User blog comment:Marcus Forelli/Batman (Nolanverse) vs Sherlock Holmes/@comment-4484220-20130329203153/@comment-143604-20130330015256

Not only do I not believe this battle to be unfair, I actually think Hayden's wrong on this one. If this was any other version of Batman, I'd agree with him, but Nolanverse's Bats is horribly gimped in comparison. As far as technology goes, Bats doesn't bring anything incredibly special to the table- explosives, boomerangs and some tough armor with a few gimmicks, nothing too powerful or unbalanced. As far as Batman's personal skills, the Nolanverse Bruce isn't a very good fist fighter- he gets his ass thoroughly handed to him in nearly every fight in the series, and he's almost forced to rely on stealth to take on foes, as he can't handle much in direct combat- even a couple of unnamed mooks at the beginning of The Dark Knight are able to rough him up quite a bit, forcing him to upgrade the design of his suit. In other words- his hand-to-hand skills are sub-par, while Sherlock Holmes displays absolutely ridiculous unarmed ability in close quarters thanks to his mind- his bullet-time think and react style of fighting gives him a massive edge in close quarters fighting as he thinks on a wholly greater level than Bats, and is able to identify dozens of ways to overcome a particular technique or use the environment to his advantage before Batman can even finish throwing a punch. I would argue against the combat experience thing as well. Batman is shown in very, very few fights throughout the trilogy- Sherlock's time with guns and in a fight is comparable to how much time Bruce Wayne spends any given two Nolan movies dressed as Batman and fighting foes. He fights Ra's al Ghul and a few thugs in Batman Begins, there's not too long a gap between that ending and the Dark Knight, where he once again only fights a few thugs and The Joker. Then because he can't get his dick wet until Catwoman shows up, he takes an eight year break. All in all, Bruce Wayne in the Nolanverse is Batman for maybe a couple months, a year tops. Sherlock Holmes spends a fairly sizable career fighting doods and criminals in this movie continuity, even if he does focus more on detective skills.

I will however, agree with Hayden on the Stealth factor. Nolanverse Bats isn't as much a stealth genius as his other incarnations, he's still an excellent stealth warrior, and it's integral to his skillset. Sherlock is clever as shit, and his disguises should not be underestimated, but he's not operating on Batman's level in terms of stealth.

Overall, I think this fight is totally fair. It's kind of a weird match-up, maybe, but I really like these kinds of match-ups where the comparison isn't so clear-cut, and one person can believe that it's unfair, while another thinks it's a clear victory for the opposite warrior. In summation, not only do I think Hayden is incorrect here, I actually think Holmes will take this match.