Muhammad Ali vs Superman

The day when Muhammad Ali met Superman changed my life forever.

I was 14. Though I had only a peripheral awareness of Ali and his beloved status among my family members, he was legendary in our household.

He was the first Black man I had ever seen get up on television and say unapologetically: He was the Greatest.

There wasn’t a caveat. There wasn’t a touch of mockery. There was only the crystal clear belief in his self-worth, his ability, and his place in the world.

Until that moment, I didn’t know such a thing was allowed.

My family was very religious, frowned upon pride, promoted humility before God and as a result, the idea of being proud of my A+ grades, was simply unheard of. Speaking on it would have been the greatest sin.

Adding insult to injury, Superman and comics were considered a form of idolatry when I grew up; the worship of false gods, as it were.

Thus, when this giant-sized comic showing Superman and Muhammad Ali together in the same book, the icon of all things American, and the hero of Black America, I was speechless and did everything in my power to acquire it. Was there shame?

You betcha. But it was something in my young mind I knew meant something. Even before I knew all that I knew about Ali, I knew he meant something to EVERY Black person I knew.

There wasn’t another person that significant or polarizing except maybe Jesus.

Ali disturbed everyone, White and Black alike.

He disturbed because he said what others were afraid to. His beliefs were not secret, his contempt was never in doubt.

Every day I hid my abilities in school, pretended to be less so that I would experience less scorn from my White contemporaries, I would think about him and wonder what he would do.

He would never take anybody’s condescending shit. Not even Superman’s. I was a 14 year old watching my two greatest idols in a disagreement with the fate of their world in the balance. Whose side was I on?

Superman loses. But he lost to the greatest boxer that had ever put on a pair of gloves until that time. If my favorite hero was going to lose a fight, he should lose it to my other favorite hero.

And in the moment when Superman is laid out and taken away on a stretcher, I realized a message had been sent, one that no matter how I feel about DC Comics on a day to day basis, this particular volley remains with me. And they were aware of this message when they were sending it. And they sent it anyway.

The System is stacked against you. It is overwhelming and powerful. It is so powerful it doesn’t even acknowledge your worth in any way. But if we level the playing field, remove the advantages, and fight where everyone is truly equal…

You can beat the System. You can stand with giants. You don’t have to take guff from anyone. Not even Superman.

No matter whatever else people may say about him, when I was growing up, Ali was THE hero we aspired to be like, the man, the conviction, the willingness to go to jail for his beliefs, to sacrifice everything for his principles made him as legendary as Superman with the added benefit of being real enough to touch.

His was the name chanted in the barber shop while I waited to get my haircut, the older men speaking with reverence reserved for religious figures. His was the name spoken at the doors of the church before we went in to pay homage to a faceless and presumably White Jesus.

His star slowly faded from grace. Time takes that from all of us. But in his day, he was a supernova, the number of lives he affected may never be known, but we are all better for his existence.

And for the record:

And I will never let anyone tell me to my face you sir, transcended race, because that is bullshit. You were unapologetically Black.

Transcending race is the racially-coded phrase which says: You were almost good enough to be considered White.

Whoever you are, when you write that phrase, you have made it clear, you don’t respect the man or the legacy. You can miss me with that.

Muhammad Ali reminded us all, Blackness is not a crime. Being Black doesn’t mean we have to hide. We remember how he brought pride to a people whose leaders were taken, whose culture was maligned and our value to a nation which could no longer take advantage of us was at an end.

He taught us we could transcend THAT BULLSHIT.

We could truly be…The Greatest!

My condolences to the Ali family and the world at large. Such conviction, such belief, so powerful it shaped an entire generation will be missed.

Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, revolutionary, boxer, fighter, parent, iconoclast, magnificent bastard… I salute you and your incredible legacy.

Rest in Power. Your legacy is safe with us.

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali was an oversize comic book published by DC Comics in 1978. The 72-page book features Superman teaming up with the heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali to defeat an alien invasion of Earth. It was based on an original story by Dennis O’Neil which was adapted by Neal Adams, with pencils by Adams, and figure inks by Dick Giordano with background inks by Terry Austin.

The Answer-Man’s Archives are a collection of my articles discussing superheroes and their powers in relationship to their respective universes. We deconstruct characters, memes, profiles and how superheroes relate to real world culture. You can find other Archives on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange or at The World According to Superheroes.

Thaddeus Howze is a writer, essayist, author and professional storyteller for mysterious beings who exist in non-Euclidean realms beyond our understanding.