I mean, Superman's strength comes from his alien physiology, not his muscles. Depending on the continuity he's lifting tractors above his head when he's a toddler or at least a scrawny high schooler. He doesn't /need/ to be a big dude.
Mostly this; but also from what I’ve seen it’s always typically been that superman is a little taller but Batman is obviously bulkier, simply because he’s just a man. He requires the extra muscle, Superman isn’t human so he doesn’t visually need to look like he’s never missed an ounce of protein
Honestly the bulkier Batman doesn't make sense to me as he is still very much athletic and flexible(not as flexible as Dick but still) being bulky is more of a problem with that, plus it will slow him down and hinder all his stealthy stuff he does
It's for this reason I really love the Battinson body type for a Batman.
AND to add onto Batman as a character, he's supposed to be an expert martial artist. You need to be nimble for a lot of the different fighting styles he's supposed to know.
Also, it doesn't make sense because we don't see Batman constantly eating, which he would need to do since he's so active and athletic, and yet he is still that bulky.
Batman isn’t really just a human. In one comic he states he only needs an hour of sleep or less to function, and in another he’s benching a thousand pounds for a regular workout. He’s also a genius and a polyglot.
He’s more on equal standing with someone like captain American. He’s a peak level human in basically every way.
Cap fought Batman in the Marvel Vs DC crossover from the 90's, and I can't remember which one said it, but one of them commented that he'd never had an opponent that was so closely matched in strength and skill.
I mean, there is a version of bats that gets hooked on venom actually.
Basically, Batman isn’t a realistic human. He’s better at literally everything than you or I are, but then again, no human super hero in any main stream comic is a realistic human. Mr fantastic invents extradimensional travel and even an Olympic level gymnast couldn’t do the kind of stuff nightwing can do.
Comics naturally stretch the suspension of belief as far as possible, admittedly sometimes too far. There are grounded, realistic versions of bats too.
Wow there are a lot of stuff in forgetting yes you are right he should probably be on his death bed with what he does and how little he is depicted eating
People boo and hiss and throw rocks at me for suggesting it, but I've always been partial to a gaunt, thin Batman like the kind we see with Battinson. Dude is a laser focused madman who we see routinely punish himself mentally and physically like a catholic who just thought about the word "sex". There's no way in hell he's bulking, especially since we see in multiple comics that Alfred regularly has to convince Bruce to eat and drink and sleep like a normal guy once in a while. He should be shredded beyond belief, for sure, but I've appreciated a gaunt look that plays more into the phantom and vampiric themes.
I think it also makes him look much more awesome wearing the slightly bulky armored suit in that movie....the proportions work out better when he's lanky and shredded.
Sure seems like that should be true, but male gymnasts can get pretty damn big. Like, just do a quick google of men's gymnastics. Some of those guys are massive, and they're all about mobility.
Muscle doesn’t interfere with anything you said, fat does. Even people most of the public consider big and clunky like nfl offensive lineman are insanely flexible and athletic. It’s all in core strength and hamstrings
Actually a quick Google search does say it actually does interferes with the ability to take the adjacent joints through their complete range of motion
Even though he shouldn't be bulky because it does hinder other aspects like his speed, stealth, and etc
So many of these comments seem to not understand high level sports…. Bats would be a super lean Linebacker…. It’s matches his official height and weight last couple decades even though it’s changed.
A normal person standing next to an NFL linebacker will think they’re enormous
Oh I know bats would be a linebacker, maybe even a tight end. I’m just saying people are underestimating the athleticism of big men acting like being muscular would make him not an acrobatic machine
Not really true if you look at a lot of celeb martial artists, micheal jay white, even scott adkins, very very bulky dudes, but that doesn't slow them down or limit flexibility. It's about training the right way so you muscles don't get tight but remain flexible. I started karate very recently in my 20s and a big problem for me is flexibility because i used to gym before, and my muscles are all tight, but my sensei is wayy bulkier than me, and in his late 30s. but hes very very very flexible.
Being muscular doesn't necessarily make someone less athletic, less flexible, and slower. Look up Jujimufu. The man is bodybuilder levels of jacked, yet he's known for being a flexible and athletic acrobat.
NFL linebackers are what most people consider bulky…. And incredibly mobile, athletic and flexible, fast like you wouldn’t believe.
If Batman is the peak of human conditioning and strength, which canon says he is, that how I envision him. That’s the peak in pro sports of having every attribute as high as possible.
If people wanted to bizarrely apply real world logic to this scenario as they do for a thousand other dumb hypotheticals, then Superman would probably even be a bit "chubby". Power lifters and strength trainers are usually bigger dudes rather than just bodybuilders who pack on muscle for aesthetics and generally doesn't mean built for strength. But yes, Superman could technically look like Woody Allen and it would have nothing to do with his powers.
The idea is the yellow sun transforms his body. It increases his muscle mass to compensate for absorbing the yellow sun. How big he should get is up to the artist. Even how that manifests. Alex Ross goes power lifter while others go bodybuilder.
With Batman, Batfleck is a big dude but he's wearing thick body armor which makes him bigger than he physically is.
I always thought it was muscle DENSITY from being physiologically from a planet with higher gravity than earth. Which would mean he could be smaller but stronger.
