I get the “boy suffers great trauma, vows to fight crime”.
I get the “boy spends adolescence training in numerous fields to become a Doc Savage-like warrior”.
What I don’t get is how this guy lasts longer than ten years, tops, before his body basically breaks down and he can’t get out of bed without cracking a rib or two. If DC is going to continue insisting that Bats is 100% human, then the only solution is to have a series of “Batmen”, one following the other seamlessly through the years, much the same way The Dread Pirate Roberts or The Phantom operates. An “unkillable” Dark Knight would strike even greater fear in the hearts of villains, and techniques could be perfected and passed on.
Batman is human in the same way James Bond and Indiana Jones are human. That is to say, they’re only “normal humans” within the context of their fictional worlds. Superheroes (and Batman in particular) were originally outgrowths of pulp heroes, who have never been noted for their realistic physical abilities. Most humans (even normal ones) in the DC/Marvel universes are able to recover from wounds that would cripple a real person. This is the baseline against which Bruce Wayne needs to be compared, and not actual human beings.
Also keep in mind that, by editorial dictate, all of DC’s heroes have only been active for seven years, or less, from the current issue. I think Marvel does something similar, but it’s not as explicit. Iron Man’s origin story was originally tied to the Vietnam War, but as that became untenable with the age of the character as portrayed in the comics, they’ve moved it forward to whatever third world bush war the US has most recently been involved in.
That being said, they’ve actually done something not too dissimilar to your idea in Batman. There have been (to my inexpert knowledge) three different people to wear Batman’s cowl. Bruce Wayne, of course, but also Jean-Paul Varley for a short period, when Batman was incapacitated by a broken spine, and more recently, former Robin Dick Grayson took over when Batman was apparently killed by Darkseid. When Bruce inevitably returned, he allowed Dick to keep the name, and started recruiting and financing additional superheroes around the world as part of a global anti-crime initiative called Batman, Inc.
Hi Opal!
Sorry, bu that’s all the reponse this post deserves.
Edit" TO whit, you are swallowing the elephant and choking on a gnat.
I am not the original Batman.
The original Batman is in a nursing home in Patagonia.
There was the animated series “Batman Beyond” that basically went with this idea, or at least a semi-realistic take on it. The aging Bruce Wayne was only able to keep doing it because he had a supersuit to assist him. Eventually even with the suit he’s no longer up to it, and retires. A teenager discovers his secret, and uses the suit to make himself the new Batman, in a way.
There was decent respect given to the issues that this brought up. Terry (the kid) doesn’t have all the proper training or the same motivation that Wayne had. And Bruce Wayne is somewhat reluctant to allow him to endure the same life he led. So it wasn’t just “you’re the new Batman, have at it”.
Prior to the relaunch it was, depending who you asked, either 10 or 12 years.
Since the relaunch, it’s 5 years for most (explicitly stated as when Action and JLA are set)…longer (though I don’t know if they’ve said specifically how long) for the Bat, who was active a bit longer, but without being public.
On a related note, one of the only parts of Daredevil which didn’t totally suck was the scene (perhaps the opening bit?), where he returns from a night of presumed crime-fighting all beat to shit and back, strips down to show off his bruises and scrapes, sucks down a bottle of painkillers and hobbles off to bed like a 90-year-old.
I always imagined that was part of Alfred’s job in the early mornings, getting poor Bruce home, shaved, and into some sort of sleep before he had to appear and be dapper for a day of rich person life.
I haven’t followed comics in a long while, but I understand this is exactly what recently happened. The new Batman is former Robin/ Nightwing Dick Grayson now.
Also, in the eighties all DC titles were relaunched from scratch, after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, rejuvenating all characters.
Dick is no longer Batman. He went back to being Nightwing with the relaunch. (He still WAS Batman, for some time, but he isn’t any more.) Also, for a long period, both he and Bruce were both Batman. It wasn’t clear if anyone outside the hero community knew there were two Batmen at that point (although someone could presumably have cross-referenced known activity, and noted he was at two places - in two countries in many cases - at once, at several points…it’s just a question of if anyone ever bothered).
Not actually the case. Only a couple titles were completely rebooted in the 80s (IIRC, only Superman, and Wonder Woman… also Hawkman, although that last was the result of something of a miscommunication, IIRC)…like with the current relaunch, Batman only got some relatively minor changes post-Crisis - IIRC, the only major change was a complete revamp of the Robin at the time, Jason Todd, to make him less like Dick in personality, but more in appearance (ie, he was no longer a red-head in a wig, his hair was naturally black, but he also was no longer an orphaned acrobat, but rather a street punk that Bruce felt needed guidance).
Kurt Busiek in Astro City has done the Dread Pirate Roberts thing for two different characters. (Spoilers for some nearly decade-old Astro City storylines):
[spoiler]Crackerjack, who is sort of a Spiderman-like wisecracker who relies on training and gimmicks (though under the mask he’s black), is actually the 3rd of that name in the current continuity (as of the ASTRO CITY: FAMILY ALBUM trade paperback); the first died, the second was the son of the first who discovered his father’s secret somehow, and the third is the second’s protege, who took over the role after the second Crackerjack decided to retire when his wife became pregnant.
The Confessor was a Batman-style vigilante who was secretly a vampire. After he sacrificed himself to save Astro City, his sidekick (and non-vampire) Altar Boy trained for five years and took over the role.[/spoiler]
DC did it themselves with the Flash and Green Lantern, but then they’ve gone and made a huge mess of those transitions.
And to be honest, I refuse to look up what they’ve done with Starman after James Robinson’s run.
All apologies, but you’re thinking of Jack-In-The-Box; Crackerjack is the swashbuckling glory hound with the v-neck costume that shows off his white-guy chest hair.
Emma Frost: Breeding, darling. Top class breeding.
He’s a Wayne after all.
Whoops. “And be glad I don’t sue you for using infringing the “Jack” trademark.” Ah well.
No, they didn’t.
Wally MAY have tried to masquerade as Barry, at first, I’m not sure (he did wear the same costume at first), but he did a lousy job of it - hanging around with the Titans, instead of the League, for instance. The fact that he obviously wasn’t Barry was a major part in the reformation of Pied Piper - it just wasn’t fun tangling with anyone but Barry, so there was no reason to stay a villain.
Wally’s pretty much always been clear on being a legacy, not the same guy.
As to Green Lantern…there’s no way that the Earth-based Lanterns could pass themselves off as the same person, without a more covering costume than any of them have ever worn - of the 4 Green Lantern Corps members on Earth, we have a brown-haired white guy, a red-headed white guy, a black guy, and a black-haired latino. By the 80s, Hal, Guy, and John weren’t even wearing very similar costumes. So, there was no way they’d be passing as the same person, even ignoring that, save for before the introduction of Guy and John, and the period between Emerald Twilight and the recreation of the Corps, chances are at least two of them are serving at the same time, though they don’t necessarily all have the same status within the Corps. (Currently, all but Hal, who’s been given a dishonourable discharge, serve.)
They’re not even a legacy - they’re a team.
In the wake of Alan Scott (blond white guy).
I was sticking with the Corps, since the post-Crisis history with Alan being in the same reality comes after the introduction of 3 of the 4 characters mentioned.
Again, though, my point was that even then he’s still obviously a different guy by dint of being the only blond in the bunch.