DC’s announcement yesterday that they would release a limited-run, $250 statue of Superman fighting Muhammad Ali in homage to their classic 1978 comic book counter has stirred up a surprising amount of nostalgia from comic book fans. Hero Complex’s Geoff Boucher: “I own about 9,000 comic books but ask me to pick my single favorite and I don’t need to think twice. It’s “Superman vs. Muhammad Ali,” which (despite the smirk-inducing title) was a world-class knockout when it arrived in the fall of 1978 and remains an enduring classic all these years later.”
Superman’s encounters with the likes of The Hulk, Galactus, and Spider-Man are undeniably inspiring of geekery, but we tend to put comic book characters, Marvel and DC alike, in the same shelves in our minds, which is why totally uncomiclike crossover battles are stranger still.
After the jump, ten snapshots of Superman’s encounters with the likes of The Terminator, Adolf Hitler, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:
In no particular order:
1. Muhammad Ali (image via Hero Complex)
2. The Terminator: (image via ComicBookMovie)
3. The Y2K Bug (actually caused by Brainiac, of course. image via DC Wikia)
4. H.R. Giger’s Aliens (image via Wikipedia)
5. The KKK: This one actually happened on the Superman radio show — and in real life, thanks to the anti-KKK research of a writer named Stetson Kennedy. Mental Floss has the scoop: (do read the full article) (image via io9)
As the storyline progressed, the shows exposed many of the KKK’s most guarded secrets. By revealing everything from code words to rituals, the program completely stripped the Klan of its mystique. Within two weeks of the broadcast, KKK recruitment was down to zero. And by 1948, people were showing up to Klan rallies just to mock them.
6. Predator (image via Superhero Stuff)
7. Hitler and Tojo (You knew this had to exist. via)
8. A Snowman (image via TVTropes)
9. Jerry Lewis (via Comic Book Attic. Alas, Superman doesn’t beat up Jerry Lewis; rather, Jerry Lewis takes Superman’s costume and the Man of Steel has to get it back — he does this by flying in so quickly as to leave Lewis naked in front of a gun-toting thug. See also: Superman teaming up with Orson Welles. Way better than his Jerry Seinfeld collabo, anyway.)
10. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: (image via thechrishaley’s Flickr)
