'the people vs muhammad' i12/8/2022 ![]() He stands in the ring with Ali, athlete facing athlete. Superman is in his red trunks where he belongs, in the costume of a strong man or a wrestler. It was in 1978, in the pages of Superman vs Muhammad Ali, however, when both heroes are at their finest, at their greatest. On the other hand, I can’t imagine anyone, of any age, not being inspired by Ali, then or now, to be better, more confident, more true to their convictions, more realistic yet hopeful about the human condition. I can’t imagine an 11-year-old today finding anything heroic or inspirational in the Superman who battled Batman in multiplexes around the world earlier this spring. Somewhere, Superman lost his way.Īli never lost his way. He doesn’t so much leap tall buildings as topple them. Today, in the hands of Warner Brothers and Zack Snyder he doesn’t so much fly as smash into things. In those days Superman made us believe that we could fly. Ali was stronger too, stronger than we remember him from the recent past, lighting the Olympic flame or in those photos from his last days that have filled our computer screens over the last weekend.īut Superman is the one who changed the most. Superman was more powerful in those days, too, able to stop tidal waves with just the smashing together of his mighty fists. Superman is older than he is now, an experienced self-assured hero, unlike the neophyte struggling to come to terms with his great strength that we seem constantly forced to watch and read about in movies and in comic books today. Ali is young and strong and vibrant, stalwart, brash, and true. Reading this book today is a step back in time. Yes, Superman and Ali do have to box one another in this story, but the real threat here is from an alien race known as the Scrubb. The bad guys in this book are even named after the villains of that earlier piece. Though, in reality, it had a lot more in common with Adam’s classic work on Marvel’s The Avengers, the story arc that has come to be known as “The Kree-Skrull War”. It was fun but serious, a story well told.Īnd just to make sure it included everything that my 11-year-old self could ever want in a comic book, it even gave a shout out to Star Wars - right there on the cover: “The fight to save Earth from Star-Warriors” in big letters above the title. The story could have been a joke, of course, something even less serious than Ali chatting with Donny and Marie, but it wasn’t. Adams’ rendering of Ali is especially amazing: the greatest, distilled in pen and ink. It’s one of Adam’s best works, which says a lot, considering the incredible body of comic book art that he has created through the years. O’Neil left the book early, leaving Adams on both script and art. It was less contrived, more real.Īnd why shouldn’t it have been? DC put the famous team of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams on the book, the team that had rejuvenated Batman and produced, in their run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, some of the most timely and relevant comics of the decade. But the Superman/Ali story was better than the Superman/Spider-Man one. The Superman/Ali battle even borrowed the shape of Spider-Man’s logo for Ali’s name on the front cover. It came on the heels of the earlier DC/Marvel crossover, Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century, another tabloid-sized comic that sold a ton of copies and generated a lot of media attention. I remember reading and re-reading my copy of DC Comic’s Superman vs Muhammad Ali, which was released in 1978, until the card stock cover came off of the tabloid-sized comic. I believed in Ali, and in Truth, Justice, and the American Way. And, on Saturday mornings, he was there right beside Superman in his own cartoon, I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ail.Īli said he was the greatest, he said it over and over again. Then, in 1977, he was everywhere: The Captain and Tennille Show, The Jacksons, The Sonny and Cher Show. But he was there, as far as I knew had always been there, a fixture in my universe and on my parent’s black-and-white TV screen.Īli was the center of attention for The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast in 1976. I didn’t know much about the boxing and the heroism in 1978, however. He was a civil rights hero, a war protester who risked his freedom and his career to do what he thought was right, to do what was right. Muhammad Ali, like Superman, had been around a lot longer.Īli was arguably the greatest boxer of all time who battled Joe Frazier in what is arguably the greatest boxing match of all time, the Don King-promoted “Thrilla in Manilla”. Star Wars conquered my childhood, conquered all of our childhoods, in the summer of 1977. In 1978, the only thing bigger than Superman was Star Wars. I believed in Superman and in Truth, Justice, and the American Way. The tag line for the movie said, “You will believe a man can fly.” For me, that was going to be an easy sell. Publicity for the upcoming Superman movie was everywhere.
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