Batman V. Superman: The Best Essay Ever
Throughout history every society has had their own heroes of myth and legend; from the Greek heroes of Hercules and Achilles, to the Medieval English heroes King Arthur and Lancelot, and the Early American heroes of Paul Bunyan and Daniel Boone, there have always been and there will always be heroes. Heroes are pillars of a societies values, what a society finds important is what will always be found in the overall makeup of the heroes themselves. In today’s society we have two heroes of legend that stand above all others—Batman and Superman.
The immortal question: who would in a fight, Batman or Superman? I will not delve into that argument, mainly because everyone knows deep down (no matter how huge of a Batman fan they are) that if Superman really wanted to beat Batman in a one on one fight, he would win easily. That is one of the many reasons Batman is better than Superman in the overall aspect of the characters, he is always at a disadvantage when hanging around with the god like heroes he does, yet he never backs down from any challenge. Batman is superior to Superman in some other critical areas when discussing their fictional characterhood, mainly Batman’s better movie portrayals and more entertaining films, Batman’s larger and more grounded rouges gallery, Batman’s lack of powers leading to a greater amount of heroism, and Batman’s refusal to kill in darker stories with more villainous foes.
Superman first appeared in literature in Action Comics #1 in June 1938; Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. It didn’t take long for either of them to receive their first live action portrayals with both receiving film serials in the 1940’s. However I’m going to focus on their films starting from the 1970’s to now.
Superman’s classic film series starred Christopher Reeves as the big blue Boy Scout, who was undoubtedly the best part of the entire series, even giving sensational performances in the dreadful Superman III and IV. These movies in the classic series were very lighthearted, and cemented the image of Superman as a goody two shoes who could do no wrong in the eyes of America; almost to the point that it becomes annoying and takes away from the initial charm of the quality. The first movies had convincing portrayals of Lex Luthor and General Zod as well. The first two films were very well received critically and financially, but the two sequels were not good at all, with the exception of Reeves superman who still portrayed an invincible alien who could not do any wrong to the fullest extent. After a financial “failure” in Superman Returns, a pseudo sequel to Superman II which ignored the events of Superman III and IV, Warner Brothers decided to reboot the film series with the release of Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill, in summer 2013. This film abandoned the happy and bright tones of its predecessors choosing to instead follow the formula laid down by The Dark Knight Trilogy, a darker tone laced with despair which doesn’t really fit the characters make up of always bringing light to even the darkest of situations, which is one reason the film had mixed reviews from critics and audiences.
Batman much like superman had two brilliant movies to start his classic series, Batman and Batman Returns followed by two less than stellar sequels, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, the latter of which is regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, funnily enough so is Superman IV. Michael Keaton played Batman in the first two, followed by Val Kilmer, and George Clooney respectively. Michael Keaton was very imposing as the Caped Crusader adding even more dark tones to a film that clearly separated itself from Superman’s lighter tones. Even though he was only a human The Joker was a much more menacing villain than General Zod, and seemed like more of a threat than the billionaire Luthor. The setting of Gotham City was very dark and grimy making it very believable juxtaposed to the shining Metropolis in the Superman films. The Stories were more entertaining because even though you knew he would win Batman is always at risk, unlike the invincible Superman. After the critical and financial failure of Batman and Robin Warner Brothers decided to reboot the series eventually giving Christopher Nolan the go ahead on his Dark Knight Trilogy with Christian Bale putting on the cowl. These three movies went even darker and more realistic than the first two in the classic series, putting the dark into “The Dark Knight”. You could sense the danger Batman faced against each enemy knowing that the chances of harm were very real, even leading to his broken back in The Dark Knight Rises. These new movies tone fit the billing of a Batman film much better than the rebooted Superman film, which lead to the critical and financial successes of all three films.
One of the reasons Batman’s films, even the bad ones, are more entertaining are because of Batman’s villains, or his rogues gallery. There’s a reason between the two of them Lex Luthor and General Zod appear seven times in six movies, and that’s because Superman just doesn’t have that many interesting enemies like Batman does; they even created a new villain just for Superman III. The problem with Superman’s villains isn’t there fault either, it’s his own. If he wasn’t so powerful then he could have more villains that actually posed a threat. To fix this they created villains that are way more powerful than the Man of Steel, however this doesn’t completely fix the problem because when these foes are too much for Superman he calls on the Justice League. Prime examples of this occurrence are Brainiac, Doomsday, and Darkseid. His best villain Luthor is probably his most interesting especially when you think that he is everything Batman could be if Bruce Wayne was a little more evil; but then again Lex Luthor isn’t necessarily evil, it’s more that he wants to meet an end that will progress humanity and he thinks that end will justify those means. The only two that are equal to him in almost every way are Zod and Bizarro, an unintelligent clone of Superman created by Luthor, and one could barely call those villains either. Zod is a member of an extinct race, along with Superman they both come from Krypton, and he just wants to be able to start his civilization over again. Bizarro is a kid like clone of Superman who follows the orders of Luthor and just wants friends, he’s more of a puppet than anything. The only truly evil foe that Superman has is Darkseid, and as I said earlier he’s more of a Justice League villain than strictly Superman’s.
