Dark Knight of the Soul . . . Or, Iron Man Versus Batman!

By Steven McLain

With the recent success of Marvel's Avenger franchise, and DC/Warner's Batman franchise, I've been thinking a lot about how particular superheroes might match up in a fight.  Of course, there have been these types of mash-ups ad nauseum.  So I thought I might do something a little different.  Instead of the comics, I'm going to stick to movie continuities.  So, in this mash-up, it's Iron Man v. Batman, but only Christian Bale's Batman and Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man.

At first, I thought this might be pretty cut and dried.  Iron Man wins from the outset; he's got tank-busting mini missiles, he can fly, and oh yeah, he's got a superweapon exo-suit.  But breaking down the specifics, I think there's a lot of competition from Batman, and the decision isn't as cut and dry as I thought it would be.

First of all, Iron Man and Batman both have alter egos.  Tony Start and Bruce Wayne, respectively, are each brilliant, driven men.  They have access to seemingly inexhaustible wealth and have few scruples about how they use it.  Tony Stark is driven by insecurity vis-a-vis his father; Bruce Wayne is driven by grief over the death of his parents and desperate for revenge.  Tony Stark has an arc-reactor in his chest; Bruce Wayne knows kung-fu (or some variation thereof).

So, Bruce Wayne easily kicks Tony Stark's butt.  Stick Tony in the Iron Man platform, however, and things swing in his favor.  I've already mentioned the tank-busting mini-missiles, and the fact that he can fly.  So, basically, all he has to do is hover a few hundred feet off the ground and launch blasts of plasma at Batman.  Not even the graphite faceplate and the fancy Batsuit are going to save him from that. You can argue that the Tumbler and the Bat-wing might be able to counter some of that fire-power, but I counter with TANK-BUSTING mini-missiles. 

So one-on-one doesn't look so good.  But Iron Man has Stark Industries, and Batman has Wayne Enterprises.  Their resources offer them a distinct advantage.  Forbes every year estimates the net worth of fictional characters, and recently assessed the value of each.  Tony Stark comes in at $9.3 billion; Bruce Wayne trails with $6.9 billion.  At first, I'm a little skeptical of these numbers.  Sure, it seems like a lot, but it makes you wonder what Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are doing with their billions.

Connections seem to be everything in this case, as Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are willing to leverage the power, influence and pockets of their companies toward their crime-fighting ends.  Batman turned every cell phone in Gotham into a Joker-detection device, opening him to charges of fascism.  Tony Stark can not only hack TVs (and we assume computers) at a distance, he has a more comprehensive intelligence network than the United States government.  So they both have access to incredibly advanced technology, and we've already established that Iron Man would win in stand-up fight.  The only question remains is whether Batman would ever show up at that fight.

Frankly, I don't think he would.  Batman is too cagey for that.  Despite charging in after Bane, Batman is a creature of the shadows, who has been trained in the arts of deception and misdirection.  We have to assume he would strike from the darkness, letting Tony Stark blunder around tossing off pot-shots and one-liners.  Maybe his concierge Happy could point him in the right direction, but without someone else giving Stark strategic direction, he's all too happy lumbering around in the dark.

And let's face it.  Batman is more than willing to risk it all to win.  He took the fall for Harvey Dent; he let his ancestral home burn to the ground; with a broken back he still managed to escape an inescapable prison and return to face his nemesis.  And he had his heart broken twice.  He knows pain, and he's willing to push through.  Stark, when the going gets tough, bails.

That weakness of character is ultimately why I think Batman would win in a superhero fight between the two of them.  He's wise enough not to confront Iron Man where he doesn't have the upper ground, and he's ruthless enough to give it everything he's got.

Agree?  Disagree?  Let me hear who you think would win in the comments below.