# Martial Arts in Sci-Fi and Fantasy #9: If "What art should I take" were asked by a Superhero



## skribs (Jun 26, 2019)

You're answering the typical question we get here in the beginner's section:  what martial art should I take?  However, the person asking isn't just anyone.  It's a superhero!  Someone like Superman, Batman, or Captain America.  They want to know the best martial art they can use for fighting crime.  Pick a superhero (or heroes) and tell me what art they should train, and why?

I'll start:


*Spiderman* should take Hapkido.  His finger grip strength would really come in handy.
*The Flash* should take boxing.  He's at his best with both feet on the ground, which means he doesn't want to be kicking or grappling, and he has the speed to keep fights where he wants them.  Boxing will help him learn best how to translate the speed of his legs into power in his arms.
*The Hulk...*well, Bruce Banner should take Tai Chi or another internal art, which will help him control his emotions.  However, The Hulk should not take martial arts, because he would be a terrible sparring partner and would destroy the dojo.
*Saitama (One-Punch Man)* should take Ameri-do-te.  Ameri-do-te students are so powerful as fighters, they have developed You-Jitsu, where you have to fight the mirror image of yourself.  This would finally give Saitama a challenge.

What about you?  Pick a superhero, pick an art, tell me why they work together.


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## drop bear (Jun 26, 2019)

Well Bruce Banner trained with Rickson Gracie.





Which  makes sense. That way if he did turn in to the hulk someone was around who could hold him down.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Jun 26, 2019)

Mr fantastic-bjj. Could come up with some creative escapes and submissions with his stretchiness. Im also not sure certain subs, like an armbar, would do anything to him.

If he's competing-sambo. Its possible a choke is the only way to get him, and iirc sambo bans chokes in competition.


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## skribs (Jun 27, 2019)

kempodisciple said:


> Mr fantastic-bjj. Could come up with some creative escapes and submissions with his stretchiness. Im also not sure certain subs, like an armbar, would do anything to him.
> 
> If he's competing-sambo. Its possible a choke is the only way to get him, and iirc sambo bans chokes in competition.



I was debating whether BJJ or TKD would be good for him.  Imagine if you could stretch your kicks out 30 feet.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Jun 27, 2019)

skribs said:


> I was debating whether BJJ or TKD would be good for him.  Imagine if you could stretch your kicks out 30 feet.


Certain kicks (front and side kick) would work well for him. A round house kick or hook kick, or even a snap kick might not. Plus there's always the chance of another superhero being able to catch his kick. TKD would be a good supplementary art for him though, IMO.


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## skribs (Jun 27, 2019)

kempodisciple said:


> Certain kicks (front and side kick) would work well for him. A round house kick or hook kick, or even a snap kick might not. Plus there's always the chance of another superhero being able to catch his kick. TKD would be a good supplementary art for him though, IMO.



I was thinking the opposite.  Roundhouse or hook kick would work like a flail.  

If they catch his leg he can wrap it around their arm and reverse the grab.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Jun 27, 2019)

skribs said:


> I was thinking the opposite.  Roundhouse or hook kick would work like a flail.
> 
> If they catch his leg he can wrap it around their arm and reverse the grab.


The flail thing would be situational-work in a field, not so well (or not with a lot of force), having to go around objects in a room.

The wrapping the arms with the leg is a good point though. I didn't think about it-too stuck in realistic responses lol. That's what I like about these threads.


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## skribs (Jun 27, 2019)

kempodisciple said:


> The flail thing would be situational-work in a field, not so well (or not with a lot of force), having to go around objects in a room.
> 
> The wrapping the arms with the leg is a good point though. I didn't think about it-too stuck in realistic responses lol. That's what I like about these threads.



Could he stretch out and back rapidly to increase the speed of his punches?  Because Wing Chun might be a viable 3rd art to supplement the other two.  Think about it:

Step 1:  He throws a roundhouse kick, but it gets grabbed.
Step 2:  He wraps his leg around their arm and pulls himself in.
Step 3:  Wrap his other leg around their other arm and pin it to their body.  
Step 4:  Rapid-fire straight punches.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Jun 28, 2019)

Gonna add a second option for spiderman: boxing. He would have a heck of a range with his jab, since you wouldn't know if web is going to shoot out, so you have to avoid it no matter how far away he is.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Jun 28, 2019)

Deadpool: muay thai. Half the art is just being able to take a better beating than your opponent, and he can take the  best beatings.


