Superman vs. Wonder Woman

*Originally published on 1/30/09

We determined in a previous article that Superman would win in a fight against Batman. But how would the man of steel fare against the Amazonian princess? Ah, now we've got someone who can give Supes a physical challenge. This should prove to be very interesting.

It's a matter of debate to this day, and various writers have gone back and forth on who would win. Sometimes it's a draw and other times Wonder Woman gets her clock cleaned. It's really a tough call, as I write this I'm still not sure who to give the advantage to.

In brute strength, Superman has the edge. Not by much mind you, Wonder Woman can hold her own in a super-powered slug-fest quite well and is no slouch in the superhuman strength department. However, Supes has her beaten here very very slightly. Like, say Wonder Woman can lift 8 tons, Superman can lift 10 (those aren't exact numbers, which some fans have actually gone back to find out. I was just using those as an example.)

Diana has the advantage in that she's been trained to fight. Amazons are warriors born. Superman's a decent fighter and knows some martial arts but his fights mostly consist of him punching his enemies into submission. Diana is highly trained and has a wider variety when it comes to her fighting style. Batman's been training his whole life in the art of combat, well so has Diana, only she's got decades, if not centuries of experience on him.

Speed is a tough one to call. Superman is faster in a raw sense. In a race, he would win. But, going back to her combat training, Wonder Woman has faster reflexes and uses her speed much more in combat than Superman does. Superman will rush to save people, but will only use his speed to trap burglars from escaping as opposed to using it against someone like Doomsday or Brainiac.

Superman does have the advantage when it comes to invulnerability. Wonder Woman can get hit hard and be OK, but she's not as resilient. Things can hurt her, if they didn't than her magic bracelets would be redundant.

It would appear at first glance that Superman has the advantage when it comes to powers/weapons. I mean he has his heat vision and freezing breath where Diana has a rope and her tiara. Here's the thing, she could deflect his heat vision with her bracelets and Superman doesn't use his breath much. Even if he did, she would break out. No being, not even one as strong as Superman, can break Wonder Woman's lasso. So if she can get him caught in it, she will have a major advantage as he'll be trapped for some time. Her tiara might disorient him, but he's taken hits much harder than that so it might not prove very effective.

I gotta call this a draw. Both have advantages in various areas but ultimately they balance out. It really depends on the writer and the story in which the fight takes place. If one character is brainwashed, than that one will deliver a whooping on the other for dramatic effect. If the writer has a bias for one over the other, than clearly they're going to give the advantage to that character.

The most recent fight between the two occurred in the "Sacrifice" arc that took place before "Infinite Crisis". In that, Superman gave Wonder Woman a sound beating. However, it is important to remember that Wonder Woman was holding back as she didn't want to hurt her friend. Superman was also enraged, having hallucinated some of his worst enemies terrorizing the ones he loves so adrenaline (or the Kryptonian equivalent of it) was a factor as well.

This is one fight that I would love to see occur more frequently. We saw one in the Justice League cartoon and it happened a few times in comics. As the two are so evenly matched, seeing them throw down in a round of fisticuffs would never get old as much like a sports event with two fierce rivals, it would be consistently entertaining and exciting.