I had always imagined that if Batman were to kill Superman, he would do it by some clever or awesome method, like inject himself with Bane’s venom and then snap Superman’s neck like a twig. Alas, he doesn’t. In Superman Annual 3 (Affiliate Link) from 1991 (series 2) Batman uses the kryptonite ring Superman had given him and pretty much just sticks it in his face until Batman kills Superman. It’s kind of disappointing actually. We have seen Batman fighting Superman before, but this story takes their feuding to a whole new level.
The story is that through some alternate timeline (or something like that) Superman begins to turn evil. An atomic bomb blows up in Metropolis and kills nearly everyone that Superman loves. So he decides to eradicate all nuclear arms from the world. In the process, he accidentally kills seven US soldiers. Oops. The idea of Superman flipping out over an atomic explosion reminds me of when Superman went berserk in Kingdom Come.
The president of the United States (who happens to be off his rocker in this story) asks Batman to kill Superman. For the rest of the story, you can pretty much guess what happens. Batman kills Superman with kryptonite, using the toxic ring that Superman once gave him for such an emergency. I suppose the point of the story is to show that Batman would be capable of killing Superman, even though Superman is so powerful that he could probably punch out God himself.
Regardless of what happened in this story, do you think Batman is capable of killing Superman? Leave your comments below.