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## jks9199 (Jun 28, 2019)

You know -- this is something I've pondered about superheros before.  Outside of Batman, some versions of Wonder Woman, a few others here or there (excluding comics like The Punisher...), few superheros seem to round out their capabilities with some actual training.  I guess Captain America got some H2H from the Army...  So Superman is incredibly strong... wouldn't he be more effective with good training?  What if he meets someone similar in strength...  The X-Men have the Danger Room -- but that's not really technical training, it's tactical and strategic.  The Avengers? Nada that I'm aware of...


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## Buka (Jun 28, 2019)

I want to be The Flash, I want to take up boxing and I want Floyd Mayweather. Want him bad.


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## Anarax (Jun 30, 2019)

I'll stick to the man I know the most about


skribs said:


> *The Flash* should take boxing. He's at his best with both feet on the ground, which means he doesn't want to be kicking or grappling, and he has the speed to keep fights where he wants them. Boxing will help him learn best how to translate the speed of his legs into power in his arms.


Flash would benefit from any striking style, but I think him learning as many as possible is a great approach. Barry Allen/Wally West are quick learners and have developed their own techniques as Speedsters. Speedsters learning how to throw punches, kicks, knees, elbows and everything in between would make them exponentially more dangerous.

Most people don't realize that none of the Flashes had another Flash/speedster to learn from. Speedsters have to learn by trial and error. They don't have their Father's consciousness stored in crystals nor a league of assassins/martial arts masters to learn from. Star Labs helps them develop, but every Speedster starts from the very beginning without guidance from another Speedster.


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## skribs (Jun 30, 2019)

kempodisciple said:


> Deadpool: muay thai. Half the art is just being able to take a better beating than your opponent, and he can take the  best beatings.



I'm sure he'd also find some way to turn this into a double entendre too.


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## skribs (Jun 30, 2019)

jks9199 said:


> You know -- this is something I've pondered about superheros before.  Outside of Batman, some versions of Wonder Woman, a few others here or there (excluding comics like The Punisher...), few superheros seem to round out their capabilities with some actual training.  I guess Captain America got some H2H from the Army...  So Superman is incredibly strong... wouldn't he be more effective with good training?  What if he meets someone similar in strength...  The X-Men have the Danger Room -- but that's not really technical training, it's tactical and strategic.  The Avengers? Nada that I'm aware of...



While it's not in the MCU, I believe Captain America is a huge martial arts nerd and learned all he could.  Black Widow certainly had training, and you can see that Stark takes boxing lessons in Iron Man 2.  In the Netflix series, Ironfist and Daredevil took a lot of training to get where they are, and Luke Cage already knew how to fight before becoming powered.  Jessica Jones doesn't train, because she doesn't see the point.  There are others on her show that have trained.

On the DC side, Arrowverse has Green Arrow who trained hard to get where he was (including a lot with the salmon ladder).

I think sometimes we don't see the training if we don't see the origin story, or we don't see what they went through before gaining their powers.  For example, if I were to do a story about a 40-year-old batman, he'd be a veteran who already pretty well knows how to fight crime.


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## skribs (Jun 30, 2019)

Anarax said:


> I'll stick to the man I know the most about
> 
> Flash would benefit from any striking style, but I think him learning as many as possible is a great approach. Barry Allen/Wally West are quick learners and have developed their own techniques as Speedsters. Speedsters learning how to throw punches, kicks, knees, elbows and everything in between would make them exponentially more dangerous.
> 
> Most people don't realize that none of the Flashes had another Flash/speedster to learn from. Speedsters have to learn by trial and error. They don't have their Father's consciousness stored in crystals nor a league of assassins/martial arts masters to learn from. Star Labs helps them develop, but every Speedster starts from the very beginning without guidance from another Speedster.



