Powered Down in a Post-apocalypse World

[Captain Smith]

Have we ever seen Clark throw anything but a haymaker in the media? A throw, a submission hold, a choke, a blow other than fist? I'm really not expert on this and just going from vague memories.

That thousand years with Diana, is that still canon? IIRC, their relationship status was chaste? Or was it?

[Guy1]

Have we ever seen Clark throw anything but a haymaker in the media? A throw, a submission hold, a choke, a blow other than fist? I'm really not expert on this and just going from vague memories.

That thousand years with Diana, is that still canon? IIRC, their relationship status was chaste? Or was it?

DCEU Superman is, in fact, really good at chokeholds at least.

[Dr Will Hatch]

…forum needs a like button.

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10charlim

[Sharpandpointies]

So, the question then becomes multifold. Let's start with 'what is skill?'

If Clark has been in hundreds of fights, with all of that experience, and repeatedly beats all hell out of people who are his rough equal in stats (like other Kryptonians), then he's a good fighter. Simple as that. One doesn't need dojo training or complex grappling training to win fights and have skill with the basics - real-world experience can give that. I would, personally, rather fight someone who is Dojo-trained but has only a few real-world fights (or full-contact) than someone who has scratch-zero training but has gotten in thirty or forty fights, themselves - and won the vast majority - thank you very much.

Then we get to the question of continuity. DC Continuity is a mess - it's always changing, is currently going through a change, etc. At one point recently, we switched from Nu52 to something else, where some - or even all - of the Post-Crisis stuff was somehow incorporated? I don't know.

However, one point to make is that all through his career, through the various continuities, we have Clark showing actual skill. Pre-Crisis we have as one example his famous - in-canon - depowered fight with Ali, where he went quite a long ways in a boxing match with the champ. Post-crisis, there are any number of instances of him showing skill, many of which have been noted, others that have not. Nu52? Let's start with this:

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So there's Clark noting boxing training, and Clark also fighting with some just general, overall skill according to the narration. Let's jump to another fight.

[Postmania]

Well either way I mean, they’re zombies, and dumb slow ones at that. As long as someone is strong and has help in this setting they’ll be okay in that aspect of combat

[Sharpandpointies]

Here's Clark fighting against someone who is his equal or superior in stats. He leads off by tying the guy's arm up by intercepting a punch. Then we get here, where he has levered the guy's arm behind his back and is going for a chokehold.

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Fight continues. Note - he still has the guy's arm locked up (it's a crude lock, but one that can work), starts choking him with the cape, is throwing him around and controlling him. Also striking with elbow shots, kicking out his supporting leg, etc.

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And we get to here, where's he's taking the guy out with a knee to the face.

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Basically, through all of his incarnations, Clark has had tons of real-world fighting experience, and often has some training, to boot. I mean, he's there with Batman and Wonder Woman, Diana actually being CAPABLE of sparring with him, it's hardly surprising.

And even if he didn't have training, just the fact that he has oodles of actual fighting experience and is shown landing hits all the time on people, well...

[Sharpandpointies]

But let's continue. Superman DOES receive training through various different continuities. Let's look at that. A very quick google search dragged up this from Nu52. With weapons.

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Forgive the quality, it was me taking a photo of my screen due to difficulties in downloading.

I don't normally go to Quora, but here's a bunch of scans showing that over the various years and continuities, he has received training from Diana (again, noted twice in different continuities), Batman, Wildcat (hence the boxing?), Mongol, and others. I'm sure if I did an exhaustive search I could find more stuff.

[Sharpandpointies]

Well either way I mean, they’re zombies, and dumb slow ones at that. As long as someone is strong and has help in this setting they’ll be okay in that aspect of combat

Absolutely. Dude shouldn't have a problem fighting them. ^_^

[Captain Morgan]

They lose to a horde .

No, they don't. Seriously. I know your whole shtick is that you like to treat comic book characters as "realistic," but the humans of the Walking Dead are and the humans of DC comics aren't. Batman and depowered Wonder Woman decimate hoards of armed (ie, people who still have intelligence and can coordinate) with their bare hands. Batman can punch a guy through a brick wall and switch drinks with someone staring at him across a table when they blink. Bruce can crush skulls with single strikes. There's also serious training with weapons. Batman also does things like fight a neverending stream of fighters for 28 hours straight while holding back to not kill any. The amount of zombies you'd need to throw at h before the wears down enough to get bit is absurd.

Even Hal Jordan does things like beat up whole mobs of people in a brawl, which is better than anyone in the Walking Dead.

[Sharpandpointies]

No, they don't. Seriously. I know your whole shtick is that you like to treat comic book characters as "realistic," but the humans of the Walking Dead are and the humans of DC comics aren't. Batman and depowered Wonder Woman decimate hoards of armed (ie, people who still have intelligence and can coordinate) with their bare hands. Batman can punch a guy through a brick wall and switch drinks with someone staring at him across a table when they blink. Bruce can crush skulls with single strikes. There's also serious training with weapons. Batman also does things like fight a neverending stream of fighters for 28 hours straight while holding back to not kill any. The amount of zombies you'd need to throw at h before the wears down enough to get bit is absurd.

Even Hal Jordan does things like beat up whole mobs of people in a brawl, which is better than anyone in the Walking Dead.

And even if it is beyond the above, so huge that eventually they will lose a straight up, take-on-all-comers fight, they don't need to do that.

Their own physical capacities are such that they can escape a horde of shambling zombies.

[The Drunkard Kid]

Honestly, you have Batman there, so he'll be doing recon to make sure that they don't run into a horde and working with everyone else on contingency plans in case a horde wonders onto their territory.

Like, Bruce is *all about* secret hidden bases, so he'll probably be looking for an interim Batcave that can serve as a Panic Room if necessary in between helping Diana and Clark plot out and implement defensive fortifications and looting every vehicle, home, and hardware store he can find to jerry rig everyone their own utility belts.

[Sharpandpointies]

Also, I feel it's worth mentioning that Clark - the few times he has done this, over the years - is a pretty freaking good shot when he picks up a ranged weapon.

...so is Bruce, for that matter. Insanely good, in his case. Give Diana a bow and arrow, I'm pretty sure she can stick shafts into zombie heads at a long distance.

[Postmania]

I feel the need to mention again that the zombies in this series def seemed pretty dumb even for zombies from the little I saw. They were fooled by someone leashing two zombies (that had been rendered harmless) together and putting them in front of them to mask their presence. They can be stopped by just putting a rope in front of them because they will walk into the rope and go nowhere. Its an innovation when they are seen to start crawling (without limbs being chopped off) because they are otherwise so limited in range of movement.

A crew with Batman is going to come up with all sorts of ways around them barring them just being completely swarmed out of nowhere for no real reason

[Tami]

So, if the Zombies aren't a threat, how about the other human survivors? They are not all heroes.

[Sharkerbob]

So, if the Zombies aren't a threat, how about the other human survivors? They are not all heroes.

Biggest thing to worry about is sniper shots, but said snipers'll likely only get one chance to hit, and then the League is on the alert.

This of course assumes the League hasn't scrounged functional armor and helmets already, and aren't already holed up in a military base that has sufficient defenses to route the raiders. Course, all things considered, they might just end up stuck in a siege war, and reluctance to kill is going to keep them from just snipering or shelling back.