10 KiB
Rational!Batman
-
Author: u/BlakeRogers *
-
URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2d8mxv/rationalbatman/
-
Score: 7
-
Created: 2014-08-11T15:06:36
Post:
Comments:
u/Rangi42 [+21] (27 minutes later)
Rational!Bruce Wayne would see a psychologist to deal with his PTSD after his parents' deaths, and then use his fortune to improve Gotham City and reduce crime rates indirectly, or at most by donating to the police department. (Also he might donate to gun control efforts.) He wouldn't dress up as a bat and punch muggers.
I can imagine him doing consulting work for the police as a detective, in a scenario like the reversal of The Dark Knight -- where instead of the Batman's presence making the villains escalate and leading to the Joker, the Joker comes first and Batman is a response to that.
u/TimeLoopedPowerGamer [+11] Utopian Smut Peddler (8 hours later)
I can imagine him doing consulting work for the police as a detective
If you want to go full-on master detective, have a Sherlock Holmes style consulting detective setup, only with Bruce Wayne, super villains, and a SWAT response team he trains and prepares.
But that's still sort of bland. You need Batman to live in the big DC world, with people who have real powers and seriously scary existential threats to the entire world.
So still have Bruce join the Justice League -- only, he's actually in disguise this time, to protect his more mundane interests in Gotham. I'm thinking, sharp black business suit and a wrap-around domino mask with tall ears. He calls himself The Bat. With his help, they can work out rational plans in advance to counter superpowered international criminals.
Some of his teammates are really scary-powerful, but Bruce doesn't feel the need to match them in physical prowess or eye-laser-shooting. It isn't a contest about who can beat up who, after all. But Bruce is really not sure about that Superman guy. He's an alien who's practically invincible, and accountable only to his own conscience?
Better keep an eye on that one. Seems too good to be true. In fact, given how much mind-control tech is out there, and the frailty of the human mind in general, best to have a plan to neutralize any of the Justice League, just in case. Including himself.
u/trifith [+4] Man plans, god laughs. Like the ant and the grasshopper. (a day later)
This.
I want to read this.
u/TimeLoopedPowerGamer [+4] Utopian Smut Peddler (a day later)
It's gone into my slush pile. Not sure if I'll ever be that un-busy, though.
u/DeliaEris [+3] Fully General Idealist (3 days later)
Isn't like 80% of this canon?
u/TimeLoopedPowerGamer [+2] Utopian Smut Peddler (3 days later)
Not...really? Certainly not all in one continuity.
Batman doesn't train norms (and certainly not police) to fight crime, he doesn't publically consult through official police channels like Sherlock Holmes, he doesn't wear a suit and tie to organize other people into fighting against alien invaders, and he is often shown in comics as being obsessed with personal power and physical ability as a part of his intimidation tactics. Someone else brings a laser vision, he brings anti-laser gauntlets strapped to his utility belt that he then personally uses to punch the lasers -- that sort of thing.
His reasons for finding Justice League weaknesses are also different, as would his more involved and less personally-actualized solutions. There was also my hints at a more Lex-Luthor-like attitude towards Superman and other aliens in general.
u/skepticalguyC2E22012 [+1] (4 days later)
JLA Tower of Babel
u/J4k0b42 [+4] (2 hours later)
I don't see any reason for him to focus exclusively on Gotham though, he could do a lot more good taking the Bill Gates route and setting up charitable interventions in the developing world.
u/VorpalAuroch [+2] Life before Death (a day later)
Because he cares about Gotham and doesn't care about the rest of the world nearly as much.
'Rational' doesn't imply 'altruistic', and there's a lot of space between total altruism and total selfishness for degrees of distance in how large a sphere of interaction you care about.
u/tcoxon [+1] (2 hours later)
I like this vision of Batman best. A rational, rich, Batman detective would be quite interesting to read.
u/Kir-chan [+1] (10 days later)
Wouldn't it basically be L?
u/alexanderwales [+12] Time flies like an arrow (58 minutes later)
Batman makes the most sense as an extralegal detective/judge/jury that can break as many laws as he wants in pursuit of the truth. He wouldn't go after random muggers, he would go after organized crime, and make decapitating strikes at the heads of the criminal underworld. Because he doesn't have to worry about probable cause, warrants, or corruption within the legal system, he can accomplish his takedowns much faster than any police system could hope to do, even one with the funding of Wayne Industries behind it.
