Could Batman eventually surpass Superman?

[Super Monkey]

he argued that the Silver Age ended the moment that Neal Adams did a comics cover, because his work could never definitively be "Silver Age."

And more and more, I find myself agreeing with him. You go back, you see covers featuring Superman and Batman playing pranks on Robin or playing baseball, and I say to myself, "Neal Adams would never do a cover like that."

Those covers are from the 1940's and 1950's not the Silver Age, they are from the Golden Age.

Once the Silver Age started, those covers ended:

July-August 1958 cover:
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=14485&zoom=4

Neal Adams was going with the theme of the day.

May 1960:
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=15635&zoom=4

March 1963:
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=17559&zoom=4

August 1964:
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=18547&zoom=4

Silver Age Covers were more shocking and melodramatic than the care free Golden Age covers.

March 1967
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=20808&zoom=4

August 1967
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=21192&zoom=4

1st Neal Adams cover:
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=21715&zoom=4

The Bronze Age just took that and ran with it, but wasn't as big of a change as the Golden Age to Silver Age covers direction was.

case in point, another Neal Adams:

June 1969
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=22774&zoom=4

compare to

August 1964
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=18547&zoom=4

[MatterEaterLad]

In this case its also true that Batman and Superman didn't even share the same stories in WF until 1954, so the covers really reflect a bit of fun not unlike something on the Saturday Evening Post...

[TELLE]

I had a friend that argued ceaselessly that Neal Adams was the single most significant artist in comics history;