10-07-2009, 07:18 AM
Quote:A couple Robins/Batgirls, a butler, and a police force. Against *superman*. Seriously? That's Batman's clutch advantage? Superman could liquify the lot of them and be home before he left. That's not an army, it's a handful of friends.
Now, start divvying up the JLA, and you might get some allies worth having. But that would kind of defeat the whole "X vs. Y" thing.
-Jester
Superman "could" liquify them. The argument here isn't who has the stronger powers, that's obvious. The question is who would win in a drop down fight. And to answer that you have to look at the characters. Superman could liquify a whole city, but he never would. There's a great quote in Superman/Batman (issue 3 maybe?) where Superman is unleashing fury and Batman thinks something along the lines of "Anyone looking at Clark at times like this would have to see him as a god. It's a good thing for all of us that he doesn't see himself this way." There's also a great quote from Superman in the early Morrison JLA where after the whole JLA including Superman is beaten and imprisoned Batman comes through a whole super team to rescue them. Superman mentions that "Batman is the most dangerous person in the world." And Superman is right. Batman has not only defeated Superman he has defeated New Gods in the DC universe.
Superman can't beat Batman, not because he lacks the power to do so, but because he would always hold back. It's part of the pathos of the character. He has all that power and all he wants to do is fit in. He respects humanity too much to go around vaporizing people that get in his way. Batman on the other hand, comes from the other side of the tracks. He has no powers, and he has seen the lengths to which evil will go. Given the opportunity Batman would never hold back. He nearly crushed the life out of Supes in The Dark Knight Returns to achieve his goal and in Hush after tricking a Poison Ivy seduced Superman into electricuting himself with the whole Metropolis power grid he had Catwoman go drop Lois Lane off a building forcing Superman to choose between continuing the fight or being the good man Superman is and rescuing the damsel in distress.
So the question isn't "WCSD? What could Superman do?" it's "WWSD? What would Superman do?" And has been shown repeatedly even though Superman has all those powers he doesn't use them lightly. Not only that but near invulnerability leaves him somewhat cocky and he never really takes heart of his own weaknesses until it's too late.