He's still use his funding for charitable works, but I think you could make the case for a lone agent working around the law being a boon to the city above and beyond the material costs of being Batman - especially when you factor in the psychological value of having this dark and scary entity that deters crime just by existing.
(And yes, he's got heaps of psychological problems, but there are decent enough reasons that he might not want to deal with them - for example, coming to terms with his parents' deaths might make him lose his relentless drive towards perfection. I see repeated warnings about mental self-modification and can imagine Batman thinking the same.)
u/None [+4] (an hour later)
However powerful he could be as a lone agent, imagine that power wielded towards a reformation of the system for increased efficiency, effectiveness, fairness and accuracy?
I see Rational!Batman as a political powerhouse, outmanouvering the corrupt in the justice system, pushing recruitment of honest and intelligent law enforcement while lobbying for reform of the incarceration system towards rehabilitation. This combined with Rational!Wayne pushing to reduce as much as possible the causes of urban crime, tackling sanitation, education, and healthcare.
Batman, Inc could secretly create an elite force of agents to conduct necessary decapitation strikes, but I imagine causing power vacuums in organized crime would be a bit of a crude tool.
However, there would need to be a response for those who simply refuse to rehabilitate and just "want to watch the world burn". I imagine the Batmen unit could turn lethal in such situations.
u/alexanderwales [+3] Time flies like an arrow (2 hours later)
Oh, I'm not saying that he shouldn't also reform the system, but if that's all he's doing, he's not really recognizable as Batman.
u/None [+1] (2 hours later)
Fair point. Even then I think he'd be more likely to lead a team of Batmen, even while maintaining the illusion that there's only one.
u/Rangi42 [+2] (an hour later)
He does have to worry about corruption within his one-man extralegal system. To avoid becoming just another vigilante, he would have to be good at self-analysis, recognizing his own biases and blind spots. That doesn't necessarily mean modifying himself to be less biased, it just means that he would have to know not to go overboard just because, say, a criminal shot some kid's parents instead of stabbing a childless couple.
u/Nepene [+1] (16 hours later)
Decapitating strikes has a limited effect. There are a great many criminals, many with magical powers, who can resist his attacks and kill a lot of people if he fights them and even if he takes them out he leaves a great number of angry young people itching for the next crime boss.
If he does try to do so, with every strike the remaining crime lords will get stronger, and with this dangerous psychopath on the loose they'll be more willing to ally to take him down, to hire that dangerous clown to end this threat's life. If he takes too long there are other billionaires like Lex Luthor and Ra's Al Ghul and millionaires like Penguin, the Black Mask, Mr Freeze who are working hard with their own sinister goals to subvert the world and who have no problems sending assassins after him.
And his enemies are very skilled and deadly. They frequently beat and captured Batman in the olden days. With an extra boost of rationality they'd probably kill him. This is a lesson he should realize. People who attack mobsters have a tendency to die.
Although it'd be sad, I'd perfectly understand if he made a gentleman's agreement with the other rich folks to not kill each other. Too much violence is distasteful. Much more fun to beat up the lower classes.
u/None [+8] (a day later)
[deleted]
u/None [+13] (a day later)
[deleted]
u/Rheaeus [+0] (3 days later)
I want to see this
u/trifith [+5] Man plans, god laughs. Like the ant and the grasshopper. (an hour later)
Rational!Batman wouldn't be opposed by Rational!Joker (a contradiction if ever I've seen one) but by Rational!Gordon. There's no way the police are going to stand by and let a masked vigilante run wild all over Gotham.
u/VorpalAuroch [+5] Life before Death (a day later)
Rational!Joker is just the Dark Knight version.
He has a really strange utility function most people would consider absolutely insane, but he plans things meticulously, spends no time carrying the Idiot or Villain Balls, plays everyone like fiddles, and, in the end, WINS. (Batman kills Dent, thus breaking his rule, as he set out to accomplish.)
u/rationalidurr [-7] If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! (25 minutes later)
Ok.
Vz whfg znxvat n wbxr nobhg BC whfg cbfgvat n guernq anzr jvgubhg pbagrag.