It occurs to me that a paranoid like Batman would probably experiment with having a secret team of people with insider information on various DC organizations. How can he properly prepare without insider information?
This isn’t necessarily a team of solo superheroes like Batman’s old DC team, the Outsiders. It would more likely be a group of loosely formed operatives from a variety of agencies acting primarily in advisor capacities as well as having access to specialized abilities and equipment. I’m thinking retired superheroes, active villains, government/scientific officials, key supporting casts of other superheroes, etc.
A key component would be influence and control. Batman would somehow be able to compel these people to work for him. Lex Luthor would be the ultimate DC tech/industrial insider but there’s no way Batman would work with Lex without plenty of safeguards.
Let’s arbitrarily set the limit at four, excluding Bats himself. Who makes your cut for the Insiders and why?
There’s not really many people in the DCU that Batman would trust, and would trust him, who are part of any of the government organizations or major superteams.
Nightwing. OK.
Sacha Bordeaux. Check. (Er…pun not intended.) But I doubt she’ll be able to work with Bats too long before Max finds her.
Anyone in the Justice League? Nope, no trust in either direction any more.
The Titans? He blew it with Robin, and the other Titans will follow Robin when it comes to the Bat, I’d think.
DEO and its child organizations? They might try to recruit HIM, but I don’t think he could pull off an insider otherwise. He might be able to pay off some low-ranking functionaries, but that’s not much use to him.
Justice Society? I don’t see it happening. They’re a close-knit team. I don’t see anyone turning coat for Bats.
Birds of Prey? Blew it with Oracle, doesn’t trust Huntress or Black Canary.
So, he could have an eye out in the Outsiders and Checkmate (as long as Sacha survives and the Outsiders trust Dick), but that’s about it.
Tengu. You’re absolutely right about trust issues if Batman were building an alliance. But I’m suggesting the Insiders would be more at people who are in a position to unconventionaly feed Batman critical information, albeit in some cases very reluctantly. That’s why I suggested super-villains, retired heroes and supporting characters as possible recruits.
I’m not suggesting these insiders wuld supply him with information about how to defeat their teammates per se, but there may be critical channels of communication he would get good (and timely) intelligence.
Robin still reports to Batman, he just works in Bludhaven now. That has as much to do with his father’s death (which Bats has nothing to do with) as the whole Spoiler fiasco. Tim’s at least as close as Dick is these days, but with direct oversight. Bruce offered to adopt Tim, and he almost took him up on it, until a long-lost Drake appeared.
Oracle’s the same. They parted on more or less decent terms. She’s not working closely with him, but if she found out something Batman really needed to know, she’d pass it along.
The Justice League… Well, Hal’s the only current member that was involved in the mindwipe. Wally was horrified when he found out, and Green Arrow, at least, regrets it now. This is as likely as to split the team as it is to turn it against Batman.
And then there’s Superman. Batman and Superman are BFF again now. Superman would resent being asked to spy on the League if it came to that, but there’s a ton of mutual trust.
Robin #138 adds a twist to the “long-lost Drake” angle. But I agree with you… I think that the estrangement between Robin and Batman (and between Batgirl and Batman) has been exaggerated. Infinite Crisis will likely have a big impact on his relations with others, of course. As an aside, am I the only one who thinks that the OMAC Project is too similar to the Tower of Babel plotline?
[spoiler]In it, Superman and Wonder Woman are on screen when he’s talking about the Justice League betraying him.
And when he reveals that he created Brother I, Superman and Wonder Woman were outraged. And when Superman prevents Booster from blasting Batman for getting Ted killed, he talks about assigning blame later, which is clearly not letting Batman off the hook.
Batman has, once again, lost the trust of the Justice League, and is going to have to do more than reveal his real name to get it back this time. All because he can’t separate the Justice League from Zatanna, Hawkman, and Atom.[/spoiler]
There was also a preview of the upcoming JLA story when the League has to deal with Batman’s mindwipe:
Wally calls the guilty Leaguers in to tell them that if they don’t confess to Batman, he will. Hawkman is furious, but Green Arrow and Hal both want to do the right thing. Martian Manhunter is also horrified to learn that the League has been altering minds.
Trust Batman? Maybe, maybe not. Most of the League will sure as hell sympathize with him. Batman has the moral high ground here.
I agree that this store is too similar to Tower of Babel to pack much punch, and, as in that case, I don’t see what the big deal is. Body swapping, evil twins, turncoats like Hal. It’s a damn good idea to have anti-hero contingency plans, and the means to carry them out. All we can really fault Batman is his piss-poor security. Maybe the next Batcomputer will be a Mac.
That last bit is hillarious. Someone needs to look in a mirror. Or has he forgotten the White Martians?
No, he doesn’t.
There’s a big difference between ‘what Zatanna, Hawkman, Flash and Atom did was wrong’ and ‘what Batman has done is right’.
