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Comment by olalonde | Hacker News Reader

What's most unrealistic to me is that Batman doesn't use lethal weapons. Good luck fighting armed criminals unless you have a kick ass body armor.

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I'm not sure that's so unrealistic. Batman utilises "shock" tactics (i.e. appearing in the middle of a group before they can react). He also promotes a fear factor; where he is viewed as being generally invulnerable - which means criminals psychophysically expect him to be able to avoid/take/survive gunfire.

Then on the practical aspect he works at night or in the dark and has technological advantages (as well as ranged non-lethal weapons) over his enemies.

Speculating you could imagine he is pretty good at reading people and their reactions, and so has a rudimentary ability to avoid (not quite dodge) gunfire.

Sure, I think it is unrealistic that in, say, the films he avoids all the gunfire period. But it seems reasonable that he can avoid most of it with these advantages.

Such things are all possible in real life, but I expect you are right - you would end up shot.

A single individual accomplishing these things and utilizing these tools and tactics is not realistic. A movement of many individuals all using the same "brand" could work.

"The Battalion" would be the only appropriate name.

Perhaps many individuals all posing as a single individual, with the majority involved acting in support roles.

It's starting to sound eerily like Anonymous, actually.

This came up in Batman Beyond a lot.

"Is he the original Batman?"

"No way, he'd be a hundred years old!"

"Maybe he's immortal..."

It seems like a number of superhero comics (which I am lacking in citations for) have focused on the idea of the superhero as more a symbol rather than a person. Any worthy successor can pick up the mask/costume/cape and continue fighting crime in the name of Fooman, and thus Fooman becomes a legend rather than a single person. In the words of The Sandlot, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."

The Dark Knight had an interesting take on this with the impostor Batmen in the beginning using guns, and the real Batman showing up to stop them. (There's something to be said about culture and intellectual property in there too, but that's for another day). I'm sure there are plenty of other good examples as well, but my knowledge of superheros is rather sparse as I was unfortunately never that big into comics.

That scene in The Dark Knight is adapted from a storyline in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. If I recall the original, Batman's retirement makes people sufficiently nervous that a gangs of young kids dress like him and do their own crime fighting. The original Batman has to clean up after them as well.

You got some of it wrong, in fact: The gang that existed while Batman was retired was the Mutants, a completely horrible gang of sociopaths and sadists (Miller is not one for subtlety) lead by a monstrous beast of a man (again, Miller not subtle). Their actions force Batman out of retirement and, once Batman defeats the Mutant gang leader in front of his gang, certain elements of the gang restyle themselves as Sons of the Bat and go after other criminals. Again, though, they're still horrible violent sociopaths and sadists, and Batman has to spend some time cracking their heads together.

So you got a number of the main points right.

> Perhaps many individuals all posing as a single individual

Zero Hedge's Tyler Durden.

Interesting idea. Perhaps there should be a cadre of several thousand of these people, trained to subdue criminals in a non-violent way, but with access to lethal means when absolutely necessary. Ideally, they should be distributed throughout the city in various secure bases. The best part is that the very presence of such a force might be a powerful deterrent to crime. They could all share the same branded uniform, perhaps with a special color and insignia.

Just as long as the movement isn't subverted into a vehicle for revenue from petty infractions and an excuse to harass underclasses.

What you are describing is actually happening in the current Batman arc (in the comics) - Batman Incorporated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Incorporated

Stand Alone Complex ..

Indeed, using only a few of those tactics...

"A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted 40 robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his khukuri during a train journey. He is in line to receive three gallantry awards from the Indian government." [http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_deta...]

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