Why does it seem there or more classic Batman stories than Superman?

[SixSpeedSamurai]

Not to slam Superman or anything, but it seems like there are tons of classic Batman stories still relevant today in the conversation of classic Batman stories, but not very many Superman stories. Maybe "whatever happened to the man of tomorrow" and Death of Superman. I would not necessarily consider Death great, but it's memorable.

Maybe it's harder to write a seminal Superman story because the character has so few imperfections.

[PCN24454]

Well, what are those classic Batman stories that you're talking about?

[Frontier]

I guess it depends on your standards for "classic" stories.

[Restingvoice]

Well, what are those classic Batman stories that you're talking about?

Year One, TDKR, Killing Joke, Knightfall, No Man's Land, A Death in The Family, Long Halloween...

I dunno. As someone who gravitates more towards detective stories than... whatever Superman's doing, I can't say. Maybe people, in general, are more interested in the detective genre, or dark stuffs, since it's a classic genre. Since the... 19th century?

I got the impression that Batman's more appealing because he's more realistic and dark and cool since he's not a nice guy or alien, and because of that more writers would be more interested in writing him, and more readers are more interested in reading it...

There's also more chances of experimenting when you don't have to be the image of goodness

[Robanker]

At least in the last couple decades, sheer volume. More Batman material gets published so while a lot of it is garbage or just alright, you will get some more modern classics just by virtue of an increased sample size.

Overall? One element is that Batman's easier to "get" because it's essentially a crime drama dialed up to eleven whereas with Superman, a lot of people fumble on the powers and get too weighed down thinking about what he can do versus, well, telling a story. Dark media tends to be more popular of late, too, so there's that.

Batman just seems to be easier to tackle, and I'm not trying to discredit the great work done with the IP. You just don't need to wrap your head around high concept as much. You can just tell a story about a kidnapping and people are invested. With Superman? The perception is they question why he's wasting his time with a kidnapping, so writers try to shoot for the moon and sometimes get lost in the shuffle... And yet the most reposted page on Reddit is probably from All-Star Superman#10 where he comforts a jumper-- something anyone can do.

Moreover, a lot of Batman and Superman's flaws are misunderstood by most the general audience. Superman being "too perfect" is as surface level as "Batman's just a guy." I don't think that's valid or fair to either of them, really. Batman's no more "a guy" than Bond, and Bond is a poor man's Batman at best. There's nothing realistic about Batman, and yet the core premise sounds like it is, so people accept it rather than think. Same with Superman being an alien. If his powers came out of a test tube and nothing else changed, you'd think he's the most human guy around. First blush often colors people for life, for ill more than good.

As with Wonder Woman, it's an identity issue. Batman's is clear-- crime story with Bruce being forever haunted by what happened to his parents. Rich dude, some gadgets, action and mystery. With Superman and Wonder Woman, there's a built-in perception of who they "should be" and that can get in the way. Frankly this is happening with Bruce too-- to his detriment-- where he's effectively a walking plot device that can't be challenged except by a clown, who completely stymies him at every turn despite having no credible reason to do so. It may be why the last universally acclaimed Batman story was Court of the Owls in 2011-- people like the stories since, but they've gotten farther from the core appeal of the character.

With Superman, and less so with Wonder Woman (not by design, but she arguably has fewer seminal works which is a shame), the seminal stories speak to them as characters, not as power sets. When writers really dig into their character, those runs tend to be more appreciated. All-Star, FTMWHE, WHTTMOT, FAS, even the recent "Up in the Sky," they're all about the measure of who Kal-El/Superman/Clark Kent is. Yeah, he goes to space and makes suns and so forth, but that's dressing. As Morrison once put it, Superman walks his dog just like you. It's just that he does it around Saturn and back instead of the block.

DC also don't hold him as sacred as Batman anymore, so he gets turned into a heel for Bruce to beat up in a very stupid way, which gives Bruce's stories gravitas because... Well, as far as Goliaths go for David to topple, Superman is among the best.

[TheBatman]

For the Man Who Has Everything
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorow?
John Byrne's Man of Steel
Death of Superman
For All Seasons
What's so funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?
Secret Identity
Birthright
Red Son
All Star Superman
Superman Smashes the Klan

And that's off the top of my head.

Superman doesn't have as many classic/notable stories as Batman, but most superheroes don't, and even still, Superman is no slouch in that area.

Superman's real problem is that he doesn't have a truly great run, something as notable as Wolfman/Perez on Titans or Johns on GL.

[SiegePerilous02]

Superman's real problem is that he doesn't have a truly great run, something as notable as Wolfman/Perez on Titans or Johns on GL.

