Comic Book / Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

"On our home-world we know you to be this galaxy's most warlike and savage people— as we are in our galaxy. And this, too, we know... Of Earth's warriors, you, Muhammad Ali, are one of the best! We propose a test! We would pit our champion against your greatest, according to your rules!"

— Rat'Lar

Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali was a Superman story by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, published in All-New Collectors' Edition C-56 (April, 1978).

Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are interviewing Muhammad Ali when an alien suddenly appears. He is Rat'Lar, the Emperor of a warlike alien race called the Scrubb who fear humanity's potential for war and destruction. Rat'Lar wants to propose a Combat by Champion to determine the human race's fate, with Muhammad Ali as Earth's champion. Ali couldn't care less for their challenge, though, so Rat'Lar asks if hundreds of ships surrounding Earth ready to start an orbital bombardment are enough to change his mind.

Superman confirms that an alien army is surrounding Earth and insists that he should be the one to deal with them, since he is used to handling alien threats. However, Ali argues that Earth should be represented by someone who is an Earthman by birth. Rat'Lar comes up with an idea: they will box each other (in an environment where Superman is depowered, of course), and the winner will have the honor of boxing against the Scrubb chosen champion.

The Man of Steel and the heavyweight champion think his idea is stupid, but Rat'Lar snarls back that it was not a suggestion. They will do what he says, or Earth will be reduced to radioactive dust.

The story was republished as a deluxe edition in 2011.

---

Tropes:

