Sandbox / DEATH BATTLE! (Goku VS Superman)

A long debated matchup between two immensely strong Human Aliens who were rocketed from their dying species to Earth raised and by kindly farmers ultimately becoming compassionate All loving heroes. This is such a debated topic that DEATH BATTLE! not only took it as one of its first fights, but also had two rematches every time one or both of them had a significant update in feats. It eventually evolved from serious fight to the death to friendly rivalry (while still being a fight to the death, albeit with the stakes being lower due to the presence of Dragon Balls.)

Both

• The Bus Came Back: Goku and Clark make their third appearance as combatants since their first rematch in Season 2 (or if we count minor appearances, Goku's appearance in Gogeta VS Vegito last season) to do battle for the third time for Season 10's penultimate episode (a first in and of itself).
• Battle Aura: Goku has one in each of his super modes, while when Superman stops holding back, he generates one with electricity.
• Clothing Damage:
  • Both Goku's gi top and undershirt end up being destroyed, and his pants get pretty roughed up too, once Superman stops holding back and pummels Super Saiyan Blue to the point he loses the transformation.
  • Superman meanwhile gets his Badass Cape torn up something fierce once Goku manages to activate Ultra Instinct and get some momentum back.

• Composite Character: It was confirmed by Ben Singer that for this matchup, they're using sources such as Dragon Ball Heroes for Goku (thus allowing feats performed by Xeno Goku, too) and DC Infinite Frontier for Superman (Infinite Frontier combines all mainline versions of heroes, including Superman, into one, essentially allowing Superman to use even his Pre-Crisis abilities, which were banned from the first two versions of the fight). When Boomstick complains about Batman beating Superman, Wiz points out those are Elseworlds stories and DEATH BATTLE uses them at their best. Later on, Ben Singer would state on the Rooster Teeth website that alongside Heroes, all feats done in the movies, manga and anime would be taken into account for Goku similarly to how Infinite Frontier did the same for Superman.

• The Determinator: At the end of the day, both Goku and Superman will always face down impossible odds and overcome their limits in order to save those around them.
  • Goku is one of anime's most famous examples, with his Saiyan heritage even weaponizing that trait by making him grow stronger every time he bounces back from death, allowing him to contend with practically every one of Dragon Ball's greatest threats. In the fight itself, he even manages to force Superman to go all out due in large part to his refusal to stay down.
  • Superman's strength and sense of responsibility means that he will often be the DC universe's go-to for taking down the greatest cosmic threats, such as the World Forger, who stranded the Man of Steel on a dying planet with an extremely distant sun. Superman still found the strength of will to reach that sun and fly through countless others to gain the power necessary to bring down the World Forger.
• Foil: During Goku's breakdown, the hosts bring up the original English dub's rewrites of Goku into a Superman-like figure to bring up the ways Goku is not like Superman in the original text. Goku fights for self-improvement and self-discovery — as reflected in the original Super Saiyan monologue where he fully comes to terms with and embraces his Saiyan heritage — whereas Superman fights out of necessity to save whatever worlds and people he can.
• Friendly Rivalry: This time around, Goku and Superman are on very good terms, respect one another, and genuinely get into the fight. Superman is even happy to fight Goku now, unlike before where he was fighting to stop Goku, whom he had seen as reckless and uncaring of collateral damage, as thanks to the Dragon Balls being able to undo any and all damage to their surroundings, he can actually go all out against Goku. The ending shows both of them share a fist bump, grateful for the battle and ready to clash again.
• Golden Super Mode: Goku has the classic Super Saiyan and its non-divine Ki derivatives, while Superman gets this after supercharging on solar energy. Ironically, Goku starts the fight in his particular version, and Superman ends it in his own.
• Instant Expert: Both combatants have a knack for learning new skills on the fly, even ones that require years of training.
  • Thanks to his Saiyan heritage, Goku is able to manipulate ki to the point where he could perform the Kamehameha, a technique that Master Roshi spent decades perfecting, in seconds after seeing it once.
  • Superman was once able to gain ten years' worth of medical training after reading for five minutes before successfully performing lung surgery.
• Lighter and Softer: The third fight between Goku and Superman is more of a friendly brawl than the first two. The death involved both sides being on good terms, and Goku and Superman compliment each other multiple times throughout the fight, compared to the first two fights where Superman saw Goku as more of a threat that he had to defeat.
• Lightning Bruiser: Both fighters are some of the most legendary Lightning Bruisers in all of fiction. Both have the strength to destroy countless universes, the toughness to endure those attacks, and speed too great to be measured.
• Nice Guy: Goku and Superman are both friendly, compassionate, and good natured individuals who will do anything to protect those they care about.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Goku assumes the Red Oni role while Clark assumes Blue Oni. Goku is passionate. hot-blooded and energetic. Clark wears red and blue, is calm, collected, stoic and composed. He wants to end the fight as quickly as possible because it's not a game and he's not having fun.

