As anyone who knows me, I sometimes wait to see if something pans out before jumping right. I wish I did that with Snow White and the Hunstman this past weekend, but you really can’t win them all. And I’m still reeling on how that movie was number one this weekend at the box office. I guess Kristen Stewart may have some movie staying power after all, but that’s beside the point. In the case of the comic book world, I’d rather not waste my time on the mediocre and jump into the good stuff, and when Batman came out with it’s first volume of collected comics, I had to jump at the opportunity to catch up with the Caped Crusader. I had already caught up (a little bit) with the Man of Steel thanks to Free Comic Book Day, but it was the Action Comic’s version of him, which is weird that it’s different from the actual Superman comic version of Kal El. Why would DC make things that much more complicated?
After having read issue one of Action Comics and the first volume of Batman, I found that the gap between Superman and Batman is thinning. Yeah, maybe that’s not fair, because it’s not the actual Superman comic book, but Superman in jeans and a t-shirt wasn’t half bad. So I’m going to start off with why Superman is actually cool again.
In Action Comics #1, we find the Man of Tomorrow going about the city saving citizens and averting catastrophe. He retains his super speed, his heat vision, he has super strength, and from what I can tell, he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. He didn’t fly. I was blown away when I didn’t see him fly around, but instead, he looked to be leaping from place to place or dashing in a blur to one location or another. And he wasn’t in his normal tights, as he simply wore a t-shirt and jeans, which was kind of cool to see. But what really got to me, was the fact he did not fly, something I haven’t heard of since the first comics came out back in the 30’s.
I was really happy to see DC returning to Superman’s roots without having to do an origin story, which was a relief. But what sold me, and what made Superman a much more fascinating hero and one I want to read more about, was what happened after he was tasked to stop a runaway train.
In an attempt to put Superman in the most harrowing position possible (or simply because he’s evil, we don’t know yet), Lex Luthor has been observing Superman as he goes about saving the people of Metropolis. But no one seems to be able to stop the Man of Steel as he goes about his super hero business. Therefore, in evil genius style, Lex puts the lives of people at risk to snag himself a Kryptonian. A once happy little train going on it’s merry is put in danger as it begins to speed out of control. Superman happens to be in circumstances that let’s him know this is happening and bound to the scene. He barely gets to the scene in time, and you find him using everything in his power to push up against the train to stop it in it’s tracks…hehe…. And you can see he’s struggling, and his nose is bleeding, and he’s in pain. Superman, the guy who can fly through space and planets, was struggling to stop a train. Well the train derails, and plows into the side of a building, causing havoc along the way, and the strangest thing I’ve ever seen happen to Superman, happens. He successfully stops the train but get’s pinned to a building, bloody and beaten. The once unstoppable was stopped. Wow… And from there, Lex Luther, who has been watching and orchestrating things behind the scenes, gets a win against his greatest foe. All in the first issue!
Now I’ve not read DC up until now, but I vacariously lived through friends and family and podcasts to give me an idea of how Superman was in the past, and this “humanizing” of the all powerful super hero makes the comic better. There’s real risk now, turmoil, and a chance of death. Something you didn’t get in the past without Kryptonite, from what I’m told, and I think that and his super human selflessness really puts him in the running to compete with Batman as the greatest super hero of all time.
Then I go and read the Dark Knight’s latest adventure with the Council of Owls. The first thing that got to me was that this too wasn’t an origin story and we already had Nightwing, Red Robin, and new Robin all there with Bruce Wayne. Which if you see that panel of this older man with three seemingly similar looking boys, it kind of looks creepy. But the universe is established, the new story has the life of the previous Robins under it’s belt and Batman is as bad ass as ever.
With a new killer out in Gothan and Bruce Wayne’s life on the line, Batman is seeking out an assassin who can’t be killed and is apparently a figure out of legend who works for the once mythical Council of Owls. I could not put the book down as I watch Batman outsmart the bad guy, defy death, and eventually find himself amongst the Council of Owls themselves. Through strife, domestic arguments with Nightwing, high tech gadgetry and trickery, he continues to outsmart his enemy. It’s those things, when he can accomplish what seems improbable, without the use of his utility belt and super powers, that makes Batman such a great superhero. Because he’s super without having to be super.
But that’s not what makes this comic book so amazing, and why Batman may always trump Superman. There is a sequence, near the end of the book, where we find Batman captured and lost in a labyrinth of seeming impossibility. His sanity hanging from a thread, Batman makes his way room to familiar room, trying to fight off his hallucinations and his growing weakness and find a way out. (There are FOUR lights!) At Batman’s weakest, the assassin finds him, and decides it’s time to finish the job.
The Caped Crusader is vulnerable, tired, and losing his mind, but he has enough wherewithall to use his wits and his detective skills to outsmart his assassin and the Council and is able to escape the vast labyrinth. Batman came out on top again, with vengence, fire, and he once again proved why he is the greatest super hero of all time. But the gap is shrinking, as Superman, with his unending want to help people and protect those who need protecting, is shown to have humanity under that Kryptonian skin. He may not be the smartest, or possibly not even the strongest super hero anymore. But Superman in Action Comics #1 began to show the other workings of what makes a great hero. Putting himself on the line to save others, and pushing himself to the point of breaking to protect those he has no obligation to, Superman proves he’s a better man than most. I think that puts him up there and makes this rivalry, for me, a whole lot more fun. But who am I kidding. Kal El has a long climb to get to the awesomeness of Batman.
