East Vs West: Character Battles #1

Welcome to the fist installment of my series of articles based on characters in American Media Vs characters in Japanese Media. This series of articles is inspired by Silver Bullet Comics’ “Vs Monthly” and Secret Wars of Infinite Earths’ Articles. I’ll be giving an inside look at two characters who would fit well with each other’s style and see who can overcome who. And for the first fight, it’s a doosey.

Batman Vs Light Yagami

Light Yagami is the main character of the Anime, Manga, and Movie series known as “Death Note”. It’s about a young man who finds a book with the capability to kill whoever name is written on it. While this premise alone doesn’t seem too exciting, seeing the series is a whole different ballgame.

It quickly becomes a battle of different views, beliefs and intellects as Light, under the guise of Kira, takes on L and soon after Mello and Near. With many supporters on his side and the ability to exploit the rules of the Death Note, Light has managed to avoid, mislead, and even kill anyone who has gotten in his way almost all the way to the end of the series. So defeating a guy with no powers would be easy, right?

Killer Croc said the same thing. So did Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Ra's al Ghul and a handful of other powerful villains who failed to defeat the Batman. Cartoons, movies, comics, and even beyond that depicts him as being human but up there in stature with the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman.

Orphaned when he was young, Bruce Wayne soon used his inheritance to train in many fields and became the Batman to stop crime activity in Gotham City. Facing many villains ranging from the super powered to the warped minded and even to the most feared of them all, the Joker, Batman has an impressive win/lose record that goes beyond his Rouge Gallery, even beyond his own world…

This would be a detective battle for the ages, as both needs to find the other’s true identity to truly stop them. With both of them leaving very few clues if any in their actions, a battle like this would take days, weeks, months, even going into years… So let’s see how it’ll go in the points system…

Round One: Location Advantage

It’s doubtful that Bruce Wayne, let alone Batman, would go to Light’s home town, but it’s not farfetched for Light to get a scholarship to one of Gotham’s Colleges and Universities, so this will take place in Gotham City. But despite the home field advantage, both sides are at a stalemate here. Both of them can pretty much hide in plain sight, with Light playing the ordinary person ploy while Batman knows every inch and corner of Gotham. So pretty much this category is a draw.

WINNER: Draw

Round Two: Intelligence

Batman is the World’s Greatest Detective in the DC universe. L in Death Note was three of the World’s Greatest Detectives in the series. Light had to literally set a plan that was outside the ideas of reality to gain L’s trust and get him from the inside. If we consider Batman’s intelligence being equal to that of L, it would be a stalemate until Light plans something that goes beyond the idea of reality.

But there’s one problem with that…

Batman is a loner. He usually works alone and rarely trusts anyone. Superman is even considered his friend and he carries around some Kryptonite just incase Superman snaps. So even if Light decides to give up the Notebook, it would be no use to him as Kira because Batman would not ask for help from a civilian.

WINNER: Draw

Round Three: Fighting Ability

This is a no contest. Light did show some fighting ability, but it pales in comparison to the training Batman went through. Trained in various fighting styles, Batman is prepared to fight almost any foe head to head. If head to head, Batman would beat Light as easily as a child.

WINNER: Batman

Round Four: Accessories

Batman has an arsenal of non-lethal and demobilizing weapons and various modes of transportation. Light just have a book that can kill whoever’s name is written in it. Something like that would automatically be a win for Light if it wasn’t for one thing, he needs a name and a face to kill. Batman has a secret identity so that pretty much means it’s as worthless as a Notebook.

WINNER: Batman

Round Five: Stats

Another no contest. Light is an excellent athlete, but he doesn’t have the training Batman had. Since at a young age, he trained his body to be in the peek of human conditioning possible, so his strength, speed, and agility is beyond those who does normal training for a while. Batman would dominate here.

WINNER: Batman

Round Six: Allies

Light allies consists of Misa Amane, a young lady who loves him and also has the Shinigami Eyes (able to see the names of anyone with a look in their eyes), Teru Mikami, a disciple of Kira and also criminal prosecutor, and Ryuk, the Shinigami that gave him the book in the first place. A nice selection, but not as impressive as the ones Batman has.

Batman has pretty much the entire Justice League on his side, which contains aliens, robots, and various creatures that would not be affected by the Death Note due to the fact they aren’t humans. And like him, his protégées in Robin, Nightwing and the Red Hood are as skilled as Batman himself. So this is VERY one sided…

WINNER: Batman

Round Seven: Weaknesses

Another no contest. Being that they’re both humans, their weakness is that, well, they’re both humans. Though by the end of the series, Light has become arrogant and overconfident, two big factors that could lead to mistakes. And that’s something Batman can use greatly against him.

