James Gunn says Green Lantern could beat Superman in a DCU showdown

As of the beginning of James Gunn’s Superman, the Man of Steel holds the title as the most powerful known metahuman. That changes quickly. Not only does Superman lose his first fight in the film’s opening moments, Gunn says there’s another character in the mix who could beat him.

In the mailbag section of episode four of Peacemaker: The Official Podcast, Tim Meadows was asked which comic book character he’d like to have his bird blind A.R.G.U.S. agent Langston Fleury fight. Living up to Fleury’s arrogance, he said Green Lantern, to which Gunn responded, “Wow, you’re going to get killed, dude.”

“I’m not sure Superman would beat Green Lantern. I definitely don’t think Langston Fleury’s going to beat Green Lantern,” Gunn explained. “He’s Superman, but it’s still a fight. It’s a real fight.”

Image: DC Comics

Superman and Green Lantern have faced off in various DC Comics crossovers before, and the match-up usually goes in Superman’s favor. The Soviet version of Superman dispatched an entire group of Green Lanterns in Red Son. Hal Jordan was able to knock Superman out in a 1995 issue of the Green Lantern comic by Ron Marz, but he was getting a power boost from being possessed by the evil parasitic entity Parallax.

Meadows’ co-stars had far less ambitious goals. Jennifer Holland said she wanted Emilia Harcourt to fight Rick Flagg Sr., though Gunn doesn’t think Frank Grillo’s ego could stand it. Harcourt suggested they might just team up to fight someone else as a compromise.

Steve Agee said John Economos clearly can’t beat anyone in a fight, but he could get into a pie-eating contest with Matter-Eater Lad, where Economos ate a pie and the Legion of Super-Heroes member ate an entire IHOP. Gunn also confirmed that the time-traveling hero is canon in the DCU, so maybe we’ll see him and some of his teammates from the 31st century in a future project.