Justice League vs. Broly

*Originally published on 11/22/09



It's been awhile since I've written a "vs." article. You may remember I pit the Man of Steel against the Amazon Princess and I also pit said Man of Steel against the Dark Knight. Today I'm going to go a different route, rather than take two DC characters and pit them against each other, I'm going to take a villain from another franchise entirely and pit them against DC's best.

The challenger in this case is Broly: the legendary Super Saiyan. For those unfamiliar, Broly is a  character from Dragonball Z who didn't appear in the anime but became a recurring foe in the movie series, making three appearances. The Saiyans are a warrior race with superhuman powers. The main characters, Goku and Vegeta are also Saiyans, and their offspring have the same abilities. The "super saiyan" is a sort of ascension where their strength and speed is increased exponentially. The legend says that only one emerges every 1,000 years. Goku first achieves this in his battle against the intergalactic tyrant Frieza, and Vegeta achieves it shortly after. Broly achieves a new form where his mass is increased to the point where he becomes a behemoth. There's a point in the anime where some of the characters reach a similar form, however the extra mass ends up slowing them down too much and it becomes a liability. Broly, on the other hand, has the speed to match and he ends up owning a half dozen of the series' strongest characters.

While the "Goku vs. Superman" fight is an interesting debate, I thought I'd take a different route. For this article, we're going to pit Broly against the Justice League. The team has gone through a lot of rosters over the years, so for simplicity's sake I'm going to go with the "big 7" from the animated series. That is to say that the heroes taking on the maniacal mammoth are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl.

While I think the whole issue is getting ridiculous, I'll go out of my way to say that no, Batman does not have time to prepare so there won't be any "Bat legendary super saiyan repellant" on hand to fix the situation.

One would think that the League has the advantage here, I mean it's a 7 vs 1 brawl and it's not like these are lightweights. These are DC's heavy hitters. One thing's for sure, there is going to be a lot of destruction in the wake of this fight. However, Broly managed to utterly decimate that many Z heroes and they're at about the same level in terms of strength.

While Green Lantern does provide some range attacks, they would be utterly useless. Keep in mind that Broly took one of Goku's most powerful attacks point blank and didn't even bat an eye. Broly's power is so great that I doubt GL's ring would be able to restrain him, so his best bet on that front would be to create objects to attack with, if not create fighters of his own to keep the brute busy.

Flash would best be used as a decoy, racing around trying to draw Broly's attention and fire. It would agitate him and maybe give them an edge if he ever makes a mistake. Were the fight to go airborne, he'd be left out and would have to play spectator.

Their best weapon here is Martian Manhunter, since he can turn intangible. In the comics, he's even more powerful, but we'll just stick with the powers he has in the show (telepathy and shape shifting). In theory, Broly shouldn't be able to lay a hand on him, however, in the show, he always seemed to get hit. If he can stay focused, he might be able to give the team an edge. Since I assume he can't stay intangible forever, he could also use his telepathy for good measure. He could either help the team coordinate attacks or he could try to reach into Broly's mind and throw him off. I doubt it would work, but it's worth a shot at least.

That edge will most likely be acquired via Batman. Since explosive and electric batarangs are nigh useless against an opponent like this, he would act as the team coordinator, making sure everybody stayed focused. While he wouldn't have time to prepare, he can analyze the situation as it unfolds and come up with something feasible. He would also be able to alert J'onn so that he doesn't get sucker punched.

Hawkgirl might be able to dish out some damage. Thanagarians are also a warrior race and Nth metal seems to come in handy regardless of the opponent. It might be able to do some damage. However, one must remember that she got utterly decimated by Wonder Woman in "Grudge Match" and seeing as Broly is even more powerful, I don't see her lasting long.

Ultimately, this fight is going to come down to how long Superman and Wonder Woman can hold their own against the might of this foe. While they would certainly hold their own for a long time, I don't see them winning this one. You could chalk it up to the ridiculous power levels used in the anime, but I don't see it.

While the good guys always win, this is one where they are just overpowered. The league can't kill him, they don't have the firepower. Even the combined might of Superman's heat vision (which has been said to be capable of dishing out the same level of damage as a nuclear warhead) and GL's ring don't hold up to the amount of firepower Broly has shrugged off in previous encounters. Even if they did have the ability, they wouldn't because it goes against their moral code. If they could somehow manage to knock him unconscious, maybe Wonder Woman would snap his neck and put an end to it. Otherwise, the only way the league comes out with a win in this fight is if Superman flies to the fortress, grabs the Phantom Zone projector and traps the Saiyan in the prison dimension.