How Batman Can Beat Superman Explained Scientifically

I heard it many years ago, and it stuck with me. You're right..it's "Nobody roots for Goliath".

All true..but.

It's the threat that is so great. It isn't just Batman against the Joker. It's Batman against the impossible traps the Joker sets. It's Batman's wits against the Joker's madness-genius.

When you read the comics, Batman is nearly always in an impossible situation, minutes from certain death. In most comics with Batman/Joker, Joker has killed perhaps hundreds of people in gruesome ways. The challenges Bat,an faces are getting to the Joker. Once they fight, one on one, it's over pretty quickly.


But Batman does have advantages.
In fact, that's what makes it harder to cheer for him. He's far wealthier, stronger, and smarter than nearly all of us. It's harder to write the comics so we identify with him. It's why so little time is spent on Bruce Wayne. None of the readers are identifying with him.


In fact, that's why Robin was created, to give the readers (kids) someone to identify with. As a bonus, Robin gave Batman someone to talk to, so we could follow the story more easily.


By the way, one way to tell a story whee the hero is smarter than all of us, is to separate the hero from the danger. Like Sherlock Holmes. Most of the Holmes stories are him figuring out the identity of the villain, not getting out of danger.

Want to know a secret? Before the 1966 series Batman, the Batman comic was almost cancelled because of poor sales. In fact, most of the Batman comic stories are deathly boring to me. So are the Superman stories.

In movies, you can substitute the David VS Goliath trope with action and violence.
In the comics, Batman is foremost a detective... master of disguise, escape artist....

And most of Batman's enemies are far more powerful than he is...or they have criminal organizations, or they pose a huge threat to hundreds of lives.

And Batman has a code against killing. That gives his sociopathic enemies a real advantage. And Joker's insanity and complete unpredictability makes him a great villain.

For a comic to work the threat has to be impossible for the hero to overcome it....until he does. Otherwise there is no drama.

In Superman stories...of course he's more powerful than anyone. So, how do they make him the underdog? The threat hast to be vast, complex, or impossible to stop. One of the reasons there are other standard characters is so one of them can be in danger.

It's why Kryptonite was created. The effects of a red Sun, his vulnerability to magic, his code against killing, conflict with other heroes....

And of course, villains that are more powerful than he is in some way. If none of this was there, the stories would be deadly dull.

By the way, the genius of Marvel super heroes is that we identify with them. Captain America was a weakling. That's the guy we identify with. Spider-Man has problems with dates and money. Daredevil is blind and conflicted about what he does. Doctor Strange was in an accident that crippled his hands. It's that part of them we identify with.

But Superman? Nobody is as pure as he is. Batman? Easy to identify with, because his parents were killed. Take away that tragedy, and his journey to avenge them, and Batman is just a psychopath.