• Strong and Skilled: Interestingly, both are incredibly powerful and have trained in the martial arts, but lean towards opposite halves of the trope. Goku's mastery of the martial arts makes him the more Skilled while Superman's absurd power makes him the more Strong.
• Took a Level in Badass: Both combatants have gotten considerably more powerful since their first rematch in season 2. Justified, as Goku is continually breaking his own physical barriers, while Superman is continuing to overcome his own mental blocks.
  • Goku now has Hakai and Mastered Ultra Instinct at his disposal, and can stack Kaioken on top of his other forms. He's shown to be able to rattle his whole universe with his punches, a far cry from his calculated strength at the time of the first two episodes. He's also kept up with Jiren, a mortal that surpasses the Gods of Destruction, and defeated opponents that could see the future and threaten the multiverse itself, like Aeos and Demigra respectively. He's stated to be able to defeat almost every version of Superman out there, and he's now considered the main Supes' equal in speed and superior in combat skill, though is still beat in terms of strength, powers and experience. Previously, Clark had him outclassed by an absolute landslide in every category.
  • Superman, thanks to Infinite Frontier combining all mainline versions of the man, now has access to his feats from other continuities. This includes the Golden Age and Pre-Crisis Supermen, who famously towed a dying solar system and broke the bonds of infinity. That's on top of more modern feats like escaping and destroying the World Forger's multiverse, or obliterating Darkseid's true form with a shout. All of this is in spite of the Kryptonian being given proper limits this time around.
• Worthy Opponent: Goku has nothing but respect for Superman's power and fighting ability, and by the end of the fight, Superman reciprocates the feeling. Despite losing, Goku comments on how fun the fight was and demands a rematch, which Superman says he looks forward to while fist-bumping him.
  Superman: Almost had me, there. That was actually pretty fun!
  Goku: (chuckles) Yeah, sure was! But I'll get stronger next time.
  Superman: I look forward to it!

Son Goku / Kakorot

Dragon Ball Son Goku (Kakarot)

Frieza: "What... what are you?"
Goku: "I am the hope of the universe. I am the answer to all living things that cry out for peace. Ally to good, nightmare to you!"
Voiced by: Lawrence Simpson

• Adapted Out: In the first fight, Goku took feats and abilities from the manga, anime filler scenes, Non-Serial Movies, and ''Anime
• Anime Hair: Superman makes fun of his hairstyles.
• The Apprentice: He's had many different teachers, with Roshi being his first serious teacher.
• Back from the Dead: He is revived at the start of the fight, along with the entire Earth, through Superman's use of the Dragon Balls. In fact, Superman is even expecting his arrival to fight him.
• Badass Boast: "Don't get ahead of yourself, buddy. You're not the only with that kind of power."
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Averted; while Goku has been seen fighting at high altitudes, Saiyans cannot travel in space without the aid of a spaceship. It is clearly seen in Freeza's fight that Goku was drowning underwater and Freeze claims that Saiyans can't survive in space.
• Back for the Dead: Unfortunately for Goku, a return for a third round isn't enough to net him a win against Clark. Even so, he's still very happy to have gotten a good fight out of it, and eagerly awaits the opportunity to improve himself and (eventually) go another round.
• Back from the Dead: He returns in Season 2 for a rematch, using his Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms.
• Battle Aura: The famous Super Saiyan forms emit energy of varying intensities.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The hosts note that when he's not fighting, he's a family man.
• Beyond the Impossible: Goku's character in the Dragon Ball series is presented as someone who breaks limits, improving battle after battle and overcoming strong opponents.
• Big Eater: Not brought up in the episode, but is of course mentioned as one of his characteristics.
• Blinded by the Light: His Solar Flare can blind foes, though it did not affect Superman.
• Blood Knight: Nothing he enjoys more than a good fight, and it's the reason he seeks out Superman. He even thinks of their fight as a game. No surprise he's happy fighting against the strongest rival he's ever known, even if he did take another loss.
• Book Dumb: Wiz points out that he's illiterate since he focuses most of his time on training to get stronger. He notes that Goku picks up new techniques easily from watching them, rather than reading about them.
• Boomerang Bigot: His reason for attacking Superman, besides seeing him as a great challenge, is because he learned Superman is an alien and fears that his ultimate plan is to destroy Earth. Even ignoring that Goku is friends with several aliens, he is one himself. Most of whom, including himself, arrived intending to destroy/conquer the Earth.
• Came Back Strong: Thanks to his Saiyan physiology, Goku receives a significant power boost every time he recovers from a severe injury.
• Challenge Seeker: If there is one trope that embodies Goku, it is this - it doesn't matter what challenge you put before him, he will accept it. His initial motivation and why he chooses to forego "unfair" advantages while fighting Superman.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: When he transforms into his Super Saiyan 4 form, he wears a different pair of pants and shoes. This is justified because SSJ4 Goku and "Standard" Goku are from different time periods and were wearing different clothes.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Though his species is normally physically superior to humanity (as a baby, considered a runt even, he was clocked in at nearly half as strong as a normal human adult) Goku and his companions achieve god-like levels of fighting ability through rigorous training. He,s later achieved god-like power by constantly training all his life.
• Combat Pragmatist: Despite preferring a "fair fight" by letting his opponents fight him at their best and refusing to take advantage of any crippling weaknesses, Goku has no problems with ignoring Talking Is a Free Action by sucker-punching Superman at certain intervals in their fight.
• Combined Energy Attack: The Spirit Bomb is a giant ball of energy that Goku can gather by having other living things lend their inner ki. He can either hurl the ball of energy at his foes or absorb it to strengthen himself. An exhausted Goku gathers the energy from the sun uses it to boost his Kamehameha and restore his Super Saiyan 4 form for the final blow.
• Combo Platter Powers: Ki is surprisingly versatile when you apply it right—Goku has super strength, speed, and durability, flight, telekinesis, can read minds, and of course has his series' staple Ki Manipulation.
• Composite Character: He is himself at the end of Z, with additional abilities he obtained later in GT.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
• Being physically disintegrated while screaming out in pain is not a pleasant way to go.
• Surprisingly averted the second time in a show that is ripe with these, but while it may not sound pleasant, Superman disintegrating his brain with his heat vision is one of the tamest deaths on the show and considering the slow motion to show its disintegration, it was quick and nearly (if not completely) painless.

