In this article, we will be pitting a DC Extended Universe Batman against Marvel Cinematic Universe Captain America. Please keep in mind that these are both the film versions of these characters and not the comic book versions. Therefore we will not be referencing their comic book feats or using the comic books to make any assumptions.
There are a lot of different types of articles. However, our article is only going to use the feats and evidence presented from the universes where these characters originate. I find that comic book battles are entirely too subjective, and there is just way too much lore to accurately put these characters against each other.
Especially considering the decades of source material and power levels that drastically change from writer to writer. For this reason, I have decided to focus on movie characters whose strengths and feats are more concrete and consistent. That being said, if there are canon comic book stories that accompany the films but don’t contradict the films, we will use those as a reference.
Captain America vs. Batman
Today we have Captain America, the First Avenger, vs. The Dark Knight, Batman. One of the most well-known comic book battles is between Captain America and Batman, a debate that may go on for days without any meaningful conclusion. With the MCU and the DCEU, this age-old conflict has taken on a new angle. DCEU Bat and MCU Cap. Who is winning this battle, then?
Typically what we tend to do in these articles is pick multiple versions of the same characters against each other. However, Captain America and Batman are fairly consistent in terms of their power levels and abilities throughout their film appearances.
So we will be focusing on their most recent iterations with one caveat. We will be giving Captain America his shield back instead of him having gauntlets, and I mean, nobody should really complain about that. And if you do have a complaint about that you can just leave, because nobody wants you here. So with that said, let’s get into the battle.
Also Read: 10 Reasons To Watch Marvel Movies: Why Marvel Movies Are So Awesome
Captain America In MCU
Born in Brooklyn, Steve was a son of a war veteran. He grew up to be a sickly, weak, and physically unimpressive man. But he still persevered in trying to do the right thing, even if it meant physical harm.
He made numerous attempts to enroll in the military because he couldn’t tolerate seeing other people fight while he did nothing. Doctor Abraham gave him the super soldier serum because he believed in his goodness and knew he would use it morally and not let it corrupt him.
Steve Rogers battles for freedom and what he thinks is right after becoming Captain America. Steve has extraordinary durability, speed, superhuman strength, and reflexes because of the super soldier serum.
He’s strong enough to lift the motorcycle with three women on it, lift a large steel beam off of Bucky after being injured, throw his motorcycle, and crash Jeep. Throw Ultron hard enough to shatter a concrete pillar.
He even managed to hold a helicopter in place and temporarily hold back Thanos’ hand, which is just insane. On top of that, Cap also has impressive durability. He’s taking attacks from Winter Soldier, Iron Man, Ultron, and Spider-Man and is just fine afterward.
He also survived the fall from a multi-floor building, even though the shield did absorb a lot of the impact. Then survived getting blasted off the bridge, bouncing off the car, smashing into a bus, then getting into a car crash. And in his brief fight against Thanos, Capital was able to take some devastating blows from the Mad Titan.
Steve is able to run 13 miles in 30 minutes as a warm-up and outrun cars while he is chasing Bucky. And in combat, dodge Ultron, and avoid Energy blasts and plasma fire. We’ve all seen how impressive his acrobatics and parkour skills are.
Cap is an incredibly skilled fighter, able to defeat the Crossbone, Black Panther, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man, and consistently take out huge numbers of enemies with ease. Then with his shield, he was able to block attacks some four Ultron, Thanos, and Ironman.
He hits his shield hard enough to break down doors, destroy vehicles, and get stuck in steel. He’s also got incredible skill when it comes to throwing the shield. He can ricochet his shield at basically anything, attack multiple people at the same time and somehow always connect them back to him. So that’s whom we got in one corner, the leader of The Avengers, Captain America.
Batman In The DCEU
Bruce Wayne is the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and at night he is the vigilante operating in Gotham City, New Jersey, known as Batman. Bruce is in peak physical condition and is incredibly strong, fast, and durable.
