What is in a V? Victory, the fifth, invading aliens? Or in the case of Warner Bros's title-making team, it is presumably short for versus (though it should include a handful of aliens as well). Late March is supposed to bring Spring as well as the next stage of Warner Bros and DC Entertainment attempting to bite into the money sandwich on which Marvel/Disney has been feasting at the global theater box office with their superhero cinematic universe. It has been abundantly clear that DC has been looking on with an envious eye as their younger brother in both the comic and movie worlds reaps the harvest on the tights and cape market in the cinematic sphere. And thus Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is supposed to begin the short road to a Justice League movie endeavor. As a psuedo-sequel to 2013's Man of Steel, Zack Snyder returns to his world of brooding and codpieces.
To be short with it, I did not like Man of Steel and I do not expect to enjoy this next installment. So let me quickly get off that train. However in contemplating the coming movie, I had the thought of pitting the two hallmarks of justice-as-enforced-by-spandex in my own form. Thus a project came to mind.
What is this project? It is to face off some standard of the Man of Tomorrow's legacy against that of the Caped Crusader's. Now this is not a playground argument over who would win in a fight: I find little to no interest in these kinds of discussions. Who is the mightiest in a fight has little bearing on the quality of a character and his or her journey. It will be such match-ups as Superman's Golden Age comics v Batman's (sorry about all the v's I am going to be throwing; it is just such a silly thing that I can't help but annoy everyone by emphasizing) or a face-off between the heroes' Rogue galleries. Which hero has the best dog alternate, Krypto v Ace. Christopher Reeve v Michael Keaton. The possibilities are endless.
Now it doesn't take much exploring on this blog to realize that sometimes I promise posts I never deliver on, especially as it comes to comics. I promise no further posts, only attempts and subsequent guilt on my part for missed posts. That's your only guarantee. Good thing this all doesn't matter an ounce.
More qualifiers, I am restricted by resources, obviously. Time and access will be limiting factors to what I am able to accomplish. Another impairment is that I am far from an expert on these two characters. I have been a Marvel zombie and presumably will always have more Marvel in my blood than DC. Most of my foundation for these two characters even comes from the 90s cartoons that Bruce Timm spearheaded. I have serious gaps in my knowledge of these characters in their near-80 years of existence. This will hopefully help me to learn more, but I am not an exhaustive fount of knowledge on these two. I will do my best to relay the relevant data to the given contest at hand, yet I am sure I will fail.
I suppose another matter of significance is my view of these characters coming into the quest. As a child, there was no contest: I liked Batman and Superman hardly interested me. I will always incline towards those who have no powers, so the proposition of a man with none against one with a mishmash of whatever the writers felt like adding at the time was a no-contest. I loved the Batman '66 TV show of the Pow!s and Bam!s, while totally aware of all the silliness. And then the animated series released in 1992 and that was that. Bats was tops of the Big 2, hands down. A fellow that could do anything just was not interesting to me. Then Supes got his own animated show, and despite it all, it was pretty dang good, too (if this goes long, both these shows will get many mentions). And there were certain notes that struck, but I left them mostly ignored. Batman was better. End of story. Yet, some of those notes have continued to ring and in fact resound with growing amplitude and I find myself more and more interested in the Big Blue Cheese. And then there is my twisted sense of underdoggery which means as popularity swings more and more the way of the Bat, I want to find more and more reasons to protest... I would love to say I am not motivated by popular opinion, but this is just not true. As people find Superman less and less relevant, my desire to protest finds more and more reasons he is what we need. In summary, I grew up with a distinct fondness for the Dark Knight and a belief that the Man of Steel was perhaps a little dry and boring, but am presently at a place of appreciating both, with a special attention to making up lost time on understanding the Last Son of Krypton. And these are the bedrock for the longstanding DC comics and more so the superhero comic genre.
First stop on this merry adventure, First Appearances! Action Comics #1 v Detective Comics #27
More qualifiers, I am restricted by resources, obviously. Time and access will be limiting factors to what I am able to accomplish. Another impairment is that I am far from an expert on these two characters. I have been a Marvel zombie and presumably will always have more Marvel in my blood than DC. Most of my foundation for these two characters even comes from the 90s cartoons that Bruce Timm spearheaded. I have serious gaps in my knowledge of these characters in their near-80 years of existence. This will hopefully help me to learn more, but I am not an exhaustive fount of knowledge on these two. I will do my best to relay the relevant data to the given contest at hand, yet I am sure I will fail.
I suppose another matter of significance is my view of these characters coming into the quest. As a child, there was no contest: I liked Batman and Superman hardly interested me. I will always incline towards those who have no powers, so the proposition of a man with none against one with a mishmash of whatever the writers felt like adding at the time was a no-contest. I loved the Batman '66 TV show of the Pow!s and Bam!s, while totally aware of all the silliness. And then the animated series released in 1992 and that was that. Bats was tops of the Big 2, hands down. A fellow that could do anything just was not interesting to me. Then Supes got his own animated show, and despite it all, it was pretty dang good, too (if this goes long, both these shows will get many mentions). And there were certain notes that struck, but I left them mostly ignored. Batman was better. End of story. Yet, some of those notes have continued to ring and in fact resound with growing amplitude and I find myself more and more interested in the Big Blue Cheese. And then there is my twisted sense of underdoggery which means as popularity swings more and more the way of the Bat, I want to find more and more reasons to protest... I would love to say I am not motivated by popular opinion, but this is just not true. As people find Superman less and less relevant, my desire to protest finds more and more reasons he is what we need. In summary, I grew up with a distinct fondness for the Dark Knight and a belief that the Man of Steel was perhaps a little dry and boring, but am presently at a place of appreciating both, with a special attention to making up lost time on understanding the Last Son of Krypton. And these are the bedrock for the longstanding DC comics and more so the superhero comic genre.
First stop on this merry adventure, First Appearances! Action Comics #1 v Detective Comics #27
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