And then there was ALWAYS that kid who’d chime in about Spider-man beating both of them. He was always distracting me when I was trying to point out Batman obviously must keep a Kryptonite dead man’s switch on him.
It’s the argument that continues to rile up comic book character fans. Past, present, or future, we will always continue the endless debate of who’d win in a fight between The Man of Tomorrow, Superman, or the Caped Crusader, Batman. For every “Batman has time to plan and has Kryptonite” fans, there will be other fans who will throw out “Superman chucks Batman into the sun.” Every “Well, Superman can just rip him in half” fans, others will throw out “Batman plays dirty while Superman won’t.”Then, it devolves into a “Is it a fight where they’re both trying to kill each other or not, and if they were trying to kill each other, obviously the answer would be Batman/Superman!” Arguments about the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight have almost a perfect formula to how they will play out at this point due to how many suppositions, examples, and hypotheticals are thrown out every day about who’d win between their favorite hero. We know what the average Joe thinks of the Batman vs Superman fight, look at any comment page or forum discussion about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but what about the major figures of the comic industry?
Obviously, Frank Miller thinks Batman could beat Superman, and so do a few other writers about DC, but these writers are biased. They’re writing Batman, so obviously Batman wouldn’t lose to Superman in his own book. That would be silly. The same can be said about Superman. So what about their long time rivals, formerly from across town, Marvel? Plenty of fans argue about which company is superior, almost as much as Superman vs Batman and a lot of writers have gone back and forth between the companies, but some of the writers at Marvel might have some clever insight coming from decades of comic experience, and from watching DC like a hawk as their biggest competitor. What would Stan Lee think?
Well, Stan Lee does have an opinion. A guy who’s responsible for more than half the character roster at Marvel, some of the most popular comic book heroes of all time, might have a pretty good idea of who’d win in a fight between superheroes now that you think about it. So who’d he pick? Superman, according to Lee, is the hero who’d walk out of that conflict victorious. When asked why, he answered;
He’s indestructible, he can do anything, and Batman relies on a few weapons…But if this were real–a fight between Superman and Batman–there’s no way that Batman could win. The creator of Batman, Bob Kane, was a good friend of mine, so he’d be unhappy with me saying that. But at the same time, Jerry Siegel, one of the creators of Superman, worked for me for a while. So I feel I have divided loyalties
It must really be weird knowing the people who made these icons and then being asked “Who’d beat up who in a fight?” It’s almost like debating which of your friends’ kids will be able to beat the other. Only these kids are being backed by millions of people and the answer will cause even more arguments. Wonder Woman meanwhile continues to shake her head and goes off to beat up the Greek pantheon and New Gods because she’s secure in the knowledge that she can beat up both of them.