During his training scene for his confrontation with Superman in Batman V Superman, we saw that Bruce was able to squat roughly 750 pounds, perform pull-ups over a total weight of 350 pounds and push plates totaling roughly 350 pounds too.
He lifts up heavy concrete off an employee’s legs and is easily strong to overpower opponents, sending men flying backward with punches and kicks. He tossed people so hard that they broke walls, even throwing his bat rang with so much strength that it cut a gun in half and sent the gunman flying backward.
He was also fast enough to save a child who was about to be crushed by some debris. He’s dodged a shotgun blast before. He even saved the Flash from falling. Also incredibly durable and throughout the years, both Bruce and Alfred have modified the bat suit, able to enforce it with bulletproof fabrics and lightweight plates.
Giving Batman durability while not compromising his speed. The armor actually blocks bullets, even point-blank shots, and handguns. His Cape is fireproof and even took an attack from Superman that sent him flying backward inside of a police car.
He is just a skilled fighter, able to knock out Harley Quinn with just one punch. And he’s about to clear a whole room of thugs and mercenaries. Fighting several of them at once and expertly using his gear to take some of them down.
He even fought against Parademons, who are bonafide superhumans and are strong enough through apart the Batmobile. Batman has a plethora of gear at his disposal, like his Batrangs and grapple gun, which are powerful to cut guns in half, pierce straight through a guy’s leg or even shoot in the concrete.
He’s got an anti-gun device that can be detonated remotely and a wrist-mounted computer that tells the location of his opponents. He even has weapons powerful enough to take down Parademons.
Also Read: Top 10 DC Characters Who Can Defeat Captain America
Physicality
First, we’re gonna take a look at physicality. And no question, Captain America is physically superior. I mean, he’s a super soldier, a legitimate superhuman. But Batman is just a peak human. And I know, I know, Captain America is supposed to be the MCU equivalent of a peak human, but their version of peak human is strong enough to hold helicopters and crush jeeps.
Well, that’s superhuman in my book. That kind of says it all right there. However, with that being said, I don’t actually think that the physical gap between the two of them is as large or as extreme as somebody will make it out to be.
When it comes to strength, yeah, that gap is kind of massive. Batman is strong enough to kick apart guns, technically breaking metal. Crush out some cinder blocks, do some pretty intense workouts and fight evenly against Parademons, who are strong enough to rip up and damage the metal.
So he’s not weak by any means. It’s just that he’s not on Cap’s level. Like Batman may need a bit of help to lift up an Iron beam. Steve was a lift bit much larger steel beam, lifted it higher, and did it after being in a fight and being shot multiple times. That’s pretty much all you need to know right there.
On top of that, he’s consistently treated normal people like nothing more than Ragdolls, consistently sending them flying to the air or flying backward across the room. He’s even kicked and punched somebody with so much power that they actually dented metal upon impact. He’s managed to lift off a motorcycle with three women on top of it. Lift up a motorcycle and throw it to destroy the Jeep.
Captain threw Ultron so hard that it broke through the concrete pillar. He managed to at least briefly overpower both Iron Man and Spider-Man. Held a helicopter in place, and definitely, most impressively, Captain was able to temporarily hold back Thanos. Even at some level, he staggered Thanos during Endgame. Batman is just on the low end of that. Being little rag doll men, send them flying punches.
Speed
Let’s talk about speed in this fight. Well, again, Captain America has proven that he is faster than Batman. Able to run 13 miles just in 30 minutes as a nice warm-up. And outrun the entire Wakandaian army alongside Black Panther. However, in an actual fight with combat speed, they’re closer than they appear.
Steve fights at an incredibly frenzied and fast pace while still displaying a crazy amount of finesse and skill. He even uses his shield to easily avoid and block energized blasts and plasma fire, consistently block bullets, and block grenade blasts. One time even Dodged a bullet even after it was fired.
But Batman, too, has dodged gunfire. It was made all the more impressive by the fact he had dodged those shots while he was dangling and hanging from a ceiling. But really, his most impressive feats from Justice League. Batman was able to dodge Parademon’s blaster shots after they were fired. Even blocked them with his gauntlets.
