Book Review: Batman vs. Superman: The Greatest Battles

Batman vs. Superman: The Greatest Battles by various authors and artists

In a cash grab/hype up to the Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice movie, DC Comics put out this collection of confrontations between the Caped Crusader and the Kryptonian colossus. The stories are mostly from the 2000s, with two from 1986. They all deal with the basic problem that fans love to argue about--who would win in a battle between Hero A and Hero B. In this case, Hero A is Superman, a virtually invulnerable strong man with a myriad of random powers (flight, laser/heat vision, supercold breath, X-ray vision, etc.); Hero B is Batman, a super-wealthy genius with a myriad of random gadgets (Batmobile, Batcycle, Batarangs, whatever else the creators can dream up for his utility belt, etc.). Obviously Batman has to out-think Superman because Superman can definitely out-punch Batman.

Various answers are given here. The best is the 1986 story "A Night in Gotham" which imagines the first uneasy team-up of Batman and Superman. Superman doesn't like Batman's methods but has to go along because Batman has set a bomb on a citizen of Gotham that will blow up if Superman doesn't help him bring down the villain Magpie. The ending is quite brilliant as the two heroes part ways with more mutual understanding if not mutual trust. The runner up is "Who Would Win" from 2011 with two kids debating which hero would come out on top. The others are a bit run-of-the-mill. The last story is taken from the middle of Frank Miller's 1986 "The Dark Knight" and is hard to follow without knowing the rest of the story. I found myself tuning out about half way through because it's been a long time since I read Miller's classic. That's the trick with comics books and with compilations like this--taking random bits of stories out of context doesn't work well. Stand-alone issues work better for random dabbling.

Only recommended if you want to explore the Batman versus Superman argument. And, yes, this is better than the film that came out.