What We Talk About When We Talk About Batman and Superman

Politics, mostly. And American empire.

- Abraham Riesman

Are Batman and Superman allies or rivals at the core? They’re definitely not enemies, and that’s only partly because they’re both superheroes. For long stretches, particularly when the characters were new (Superman was introduced in 1938, Batman the following year), they even had a deeply chummy relationship, with Batman like a non-super-powered Superman—a lesser, cheerful do-gooder who also fought for truth, justice, and the American way. It was kind of adorable, with Batman almost acting like a kid who smilingly looks up to his star-athlete older brother.

And yet, for the past 30 years, the relationship has been punctuated by a series of spectacular fights—a gruesome tussle over ideology in 1986’s graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a dramatic dustup owing to mind control in 2003’s comic-book story line “Hush,” and, of course, a gladiator match in the new bigscreen tentpole Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. At this point, nobody really remembers that early, sunny friendship— when it comes to superheroes, pure friendship’s boring. Batman and Superman are both good guys, but what we so often want to see is them fighting.

But why? Why are fans so desperate to see superheroes in conflict that writers employ absurd narrative contrivances like mind control or alternate universes to make what would otherwise be unlikely fights happen? One big answer is no answer at all—who wouldn’t want to see them fight? The adolescent part of a comics geek’s mind is perpetually asking, What’s the point of having two heroes if you aren’t also going to force them into conflict? As comics critic Chris Sims put it in a column on the topic, “When you have characters and all you see them doing is winning, it’s natural to wonder who would win harder if they ever had to compete against each other.”