If you don’t mind so much about the perception that there is only one person, you should check out the old Mission: Impossible show.
1 Brain
1 Master of Identities
1 Enchantress/con artist
1 Strongman
1 Inventor
The material in your second link seemed familiar. I checked, and the text in the Watchmen DVD website is copied directly from Wikipedia.
It’s pretty much not a secret. She might not be public knowledge, but every meta-hero, and at least the meta-criminals she’s dealt with through the Birds, or who have techy gimmicks, know of her existence, though she keeps her identity well hidden - I’m not sure if anyone outside of the Bat-family and Superman know who she is, and at least one one crook (Calculator) was convinced she was a man, despite the feminine name and avatar.
And every meta-hero knows how to get hold of her if they need to - anyone who doesn’t have her number has the number of someone who does - and can ask her for help - the Justice League does fairly frequently.
And she did tell the Bat to get bent, as did Robin…both of them forgave him, though Oracle didn’t go back to operating out of Gotham - first Metropolis, until Misfit making a big mistake pissed off Superman, now Platinum Flats, California. Tracking the person who was the source of the problem in Metropolis to Platinum Flats was a bigger reason for the move than the pissed off Superman, but that didn’t really help.
The movie version of her costume strikes me as similar to the Incredibles uniforms, especially the black boots and long gloves. Coincidence?
Even if you weren’t a “big chicken,” would you be willing to wear such silly clothes in public? No one would take you seriously, and you’d get nothing done.
Not that I’m being picky or anything, but ideally shouldn’t there be silk somewhere on that costume?
You’re right; I’m behind the times. Thanks to Tengu for the catch-up.
Hasn’t this come up in the JLA? Wasn’t Batman royally ticked at Zatanna for messing with his mind?
Doesn’t do it for me. Nite Owl must be an ass man.
IRL, I would guess that most people who posess the personality to do what Batman does have already joined either some law enforcement agency or the military.
Bah. Just because there were a few hiccups in the testing and development process is no reason to scrap the whole program. That’d be like giving up on spaceflight because of the V-2 or Vanguard failures; or psychosurgery because Walter Freeman was a deluded icepick wielding butcher! 
…or refusing to take the neccesary steps to protect the public from murderous evil because you’d rather cling to your personal morals for the sake of your own peace of mind. ::cough::
True enough. Costumes only work if you are first seen in them while streaking through the air catching a plummeting aircraft in your bare hands. In such circumstances, the what-the-fuck factor outweighs sartorial criticisms. After the WFTF wears off, simple prudence prevents people from questioning your choice of attire.
Batman is an asshole. Or, to be more clear, he LACKS an asshole, which i why he’s so full of shit. The energy fueling his nightly madness comes from enormous and congenital constipation; he excretes bililrubin only by punching people.
Re. costumes- In one version of the Batman genesis, Bruce Wayne briefly tried being “just” an anonymous vigilante in non-descript clothes and ski mask. He ruefully remarked “they didn’t FEAR me!”. So in other words, Batman’s costume is supposed to get three messages across to criminals: 1. This guy is a psycho. 2. This guy is a dangerous psycho. 3. “Aw shit, I don’t think this guy is human!”
Which leads me to wonder. The original reason for adopting the persona of Batman was supposedly that “criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot”. Now if you were really trying to start an urban legend among street scum that something out there eats gang members and drug dealers for late dinner, I don’t think the Batman suit would cut it today. So what would? Hollywood-level makeup as a monster? Body armor and weapons designed to make you look like some sort of cyborg death machine? Remember, these criminals have seen any amount of real danger and death. About the only thing they fear is the muzzle of a gun, and Batman doesn’t use those. So what would instill paranoid, the-Darkness-has-come-alive fear out on the street?
What kind of personality joins the police/military? Just out of interest.
Batm…cough…Buran
That would be Frank Miller’s Batman Year One.
Well, you kind of put your finger on the fatal flaw of Batmanology. Turns out that the superstitious and cowardly tend to compensate by shooting at you a lot more. So the project is really a non-starter unless you also manage to master the ancient Himalesian art of "“Outrunning a Bullet-Fu.”
One that wants to serve a greater good and/or wants to right wrongs and wants the authority and the tools to do it. Not EVERYONE who joins the military or a law enforcement organization has this mindset, but I think a lot of the people who have that mindset and a desire for direct action rather than say, the route of being a politician or a lawyer, would wind up in the military or law enforcement. Rather than a masked vigilante…
Well, if Batman, or the hypothetical costumed hero, doesn’t kill…that doesn’t technically preclude using dead things as part of his “look,” does it?
Just dig up some graves/get ahold of some corpses through legal, “gray market,” or other means, and stalk the night covered with blood, maggots, and large chunks of identifiably human remains. Skulls, organs, bandoleers of skin, wear someone’s face like a mask…stuff like that. You’ll either look like a murderous psycho ghoul, or a murderous literal ghoul.
Might make JLA meetings a bit awkward…though at least it precludes being invited to charity auctions by Gotham Gertie.