Captain America vs. Batman Fight Analysis

They, of course, left the Bat to the end, but does Captain America have the juice to win an election against the monstrously popular Batman?

For Marvel: Captain America
At his best? Debatable. He'd just gone through a fallow period where Mark Gruenwald was still writing him despite probably being tapped out and the 90s art was terrible. But when DCvM came out, Mark Waid and Ron Garney had refreshed the character with a short, but well-received run. A few months after these fights, he would be handed off to Rob Liefeld and the Heroes Reborn universe, so the blood was in the water, popularity-wise anyway.
His advantage: He's the perfect physical specimen of humanity. An unbreakable shield.

For DC: Batman
At his best? Usually.
His advantage: His mega-popularity since Batman '89 has yet to wane. Made himself the most competent specimen of humanity.

Why this match? I don't disagree that they are fairly evenly matched physically, but they have nothing to do with one another thematically. It just seems like these were the two most popular street-level heroes from each company's stable and wound up together as a result.
Were they Amalgamated? No. As previously reported Cap was merged with Superman and Batman with Wolverine (but also, Nick Fury, though Fury was also amalgamated with Sgt. Rock... they wanted more Batman material and broke the rules to do it, see "His advantage", above).
What if they fought their Amalgam Buddy? Though Cap's shield can take a Kryptonian hit, he's no match for Superman. Batman vs. Wolverine would have put the voters in a bind, but Bats would ultimately have won. Without the voting entering into it, Batman has the mental advantage, but Wolverine is more physically deadly. Toss-up. Nick Fury would have had no shot at all.
Better match-ups: Marvel has a lot of street-level heroes, and indeed, I mentioned Batman as a better match for a number of them, but my pick would be Daredevil. Gotham has a lot in common with Hell's Kitchen, both have parents murdered in their origins, echo-location is a bat-thing, and both characters had Frank Miller leave a deep mark on them. If the crossover were happening in the 80s, I think we might have seen this match, but I still think it's relevant in the 90s. As for Cap, the most comparable is that other shield-bearer created by Simon and Kirby - the Guardian. It's not a fair fight, but thematically, it's better than trying to match him to DC's paltry ensemble of contemporary patriotic heroes (Agent Liberty?! Come on, now). If you want someone who has a series on the stands, then my vote goes to that other symbol of freedom, Mister Miracle.
If DC vs. Marvel had been fought today: I still think Daredevil is the best match for Batman, though the Punisher is certainly another possibility. Full-tech Batman might be able to overcome Iron Man - a battle of the billionaires. For Captain America, Nightwing is a better choice than Batman (though I sent him up against Spider-Man in a previous post). Mr. Terrific, just off his movie appearance, could also work, with the T-Spheres standing in for the shield. And while I think Wonder Woman is over-powered compared to Steve Rogers, her costume choices and "blocking" bracelets make her a better thematic match for him. I think he'd even have a shot.

Play by Play: The setting is the sewers... Advantage: Batman. He does get the first kick in, but after losing the element of surprise, Cap proves to be the better hand-to-hand fighter.

After this page, we're told they've been at it for HOURS and could go for DAYS. They stop for parlay, but they can't find a way out of the situation. They HAVE to fight. And then the sewer system flushes dirty water out of a pipe and the heroes throw their weapons in a panic.

Result: The shield misses, the batarang connects, victory Batman. At the time, I disagreed with this. To me, Cap being the epitome of human physicality meant he was stronger, faster and more accurate than Batman, who I saw as a better all-rounder, inventor, detective. And one of the reasons I was so miffed is that they don't SELL it. He gets a lucky shot when the environment goes crazy, and I have a hard time believing Cap would go down from a batarang hit at that distance, AND that the shield didn't bounce around the tunnel until it hit Batman. It's the big problem with ALL these fights - they're so CHEAP. One reason is that they're, at most, four pages. DC KO is doing full issues (they're still dumb as hell, but at least they're more epic than this). The other reason is that it feels like the writers were hamstrung by editorial policy. I bet they COULDN'T show the more iconic characters legitimately losing, whatever the voting looked like. There had to be an out for fans of the other character, there had to be a CHEAT. Be that as it may, how do I feel about the result today? I think that on any given day, either could have won this fight.

Next time: The fights that didn't count towards the total.