The History of Goku vs. Superman

Many Internet debate has never been this widespread and overdue as much as the debate of Goku battling against Superman. Two powerful fictional characters in anime and comic book history. Both have a similar origins of being alien beings, being shipped off from their doomed planet before residing on Earth, and then becomes heroes of Earth. Well, when did this debate become largely widespread, and when did it become overdue. Here’s a timeline of events that contribute to the debate of Goku vs. Superman.

While many details surrounding the genesis of the fandom rivalry remain unclear, the debate most likely began to gain traction sometime after the premiere of Dragon Ball Z in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block in 1998. With that aspect, it seems like the early English dub of the series tried to make Goku closely similar to Superman. This results in fans arguing that it ruins Goku’s true characteristics.

In the October 2002 issue of Wizard Magazine the magazine included a fight between Goku and Superman. This was part of their "East vs West" segment which pitted western heroes against Japanese ones. In the fight Goku emerged as the victor, after sending Superman from Earth’s atmosphere to the ground, knocking him unconscious.

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.

In the same year, DeviantArt user mistermoster uploaded a colored rendition of a fan art illustration drawn by fellow user Chachaman.

Mistermoster later expanded the illustration into a webcomic series centered around the rivalry between Goku and Superman. In the webcomic, Goku and Superman gets transported to face one another. After a long battle, Superman beats Goku by lifting him up in space. This kills Goku, since he can’t breathe in space.

On June 28th, 2006, YouTuber harsh29 uploaded a video depicting a fight between Goku and Superman within the 2D freeware fighting game Mugen. The video show Goku beating Superman.

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. It was Goku vs the Pre Crisis Superman, which many Superman fans considered the strongest Superman. 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.

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. 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. The result was Superman defeating Goku with the Infinite Mass Punch, destroying the Saiyan at the cost of Earth. Although the video explain why Superman won, many Dragon Ball fans felt that Goku was heavily nerfed & the Snake Way explaination of Goku’s speed was wrong.

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. As of July 2015, the video has over 54 million views.

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. This video show that despite Goku’s new forms of Super Saiyan God & Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan (later on being named Super Saiyan Blue), he still was defeated by Superman. ScrewAttack stated that Superman has no limits while Goku, as far as he can get stronger, has a limit.

In February 10th, 2017, YouTuber Gubz uploaded the video “10 Ways Goku Could Beat Superman.” The video explains many weaknesses of Superman & how Goku could actually use such weaknesses. It gain 1.4 million views & 27 thousands likes as of now. Many argue, mostly Superman fans, that despite such weaknesses Superman still could beat Goku. There was another video of Gubz that show other ways Superman could defent Goku, yet the video seems to be deleted or private..

So after almost two decades, it’s like the debate could never die. It seeems like Goku and Superman are destined to be put together just to see how the outcome could change. Dragon Balls fans has been vocal for Goku winning due to his Super Saiyan transformations & the power of Ultra Instinct. Superman fans continues to argue that whatever Goku can dish out, Superman can just overpowered him and defeat him rather easily. No matter how the battle goes. There’s many ways either one could win. In conclusion, this is the history of Goku vs Superman. A debate that looks like it would never die.