He’s also able to catch a falling Flash. He was still moving at a superhuman speed, at least somewhat, considering how lightning was coming off of The Flash. Batman was also able to use his grappling gun to speed around the battlefield and kind of expand the battlefield, going up and down where Captain America couldn’t.
He was also able to do this super fast, dodging a punch and energy bust from Doomsday. Also, just disappear and reappear at a ridiculously fast speed. Disappearing and reappearing in front of Luther, vanishing behind Gordon, and even sneaking around Superman.
On top of that, Batman is also able to fight at a fast and frenzied pace while still showing skill and finesse. So he can match up against Captain America just like Black Panther did, just like Crossbones did, and just as Winter Soldier did.
Also Read: Top 10 Marvel Characters Who Deserve Their Own Film In The Upcoming Phase 5
Durability
And now, let’s talk about durability. When it comes to Captain America, he survived massive multi-story falls and airdrops down from an airplane without a parachute. Got hit by a Chitori plasma shot that could casually destroy cars, and Steve was even hit by a grenade blast, blasted off a bridge, bounced off the car, flew into a bus, and was in a car crash. That’s all insanely impressive.
But the most important thing for this fight is gonna be Steve’s durability to take punches, kicks, and blunt force attacks. He has taken repeated punches to the face from Winter Soldier and didn’t pass out, even though each punch is able to crack a block of concrete.
He’s taken a super-speed bunch from Quicksilver, hits from Crossbones, Spiderman, and even a massive beam from Iron Man. Steve even takes attacks from Thanos before. Although it’s just kinda insane, Batman also survived an explosion at point-blank range.
He’s been thrown into a concrete wall by Parademon, actually thrown through a steel railing, which is tougher than concrete. And this suit is actually completely bulletproof as well. In fact, Batman’s armor blocked bullets on several occasions, even point-blank bullets to the head. That, too, is insanely impressive.
But more impressive than that, Batman had taken a backhand from Bloodlusted evil Superman and been sent flying backward and crashing into a car. So Captain America is overall more durable. He’s physically superior just across the board.
But taking an attack from Superman is pretty much directly comparable to taking attacks from Thanos, so we definitely can’t overlook that. As I said, they’re physically more comparable than people sometimes make them out to be.
Durability Against One Another
Assuming that Batman was able to pepper Captain America with the attack, just how effective could they even be? The force of one of Batman’s punches in the DC Extended Universes has officially been stated to be roughly the equivalent of a battering ram or 1420 pounds of force.
Yet Captain America has tanked literally every type of attack you can think of and walked all of them off. He’s been hit with attacks from Ironman, Bucky, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, and he’s even gotten up after a punch from Thanos with no apparent damage. A punch like that should have caved his skull in.
As for Batman, his suit is entirely bulletproof and a flame retardant, but it does have a weakness to knives. He’s been thrown around by Parademons hard enough to break through steel handrails and has taken a backhand that launched him into a police car, damaging it heavily. After all of these attacks, he walked off with little to no issue.
Character & Motivation
Let’s now discuss the Character and Motivations of the combatants. Both of these heroes share similar pros and cons when it comes to that. And without going into too much depth here, the most important character trait is that both are typically against killing. This is an element of their character development that takes place gradually as time goes on.
And for example, in Captain America the First Avenger, Steve kills multiple Hydra soldiers during the war and uses firearms and knives to kill, but in his later appearances, he typically tends to avoid killing his enemies and combat unless they’re, you know, terrorists were holding hostages.
The DC Extended Universe Batman, on the other hand, is the most violent Batman that we’ve ever seen on the big screen and has been shown to cripple and even kill his enemies indiscriminately. Bale and Keaton did kill their enemies as well, but at least they tried to hide it or, you know, justify it.
DCEU Batman’s body count is enormous, and he’s only been in 2 movies. He shot a cagey beast’s flamethrower, which almost certainly killed him. He killed a couple of dudes with an active grenade. He smashes a guy’s head into the wall with a massive crate.
