I have always wondered why really powerful superheros ie. superman dont train and learn how to fight. If sups took some kung fu from batman he would be able to handle people like doomsday.
What reminded me of this was the last issue of Invincible when his dad tells him that even though he is really powerful he still needs to exercise for times when he really has to push himself. Now I cant stop wondering why most heros dont train, sure there are people like the xmen and batman that do about it.
I know it would be hard for superman to train but he could use a red sunlight generator to get rid of his powers and lift weights, similar to how colossus pumps iron when he is not in metal form.

Superman trains, but being as powerful as he is, most times a simple punch from him is all the bad guy needs

And most of the times he doenst need to resort to karate, due to his super strength, Batman has no SS so he needs to use all the fighting skills that he has learned.


There has been the stroy lines were Superman indicates that he knows the other fighting types, someone more knowledgable than me ont hat can most liely tell you which ones.

Depends on the story. At times Superman can do just about anything. The main reason you see him act like hes always getting beat up especially on the cartoon, is to make it a good story. Otherwise he would just zip in pull out some chuck Norris roundhouse kicks and it would all be over.

So am I the only one that thinks this is odd? I mean how many times does he get beat down at the start of a fight and almost lose? I know he is really really powerful but if it was me and I was always getting beat down like that I would be pumping up for sure!

Perhaps because not all literary characters are 'fighters'?

Ok well he may not be a "fighter" but how many times does he end up as the last line of defence against someone or something for destroying/ taking over the world/ universe? I would much rather sort things out without a fight but if I was protecting the world from people bent on taking it over at all costs I would be spending a lot of time making sure I was ready for them even if i was as powerful as sups.

Superman is not obsessive, he fights because he has to protect people. Unlike Batman who has 'obssesively' devoted his life to fighting and trained a very large chunk of his life. Superman, is not the type to sit and train ungodly hours to achieve Batman level quality combat. It's not going to happen. I mean, if anything, Superman is more of the bookworm gone super muscle, its not in his interest to train countless hours, wich is the time it takes even the comics, but rather tinker on something in his little fortess o solitude.

I think I've seen several 'Realmsers argue from time to time that he does, in fact, know a particular fighting style accustomed to those with his level of strength.

In the JLA Foreign Bodies Graphic Novel Superman ends up switching places with eitehr Kobra or Bats body, and fight Kobra man to man with no powers...it turns out he does have a few combat tricks up his sleeve. But I think Foxfire has it on the money...Bats spends his downtime training, Supes spends his downtime working a real job and having as much of a normal married life as possible.

There was a Superman storyline recently (last 2 years or so) where Mongul's son (also called Mongul) came to earth to train Superman to fight an impending cosmic threat. They trained pretty intensly, with Mongul stressing that Supes should learn to use more of his powers, and use them in conjunction with each other (like hitting someone and then incapacitating them with his freeze-breath).

It turned out that Mongul wanted to fight superman and wanted him to be a worthy opponent (or something like that.)

PS, this was moved to the appropriate forum: Comic book discussion.

In Virtue and Vice Superman loses his power when he and some JSA & JLA heroes are stuck in Dr. Fates tower. He show the heroes that he can fight and knows how to without his powers.

Perhaps the reason the writers keep Superman from constantly training to be the ultimate fighter, is because then he would be too powerful. I mean the guy is already the most powerful hero and its already difficult for them to come up with good dangerous villains for him. If you throw Karate master on top of being the most powerful Super hero then the guy could conceivably just walk through any bad guy he comes up against with no challenge.

There was this really bad live action 70s show where Superman gets depressed because he's different, and he meets up with 2 hippies who tell him its OK to be different. Anyway, he uses karate in that.

The best reason of all is HE doesn't need to. It quite honestly isn't worth his time. 99.999999% of the time he doesn't need it. He can see them throwing a punch and be behind them long before it gets there. With a flick of his finger he knocks people out.

I also believe that all those times you see him get knocked down and beat up, is because he LETS THEM DO IT! He is invulnerable and is NOT afraid of taking a hit of two. This lets him know how hard he can hit back. He is always concerned with what is need to put an enemy down and what will make their heads pop like pimples. It's called taking their measure. He's just not concerned with pain.

Any kind of Martial arts wouldn't really help him anyway against Giant Robots or death Rays. It would only work on Doomsday and Darksied.

Personally I believe this makes him a much more interesting character. He is a character that has grown up with powers and simply doesn't know what it's like to be normal. He isn't preparing to battle, he's just using what comes naturally. IF someone levels the playing field (Zod) then he becomes the underdog, and suddenly SUPERman has an actual challenge.

One of my favorite episodes of Smallville had Clark go evil, and Pa gain kryptonian powers. Playing field Leveled, old Jonathon kent had been in a few more fights with people his size, than Clark. It was time to take that boy behind the woodshed

Same thing goes for GL/Sinestro, Flash/Reverse Flash, The good guy is inherently LESS violent then the bad guy.