The year was 1978.

Laverne and Shirley was America’s highest rated show. Grease was the word at the box office. Muhammad Ali was between reigns as heavyweight champion of the world...and the world was about to find out whether they could be made to believe a man could fly.

Fame comes and goes. Icons endure. Long after we’re all gone, the history of twentieth century popular culture will always have room for the very real life of “The Greatest” and the enduring mythology of the Last Son of Krypton.

In 1978, these two icons were pitted against each other on the paneled page in a giant sized DC Comics special edition, Superman vs. Muhammad Ali. With a copy of the original, and the reprinted deluxe edition as a guide, this felt like a good time to take a look back at a wild idea played out to maximum insanity.

For anyone who grew up in the 1970s, or grew up watching reruns of classic shows and cartoons from the decade, the idea of real life intersecting with fantasy was nothing new. Scooby Doo regularly included voice work for guest stars like Sonny and Cher or Don Adams. One imagines the idea was to give parents something to latch onto when they were in the room with the kids along with introducing elements younger audiences could feel like added heft to their time spent.

This is similar in concept but much different in execution. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali plays the story as straight as it can, shooting for an audience with no concern for who might be looking over the readers shoulder.

Here’s what the reader finds.

On a summer day, intrepid reporters Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are following a tip that Muhammad Ali is in Metropolis and their tip pays off when they find him playing a game of basketball with some local kids. Their attempt at an interview is rudely interrupted…

...by a threatening extraterrestrial visitor from a race known as “The Scrubb!”

They aren’t on Earth just to sightsee. The Scrubb have come with a challenge. They desire to pit their champion against Earth’s champion in a contest of galactic warriors. If Earth’s champions refuse, the Scrubb representative warns “a hundred warships are orbiting your planet,” and for the third rock from the sun it will spell doom.

This all happens by page 8 of the 73 page tale.

Ali and Superman debate who should represent Earth and it is decided by the Scrubb they will face each other for the privilege of facing Hun’ya for universal supremacy (whether this starts its own title lineage would be for the reader to decide).

Now, regular comics readers or those with just a passing knowledge of how Superman operates will see the problem right away. Ali might have been the greatest human heavyweight of all time, but even he couldn’t bend steel in his bare hands. An equalizer would be needed for a fair fight.

The solution: they will fight under the light of a red sun. This begs the question of whether Ali could function under red sun gravity but hey...what’s that over there...

Assuming equal physical foundations, there is still the problem of Ali being a trained boxer and Superman being not that. Another solution is found. The Scrubb gives the pair 24 hours to prepare but, like expert gamers in a generation to come, Ali and Superman find a cheat code. They enter a “Kryptonian Continuum Disruptor” and turn 24 hours into two weeks of training before the alien horde gets wise to their play.

Then, it’s fight time.

Almost as much fun as the set-up is some of the cameos made along the way. President Jimmy Carter takes in the events from the White House with concern. Jimmy Olsen calls Ali-Superman from ringside with Howard Cosell in the background, his dialogue written in Cossell’s speaking cadence. Ali’s manager Herbert Muhammad and camp regular Bundini Brown also gets parts in the story.

Brown even gets into the action with some alien fighting (or so it appears).

The 2010 Deluxe Edition provides some fun background to the tale. According to former DC editor Jeaette Kahn, the idea for the pairing of Ali and Superman came from Don King. Herbert Muhammad was critical to approval. Kahn tells the story of that interaction by providing:

What struck me most about that encounter was Herbert Muhammad’s reaction to Neal drawings. Pulling a finger across the page, he said, “Ali’s calf is too narrow. It’s fuller than that. Make sure you change it.” It was the kind of exacting comment we would have made to an outsider intent on rendering any of our leading characters.

Ali also played a hand in story approval. The art had to be an easy sell. DC picked one of its greatest creative teams for the feat. Neal Adams does a wonderful job drawing Ali with the sort of realism that was his hallmark, an influence that continues today on graphic artists. Adams, paired with writer Denny O’Neil, was magic for years. They, far more than Frank Miller, set the table for the Batman we see in popular media most often today and in other works, like Green Lantern/Green Arrow introduced an element of social consciousness other DC works didn’t have at the time.

How is the boxing in the story?

O’Neil and Adams show respect for the game with dialogue from Superman to Ali in their training that conveys how much the Man of Steel doesn’t know about the sweet science. Pitted against each other under that red sun, Ali kicks Superman’s ass in brutal fashion to earn the showdown with Hun’ya. Superman lasts two rounds, which is probably longer than believable but, hey, it’s Superman, and Ali is clearing way to fight a giant aqua blue menace from another world so nothing to get hung up about.

Far more concerning is the way the final battle between Ali and Hun’ya plays out with multiple panels of Ali launching a vicious body attack.

Ali? Vicious body attack?

It’s like Adams never watched one of his fights.

The beating Superman takes is part of a long con to ultimately defeat the aliens who, in the end, learn a lesson about human character and honor.

It’s nuts.

It’s a blast.

Readers who want a minute to invest in something for the sheer fun of it wouldn’t go wrong with this classic. Simply picking through the wrap around cover and trying to identify all the famous faces in the audience is a pleasant way to spend a minute. So too is the story in the afterword of getting rights for the celebrities used, and those who refused to allow their likeness on the cover.

Archie Bunker and Patton said no?

For shame.

Next year, the CW will launch the latest entrant in the line of Superman television shows and HBO will probably have another documentary or four about Ali. It won’t ever be what it must have been like in 1978. Before the year was out, Ali would regain the title in his final ring victory over Leon Spinks and Christopher Reeve would bring Superman to life in a way no one else had before or has since.

For a few colorful pages, these worlds collided to save us all from global annihilation. 

It feels like we could use them now.

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali: The Deluxe Edition can be purchased from multiple online booksellers, on the DC Comics website, and at Amazon.           

While the sport is largely postponed, boxing has a rich library of classic fights, films, and books to pass the time. In terms of fights, readers are welcome to get involved. Feel free to email, comment in the forum, or tweet @roldboxing with classic title fight suggestions. If they are widely available on YouTube, and this scribe has never seen them or simply wants to see them again, the suggestion will be credited while the fight is reviewed in a future chapter of Boxing Without Boxing.     

Previous Installments of Boxing Without Boxing

 

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com