• Dead Hat Shot: At the end of the battle, the only thing left is his boot.
• Deadly Upgrade: The Kaio-Ken technique doubles Goku's speed and strength, but it puts a great strain on his body, and could even kill him. Super Saiyan 3 can also wear his body down.
• Death Is Cheap: As per series standard, he's resurrected. Heck, even after being killed a second time, it's heavily implied he'll come back again due to his flippant manner to dying as well as being eager to have a crack at Superman after training again before King Kai discourages him.
• Defense Mechanism Superpower: Though Goku's capable of Ultra Instinct, it isn't easy for him to get into the headspace of the technique the way he can just transform into a Super Saiyan at will. The most consistent way he's been able to get 'in the zone' has been when he's pushed to his very limits and his only options are to grasp Ultra Instinct or die. In the battle, he only enters the state after Superman has just finished thrashing him out of his normal transformations and is about to throw the would-be finishing blow.
• Determinator: His greatest strength is his tenacity and never-give-up attitude. Unfortunately, against an opponent as powerful as Superman, tenacity sometimes only prolongs the inevitable.
• Discontinuity Nod: Since Goku became significantly more powerful in Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F', filler and GT feats are ignored, save for the possibility of him beating Superman with the Universal Spirit Bomb.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Using the Dragon Fist against the Infinite Mass Punch.
• Dying Race: He's one of the few living pure-blood Saiyans after the destruction of their planet.
• Enhanced Punch: The Dragon Fist, an attack in which he envelopes his fist in an aura of golden ki shaped like a dragon. The Infinite Mass Punch trumps it by a landslide.
• Enlightenment Superpower: Autonomous Ultra Instinct, which isn’t so much a transformation as it is a state of mind; with it, Goku lets go of consciousness thoughts and lets his body automatically respond to any attack to the best of his abilities, even if it pushes his body past its safe limit. Along with Kaioken, it's the last form Goku uses in the fight itself.
• Finishing Move: Uses the Dragon Fist against Superman's Infinite Mass Punch and loses.
• Flight: Goku can use his ki to fly.
• Flying on a Cloud: Before he could fly, the Flying Nimbus was his mode of transportation. He uses it to get to Metropolis when he seeks Superman out for a fight.
• Graceful Loser:
• While he's on Snake Way, Goku's reaction to losing a second time is to train harder to find a way to beat Supes, but he then decides that being that powerful would be boring since he'd have nothing left to overcome.
• While slightly upset over dying in the third fight, he makes it clear he enjoyed the fight all the same and tells Superman that he hopes for another round in the future.

