Frank Miller/Headscratchers


 * I won't get into what I think of the book's art and writing (Which I love), as that's a matter of personal preference, and everyone's entitled to their opinion. What I want to say is this: If Batman and Superman were to fight without Bats having some secret plan like he did in TDKR, Supes would get his ass kicked. As everyone knows Superman has a horrible weakness. Kryptonite. Which Batman happens to have. In fact, he has at least a ton of it. Superman knows that Batman has some kryptonite, but he only knows about one small shard. The rest Bats keeps hidden. And, in fact, this is the only kryptonite left on Earth. Batman would obviously use this if he ever needed to face off against Superman, and that's why he has the kryptonite. But, let's say the situation is like in TDKR, where Batman only has a small amount of synthetic kryptonite. You have to remember here that Batman is a scientific and technological genius and obsessed with being prepared to the point of paranoia. He would know any way to hurt Superman, and he would exploit it. In this case he might not be able to fully defeat Superman, but that isn't really his plan. Batman just wanted to show Superman that he could be hurt.
 * To be fair about it, Batman also has a number of weaknesses Supeman doesn't (bullets, extreme ranges of temperature, extreme blunt force and falling being just few examples). But this discussion really belongs in this part of the wiki.
 * What separates Batman's weaknesses from Superman's weaknesses is that Batman prepares for encountering his, and he does his best not only to compensate for them but to make them a non-issue entirely. Batman's spent a ton of time and money working on ways to defeat ANY superhero should they ever go rogue. Which, in Superman's case, happens a whole lot. How much time has Superman spent preparing for a fight with Batman? Batman's weak to the same things almost any normal human being is weak to, and so he spends a lot of time making sure that none of these things will succeed in killing him. Superman has ONE weakness that everyone knows and easily uses all the time, and he never thinks to himself "You know, maybe I should do something about that whole Kryptonite thing." The only way Superman would ever beat Batman would be to outwit or surprise him; but Superman is not much for strategy, as he prefers to pound things until they stop.
 * Uh, guys? Am I the only person here who remembers that Superman had been drastically weakened from a massive nuclear bomb which used a electromagnetic pulse to partially black out the skies of almost the whole western hemisphere, reducing Supes's solar energy intake and, therefore, his powers? Batman had all his gadgetry, his martial skills intact to use when inside the kryptonite cloud, and lots of time to prepare as well as the home field advantage. Superman had no idea what traps had been laid for him and he was so levelled down that he got a nosebleed after being hit once with the noise from a sonic gun. There is no reason to think Batman taking him down under these circumstances is the least bit out-of-character. Indeed, if he'd had even more time to prepare, he could have used his unparalleled mind and technological savvy to figure out how to take out a Superman who's at full force. He sort of did it in Hush with even less preparation time (although that technically involved only kicking Superman's ass for long enough for Lois and Catwoman to be able to appear and shake Supes out of his Poison Ivy-induced hypnosis). Not to mention that Superman is a billion miles from having "every superpower under the sun". He has maybe twelve or fifteen, yes, but there are oodles of things he can't do (for instance, he has no psychic powers whatsoever, just to name a few things).


 * It just bugs me that Frank Miller never did a Punisher story, as far as I've been able to determine. Frank Castle seems to me to be a character far better suited to the kind of stories I perceive Miller wants to tell than Bruce Wayne. And it might even be good? It could happen.
 * He wrote some of Frank's earlier stories in Daredevil. Hope that helps.