It especially wasn’t worth repeating twice in two separate threads.
What do you think of those guys who quote dialog from Monty Python sketches a lot at parties?
Well, obviously.
However, Superman had no enhanced night vision, & the Batman has always used smoke bombs.
So, given his extraordinary stealth, Batman might well escape the first encounter.
It would take the 39 Batman around 8 hours to figure out Superman’s secret ID.
The Batcave would remain secret, and it contains a chem lab.
So…poison gas?
Acid?
High voltage electrical weapon?
And Batman could set up a trap on the ground of his choice.
If Batman escapes defeat in the first round, Superman stands a very good chance of losing in the second.
Very true. In the Max Fletcher cartoons, Superman is knocked out by high voltage cables, gets the air knocked out of him when large stone slabs fall on him, is battered by killer robots and is stunned by “deathrays”. He’s taken by surprised by trapdoors and bulletplanes.
So I think Batman has a very good chance.
When exactly did this mellifluous mojo arise? Only lately have I heard that Batman has this deus ex machina going for him.
Some say the “uber-Bat” started with Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns story in 1986, but most agree he became unbeatable during Grant Morrison’s JLA run, which started in 1996.
Wow. This is as close as I’ve gotten to being stumped in a Batman “versus” thread.
I know what my problem is: I haven’t read enough early Superman, so I’m having a rough time trying to figure out what could physically incapacitate the 1930s Superman that it would be reasonable for the 1939 Batman to have in his possession. All my usual tactics dry up. Kryptonite doesn’t exist yet, Phantom Zone weaponry doesn’t exist yet, mystical weaponry seems like a stretch, anti-matter isn’t noir enough, a sonic gun seems too anachronistic and science-fictiony, electricity might be effective but I’m having a tough time imagining the right scenario – the Kents are dead in this continuity, so somehow threatening them or kidnapping is out (and out of character). Chemical warfare is the best bet, but what avenue of attack could Batman execute that would isolate Kent and spare bystanders? And what would work? Mustard gas? Nerve gas? Flame throwers?
Okay, I can’t believe I’m going to recommend this, but… screw the physical attack. Let’s go for psychological harm, as well as the being a rat bastard option. That’s right. Batman doesn’t take Superman down – he gets the a cabal of the most powerful interests in America, including the US government to do it for him.
Agreed that even a 1930s Batman should be able to triangulate Superman’s bounding to the window of the janitor’s closet in the newsroom of the Daily Planet Building where he chamges clothes – and a daytime reconnaissance of the newsroom would likely narrow down new Planet newsman Clark Kent as the likeliest suspect.
Batman would have no other choice but to win this one by fiat. You heard me! He has to “out” Clark Kent as Superman and let the power of ribald yellow journalism run amok take down the Man of Tomorrow!
I envision this campaign in the following ten parts.
- Begins a damaging whispering campaign to discredit the Clark Kent alter ego as a Commie symapthizer who sleeps with Pollacks and Negroes. 2) Use the power of homophobia to smear Kent as a comfirmed bachelor who just loves the Sapphists and Oscar Wilde. 3) Hire a lookalike to have his picture taken with male and female prositutes and at least one donkey and have copies sent to Perry White, Lois Lane, all the people in Clark’s apartment building and his tailor 4) Forward a second set of pictures to J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI 5) Buy Kent’s apartment buidling and starts integrating the buidling with Nazi moles, showgirls, mad scientists and French bohemians 6) Uses his political contacts nudge the IRS into giving Kent an audit and 7) Send several large donations to the American Communist Party in Kent’s name 8) doctor a photograph of Kent with a Mexican donkey in a compromising position – also sent to Hoover (9) Reveral that Superman and Geezer are the same man and 10) Send a forged letter from Superman to William Randolph Hearst, John D. Rockefeller, President Truman, the Metropolis mafia boss and heavyweight champeen Jack Johnson telling them all to suck his cock.
Wait one week for reprisals. Pull up a chair.
Supes would never know what hit him.
In a physical fight, Bats is kinda toast.
How about a 1930s-style death ray?
>smacking forehead smilie<
:: Flips Voodoo Lou the bird. ::
FuuuuuUUUuuuuck yoooUuuuUuuuuuu.
I hate unintentionally setting people up for the obvious punchline!!
Oh hey, don’t worry. I’ll make it up to you. Do you like CDs?
Oh, GOD. What happens if I say yes? I hope not another pithy remark, I laughed too hard at the last one.
It’s cool, man. Who doesn’t like CDs?
See DEEZ NUTS! 
:: Bows, humbled, defeated ::
Plots revenge… I’m a fucking PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER I should have seen that coming… dammit I’m monologing, too…
In one of the first Luthor appearances (he still had his red hair), he managed to render Superman unconscious with “a powerful new gas”.
And this guy has done far more research into the subject and I strongly recommend this essay be the reference in discussions of the extent of 1930s Superman’s powers.
As I recall, the original Superman was immune to “anything short of a bursting shell”. OK, I’m sure that Batman could get ahold of some bursting shells. Superman has some nice abilities, but they’re not really any nicer than a decent gadget.
In other words, I’m thinking Batman.
I love that link!
Bookmarked it.
Many thanks, Bryan.