Batman or Superman

[SiegePerilous02]

Also, this is a side note, but I feel it's appropriate here. I know it's considered impolite and intellectually dishonest to simply assume a non-fan of a character doesn't "get" them, but I frankly think that far too many people don't get Superman, or at least underestimate his depth. Most of the time the argument circles back to characters needing dramatic flaws to be relateable or interesting. Marvel characters are usually examples. But the more I think about it, the more I find that giving a character a large standout flaw can reduce the character to that weakness and limit their growth by taking a "short-cut" to emotional development. It's almost too easy to say X character is an alcoholic or Y figure is permanently disfigured or Z character is cursed by their powers; these are often obvious and simplistic struggles. They don't leave as much room for layered reflection, exploration, and imagination. Which is why I think Superman is so interesting.

What would it be like to be Superman on a daily basis? How much does he old back his emotions and physical expression living in our world? How much of himself misses, resents, embraces, and carries his Kryptonian heritage? How much of the farmboy survives, and how much was there to begin with? What kind of choices does he make with regards to public perception and government? Are they the same as mine would be? What makes him sad, and on how many different levels does he think of and relate to other humans? When, what, and why does the man eat?! The questions go on and on and on. Being able to ask character questions that lead to more and more questions makes for a thematically rich, interesting, and fertile character. This, along with a simple beautiful concept of the most powerful man being the goodest of all, is a big reason Superman has persisted.

Excellently put.

This basically sums up why I've come to love Superman more than any Marvel character (and I love a lot of them too). There are pluses and minuses to both approaches, but if the Marvel method is combined with "Status Quo is God" you get characters struggling with their flaws for decades on end. And that can be pretty tedious.

[Jon Clark]

I like them both- at least in principle but I've been Team Superman since I was old enough to know what a hero is.

Batman when handled well is a brilliant detective with impressive physical abilities. But over the past few decades he has often been written too often as a guy who doesn't need to do detective work as all of the answers are just on the tip of his tongue. And his physical abilities are exaggerated to ludicrous levels. Batman in an alley against 6 armed men might work. Batman against the JLA in the same alley shouldn't work … or should work only once-in-a-blue-moon when circumstances are perfectly aligned. For example in Dark Knight Returns we are told Bruce had been working for decades on the plan to deal with Superman and even then it didn't really work. But somehow that has become that Batman has at his fingertips the exact tech to defeat any hero at any time. And yet somehow despite being able to defeat the fastest man alive, a woman empowered by the Greek gods, an agent of the Guardians and Superman without breaking a sweat Batman doesn't have any follproog plan for defeating the Joker, Ras Al Ghul or your average mugger. I miss a batman who would out more effort into defeating criminals than into defeating his fellow heroes.

[Ascended]

Team Superman, all the way.

I like Batman well enough. He's an interesting idea, and while I really hate how the Batgod has come to loom over us all, I do find the character intriguing.

But Superman? Superman is the way and the light and the path; the image of humanity overcoming its greatest flaws. And make no mistake, Clark is a deeply flawed person. It's just not in your face. He's got nuance and subtlety and depth; far more than the vast majority of his four-color peers.

It's not even a competition. Superman is the superior character in every single respect. Batman has gotten better stories the last thirty years, and better creators, and more investment and focus from WB/DC. But none of that changes the fact that Superman is a better character. All that shows is that WB/DC lack the vision to do Superman justice.

[Sutekh]

I like the world and supporting cast built up around Batman better than Metropolis, Lois, etc. Plus the Rogue's Gallery.

But I like Superman as a person better. (Plus I grew up on a farm in the Midwest, and did not inherit a billion-dollar company that runs itself and just serves to give me endless piles of money from my parents, so I'm totally biased.)

[Lightning Rider]

Excellently put.

This basically sums up why I've come to love Superman more than any Marvel character (and I love a lot of them too). There are pluses and minuses to both approaches, but if the Marvel method is combined with "Status Quo is God" you get characters struggling with their flaws for decades on end. And that can be pretty tedious.

Thanks. And that's a good point actually; having the same kind of hang-up trump a character again and again without moving past or overcoming their internal struggles to a meaningful extent can get tiring. And even if they do move past it, another writer can come in and just plunge them in that hole again. This is true for characters I love as well.

[Jim Kelly]

I think when you had people who had gone through a Great Depression and at least one World War writing Bruce and Clark, the world’s finest tended to be stoic individuals, rarely feeling sorry for themselves and all their losses, except in their most private moments when only the reader could know their thoughts.

Once the Boomers and the other generations after them started to write Batman and Superman, then they became adolescent whiners stuck in arrested development, incapable of moving on from their tragedies, rubbing their old wounds to renew the hurt.