Black and blue. Fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man. Day versus night. Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham. The two biggest superheroes of all time are finally sharing the big screen together in Batman V Superman, but their individual movies have been competing for influence and box office dominance almost as long as the duo have existed. And, in fact, there's some rather striking parallels between the two. Both had a pre-Bronze Age outing, a popular, big budget series that had tapered off disastrously by the fourth instalment and a dark and gritty reboot, ultimately leading to the pair coming up against each other. So, as audiences flock to find out who'd win in a fist fight, let's answer the bigger question; who wins in terms of movie quality?
Honourable Mention: The Serials
Batman and Superman have both been around for over three-quarters of a century, and in that time they've journeyed from the comics to just about every creative medium imaginable. In the early years this primarily included radio plays, some of which proved highly influential and remain well-regarded to this day, but there were also quite a few movie serials. While these werebe collected together into feature length pieces, they're essentially pre-TV TV series and don't quite qualify for this list. This includes Batman (1943), Superman (1948), Batman and Robin (1949) and Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950), all of which are essential parts of the characters' screen history, if not quite qualifying as films.
