I've got a few random things to throw in, hopefully without really getting into the thick of things:
(1) Batman: TAS is one of my all-time favorite shows. It was done with love, and it was done like no other cartoon I've ever seen. They lost money on it, but they did it anyway. The animators voluntarily put in overtime to add little touches no one had thought to ask them for, because they cared that much. To me, it's the definitive version of Batman.
(I hate what they did to it after the series ended, when they brought it back as "The New Batman Adventures," but that's another matter.)
Anyway, the thing I really wanted to mention about it is Harley Quinn. She's also one of my favorite Batman cast members, and some of the best TAS episodes feature her. What's really cool to me is that she was created by the TAS team. She's since become popular enough that they wrote her into the comics, but she started in TAS.
(2) Superman is much harder to relate to, in some ways, than Batman. He has all of these powers, and while they're nice to dream out, they're hard to believe in.
I love the idea of Superman. I understand that he's very important. I feel like he should be liked more. When it comes down to it, though, I find that I enjoy Batman more. I enjoy reading about him. I enjoy watching him. I think they can do more interesting things with him.
(Of course, it all depends on the writing. I've seen awfully done Batman -- The Batman Strikes comes to mind -- and wonderfully done Superman -- L&C being the most obvious example -- and a bunch of stuff in between -- like the hit & miss Batman/Superman adventures.)
(3) The movies, and in particular, the time travel thing.
The movies were based on the Silver Age comics. A lot of outlandish stuff was taken for granted. Superman was the real guy, and Clark a silly disguise.
I don't like the way the movies kept giving him random powers (like super telekinesis in Superman IV), but the first movie was pretty much true to the comics of the time.
The time travel scene confused a lot of people. It took me a long time to get it. Here's how it worked, though, as best I can understand:
According to the Theory of Relativity, time slows down as you approach the speed of light. That's why if you go flying around near the speed of light, you'll come back "younger" than the people who stayed on Earth. Less time will have passed for you than for the people who weren't moving so fast.
It's really wierd (a lot of things about relativity are), but there it is. The faster you go, the slower time goes.
Theoretically, if you were to go faster than light, time would start moving in the other direction. It's even possible that, as we speak, there's another "world" full of things going faster than light. Things we can't see or feel or touch or interact with, but which are nonetheless there. For them, time would be sort of mirror-imaged. It would look to us like it was going backwards, and the slower they went, the slower time would go. The speed of light, to them, would also be an impassable barrier (the universal speed limit), but they wouldn't be able to go any slower.
That's the thing. It takes a theoretically infinite amount of energy to cross the lightspeed barrier. But... if you could do it... time would go "backwards."
So that's what's happening in that scene. He goes faster and faster around the Earth. We're travelling with him, so we see what he sees. Time slows down, then starts to go backwards. It's not that he's causing the Earth's rotation to slow and reverse. It's that time is slowing and reversing.
(This was done fairly often in the Silver Age comics, especially with The Flash. They took the real science and a healthy dollop of artistic license and just made it a fact that super speedsters could move through time.)
What about the earthquake? He saved everyone except Lois the first time. Then he went back in time and saved her, too. By going back in time, he was able to be in two places at once.
Make sense?
(Of course not! It's the Silver Age! Who needs it to make sense?)
Okay, I've rambled on more than long enough.
Movies:
I like the 1989 Batman best, followed by the 1978 (good year!) Superman. Then Batman Begins and Superman II. I won't get into the rest.
Batman > Superman
Animated Series:
Batman TAS is the best, followed by Superman. New Batman comes in below that, and may even be edged out by the old Superman animated serials, which at least have a classic quality about them.
Batman > Superman
Live action:
Lois and Clark, hands down, best live-action superhero show ever. The 60's Batman does have its campy charm, but... *shrug*
Superman > Batman
Comics:
The bat-titles have this annoying habit of giant summer crossovers. They take over all of Gotham with painfully bad stories (more hole than plot). Outside of that, though, I'm a fan. I read almost all of them. (Except Robin, Nightwing, and Birds of Prey.)
Tried the Superman comics, but just couldn't get into them. I'm reading the new Supergirl, though.
Batman > Superman
So... I voted for Batman, but it really depends on the incarnation. The writers, how it's presented, etc.
And that's a lot more than I meant to say (as usual).
Paul
