{"id":6158,"date":"2010-08-16T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T09:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=6158"},"modified":"2010-08-16T05:30:04","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T09:30:04","slug":"superman-vs-batman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2010\/08\/superman-vs-batman\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman vs. Batman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The L.A. Times<\/em> did an interesting interview with comic book writer Grant Morrison.\u00a0 He points out the class distinction between the superheroes:<\/p>\n

GM: Superman is very bright and optimistic. It\u2019s all the simple things. He\u2019s of the day and of the sunlight, and Batman is the creature of the night. I\u2019m interested in the fact that they both believe in the same kind of things. But Batman is better. He\u2019s screwed up. That what makes him cool. Even though he\u2019s solved all his problems in his own head he is \u2014 as I see him \u2014 a man with a very dark sense of humor and a very dark view of the world. He has to overcome that constantly. He\u2019s forever fighting to make the world better, which means it\u2019s never good for Batman. The rest of us have good days. We don\u2019t fight everyday. Batman fights every single day. He has that dark Plutonian side.<\/p>\n

GB: The public personalities of Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent don\u2019t seem as polarized as their alter egos.<\/p>\n

\nGM: Bruce Wayne is a rich man. He\u2019s an artistocrat. Superman grew up as Clark Kent on a farm bailing hay, and he\u2019s got a boss that shouts at him if he\u2019s late to work. He\u2019s actually more human; Batman is the fetish fantasy psyche of the aristocrat overlord who can do anything he wants, and that\u2019s fascinating. The class difference between the two of them is important.\n

GB: I\u2019ve never thought much about the class distinctions between the two.<\/p>\n

Superman by Jim Lee GM: You\u2019re an American; you live in Los Angeles! You don\u2019t have to think of class distinction in the same way we Brits do. But there is very much a distinction between the two. People often forget Superman is very much a put-upon guy. Bruce has a butler, Clark has a boss \u2026<\/p>\n

GB: True, but Clark also owns real estate in the Arctic, flies for free and can crush coal into fist-sized diamonds. He doesn\u2019t need to have a boss.<\/p>\n

Batman by Jim Lee GM: Yeah, but he so wants to be like us. He pines after one girl while Batman has a whole host of fetish femmes fatale at his beck and call.<\/p>\n

GB: The ladies love the car, I think.<\/p>\n

GM: Of course. He\u2019s got everything. I like that. He\u2019s our kind of dream of the aristocrat. He\u2019s even better than the Tony Stark\/Iron Man thing; he\u2019s got that as well as the dark side. That\u2019s the difference between Superman and Batman. There both interesting to write, but Batman is the sexier one, definitely.<\/p>\n

via Batman versus Superman as class warfare? Grant Morrison: \u2018Bruce has a butler, Clark has a boss\u2019 | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So which was or is your favorite, Batman or Superman?\u00a0 (Me:\u00a0 Superman.)\u00a0 D. C. or Marvel?\u00a0 (Me:\u00a0 D.C.)\u00a0 (Today, judging from a recent sampling of comic books today,\u00a0 D.C. has become Marvel!\u00a0 And both have become more so.\u00a0 Everybody in the comic book world is angst-ridden, taking little pleasure in the cool things they can do.)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The L.A. Times did an interesting interview with comic book writer Grant Morrison.\u00a0 He points out the class distinction between the superheroes: GM: Superman is very bright and optimistic. It\u2019s all the simple things. He\u2019s of the day and of the sunlight, and Batman is the creature of the night. I\u2019m interested in the fact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,28],"tags":[265,529,2137],"class_list":["post-6158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-literature","tag-batman","tag-comic-books","tag-superman"],"yoast_head":"\nSuperman vs. Batman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The L.A. 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