Ennis does some great stuff (War Stories, Preacher, Punisher, Phantom Eagle, etc.), but he also does some AWFUL crap (Just a Pilgrim and the first Fury MAX stand out).

I definitely appreciate his take on superheroes when his penchant for skewering them is balanced by his understanding of the reasons behind the reverence. JLA/Hitman is probably the best example of this, and damn near brought a tear to my eye.

But anyhow, as for Captain Beyond, I think he'd tell you not to bother arguing it with him. His mind is made up, for what it's worth.

I always believed the only way Batman would win in a fight is if Superman didn't even know they were fighting to begin with.

DC has never really defined Superman's powerset and levels. He's always doing something different. In one story he's pushing the Earth entirely, and in another he's struggling with picking up a large tank or ship. In one story he's got full awareness of his Laser Eyes, Frost Breath, speed, strength, or hearing; while in others you sit there going "Come on just use your ____ and end it!", and he doesn't.

That being said, it is difficult to determin if Batman could win. If you get a writer who truly does not appreciate Superman, or truly appreciates Batman, then that writer will write situations to tip the favor towards Batman. There is no prep time in the "You guys are fighting, GO." scenerio, but in the "Batman sees Superman as Threat" or the "Superman sees Batman as a menace." case, it goes to whoever gets the first foot down on the opposition.

In either case, Superman should be able to hear anything Batman is doing and act pre-emptively. That is, of course, that the writer acknowledges Superman's actual abilities.

Yeah Batman beats superman if he's trying to assassinate him, but that's not a "vs" is it?

Punisher could probably take out superman with enough time to locate and make kryptonite bullets, as long as Superman had no idea what was going on. Doesn't really count. (I swear to god I spent my entire childhood saying "How come no one makes kryptonite bullets?" and then once smallville did it, it was off to the races)

I was more referring to the way outlandish stuff, like giving the Russian boobs, or having the Teen Titans equivalent be depraved sex machines killing hookers with their super power junk.

To be perfectly honest, I liked preacher, but it's not even top 3 for me as far as Ennis' best work. His runs in Hellblazer and Punisher MAX were just beautiful (Again, I'm a fan boy) and some of my favorite writing period, right up there with Robert E Howard's original "Conan the Cimmerian" tales.

"Punisher: Born" was an outstanding book. "Welcome Back, Frank" was pretty good, also.

Ennis is fine as long as he's on a leash. When he has no editor willing to take him on, he's garbage.

The issue of Hitman that had Superman as a guest star is one of my favorite books. He didn't try to drag Superman down...he tried (briefly) to pull Tommy up.

I've read a decent amount of Ennis stuff, and I'm definitely going to have to disagree that it's all been fantastic.

His work on Punisher was great (which is weird because it's neither a character nor an author that I typically like), and I enjoyed Hitman for the most part, but I can't stand most of his stuff that involves superheroes. The Boys only got good in my opinion when it started to get into the broader conspiracy plot, unlike the early issues which mainly consisted of Ennis trying to show us how dumb he thinks superheroes are in as many different ways as he could.


Back to the original topic, I think llyrghmnghyll nailed it on page 1. Superman wins if we look at what the characters "should" be able to do, but then it's a boring story of Superman moving really quickly and knocking Batman out with one punch. If it's an actual story, Batman wins.

Agreed. I love how it ties into the end of Ennis' MAX run.

The epilogue to that was perfect imo