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Iron Man vs. Batman

JarodRussell

JarodRussell

Vice Admiral
Admiral
No worries, this is no stupid "Who will win?" question, it's about the creation. Batman belongs to DC, Iron Man to Marvel. They are essentially the same characters: rich business men, playboys, industrialists, philanthropists, mere mortals, who use technology to fight crime and terrorism. Both their parents are killed, and they inherit their father's companies.

So is Iron Man Marvel's answer to DC's Batman?
 
JarodRussell said:
No worries, this is no stupid "Who will win?" question, it's about the creation. Batman belongs to DC, Iron Man to Marvel. They are essentially the same characters: rich business men, playboys, industrialists, philanthropists, mere mortals, who use technology to fight crime and terrorism. Both their parents are killed, and they inherit their father's companies.

So is Iron Man Marvel's answer to DC's Batman?
Click to expand...

He could be the answer to several DC characters, like Green Arrow (rich guy with a bow) or Blue Beetle (rich guy with a beetle costume) or Booster Gold (rich guy with a flight ring)...

I doubt anyone at Marvel actually said "Make us a Bruce Wayne" to Stan Lee - although a couple of Marvel creations were the result of conversations just like that.
 
Iron Man was Stan Lee getting the idea of Howard Hughes as a Superhero, more or less.

Batman was following the tradition of the "Wealthy Socialite who is also a heroic rogue" character like the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, the Shadow, etc.
 
^I've noticed that they are referring to Moon Knight as 'The world's greatest detective' these days.
 
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Admiral2 said:
JarodRussell said:
No worries, this is no stupid "Who will win?" question, it's about the creation. Batman belongs to DC, Iron Man to Marvel. They are essentially the same characters: rich business men, playboys, industrialists, philanthropists, mere mortals, who use technology to fight crime and terrorism. Both their parents are killed, and they inherit their father's companies.

So is Iron Man Marvel's answer to DC's Batman?
Click to expand...

He could be the answer to several DC characters, like Green Arrow (rich guy with a bow) or Blue Beetle (rich guy with a beetle costume) or Booster Gold (rich guy with a flight ring)...
Click to expand...

Not exactly. Iron Man has been around for 25 years longer than Booster Gold. And Blue Beetle wasn't originally a DC character.
 
JarodRussell said:
No worries, this is no stupid "Who will win?" question, it's about the creation. Batman belongs to DC, Iron Man to Marvel. They are essentially the same characters: rich business men, playboys, industrialists, philanthropists, mere mortals, who use technology to fight crime and terrorism. Both their parents are killed, and they inherit their father's companies.

So is Iron Man Marvel's answer to DC's Batman?
Click to expand...

Ehh... The thing is Iron Man does his thing more out of wanting to "right his own wrongs" with being a defense contractor. His parents may be dead but, near as I can remember, they died due to things having little to do with Tony's motivations to fight international crime as a power-suited superhero.

Batman, on the other hand, fights local crime out of vengeance for it contributing to the death of his parents.

The two characters while both being billionaire playboys have very different motivations for what they do. It may also be pointed out that Bruce Wayne has a dollop of humility when it comes to his alter-ego and puts on a billionaire playboy facade in public life in order to throw people of his scent. In essence, Batman is the "real person."

Tony Stark, on the other hand, is all ego and virtually no humility. He doesn't put on a playboy show for people when in public life that's just who he is.

So the only things Batman and Iron Man really have in common is that they're billionaires who also fight crime as a costumed hero.

(And, in the pro-Batman camp, Batman doesn't need a powered suit of armor to do his ass-kicking.)
 
Guys like the Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro were first...

EDIT: And I think Batman's unlimited money and Magical Corporation that makes everything technically counts as a superpower. Or at least as a ever-present plot device.
 
JarodRussell said:
No worries, this is no stupid "Who will win?" question, it's about the creation. Batman belongs to DC, Iron Man to Marvel. They are essentially the same characters: rich business men, playboys, industrialists, philanthropists, mere mortals, who use technology to fight crime and terrorism. Both their parents are killed, and they inherit their father's companies.

So is Iron Man Marvel's answer to DC's Batman?
Click to expand...

No. Iron Man has nothing to do with Tony Stark's father - that's some nonsense they pulled in several decades after the character was created. The murder of the Waynes is the very core of the Batman mythos. Batman is obsessed. Tony Stark likes hardware.
 
I believe anything Miller has to say about Batman cannot be entered into evidence on the basis that Miller's version of Batman is insane.
 
Millar is pretty much right on this one.

Batman is insane. His entire motivation for doing what he does is rooted entirely in insanity.
 
Depends on how you write him. He's motivated by the death of his parents. That can make him a psycho ninja who uses brutality to exact revenge. Or someone who uses his mind and cutting edge technology to apprehend criminals.
 
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