Do you think Batman being partners with Superman makes any sense?

[Ascended]

Doesn't shazam cover for supes better though? Supes biggest weakness are magic and kryptonite. Shazam is immune to both. For example, Let's look at this scenario where batman and Superman are attacked by metallo. Shazam would have been way better partner.

In some situations, sure. But generally speaking, Clark doesn't need anyone to cover for his weaknesses like that. Not only are both rare, but Clark works around them on his own all the time. What a good partner offers is a different perspective. Billy has the Wisdom of Solomon on his side, but Billy and Clark both see the world in much the same way, from similar perspectives. It's not that Clark is naïve, but he sees the world in a binary, he doesn't see all the moral shades. Bruce can. That's what makes them such good partners; they see things totally differently, and combined, not much slips by them.

Well, since neither has any interest in being a dictator this would never be a problem.

for emphasis, BATMAN IS NOT AND DOES NOT ASPIRE TO BE AN AUTHORITARIAN RULER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't speaking literally.

No, neither of them are going to become tyrants. Though....I can see an older Bruce taking over the League of Assassins and bending them to his designs. But that's a tangent. But no, neither want a throne. But they are trying to build a future that's better by their subjective standards. And while Bruce isn't likely to ever really go all-in on the authoritarianism, there *are* shades to it in his ideal 'better world' that Clark wouldn't stand for. And there's security risks in Clark's ideal world that Bruce would find too foolhardy to allow. So I stand by what I said; not in a literal fashion, but the last thing standing in the way of Clark's brighter future is Bruce, and vice versa.

With Kingdom Come, the whole point everyone forgets is that each of the Trinity made a mistake they normally never would have. You can't get a dystopian future like KC with the heroes acting the way they 'should.' Bruce going too deep into authoritarianism was his 'sin' and I agree that too many people, including DC, forget that this wasn't meant to be a blueprint for the characters, it's a cautionary tale.

[JBatmanFan05]

Of course it makes sense. Two of DC's biggest franchise superheroes, and they're a team sometimes. It's made a ton of sense since 1952, and would have made sense before then too. They're both proven heroes, against metahumans and normal humans alike.

[Jackalope89]

Its fine by me. They are two of the oldest, and most recognizable superheroes in the world, and when Bruce isn't full on "BatGod jerk" mode, him being friends with Clark works too.

[blunt_eastwood]

It's not explicitly stated but Batman is basically superhuman. Read any of his comics and you will see what I mean.

[The True Detective]

Lex goes to war with superman using high powered tech and exoskeleton armor. Batman still wears a cape and a cowl, and at best bullet proof vest, with the rest of his gadgets being on his utility belt. He should be dead in most encounters involving a superman level foe.

Lex's suits don't grant him strength and speed anywhere near Superman though, if you want everything to be super realistic Superman could dodge or flat-out no sell all of Lex's hits in it. What's stopping Superman from ripping the suit to pieces before the neurons in Lex's brain fire to formulate an attack? Lex in power armor vs Superman is a more credible fight than Batman in his regular gear in the same way that a baby with a baseball bat vs a gorilla is more credible than a baby without one vs the gorilla. Neither one has a shot in hell weapon or not.

[Jim Kelly]

There were two issues of NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR COMICS, one in 1939 and another in 1940. These were special comics produced for the New York World's Fair, with 96 pages of content (not counting the cover) for 25 and 15 cents respectively--whereas, most comics at the time were 64 pages (not counting the cover) for 10 cents. The first issue had a number of comics characters in it, including Superman. The second issue featured Superman, Batman and Robin on the cover, while inside Superman appeared in his own feature, Batman and Robin appeared in their own feature and many other character features filled out the book.

In 1941, they put out a book which was exactly the same format as the 1940 comic, but this was not for the World's Fair and it was called WORLD'S BEST COMICS. Again 96 pages for 10 cents; Superman, Batman and Robin on the cover; separate Superman and Batman features; lots of other characters in the book. The first WORLD'S BEST issue was followed thereafter by WORLD'S FINEST COMICS sticking to the same format.

Over the following years, while the title remained 15 cents, the page count was gradually reduced from 96 to 88 to 80 pages and then for a long time 72 pages. In the early 1950s it went down to 64 pages for 15 cents. But then in 1954, they decided to remake the title as a regular format 10 cent comic. By then regular comics were only 32 pages (not counting cover) for 10 cents. But what to do with the many features in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS? They could have let Superman and Batman each have their own feature, but that would have only left enough room for one other feature--Green Arrow and Tomahawk were the other two features left and one of them would have had to give up his spot, if that had happened.

Instead, the editor had the brilliant idea to team up Superman, Batman and Robin in one feature, which would leave enough room for the other two features in the book. And this was the format going forward up until 1970, with Superman, Batman and Robin the cover feature and one or two other back-up features in the book.

Given Superman was the most popular comic book character during all those years, while Batman and Robin were also popular (but not always so popular as Superman), that translated into good sales for the title. I would argue that this still makes sense today. In the old days, Superman helped Batman and Robin stay relevant by allowing them to share his adventures, even when their popularity began to sink. It might even be the case that WORLD'S FINEST helped promote BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS and save them from cancellation.

By 1966, with the T.V. show, Batman was now more popular. But there was a boom and bust with that show. It drove up sales of Batman comics and then it drove down sales of Batman comics. So it's possible that Batman was no longer that popular by 1970, when he left WORLD'S FINEST (temporarily)--although he still had his berth in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.

I never understood why Stan Lee had such a difficult time keeping all his popular characters in one book together. Why couldn't Spider-Man and the Hulk be in THE AVENGERS, along with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America? It's not rocket science. You got a bunch of popular characters--put them together to increase your sales on that book and promote their individual titles at the same time. This is why having Wonder Woman share adventures with Superman and/or Batman makes sense--because it helps strengthen her sales. This is why the World's Greatest Super-Heroes should all be in the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.

Editors, writers and fans who can't get their heads around that are over-thinking it. You put the characters together because they're popular and make more money as a result. Besides which, I would argue that even now Batman and Superman are more similar than different. Batman has a lot of super-powers that he never had before--the idea that he's just a regular guy has been lost. But it was never about parity of powers. If comics were just a gun show, they would be boring. Comics consist of stories. They are about characters and elaborate plots. What powers those characters have is a very minor part of that. If you have a good story to tell, then the characters will make their own sense for that story.

You might think that as Batman got darker, this is what drove apart the two characters. But playing off the differences between the two can be just as interesting as highlighting their common qualities. I believe the real reason the pair were separated was on account of office politics. The system that allowed editors to have complete control over the characters in their camp made them less willing to loan out those characters to other editors. Instead of all the editors working together for the greater good of the publisher, each editor was in competition with the others to become number one. Batman has no problem working with a variety of characters, so long as they're under his editor. It's only when he goes into another editor's camp that he becomes difficult to work with.