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Batman

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On the surface, this should be no contest. True, Batman is the more cunning and shrewd of the two, but, compared with Superman's sheer strength and brawn, this would surely be a fight too far. And yet, I cannot envisage a time where, if these two Justice League compatriots were to come together in blows, The Man of Steel would be victorious over The Dark Knight. And this is not because Superman would not win, but simply because he could not win.

Superman is essentially, as described by Jeph Loeb in his first volume of Batman: Hush, a "boy scout", who would always choose good over evil; right over wrong. This method of thinking has held him in good stead against the scores of enemies that he has encountered but, in a fight that cannot be contrasted as black and white, Superman is really going to suffer.

Not least because Batman is not a nice person. Frank Miller has attested to this many times in his comics (for example, in Batman: Year One he shows the interior monologue of Batman choosing which method would best incapacitate a felon, and, while not choosing the lethal method does choose the one that "will hurt for weeks"). Batman's tragic ordeal of seeing his parents murdered at the tender age of eight has given him an edge over Superman in that he is willing to take any steps necessary to get the job done. He has no ties to worry about (except for Alfred Robin, Knightwing, Oracle et al can all handle their own ) and has no love for his normal life as Bruce Wayne, making him a man with almost nothing to lose.

Batman has actually beaten Superman on at least three occasions, albeit after Superman has been weakened or compromised severely (in Batman: Hush, Superman is under Poison Ivy's influence, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, sees him weakened by detonating a nuclear bomb and in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Back, he is not in sound mind or shape). But an unfit Superman should still be able to wipe the floor with Batman. But Batman, with his intelligence, strategy and resources, would break Superman every time. It's the extra mile that he is willing to go to get the job done. And if it requires hurling Lois Lane from a building to distract Superman from the fight then that is what Batman will do.

There is also the fact that Superman has so much reverence for the human race. He is an alien who strives to understand human behaviour and, as such, is always in awe of it. Batman almost represents everything that is good about humankind (strong, intelligent, noble) and Superman is clever enough to know this, therefore defeating him would be defeating everything in life that he holds dear. Batman is, at best , suspicious and cynical about mankind and, to a certain extent, his own life.

And that is what really makes this into an interesting but ultimately doomed fight for Superman. He is not, by his very nature, able to go that extra distance to beat Batman. Basically Batman would pull hair, scratch eyes and spit if he thinks that it would help. Superman would stick to the Queensbury rules. And that is why he would, always, lose.

Learn more about this author, Chris Daykin.
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