Same Problem, Different Approaches

If you want to crystallize the difference between Superman and Batman...

...these two pages pretty much nail it.

From All-Star Superman #10 (2008) and Batman: Shadow Of The bat #75 (1998)

Manic Monday--The Super-Exterminator!!

A cat named The Insect Master is terrorizing Metropolis, using his trained bugs to cause devastation (in order to set up a big extortion payoff from the city). Termites are collapsing big building!! Moths are destroying the fashion district!!

After Superman cleans up those messes, he's just in time to see a swarm of locusts attacking the Horticultural Gardens (as opposed to the non-horticultural gardens...?)

So how does the Man Of Steel deal with a swarm of locusts? Blow them away/freeze them with super-breath? Gather them in his indestructible cape?

Nope. He's gonna smoosh 'em all--by hand!!

Yes, Superman killed "hundreds of thousands" of locusts...by hand!!

At least he didn't use pesticides...

From World's Finest Comics #10 (1943)

Manic Monday--Superbaby 2018!!

Hey, do you not like it when Lois calls Superman "Smallville?"

Well, then, Bendis is the writer for you!!

That's all from one single issue, Action Comics #1004 (2018). Sometimes even in consecutive panels.

Someone should calculate how much Bendis is being paid per "baby."

Or, you know, an editor could do some editing...

Manic Monday Triple Overtime--The Foldee Justice League!!

You are all too young to remember "Comic Book Foldees," a little toy/book thingie Topps put out to ensure they got the loose change from kid who weren't into baseball cards:

See, you'd tear the perferations between the top and bottom halves, and flip them around to create massive humorous half-and-half creatures, like thus:

Oh, Hal...

Siskoid did a whole series of these...and here's a collection of pictures of many, many more.

I bring this up because, while these may seem like flights of fancy, DC beat Topps to the punch (although doubtless someone else had the foldee idea years earlier). See, the Justice League is trying to save multiple planets, including Earth, from getting blown up by evil conqueror Kradd.

He uses a "molecular de-adhesion beam" to dissolve our heroes...

Well, that sucks.

But don't worry. Someone survived because of Gardner Fox science:

Believable!

Fortunately, Green Lantern forgot to put a passcode on his ring, so anyone can use it. See, because maybe groggy super-heroes should be using it...?

You can say that again, Ray.

Foldees!! The Atom made Justice League Foldees!!

Fortunately, he gets Wonder Woman, and only Wonder Woman, right. I guess we can't have those girl parts getting mixed up with boy parts, can we?

But it's too late to fix the others...

Well, when you're a Justice Leaguer, the foldee situation is always half-full, not half-empty!

Yeah, but that's Kryptonian "waist-down," Hal!!

Woo hoo!!

The JLAers makes lemonade out of lemons, and tear up Kraad's fortress:

Even the unconscious Atom gets in on the fun. Since his body is immune, why not use it to plug the de-adhesion gun?

Pretty embarrassing, Ray...

Hey, you could have used that later!!

...and everything is back to normal!!

They really should have kept that de-adhesion device around. There are plenty of cool foldee power combinations they could have come up with!!

From Justice League of America #25 (1964)

Superman's Short-Lived Stand-Up Career!!

Vile gangsters have hired the Prankster to get Superman out of the way!

His plan? Public humiliation!

When a call goes out that a man is trapped in a bank vault...

Even Lois gets in on the laughter!

And when the mayor of Metropolis decides to honor Kal-El with an official portrait...

Well, not that funny, really.

But everyone mocks Superman now...even the Daily Planet!!

And Superman is not going to take it!!

Uh...Lois? Your byline was on that story we just saw!! You were fanning the flames ridicule!! You don't get to play Ms. Self-Righteous here!!

Now, I know what you're thinking--this is just some plot by Superman to draw out the Prankster, right?

Nope. That would have been a Silver Age story, and we're still in the Golden Age here! Superman really did have a pine cone up his butt over being mocked!

Well, Superman has always been a bit prickly when it comes to public humiliation. This wasn't the first time the Prankster would get his goat, and it certainly would me the last time.

But as you saw, Superman (finally) figured out is was the Prankster. And now he has a plan, as soon...

Prepare to meet--Professor Hi Laryus!!

Um...

Wow, people paid to see this??

Well, it was enough to draw Prankster's ire...

Those were actual stories!!

And finally, Prankster confesses to the "crimes"...

...which causes the crooks to try and shut him up...

And Superman saves him and arrests everyone.

I'm not sure why...what crimes were actually committed? I suppose you could do filing a false police report about the man in the vault. Maybe assault for the pie in the face? Defacing public property for the portrait? It's not like any of that is going to get you a significant stretch in Attica. Why worry about "silencing" Prankster? Now you're guilty of attempted murder, dummies!!!

Anyway, I hope someone in the audience had a camera, and Superman's short-live stand-up is now immortalized in the DC Universe's version of Youtube.

From Action Comics #95 (1946)