• Guardian Entity: The defensive power of Ultra Instinct is so great that if Goku’s body is unable to defend against an attack, it will cause his ki to manifest as an entity to defend him. This happens at the end of the fight as Superman is powering through Goku's Kaioken-boosted Kamehameha, but it's not enough to protect him from the resulting explosion from its and Superman's punches clashing.
• Happily Married: Despite their differences, he and his wife Chi-Chi love each other dearly.
• Healing Herb: By eating a Senzu Bean, he can restore his health to its fullest. Superman destroys them once he sees what they do.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • By the time Goku realizes that Superman gains power from sunlight, he had tried to blind Superman with Solar Flare which gave Superman enough of a power boost to curb stomp Super Saiyan 3, and, as mentioned below, had blasted Superman into the sun, which further supercharged him.
  • Earlier, he destroyed some kryptonite that was weakening Superman in order to have a fair fight. That decision eventually cost him his life.
• Honor Before Reason: Offers Supes a Senzu Bean mid-fight, destroys the kryptonite weakening him so the round will be fair, and always lets him get to his feet. This is used as an argument against him. Many heroic Dragonball Z characters, Goku included, will always demand fair and honourable fights against their opponents, even if the opponent in question clearly outmatches them. So, even if Goku somehow learned Superman's weaknesses, he would refuse to exploit them, giving Superman an edge. This comes up in the fight when Goku sees how the Kryptonite is weakening Superman and promptly vaporizes it.
• Hot-Blooded: Far more excited about the fight than Superman.
• Human Hammer-Throw: One of his techniques is the Dragon Throw, where he grabs an opponent's appendage and swings them around before throwing them. He grabs Superman's leg and does this, sending him through a plateau.
• Hurl It into the Sun: Goku has done this before to Cooler and Baby to defeat them. He tries to do this to Superman thinking it would kill him. He succeeds, but because Superman draws strength from the sun, it fails to kill him and instead supercharges him.
• Identity Amnesia: He was originally sent to destroy Earth as a baby, but bumped his head and forgot everything about his past. He was then raised by a man named Gohan and grew into the protector of the Earth we know today.
• Insane Troll Logic: Goku thinks Superman is going to destroy the planet (despite Superman saving an airplane before the fight and Goku also being an alien).
• Kamehame Hadoken: His signature technique is the first half of the trope's name. The Kamehameha is a technique that focuses ki into a single point to be fired as a beam. It’s a surprisingly versatile technique with over 50 variations, such as curving the beam after firing or using your feet to fire it.
• Ki Manipulation: Goku can harness his ki to increase his physical strength and fire energy blasts. He can also use it to blind opponents with flashes of light, set up energy landmines, bind people in place, or even seal opponents away with the Mafuba. It's noted, however, that many of these techniques either require too much setup, or are straight-up countered by Superman's own abilities. Wiz explicitly points out that it doesn't count as magic.
• Last of His Kind: He shares this status with Superman.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: His Super Saiyan God form, which turns his hair red and is the canon equivalent of Dragon Ball GT's Super Saiyan 4.
• Leitmotif:
  • Makafushigi Adventure Instrumental from Dragon Ball, Dragon Soul from Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, The Dragon Theme, Battle Theme, Prologue & Subtitle II, Goku Super Saiyan Theme, Super Saiyan 3 Theme from Dragon Ball Z, and The Warrior from Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi play during his analysis. The Goku vs Superman theme also greatly features Makafushigi Adventure Instrumental to represent Goku.
• Leitmotif: Rock the Dragon by RobotUnderground2, Pikkon's Theme and The Dragon Theme from Funimation's English dub of Dragon Ball Z, The Clouds of War Spread from Dragon Ball Z Kai, and 22 from Dragon Ball Xenoverse play during his analysis. The Goku VS Superman 2 theme includes a remix of Makafushigi Adventure from Dragon Ball to represent Goku.
• Lightning Bruiser: This is Goku we're talking about. He can fly across half the world in seconds (as shown in his fight against Super 17), is strong enough to smash mountains, and durable enough to survive planet-busting attacks. Nowhere near the same level as Superman, however, which is why he loses.
• Magic Staff: Still uses his power pole, and its magical properties allow him to harm Superman in ways his toughness doesn't stop. As soon as Superman realizes this (after it knocks the wind out of him and draws the only blood in the entire battle) he uses the first opportunity to grab it and hurl it into deep space.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Goku's reaction to his two defeats and death is, more than anything, annoyance. Given this is far from his only time dying and going to the afterlife — without even taking his previous Death Battle appearances into account — it's not that surprising. He does at least perk up when Superman compliments him, and eagerly vows to get stronger and battle him again.
  Goku: (dejectedly, as he notices his halo) Aw, darn it...!
• Mystical White Hair: When using his ultimate transformation, Ultra Instinct, Goku's hair turns a silvery-white.
• One-Hit Kill: He's tried to learn the Gods of Destruction's Hakai technique, a move that erases a target from existence (soul included), but hasn't perfected it. Even if it's assumed he can for the purpose of Death Battle, Superman is a Cosmic Keystone and immune to being metaphysically erased, so it wouldn't work.
• Physical God: In this rematch, he has access to his Super Saiyan God form, and his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form as well. However, even the power of a god isn't enough to fight a man who literally has no limits aside from morality.
• Mind over Matter: His ki control allows him telekinesis. He uses it to move a Senzu Bean into his mouth to recover after Superman paralyzes him with Pressure Point techniques.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He fought Superman out of fear the Kryptonian would destroy the world. The Saiyan fight to stop him destroys the planet in the process.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Emphasis on the nigh because the commentators note that he was never invulnerable in his canon, only very durable. In canon, he has been able to survive ki attacks capable of destroying planets (with his durability in the episode itself calculated at 35 sextillion megatons of force at Super Saiyan 4 while it takes a minimum of 53 quadrillion megatons to destroy a planet the size of Earth) yet at the same time had died multiple times before and fled from the destruction of Namek and Earth, knowing he would be killed either by the blast or exposure to space.
• No Body Left Behind: Only his boot survives the Earth's explosion.
• Older Than They Look: He's 54 years old, but looks much younger as Saiyans age slower.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Goku is incredibly strong, and has gotten incredibly stronger since the first battle and rematch. He can punch his own universe apart and make good time flying laps around it. But Superman can do all that too, and his universe is way bigger than Goku's.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Easily destroys planets. Before becoming a Super Saiyan he was able to match Vegeta's Galick Gun with his own Kamehameha, which was implied to be powerful enough to destroy Earth.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Even when he was a kid, he had superhuman abilities.
• Power Copying: Goku can copy ki attacks with ease. The Destructo Disc, Solar Flare, and even the Kamehameha were originally used by his allies.
• Physical God: In his profile, the commentators note that at around puberty, the only beings powerful enough to train him were progressively higher-ranking gods (and a talking cat), and eventually he and his rivals became far stronger than the acting King of All Cosmos. They note that Goku and the rest of the ki-based fighters lack the Functional Magic that other beings, including gods, have access to and reason that Goku's regular ki abilities would not apply to Superman's vulnerability to magic.
• Punch Catch: Pulls this on Supes when he reveals his Super Saiyan form. Superman later turns the table on him when Goku tries attacking with the Power Pole.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Gains pink fur and "eyeshadow" in his Super Saiyan 4 form.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Supes' blue. Passionate, energetic and wearing orange.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Wiz mentions that while Goku isn't academically gifted — a weakness Goku himself is well aware of — he's a veritable genius when it comes to martial arts and fighting as a whole, fitting for a Saiyan. It's noted in the analysis that skill is the one solid advantage Goku has over Superman: Superman doesn't actively train or seek combat the same way Goku does, leaving Goku's battle instincts to be judged superior.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: The Warrior to Superman's Soldier. Goku openly enjoys a good fight and trains himself to be the strongest fighter he can be. He has always seen fighting as a way of self-improvement, only wants to fight opponents at their full strength and even compliments opponents who help him push himself harder. He doesn't take a fight seriously unless his enemy can stand up to him or has done something to piss him off, like threatening his friends and family. Goku is a good person and a hero, but his passion for fighting can cloud his better judgment. The Warrior loses.
• Speed Echoes: Can use the After-Image technique, where he moves so fast an illusion of himself is left behind.
• Standard Power-Up Pose: Notable even in a series that is the Trope Codifier because he's the Trope Codifier.
• Super Mode: Super Saiyan 1-4 (50x, 100x, 400x and 4000x his base level respectively) and can absorb the Spirit Bomb to increase his power exponentially. Also has the Kaio-ken technique that magnifies his ki with controlled, numerical multipliers, which he has mastered up to a value of 20x. The base multiplication can be combined with the Super Saiyan forms for quick bursts of power, to a theoretical maximum of 80,000x his base level, but he hasn't demonstrated the ability to go higher than that and, given the strain both the technique and Super Saiyan forms are stated to place on the body, it's likely the stress of the two separate powerups would be too much to maintain for a significant time or use at all with higher multipliers. He later develops a plethora of transformations that exponentially boost his power even more Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan/Super Saiyan Blue, and Ultra Instinct transformations being the one he uses in the fight. He starts in Super Saiyan Level 1, transforms into Blue midway through the fight, uses Ultra Instinct to continue fighting after Superman knocks him out of Blue, and finally augments his final Ultra Instinct Kamehameha with Kaioken to try and overpower the supercharged Superman.