I think this is a big issue. Superman lends himself better to self contained, sometimes fable-like series and/or Elseworlds than lengthy serialized runs. Or maybe it seems that way because, like you say, we don't really a firm example of such a thing for him. Even in the modern era, Wonder Woman at least has Perez and Rucka for a lot of people.

He certainly has very well regarded stretches, like the Triangle Era, though that's stuff that overlaps between different books by different authors. I guess a lot of people would consider the Byrne run such a run, but I personally wouldn't

[Flash Gordon]

Superman works best as done-in-one issues. Short stories and morality plays in the vein of Doctor Who or Stark Trek. You can arc larger narratives through those, but doing big event stories usually lead to disappointing results. Not a lot of mainstream superhero stuff leans in that direction.

[Vordan]

Not to slam Superman or anything, but it seems like there are tons of classic Batman stories still relevant today in the conversation of classic Batman stories, but not very many Superman stories. Maybe "whatever happened to the man of tomorrow" and Death of Superman. I would not necessarily consider Death great, but it's memorable.

Maybe it's harder to write a seminal Superman story because the character has so few imperfections.

Seminal is the eye of the beholder. Some people consider Scott Snyder’s run to be seminal but I’ve seen people here consider it trash. You see it even more strongly with Tom King’s Batman run. That said even within the last decade we’ve had some seminal Superman stories
Man & Superman
Superman Smashes The Klan
American Alien (before Landis was outed as a harasser this was extremely popular and well received)
Up in the Sky
Couple issues of Man of Tomorrow
And I love Bendis Superman and Morrison Action but that’s as divisive as Tom King’s Superman.

There’s stuff that I don’t consider to be seminal for Superman that others do like
Tomasi & Jurgens Superman Rebirth
Venditti’s Man of Tomorrow

That said the reason Batman is the #1 DC character is because he is the one who has had the most success. He’s got more good stories than anyone at DC, and arguably more than anyone at Marvel as well. Some people say he’s “easier” to write but I disagree with that. Johns and Ellis have written great stories elsewhere, but Three Jokers & The Batman’s Grave certainly didn’t live up to the hype.

[OopsIdiditagain]

Not to slam Superman or anything, but it seems like there are tons of classic Batman stories still relevant today in the conversation of classic Batman stories, but not very many Superman stories. Maybe "whatever happened to the man of tomorrow" and Death of Superman. I would not necessarily consider Death great, but it's memorable.

Maybe it's harder to write a seminal Superman story because the character has so few imperfections.

we've probably had more mainstream adaptations of batman stories than superman ones, so that's why we can remember older batman stories.

[Jim Kelly]

I guess it depends how you mean classic. I guess if you just mean a story that's good then you can say this story is a classic. But when I hear classic it makes me think vintage, from the original era.

In the latter sense, Superman had more classic tales than Batman. There are many many stories from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s for Superman that are the classic Superman stories. There are less for Batman--I could list a bunch that I think are classics for Batman but they aren't as well as known as the classic Superman stories from that period.

The Batman stories that others have listed here are stories that redefined Batman, modernized Batman. Stories that replaced the classic Batman stories and reinvented the character and his mythology.

[charliehustle415]

There are some amazing Supe stories, but they tend to go unnoticed simply because the hoi polloi tend to think Superman is lame.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

For the Man Who Has Everything
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorow?
John Byrne's Man of Steel
Death of Superman
For All Seasons
What's so funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?
Secret Identity
Birthright
Red Son
All Star Superman
Superman Smashes the Klan

And that's off the top of my head.

Superman doesn't have as many classic/notable stories as Batman, but most superheroes don't, and even still, Superman is no slouch in that area.

Superman's real problem is that he doesn't have a truly great run, something as notable as Wolfman/Perez on Titans or Johns on GL.

I don't disagree with this list, but if you asked the random comic fan, I would say they'd probably maybe be able to do half that list.

[Robanker]

I don't disagree with this list, but if you asked the random comic fan, I would say they'd probably maybe be able to do half that list.

Most random comic fans just parrot the "he's too perfect I don't like him" crap and never read Superman stories, and if they do it was a random issue that wasn't great and they took it to be a stand-in for all Superman stories. Imagine reading a Kevin Smith Batman story and thinking "well Batman's just not very good because this was awful." They probably also aren't aware Batman hasn't been "just a man" since the '80s.

[LifeIsILL]

You can also replace Batman with "Marvel" and Superman with "DC".

Go to any comic book site (casual or not), and lists containing classic DC stories are mostly filled with Batman stuff, and some Justice League.

But classic Marvel stories tend to have most of their characters.

It's dumb but that's how people look at it.