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Two of the biggest superheroes in the world duke it out on the big screen this weekend. But who has starred in the better movies over the years?

We’ve taken 6 Supes and 6 Bats films, worked out an average score based on critic and audience reviews and pitted them against each other. Here are the results!

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#12: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Critics: 17

Audience: 26.6

Overall: 21.8

At rock bottom, it’s The Quest for Peace. It’s goofy, stupid and a sad end for Christopher Reeve, who is still the ultimate Superman. You know it’s bad when it scores less than Batman & Robin.

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#11: Batman & Robin

Critics: 19.5

Audience: 36.5

Overall: 28

Here it is: the worst Batman movie by a country mile. Not even Arnie and George Clooney could save this one from being crushed under bat nipples, ice puns and (we’re not making this up) a Bat credit card.

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#10: Superman III

Critics: 39

Audience: 31

Overall: 35

Superman goes comedic as Superman gets corrupted by spiked kryptonite, becomes massively depressed and becomes an alcoholic. Meanwhile, Richard Pryor helps concoct a scheme to take over the world. It sounds a lot better than it is.

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#9: Batman Forever

Critics: 46

Audience: 49.5

Overall: 47.7

After the gothic gloom of Burton’s Batman, Joel Schumacher decided to make Gotham ultra day-glo and cast Jim Carrey as the main villain. It’s pretty good, until you realise it’s a foreshadowing of Batman & Robin.

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#8: Man of Steel

Critics: 55.5

Audience: 74.3

Overall: 64.9

Zack Snyder’s destruction fest divided the critics, although audiences seem to like it a lot more. It’s a little long but the end sequence makes it worth it.

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#7: Superman Returns

Critics: 74

Audience: 62

Overall: 68

Amazingly, the forgotten film in the Superman series is rates higher than Man of Steel. It’s a lot more cheerful than Snyder’s film, and Brandon Routh is a decent Superman too.

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#6: Batman Returns

Critics: 80

Audience: 71.5

Overall: 75.7

Tim Burton’s gothic classic is captures the mood of the comics perfectly, transforming Gotham into a surreal nightmare-ish city of horrors. Plus, it has penguins with rockets on their backs.

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#5: Superman II

Critics: 88

Audience: 69

Overall: 78.5

Two villains are better than one, which might explain why the critics loved Superman II. This time, he’s taking on the dual threat of Lex Luthor and General Zod.

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#4: Batman Begins

Critics: 77.5

Audience: 87.6

Overall: 82.5

After the glam nonsense of Batman & Robin, Batman went back to doing what he does best: dark and serious. No film has done the Batman origin story better before or since.

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#3: The Dark Knight Rises

Critics: 82.5

Audience: 86

Overall: 84.2

The final part of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is positively insane compared to the previous two, with a plot involving nuclear weapons and the politest masked villain taking over Gotham entirely. It’s still great though.

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#2: Superman

Critics: 89.5

Audience: 79.6

Overall: 84.5

Yeah, it’s a little bit cheesy compared to modern superhero movies but Superman more than makes up for it in fun. It’s an obvious inspiration for the Marvel movies too.

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#1: The Dark Knight

Critics: 88

Audience: 91

Overall: 89.5

Our previous post found that this was the greatest superhero movie of all time, so it’s no surprise its top of this list too. It takes the basic superhero structure and builds a twisting tale of morality around it. Heath Ledger steals the show as the Joker too, becoming one of the only actors to win an Oscar for a role in a superhero film.

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So, who wins overall? Here are the final scores…

Batman: 67.9

Superman: 58.7

It’s a knockout victory for Batman!

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