He flips a car onto another car using the Batmobile, and he takes off the dude’s head with the Batmobile as well. And it’s also been detailed that Batman brands his victims to make them targets in prison, marking them for death.
But after seeing Superman’s sacrifice, he has a change of heart and goes back to his non-lethal ways following Batman V Superman. At least non-lethal to humans because he definitely has no problem mowing down Parademons.
Also Read: Strongest Avengers Ranked By Marvel Cinematic Universe
Power Comparison
So how is this battle going to play out? Captain America and Batman are both experts in hand-to-hand combat, and they have to consider that they are usually depicted as the leaders of their respective teams and are almost always going up against beings more physically powerful than they are. However, they each fight in drastically different ways.
Batman tends to fight in style more in tune with Ninjutsu and stealth. At the same time, Captain America tends to run headfirst into battle, more like a commando. Now I know Cap does use some elements of stealth, as we’ve seen when he assaults the Hydra base to recover Bucky and also when he infiltrates the Loomarian star at the beginning of Winter Soldier. But typically, Cap tends to work best on the battlefield.
How Strong Is Captain America In MCU?
While Captain America may not be more stealthy than Batman, he has a significant strength advantage over Batman, and I don’t really you guys need this explained to you, but in case you are that one dude that needs some evidence, let me give that to you.
So in the Captain America Civil War movie, we see Captain America essentially curling a helicopter. The lift force of a helicopter needed to keep it stationary is roughly 3,000 pounds. So Cap would essentially need to be able to curl that amount with one arm to keep the helicopter stationary.
He has other great feats shown off the screen in Agents of Shield. It was stated that he pushed a 30 to 60-ton bulldozer to the length of a football field and under like 15 seconds. He was also able to kick his shield into Ultron and just pierce him casually and keep in mind that Ultron is entirely bulletproof.
And Cap was able to hold back and even stagger Thanos, who at the time held five Infinity stones, making him one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
How Strong Is Batman In DCEU?
Now Batman in the films hasn’t completed anything nearly that drastic. However, in the Canon prequel comic, he was able to rip off Firefly’s mechanical wings with his bare hands, showing that Batman is, at the very least, a peak human. But how important is physical strength in this fight?
We have seen many times that the strongest character is not always the character who wins. It’s how and when you use that strength that wins a fight. It’s my belief that Batman would not fight Captain America up close and personal. He would utilize his advanced knowledge of stealth and Ninjutsu to position himself so that he could neutralize Captain America’s significant strength advantage.
For example, in Batman V Superman, Batman was hanging from the ceiling, going completely unnoticed until a police officer happened to look his way. After being discovered, he was able to dash along the ceiling while avoiding point-blank shotgun shells. That is top-tier speed and evasion.
Additionally, Batman is able to avoid Superman’s X-ray vision and enhanced hearing using only a smoke bomb due to his advanced knowledge of Ninjutsu. And his speed, even while his power armor is pretty significant.
If Batman wants to get away from Captain America, he can do that easily, and he definitely wants to use this to his advantage, attacking and getting out before Captain America knows what’s going on.
So yeah, it’s pretty obvious that Batman does not want to be in a close-quarters fight with Captain America. I mean, all of his advantages can be easily nullified if they’re fighting that way. And to elaborate on this point a little bit, I’d like to take a look at each of the fighters fighting discipline.
Also Read: Top 10 Strongest Marvel Characters Who Can Defeat Captain America Without A Sweat
Fighting Style
Batman is proficient in Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Savate, Krav Maga, Ninjutsu, Kung-fu, Judo, and Aikido. Keep in mind while we don’t specifically call this point out, his use of Batarangs falls under Ninjutsu. If you want to say that he’s proficient in Shuriken Jutsu, that’s accurate but a little bit redundant.