Batman regularly sets himself as the one unaccountable arbitter of what is right.
He has declared himself uncorruptable, the only person who can be trusted to police the metas.
Of course, if they all get mind-controlled or go bad collectively, he’s going to be taken with them, and when they go individually, it’s not Batman who reigns them in. The big guns keep eachother in check. Batman’s contingency plans are useless to the good guys, but very helpful to the bad guys.
And, since the heroes don’t know what he’s got in store for them, they can’t keep HIM in check. And he’s a very, very dangerous man, even without them.
A does not justify B, nor does it make Batman trustworthy, or likely to earn/keep any friends.
Batman betraying Superman, Wonder Woman and every other person in the League doesn’t become OK because 4 did something bad and 3 couldn’t come up with a better option.
:: whistling :: FWEEEEET. HEY. :: Sam Jackson voice :: Tengu. Yo, chill, muthafucka, chill. Remember the OP? We’re gonna be some lil’ Fonzies up in here.
Poison Ivy. Next to Catwoman, there is no femme fatale that would be more willing to work with Batman and keep tabs on Gotham’s criminal underworld than Ivy. She’s usually in the loop on Gotham criminal activity – the gangsters, the career crooks and the crazies – to can give Bats the inside scoop at what’s going on at Arkham and the jail – and has the plant elemental thing, to boot. True, she’s batshit crazy. News flash: all of Batman’s women are batshit crazy.
Lois Lane. It would make sense for Batman to have a closer reciprocal relationship with the most influential journalist in the DCU. She’s got top-notch investigative reporter skills and a knack for digging for dirt.
Zatanna. Batman runs across the occult often enough for him to need a magic expert. Her role in the mindwiping scandal would give him pause, but Bats would prefer to keep her close after learning about her role anyway.
Bronze Tiger. A personal favorite, the Tiger could provide insight into DCU’s black ops organizations and help hone Batman’s fighting skills – it’s established that he’s superior to Bats as a hand-to-hand combatant though ranking below Sensei and Lady Shiva. Like Poison Ivy, Bronze Tiger is not adverse to killing when necessary – a frankly brutal trait Bats needs on his side.
And I’m confused as to what I might have said that could be taken otherwise.
I’m also not following how this is supposed to work without trust going both ways.
If Batman can’t trust he’s getting good information, and they’re not holding out on him, or telling people he doesnt want to know that he’s been snooping around, what’s the point of the group in the first place? And if they can’t trust that he won’t turn on them, how can he trust that they’ll give him full and accurate information and not rat him out?
But you disagree, and my arguing the point is clearly stepping on your fun so, I’ll leave off the arguing of that point.
Trust issues out of it:
Captain Boomerang. The Rogues would be useful for keeping an eye on the Twin Cities - both the criminal and heroic communities - and Boomerang’s the one easiest to work with.
Lex Luthor. I know you discounted him in the OP, but, this is trust issues aside, and, having ultimately similar goals, and the vast amounts of information Lex has access to - and control over - it would be worth the effort of putting safeguards into place to work with him.
Trickster I. The ex-Rogues he works with, and the DEO would be an invaluable source of information.
Dr Fate. A connection to the mystical realms would be useful under any circumstances.
Yeah. We’re getting off on a tangent here. Needless to say, The OMAC Project and Johns’ upcoming JLA arc will shed light on how Batman and everyone else react to their mutual betrayals. We’re just speculating now.
Didn’t Bruce train with her dad? Yeah, she might be a good choice if he can get over the whole “mind-rape” thing.
Another good occult contact (if he even exists now, stupid Byrne) is Jason Blood. Hell, throw Etrigan in (although nobody trusts him too far), and Batman’s got a mole in Hell. Throw in Zauriel, and he’s got a contact in Heaven, too (although no one spies on Him, Zauriel at least could pass on information on, say, when the endtimes are gonna start, or if so-and-so has passed on to a final reward or if they’re just faking again).
Any of the Metal Men (Doc Magnus included) would be a good in to the world of Super-Science. Since they’re all robots, you get the added feature of playing back what they observe, instead of just relying on what they report.
I think I first mentioned my equivalent opinion on the subject a month ago.
Batman disdains magic, to an almost irrational degree - I also think he’d be reluctant to keep Etrigan as a contact to that realm - Jason Blood, on the other hand, is likely, if Batman chooses to have a contact of the arcane.
Jason Blood, then; Nightwing; Oracle; and Mr. Terrific II or Green Lantern I.
Batman considers Terrific a worthy, as evidenced by his borrowing of Terrific’s T-Spheres; they also share a background of lost family members. Terrific’s physical and technical expertise is a tremendous asset.
On the other hand, Alan Scott has been around a long time; Batman probably feels he has a very accurate picture of Alan’s character; Alan’s a fellow Gothamite, and a socialite as well.