Superhero smack down!

In a summer of comic book films, who would win in a fight:

By: Aaron Alford

Posted: 6/20/05

THIS SUMMER SEES THE RELEASE OF TWO heavily hyped superhero films: "Batman Begins" and "Fantastic Four." Both will compete for blockbuster status, but box office figures aside, who would win in an actual battle between the heroes?

"Oh, definitely Batman, for sure," said senior international studies major Manny Alaffa. "He has way more skills than the Fantastic Four. They're just a bunch of goodies, and Batman doesn't fight to the normal superhero moral code. He's not afraid to break laws to get the job done."

Morality aside, the laws of common sense tend to favor the Fantastic Four's numbers. Could the lone caped crusader come out alive versus a four-piece super group? After all, Batman has no powers other than his raging lust for revenge, and the Fantastics have a good mix from the superpower buffet due to exposure to cosmic rays, respectively: super strength, invisibility, force fields, epidermal flexibility, flight and fire manipulation. Any of those two at once would give Batman a handful.

"He would never take on all four of them head-on," Alaffa said. "He'd take them to a deserted warehouse or something and find a way to separate them. Although, fighting The Thing would be difficult. Sometimes Batman kind of loses at first, but he needs time to figure out his enemies. He has gadgets to fight all powers."

Christopher Porter, an assistant professor of management, agrees with Alaffa.

"I do research on teams and how effective they are, and the Fantastic Four are not a good team. Batman would win that one," Porter said.

Porter speaks of their downfalls as if they were real people, which is the key to his argument. Despite its array of powers, the team consists of a nerdy husband and protective wife, a hot-headed and sometimes bratty brother of the bride and a grumpy strongman who is forever stuck in his body of orange rock, producing an ample breeding ground for dysfunction.

Josefina Morales of Lytle's Comics and Games had no hesitation naming her victor.

"I think Batman would win," she said, siding with the majority and also defending one of her favorite old-school superheroes. "The Fantastic Four are not that good, and I don't like Mr. Fantastic. He's a rip-off of Plastic Man."

During her shop's 15 years of business in College Station, Morales said she has seen quite a bit more Batman fans than Fantastic Four fanatics. The super group is not as widely known to the public, despite spending decades in print and a couple of attempts at cartoon series.

But with the recent wave of comic book adaptations in the past five years, any comic with a shelf life has been considered for the big screen, including one likely to entertain all ages.

"I think the Fantastic Four movie will do better in the box office than the new Batman," Porter said. "It has more mass appeal and looks more family-friendly and funny."

Porter is a frequent customer of Morales' store and shares his interest in comics with his young son, often bringing him along and making sure they both keep up with their favorite titles.

"I'm not going to let my son see the new Batman movie, and he knows that he won't see it until he's older," Porter said. "You can tell by the previews that it's darker and scarier. But the Fantastic Four movie is something I'd let him see. I think it will make more money than Batman will just because it will draw a different and wider audience."

Alaffa is standing by his hero in the box office battle.

"Batman should come out big, especially now with all the publicity Katie Holmes is getting and the all-star cast and the huge budget they had," he said.

Numbers alone often do the talking, and both pictures are sure to bring large crowds of comic book nerds and the less-acquainted alike. "Batman Begins" had a successful opening week and has garnered high acclaim, raising the bar for "Fantastic Four."

But when it comes down to which superheroes are better, it's really up to the fans, who declare that Batman has the advantage.

"He's right up there with Superman," Alaffa said. "He's an icon."