• Aliens Are Bastards: Defied. The Scrubbs spend several panels discussing their (rational, if overblown) motivations in detail and when their leader turns out to be a Sore Loser who can't even abide by the terms of a deal he set, they turn on him and overthrow him.
• Badass Normal: Muhammad Ali, big time.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Besides his Battle Cry, Hun'Ya doesn't speak until near the end of the comic, but he's bred in a lab and trained by the Scrubb to be their Super-Soldier. By the time he fights Muhammad Ali, the latter was pushed into a corner until he gains a Heroic Second Wind.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: The Trope Namer. Ali teaches Superman to box since they'll have to fight under a red sun where Superman will be depowered; Ali trains Superman in a special gym in the Fortress of Solitude that can similarly neutralize Superman's powers. Downplayed in that while they intended to train him for two months, circumstances result in him getting only a single day of training instead.
• Brought Down to Normal: Superman is forced to box in the Scrubb's homeworld Bodace, a planet that circles a red sun which nullifies his powers.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: As seen with Ali's fight against Hun'Ya. Hun'Ya weighs heavier to the point of breaking the weight scale and is clearly above Ali in physical strength and endurance. Yet, Ali's lifelong training, experience as a heavyweight boxer, and relentless determination allow him to sandbag against Hun'Ya's powerful blows and turn the tables against him, especially when Rat'Lar's offer to let humanity live on as slaves of the Scrubbs gives him an Heroic Second Wind.
• Combat by Champion: The Scrubb offer to pit their greatest champion against Earth's, winner take all. To decide Earth's champion, Superman and Muhammad Ali had to face each other on a planet orbiting a red sun to take away Superman's powers and make it fair. After Ali won, he faced the alien's champion in the ring. Ali won, but the aliens dishonorably tried to invade Earth anyway, only for Superman to reveal he anticipated their treachery and sabotaged their fleet.
• Crossover: The Man of Steel meets the Greatest.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Rat'Lar coerces the titular characters to fight a boxing match against each other and a second one against his own champion, under threat of commanding his fleet to fire all their missiles at Earth if they don't comply.
  Rat'Lar: "You will meet in combat in twenty-four of your hours at a place of our choosing!! Should— you— refuse, your planet and all its inhabitants will be reduced to a smoldering pile of radioactive dust... AND THAT IS FINAL!!"
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After getting beaten to a pulp, Superman is taken from the ring on a stretcher. When Rat'Lar demands to know where Superman has gone to, and he is told Ali has taken Superman to his room to take care of him, he becomes utterly confused. Why would Ali want to help a defeated enemy? He does get nothing from it!
  Rat'Lar: "You...Olsen! What's going on here? Where is that low-life loser? What hole has he crawled into?"
  Jimmy Olsen: "Er...If you're speaking of Superman...Muhammad Ali is taking care of him in his..."
  Rat'Lar: "What?! Why is Ali helping Superman? He's beaten him! What can Superman do for Ali now?"
  Jimmy Olsen: "I— Uh— don't think you'd understand."
  • Ironically, Rat'Lar's mindset is also what ends up screwing him over by the end of the comic. At the beginning of the comic, he successfully deceives his own people into believing that Humans Are Bastards (i.e. dishonorable and warlike) and that they deserved to be either wiped out or enslaved. However, his shallow understanding of strength (i.e. simply crushing his enemies into submission through force) and refusal to honor the rules he made after the heroes manage to win and prove their own mettle and strength leads to his own people, his guards, and even his Champion, to turn against him for his cowardice and dishonor.
• Genius Bruiser: Demonstrated by no less than three characters in the comic. Superman is not only a physical powerhouse but a Gadgeteer Genius who can use his alien technology to whip up a time-dilation chamber to rapidly learn boxing and figure out how to use alien ships just by using his x-ray vision on them, Muhammad Ali is an extremely clever and cunning boxer who not only gets to show off the beauty and intricacy of his sport through detailed analysis of out-boxing techniques but the psychological warfare he wages on his enemies, and both collaborate to come up with a very cunning plot to save the Earth when Rat'Lar tries to cheat.
• Hidden Depths: The Scrubb actually get a lot of characterization for what could've been generic "evil aliens" in an Excuse Plot. It's stressed that their culture reveres the ideals of martial honor and fair play, and that their desire to conquer or annhilate Earth is based in fear that human individualism combined with ingenuity could present a threat someday. Their genetically-engineered champion Hun'Ya, in particular, originally seems like a one-note Dumb Muscle bad-tempered brute easily pushed around by Ali's taunts and teases, but in the finale, he's the one who punches out Rat'Lar for trying to renege on their deal with the humans, and eloquently talks about how Superman and Ali have earned his and his people's respect in the finale.
• Historical Domain Character: Jimmy Carter is the incumbent president, and Muhammed Ali is one of the main characters.
