I'm not a big fan of Batman-prep-time for several reasons. The first of which relates to the Justice League and that is the idea that Batman uses his intelligence to defeat his enemies and the rest of the team uses brute force. I hear this all the time and it really short-changes the other members of the JL. When you read the individual stories of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman etc., they do actually use their brain as much as their brawn to overcome challenges and they have used pre-battle planning. Wonder Woman and Aquaman were trained in battle tactics at a young age, a key element of tactics is learning about your enemy, so there's no real reason why these characters can't utilize prep time. Not to mention, Batman often times relies on his martial arts and gadgetry to win fights, sometimes he will use planning but I don't know where this idea came from that Batman is the most cerebral member of the Justice League. A common rebuttal is that because these guys are so powerful, Batman needs to find some way to stay relevant hence prep-time, but in my eyes if you have to put down 6 characters to make one character look good, you need to rethink the dynamics of the JL.
The second is this idea that Batman can defeat any member of the JL because of prep time. People almost always cite the Tower of Babel arc but if you've read the story, you know that claim is inaccurate because 1) he didn't beat any of them, Ra's al Ghul did 2) Ra's made alterations to his plans because Ra's thought they were inadequate. The point of Tower of Babel IMO was not to show how awesome Batman is with prep-time but rather how his paranoia can be a danger to the team.
The third mostly deals with his fanboys (not fans). They always rag on characters like Superman because they're OP and too unrealistic to be relate-able but then they sing the praises of Batman by saying he's so relate-able and realistic....and he could beat anyone with prep-time. If a character can beat anyone they want..... how are they not OP and how is that remotely realistic. It's also a little amusing how when one looks at a battle forum and people list the conditions for Batman (for ex. full year of prep) and then have him win, it's assumed to be a plus for his character. But giving Batman prep-time in a battle is giving him a handicap, what type of badass character needs that much help to be effective? It's like the fanboys admit that Batman really can't win a lot on his own, he needs to have this, this and this in order to win. Now mind you fanboys of any fandom can say stupid things, I can point out things that Superman-fanboys say that are ridiculous but the topic is Bat-prep.
On another note, the new-52 really did humble Batman a bit regarding prep-time so it's not as big of a problem as before.
Log in to comment