I don't disagree that he could make kicks effective, but I think that punches would suit him best, because he can keep running while he does them.  If he throws a punch on something super-strong and it knocks him off balance, he's got two feet to correct with, but if he throws a kick and bounces, it's going to be a lot harder for him to recover from that.

Unless he's fighting another speedster, zooming and punching is probably his best bet.


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## drop bear (Jun 30, 2019)

jks9199 said:


> You know -- this is something I've pondered about superheros before.  Outside of Batman, some versions of Wonder Woman, a few others here or there (excluding comics like The Punisher...), few superheros seem to round out their capabilities with some actual training.  I guess Captain America got some H2H from the Army...  So Superman is incredibly strong... wouldn't he be more effective with good training?  What if he meets someone similar in strength...  The X-Men have the Danger Room -- but that's not really technical training, it's tactical and strategic.  The Avengers? Nada that I'm aware of...



The dynamics could be interestingly so different as to be a bit pointless.

So say each punch knocks a guy back 10 meters. Then you have to gain gain distance with some sort of jump.

Suddenly your martial arts looks nothing like what would work for us.

I mean if you cover you still get rocked backwards or shot in to the air where the next hit is unopposed. Then a lot of times you couldn't cover.


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## drop bear (Jun 30, 2019)




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## skribs (Jul 1, 2019)

drop bear said:


> View attachment 22306



Boxing Lessons for Superman - TV Tropes

There's even a trope built around it.


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## PhotonGuy (Aug 7, 2019)

skribs said:


> You're answering the typical question we get here in the beginner's section:  what martial art should I take?  However, the person asking isn't just anyone.  It's a superhero!  Someone like Superman, Batman, or Captain America.  They want to know the best martial art they can use for fighting crime.  Pick a superhero (or heroes) and tell me what art they should train, and why?
> 
> I'll start:
> 
> ...


I would say The Hulk should take up wrestling, he would be the best at it. 

Now you didn't mention Superman. The way I see it Superman might not really need a martial art since he's so strong and has got so many powers, but if he were to take up a martial art I think perhaps kickboxing. The way Superman fights, he doesn't have much in the way of technique aside from just throwing punches so with kickboxing, specifically JKD which is a type of kickboxing, would be good for him to take up. Maybe he could learn from Batman.


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## PhotonGuy (Aug 7, 2019)

[QUOTE="jks9199, post: 1966242, member: 9418"So Superman is incredibly strong... wouldn't he be more effective with good training?  What if he meets someone similar in strength...[/QUOTE]
He did go up against someone with similar or perhaps greater strength then him, Doomsday. I was thinking, martial arts would've really helped Superman in his fight against Doomsday, he might've even lived.


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## drop bear (Aug 7, 2019)

PhotonGuy said:


> [QUOTE="jks9199, post: 1966242, member: 9418"So Superman is incredibly strong... wouldn't he be more effective with good training?  What if he meets someone similar in strength...


He did go up against someone with similar or perhaps greater strength then him, Doomsday. I was thinking, martial arts would've really helped Superman in his fight against Doomsday, he might've even lived.[/QUOTE]

Take his back and choke him out. Save all that chasing a guy down after you have punched them through a building.


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## Deleted member 34973 (Aug 10, 2019)

None of those superheroes have anything on Starlord and Tazer face.


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## PhotonGuy (Aug 10, 2019)

Guthrie said:


> None of those superheroes have anything on Starlord and Tazer face.


Don't know anything about Starlord or Tazer face, this is just me but I find it more important to know about real stuff.


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## Deleted member 34973 (Aug 10, 2019)

PhotonGuy said:


> Don't know anything about Starlord or Tazer face, this is just me but I find it more important to know about real stuff.


They are from 'Guardians of the Galaxy'.
But, I don't think anything in this thread, is about real stuff. Unless Superheroes have become real.


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## skribs (Aug 21, 2019)

PhotonGuy said:


> Don't know anything about Starlord or Tazer face, this is just me but I find it more important to know about real stuff.



This is the off-topic forum, and this is the 9th installment of my series that is looking at science fiction and fantasy.  Of course it ain't real.


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