Batman’s Control Over His Body Is Basically a Superpower

Warning: contains spoilers for Justice League: Last Ride #3 and Batman: The Detective #4!

Bruce Wayne famously doesn’t bring any metahuman powers to his work as Batman, relying on peak physical fitness, staggering mental discipline, and the finest gadgets, body armor, and combat vehicles money can buy. But while the Dark Knight may not be enhanced in the traditional sense, his control over his bodily functions borders on the superhuman, allowing him to achieve physical feats that may as well just be “powers.”

Of course, the charm of Batman is that he verges on the impossible while staying just believable enough in any given adventure for the reader to set aside their disbelief. As Alfred says in 2020’s Batman #98 – from James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez – Batman is “a child’s dream. That you can travel the world and learn every possible way to save everyone.” The sheer variety of abilities Bruce Wayne picked up in his years of training is what sets him above other well-trained fighters, but his absolute control over his physical functions takes him beyond traditional combat expertise.

In the recent Batman: The Detective #4 – from Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert – Bruce Wayne is poisoned by a fanatical group dedicated to killing off everyone Batman has ever saved. Convincing his attackers that he’s not the Dark Knight, he’s handcuffed to the table and stabbed, but eventually left alone to break free and seek help. The only reason Batman survives the poison in his water is that he’s able to consciously slow his heartbeat and lower his metabolism, delaying the poison’s effects until he can reach a pharmacy and concoct a way to stave off the cyanide using his knowledge of toxicology.

Releasing the same day, Justice League: Last Ride #3 – from Chip Zdarsky and Miguel Mendonca – takes place at a time when the League has fractured following the death of the Martian Manhunter, and the team are forced back together for one last mission. Hiding out on Apokolips, Superman and Wonder Woman volunteer to keep watch, with Batman assuring them that, “I can fall asleep in seven seconds and only need two hours. So don’t hesitate to wake me if need be.” Following dreams of Martian Manhunter, he also shares, “I don’t dream. Unless I decide to. The subconscious is helpful with some cases.” This likely contributes to his ability to process inhuman amounts of stress – demonstrated when Darkseid attempted to clone Batman in Final Crisis, only for the clones to die from the cumulative psychological toll of receiving his memories.

But those abilities are only from the most recent comics. In Batman #108 the Dark Knight resists the Unsanity Collective’s Mind Machine thanks to having trained to repel psychic attack, in 52 he underwent forty-nine days of isolation in an extreme meditation exercise that Tim Drake later notes (in Batman R.I.P.) “could just as easily have driven him insane,” and throughout his career he has proved the ability to adjust his voice and body language both to mask his own identity and assume that of others, such as mimicking the voice of Blockbuster’s brother in Detective Comics #349. Batman is so accomplished at this that his undercover “Matches Malone” identity has held up even in front of people who know him as Bruce Wayne and Batman.

It’s no surprise that the Dark Knight has a huge skill set, that’s the point of the character, but what sets these abilities apart is his mastery over his own body. Many fans have asserted over the years that Batman’s money is his real superpower – one he recently lost in the Joker War – but a far better candidate is his ability to so totally assert his will over his physical processes. Needing to rest only two hours a day, capable of duplicating the mannerisms and voices of others, equipped to withstand psychic attacks and poison that would kill or incapacitate anyone else, and able to control his pulse and breathing so precisely that even Superman can’t tell when he’s lying, Batman may not officially have superpowers, but his control over his body brings him close to that line, even before factoring in the bizarre skills – including hypnosis, escape artistry, and whittling – that allow him to survive as Gotham’s protector.

About The Author

Robert Wood
(398 Articles Published)

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Robert Wood is a comics editor for Screen Rant and the author of ‘The False Elephant (and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories).’ He received his Master’s in English Literature from Lancaster University, and now happily spends his days applying it to Daredevil and the Hulk.

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