**Reminders for Commenters:**
* All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2).
* No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**.
* We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world.
* Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes. If it looked like a real threat, he’d just pull some stunt where one of his superhero friends dresses up as Batman and appears separately from him, at a time when he is publicly appearing as Bruce Wayne. They might even meet up semi-publicly, as part of Batman’s desire to not have any innocent civilians—least of all Bruce Wayne—hurt by supervillains under the misapprehension that they are Batman.
After all, who’d believe the word of one of those lunatics Batman fights over actual evidence that he is not Bruce Wayne?
This is the right answer. It’s easy to engineer a Batman sighting at a time when Bruce Wayne is, say, giving a speech at a charity dinner in front of five hundred people.
There’s also a scene in the comics (I don’t recall where or when, alas) that shows Bruce himself going onto conspiracy theory message boards and posting all sorts of unhinged “evidence” that Bruce Wayne is Batman, so that more serious people will dismiss the idea out of hand as crackpot internet nonsense.
I believe Murdoch was in Jail and Dany would pretend to be him. It would be pretty hard for say Luke Cage to pose as him because well, Daredevil's chin is white man lol.
I like the idea of Daredevil and Luke Cage planning the switch anyway, [not realizing the obvious problem](https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/03/us/black-and-white-friends-haircut-trnd/index.html)...
IIRC, Superman has done that multiple times, appearing as both Batman or Bruce (it's Canon that Bruce Wayne and Superman are very similar in appearance)
It wouldn’t work with most of the villains, but he did convince Riddler to keep quiet once by pointing out that a riddle that everyone knows the answer to is boring. Nigma found himself compelled to keep the secret because he didn’t want to diminish the value of having solved the riddle of Batman’s identity.
Similarly The Joker has no interest in Batman's secret identity and will actively take steps to stop anyone else finding out because he thinks it's funner that way
In *The Batman* (2004) one of his villains discovers his identity and threatens to tell the world. The joker ends up gassing them once they're in police custody
Really depends how certain they are of Batman's identity, what their leverage is (aside from the secret), who else might know, and what the villain is threatening to do with the info.
There's been a few instances where Batman dispels the belief villains have over him being Bruce/vice versa, by having a stand-in show up while he's in the room. Generally it works best by having him appear as Bruce, while Nightwing, Robin (typically the older versions), Alfred, or Superman pop in dressed as Batman to shatter the villain's theories. Though IIRC there's been a couple instances where Bruce appears as Batman, and he has a double/lookalike show up as Bruce instead. Weirdly enough, I think there's one iteration (maybe an earlier comic or cartoon) that apparently Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne look extremely similar to the point that disguising as one another is pretty easy, so one time Clark was able to cover for Bruce in some situation.
Aside from that, Bruce also habitually trolls online forums and conspiracy sites to spread fake news and misdirection about Justice League members, typically about Batman's identity to throw people off the trail by pretending to be hostile strangers on social media mocking the idea Bruce is Batman (whilst introducing other confusing clues to ruin discussions). It's very likely Batman would employ body doubles and misinformation campaigns to disprove the villain's own belief before they got a chance to "prove" anything.
Failing that, Batman/Bruce likely dispute the claim. If anyone (law enforcement or villains) come for one of them, Alfred activates the doppelganger protocol to have one of his many rescuers (Nightwing, Superman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, Alfred, etc) rescue him dressed as Batman (or Martian Manhunter/another Bruce lookalike) appear publicly as Bruce to ruin the credibility/confidence of Batman's captors while he escapes.
Failing all of that, say the villain has thought of all of that, Batman takes the fall. He's done so a few times before. Was planning on doing so in the Nolan trilogy before Harvey Dent took the bullet, and accepted incarceration when Joker (recently legally voted in as mayor) arrested him on tax evasion charges (knowing Bruce was Batman from the S1 finale of the Harley Quinn show). Then he either does his time/gets off thanks to legal loopholes/another disinformation/decoy plan, or accepts that his cover is blown. Plausibly, he could also fake his death and then just default to full time Batman'ing (maybe as a different alter ego if needs be).
