10 Times Superheroes Fought The WRONG Villain

The DC universe has many killers for hire, but none of them are more effective - at least on Earth - than Deathstroke. Slade Wilson is so good at his job that, despite being a mostly normal squishy human, just with some bits and bobs added in, he has on multiple occasions felt confident enough in his abilities that he decided to go head to head with Superman.

This often has varying degrees of success, from the knock down drag out brawl in the New 52, to Superman drunkenly flicking Deathstroke with his finger and sending him skipping across the ocean in Superman: American Alien. There was also a confrontation between the pair in Deathstroke's own comic, where he used fake Kryptonite bullets to confuse the Man of Steel, but the best one for my money was during Superman Rebirth #32.

The interesting thing about this fight is that it is more of a battle of wills and wit than of fists, which are of course often the most interesting brawls that Supes gets into. When Slade sets an entire building on fire to lure Lois out, he holds her at gunpoint and gives Superman an ultimatum: kill him and save Lois, or watch her die. Superman, once he gets a chance to cool down, decides to not play Deathstroke's game and focus on putting out the blaze and save the other people trapped.

He later finds Lois alive and well in a safehouse, with a note left by Deathstroke stating that he never intended to harm her. Apparently this was all a test by Deathstroke's employers to see just how far Superman would go if push came to shove.