spetznaz
Senior Fanboy Killer
I'd chose Batman anyday.
Although he is 'only' a human (although a look at the Batman respect thread would make one quickly wonder exactly what type of 'human' he is....but I digress), the criminals do not know this. Based on how he is written, most Gothamites see him as a cross between an urban legend and the bogeyman, and even some members of the JLA consider him 'spooky.'
He has also managed to keep Gotham's nose mostly clean, a feat that Superman tried to do during the no Man's Land saga and miserably failed.
Batman is exemplary when it comes to keeping order in a city, and he does this primarily due to his intellect as well as fostering a general state of unease and unabated fear amongst the criminal populace.
In essence they try to avoid Gotham at all costs ......and Batman did this aspect of his job so well that criminals flooded to Buldhaven in order to get away from the Bat, thus making Bludhaven into a cesspool of crime (which is ONE of the reasons Nightwing went there, and also why Robin and Batgirl began full-scale operations there).
In a nutshell when it comes to taking care of a city no one can do it better than Batman.
Not Superman.
Not WonderWoman.
And certainly not Spiderman!
Spiderman s very good .....actually he is great .....the only thing is that he doesn't carry the same potence that Batman does.
Now, Spiderman is stronger, is faster, and has his spidersense.
But when I talk about potence I mean the impact he brings .....he doesn't inspire the same fear.
What they see in Spiderman is a super hero dressed up in spider garb.
What they see in Batman is malevolent evil waiting to snatch them up in some dark alley and drag them to the depths of hell.
Fear is a great motivator. One of the greatest if not the greatest (although some do claim that love can trump fear ....eg a mother's love for her child causing her to charge into a lion's den to save her child even when she is phobic of everything bigger than a mouse, but again I digress).
Spiderman is the 'friendly neighborhood' dude who keeps things straight and criminals away, and can be counted on for a quip or two. He is super strong, super this, super that .....all of it. A great guy.
Batman on the other hand, for all who do not know he is Bruce Wayne and a 'normal' human, is a shadow from hell. He inspires great fear in the criminal underground (again, he does his job so well most criminals avoid Gotham all together and opt for the 'Haven), he is seen as something akin to malevolence personified, and is believed to be some sort of bogeyman.
Furthermore he has handled some insane events that threatened Gotham .....for example the aforementioned No Man's Land, where he kept Gotham together after the earthquake (and after the entire United States abandoned it).
I wonder what Spiderman could have done?
Answer: nothing! Why? Because the thing that helped Batman out wasn't his strength or his ability, but the fact that he inspired fear amongst the criminal element, and inspired hope amongst the good civilians who had been stuck in Gotham.
What could Spiderman do, since the New york media portrays him as some no-gooder criminal-vigilante?
Sure, Spiderman could have caught criminals and stuff, but that wouldn't have worked. Superman is far better at such stuff than Spidey, and Superman failed.
Anyways, when it comes to protecting a city no one does it better than Batman. The whole mystery surrounding him, and the whole fear-for-criminals/hope-for-the-city dichotomy that hangs around him, helps him a lot. The mere knowledge that Gotham is 'Batman's city' keeps away most of the riff-raff, and those that remain are taken care of with ease.
With the end result being that Gotham, even though it is protected by 'humans,' is in many ways a better place to be than Metropolis (which has Superman). In one comic I have a group of criminals was moving from Gotham to go to Metropolis, preferring to face Superman rather than stay in a place that had the Bat!
Why?
Fear! To such an extent that they would rather face someone who can juggle tanks than stay in Gotham.
That is something that Spiderman doesn't inspire (at the very least nowhere close to the level of Batman).
Anyways, if I lived in a city that had the option between having The Bat or having Spiderman, my vote would always be 100% for Batman.
When it comes to city defense no one does it better.
p.s: well, the Flash in the Kingdom Come series did do it better .....since he was everywhere at the same time.