• Super-Speed: He's moved universal distances at insane speeds and even outpaced opponents who can stop time or see the future. His calculated speed feats aren't as impressive as Superman's, but since both are incalculably fast and Goku has Instant Transmission and Ultra Instinct to make up the difference, they were deemed comparable enough to roughly tie.
• Super-Strength: Shockwaves from his and Beerus's clashing punches shook all of Universe 7 and could have destroyed it eventually, and that was just in his first outing with Super Saiyan God. This makes him a much closer match of strength to Superman compared to the first and second battles... but that doesn't matter, because Superman can rattle or break his own unfathomably larger universe and multiverse with punches too, so Superman is still just way stronger. Even if it's assumed Goku became millions of times stronger or more since that feat, the DC universe is so much bigger than Universe 7 that it wouldn't matter.
• Superman Substitute: The East's answer to the Man of Steel, he was sent from the dying planet Vegeta to conquer Earth but ended up as its savior instead.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: While Goku's main style is the Kame Sennin Ryu style, which focuses on discipline and tenacity, Goku's strength is so great, literal gods, such as the Namekian known as Kami, the King Kai of the North and the angel Whis, are the only ones who can train him. Oh, and Korin, too.
• Super-Toughness: According to the assumptions made in the episode, Goku can survive up to 35 sextillion megatons in Super Saiyan 4 (like with the two examples above, not officially confirmed but little canon evidence to disprove).
• Telepathy: He can communicate with others and read minds. He attempts to read Superman's mind at one point, but Supes' Torquasm Vo prevents it.
• Teleportation: With Instant Transmission Goku can instantly teleport to someone’s location by sensing their ki, then hopping through a dimension where time doesn’t move.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: Invoked in the second episode's ending. Goku becomes determined to surpass Superman and wants begins training with King Kai in the Other World, but King Kai tells him that even if he could surpass Superman he'd have nothing left to aspire to. Goku then decides that having that level of power would be boring.
• Unstoppable Rage: Every Super Saiyan stage past level 1 is harder to control, making Goku more aggressive and violent.
• Took a Level in Badass: He has his Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms this in the second fight, which let him fight on par with actual deities. They don't help him at all.
• Victory Is Boring: King Kai tells him that, if he were able to beat Superman, then there would nothing left to aspire to do.
• Vocal Dissonance: He speaks with a Child-Like Voice in his one-to-one matchup against Superman. Ironically and amusingly, this makes him closer to the original Japanese dub of the character.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Loses his shirt in his Super Saiyan 4 form.
• Weak, but Skilled: Weak in comparison to Superman's reality-warping strength, but it still counts: Goku is a martial arts master without peer, and many of his greatest chances against Superman relies on his speed and ability to exploit openings by Superman's less experienced fighting styles - because he is never going to measure up to Superman's sheer strength.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: It's quickly forgotten, but one of his reasons for fighting Supes is that, being a powerful alien, he's naturally come to destroy Earth. Their fight ultimately does just that.
• Your Head Asplode: Downplayed. Superman's heat vision didn't blow Goku's head up, but it did disintegrate his brain, killing him just as dead.

• Worthy Opponent: After the second battle, the hosts praised Goku for being such a hard-working, powerful, memorable, inspiring and lovable character despite his loss. They even concluded that if Goku was as powerful as Superman, he would be out-of-character and no longer desirable. If anything, Goku's willingness to fight despite the possibility to lose is why he has so many fans to begin with.

Superman / Clark Kent / Kal-El

Superman / Clark Kent / Kal-El

Superman: "I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard. Always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone. What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose and show you just how powerful I really am."
Voiced by: Michael Agrusso

