Respect Karate Kid!

This is a thread dedicated the one and only Karate Kid, quite possibly the single most skilled fighter in all of comicdom. Seriously, he’s not just some street-leveler; this guy’s martial arts skills surpass MANY street-levelers by a very wide margin. He’s mastered every single martial art in the universe in the 30th Century. His abilities allow him to tangle with top-tier characters.

I am not responsible for any of these feats, but instead I got them from SiliconDream, who says that he stole them from Mr. X (I’m starting to see a pattern here).
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=69734

Everybody was kung fu fighting…

Here’s is KK’s test for membership in the Legion- fighting Superboy. Of course, Superboy wins without TOO much trouble, but Val gives him such a good fight (considering the immense power difference), that he earns his respect enough to gain membership:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...46-1-15-LSH.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...46-1-16-LSH.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...46-1-17-LSH.jpg

Knocks two super-powered assassins by karate chopping an ordinary rock in half and causing the two halves to fly in opposite directions:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ture361_020.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ture361_021.jpg

A severely weakened KK (on the verge of death) finds the weak point of a diamond prison and karate chops it into pieces:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ture_365-16.jpg

Here, KK performs a number of feats, including:
-takes out an advanced tank with one blow,
-takes out a crowd of soldiers,
-shakes the streets by stomping his feet, and
-takes out an air craft with an ordinary crowbar:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Adventure_367-17.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Adventure_367-18.jpg

Karate Kid uses Superboy as a practice dummy, showing that he has mastered all forms of combat in the known universe.
Note: “I would be dead if I weren’t Superboy.”
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/adventure368p05.jpg

Karate Kid in a one-on-one fight against Don Allen, Barry Allen’s descendant. Don has mastered some nifty Flash tricks and even Superboy has had problems keeping up with his speed. Val tags him twice and almost wins, except for an interuption:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Adventure373-17.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Adventure373-18.jpg
KK vs Persuader
Knocks him out by punching a pillar into his face:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Adventure378-16.jpg

A nice agility feat- an injured KK, hwo after having chunks or debris fall on him, dodges Validus’s lightning:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...nture378-18.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...nture378-19.jpg

Val shatters the Emerald Eye of Ekron. Earlier in the very same story arc, Superboy, Mon-El, Ultra Boy and Pulsar Stargrave all tried their best to do the very same thing and failed to do any real damage whatsoever:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/SLSH-198-15.jpg

Ultraboy vs a mind-controlled Karate Kid; granted, Ultraboy was weakened at the time, but he was still tough enough to take on Superboy. Val easily takes shim out with one good blow:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...SLSH-205-11.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...SLSH-205-12.jpg

An impressive pain resistance feat. In this story, Projectra suffers from a "pain plague" which kills every victim within six hours from sheer agony; the other Legionnaires save her by bearing the pain for her. A few seconds of this pain is enough to send Timber Wolf, Saturn Girl and Duo Damsel violently insane; yet Karate Kid endures three hours of it without complaint, meditating--and it's worse than when the other Legionnaires took it on.
*Bonus feat: Val immobilizes Timber Wolf with a judo hold. He needed Saturn Girl to blind Brin first, but only because he was afraid he'd accidentally hurt the guy if he had to subdue him with blows--and Brin can take punches from Kryptonians without falling down.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...oyLSH209-05.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...oyLSH209-06.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...oyLSH209-08.jpg

Val tackles and holds down Superboy:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/SuperboytheLegionofSuperheroes245-1.jpg

Val breaks out of inertron restraints. For those who don't know, inertron is basically the DC version of Secondary Adamantium...not literally unbreakable, but even PC Kryptonians couldn’t bend or break inertron slabs thicker than a couple of inches. Superboy once broke out of inertron chains, but needed the strength of insanity to do it.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...oyLSH231-28.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...oyLSH231-30.jpg
Val gets thrown out a skyscraper window by Nemesis Kid, and by using "the judo techniques of falling," he manages to steer himself toward the building's wall, dig his toes into the concrete, and jump back up through the window. That's some good judo. Then he dodges some “nuclear power blasts” for good measure.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/KarateKid01-17.jpg

Shatters a f***in meteorite with a simple kick (no way is this guy not AT LEAST meta):
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/KarateKid02-07.jpg

