Dragon Ball Super Goku vs. Post-Crisis Superman

[Yukaphile]

WHO WINS?

[TGLS]

The word "Super"

[Yukaphile]

Huh? What do you mean?

[TGLS]

Well, if Super Goku wins, "Super" is on the winning side. If Superman wins, "Super" is on the winning side. Thus, the word "Super" always wins.

[clearspira]

The biggest problem I have with these kinds of questions is that they never take into account the personality of the character involved. And in this case, I have to ask one rather vital question: WHY would Goku, who is established in canon to be pure of heart as he can ride a Nimbus cloud, and Superman, who if we are going by his Post-Crisis version is kind-hearted to a fault; why would these two men ever fight each other to the death? I'm sorry, I know I am the party-pooper bringing logic into this, but it always bugs me. These are two men who simply would not try to kill each other.

I think a more appropriate question to ask would be Superman V Beerus, Buu, or Frieza Gold. I would even throw in Perfect Cell as whilst he may be weaker than those three, his fused Saiyan, Namekian, and Frieza's biology would still make him one of the greatest threats the Man of Steel has ever encountered. My personal opinion is that the outcome rests entirely on how many suns Superman has absorbed. I simply do not agree based on what I have seen over the last twenty years of reading comics that base Post-Crisis Superman could take out any of these enemies 1 V 1. Superman with the power of a thousand suns however, now we're talking.

[raiken_]

The question doesn't ask who would kill the other, it just asks who wins (tournament fight, sparring match, slam dunk contest, swimsuit competition)?

Goku in Super is kind of a selfish jerk interested in fighting stronger opponents above all else. If he ever came across Superman Goku would probably pester him until he agreed to a fight.

[Yukaphile]

Well, I think Beerus could compete with Post-Crisis Superman very well. Possibly all mainstream (barring cosmic entities like Thought Robot and Prime One Million) iterations of Superman since the Crisis on Infinite Earths ended. He took out a planet with a finger flick, and his full-powered punches can rip across the universe, shredding it into pieces. I'd say he has the necessary striking power to deplete Superman's solar battery and leave him helpless before him - unless you go with certain feats and stories where the writer clearly had decided that he could withstand even something like that. They are outliers, but they exist, so there you go. Plus, like Superman, Beerus is not restricted by environment. Remember when he and Champa were fighting across space, casually tearing apart planets in the process? But a problem for Superman is that Beerus can nullify energy, even universe-destroying levels of energy. I don't think his Heat Vision would be effective for that reason. The Hakai? I'm not sure it would work on Superman. It's been shown that it can be resisted in canon, by Frieza and Goku, similar to how Superman has withstood Darkseid's Omega Beam. But Beerus, at least according to the manga, is at least a partial master of Ultra Instinct, self-movement. Not all the way there in the anime, though. And he has been said to have a sealing technique superior to the Mafuba, which was effective even on an immortal Zamasu, and while never shown, it was sufficient to lock away Elder Kai in the Z Sword. I'd give him a win over Post-Crisis Superman 9 out of 10 times. That other time would be including outliers, of course.

Pre-Crisis Superman from the Silver Age? Er... ignoring the low-ends and the time he's nerfed for the sake of plot, if you go with just his highest feats, well... he's got this, I think. Earth-1 Superman was crazy broken as all hell. I think it's not without exaggeration to say he could just invent a new Anti-Beerus Force Field on the spot if he had to. He has those miniature Superman avatars. He broke infinity. He sneezed away a solar system. He hauled a whole galaxy's worth of planets to another corner of the universe as Superboy... and he has hax. Oh dear God, does he have hax... even assuming he's losing against Beerus in terms of raw physical power, he could just travel back in time to when Beerus was weaker, and boom! There you go. And Beerus might just be susceptible to Pre-Crisis Superman's mind abilities. There is, of course, however, always the room for debate and interpretation, and he does have some pretty lousy low-ends. If we go with those, Beerus might have a chance. I'd give it to Pre-Crisis Superman 7 out of 10 times.

[yamiangie]

Goku in Super is kind of a selfish jerk interested in fighting stronger opponents above all else. If he ever came across Superman Goku would probably pester him until he agreed to a fight.

This just this, which makes the real winner me because the mental image of Goku bugging Superman sounds like an entertaining montage.

[SSJGodGoku]

Goku could win back in the Saiyan Saga. DBS Goku solos all of DC.

[RobbyB1982]

If we're talking Superman at the strength he typically portrayed, in the regular comics, the cartoons, the shows, the movies, etc, as the guy that fought and died to Doomsday, Goku takes him easily.
Even in early Dragonball Z Superman's general feats are probably comparable to Raditz. Stopping a falling plane or a crashing train is a test for him, giant robots are a challenge, and most attacks only hit a building at a time. While in Dragonball the weak badguys at that point are capable of destroying cities in a gesture. And once the Super Saiyan forms come into play, it's really no contest. Those character have attacks that *accidentally* crack mountains in half, shake the planet from powering up, and fireballs that straight up blow up planets.

If we're talking Superman as written by writers who don't understand math, and thus have him fly to the sun and back multiple times in a few seconds, or effortlessly benchpress 5.972 sextillion metric tons (the weight of the entire *planet*) or crush a black hole, or knows every kind of martial art ever, then Supes takes it no problem.

And if we're talking pre-crisis Supes he's really ridiculous and can destroy galaxies with a literal sneeze, so he easily wins.

Basically, Goku beats Superman as normally written in most ongoing media. But Superman has had more bad writers behind him though, so if you take all his recorded feats into account, he wins because he has some insane stuff that makes no sense under his belt, given his day to day activities.