MTG Salvation

I don't buy your Iron Man defense. Taking shrapnel in the chest isn't something that generally leads a person to become a vigilante. Tony Stark is rich enough that he could have gone on doing research while spending whatever he needs to stay alive. He didn't have to be a superhero at all.

I like the Batman villains. They're just right. Not needlessly complex but not copy pasta either. My fav is actually the Batman: TAS created Harley Quinn. What a character.

The night thing is based less on logistics and more on atmosphere and theme. As a dark character who wields fear like a weapon, Batman is out of place in the daytime. His home is the night. I don't think it's a coincidence that the animal Bruce based his hero persona on is nocturnal.

And I can't remember where it's from, but I remember a quote along the lines of "The world is for those who live in the daylight. It was built for them to feel safe. It's those who live in the dark that need heroes." The premise being that the daytime has the police and other services to protect, but the night brings out far scarier things than the daylight, so the world needs heroes at night more than the day. Or something.

OK, I guess I gotta respond to all you Batman lovers out there. First off, @Bitsy, Tony Stark had to be Iron Man because he would have DIED if he took off the armor. You know, because of that shrapnel that got lodged in his heart when his convoy got ambushed while he was showing off his newest weapon? Bruce Wayne never had to experience that. He would never die by simply giving up being Batman. Although I can see the similarities: both are fighting for some sense of revenge, but Batman does so because his parents got killed by some random punks, while Iron Man does so because he was PERSONALLY attacked by enemies during a frigging WAR. Also, why is it that you haven't responded to my point about Batman fighting crime only at night? Could it be because I'm RIGHT?
Oh, and any comic that comes up with a villain as retarded as Penguin deserves to be made fun of.

You do know that Marvel has Batman too, right? His name is Tony Stark.

Superheroes are meant to be larger than life. I like the grandness of DC's superheroes but that may be because I'm a fan of classic literature. Marvel superheroes tend to deal with contemporary issues and thats why they're so popular. DC superheroes are the heroes(and anti-heroes) of greek classics. I don't know of any comics that can manage to be contemporary yet classical. Its hard to manage. Joss Whedon did it with Buffy(the show) but haven't seen its like since.

Batman is by far my favorite DC character. he's much more than what you state, IMO. These new movies that are coming out seem to be exploring the darker, and more realistic version of what i believe Batman would go through.

One thing I want to point out about Batman is that he doesn't fight crime as Batman out of the goodness of his heart. My interpretation has always been that Bruce Wayne is just as sociopathic/psychotic as the villains he fights. In several incarnations of the story, Bruce is depicted as a tortured do-gooder, but I've always seen him as a crazed vigilante. He's only considered a hero because the ones he goes after are far worse than he is. The fact that he fights crime is just a byproduct, the reason he does it is to lash out at those he identifies with the man who took his parents from him. Witnessing his parents' death severely messed Bruce up and it's that pain and fear and helplessness and lack of control that he's overcompensating for by being Batman.

I agree with you that generally Marvel has many far more compelling characters than DC. Marvel's characters tend on the whole to be much more multi-dimensional where DC tends to be a fair bit more archetypal. But I think Batman is the one character that DC managed to create with a bit of depth. And when explored properly, Batman can be just as compelling s Marvel's characters.