God and Man, Superman and Batman
(Just a note: I was meant to write about All-Star Superman last week, but due to an issue in shipping, I was unable to receive it. Amazon is sending out another copy to me, so my post on that should be coming sometime in the next week or so.)
In reading the beginnings of the Batman comics, I find it almost hard to believe that he is meant to be a cash-in on the Superman craze. The only real similarities I found between the two were their penchant for costumes and their disdain for wrongdoing. However, that is where the similarities end.
While I have heard some fans suggest that super-detective skills or super-preparedness could be possible superpowers of Batman, in comparison to Superman and to many other superheroes, Batman is quite powerless and in many regards he has more in common with the masked vigilante than with characters like Superman. More than that, I see him as a very Holmesian figure. While at times Batman will fight out of a situation, he is equally prone to using his wit to escape dangerous situations and to deduce the plots of various criminals. It’s telling that by the time he gets his own title, Batman is given not only Robin as his Watson, but also a Professor Moriarty in the Joker and an Irene Adler in the form of the Cat (whom I presume will later become Catwoman).
However, Batman’s lack of any of the common superpowers allows for the writers to exploit dangerous situations for drama in a way that Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster were unable to do with Superman. When Superman is threatened by a gun, we know that Superman is invulnerable and that the bullet will glance uselessly off his skin. When Batman is threatened by a gun, the situation becomes that much more tense because we know that he is not impervious to the shot. In fact, Batman actually gets shot more than once in these early comics, such as Detective Comics No. 33, where despite wearing a bullet proof vest, Batman is still grazed by a bullet (Batman Chronicles, 70 pnl. 2, 71 pnl. 3). Another time, Batman is nearly turned into a monster after being injected by a evil serum in "Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters." Only through his quick thinking is Batman able to avert this fate, but it is one that would be impossible to subject Superman to.
Superman is more like a god or demi-god. It should be noted that Disney’s Hercules actually borrows elements of Superman’s origins, i.e. that he is raised by a human foster family on a farm, has visions of his real father, etc. Batman, on the other hand is only a man. While Batman is at the very pinnacle of physical achievement (implied to at the apex of mental ability as well), he is closer to us than Superman is. Because of this, Batman is made more sympathetic to the readers.
Both characters have tragic backgrounds: Supes’ planet is destroyed, while Batman’s parents are murdered. In terms of scale, Superman’s background is the more tragic, but it isn’t written that way. With Batman, we are shown a young Bruce Wayne in tears over his parent’s death. This tragedy shakes him to the core and it takes over his entire being. Superman, despite losing his home planet, does not seem to suffer through any of the grief and pain that Bruce Wayne does. In fact, by all accounts, Superman seems to have a pretty happy life.
The Holmesian influences in Batman as well as the more emotional situations that the character finds himself in, for me, make Batman a more sympathetic figure than Superman, and I believe many others agree, judging by the character’s extreme popularity.
