The victor of any battle — whether it’s Batman vs. Captain-America or Wolverine vs. Bat-Mite — depends soley on the whims of the writer. Always has been, always will be.
[Fanboy] Oh, please. Like Bat-Mite could lose to Wolverine? More like… uh… Tangerine! That’s right! Man, Bat-Mite is fifth-dimensional… how many dimensions has Wolverine got? Yeah, I thought so! Three! (Less, in certain writers’ hands) So… duh! [/Fanboy]
Yeah, what the hell are you people talking about?
Is there some place I can read up on all this then come back and sound like I know what you’re on about? I haven’t read a comic properly since I found my dad’s old Captain Marvel collection. I would love to read some properly. Do I have to, like, buy them one issue at a time? Aren’t there just bumper editions I can buy, preferably ones that comics purists sneer at and which ruin the artwork? Say, with a character’s ENTIRE history?
And what’s with all these Leagues and Teams and such? I never even started to understand all that, good guys fighting good guys and so on. Far as I knew, Supe was Supe, Hulk was Hulk, and that was that. Where do I begin?
Well… if the Silver Surfer could lose to Wolverine… I’m just sayin’
Wow. Hmmm. Yes, you can get collected editions of various comics… but as for understanding what we’re talking about? I don’t even think most of us understand that… 
The Thing. Not even open to discussion. There’s a classic Marvel Two-In-One annual where a cosmic doofus named the Champion hand picks about a dozen of earth’s heroes to fight in a boxing match and if they lost he would blow up the planet. Thor and the Hulk get disqualified eliminating the obvious two picks for the strongest. Colossus does well for himself but gets beaten and so Ben Grimm steps into the ring and just about gets beaten to death. Then he stands up and gets smacked around again. And this happens again and again. Because of his unwillingness to give up the Champion spares the Earth and everyone is happy. 
indeed CG I’ve been in this fan game for 29 years now and I don’t understand a good 2/3rds of what I read, let along what you folks are talking about!
And Ross, indeed there are collections of stuff, lots and lots and lots of STIFF. It really depends on what you’re looking for. If you want stories, there are Trade Paperbacks easily available at your local Comicke Booke Shoppe (comic book guy included in every pack!!! Never needs washing!!!), and many of the larger chain bookstores (Borders, Kinokuniya, …um. What are the others called? We only have those two).
But if you want distilled history lessons (VERY distilled, the histories are somewhat abridged), Dorling Kindersley have produced some wonderful illustrated compendia on Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman, The Justice League, Spiderman, Xmen (2 volumes in fact, but the 2nd is just an updating of the first) and the Hulk. Recently they released a Catwoman volume- the releases seem to be tied to movie or other media releases. The volumes deal with characters, histry, gadgets, locations, vehicles, etc etc etc. I own most of these, cos they’re so damn purty! (and my son can read them and have a basic grasp of what his wierdo daddy’s a-talkin’ a-bout without reading a good coupla thousand comics!).
'nuff said, excelsior, etc etc etc.
Forgive me and my lazy typing, that should have been ‘stuff’…
It’s been a tough morning!
Batman would own Captain America senseless. First he would zap him with all of Gotham City’s power, then get Green Arrow to shoot him in the leg with napalm…
And once Captain America’s weakened, Bats would lose by virtue of STIFFness.
I mean, Bats would win.
Interesting. Didn’t Punisher shoot Daredevil (with a rubber round) back in the Miller/Janson days? They seemed very evenly matched, though I think in straight hand-to-hand DD has the decided advantage.
Just picked up the Avengers/JLA cross-over so I thought I would revive this thread. Obviously, I don’t think DC is going to let one of their flagship characters (Superman) be defeated by a relatively minor (selling wise anyways) character like Thor. That said, I think Thor beats Superman in a knock-out fight. Firstly, Thor never uses his lightning or other nifty energy powers against Superman. This is a guy who can call down a lot more than just one bolt at a time a la Captain Marvel in Kingdom Come. Thor can generate continent sized storms that would even give the man of steel pause. Further, Thor can lob these things at Superman whilst beating him upside the head with Mjolnir. Sorry, Thor is just too versitile and too good of a warrior (he has been fighting for a lot longer than Superman) to lose.
Captain America v. Batman: Put me in the don’t care catagory. Seriously, I fancy myself against either one of them! To me, superheroes always required a suspension of disbeliefe. That is, you had to accept that Superman was an alien or that Thor was the God of Thunder. The illusion wears very thin when you are dealing with normal humans such as Batman. IMHO.
Captain America is hardly a “thug” who only throws haymakers. He was trained as a commando and has been taught just about every form of self defense, according to his comic book origins. He also shares a certain ruthlessness with Batman that would make them pretty evenly matched.
I correct myself … Punisher and DD go at it briefly in the 40th anniversary Daredevil issue, and DD whups him handily.
Add our Beloved President for a third party in the debate, & I’ll bring the popcorn.
While I realize that this debate is the height of geekiness (sp) is it wrong that I enjoy it so? Back in Dublin for a holiday and I started this very same debate in a comic book store in Temple Bar. Consensus there was that Thor beats Superman but that Batman beats Captain America.
Rather improbably, DD has also taken out Spider-Man at least twice. Even more improbably, Spider-Man took out Firelord and Iron Man 2020. This must make Daredevil one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe!
And he’s a lawyer, too!
A previous poster really put it best when he said that it all depends on the writer. I am also sure that there are internal pressures placed on the writers in the DC/Marvel cross-over series.
I’ve seen the RPG stats for Iron Man 2020, & he ain’t much.
Arno Stark used salvaged parts & guesswork to build that armor, & I doubt that he could whip Forbush Man whilst wearing it.