What martial arts does Superman know?

Every once in a while a superhero such as Superman comes along who is borderline invincible. Because of this, you may think that the writing for this character could become lazy and the writers could get away with cutting corners with his fight scenes. However, you’d be wrong, and where would the fun be in that? It turns out that the writing for Superman has been incredibly detailed and when it comes to his martial arts training, it may actually surprise you to learn what he knows. Unlike most other superheroes, the arts learned by Superman are unique which is possibly one of the reasons why he’s such a universal hit.

Overall, Superman knows a variety of martial arts and has quite an eclectic style. On the one hand, he knows certain, fictional martial arts that he was taught as a boy on his planet Krypton as Kal-El. On the other, he also knows very human martial arts too that he learned on earth as Clark Kent. Interestingly, this shows the quality of writing throughout Superman and mirrors the two lives of the superhero with superpowers and the normal working man with very human abilities. For the record, the below martial arts are taken from both the comic books and the movies.

Superman knows Torquasm-Vo

So, what is Torquasm-Vo? Well, it’s actually a made up martial art that is unique to Superman. In other words, this is purely fictional and doesn’t actually exist outside of the DC comics universe. This is an art form that is meant to be similar to meditation or yoga and allows Superman to enter the minds of his opponents. In some scenes, Superman can be seen practicing Torquasm-Vo with Lois Lane in their bedroom, and physically it looks quite similar to yoga which is where the comparisons come from.

In other words, it’s a psychic discipline that lets Superman see what people are thinking. At one point, Superman uses Torquasm-Vo to enter the mind of Eradicator whilst battling him. This is done by entering a theta state which allows Superman to think freely during his mental engagements. Torquasm-Vo was taught to Superman whilst he grew up on the planet Krypton. Unsurprisingly, this shows off the mental strength that Superman possesses and his superior intelligence.

Superman knows Torquasm-Rao

Another fictional martial art that Superman knows is Torquasm-Rao. Once again, this was taught to him on Krypton as a youngster. As the name suggests, this discipline is kind of similar to Torquasm-Vo but has one key difference. This is that Torquasm-Rao is about defending your own mind from psychic attacks rather than mounting your own offense from the theta state.

In short, it’s still a meditation technique but is used to stop others from invading your mind. This has been compared to the mental aspects of Tai Chi, and may have originally been based on the Chinese martial art. To summarize, Torquasm-Vo is a psychic martial art based on penetrating the minds of others (among other things) whilst Torquasm-Rao is a psychic art based on defending your own mind. Like Tai Chi, Torquasm-Rao is also physical and mental, whereas Torquasm-Vo is purely spiritual.

Superman knows pressure points (Dim Mak)

Dim Mak is a pressure points-based martial art and can supposedly knockout opponents based on very little physicality. The point of these strikes is to be able to knock people out without using significant strength and to do so with relative ease. As seen in the comic strip below, Superman claims he was taught ‘hand-to-hand combat by earth’s greatest proponent’. Here, he may have been alluding to his training under Batman or various other superheroes. It’s known that during his time on earth, Superman did indeed train martial arts with Batman.

Dim Mak works by finding pressure points that are meant to be weak spots on the human body. These are also sometimes called meridians and according to Dim Mak can even kill if hit with enough force. This information is meant to be secret but many dispute its reality as it has little scientific backing. Nonetheless, it makes for a cool feature in the Superman universe and is a bit different compared to the usual martial arts that most superheroes train.

Superman knows boxing

Moving to more realistic martial arts, Superman also knows boxing. It isn’t known who taught him the sweet science, but after years of fighting various goons, he’s needed this and relied on it countless times. Whilst Torquasm-Vo and Rao are cool and Dim Mak can kill people, most of the time Superman doesn’t need to tap into such devastating martial arts. For example, against a low-level henchman, he can simply box them without using much energy or potentially killing them.

Throughout the comic books, Superman can be seen delivering a medley of uppercuts and overhands and this is probably his most common form of fighting in person. Even though he is almost god-like in his powers, the fact remains that Superman is willing to learn and improve his skill set by training along the likes of Batman and others, which may be where he learned to box.

Superman knows Krav Maga

Does Superman know Krav Maga? Kind of. In the 2013 movie Man Of Steel, the film comes to a conclusion when Superman finally kills Zod. Whilst in battle, Zod shoots lasers out of his eyes and almost kills innocent bystanders by doing this. To defend them, Superman grabs hold of Zod from the back and gets him in cross between a choke and headlock. He eventually kills Zod by applying a neck break which is a classic Krav Maga technique.

This move is taught by the Israeli army and works by quickly twisting the neck to the point of no return. Even though Zod has superpowers himself, it seems that even he is vulnerable to Krav Maga, at least when it’s applied by Superman. Whether you want to call this Krav Maga or some kind of dirty street fighting technique, the point remains that Superman looks well trained in the art of breaking necks and shows solid technique in applying the break.