most intense of them all.
4 Superman vs Darkseid
In a battle years in the making, Superman gets the chance to show Darkseid just how powerful he is in the final episode of Justice League Unlimited. Superman's hatred of Darkseid had been building since the end of Superman: The Animated Series when Darkseid invaded the Earth, brainwashed the Man of Steel, and killed Detective Dan Turpin.
In this battle, where Superman explains "What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose, and show you just how powerful I really am!" the New God from Apokolips and the Man of Steel have a battle so fierce, it leaves a crater a mile wide and two miles deep in the center of Metropolis.
3 Superman vs Zod
Zack Snyder's Man of Steel is the first live-action movie that really shows off just how powerful Superman is. In his climactic battle with fellow Kryptonian Zod, Superman and his foe level not only all of Metropolis but much of Smallville as well.
This fight is filled with window shattering punches and building crushing blows, setting a new standard for what a superhero fight in a movie could be. Snyder's Man of Steel has Superman face his hardest choice when Zod leaves him no choice but to kill. In order to save a random family, Superman breaks Zod's neck and then collapses into a ball of tears.
2 Superman and Superman of Earth-Two vs Superboy-Prime (Infinite Crisis)
Angered at how the heroes of the DC universe have squandered the sacrifice they made at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor decide to bring back the multiverse and remake reality to fit their wants. To stop them, all of the heroes, including the original Earth-Two Superman, come together to stop the two teens.
A fight that sees two Supermen battling a third is sure to be one for the ages. Younger and filled with rage, Superboy-Prime is virtually unstoppable. To stop him, the two Supermen fly the boy through the remains of Krypton, essentially taking all three through a Kryptonite dust storm, and then smashing him into the red sun Rao before falling to the surface of the sentient Green Lantern planet Mogo. Here, with all three warriors weakened, the battle really goes down, with Superboy-Prime beating the Golden age Superman to death,
1 Superman vs Doomsday
The most famous fight in Superman's eighty-plus years, the battle against Doomsday and Superman's death at the end of it made it to the front page of newspapers around the world, leading to millions of people lining up at comic shops looking to get their hands on the special issue, many wearing black armbands with Superman's crest on it to show their love for the character.
Superman's battle with Doomsday left behind a path of destruction across the United States, saw the Justice League decimated, and ended with the two Kryptonian powerhouses killing one another in a final blow that shattered every window in Metropolis and beyond. The image of a crying Lois Lane holding the dead body of Superman as other heroes gathered behind her is burned into ever Superman fan's memory forever.