Batman Vs Superman and Why Batman is Much More Culturally Relevant Today Than

Superman.

Lauren DeGalan

February 2nd, 2022

Anyone would agree that the world today compared to the world in 1933 is vastly different.
These days, everything is immediately connected. One could get on a zoom call and see their loved
one’s face from across the world, and the connection would take mere seconds. Culturally, we are in
a much more advanced place than we were nearly a century ago. Which brings to me to my argument
of Batman vs. Superman. This isn’t an argument about which would win in a fight, it’s pretty obvious
that Superman has a great deal of strength and endurance over Batman, but rather it’s an argument
that discusses the current relevance of these two superheroes. Superman was great for the time that he
was created, and in fact hasn’t changed much since his inception. Where as Batman has gone through
many, many changes over the last century and looks different now to how he was in the late 30’s,
early 40’s. My rationalization is while Batman has changed with the ebb and flow of culture and
grown with society and changed as we see fit, Superman has been in stasis. Not much has changed
about him since his creation and due to that, his relevance has decreased considerably, whereas
Batman’s relevance keeps growing. One could consider the 21st century to be the most popular time
for Batman.

Superman was created in 1933, about a decade and a half after World War One. As a country
we were reeling from the intense and terrible fighting that happened during The Great War. That was
a time of a huge cultural change as a wave of civil rights activism was starting to become more
prevalent. There were soldiers coming home from war that were broken and suffering from intense
PTSD symptoms. Things in the United States were changing, there was more of a liberalism
movement and thus came the 20’s, a time when people were starting to break out of the classic gender
roles and take on a more enlightened point of view. Then, just as things seemed to get better, the
stock market crashed in 1929, causing one of the worst global depressions in history. Things were not
looking great. Just years before it seemed that the United States was taking a definite positive turn,
now it seemed like we had taken a giant step back.

On top of that, people of Jewish backgrounds were being denied work in certain areas,
specifically in illustration and advertising due to Anti-Semitism. Jewish individuals started to come
up with their own medium that they could sell, and comics ended up being very appealing to the
masses. It was then in 1933 that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sat down and created Superman.
Initially he was different from the Superman that we know today, but by 1935, after many revisions,
he became the iconic character he is known as today.

Siegel and Shuster originally labeled him the “Champion of The Oppressed”, an invulnerable
superhero that could fly around the world in seconds flat and easily lift heavy objects to rescue
people. The contemporary version we know was first published in 1938 in Detective Comics, the
particular comic called Action Comics #1. He also had a long running radio serial titled The
Adventures of Superman which ran from 1940 to 1951 and during that time there were also 17
animated cartoons. Superman started to become an indelible figure in American culture and
eventually started to serve as an American propaganda figure for Jewish interests. In these comics he
promoted British rearmament, the United States intervention in the war, refugee asylum and the New
Deal.

In the February 27th, 1940 issue of the magazine Look he openly “declared war” on Hitler
and Stalin, who were allies at the time. This was two years before the United States would enter the
war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In this specially commissioned two page story which was
called “How Superman Would End The War”, he ends up breaking through the Nazi party barricades
and grabbing Hitler by the throat. From there, he flew to Russia and took Stalin, he then flew to
Geneva holding both of these men, so that they could stand trial for their crimes against humanity.

This did not make the Nazi party happy and so in the April edition of Das Schwarze Korps
(The Black Corps), which was the SS party’s official newspaper, they accused Superman of
brainwashing American children. He was accused of teaching them “false” Jewish values such as
compassion, empathy for the weak and defending the innocent. After that both Siegel and Shuster
made it very clear that while Superman had features that were the ideal Aryan physiognomy, he was
“not one of them, but one of us.” Very much the Champion of the Oppressed.

The comics continued to show Superman fighting and humiliating Nazis and the United
States was using him to promote enlistment, blood donations, paper and metal drives, war stamps,
bond sales and they were very successful at doing so.

Gerald Hartman said of Superman, “comic book artists thought it was important to get
America to join the war so they tried to shift public opinion. They changed the bad guy nemesis of
their comic superheroes to axis spies and the population starts to believe that there’s a Nazi spy
around every corner and that America should align with the allies.” It was an ingenious plan. The
idea that since the Nazi Party had such good propaganda that the United States was going to have to
step up and counteract the propaganda so they created their own.

This brings Superman to his next big struggle against bigotry, racism and hatred, and that was
when he went up against the KKK. The Ku Klux Klan was originally founded in 1865 to fight against
the Republican government. At the time, the Republican party was unrecognizable compared to the
Republican party that we know today. The KKK wanted to resist the abolitionist movement and they
were even able to slow down the growing civil rights in the south, but had not been able to stop the
Republican government from taking control over the Southern states. They were later officially
declared by the U.S government as a terrorist organization, which meant that being a member of the
KKK was considered a crime. The power of the Ku Klux Klan started to fade, but was once again
revitalized when the incredibly racist film, The Birth Of A Nation was released in 1915. The KKK
started to once again grow in power, but this time there was a lesson they learned and they made their
group into a secret society, any member who joined kept their identity secret from the world. At the
time, there was a lot of racial tensions, political fears and the rejection of Catholicism by Protestants,
and so joining the Klan started to seem like an attractive option to many individuals.

