Last month, Batman was defeated by X-23. This month, Bruce Wayne is going toe-to-toe with yet another deadly and bladed character: Snake Eyes. Did the Dark Knight get stabbed and slashed until he's defeated for a second month in a row? Or was he able to overcome this latest obstacle? Well, the Comic Vine community had five days to think it through, debate and cast their votes. Now that the poll is locked, Batman fans can breathe a sigh of relief. He may have lost last month's battle, but this month, he's walking away with the victory. Although, he'll probably need a band-aid or two.
The lethal ninja from G.I. Joe received 34% of the votes, but the Caped Crusader pulled in 58%. Meanwhile, 8% thought this fight had the potential to go either way and deemed it to close to call. So, why'd Bruce win? As the debate went on, one key point kept popping up: many people simply don't believe Snake Eyes has endured challenges that are as varied and as difficult as the ones Batman has faced. Now, that's not to say this wouldn't be a good and wildly entertaining fight. Many Viners agreed this would be a battle well worth watching, especially since they're quite similar in many ways. They're both superb with stealth, stunning hand-to-hand fighters, and their physical capabilities aren't far apart. While Snake Eyes has gear that's simple yet effective, Batman has more variety, and, as the fight progress, and that's always going to be a wildcard worth taking into account.
Truthfully, I was hoping the poll would be much closer, but at the end of the day, it looks like more than a few people are walking away from this experience with a little more knowledge on Snake Eyes, and I'd say that's most certainly a good thing. Even if you think one character is the obvious winner, the objective here is just to have fun wondering about how it would play out and hopefully learn a new thing or two about the characters in the process. Anyway, usually the Viner Arguments of the Month are pretty thorough and there were quite a few well-thought-out posts made this week, but we'll give your eyes a bit of a break and highlight two quick and concise arguments that were made for each combatant. They're much shorter than what we usually feature, but they get right to what they believe are the key factors in the battle. Sometimes less can be more, after all.
Viner Argument of the Month for Batman is by Saren
Batman somewhat handily. It's all well and good to go on about Snake-Eyes' lack of compunctions and stealth and experience and yada yada, but the fact remains that he exists in a universe where the challenges he has to face are far less formidable than the challenges Batman has faced. Snake-Eyes offers nothing that Batman hasn't seen before.
Viner Argument of the Month for Snake Eyes is by Lunacyde
Snake-Eyes....in a long and brutal battle I would pay handsomely to see. I'll expound upon my reasoning later. For now the basics are that the two characters are very similar in a lot of ways. Where there are differences I can see SE having more of the advantages useful to this encounter. Batman's greatest advantages over SE are his overall intelligence, preparedness, exploitation of opponent weaknesses and wide array of gadgets and gear. These qualities will factor very little into this specific battle. Meanwhile Snake-Eyes greatest advantages are his willingness to do anything he must to defeat his opponent, his willingness to kill, and his deadly assortment and knowledge of weapons. These will factor more heavily into the fight and tip the scales in his favor.
Because no one else was able to chime in this month, we'll go ahead and highlight a post that was made for the "too close to call" option, too.
Viner Argument of the Month for Too Close To Call is by Owie
This is one of those fights I keep changing my mind on. It's very hard to "prove" one is more skilled than the other.
Batman is stronger and smarter. He has a much wider range of non-lethal weapons. His basic armor is better.
Snake Eyes is possibly faster, more agile, and stealthier. He has a wider range of lethal weapons.
But who is more skilled? Hard to say. I would argue Snake Eyes, but not by a lot. I don't have anything that shows him being better in any concrete way, it's just my take on who he is. But I would also argue that there is little that proves Batman is definitely more skilled either. In other words, I don't think there are any scans of either of them dong anything in terms of skill that the other wouldn't be able to match.
How does this all go down? Assuming they see each other as real enemies, Snakes will probably start shooting. Batman will dodge. Batman will probably throw some batarangs, and Snake Eyes will throw throwing stars, and they'll both dodge. Snake Eyes does have some advantage from a distance, having automatic weapons, but probably not enough to win. They both have grenades of some sort and would toss them around. Having taken each other's measure, they would either go into the shadows and try to attack by stealth, or just go in and fight. Snake Eyes is probably stealthier, as I said, but I am guessing Batman has enough tech to find him. I'm going to say that kind of evens out and they end up just fighting head to head anyway. Close up, Snake Eyes does have a sword, and Batman doesn't, so again Snake Eyes has at least a basic weapons advantage. Is it enough? I dunno. Possibly. But Batman has his armor, can use his cape defensively, etc. I feel like this is essentially too close to call.
Check the homepage on March 31st for an all-new Batman Battle of the Month! Wait, a Batman Battle of the Month in APRIL? That's certain to be a serious and balanced one, right? There's no way we'd have Batman take on a dude who eats planets or anything. In the meantime, you're welcome to make suggestions right here in the comments, in the official thread, or via Twitter.