Friday, August 13, 2010

Bat-Questions



Question #1: Isn't this STILL a problem for Bruce? That someone with basic reasoning skills could figure out that the resources required to be Batman means that his alter-ego would have to be rich? How many multimillionaires in their twenties and thirties with the combat conditioning of a US Marine could there be in Gotham? (Yes, I know: Thomas Elliot. Hush, you). Now, one solution I can imagine is that to maintain Bruce's cover, he regularly hires actors and celebrities in great to move to Gotham for a while to throw off the scent. Of course, in my own personal imagination, those actors would include Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Christian Bale and Kevin Conroy. And I think that would be awesome.

Question #2: Has there ever been a story, in which a Batman-Analogue or some other rich vigilante is adversely effected by an economic downturn or collapse? What would happen if suddenly, you couldn't afford the fuel for your rocket car or explodo-darts? Would that vigilante start stealing from criminals to fund his own efforts? Would even that be enough?

Chris Sims, I demand Answers!

2 comments:

Tom said...

Batman's identity seems pretty well compromised at this point. I mean, we have three villains alone who know who he is-Ras, Bane, and Deathstroke-and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. So why none of them have ever just let it out to destroy Bruce I will never understand. Okay sure, Ras did it because he wanted The Detective to marry Talia but once that was not going to happen why not just wreck the guy. If he is evil enough to dig up the Thomas and Martha Wayne and threaten to drop them into a Lazarus pit he is capable of anything.

In answer to your question, Green Arrow was rich, then he became poor and had to sell off all his toys like his cool jet and car, Denny O'Neil did that as well as doing that to Blue Beetle, but no one ever pushed it like you suggest into making their financial straits so serious they had to steal to keep their alternative lifestyle going. Which is a pity because that does raise various ethical issues as well as problems; what if the money they stole to fund their vigilante enterprise consisted of marked bills, for example. Or what if the money was needed as evidence to make a case against a drug dealer but you already spent it to retool the Awesomemobile?

mrjl said...

1. No one knows enough about Batman to know what sorts of resources he actually uses. Some of it could be borrowed alien tech. He could have super powers. He could be someone's employee.

2. Tony Stark has occasionally had financial problems. I think Ted Kord has to.