• Humans Need Aliens: Subverted. Rat'Lar wants to Ali fight their champion to decide the Earth's fate. Superman argues he is better suited to deal with extraterrestrial menaces, but Ali argues back the Scrubb wants an Earthman to fight for Earth, not a Kryptonian (to which Superman replies he grew up on Earth and is a naturalized Earthman). In the end, Superman and Ali are forced to fight each other for the right to fight a boxing match against the Scrubb chosen. Ali wins, but while he beats his alien foe, Superman deals with the Scrubb armada.
• I Have Many Names: The goddess Athena shows up to referee Ali's match with Hun'Ya, and it turns out that the Scrubbs also worship her under a different name as their goddess of victory. In the finale, it's implied that seeing this living representation of the values of fair play and martial honor their culture holds dear inspires the Scrubb soldiers and Hun'Ya to overthrow Rat'Lar when he reveals himself to be a coward who won't abide by the rules he set himself.
• Law of Alien Names: The villains are a warlike alien race called "Scrubb".
• Orbital Bombardment: In order to force Superman and Ali to comply with his demands, Rat'Lar warns that his armada has surrounded Earth before ordering the obliteration of one whole city. One of his hundreds of ships fires two giant intangible plasma missiles, and although Superman is able to divert them into the sea, he still must deal with the ensuing tsunami. While he is busy, another ship shoots another couple of missiles and blows one island up before Superman can stop them.
• Pocket Dimension: Superman builds a boxing ring and uses a Kryptonian Continuum Disruptor to transport himself, Ali, and the ring to a pocket mini-universe where time crawls. As they train, their ring is floating in a starry black void, surrounded by planetoids and comets.
• Power Nullifier: So that Ali can train him properly, Superman places in their ring a lamp box containing a fragment of a red sun which nullifies his powers.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: As Rat'Lar is trying to coerce Muhammad Ali into fighting his race's chosen warrior by revealing he is backed by the Scrubb armada, Superman shows up, confirms hundreds of ships are surrounding Earth, and he snarls: "And. I. Want. To. Know. Why!"
• Punctuation Shaker: The Scrubb Emperor is named Rat'Lar. The name of his chosen champion is Hun'Ya.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The warlike Scrubbs are green-skinned, big-foreheaded aliens; otherwise, they look right like humans.
• Secret Identity Change Trick: As Ali is squaring off against an alien who has just shown up and manhandled Lois Lane, Clark Kent mumbles he is going to look for a police officer, and sneaks into a nearby alley to change clothes.
• Series Continuity Error: Superman does not know a thing about boxing, contradicting Adventure Comics #273 wherein Clark Kent learned to box. Of course, this is in the service of letting Ali himself explain the fundamentals of the sport.
• Shockwave Clap: In order to stop a humongous tidal wave from striking Bermuda, Superman smashes his fists together. The ensuing shockwave immediately shatters the gigantic tsunami.
• Super-Soldier: Hun'Ya is a genetically-engineered Scrubb, born in a laboratory and bred by his race's best scientists to become the perfect warrior.
  Rat'Lar: "Meet our champion, the one you must face in combat, very soon! His name, like his battle-cry, is Hun'Ya! Hun'Ya was born in a laboratory! He was molded by our scientists to be the perfect warrior! Hun'Ya has the toughest skin of any humanoid in the universe!"
• That Wasn't a Request: When Rab-Lar suggests that Superman and Ali fight each other over the right to defend Earth, Superman suggests him to butt out of their argument. Rab-Lar angrily shouts they will do what he says "...AND THAT IS FINAL!!"
• Tornado Move: Superman must stop a couple of giant missiles from blowing St. Louis up, but he cannot touch them. So, he uses his super-speed to create a massive vortex that catches the missiles, deviating their course into the ocean.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The Man of Steel is pitted against The Greatest in an intergalactic boxing match.
• Villain Has a Point: When Superman demands to know why they were summoned before their 24-hour deadline was up, Rat'Lar retorts they used a trick to buy themselves several weeks, ergo they were the ones who ignored the deadline.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Rat'Lar has a minor one when he orders his champion Hun'Ya to punch one hole into one wall to impress his rivals. Rather than feeling intimidated Superman and Ali just laugh it off, prompting Rat'Lar to scream and rant incoherently as Superman and Ali exchange "Is that guy serious?" stares.
    Rat'Lar: "Insolence...INSOLENCE...INSOLENCE!! You will pay, I promise you! You will be humiliated— in front of your whole galaxy!!"
  • He has a bigger breakdown when Ali defeats his champion and Superman disables his fleet.
• Villain Teleportation: The Scrubbs use dimensional portals to get around. Their coming is usually heralded by a flash of light or a bang and a pillar of smoke.
• We Need a Distraction: When Rat'Lar finds out about Superman's trick to extend his training time, he sends three robots to retrieve Superman and Ali whether they like it or not. Superman is under the debilitating effects of a red sunlight generator, so Ali runs among the legs of one robot and causes him to trip so that Superman can shut off the generator and get his powers back.
• Worthy Opponent: Hun'Ya, and his race in general, are so impressed by Ali and Superman's courage and will that they turn on their evil ruler when he tries to annihilate humanity even though they won.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Superman uses a Kryptonian Continuum Disruptor to create a boxing ring where an hour inside was about a minute outside, giving them two months instead of twenty-four hours to teach Superman how to box. Unfortunately, the Scrubbs clue in on it and interrupt them after only about two weeks.

---