WINNER: Batman

Round Eight: Toughest Opponent

Even though it was Near and Mello who finally defeated Kira, it would be L that would be Light’s greatest opponent. Light had to personally infiltrate the L Investigation Team and remove knowledge of the Death Note from himself to finally get L off his back and to eliminate him. And in his peek, it was L that caused him to make a fatal error that made Kira close and not somewhere world wide.

Of all the villains that had ever faced Batman, no one is more defined then the Joker. If there was anyone in media that deserved to be Death Noted, it would be the Joker filling the top 10 by himself. As Silver Bullet Comics themselves put it, “He killed Robin! He paralyzed Batgirl! He killed Commissioner Gordan’s wife! His body count nearly ranges in the thousands!” As much decorated as L is in “Death Note”, he doesn’t have the same stature that the Joker possesses. And if you can judge a person by the way they interact, the Batman is much more a character then Light is.

WINNER: Batman

Round Nine: When the final moments come

When the last moment happens, what will one do? When there is one move left till checkmate, which will make the move? Batman had many opportunities to kill his opponent, especially the Joker, but he only takes them back to jail or Arkham Asylum. Light plays Judge, Jury and Executioner with every opponent and criminal he faces. So if the time comes, Light will go over the edge Batman fears to do…

WINNER: Light

OVERAL STATS: Batman: 6 - Light Yagami: 1

So overall, Batman would win if these stats were the only thing that were to define who wins and who loses. But story wise, would the outcome be the same?

Round Ten: The Story

To get them to face each other, let’s let Light try to hide the fact Kira is in Gotham by writing in his Note Book that during a bank heist, Harvey Dent, AKA Two Face, was killed by a woman in self defense while trying to take her necklace off her. The problem is that Light doesn’t know that Two Face never makes a decision without flipping a coin, and I do mean NEVER. So it proves to be physically impossible and he dies of a heart attack.

With the reports saying that he did die of a heart attack, and after researching of similar situations and more reports here about criminals dying of a heart attack, Batman would logically conclude that Kira is now in Gotham City. Now with a reason to fight each other, with many blanks that can be filled by anyone and opportunities to come up.

One such opportunity is that Light goes after the Joker, a guy who pretty much deserves the Death Penalty fifty times over but instead gets sent to Arkham time and time again. Under the guise of a person who is researching in the criminal mind, he could have the same deal that Harleen Quinzel had before becoming Harley Quinn. He’ll use this to try to find the Joker’s real name by asking about his origin.

Since Ryuk goes where Kira goes, Joker will soon reveal that he not only sees the Shinigami (which is possible since it’s been proven in DC comics that Joker can see Dead man), but knows that he’s Kira. Light would try to deny it, but with Joker’s constant teasing and taunting, Light would eventually snap and go after the Joker.

That is exactly what Batman expected to happen, who pretty much set up the whole thing since Kira would be the only one who’ll be interested in Joker’s history. Joker would mockingly return to his room, stating that a world without evil is evil itself. Light would try to escape but eventually be cornered by Batman, making the young man desperate.

In an act of desperation, he would threaten to write a random person’s name, with Bruce Wayne coming out because he’s the most well known in Gotham, in the Death Note, pretty much revealing that is how he kills. Batman moves in, not believing it, which leads to Light writing the name down. Thirty seconds later, Batman punches Light to the point of being knocked out. After picking up the Notebook, Batman soon sees Ryuk, which pretty much confirms that Light was telling the truth.

Since no one would legitimately believe a notebook would be capable of killing, he uses the record he was keeping track to convict Light to be criminally insane. Back in the Batcave, and after placing the Death Note in a safe location, he asks Ryuk how come the Death Note didn’t affect him. Ryuk will reply that despite being named Bruce Wayne by his parents; that is not the name that represents him. (A sort of Nod to a Batman Beyond episode Shriek.) Ryuk leaves as Batman defeats Kira (the Light Version) once and for all.

WINNER: Batman

There you have it. Story wise and Round wise, Batman defeats Light Yagami. As great detectives L, Near and Mello was, they all can’t compare to Batman. Batman in detective wise is up there with Sherlock Holmes with capabilities of the CSI and other modern technology. He’s cold and calculated as Light is in the sense of Justice but he would never go to the edge of killing, a sense of Justice not scene in Death Note.

It’s Batman’s Rouge Gallery that proves that he has a real sense of justice as to no matter what, he would not resort to kill. While Light would kill anyone who gets in his way, even those who committed no evil act, proves that his is more of a Fascist then a Judge. And as in the end of the manga and almost many stories, good will always defeat evil.

Like the outcome? Want to give your opinion of the events? Want to make suggestions? Then give a reply. The next match will pit the Last Son of Krypton Vs the Last Child of Vegeta (the planet). Superman Vs Goku.