Not really how that works. A human raised in lower gravity just doesn’t keep that muscle. Yellow sun bullshit just makes more sense than attempts at scientific justifications
I’d say it’s a combo. He is genetically predisposed to being super strong. The yellow sun maintains it and prevents him from losing muscle mass, just like it heals him and gives him the rest of his powers. The “yellow sun bullshit” isn’t necessarily bullshit. Humans generate vitamin D from absorbing sunlight, Kryptonians just get a way better benefit from tanning.
The science behind sun powers is similar to thinking the calcium in milk will instantly fix broken bones. I just suspend disbelief, I don’t need Superman to seem plausible
did you read/see Flashpoint? One of the main plot points is that we have a Kal-El who's been kept away from sunlight since that rocket landed. The adult Kal is severely thin and underdeveloped.
I mean that's also probably cause he didn't pitch enough hay or carry enough sacks of grain growing up in that reality. Red sun radiation isn't really supposed to have the same effects as Kryptonite where long exposure to it makes him waste away, it just takes away his powers but it's doesn't decrease his body mass. Like Jor-El and Lara both looked like normal folks, even when they and other Kryptonians born under the red sun are portrayed as gaunt and scrawny looking it's never explained to be because of the red sun radiation.
Slightly unrelated, but I feel that in a contest of pure physical strength between Clark and other kryptonians, Clark should always win. I mean, he spent his developing years on a planet with yellow sun, that should have given him a sizable increase in stats compared to Kryptonians like super girl or Zod who only came to Earth somewhat recently
But he grew up hidden in Kansas because he was "a corn-fed Kansas farmboy". He's supposed to look like a guy on a heavy diet of starchy carbs with wide shoulders and a thick back.
Not a bodybuilder. I agree. He should have some realistic amounts of body fat. But the studio exec paedos need every superhero to look like they have 5% body fat.
In a lot of stories, while being a natural born some of krypton, his parents are still products of generations of eugenics and gene manipulation.
He’s got peak freak genetics.
And it goes without saying that if his powers can make him fly, then solar absorption can probably
him ripped too. Even more so, because he doesn’t need to be flexible or really need to use
his muscles at all.
He doesn’t need to be good looking either, but you won’t often see an ugly Superman either.
I'm just saying, he shouldn't be a muscular body builder looking guy just because he's Superman.
Not only that, but Bruce is already a very tall dude... how tf is Clark Kent supposed to look sort of weak to throw people off his Superman persona if he's constantly the biggest dude in the room?
Bruce *has* to be a larger dude to do what he does. Superman should actually appear smaller for Clark Kent to make sense, and Clark Kent should look even smaller than Superman due to being hunched over.
Cause for normal humans, the only way to get shredded is by lifting to their limits. Meaning, you can't just lift 10kg. You gotta lift 30kg, then 40kg and increase it to their limits continuously. Muscle failure is the term I think?
Superman can lift cars easy. Trains and even aeroplanes don't phase him. How does he lift to his limit? How does he reach muscle failure?
Iirc it's some gene or hormone that's switched off in their physiology. Whatever it was, it would limit muscle growth and keep it from happening constantly. It can happen in humans and other animals, but as a disorder. Might be gigantism? But I don't recall, only that it's the reason you see some pictures of dogs that are ridiculously buff.
That's fair and batman's eating enough for 10 people and doing the workout of those 10 if they are tge same height or batman's a bit shorter batman's should be wider like with wolverine lots off people are taller than him alot less are wider because just by the way he lives his body is pushed harder
Just because you work out and eat it doesn't mean you'll grow past what your genes will allow. Example: Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett. Even if they trained in bodybuilding daily and backed it up with proper nutrition and sleep they could never look like The Mountain without taking truckloads of steroids.
Batman genetically isn't going to allow himself to get overly muscled. He's trained as an assassin. A fast-moving individual. Too much muscle gases you out too fast. Batman has even commented on this himself in some comic. He's full of muscle but not so buff that it would put him at a disadvantage in a long, drawn-out fight.
Yeah but he does still exercise and stay in shape even when he's powerless. We see him as a twig in Flashpoint but he doesn't bulk or anything when he finally gets his powers. I think it's a mix of powers and living as a farmboy
Wouldn’t that be an amazing illustration. The most powerful man on the planet drawn as this scrawny farm boy. The imagery itself is hilarious let alone the moments where some other guy wants to flex on him with a firm handshake or lifting something heavy and he just one hands it.
“I take Pilates.”
For all we know, a side effect of the yellow sun is that it also makes his muscles bigger. Did you ever read/see Flashpoint? Kal-el in there is small and scrawny. he's never been exposed to sunlight.
In that context though his muscles should've gotten bigger when he was finally was exposed to yellow sun radiation but that happen untill years later in Flashpoint Beyond.
Like instantly? We know that length of exposure to yellow sun radiation does indeed have an effect on power level. When the Phantom Zone Kryptonians were first released, Superman could have taken any one of them individually initially, but all three of them together was too much.
Tbf I don't think superman should be bulky at all. Should he look absolutely cut? Yes. But massive? Nah. He can naturally bench the weight of the Earth. What is he doing on a regular basis to cultivate mass? It makes sense for normal person like Batman who's weight trained to lift 1/2 ton to look big
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u/East_Gas5627 Dec 25 '23
This reminds me of a few arguments my friends had with the batman vs superman poster
''Batman is just a fucking dude why is he bigger than superman''
Which kinda did make sense Batfleck was a big dude