Superman and Batman have the unique credit of being rather iconic and proto-typical heros to the comics medium, 2 sides of the same coin IMO. A super-natural, super-science or demi-god-ish figure in Superman and the apex of human development in Bats.
Well, I don't know if Batman and Superman are as different as all that.
Both of the characters are very savvy, competent white males that when written well fight crime with their brains.
Both characters have a great deal of respect for established authority: Superman does not use several "bad" laws as an excuse to disobey them all, and Batman always insists on collecting proper evidence before a crime, and values his relationship with the police (which is why stories like the Len Wein DETECTIVE where Ra's al-Ghul frames Bats for murder, or the Englehart series where Boss Thorne slaps Batman with a cease and desist letter, stand out: Batman being an outlaw isn't generally how he does things. I mean, there's a big statue of him in Gotham Park!
The two are different in several key ways. Superman is very science fiction, very "over the top."
Batman on the other hand, is more espionage/detective/adventure than science fiction. During the Englehart DETECTIVE COMICS, the most over-the-top gadget he used was a suitcase with a secret compartment.
This run also featured Hugo Strange's evil monster men and attacking cobra, too, but even this makes sense, because like Indiana Jones, Batman's stories are adventure stories but with horror elements. I can totally see Batman going to India to take down the Temple of Doom.
Another way to view it would be what a human might hope to aspire to if the external circumstances are correct (or modifiable), or what one can do with nothing more than what one has. I guess another can be "hyper-being" or "human being", and on and on.
Hmmm, interesting point. Dick Giordano once wrote that, as a kid, he thought the most interesting thing about Batman is that you could grow up to become him.
Batman's mortality does make him stand out. BATMAN BEGINS sucessfully "nailed" the character when they had him do things like struggle to save one man from a falling mountain, or when he fell and scraped himself when escaping from James Gordon.
I found it rather interesting in Les Daniels Marvel Universe book, where a point was made to mention Superman as the progenitor of super-heros, and interestingly, Batman was also mentioned as another hero breakthrough.
Batman was a pretty great leap of the imagination to be sure, because...while a character that's the pinnacle of human development already existed in Doc Savage, Batman is very different than Doc Savage in several ways.
The first is that while Batman is a very intelligent, athletic man, Doc Savage is a master of every field of human endeavor, from science to medicine. Batman on the other hand, like Sherlock Holmes, has ultraspecific knowledge: Batman can probably identify a brand of cigarettes by ash, and is an expert in fields like chemistry, forensics, and applied geology, but he's probably not going to know any more than a very, very educated person about Sumerian Mythology or the moons of Uranus. Doc Savage on the other hand, was not only a great chemist, he was a great violinist, too.
Violinist.To me, superhero battles are the same way. Spidey meets Daredevil, they have some misunderstanding or other and fight for 20 pages, then realize they're on the same side and must team up against the villain. But wait, we're out of space now, readers, so tune in next month for the battle with Doc Ock.
I don't think hero vs. hero battles keep the plot from getting started: these sort of conflicts can, in many cases, define the plot itself. I'm remembering one of the X-MEN/AVENGERS team-ups, where the X-Men were placed in the ridiculous position of defending their greatest enemy, Magneto, from the Avengers, who wanted to bring the super-villain before the World Court for crimes against humanity. The X-Men, however, realized that because of a recent wave of anti-mutant hysteria, it just wouldn't be possible for Magneto to get a fair trial.
Strangely enough, the Avengers are my favorite superteam at Marvel, but still, every time they and the X-Men have a tiff, I tend to root for the X-Men, because they're "rebels," whereas the Avengers represent "the Man."
Which brings me to my next point...
I guarantee you if Batman was written as a guy who came up with non-violent solutions to problems, cures to diseases or other altruistic achievements, he'd be rejected by fans as completely as "boy scout Superman." Intelligent and well-adjusted = dork. Intelligent with zero social skills and a mean streak = cool.
Though I agree with you that Batman shouldn't be written this way, there is something to be said for the very real appeal of misanthropic, rebellious, or loner heroic characters.
X-Men was more popular, but for my money the guy that got the whole thing down pat first and best was Steve Gerber in his DEFENDERS. No disrespect intended to Englehart, who did some great DEFENDERS yarns, but reading the Thomas and Englehart DEFENDERS was a little bit like watching the first season of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION when the actors hadn't jelled or discovered what the show was about.
Gerber, on the other hand, figured out that what brought the Defenders together was not the fact that they were all an ironic "non-team team," but that at some level they were all just not socially acceptable. Gerber gave the Defenders something that only the Legion of Super-Heroes previously had: a team that people respond to with an unusually strong sense of identification.
Plus nine times out of ten it all ends in a draw anyway so as not to offend fans of either character.
Yeah, I always hated that; it's for this reason that I loved the Lee/Kirby Hercules/Thor fight where Hercules rather definitively BEATS Thor. Thor's girlfriend, Jane Foster, comes up to comfort him, and Thor pushes her away and says "Get away! I don't want your pity." And then you had the jackal-like reporters say things like "If I were you, goldilocks, I woulda stayed in bed!" Which prompts Thor to wonder, "So, it's come to this. Thor, a subject of jest."
Later on, Thor got his dignity and acquitted himself with honor when he fought to save Hercules when he was trapped in the Underworld by Pluto. But still, what a moment!
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