Alright. When it comes to fighting I am quite sure that Superman would punch a hole through Batman's face and that would be the end of it. Now it pains me to say that because I think as a whole Batman is a far better character than Superman. More interesting. His story lines are better, but, what do you guys think?
GB: Superman and Batman are the two defining icons among comic books, and now that you've spent considerable time with both of them as a writer, I'm curious how you've come to view them, both as separate figures and as linked opposites.
GM: Superman is very bright and optimistic. It's all the simple things. He's of the day and of the sunlight, and Batman is the creature of the night. I'm interested in the fact that they both believe in the same kind of things. But Batman is better. He's screwed up. Thats what makes him cool. Even though he's solved all his problems in his own head he is, as I see him, a man with a very dark sense of humor and a very dark view of the world. He has to overcome that constantly. He's forever fighting to make the world better, which means it's never good for Batman. The rest of us have good days. We don't fight everyday. Batman fights every single day. He has that dark Plutonian side.
GB: The public personalities of Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent don't seem as polarized as their alter egos.
GM: Bruce Wayne is a rich man. He's an artistocrat. Superman grew up as Clark Kent on a farm bailing hay, and he's got a boss that shouts at him if he's late to work. He's actually more human; Batman is the fetish fantasy psyche of the aristocrat overlord who can do anything he wants, and that's fascinating. The class difference between the two of them is important.
GB: I?ve never thought much about the class distinctions between the two.
GM: You're an American; you live in Los Angeles! You don't have to think of class distinction in the same way we Brits do. But there is very much a distinction between the two. People often forget Superman is very much a put-upon guy. Bruce has a butler, Clark has a boss ?
GB: True, but Clark also owns real estate in the Arctic, flies for free and can crush coal into fist-sized diamonds. He doesn?t need to have a boss.
GM: Yeah, but he so wants to be like us. He pines after one girl while Batman has a whole host of fetish femmes fatale at his beck and call.
GB: The ladies love the car, I think.
GM: Of course. He's got everything. I like that. He's our kind of dream of the aristocrat. He?s even better than the Tony Stark/Iron Man thing; he's got that as well as the dark side. That's the difference between Superman and Batman. There both interesting to write, but Batman is the sexier one, definitely.
In the end, I saw Superman not as a superhero or even a science fiction character, but as a story of Everyman. We're all Superman in our own adventures. We have our own Fortresses of Solitude we retreat to, with our own special collections of valued stuff, our own super?pets, our own "Bottle Cities" that we feel guilty for neglecting. We have our own peers and rivals and bizarre emotional or moral tangles to deal with.
I felt I'd really grasped the concept when I saw him as Everyman, or rather as the dreamself of Everyman. That "S" is the radiant emblem of divinity we reveal when we rip off our stuffy shirts, our social masks, our neuroses, our constructed selves, and become who we truly are.
Batman is obviously much cooler, but that's because he's a very energetic and adolescent fantasy character: a handsome billionaire playboy in black leather with a butler at this beck and call, better cars and gadgetry than James Bond, a horde of fetish femme fatales baying around his heels and no boss. That guy's Superman day and night.
Superman grew up baling hay on a farm. He goes to work, for a boss, in an office. He pines after a hard?working gal. Only when he tears off his shirt does that heroic, ideal inner self come to life. That's actually a much more adult fantasy than the one Batman?s peddling but it also makes Superman a little harder to sell. He's much more of a working class superhero, which is why we ended the whole book with the image of a laboring Superman.
He's Everyman operating on a sci?fi Paul Bunyan scale. His worries and emotional problems are the same as ours... except that when he falls out with his girlfriend, the world trembles.
Personally I love both and think we'd be poorer without both.
I'd say the top 3 greatest heroes in my opinion go:
1. The Flash
2. Superman
3. Batman
Batman's great, but I honestly can't relate to him at all. His life is one of tragedy and relentless determination to right the wrongs of the world. This varies with the writers of course, but more or less the reason I don't relate to Batman is because his isn't so concerned with helping people so much as he is with stopping crime. Those run fairly parallel, and Batman still has some heart and will obviously rescue those in danger (which is why he's not lame like, say, the Punisher), but it's the end of crime he pursues, not the well-being of the people. In a way, his motivations could be perceived as selfish, in that his parents were killed, so now he works tirelessly to make their deaths mean something. Again, it varies with the writers, but his crusade isn't for the world, it's for himself. And that's totally fine, it's just not my preferred motivation.
