Why Batman is Superior

IT'S HARD NOT BEING biased - about anything, really. But I also find it difficult to try and present my opinions as facts sometimes, as I absolutely can't stand it when others do the same. But this is something I am (stubbornly) confident about. Batman is the greatest Superhero that's ever been created. If you don't agree, you are simply wrong. I've got plenty of reasons why you should see the light if you're confused.

   BATMAN HAS EVOLVED

   Yes, every superhero has changed from its original and cheesy debut, but I don't think any of them have comes as far as Batman has.
    Batman first appeared in May of 1939 in an issue of Detective Comics (later shorted to, and what we now know as, DC), and like all superheroes at the time, he was corny, two-dimensional and cartoonish (genuinely no pun intended). His alter ego was a "young socialite" named Bruce Wayne; a plaid-suited man who smoked a pipe and acted a carefree dunce. Starting out, it was boring. Very boring, like all the rest.

   The Bat-Man was a blue-gloved stalker of the night... Or day - actually, usually day. In the beginning he didn't seem to have a preference. The first Batmobile was just a red sports car, and there was no Robin. Oh, and Batman killed.

And he kind of did it a lot.

   So much for his One Rule. Batman's vow to never take a life, and his hatred for firearms, weren't a part of his creed until the following year, 1940, when Batman was given his own run, and the character Robin was introduced (and even then there were times where the rules became rather lax because I guess the writer just didn't care). Robin started out as the very thing we mock him for now: a whiney little bitch that always forgot to put on pants. Even though now there have been many Robins, and the character Dick Grayson has thoroughly improved and matured just like the rest of the Batman series, he still gets mocked. Which I don't get, because I honestly like Robin. But that isn't the point.

   As time progressed it seemed Batman would need to get campier before it would get better. The 60s brought us Adam West, and the only difference between any of the villains were their costumes. Every single one acted the same way, setting traps and leaving stupid riddles - except for the Riddler, who (as he is always under-appreciated by the writer) basically just acted like one of those popsicle sticks that you have to lick until you get the lackluster answer to the question on the handle. And the Joker, who's debut in the Batman universe was him poisoning rich folk, turned into a slapstick, pink-suited goob with a weird accent.

   But through the 70s things were starting to solidify. By the time the 80s hit, the the serious and darker era for Batman's comics was in full swing, and showed a matured juxtaposition of Bruce Wayne being a suave lady-slaying millionaire, and Batman as a callused, fear-wielding dark knight. And the Joker was killing again, which brings me to my next point.

   THE PARALLEL

   The Batman and the Joker. Half of the reason that Batman is so wildly successful as a franchise is his villains, specifically the perfection that is the rivalry of Batman vs Joker.

   While most heroes are an absolute personification of light, and purity, and their villains are nothing but straight-cut criminal evil, Batman and Joker are neither of those - they're flipped. Batman is the darkness, using fear and brute force, and technology to take down criminals, while his biggest rival is a twisted, joyous, murdering clown. Batman fights with what a lot of criminals use against the good in the world, and the Joker fights with what others use for good and happiness to kill people for fun. The good guy doesn't laugh in this series, the bad guy does - and I feel like that's a very powerful thing. It's like someone put Yin and Yang in a blender.

   There's another layer to it, as well. Where other villains are trying to kill the Batman, like in all such superhero stories, the Joker doesn't usually want Batman dead. He views their relationship as sentimental, fun, and at times a poetic romance. The two can't shake each other. Joker doesn't want to kill Batman, if anything Joker wants Batman to kill him. He wants the beauty of breaking the Batman, and he either wants to keep himself alive so he can continue to torment his one true love, or he wants Batman to take actions upon him that would destroy Batman's resolve beyond the Joker's own life. He continues to pick off those around the Batman to destroy his core, and perhaps it's even because he wants the Batman all to himself. But every time it happens, Bruce overcomes. And maybe that's the very thing that the Joker wants?

   As it was put in Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT, "This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object."

   WITHOUT SUPERNATURAL ABILITIES

   In a world of flying, super-strong, laser-gazing, wall-climbing, shape-shifting, self-healing, mind-reading heroes and villains, super-powerless Bruce Wayne still stands king of the hill, using the only gifts he was given: immense wealth, and an absolutely unbreakable resolve. Some say his resources have made him a cheater, but any rich guy can build himself a grappling gun and night-vision goggles and he'd still get his ass kicked if he ever stepped out into the streets and tried to stop a mobster with a gun.

   Bruce Wayne saw what he needed to do, and he used what he had to make himself unbreakable. Years of intense training, brain-strengthening detective skills, and gadget-engineering, actually brought him to surpassing those other heroes around him who were given gifts that naturally overpower obstacles. Where others were born into their role, or came upon it by accident, Bruce Wayne, aside from his inherited wealth, earned it. And he brought himself to a peek of a self-determined force so unstoppable that he's even faced-off against Superman several times - and won. He's had his back broken, attempts at the theft of his identity, his city taken over countless times, he's fought through the loss of partners on the field, and has nearly died more times than Ra's Al Ghul - except he doesn't have a Lazarus Pit to jump into; instead he uses his "fuck you" attitude and fights through it just to piss you off.

   There are other heroes on both sides of the isle that wield no supernatural gifts, but Batman was the first, and most of the ones that have claimed equal recognition were based on him. 

   Bruce Wayne is just a man - but he is a man that will not be broken. No matter what you throw at him, no matter what happens around him, he'll rise. There are certainly many amazing superheroes in both the Marvel and the DC universes, but when it comes down to it, Batman is just number one. Classic. Complicated. Full of dead-parent-vengeful-rage. And even if there comes a time that he does fall, and cannot get back up, those that he has inspired, those that fight for the same things he does, will pick up where he left off.