Damn, this is impressive. Here, with A SINGLE KICK, Val:
-cancels an earthquake,
-closes a fissure which threatens to split Manhattan Island in half,
-collapses the energy field which caused it, and
-destroys the machine used to create it
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid02-15.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid02-16.jpg

KK climbs all the way to top of a life-sized replica of the World Trade Center:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/KarateKid11-15.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/KarateKid11-16.jpg

Karate Kid #12
Due to a misunderstanding, KK and Superboy fight each other once again. They are pretty evenly matched through this whole fight. Here. Val:
-knocks SB off of his feet
-counters the dreaded ‘speed-blitz’
- takes some good hits to the face and keeps on going with no obvious bruises:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid12-07.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid12-10.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid12-11.jpg

By the next issue, KK is not only fighting SUperboy, but the rest of the Legion and does very well. His feat here include:
•Actually putting Superboy down for the count, by a combination of the hold he already put on him and spinning him around at superspeed;
•Knocking down several Legionnaires with said spinning Superboy;
•Dodging a lightning bolt and making sure it nailed Saturn Girl;
•Swinging Superboy around fast enough to block a bolt aimed at Val from behind, as well as a solar energy blast;
•One-shotting Colossal Boy. (But hey, who can't do that?)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid13-02.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid13-03.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ateKid13-04.jpg

Proceed to Karate Kid of the Reboot LSH, which ran from Zero Hour to yet another timeline change last year. This Val looked a little different from the last version, and tended to be more calm and collected. But his skills were just as impressive--I'd say he retained more of his Pre-Crisis mojo than most DC heavyweights. He got more cool sensory feats too--finding weak spots, reading body language, etc.

One thing to note concerning Val's fights with Daxamites: Reboot Daxamites were more powerful than Post-Crisis Superman for most of his career (and possibly the current version as well). They were stronger, flew between star systems at high FTL, had reaction times which let them perceive and avoid incoming lightbeams, and so forth. 12 of them sterilized the planet Trom in seconds with heat vision, in spite of the attempts of its people (who all had Element Lad's powers) to construct shields and insulating walls.

Anyway!

“Legion of Super-Heroes v4”/”Legionnaires” era:

Val, trapped in a cell for superpowered convicts, detects a weak spot in the force field and collapses it. This is early on in his career, before he joined the Legion:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ires-022-08.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...ires-022-15.jpg

Val staggers a very surprised Daxamite with a kick to the face. (Mr. X thinks he actually broke his jaw, based on the art, but I think it's probably just bruised...the guy talks just fine afterwards and doesn't seem to be in serious pain.):
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...nnual-02-21.jpg

A couple years after the above scene, Val defeats a possessed M'onel. (Yes,same guy as Preboot Mon-El, a Daxamite). This is another long fight--LSH v4 #111 if you want to see more than three pages. Val's feats here include:
•Instantly deducing M'onel's possession and psychoanalyzing the entity possessing him, just by reading his body language from one panel (yeah, M'onel's eyes are glowing and he's snarling and stuff, but still);
•Dancing around M'onel's attacks, including a volley of heat-vision blasts (or a single continuous beam, not sure) at close range;
•Redirecting M'onel's charge and throwing him out of the solar system, so that he ends up in the gravity well of a nearby red star, causing the possessing entity to flee. And Val aimed him that way on purpose; they talked about the star earlier in the story. Crikey.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...m/LSH111-14.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...m/LSH111-18.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...m/LSH111-19.jpg

Val vs. the Emerald Empress, within a larger Legion vs. Fatal Five battle. Even before she got the Eye, the reboot Empress was an incredibly skilled mass-murderer who "knew a thousand ways to kill a hundred species with her bare hands." Probably Lady Shiva-class or above. In the last page, Val hears her heartbeat from a kilometer away, tracks her by it, lets her stalk him, then casually takes her out in one shot.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...m/LSH121-14.jpg

Val “senses micro-fractures” in a space station’s hull.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9..._v4_n125-08.jpg

From the “Universe Ablaze” Titans/Legion crossover:

In an homage to a Silver Age scene shown above, Reboot Val shows that he too is an expert in martial arts across the galaxy, including those with weapons. This time his sparring partner is M’onel, who’s actively fighting back and explicitly using his superspeed—but Val still wins the bout:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...tanslsh2-01.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...tanslsh2-02.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...tanslsh2-03.jpg

