Editor's Note: This is our first article / offering from our new guy and resident comics genius, Nick! Enjoy!
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We are now 1 DAY AWAY from B.V.S!. As a Batman fan and comic book fanboy I feel like a 5 year old kid waiting for the greatest match up of all time. Even though this is fiction, I believe everybody has been waiting for this on screen match up for a long time.
So in this week's top ten list, I am going to rank the many confrontations between Batman and Superman. What a great way to kick off "Batman-Superman Week"!
Let's GO!
10.) Batman: Endgame
In this six part story arc, the Joker is back and this time he is not laughing. The Joker did the impossible and got the Justice League (by gassing them) to turn on Batman and fight him to the death.
But Batman is always prepared, he had a robotic Batsuit called "The Fenrir" made, that he used to beat everyone except Superman. Superman tore through the suit but Batman had one weapon left to use against him....Kryptonite CHEWING GUM!, that he had been chewing since the beginning of the fight. Batman spits on Superman and they fall to the Gotham river. How awesome is that!
9.) Justice League: Origins
Now this is one of those "Oh $×÷#" moments where you ask yourself, "Did i Just piss off the most powerful man in the universe?" In Justice League Origins, Batman and Green Lantern first meet, and must find Superman in order to question him about the Mother-boxes found all over the world.
When they find him he is fighting off a hoard of Para-Demons, but once Superman finishes them off he spots both Green Lantern, Batman, and The Flash; he fights GL and the Flash with ease. They were both about to get punched into the next universe until Batman got into the middle and said "He is not going to kill us, are you Clark?" And that is when Superman stops and teams up with them to defeat the Para-Demons and Darkseid.
8.) Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
This isn't the best story from Frank Miller (or art-work), but he does make it up on the action of this story. Batman come back from the dead from The Dark Knight Returns, trains Carrie Kelly (Catwoman) & the Sons of Batman, then he gathers most of the missing members of the Justice League, and has to fight Lex Luthor, Brainwave, & a Joker impersonator; sounds like a another day of being the Batman.
But here is a little problem, Superman works for the government, which is controlled by Lex. When Lex finds out, he has Superman find Batman and stop him. So as soon as Superman encounters Batman at the Batcave, he is surrounded by his former teammates ( The Atom, Plastic Man, Flash, and Green Arrow) that he put away thanks to Lex. Now it's Batman's turn, and Batman beat the crap out of Superman with some Kryptonite Gauntlet Gloves. Where does Batman get all this Kryptonite from???
7.) Batman The Animated Series Season 5 Ep. 1 & 2
How about an animated episode story! This one comes from Season 5 Episodes 1 & 2 of Batman: The Animated Series (Or New Batman Adventures, whatever they were calling it at this time). Season 4 ended with an alien invasion of Gotham. Gotham's sister city, Metropolis, sent Superman to drop off a check to rebuild Gotham. But he was rudely interrupted by the villain Metallo. Superman went after him, but Metallo had the upper-hand until Batman interrupt the battle to help Superman defeat Metallo and other Batman villains joining in on the fight.
Just when you think B & S are going to kick butt and take names, in the middle of the episode Superman is tricked into a trap set up by Lex Luthor and is being controlled by a gas toxin of Poison Ivy, which causes Superman to fight Batman, Robin, Batgirl. I would tell you the rest of the episode but you can watch it on Netflix/DVD/YouTube/ or wherever else you can stream these days.
6.) Superman: Red Son
Written by the great Mark Millar, this is probably one of the best DC Elseworld Stories. It has a pretty simple premise; imagine if instead of Kal-El landing in Smallville, Kansas in the good old USA, his rocket landed in Mother Russia, while it was still the Soviet Union.
Superman became a powerful influence & champion of communism, but still had good in his heart. He tries to influence peace between America and his country, and at one point it almost works, but if it worked, it wouldn't have made for a very good comic book.
While Superman was on a mission, Batman captured Wonder Woman, and took her to a Soviet Union Camp. Superman got word of it and flew to the camp to fight Batman. I'm not going to spoil the whole story, but this sets the stage for a pretty epic showdown.
5.) Superman: Man Of Steel # 3
After Crisis On Infinite Earths, the whole DC Universe restarted, and a lot of heroes were meeting again for the first time, including the Man of Steel and The Dark Knight. One night in Gotham Batman was interrogating a suspect until the Man of Steel arrived and took Batman.
Superman didn't approved of his torture methods and was going to hand him to the authorities. But Batman escaped and went back to find his suspect until Superman caught up with him again, this time to arrest him. Batman had a trick up his sleeve though... and what was the trick? Well you'll just have to read it...
4.) Batman: Hush
One of Batman's worst case scenarios; what if someone evil controlled the Man of Steel? Well it happened in this Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee classic story.
Batman is trying to find out who is controlling the criminals in Gotham, and a clue pointing to Poison Ivy leads him back to Metropolis, and a fantastic showdown with "Supes". Aided by yet another "kryptonite" item, Batman is able to prevail, but the story is SO worth reading.
3.) Kingdom Come
If you ever wanted to read a great story with equally amazing art work, please pick this book up by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.
Imagine if the superheroes of old decided to retired, and the new superheroes decided to take on the villains, with a no holds barred winner take all grudgematch.
Superman see's what is going on and decides to come back and be a superhero again, he gathers members of the Justice League and what happens next is SO worth reading.
2.) World's Finest (Animated Feature)
So before we go out and see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, please I beg you, if you've been waiting for this movie since we were kids, please find this movie and watch it.
This was part of the "Batman and Superman animated hour" back in the day and thus was written and produced by the great Bruce Timm and Paul Dini.
I'm not going to go full detail, except the part while Batman is in Metropolis looking for the Joker, he stumbles upon a club that used to be owned by the Joker's associates. He went in to interrogate one of the men, but was interrupted by Superman. Apparently Superman doesn't like torture. What happens next if fantastic!
1.) The Dark Knight Returns
Whether you have read the book or watched the movie, this has to be the greatest Batman vs Superman fight of all time. Shoot, they're making a movie (kind of) about it!
Past his prime, Batman dons an armored suit to fight Superman. With a little help from Carrie Kelly (best Robin ever?) and Green Arrow, they a create a scenario which helps Batman defeat him in his own way. I urge any fan, whether you like Batman, Superman, or any comics in general, to read this classic tale from Frank Miller. One of the best comics stories, or stories of any kind, ever written.
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And just like that, you've been schooled!
-Nick "The Know It All" ///ACC