With only competition from Marvel’s Wall Crawler himself, Spiderman, Batman has the largest, most diverse, and most entertaining rogues gallery in all of comic books. What makes Batman’s villains better is his lack of powers and his vulnerability, one wrong move and the Caped Crusader is KO’d forever. Batman doesn’t need to have insanely powerful bad guys created just to give him a challenge, in theory any average Joe on the street has a chance to take down The Batman. Batman’s primary foe, the greatest example of why he dons the cape every night, is The Joker. Unlike Luthor, The Joker has no desire to further humanity, he only wishes to see it burn in lunacy. He is the definition of a mad man, the definition of evil itself. Where Luthor can find reason to dictate his villainy, lack of reason is exactly what The Joker’s villainy is all about. Many of Batman’s rogues were once everyday people who just had a series of unlucky events happen, and they seek revenge against the world that turned its back on them. Revenge is the fuel that allows evil to burn, leaving Gotham City in a constant blaze. With the likes of: The Penguin, Two-Face, The Riddler, Mister Freeze, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Clayface, Bane, Killer Croc, Mad Hatter, Victor Zsaaz, and many many more, running the streets of Gotham, or planning an escape from Arkham, Batman is always needed by his city. He doesn’t need help from other heroes to take down his opponents, even though his life is always on the line, and he always turns disadvantages presented by his foes into advantages for him. With only one more movie than Superman, Batman has had eleven villains appear, compared to the two that share seven appearances in Superman’s films, it is obvious in that comparison alone who has more interesting and all together better villains.
What seems like a clear advantage for Superman can actually be spun into a more interesting dynamic for The Dark Knight. Powers and abilities, Superman has what seems like infinite and Batman has none, at least super power wise. Invulnerability to the elements, flight, super speed, super strength, heat vision, icy breath, super breath, x-ray vision, super smell, super hearing, super stamina, super endurance, and super healing; that list could compose an entire team of different X-Men, but as you probably guessed they belong to The Man of Tomorrow himself. This paper isn’t about who’s stronger or more powerful though, it’s about who is a better and more interesting hero, and that is why his powers are actually seen as a weakness from the view point of a reader. An important part of becoming a hero is overcoming weaknesses and adversity, the only adversity Superman faces is finding adversity to face. When powers are constantly being removed for the sake of a story it weakens the story, but when he has all of his powers the story is weak because of how powerful he is, so unfortunately for Supes no matter how hard he tries, his powers handicap the quality of his stories.
Batman however thrives on his lack of powers, when you don’t have super powers you have to enhance the human qualities and aspects of yourselves, and no hero has done this more so than Bruce Wayne. The only thing he possesses that can be considered a power is his huge amount of money, and while this is a major benefit, one can not underestimate the restrictions that mortality has placed on Gotham’s Savior. Batman has used his wealth to train his body to the point of human perfection, mastering countless styles of Martial Arts that he puts to use every night. Only Sherlock Holmes can rival Batman in his detective skills, which is no poor man’s company. Batman’s greatest power though, and what makes him more of a hero than Clark Kent, is his ability to overcome adversity and weaknesses and use them to grow as a human and a hero. Batman’s lack of powers is a massive reason why he is more of a hero than Kal-El could ever be.
People often state that Superman’s restraint and refusal to kill is one of his greatest qualities, they also say this about Batman, but how great is it really? Superman is the most powerful being on Earth, and like I discussed earlier many of his foes are much weaker than; a majority of the people he fights are human. With that being said, how commendable is it that a god like figure refuses to kill mere mortals considering how easy it is for him to just pick them up and fly them to police station. Superman doesn’t kill because he doesn’t need too, and if he did that would make just as bad as the people he would be killing if not worse. Superman never needs to kill so this trait is not admirable, it is only expected. Not to mention Superman the fact that Superman in all media is everything that is light and good, that’s why his stories are brightly lit and Metropolis is a golden paradise, murder would just not mesh with these tones.
As aforementioned Batman is also praised for his one rule, never kill. However it is much more admirable for a mortal man that fights villains hell-bent on revenge not to kill than it is for an all-powerful being to restrain himself against purse-nappers. Batman may be unconventional and a vigilante, but one thing he knows is that he does not have the right to take anyones life, that is up to the legal system, and even though that same legal system fails time and time again regarding Batman’s villains he still refuses to kill because that would make him just as bad as the man who killed his parents and inspired him to fight crime in the first place. Batman constantly being at risk of losing his own life is the defining aspect that makes his refusal to kill so darn amazing. Batman’s stories are very dark in tone and content and Batman killing would not be surprising if it occurred, but no matter how dark everything around him is Bruce Wayne always remains steadfast in his one guiding rule.
The best part about this argument is that there is no clear cut answer, every point I just made could be spun in the favor Clark Kent and many other points could be made that when put in the right light would make one seem better than the other. This essay will not end the debate, countless fan boys on the internet will continue to insult each other presenting no real points in either direction and children of all ages will pick one over the other as the favorite based only on which one looks cooler to them. Batman is better, or Superman is better; it doesn’t really matter as long as these two exist they will continue to spark debate. My only hope is that I enlightened people on to why Batman could be considered the better fictional character between Superman and himself.
Works Cited
"Batman V. Superman." Diffen. N.p., 2014. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <diffen.com>.
Griffith, Clay. "Superman Is Good for America; Batman, Not So Much." Web log post. TOR.COM. N.p., 8 Feb. 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2014. <torcom>.
"Heroes." Myths Encyclopedia. N.p., 2014. Web. 1 Nov. 2014. <mythencyclopedia.com>.
McKinney, Luke. "7 Ways Batman Is Objectively Better than Superman." Cracked. N.p., 21 July 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <cracked.com>.
Richardson, Trevor. "Madness and Virtue: The Psychology of Batman Versus Superman." World of Superheroes. N.p., 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <worldofsuperheroes.com>.
Thankyou for checking this out! Sorry it's so long, its just a large point to prove!
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