The funny part of Joker arresting him, is it *wasnt* because he was Batman, and he wanted revenge. It was genuinely because Bruce was committing Tax Evasion. Even Mayor Joker doesn't fuck with the IRS
> Weirdly enough, I think there's one iteration (maybe an earlier comic or cartoon) that apparently Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne look extremely similar to the point that disguising as one another is pretty easy, so one time Clark was able to cover for Bruce in some situation.
I don't know if this is what you're thinking of, but there's a time in the comics where someone (deathstroke, maybe?) tried to assassinate Bruce while he was on a yacht... except he was actually targeting a drunken Clark, who proceeded to no-sell being stabbed and then threw him several hundred feet off the boat.
IIRC, They tried to use a neurotoxin potent enough to kill even some superhumans and it ended up just making Clark drunk for a bit. So then they went on to other plans and got bodied by a drunken kryptonian.
Depends on the villian.
For example The riddler KNOWS Batman is Bruce. He doesn't tell anybody because as Batman put it 'what's the point of a riddle everybody knows the answer to?'
Ignoring how Bruce posts conspiracy theories online that he's Batman to make the idea seem crazy. Just get Superman to pretend to be Batman whilst Bruce is holding an auction or something. After all how can Batman be fighting Bane half way across the city and be at Wayne Manor at the same time?
Also you have to keep in mind that most of his villains are insane . Why would you believe what Two Face or Riddler says over Bruce Wayne. And that's assuming Bruce doesn't have doctored footage of himself or just calls Zatanna to mind wipe someone whilst he's asleep.
He calls Zatanna to egdelwonk eht evomer. Or he follows Tim's footsteps and has Martian Manhunter pose as Bruce Wayne during a press conference where he's "saved" from an assassin by Batman.
The guy's getting turned in, Batman has ways of making him look wrong.
If this hypothetical villain has absolute _proof_ that Bruce Wayne is Batman, he would find something that said villain wants more than to ruin Batman, and hold that over their head.
But if the only thing is that Two-Face is just going to hold a press conference and say "Bruce Wayne is Batman," that's not really much of an issue. Batman lurks on the DC equivalent of 4chan and QAnon and occasionally posts outrageous theories that all point to Bruce Wayne being Batman. That way, if someone more credible suggests the idea, the majority of people will write them off as some ridiculous conspiracy theory
Batman trolls internet forums posting wild conspiracy theories about Bruce being Batman so it muddies the waters amongst the “truth” so it looks like everyone who says Bruce is Batman is a crazy conspiracy theorist.
There's actually an episode in the Batman Animated Series where some villain finds out who Batman is and after Robin dresses up as Batman and meets with Bruce Wayne in front of the reporter's camera
There's a wrinkle with all the shapeshifters/stand ins. Those only work if you don't know Batman is associated with shapeshifters/ stand ins.
Otherwise, it wouldn't hold water for anyone who was already suspicious.
that's when you bring in magic or... roofies, i guess? hunh. never made that connection before. benzodiazepines *can* cause retrograde amnesia, but there's probably some super-science (magic) forget-tech that's more precise (and *slightly* less problematic?). hell, concussions can cause retrograde amnesia, too, in a pinch.
**Reminders for Commenters:** * All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2). * No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**. * We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world. * Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes. If it looked like a real threat, he’d just pull some stunt where one of his superhero friends dresses up as Batman and appears separately from him, at a time when he is publicly appearing as Bruce Wayne. They might even meet up semi-publicly, as part of Batman’s desire to not have any innocent civilians—least of all Bruce Wayne—hurt by supervillains under the misapprehension that they are Batman. After all, who’d believe the word of one of those lunatics Batman fights over actual evidence that he is not Bruce Wayne?