Superman on the other hand has tragedy in his life, but it doesn't define him. He's just a farm boy, raised with good values and blessed with awesome power, who sees mankind struggling and wants to help. He sets an example, and does his best to work with the people rather than from the shadows like Batman. Like Batman, he refuses to kill people, only not because it would be the start of a slippery slope like Batman fears, but because he knows it's wrong. Batman wants to distance himself from mankind, Superman wants to be one of us.
That's just my interpretation of course. I still love both characters, although not quite as much as the Flash.
Batmans way better. But it always sort of ruins him for me that he exists in the same universe as superman and various other op superheros.
I mean cmon, superman could pop over and deal with the all the supervillains of gotham city in a day! Yet batman never seems to be willing to pick up a phone and ask for help, unless its the avengers!
Superman once gave Batman a kryptonite ring, in case Superman needed to be killed(I don't remember why). Superman believed that Batman was the only person capable of stopping him, ergo Superman believes Batman is the better man. Batman wins by Superman's own admission.
Superman is just a terrible character in my eyes. Totally overpowered, arbitrary and stupid weaknesses (seriously? kryptonite?), very little actual personality, and often falls prey to ridiculous writing inconsistencies in order to artificially create tension (the dude can travel and survive impacts at light speed, he could kill most shit just by flying into it). While there has been a lot of comics written that either break the aforementioned mold or put Superman in an interesting situation that forces him to reevaluate, question or compromise himself, generally these stories seem to write around Superman's natural blandness. As opposed to prominently featuring one of his character traits, writers have to break or bend the few existing traits via situations Superman is placed in. Ultimately, I see superman as a character who was designed to be looked up to but also vicariously lived through. While that's all well and good, it's really difficult for me to get attached to a character who I see as little more than a heroic cipher for us to project onto.
In that regard, I see batman as a better character by default, but I don't think he's quite as interesting a character as a lot of people make him out to be. I think it's the dynamic between batman and the various characters who inhabit his universe that makes the franchise really shine.
Batman has to use skill to take out most of his opponents. Superman can take on most shit in his sleep no problem and the few times he does come across someone big and bad enough to pose a threat he just goes toe to toe swapping punches until he wins.
Superman is just so over powered that he is really boring.
Oh and Batman vs Superman, Batman wins. You know he always carries a chunk of Kryptonite in his belt just in case.
Superman once gave Batman a kryptonite ring, in case Superman needed to be killed(I don't remember why). Superman believed that Batman was the only person capable of stopping him, ergo Superman believes Batman is the better man. Batman wins by Superman's own admission.
Which is ridiculous because, if the writers were being honest, superman could kill batman before batman even realized Superman was trying to kill him, ring or no ring. The entire concept of kryptonite as a weapon to be used against Superman in the hands of regular dudes is just retarded when you really evaluate the ridiculous long range attack potential Superman has. Hell, He could just throw a freaking rock at your head from the upper atmosphere. You can be certain that any batman/superman crossover will amount to little more than fanboy pandering. Also, just because you trust someone to pull the trigger if need be it doesn't mean you think they're a better person somehow. Superman is certainly infinitely more useful than batman (again, if the writers were being honest).
there both good in polar opposite ways, mostly how they deal with things.
batman is aggressive preferring to lead the situation, while supes is always defensive in his operation.
batman is defined by the tragedy of his childhood being , supes however defies being defined by what anyone else does.
superman is idealistic in that he wholly believes that people are generally good, batman is pessimistic in that he planed a way to defeat everyone around him... and made brother eye which is an endless pain in the ass for all involved(GJ there, batman).
batman is here hes a human and has no powers yet he keeps fighting, superman has nearly limitless power but struggles to contain it.
in terms they're two side of the same coin. one side bright and polished, the other dark and scarred.
Neither is superior to the other; Batman has his place, and Superman has his. There's a time for every thing and so forth.
In general with how they are written (which is distinct from their character as a whole), I would say that Batman tends to be much better. But the deepest pieces I've read of Superman are far deeper than Batman's, so it all depends on what you're needing.
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