The Man of Steel

• Achilles' Heel: Kryptonite, obviously; also is vulnerable to magic, he had to learn Torquasm Vo to resist mental trickery, and took more damage from the Power Pole. Finally, if the sunlight he absorbs doesn't reach a certain Kelvin level (e.g. a red sun), he gets no powers. Since DBZ characters always demand a fair fight, even against an obviously superior opponent, Goku refused to exploit Superman's weaknesses. Even if Goku would do such dishonorable tricks it would be difficult since combatants aren't allowed to have any past knowledge of their enemies. Also if Goku did try to teleport Superman to a red sun, he does run the chance of accidentally sending Superman to a blue star, or being in outer space where Goku can't breathe.
• All-Loving Hero: Superman is described as being "righteous, courageous, selfless". His last fight with Goku caused the destruction of Earth, and he absolutely does not want that to happen again. Even when killing Goku to prevent further destruction, he apologizes before he vaporizes his brain, and catches Goku's dead body before it falls to the ground.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Uses his supervision to pinpoint Goku's pressure points.
• Always Someone Better: As the post-match analysis dictates, Superman is this to Goku. As powerful as Goku is, Superman is in an entirely different league of his own. As such Goku wins All three battles despite Goku’s bassi r power increases each time.
  • Downplayed. As showcased in the post-battle analysis, Goku has an advantage over Superman in terms of technique due to having a better understanding of ki. In every other category, however, Goku either barely matches up to Superman, such as speed, or is otherwise far outclassed, especially in terms of strength. Not even Ultra Instinct plus any of his Super Saiyan forms are capable of closing the gap in power.
• Apologetic Attacker: He apologizes to Goku before killing him.
• Art Shift: in the second fight he takes more after his New 52 look, even taking the character model based off that incarnation from Injustice: Gods Among Us.
• Badass Armfold: His default stance when not fighting Goku and sometimes while, just to show how little effort Superman is putting into the fight.
• Author Avatar: Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were the sons of Jewish-American immigrants, who felt like they were growing up in a world where they were ostracized for being outsiders. They channeled this feeling into creating a story of man who, despite living in an unwelcoming world, used his extraordinary abilities to fight for justice and defend the helpless
• Badass Boast:
  • "Game? You think this is a game!? I haven't even begun to play."
  • "With every step, an earthquake! With every breath, I could create a hurricane! This is my burden, be thankful it is not yours."
• Badass Cape: Would he really be Superman without the iconic red cape?
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's so focused on saving people he doesn't have time to train; he doesn't need to.
• Beyond the Impossible: The reason why Superman will always win no matter how hard Goku trains or how many forms he obtains. Superman's power is essentially infinite and completely breaks the laws of physics over its knees, but Goku, while obtaining the power to rival and surpass gods, still has limits that need to be constantly overcome. In the end, the man with no limits always beats the one who can break any, because only one has limits to break in the first place.
  • Superman's power is so great, it defies the laws of physics themselves. Such as when he rebuilt the reality warping Miracle Machine just from memory or when he hit Brainiac so hard that every single version of him across the multiverse felt it.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: He's the trope namer. Supes is incredibly powerful and he does not spend much time physically training, but his knowledge of martial arts (one allowing him to resist the mind games that he would normally be susceptible to) increases his threat level immensely.
• Breath Weapon: His Arctic Breath freezes foes solid, and his Super Breath can create hurricanes. Goku powers through his Arctic Breath in his SSJ4 form.
• Clark Kenting: Trope Namer. In his civilian identity, Clark uses a pair of glasses and a mild-mannered attitude to throw off suspicion. According to Boomstick, "people only see what they want to believe."
• Characterization Marches On: In the first round, Clark was arrogant, full of himself, and a Combat Pragmatist who attacked his opponent from behind while being rather dismissive of Goku as a person. In the second, he's much more affable and nice, and is generally more respectful towards the Saiyan, genuinely complementing Goku with no backhanded meanings.
• Combat Pragmatist: Attacks from blind spots, uses all sorts of Improvised Weapons, destroys the Senzu Beans immediately after learning about them, and tosses the Power Pole over the horizon when it proved it can hurt him.
• Combo Platter Powers: Unlike Goku, he has more than Flying Brick and Ki attacks abilities.
• Composite Character:
  • Holds the combined traits and feats of his various cartoon, specials, live-action TV, video game, and comic book appearances. es stuff revealed in the New 52, such as the Super Flare.
• Cosmic Keystone: Superman is a major lynchpin in the greater metaverse, to the point that entire timelines revolve around him. This has the added benefit of making him immune to attempts to erase him from existence, something various time and reality warping being have tried to do. In the analysis, this is noted to render Goku's Hakai completely useless.
• Cosmic Retcon: Taken into account for the fight that the relevance of Superman's origins and powers would be taken after Crisis on Infinite Earths, from 1986 and onward. Justified in that Pre-Crisis Superman was beyond broken; capable of destroying the solar system by sneezing and his limitations were incredibly inconsistent. This would make it difficult to justify a victory through logic. Plus, the retcon happened in-universe, meaning that the Superman of the time before that would no longer exist and using Post-Crisis Superman would fit with both Pre- and Post-canons.
• Cradling Your Kill: After winning the second round he holds Goku's body like this, preventing it from falling to the ground.* Deadpan Snarker: He has a dry wit. He's voiced by the guy behind I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC.
• Death or Glory Attack: Super Flare, a large quarter-mile nuclear explosion that consumes all of his stored solar energy and renders him powerless for a day. It wasn't used in the fight, as Superman is powerful enough at full strength to match even Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku.
• Dynamic Akimbo: One of his most iconic poses, he provides the page image. He watches over Metropolis while doing this when Goku meets him.
• Due to the Dead: Refuses to let Goku's body fall to the ground in an undignified heap and instead carries it.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Forced to rely on his Infinite Mass Punch, which caused this and gave him the victory.
