Both Marvel Comics and DC Comics thrive on the archetypal billionaire hero, the crimefighter whose superpower is nearly infinite money. DC's most famous example is Batman, whose fortune equipped him with the world's best training and cutting-edge gadgets. Marvel's A-list counterpart is Iron Man, who avoided kung-fu in favor of becoming a brilliant engineer who builds robotic power armor. The question of who would win, Iron Man or Batman, is the subject of eternal debate, but in the new issue of Daredevil, the horned hero casts light on Tony Stark that shows what makes Bruce Wayne the better person.
Daredevil #22 is written by Chip Zdarsky with pencils by Francesco Mobili, inking by Victor Olazaba, color by Mattia Iacono, and lettering by Clayton Cowles. Daredevil is on trial for accidentally killing a suspected thief during a crimefighting patrol, but before he potentially goes to prison, he needs to settle his biggest battle of the new Daredevil series so far: his war with the Stromwyns, a pair of billionaire siblings who have been covertly destroying Hell's Kitchen so they can buy out the neighborhood.
Since his efforts to confront the crooked real estate magnates as Daredevil failed (he's already in enough legal trouble without beating up two apparently law-abiding public figures), Matt Murdock approaches someone who can work against them on their own terms: billionaire Tony Stark, the open identity of Iron Man. As a fellow New York hero, Tony knows Daredevil and respects his decision to face justice, even if he doesn't fully understand why. But Tony still reacts with shock when Daredevil asks for a favor: specifically, to buy out Hell's Kitchen before the amoral Stromwyns can scoop it up, saving the homes and livelihoods of its residents until the blind vigilante can take the duo down.
Tony stammers as he processes this and finds a response: "You... want me to lose money doing this?" The Armored Avenger isn't a fan of the idea of spending billions of dollars to win a principled fight against some bad people he has no particular beef with. In fact, he finds it "crazy".
That's the disconnect between Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. Wayne is willing to use his money and power not just to make new hardware and donate to charities, but to materially support people in Gotham City and elsewhere. Bruce invests in local neighborhoods, gives low-level criminals jobs in his company, and even bought the Daily Planet at one point to keep the newspaper afloat. In Daredevil, Stark considers investing directly in human lives an unprofitable venture, despite spending equivalent amounts on every new suit of armor he designs as a hobby. Not to mention Iron Man's poor financial decisions elsewhere: in the new Iron Man series, Tony sells off all his assets in his company, then immediately buys nearly half of them back to the tune of over twenty billion dollars. Tony could probably buy Hell's Kitchen for the brokerage fees on that deal.
To put it in perspective, series writer Zdarsky's take on Iron Man is an especially unflattering take on the hero, fitting in with his equally harsh versions of Punisher and Spider-Man that populate Daredevil's darker noir setting. And on the flip side, Batman's community involvement isn't all upside; several stories have dealt with Wayne's neighborhood buyouts and the gentrification that results. In the end, Tony seems to take the deal; readers will get to see how well he can handle working at a "human level".