In DC K.O., Earth’s greatest heroes (and villains) compete in a tournament where the grand prize is the power to take on an Omega Energy-charged Darkseid. In other words, all of reality is at stake, so it’s a pretty good reason for the heroes to be fighting each other.

However, there have been other times where their reasons for fighting are…well, petty. What can I say? DC heroes can be weird sometimes. How childish are we talking about here? Well, just take a look at these five ridiculous reasons DC’s heroes have duked it out in the past.
 

Batman and Superman’s First Fight Was Over Who Could Stop a Hurricane

There have been lots of legendary fights between Batman and Superman over the years. There’s the Jim Lee-illustrated battle from Hush, the epic throwdown in The Dark Knight Returns and Henry Cavill’s cinematic clash with Ben Affleck in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (the safe word was Martha). However, it may surprise you to learn that their very first fight was over who gets to stop a hurricane.

The first battle between Batman and Superman occurred in 1958’s World’s Finest Comics #95, a story where the Caped Crusader suddenly finds himself with powers (there were aliens involved). When a hurricane begins to head towards Gotham City, Batman and Superman argue over who will be the one to stop it. It’s kind of like when two toddlers argue over who gets to push the elevator button, except this escalated into a physical brawl between two super-powered beings.

Anyway, Batman’s powers wore off, and the two heroes realized fighting over hurricanes (YOU KNOW, NATURAL DISASTERS) was stupid.
 

Batman and Supergirl Fought Superman and Batgirl to Gaslight a Dying Actor

Their first fight is not the only silly one they’ve had, though.

In World’s Finest #176 (reprinted in World’s Finest #302) an actor named Ronald Jason discovered he was dying of radiation poisoning and decided to have a little bit of fun before he kicked the bucket. He disguised himself as an alien named Dur and told Superman that he needed protection from a criminal alien named Tiron. Ronald then disguised himself as Tiron and told Batman that he needed his help to hunt down an evil alien named Dur.

Batman and Superman both saw through this disguise immediately but decided to humor the dying actor. He clearly wanted them to fight over him, so they obliged. Batman recruited Supergirl, and Superman recruited Batgirl, and there was an all-out superhero war over the supposed “aliens.”

There must have been no crime in Metropolis or Gotham that week, because they clearly had a lot of free time.

Anyway, Ronald died, and Batman and Superman revealed that they knew the aliens were fake the whole time. Batgirl and Supergirl were kind of annoyed because nobody let them in on the plan. If either of them have trust issues, this is probably why.
 

The Legion of Super-Heroes Traded Blows Because They Disagreed with the Choices a Woman Made 1,000 Years Ago

Oh boy, how do I explain this one? In Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #76, the Legion of Super-Heroes decided to battle one another because they didn’t like the way Lucy Lane acted 1,000 years in the past.

If you’re a regular DC.com reader, then you know I’ve exhaustively researched all the ways that Jimmy Olsen is the ultimate rizz master, and how his relationship with Lucy Lane was a hot mess. (Go to college, kids, and you can also provide very important public services like these.) Anyhow, three of the Legionnaires—Saturn Girl, Light Lass and Triplicate Girl—decided to invite Jimmy to the 30^th century and fight over him, hoping it would get Lucy to appreciate Jimmy more.

For context, this is the 30^th century, and by now Lucy has been dead for almost 1,000 years, so this seems like a weird reason for a team of superheroes to battle one another. It would be like if my neighbor and I decided to have a boxing match in order to teach Henry the VIII to appreciate his wives.

Oh, and Lucy didn’t even watch the battle, so the whole thing was a colossal waste of their time.
 

Wonder Woman Fights Batgirl Because Batman Thinks It’s the Best Way to Trick a Villain

In The Brave and the Bold #78, Batman was having a hard time capturing Copperhead, so he decided that the best way to nab the villain would be to lure him into a false sense of security. In other words, if Copperhead thought Batman was preoccupied, he might get careless and become easier to catch.

There are a million ways to trick Copperhead into thinking Batman is busy. They could light the Bat-Signal, making the villain believe he’s meeting with Gordon. They could leak word that Batman is on a Justice League mission. But no, instead Batman enlists Wonder Woman and Batgirl to publicly fight over him. It probably would’ve been smarter to have both women help him fight Copperhead instead of making the heroines duke it out, but I think Batman just wanted to see two gifted and powerful women fight over him.

I give credit to Batgirl, because she held her own against Wonder Woman, but the entire fight was unnecessary. And honestly, if you’re going to have two of the best heroes in the DCU waste their time like this, can’t you at least do it for a more formidable villain than Copperhead?
 

Beast Boy Attacked the Doom Patrol Because They Messed Up His Hair

Beast Boy made his first appearance in 1965’s Doom Patrol #99, where the young shapeshifter decided to impress the Doom Patrol by breaking into their headquarters. However, the team didn’t know who the heck Gar Logan was, so they immediately trapped him under a giant steel cone. This messed up Beast Boy’s hair, causing him to fight the entire team.

In fairness to Gar, teenagers are really sensitive about their hair. It also didn’t help that Robotman started pointing and laughing at him. The Chief eventually intervened, calming everyone down, but it was quite an interesting way to introduce readers to someone who would go on to become one of the most popular young heroes in the DCU.
 

I guess it doesn’t take much to get heroes to fight each other, and I suppose it keeps their hand-to-hand combat skills from getting rusty. Still, with DC K.O. underway, they now have a better reason to fight, and let’s hope they remember that, because now the entire world is at stake.

Unless this whole thing is another Ronald Jason hoax.

Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, "Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Bluesky at @joshualapinbertone and on X at @TBUJosh.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.