• Enhanced Punch: The Infinite Mass Punch, borrowed from the Flash. To use it, Superman vibrates his fist at just under the speed of light, thus increasing the mass of his fist to a near-infinite level. It's more powerful than the Dragon Fist.
• Eye Beams: One of Superman's staple superpowers is to fire laser-like beams from his eyes, powered by solar energy. Notably, Clark uses them to cut a mountain range in half, and later to bolster his final super-charged attack against the Ultra Instinct and Kaioken-empowered Goku.
• Fantastic Fighting Style: Superman is a master of two: Torquasm-Rao, which allows him to tap into his Kryptonian instinct, and Torquasm-Vo, which can prevent mental manipulation.
• Finishing Move: Uses the Infinite Mass Punch against Goku's Dragon Fist and wins.
• First Law of Resurrection:
  Wiz: "This is how the monster Doomsday was able to kill him. I'm sorry, not kill- put him into a 'healing coma.'
  Boomstick: "Cop-out!"
• Flying Brick: Trope Codifier. Superman is immensely strong and durable, and can fly at tremendous speeds on top of that. One of the factors to Superman's victory is that compared to Goku, he has comparable speeds and is leagues more powerful.
• For Great Justice: Defender of "truth, justice and the American way." He even provides the page image.
• Genius Bruiser: Is super intelligent in addition to his powers.
• Happily Adopted: After landing on earth, he was raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent.
• Happily Married: He is married to Lois Lane.
• Honor Before Reason: Superman will always put Earth's citizen's before his own needs.
• Human Alien Discovery: However, when his parents revealed how they found him, he initially did not take the news very well.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: His main counter to Goku's Super Saiyan forms is to hold back progressively less because when he goes all out, planets explode from a single punch.
  • Superman rarely fights at his full strength as he feels he lives in a "world made of cardboard" - if he isn't careful, the world could be destroyed by accident.
  • In the fight itself, Goku knows this is in play. The entire first half of the fight is Goku attempting to get Superman to stop holding back, but as Clark reaffirms, it's entirely by his choice. If Goku wants more out of him, he will have to prove he can take it. It's only when Goku enters Super Saiyan Blue and notes down that they can just wish everything back to the way it was through the Dragon Balls does Superman agree to no longer pull his punches, at which point he starts hitting Goku with punches that rip apart the multiverse.
    Goku: You're holding back! Give it your all! [...] No regrets!
    * Improvised Weapon: Hits Goku with a telephone pole and a car.
• Intrepid Reporter: Aside from his superheroism, he's a hard-working reporter for the Daily Planet.
• Intangibility: Can vibrate so fast that he can't be touched or seen.
• The Juggernaut: Once he stops holding back, he doesn't even bother to dodge SSGSS Goku's Kamehameha wave, but instead does The Slow Walk right through it.
• Kryptonite Factor: There was a piece in Lexcorp and Goku punched him into the building. The trope namer, but plays no major role in the fight since Goku's sense of fair play keeps him from taking advantage of it.
• Last of His Kind: One of the last Kryptonians, he shares this status with Goku.
• Leitmotif: Trials and A Hall of Heroes from Smallville, All Star Superman by Christopher Drake, Opening Credits from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Main Theme from Superman: The Animated Series, Main Theme from Superman: Doomsday, Superman Theme from Superman: The Movie, and Opening Theme from Superman/Batman: Public Enemies play during his analysis. The Goku vs Superman theme features a remix of Superman: Doomsday's theme to represent Superman.
• Lightning Bruiser: This is Superman we're talking about. He can move faster than light itself, survive supernovas, and is strong enough to punch planets apart. Simply put, he heavily outclasses Goku in strength, speed, and durability.
• Limit Break: When his heat vision isn't enough, Superman can blast solar energy out of his entire body in a Sphere of Destruction. While this used to drain him significantly, he's since learned how to control it. He uses it to create some distance against Ultra Instinct Goku, and then uses the opportunity to fly through the galaxy charging up more solar energy from various yellow stars.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: The cost of his victory is the destruction of Earth.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: How he got to Earth.
• Neck Lift: Does this to Goku right before frying his brain.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Except against things that work outside the laws of physics (i.e. magic, and even then only if the magic itself is for the purposes), he is invulnerable in sunlight. He is this to a far greater extent than Goku, as he is capable of surviving multiple supernovas (each with the force of 10 octillion megatons) and becoming "the filling for a planet sandwich", and his durability increases further as he absorbs solar energy with no known upper limit. Anatomy-wise, his denser molecular structure and his bio-electrical aura are key factors as to why he can take so much damage. Since Goku has hard physical limitations that he has to work through with extended training sessions, Superman's quick and easy power boosts win out. Even at nighttime, Superman still retains his powers and simply stores energy like a battery. Since he can easily fly to the other side of the planet, as shown in the fight, it doesn't really matter. The only reason Doomsday defeated him other than the lack of constant empowerment was due to him holding back as they were fighting in Metropolis.
• The Nose Knows: On top of his various other super senses, Superman's sense of smell is so powerful he could smell someone baking chocolate brownies from orbit, which Boomstick cites as his favorite Beyond the Impossible feat Superman has done.
• No-Sell: After knocking Goku out of Super Saiyan Blue, he ignores Goku's attacks until he uses Ultra Instinct.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Supes is clearly getting pissed about Goku's insistence on continuing the second fight, causing him to not hold back and turn the tide in his favor.
  Superman: Alright, have you had your fun? I would prefer we don't accidentally destroy the Earth a second time!
  Goku: No! I will never back down from a fight!
  • Since Death Battle demands combatants to fight to the death, Superman has no reason to hold back his absurd power and basically executes Goku by frying his brain. This moment is justified by the fact that Superman feared that the planet would be destroyed again and didn't want to risk it. Superman even apologizes for this moment.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: One of Superman's listed feats is lifting the book of infinite pages. Reading the issue proper reveals he did this without the book's permission!
