If I remember well, Batman does not have superpowers. He’s a guy who’s rich, trains a lot, is smart and due to being rich is able to get great equipment to use.
The best Batman stories tend to display that the only difference between Batman and his rogues is that Batman’s insanity doesn’t make him dangerous to the general public.
Exactly. We see plenty of Bruce’s physical training. But how often is he depicted designing, implementing, debugging, or maintaining any of the software that is guaranteed to be necessary for the majority of the seemingly endless well-beyond-cutting-edge technology underpinning most of his practical abilities and every one of the impressive number of deus ex machinas in the franchise?
OK, so the only logical conclusion is that he (or Fox as proxy) outsourced most or all of it, requiring obscene wealth. Batman fans may not like it, but money is unequivocally the key super power of the troubled Wayne heir, not his genius or inventiveness. Without the money, Bruce becomes a washed-up chess boxing enthusiast at best, or a cop at worst, but definitely not Batman.
it’s indicated that he does design a LOT of the equipment
Yeah I think that was the crux of my disillusionment with the character as a young adult lol: just the constant handwavy “rest of the fucking owl” implication that Bruce has been designing something somewhere between the pages, or well before the story began, when I come to learn that thing is a difficult problem in an active research space, or has been built already but required years and hundreds of engineers and scientists to implement, and the writers apparently didn’t check because Bruce’s technical ability was just a magic hat for the plot
the World’s Greatest Detective
Totally with you. That was something I was happy to see them revive in the Arkhamverse. And they really nailed that aspect of the character in that franchise.
I’ve always theorized that his power is “superhuman willpower.”
He has the massive will to obsessively train, study, and do all the things he does. Becoming one other the strongest, smartest, and most effectual people alive. I doubt any human has a higher willpower than Bruce Wayne.
He has even out-willpowered Wonder Woman’s lasso-of-truth.
True, but wasn’t he also the only human (or otherwise, I think) to dodge Darkseid’s eyebeams? Admittedly it would take willpower to get to the point of being physically able to do so, but from what I understand of the eyebeams, also quite a bit of luck.
Wait, I thought he did get hit by the beams and they sent him back in time, and through what could only be described as an exceptional demonstration of determination and willpower, he worked his way back up through time- through ages & ages, to confront Darkseid again. Maybe we’re thinking of different storylines?
He’s an orc. He’s batshit crazy and believes whatever wild scenario that keeps him alive or out of a situation will happen so strongly that the world bends to his will.
I don’t really think that would carry over canonically, or else it would but heads with Green Lantern lore. There are multiple people that seem to have more willpower than Bruce Wayne. I think the only argument to Bruce not being a Green Lantern could be that be likes to instill fear, which us a big no no for the GLs.
If I remember well, Batman does not have superpowers. He’s a guy who’s rich, trains a lot, is smart and due to being rich is able to get great equipment to use.
So, steroids?
That’s the power: gadgets. And also being a genius detective, but largely the gadgets.
His superpower is being rich enough to be called eccentric instead of just crazy. You know, crazy, like the label used on all the villains he fights.
The best Batman stories tend to display that the only difference between Batman and his rogues is that Batman’s insanity doesn’t make him dangerous to the general public.
One could argue that his genius level intellect and his master detective skills (best detective in the world) are borderline superhuman.
Then it could be argued that he was born with his powers
Same if you consider his power being money
Exactly. We see plenty of Bruce’s physical training. But how often is he depicted designing, implementing, debugging, or maintaining any of the software that is guaranteed to be necessary for the majority of the seemingly endless well-beyond-cutting-edge technology underpinning most of his practical abilities and every one of the impressive number of deus ex machinas in the franchise?
OK, so the only logical conclusion is that he (or Fox as proxy) outsourced most or all of it, requiring obscene wealth. Batman fans may not like it, but money is unequivocally the key super power of the troubled Wayne heir, not his genius or inventiveness. Without the money, Bruce becomes a washed-up chess boxing enthusiast at best, or a cop at worst, but definitely not Batman.
How often? Sometimes. A lot less often than we should. But it’s indicated that he does design a LOT of the equipment in various ways.
Personally I’d love to see a little less Uber-Goth Batman and more of the World’s Greatest Detective.
Yeah I think that was the crux of my disillusionment with the character as a young adult lol: just the constant handwavy “rest of the fucking owl” implication that Bruce has been designing something somewhere between the pages, or well before the story began, when I come to learn that thing is a difficult problem in an active research space, or has been built already but required years and hundreds of engineers and scientists to implement, and the writers apparently didn’t check because Bruce’s technical ability was just a magic hat for the plot
Totally with you. That was something I was happy to see them revive in the Arkhamverse. And they really nailed that aspect of the character in that franchise.
A long time ago, I read that his superpower was, or was theorized to be, luck. No idea if that’s canon anywhere.
I’ve always theorized that his power is “superhuman willpower.”
He has the massive will to obsessively train, study, and do all the things he does. Becoming one other the strongest, smartest, and most effectual people alive. I doubt any human has a higher willpower than Bruce Wayne. He has even out-willpowered Wonder Woman’s lasso-of-truth.
True, but wasn’t he also the only human (or otherwise, I think) to dodge Darkseid’s eyebeams? Admittedly it would take willpower to get to the point of being physically able to do so, but from what I understand of the eyebeams, also quite a bit of luck.
Wait, I thought he did get hit by the beams and they sent him back in time, and through what could only be described as an exceptional demonstration of determination and willpower, he worked his way back up through time- through ages & ages, to confront Darkseid again. Maybe we’re thinking of different storylines?
He’s an orc. He’s batshit crazy and believes whatever wild scenario that keeps him alive or out of a situation will happen so strongly that the world bends to his will.
I don’t really think that would carry over canonically, or else it would but heads with Green Lantern lore. There are multiple people that seem to have more willpower than Bruce Wayne. I think the only argument to Bruce not being a Green Lantern could be that be likes to instill fear, which us a big no no for the GLs.
There’s an Elseworld story where Bruce Wayne becomes Green Lantern.
At first I thought, not very lucky to have your parents gunned down in front of you. Now I’m thinking how lucky he was to also not be shot. Damn…
Possibly the hypothetical power hadn’t manifested, or maybe had done so only in part, at that point.
His superpower is plot armour.
Iron Man is a better example of a superhero who created powers for himself, but he isn’t one of the three most popular
iron man also doesnt have powers, those are his power/battle armor, eventhen he is beaten easily by villians with superpowers.
Yeah, I know, I’m saying he created powers for himself by creating the armour with powers