The second live-action Comic Vine Battle of the Week places Gotham City's hero against the Mega-City One's badass officer. Judge Dredd obviously has a raw firepower advantage. His signature firearms offers a scary amount of projectile options and he's not afraid to use lethal force. Batman, however, has an edge in this environment and his use of stealth and skill could let him bring it into close range.
After a week of debate and voting, the Comic Vine community thinks Karl Urban's Judge Dredd would take out Christian Bale's Batman. 52% sided with The Dead Man, while 40% had The Dark Knight's back and only 7% thought this was too close to call.
I agree with the majority on this one. I think the environment does favor Batman and give him a fighting chance, but I view Dredd's firearm (the Lawgiver) and other equipment as a solid advantage. It obviously takes more than a gun to beat Batman, but this isn't your ordinary gun and this certainly isn't your ordinary goon. If he wants to, he can engulf an entire section in flames, use explosive rounds or even deploy gas. Seeing as he won't hesitate to use fatal measures, I see no reason to believe why he wouldn't resort to any of these options, especially upon seeing Batman's use of a grappling line and stealth may make it too difficult to land a direct hit.
If Batman can get close, then yes, I do believe he would take it. Do I think this is a possible outcome? Absolutely, I wouldn't make a match if I couldn't imagine either side taking a victory, after all. The ample starting distance could let Batman take to a rooftop and then utilize his gear (batarangs and smoke) to get in close. From there, his superior hand-to-hand technique could eventually end it. At the same rate, Dredd could get off a lucky shot in close range, especially since we saw he's a more than capable close range combatant.
Wayne dominating in close range is definitely possibility, but I think Dredd's lethal and tactical mind of his own means he's going to make proper use of the Lawgiver and that's unfortunately something the Wayne's cowl won't be able to withstand. Bruce's undeniably more skilled and this environment does boost his odds, but ultimately, I think Dredd's mentality and sheer power will serve him well.
Viner Argument of the Week for Judge Dredd is by Jonny_Anonymous
"In my opinion Dredd takes this. Let's take a look at each character:
Experience
If this is DKR version of Batman that mean's he's went through three big events in his life, the League of Shadow's attack on Gotham, the Jokers reign of terror and Bane's takeover, in between each of these Batman has fought common thugs, Gotham is a ruff city but this isn't the comic book version and apart from the afore mentioned events most of the time Gotham isn't any worse the some of crappier cities in real life . Bruce has maybe spent about 5 active years as Batman with an 8 year gap between DK and DKR that's a pretty short amount of time in the grand scheme of things and the only pepole in that time to really test him physically was Bane and Ras.
At the start of Dredd, Jo is already a vet shown to be highly respected by the Hall of Justice's upper brass and tasked with helping train rookies, he's shown to be well versed in street smarts, strategy and the Rule of Law also Judge Dredd patrols Mega City One, a city that covers the ENTIRE eastern seaboard, that is a hell of a lot more territory to cover than Gotham and not only that but MC1 is a city that's went over the edge, it's almost complete anarchy with riots murders and straight up block wars happening on a daily basis, the citizen to judge ratio is so small (1 to 10,000 in the comic) that some blocks rarely even see them at that allows gangs to run some blocks like there own personal forts, even the events that take place during DREDD are implied to happen on a daily basis.
Winner: Dredd
Gear
Batman's standard gear would include his bat suit that is resistant to small arms fire directed at centre of mass but it's unknown whether it would hold up to sustained fire, it's also shown to be weak against piercing weapons and blunt force trauma, it's also unlikely to protect against armor piercing rounds or explosives. As for Batman's ranged weapons he has his Batarangs and grappling gun (has he ever used it in an offensive manner?) Bat's may also come equpped with smoke pellets and the Bat caller thing.
Dredd Is going to come equipped with a fully loaded Lawgiver Mk II that contains seven different modes of fire contained in three separate magazines, Hotshot (superheated round) Rapid (fully automatic) Full Metal Jacket (empties mag) High Ex (high explosives) Incendiary (white phosphorus) AP (armor piercing) Stun (electric discharge), the Lawgiver is DNA specific so that only it's owner can use it without it self-destructing (not that that matters since Bats wouldn't touch it) Dredd will also have number of stun and gas grenades. As for Dredd's armor and helmet it's bullet resistant but not bullet proof as shown when he's shot and wounded by armor piercing rounds but this is of little consequence since it will serve as enough protection against batarangs and blunt force.
Winner: Dredd
Physicals
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Batman comes out on top in this category, we actually get to see his training and he shows his fighting prowess by taking out almost every adversary by hand to hand and only ever really having problems with Bane and Ras.
Dredd is a competent brawler and will be well trained by the Hall of Justice but we don't really get to see much of it on screen, the only h2h is short and brutal and Jo seems to struggle slightly, his only advantage would be his pain soak since he was able to take a AP round to the gut and after clamping it keep on chugging like it was nothing.
Winner: Batman
Recap:
So in short if Batman get's in close his skill will eventually overpower Dredd's damage soak and take him down BUT Dredd has to much tactical skill and the long range firepower to allow that to happen.
DREDD WINS"
The majority and I think Judge Dredd wins, but let's see what some other people have to say about it.
Mat 'Inferiorego' Elfring, Comic Vine staff writer
"Two men with grizzly voices. One of them is the stick of justice and the other one is the law. Listen, I'm a huge Batman fan, but movieverse Batman is a bit of a whinebox. "Oh no, my knee hurts! Oh no, my back is killing me!' Stop whining and start fighting! You know what movie Dredd did when he got his butt kicked? He fought back. LIKE A MAN! Seriously. Dredd is tougher. Dredd is better. Dredd will win. HE IS THE LAW."
Duane Swierczynski, writer of JUDGE DREDD
"Is there even a debate? Dredd would have the rich boy in bat PJs doing a hard 50 in the iso-cubes before you could blink."
Agree? Disagree? Give the comments section a piece of your mind, Viners.
Lastly, here's a teaser for next week's battle. This brawl will hit the homepage on Monday, so check back then!
Previous 'Comic Vine Battle of the Week' results
- Daredevil vs. Nightwing (Winner: Daredevil)
- Ultimate Captain America vs. Deathstroke (Winner: Deathstroke)
- Arkillo vs. Hulk (Winner: Hulk)
- Snake Eyes vs. X-23 (Winner: X-23)
- Moon Knight vs. Red Hood (Winner: Moon Knight)
- Catman/Deadshot vs. Bullseye/Punisher (Winner: Bullseye/Punisher)
- Aquaman vs. Thing (Winner: Aquaman)
- Deadpool vs. TMNT (Winner: Too close to call)
- Movie Black Widow vs. TV Green Arrow (Winner: TV Green Arrow)
Want to suggest a battle? Feel free to comment below or send it to Gregg via Twitter.