• Physical God: More powerful than some of the gods of his universe and ascends to this level if he absorbs enough solar energy. When Goku loses his strength at the end of Z plus Super Saiyan 4, the hosts mention that they could have used "future Goku" in his appearance at the end of GT continuity who could be assumed to be much stronger and countered with bringing up Superman's future godhood when he is capable of willing things in and out of existence. They ruled that under "future" specifications, Superman would still win.
  • Even more so in the second round, where he starts cutting loose from the start because of knowing what Goku can do and just how strong the Saiyan is, as well as the fact they destroyed the Earth last time by mistake due getting too involved in the fight.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: They showcase this with clips from the 1978 film, with baby Clark lifting a car with ease.
• The Power of the Sun: His powers are fueled by solar energy. Unlike the first round, Supes never needed to recharge it as he was always in the sunlight.
• Power of the Sun: His powers are fueled by solar energy, the closer he is to the sun, the more power he will absorb. In daylight, he is constantly recharged and can mostly use his powers without issue, but in the dark, his supply is cut off—only opponents with power comparable to his run the risk of depleting his reserves. Goku doesn't know this, and his attempts to blind him with the Solar Flare and launch him into the sun backfire horribly. Superman does start to run low on solar energy while fighting Super Saiyan 4 under a storm but ascends above the clouds before it becomes a problem.
• Pressure Point: He has a working knowledge of these, and he can use his superpowered vision to discover the weak points of an unfamiliar opponent as he did with Goku.
• Primary-Color Champion: The archetypical superhero dressed in red and blue.
• Psychic Block Defense: Torquasm Vo allows him to shield his mind, preventing Goku from reading it.
• Punch Catch: Does this to Goku's Power Pole before throwing it over the horizon.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Superman wins the fight against Goku at the cost of destroying the Earth. Thankfully, Goku vs Superman 2 shows he rounded up the Dragon Balls and wished everything to be restored.
• Saving the World: Whereas Goku was sent from his planet to conquer Earth, Superman was sent to protect it.
• The Slow Walk: Walks right through SSGSS Goku's Kamehameha wave without a scratch, grabs him by the throat, and incinerates his brain.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: The Soldier to Goku's Warrior. Superman fights not for himself, but to protect others. His first and foremost concern is to save people from danger; as such, he will attempt to disable his opponents most quickly and efficiently possible without killing them, with the only people in DC canon Superman has fought with lethal intent are Darkseid, Brainiac, and Doomsday. Superman only sees fighting as a form of protection and will only use his full power when he has no other choice. The Soldier wins.
• Story-Breaker Power: This is the hosts' central argument for Superman winning again. He has no limits, can lift infinity, and is deliberately written to be the most overpowered character in fiction. His lack of limits trumps Goku's ability to break any limit.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Said verbatim when covering his limitless strength; it's also a major factor in his victory over Goku, who has limits to worry about.
• Super-Intelligence: While Superman is most well-known for his strength and speed, he is also a veritable genius who could reconstruct a reality warping machine from memory alone and learned how to perform lung surgery after reading about it for five minutes.
• Super-Breath: Twofold. His breath alone is powerful enough to blow away galaxies accidentally by sneezing, and can be made cold enough to freeze ghosts.
• Super Mode: Enough exposure to solar energy results in this for him.
• Super-Senses: he can hear sounds millions of miles away, Can see through anything except lead, can see things moving faster than light and can hear through the vacuum of space. He can even see a person's soul.
• Super-Speed: Have been timed in-universe to be able to travel at 9,4 billion kiliometers per hour, yet readers of the comics have found instances where he was able to fly to Alpha Centauri and back in just about 20 seconds, putting his speed at an enormous 148.73 quadrillion kilometers an hour. Like many of Superman's traits, he has no clear limitation to his speed. Some depictions of Superman allow him to travel across time and dimension using only his speed to break the laws of physics.
• Super-Strength: Upwards of 66.6 quintillion tons which is enough to move Earth. Boomstick immediately denied the claim as BS, to which Wizard showed a clip of All-Star Superman where he was able to lift 200 quintillion tons (with one hand), "3 times [his] record". 200/3 = 66.6. And Superman's strength increases with his exposure to sunlight, meaning he might not even have a limit to his power so long as he gets enough sunlight. He can also punch dimensions apart.
• Superpower Lottery: The undisputed king of the trope. Thanks to Earth's yellow sun, he possesses superhuman strength, speed and senses. He also has separate abilities, such as the power to fly, see through opaque objects, and project thick beams of heat from his eyes, as well as becoming virtually impenetrable to most weapons and accelerated healing.
• Took a Level in Badass: Appears to be wearing his New 52 armor in the second battle and so adding the New 52 canon in his analysis.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Not only is Superman vs Goku the most requested fight ever, but Superman has fought other combatants outside of Death Battle. Superman effortlessly defeated Spider-Man and Wonder Woman and has fought Batman multiple times. He has also fought Thor, He-Man, Lion-O (mentioned in He-Man vs Lion-O that both fought him as an offhand fact) and many of the Mortal Kombat characters, forming a rivalry against Raiden.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Zig-Zagged. While Superman has the power advantage, he's not a martial arts master, which is one of Goku's main advantages going in here. However, Superman is deemed to have more combat experience and has been able to beat similarly skilled fighters as Goku through combat prowess alone.
• You're Insane!: Says this verbatim when Goku challenges him for no other reason than for a good fight.
• Walking the Earth: Before he moved to Metropolis, he wandered the Earth, saving the day for many of those he came across.
• Willfully Weak: After learning of his heritage, Superman placed subconscious mental blocks on his powers, locking him out of his full potential for years until he discovered them himself. He spends a good deal of the fight holding back before finally deciding to get serious.
• Worthy Opponent: Compared to their first battle, in which Superman was rather dismissive and saw Goku as a brash, cocky maniac, here he shows much more respect to the Saiyan. He also gives Goku quite possibly the least brutal death on the show and even refuses to let his body fall in an undignified heap at the end.
• X-Ray Vision: One of Superman's numerous vision powers, which allows him to see through just about anything except for lead.