Is Batman Possible?

Greg Gentschev
Just for kicks, I'm going to take the opposite side of the debate from Mark's brilliant answer. My main problem with his take on it is that it kind of ignores the premise of Batman. In my mind, the question isn't whether anyone could become Batman, it's whether a person with the right situation, talents, and personality could.

Bruce Wayne's parents were killed when he was around 10, so let's assume he starts training then. Plus, he's the heir to a fortune of billions. Those factors solve a lot of the timeline and equipment issues right there.

Does Batman even go to college? I don't think so. In public, he's a dissolute billionaire playboy, and in reality he's an obsessive crime fighter. Neither of those really requires a degree! So he has more time for real preparation. And you sort of have to assume that Batman (Batman!) has an incredible level of motivation as well as intelligence and physical talent.

I do think a "real world" Batman would have to operate a bit differently from what we see in the movies. He would rely a lot more on surveillance, incapacitating enemies from a distance, setting traps and stings, informants, etc. The whole idea of getting into a firefight or fistfight every night just wouldn't work. So you have to interpret those kinds of events as exceptions instead of regular events, which I think is an acceptable read on the comics or movies. Much of his training would be focused on handling and surviving situations where things go awry, but he would try to avoid those exceptions as much as possible. Plus, swinging around town to find crimes is completely unrealistic. That's why he would need more surveillance and advance planning.

Maybe that doesn't sound like Batman to you, but I'm ok with a slightly more realistic version. He would have much of Gotham under surveillance of some kind, and he would spend his time going after criminals the police can't prosecute and organized crime, not patrolling the streets hoping to get lucky.

Phil Wolff
The qualifications are time, effort, focus, technology and youth. Oh, and several folks mentioned money. So let's start with money.

I'm going to assume our Batman (comics, movie and creative franchise) candidate is an American Billionaire. So if you're not one of the 410 people on the Forbes 2011 list of the wealthiest people in the US, you're not going to be Batman. (http://www.forbes.com/wealth/bil...)

Provisioning Batman, even before globalization with Batman Incorporated, is at least a billion dollar project. When you're buying or building cars, computers, weapons, and facilities at the state of the art instead of the state of the market (after the manufacturing learning curve), you pay a stiff premium. Buy secretly and you'll pay even more. To stay a billionaire after spending a billion on your Batfleet etc., you must start with $2 billion. That cuts the Forbes list in half, to 219 people worth $2 billion in 2011.

How about youth? Let's set an arbitrary cut off of 60 years old to allow for the long hours and physical endurance required of the training, the job the public life, physical therapy and counseling at Arkham Asylum. That leaves Warren Buffet out but Larry Page and Bill Gates in. If you're not on this list, you cannot become Batman. (And perhaps one of these folks is already in training or is already leading a double life, but that's another question. I'll leave it as an exercise for our Quora Community to further winnow the list based on talent, aptitude, and inclination.)

Under 30
#52 Mark Zuckerberg, 26. $13.5 B, Facebook.
#420 Dustin Moskovitz, 26. $2.7 B, Facebook.
#362 Scott Duncan, 28. $3.1 B, pipelines.

Under 40
#24 Larry Page, 37. $19.8 B, Google.
#24 Sergey Brin, 37. $19.8 B, Google.
#336 John Arnold, 37. $3.3 B, hedge funds.
#268 Daniel Ziff, 39. $4 B, hedge funds.

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