Val detects the weakest spot on a huge Tamaranian carrier—containing hundreds of fighters, and hi-tech even by 30th-Century standards—and destroys it with one punch. Kills himself too, but hey, time travel was involved, so everything worked out okay in the end.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...tanslsh4-19.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...tanslsh4-20.jpg

From the “The Legion” era:

An admittedly “slow and out of condition” Karate Kid—he spent the last several months training as a pacifist monk—takes on Nadir, a guy with Kryptonian or near-Kryptonian strength and durability. (He defeated Ferro in one panel and two punches, and then casually fractured his body to bits by hand.) Val loses the first round, then comes back and finally defeats him by exploding his weapon’s powerpack. Feats include:
•Surviving getting smashed into the ground by Nadir three times, and twice recovering instantly or almost instantly;
•Dodging between rapid-fire energy blasts;
•Kicking Nadir hard enough to put him on his knees coughing up stuff;
•Punching his powerpack, thereby rigging it to explode when Nadir fired his weapon.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...am/quothon1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...am/quothon2.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...am/quothon3.jpg

Karate Kid dominates at least thirty inmates of Earth’s highest-security metacriminal prison; superpowers mentioned are flight, super-strength and TK. (In the first round he didn’t do too well before the Persuader broke up the fight, but—as he said—“I wasn’t mentally prepared, then.”) This was Reboot Val’s last big scene—The Legion #37—and it was a good’un.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...dream/riot5.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...dream/riot6.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y9...dream/riot7.jpg

Karate Kid of the Current “Threeboot” Legion:

Gotta love a smartass: “It is transmuted. I changed it from solid to...more rubbly solid.”
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Page004.jpg

Sparring match with Ultra Boy for a training exercise:
(Note how Val manages to not only keep up with Ultra Boy in ‘super-speed mode’ but he also dodges some attacks as well)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Untitled-Scanned-11.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Untitled-Scanned-12.jpg

This is very impressive display of control on Karate Kid’s part over his skills. Here, he completely clears a crust of snow and ice (estimated to be 5 meters and 70,000-80,000 tons) surrounding the Sidney Opera House with NO noticeable damage on the building itself. Now THAT is “control.”
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Untitled-Scanned-13.jpg

Val punches full-sized Micro Lad (who stands 60 feet high and weighs about 100 tons) through the outer wall of Legion Headquarters and hundreds of feet away:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y92/silicondream/Untitled-Scanned-25.jpg

...those kids were as fast as lightning...

LOL Mr. X aka X from Superhero Hype?

Originally posted by Murda Mase
LOL Mr. X aka X from Superhero Hype?

The links are almost all dead..............🙁

Originally posted by TricksterPriest
The links are almost all dead..............🙁

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=69734

boxed2 You know what's weird? All those times I saw KK in the versus forum, I was thinking about the kid from the movie. I didn't know that he was a comic character.

For the people that say he lost to Batman, that is absolutely not true. What happened was that Batman got in one hit on him, but that was because he was being mind - controlled and suffering from memory loss, and we later find out that he's dying of a deadly disease (but he still beat Batman. Black Lightning had to save him):

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valposessed.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valposessed1.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valposessed2.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valmemoryloss.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valdying.jpg

Val defeats Oracle's security system:

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/vallasersecuritysystem.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valvsoraclesystem.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valvsoraclesystem1.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valwallbreak.jpg

While afflicted with the aforementioned disease, he defeats Equus (keep in mind this is a guy who gave Superman trouble):

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valequus.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valequus1.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valequus2.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valequus3.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valequus4.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/EndlessMike9/Karate%20Kid/valequus5.jpg

This isn't a bad showing for KK. This is back in the day Pre-Crisis.

KK is awesome no doubt.

Val dodges Kara Zor El's super speed punches in Supergirl 21...

Vall shoulda taken those punches. its like foreplay to kara. he might hvae gotten some.

Originally posted by batdude123
Vall shoulda taken those punches. its like foreplay to kara. he might hvae gotten some.

Originally posted by SnazzySmurph
Are you drunk?

At the time... absolutely.

Originally posted by batdude123
At the time... absolutely.