Decades later, Stetson Kennedy, who had initially wanted to join WW2 but could not due to
back problems, saw the bigotry and hatred that was happening towards African Americans around
him. He saw many white supremacists that were spouting the ideals of Christianity but were not
acting on those ideals. Kennedy had grown up with an African American maid that taught him that
inherent racism is a destructive and misguided concept, and through her teachings he became a strong
advocate for civil and human rights.
 The more research that Kennedy did, he found that the Klan had a very odd mixture of
terrifying seriousness, but also a ridiculousness about their ideals of preserving the white race. He
decided at that point he was going to infiltrate the KKK and collect secrets. He started to note secret
handshakes, passwords, and overuse of titles that started with the letter K. In 1946 he contacted the
producers of the Adventures of Superman, a popular radio show and proposed a storyline where
Superman would fight against the KKK. Thus, the story of Superman vs the Clan of the Fiery Cross
was born. In the story arc, Superman denounces the KKK and fights them, and after several weeks,
many of the secrets that the KKK tried in vain to hide, were exposed by Kennedy’s spying and the
Superman radio show. It became so ridiculous that the Klan’s numbers started to dwindle, less and
less people wanted to join. Within two weeks of the original broadcast, the KKK recruitment fell to
zero and by 1948 people were going to rallies just to poke fun at the KKK.

It is undeniable to look back at the history of Superman and see how culturally significant he
was at the time of his creation. He helped bring awareness of the war to the United States and
encouraged individuals to join the war effort. He brought the KKK to its knees in less than a couple
weeks. His impact is huge and resounding and cannot be ignored. Superman was created at a time
when we as a country needed him. We needed a hero that was invulnerable, that helped those that
were in need and did not turn his back on the most oppressed of individuals. He has irrevocably
changed the face of comics and history by being a significant force for a change that we desperately
needed in the world.

This now brings me to Batman, seemingly the polar opposite to Superman. Whereas
Superman went through a couple changes to become the hero we now recognize today, Batman
changed many times throughout the century. Initially he started out as a sort of pulpy detective,
roaming the streets of Gotham, fighting crime, maiming and killing criminals. He is just a few years
younger than Superman and was created in 1939, his first story was The Case of the Chemical
Syndicate which was published in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. In November 1939, in
Detective Comics #33 his tragic backstory was revealed. In the comic a young Bruce Wayne states
"by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all
criminals." Originally, Batman started out as a hard, fighting detective, but later his portrayal started
to soften and in April of 1940 in Detective Comics #38, his kid sidekick, Robin was introduced.
Robin, also known as Dick Grayson was seen as a sort of “Watson” to Batman’s “Sherlock”,
essentially a person who he could talk to and bounce ideas off of. It ended up nearly doubling the
sales, which later in Batman’s first solo comic, introduced both The Joker and Catwoman. In that
comic Batman had killed giants, and it prompted the editor, Whitney Ellsworth to declare that Batman
was no longer going to kill and he would not use a gun.

Likely due to the terrible gravity of war, at the end of WWII, DC comics started to focus less
on the darker, bleak side of society and instead on a more lighthearted, juvenile fantasy. Batman went
from being a dark and twisted individual to being a sort of father figure and his world became bright
and colorful. Batman continued to have comics created of him but interest in them began to wane. In
1952, with the publication of The Mightiest Team In The World in Superman #76, Batman and
Superman team up and discover each others secret identities. It became so popular that The World’s
Finest Comics was revamped so that Batman and Superman could share more stories together, it was
a financial success until the book’s cancellation in 1986.

In 1954, Frederic Wertham published a book called Seduction of the Innocent where there
was a lot of scrutiny over children imitating what they saw in the comic books, and the homosexual
overtones that Batman and Robin portrayed were corrupting young minds. Never mind that Batman
had earlier been seen as a fatherly figure to Robin. Not too long after, the introduction of Bat-woman
and Bat-girl came around and many wondered if they were likely brought on due to the speculation of
Batman and Robin potentially being gay. It is important to note that in 1951 was when the first
national gay rights organization was founded, called The Mattachine Society. While, it was still risky
and dangerous to be gay at that time, the individuals who created this organization had to do so
secretly, by protecting themselves using code. Once again, the United States was in turmoil. Human
and civil rights were becoming more important than ever and having an openly gay Batman would
have been a likely deathblow to the comic series, or at least the character of Batman. This was the
beginning of a sign of how relevant Batman is today’s society. While, there were certainly measures
to take to make sure that people did not view Batman as gay, I am certain that having just the
implication of homosexual overtones between Batman and Robin would have been a huge shock to
the American public; during that time, the representation of a gay superhero would have been vital to
those struggling within the LGBTQ community.

