Batman is a great character and arguably the most famous “normal” superhero. But would you consider Batman as having powers. From his meditation techniques to straight up outrageous feats. What do you think?
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While Batman is no meta. His tactical & strategic capabilities are greater than any “hero” in the DCU, even the brains of Superman and Mr. Terrific do not surpass him in this. Is that truly a power rather than a developed skill, I’d say the latter.
With that said, Batman his hardly “normal”. He’s got WAY to much psychological baggage to be considered “normal”.
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Batman has been shown to use astral projection, would this count as a power?
Would you consider a highly trained olympic athlete super?
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Bruce is the farthest thing from “normal.”
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Bruce is kinda like a himanized Dracula 
Bruce Wayne isn’t “normal” and comics have broached before.
He’s not a normal human. It is impossible for a normal human to accomplish what he has done.
Bear in mind he’s mastered not only sixteen forms of martial arts, that takes around 10,000 hours to do for one. That is 625 16 hour days of constant practice. Though only around 3,000 hours to add a style or 188 additional days. So, assuming he did gruelling 16 hour days of non-stop training (not even eating, recovering from injuries, or using the bathroom) that takes 9.43 years we’ll add 0.07 years to account for easy math and that time though that is unbelievably short and that level of training is impossible.
Now we can assume that he had to graduate high school so, since he was 8 when his parents died that means 10 years give or take.
In those 10 years we can assume that he could tack on learning how to fly a combat jet, drive a race car, and then become a master boatman.
So we’re up to 19.5 years.
Then he needs to master four unrelated fields to PhD level.
Psychology, Criminal Science, Engineering, and Chemistry.
Each of those takes 8 years. We can give Batman the benefit of the doubt and say he dual majored.
So that’s another 16 years.
So we’re at 35 years.
Now we get into the real nitty gritty.
Batman also needs to be trained in acting (4 years) advanced medicine (6 years) escape artistry (4 years) gymnastics (10 years) stage magic (yes, that’s in the comics) and pick up a whopping 12 foreign languages to the point of fluidity (1 year per) so that’s 36 years.
We can assume that Bruce can somehow do three of these simultaneously.
So that’s a whopping 12 more years.
47 years.
That’s also at maximum rapid pace non-stop higher than human capability training.
That’s not even counting the fact that setting up the batcave, and his equipment, which he did with just him, Alfred, and Harold (depending on continuity) which would’ve taken an additional 5-7 years.
On top of ALL OF THAT he needed time to build his playboy persona AND go to business school.
Add to his 8 years as a normal (but rich) child and you get a MASSIVE 55 years of time before Bruce goes out on patrol.
Bruce. Is. Not. Normal.
Richard Dragon? Vice Sage? Those guys are normal.
Bruce Wayne is normal…in comics. He is a genius tactician which is possible. He does have a genius intellect as well which could have propelled him through school abroad at a rapid rate. It’s been done before. There’s nothing new about a young lad graduating from college. Again, it’s been done. He didn’t become Batman till around 27 and went abroad extremely young. He’s had about 17 years to train and learn everything he needed to rough up some thugs. A lot of his feats did not happen in Year One. They happened well after…
It comes down to what is considered/defined as “normal”. Is “normal” an IQ of 100? If so than Bruce is not “normal”. If one takes the premise that “normal” is having no genomic properties of “meta”, than it can be argued that Bruce is “normal”.
Using the latter definition of normal I disagree with how that math adds up. Once one has mastered an area. That foundation is applicable to other areas. If you learn Latin, it is then much easier to pickup any of it’s associated langues much quicker because they are all based of off of Latin. Looking at Psychology, Criminal Science, Engineering, and Chemistry. He may not need PhD level knowledge of every single area of each of those. Only those areas that are applicable to his “mission”, and certainly no need to spend the year+ required doing a PhD thesis. Acting, escape artistry, & stage magic have many of the same foundations. Much of which is physical and likely more quickly picked up by someone who has a very established physiology and knowledge of physical movement based on martial arts and gymnastics.
Not to mention that historically Bruce can operate with much less than 8 hours of sleep. He is well capable and highly functioning often when awake and working 36-48 hours straight.
As for schooling just through high school. He had enough money for private tutoring that could be, given his intellect, been done in much less than 12 years.
Each of his skills has dependencies on others, but, by the same token each skill can be more quickly and easily mastered.
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He is highly motivated.
That’s a really good point, DeSade-acolyte! Bruce does tend to use related knowledge when picking up new skills, which would make it much easier to adapt and learn.
I’m, personally, inclined to agree with Night_Child here, especially when you view Bruce within the canon of his comic book. People with above-genius level intellect are relatively common in Gotham. Many of his villains, even those who later develop their own abilities, began as “normal” people who happened to be geniuses within their own world. Whereas if Pamela Isley were a doctor in ours, she’d be considered one of the most dangerously intelligent people on the planet long before she became Poison Ivy.
What do you think, guys? Is it possible to make a one to one comparison of Batman characters to our world with that in mind?
I consider Batman to be as superhuman or perhaps more so than Superman and Wonder Woman. I find stories that emphasize his “humanity” to be the least interesting, where him as the infallible detective or flawless fighter are much more interesting IMO. It’s why I love the Scott Snyder stuff so much.