MetaChat - Is Batman actually a superhero?

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29 June 2007

Is Batman actually a superhero? What exactly is his superpower? It seems his superpowers consist entirely of gadgets. Does that count? So he with the coolest gadgets is a superhero?

post by: bigmusic at: 01:42 | 28 comments

Is Batman actually a superhero?

posted by puke & cry 29 June | 02:16

He has the costume and the secret identity which I suppose makes him a superhero. Of course, by that logic, a drag queen is a superhero.

posted by jonmc 29 June | 06:02

oh, man! A drag queen superhero would so cool! Especially if it were played right... like a traditional rendering, not a spoofy thing.

posted by taz 29 June | 06:19

He's a superlative hero, yes. You don't have to have magical powers to be super at what you do, and hero-ing is what Bats does.

posted by Eideteker 29 June | 06:38

taz, I think a friend of mine was working on a story like this in high school. There was an ordinary guy who got super-powers when he put on this costume that used to belong to a female superhero. Hilarity ensues!

I think I would call him "Fabulous Man".

posted by Eideteker 29 June | 06:40

oh, man! A drag queen superhero would so cool!

Faster than wash-n-wear, more powerful than Chanel No 5, able to apply lipstick in a single stroke...look in Bloomingdales, it's not your mom, not your aunt,...it's Fabulous Man.

posted by jonmc 29 June | 06:54

Batman IS a superhero because he's being played by Christopher Nolan, duhhhhhh.;)

posted by hadjiboy 29 June | 06:54

Um, that should be Christian Bale, shouldn't it? Okay, I'll go and stand in the corner now.

:(

posted by hadjiboy 29 June | 06:58

I think we might be on to something great.

posted by taz 29 June | 06:58

Instead of the Boy Wonder, he'd have Wonder If It's A Boy.

posted by jonmc 29 June | 07:00

There's (sort of) a drag queen superhero in Grant Morrison's Invisibles, Lord Fanny. It's not really a traditional bright-spandex superheroic scene, but I think Fanny counts.

Morrison also wrote a transvestite, sentient street in The Doom Patrol (transvestite because he was full of manly, rugged shops like gun stores, which were then draped with delicate ribbons and pretty buntings).

Morrison's basically your go-to guy for weird ideas in comics.

posted by cobra! 29 June | 07:39

Oh, and...

Other Superheroes Whose Powers Consist Entirely of Gadgets or Skills:
Nightwing
Iron Man
Captain America (debatably, anyway)
The Question
The Blue Beetle (except maybe for the new one, I'm not sure)
The Green Lantern
Starman
Green Arrow
Hawkeye
The Punisher (and his gadgets are all big guns)

Pretty common superheroic setup, really.

posted by cobra! 29 June | 07:44

Batman's super power is his incredible intelligence and superior tactical mind, or something. By the same token, Professor Moriarty is a super villan...

posted by muddgirl 29 June | 07:50

Captain America was given the super solider serum that gave him super powers, no?

And The Tick gave us Hand Grenade Man; "What's your power?" "I have a hand grenade".

posted by Capn 29 June | 09:26

Really all you need is the ability to consistently defeat supervillains. And there are plenty of supervillains without superpowers... they just need the ability to consistently pose a real threat to superheroes.

So the standard is set by those with superpowers, and if you can keep up with those guys, you're in the club.

posted by agropyron 29 June | 09:27

Captain America was given the super solider serum that gave him super powers, no?

Yeah, but those powers are just being strong and having quick reflexes, and I'm not sure if he's supposed to be at the top of the human scale or off of it.

(to get really nerdy, Kurt Busiek established that Batman and Captain America, if they meet in company crossovers, each think they could take the other, but it'd take some work)

posted by cobra! 29 June | 09:30

Batman's super power is his incredible intelligence and superior tactical mind, or something.

But really, he's mostly a very good ninja with body armor and lots of gagdgets. Are all ninjas superheros? No. Why? Because they don't necessarily go around fighting crime for it's a good unto itself.

Being a superhero is less about what one is, it's about what one does.

At least, that's what Aristotle would say on the matter.

posted by psmealey 29 June | 09:32

And The Tick gave us Hand Grenade Man; "What's your power?" "I have a hand grenade".

And let us not forget the Mad Bomber What Bombs at Midnight. Boom baby, BOOM!

posted by doctor_negative 29 June | 09:34

Batman is a costumed crimefighter. Lord Fanny was the coolest.

posted by Divine_Wino 29 June | 09:45

And yes, Batman can kick Superman's ass.

posted by malaprohibita 29 June | 09:59

Your average ninja doesn't have Batman's long-term planning capabilities, or, probably, the same level of obsessive, world-rending psychotic drive.

Batman's super power is that he's crazy like a fox.

posted by cortex 29 June | 10:46

That, and rich.

posted by box 29 June | 10:54

Super rich...

posted by muddgirl 29 June | 11:03

he has the piercing eyes, and if I know nothing at all about superheroedom (and I definitely do), I know that without the piercing eyes you. are. nothing. NOTHING.

posted by taz 29 June | 11:05

" oh, man! A drag queen superhero would so cool!"

Too bad Cobra! got this, because I had the same thought that he did about Fanny. But he forgot Rebus from the Doom Patrol, who was a transexual (maybe "metagendered" would be better). I think there was also a cross-dresser during Morrison's run on the X-Men, though I don't remember.

posted by klangklangston 29 June | 12:10

A drag queen superhero would so cool!

Rudy Giuliani?

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 29 June | 13:04

His suit has nipples. Superhero.

posted by kirkaracha 29 June | 13:20

Oh yeah, good call on Rebis. The only comic character I can think of who explicitly sat a few issues out to have sex with him/herself.

posted by cobra! 29 June | 13:21

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