By 1964, Batman was becoming a little bland. He became a daytime deputy of the police and
was involved in some strangely outlandish science fiction stories that involved aliens, trips through
time and usually some sort of transformation. Sales started to fall again and there was a debate
whether or not to kill off Batman. At that time, editor Julius Schwartz was assigned to Batman and
started to make big changes. Carmine Infantino was an artist hired to overhaul the character. The
Batmobile was redesigned, there was a yellow ellipse behind the Bat-insignia; Bat-girl, Bat-woman
were retired, as well as some of the more science fiction aspects of the previous comics.

The television show in 1966 helped sales significantly but it was unfortunately canceled in
1968 despite its popularity. While the show made Batman into kind of a campy individual, the
cancellation of the show caused the artists and creators to return Batman to his original dark state. He
was moved into a penthouse on top of Wayne Foundation in downtown Gotham and Dick Grayson
was sent to Hudson University where he had his own set of adventures. Batman begin to operate
alone once again, solving mysteries and fighting the thugs of Gotham City. He became a haunting,
mysterious figure that wandered the streets of Gotham at night, stopping evil-doers. In the 1970’s and
‘80’s, his antics became even darker and more grim, depicting violent crimes, including bringing the
Joker back as a murderous psychopath. Even Batman’s outfit was changed slightly, elongating the
ears to razor sharp points and creating his cape to drape around him like Dracula, or billowing behind
him, depending on who the artist was at the time.

Unfortunately sales started to drop again and once as before, a lot of campiness was put back
into the character. This time he had a new Robin, Jason Todd and was Batman was starting to be seen
as a domesticated father figure, he was losing his edge. That was when Frank Miller was hired to do a
reboot to the character. Miller created a 1986 mini-series called The Dark Knight Returns, where
Batman is depicted as an aging, angry hero in a dark Gotham. Miller’s redo of Batman essentially
became a blueprint for the Batman that we know today. He depicted Batman as being obsessive,
occasionally brutal, and emotionally distant. Miller then re-told Batman’s origin story in Batman
(#404-407), it became highly acclaimed for showing more realism to Batman, which became more
accessible to readers who previously were not interested in the character. They also killed off Jason
Todd which caused Batman to become more reckless in his crime fighting as a result of Todd’s death.

It’s interesting to compare these two individual superheroes. While Superman has a rich and
interesting backstory to his creation, Batman has a sort of a boring one. Superman had made
significant cultural changes during his earlier years, whereas Batman didn’t start having a big impact
in pop culture until the late 1980’s and on. Even today, we as a society are obsessed with Batman. I
think that we see this dark, brooding hero who is most definitely struggling with some serious mental
health issues and we see ourselves in him. Mental health awareness has become more prevalent than
ever in the last couple decades and having a superhero that isn’t perfect, but rather is deeply human
and flawed is something and someone that we can flock to.

Superman is essentially invulnerable; he cannot be killed except by one rare element and
during a tumultuous time like World War II, that kind of hero was exactly what society needed. We
were just coming out of a first horrible war, then a global depression that left millions of people
unemployed and starving. Society wanted to look at their hero and see a being that is untouched by
the ravages of war, and that is going to stand up to the undeniable evil in the world. Not only that, but
he was created by a group of individuals who were already persecuted for their ethnoreligious beliefs
and practices. He was a hero that was needed for the time that he was created. However, it’s easy to
argue that due to his lack of change since 1935, it’s difficult to see him as culturally relevant today as
Batman is.

Batman has gone through several different iterations, going back and forth between dark and
campy, but eventually in present time, landing on dark. Batman is a fascinating character. He
suffered greatly from the witnessing the murder of his parents, to then having being raised by his
butler, Alfred. He is a man who is filled with anger and vengeance, but he is tired and embittered.
The struggles that he has are running parallel to our own societal struggles and we are finding
compassion and empathy with a character like Batman, someone that ultimately we can relate to much
more than we can relate to Superman.

The Dark Knight has had many reboots in the past 20 years, starting with Christopher Nolan’s
hugely successful Batman that depicted Bruce Wayne as a rich, playboy that ultimately had a deep
longing to save the individuals that he held so dear. We got to see Heath Ledger’s incredible and
iconic portrayal of the erratic and frightening Joker, and Batman’s race against time to stop the Joker
from ending hundreds of lives as well as killing the woman he loved. We then got to witness the
revival of Batman in Batman Vs. Superman with Ben Affleck’s portrayal of a Bruce Wayne as
exhausted, beaten down and older, but still willing to fight for what he believes in. Writers of Batman
are depicting him as a reflection of us. We are tired, we are weary but we will not back down. We
will not stop fighting for what we believe in, no matter the consequences. Batman is a tangible and
realistic being, he has struggled and suffered just as we have, and to society, having our superheroes
be real, human, so that we can almost reach out and touch them, is much more relevant to our culture
than it was nearly a century ago.

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