Additionally, we’ve also seen his extreme proficiency with firearms, making him an expert marksman as well. This is a massive amount of combat styles, which makes Batman very diverse. And Captain America is also very skilled. His proficiencies are in Muay Thai, Boxing, Discus throwing, Krav Maga, Savate, Taekwondo, Wushu, Judo, Wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Shuriken Jutsu.
The real Key here is which discipline is more important to each fighter and why. And keeping with the thought that Batman doesn’t want to stay in close-quarters combat with Captain America, you would want to limit his approach to a fighting style that allows him to get in and out quickly. Boxing, Ninjutsu, Kungfu, and Krav Maga are all extremely damaging forms of fighting that can land knockout or killing blows in a single hit.
Captain America, on the other hand, would want to keep the fight stationary and allow his significant strength advantage to play into the fight. Muay Thai, Boxing, Judo, Wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu would allow him to hold a Batman in some capacity while dealing massive amounts of damage.
Fighting Experience
So the real question becomes, could Batman actually stick and move while doing enough damage to avoid Captain America’s heavy blows? So the answer to the first part of that question is, Yeah, probably.
Batman is quick enough to dodge point-blank gunfire, and he has the arsenal and means to escape and maneuver out of any situation that he needs to. It’s clear, Batman. It’s comfortable maneuvering around faster with stronger opponents.
He was able to avoid the attacks of Doomsday as well as Superman. And when he was fighting Superman, he was wearing a suit that weighed 480 pounds. So if Batman didn’t want to be touched by Captain America, he probably wouldn’t.
But on the other hand, Captain America has a good bit of experience fighting enemies that are far more mobile than he is. He’s taken out Ultron’s robots, Chitauri soldiers, Outriders, and, oh, let’s not forget Spider-Man and Iron Man.
And he even went toe-to-toe with expert fighters like Bucky and Black Panther. Cap has a great deal of experience enforcing a more mobile combatant to a stationary position so that he can trash them up close and personal.
Using his shield, he may be able to cut through Batman’s grappling gun line. Or even hit him hard enough with it to cause him to drop. But that’s a pretty big gamble. I mean, people have been shooting the shit at Batman for decades, and he hasn’t died yet.
Also Read: Top 10 Poorest Marvel Characters That You Might Have Missed
Final Showdown
So I’ve been talking for a while now, and overall there’s a lot to digest. But ultimately, I think it only comes down to a couple of crucial factors. Who is the better master of their own fighting style? And who is willing to do what it takes to win the fight?
Batman has the speed and experience in all forms of combat that make him an apex predator. But Steve has the strength to absolutely maul Bruce up close. Captain America is a clumsy fighter, but Batman has the ability to evade and keep Captain America at bay while dealing damage.
The only issue is that Captain America is much more durable, has better endurance, and is much stronger. Batman would have to use stealth to his advantage, but without going for a killing blow, he won’t be able to hurt Captain America enough to win.
Remember earlier when I said that these characters aren’t going to try to kill each other? Well, this is where that really starts to take shape and form the ultimate winner of the fight. Batman is the master of strategy and preparation.
Contrary to popular belief, he does not need a lot of time in order to figure out a battlefield and solve a problem. And it’s my belief that Batman needs to learn quickly that Captain America is much stronger than he is and change his strategy accordingly, which I definitely think he could do.
During Batman V Superman, Batman is able to observe an underground boxing match and then, in a few seconds, give a fighter the exact strategy that he needs to defeat his opponent. Batman may have changed his killing ways, but he’d have to make an exception for Captain America because he has no way to incapacitate him.
Batman Would Need To Kill Captain America
Now you may be thinking that Batman has an entire utility belt of gadgets he could use to take out Captain America easily. And yeah, I mean, he has a utility belt, but there’s nothing in there that could do this, at least not that we know of.
And I’m not going to make any assumptions about Batman. These are the tools that we know are in his belt: Batarangs, a grappling gun, sticky bombs, smoke grenades, and the last thing that he keeps in his belt, it’s probably the most important; his giant bat balls.
