3. It's Actually Brain vs. Brain + Brawn
One of the common arguments is that Batman would win because hes just plain smarter than Superman. Its not hard to see how this idea came about. Batman is the worlds greatest detective, hes a master strategist, and he thinks on a level far above any of us. Hes so amazing that his contingency plans have contingency plans. And thats a fair argument, no one can doubt the Caped Crusader is incredibly intelligent and has vast resources to back up that intelligence. But this is based on the assumption that Superman isnt that smart. Its easy to see how this assumption takes root: Superman usually relies on his powers in battle, not his mind. And his greatest villain isnt someone who matches his physical power, but who is an evil mastermind. Unfortunately, something thats often overlooked in these discussions is one, simple fact: Superman is a genius. Super intelligence is actually one of his powers, enhanced by Earths yellow sun. He has an eidetic memory, which means he has a flawless, total recall over everything he has ever seen, read, or heard and has mastered several of Earths languages. Although these powers were thrown out by John Byrnes reboot (and if you never mention that reboot again, well get along just fine), later writers brought them back. Even if super intelligence wasnt one of his powers, Superman
does possess superhuman speed. One of the trade-offs for this is that to move at superhuman speed, you also need to be able to think and react at superhuman speed. Its common to see Clark Kent cranking out a newspaper article in the blink of an eyewell, to even do that, hed have to be able to think as fast as he could type, otherwise it would just be gibberish. As intelligence as Batman is, he doesnt have Supermans reaction time. Not by a long shot.