Batman is going to determine relatively quickly that he cannot compete with Captain America in a close-quarters combat scenario. If he were able to successfully mount an offensive, he would. There is no doubt that he would be able to determine quickly just how durable Captain America is.
And pay attention to this part because it’s the most important part of the article. As we detailed earlier, Batman is no longer willing to kill after seeing Superman’s selfless sacrifice to save the world, he softened up, and this is the Batman pitting against Captain America.
We all know that Batman has defeated much stronger opponents in the past, such as Killer Croc, whom he forced out of Gotham. But he’s never faced anyone this strong and this skilled, at least not that we know of. Batman, we’ll have to resort to his more brutal ways if he wants any chance to win this fight.
If Batman is willing to kill or even permanently cripple Steve, he might be able to win this fight. Suppose he can’t bring himself to do that. In that case, Captain America is easily going to win, as there’s no way for Batman to do damage to Captain America without doing permanent, irreversible harm.
Who Would Win In A Fight Between Captain America And Batman?
This fight is so incredibly even that it’s difficult to choose a winner, but I ain’t no biach. In my opinion, when both combatants are fighting in character, Captain America wins eight out of ten times at extremely serious difficulty.
Batman is just as skilled in combat, has similar combat speed, and is very intelligent. But ultimately loses because he cannot deal any meaningful damage that isn’t lethal. Batman has a clear stealth advantage, but this is what it’s going to amount to.
He gets behind Steve to choke him out, and then Steve peels those arms off like I peel bananas from breakfast, and then he proceeds to bludgeon Batman into submission. Out of character and blood lust, I think Batman probably wins most of their fights. He uses that insane stealth advantage to just kills Captain America instead of being a humanitarian.
But Batman Has A Armor, Right?
Now I can already hear you guys saying, “but what about Batman’s power armor.” I would say that the power armor definitely does increase Batman’s durability significantly, as he was blitzed by Superman at a hundred miles per hour, who rammed him through a building and then tossed him 120 feet at 50 miles per hour. The suit doesn’t really increase his strength all too much.
We’ve seen him do the things in his power armor that he just normally does while outside of the suit. Sure he swings Superman around like a rag doll, but he lifts way more than that in his waterfall weight room.
The only thing that the suit really adds is durability, but Captain America is still more durable than Batman, even while in his power armor. You guys remember the fight against Iron Man, whose suit was far more advanced and more durable than Batman’s.
If I remember, Captain America was taking hits from that and still ended up winning. Unlike the Iron Man armor, the bat armor does not add any additional way for Batman to deal any meaningful damage. Yeah, the fight will probably go on a little bit longer, but Captain America is still going a win.
Remember earlier when I said Cap kicked his shield and was easily able to pierce Ultron? There’s nothing to suggest that he wouldn’t be able to do the same to Batman suit. So, unfortunately, again, the suit doesn’t add much, ultimately making it a little bit harder for Captain America, but at the end of the day, he’s still going to outlast Batman in a brawl when Batman cannot incapacitate him.
And The Winner Is…
So, who’s winning here, Batman or Captain America? Well, Batman definitely has a chance. Batroc and Crossbows were able to put up fights against Captain America. Batman is several, several leagues above them. He will give Steve a hell of a fight, possibly even defeat him. However, more often than not, I definitely have to go to Captain America here.
Cap is physically more impressive and has consistently managed to fight against opponents just as skilled as Batman, often beating them. His shield is kind of the perfect offensive and defensive weapon that will block any attack that Batman throws at him. It will be able to injure Bruce, even through his durable armor.
Well, Batman does appear to be more tactically intelligent, and Steve is by no means stupid. Leading The Avengers to victory while calling shots and floating out effective strategies, he is very conscious of his environment and is constantly using it to his advantage in a fight. And for all those reasons, gotta give this one to Captain America. Captain America wins.
So that is the fight. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And just to recap a little bit, I do believe that Captain America would win most fights while both combatants are fighting within character. And out of character, I think Batman just uses his stealth, gets behind Captain America, and slits a throat or something.