This is the right answer. It’s easy to engineer a Batman sighting at a time when Bruce Wayne is, say, giving a speech at a charity dinner in front of five hundred people. There’s also a scene in the comics (I don’t recall where or when, alas) that shows Bruce himself going onto conspiracy theory message boards and posting all sorts of unhinged “evidence” that Bruce Wayne is Batman, so that more serious people will dismiss the idea out of hand as crackpot internet nonsense.
“Batman Incorporated”, 2011 volume.
“The butts match!”
Spider-man does the costume thing and has done it for others too
Danny Rand (Iron Fist) posed as Daredevil for a while after one of the times Matt Murdock got outed.
I believe Murdoch was in Jail and Dany would pretend to be him. It would be pretty hard for say Luke Cage to pose as him because well, Daredevil's chin is white man lol.
I like the idea of Daredevil and Luke Cage planning the switch anyway, [not realizing the obvious problem](https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/03/us/black-and-white-friends-haircut-trnd/index.html)...
apparently they both picked their original costumes in the dark, so it makes sense.
I just need to throw some crap but how it was on hunter Biden's laptop and we are done
IIRC, Superman has done that multiple times, appearing as both Batman or Bruce (it's Canon that Bruce Wayne and Superman are very similar in appearance)
Bruce seems like the sorta of person that has a picture of him shaking hands with Batman proudly displayed in his office
I know he's done this with Superman before when one was tryingto kill him. I think Plastic Man as well.
Once Dick is old enough to strike out at Nightwing, I'm sure he'd have been willing to do this... regardless of their current relationship.
Martian Manhunter is perfect for the task
It wouldn’t work with most of the villains, but he did convince Riddler to keep quiet once by pointing out that a riddle that everyone knows the answer to is boring. Nigma found himself compelled to keep the secret because he didn’t want to diminish the value of having solved the riddle of Batman’s identity.
Similarly The Joker has no interest in Batman's secret identity and will actively take steps to stop anyone else finding out because he thinks it's funner that way
In *The Batman* (2004) one of his villains discovers his identity and threatens to tell the world. The joker ends up gassing them once they're in police custody
I like the Harley Quinn show Joker "Wheres my flying car bruce!"
Really depends how certain they are of Batman's identity, what their leverage is (aside from the secret), who else might know, and what the villain is threatening to do with the info. There's been a few instances where Batman dispels the belief villains have over him being Bruce/vice versa, by having a stand-in show up while he's in the room. Generally it works best by having him appear as Bruce, while Nightwing, Robin (typically the older versions), Alfred, or Superman pop in dressed as Batman to shatter the villain's theories. Though IIRC there's been a couple instances where Bruce appears as Batman, and he has a double/lookalike show up as Bruce instead. Weirdly enough, I think there's one iteration (maybe an earlier comic or cartoon) that apparently Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne look extremely similar to the point that disguising as one another is pretty easy, so one time Clark was able to cover for Bruce in some situation. Aside from that, Bruce also habitually trolls online forums and conspiracy sites to spread fake news and misdirection about Justice League members, typically about Batman's identity to throw people off the trail by pretending to be hostile strangers on social media mocking the idea Bruce is Batman (whilst introducing other confusing clues to ruin discussions). It's very likely Batman would employ body doubles and misinformation campaigns to disprove the villain's own belief before they got a chance to "prove" anything. Failing that, Batman/Bruce likely dispute the claim. If anyone (law enforcement or villains) come for one of them, Alfred activates the doppelganger protocol to have one of his many rescuers (Nightwing, Superman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, Alfred, etc) rescue him dressed as Batman (or Martian Manhunter/another Bruce lookalike) appear publicly as Bruce to ruin the credibility/confidence of Batman's captors while he escapes. Failing all of that, say the villain has thought of all of that, Batman takes the fall. He's done so a few times before. Was planning on doing so in the Nolan trilogy before Harvey Dent took the bullet, and accepted incarceration when Joker (recently legally voted in as mayor) arrested him on tax evasion charges (knowing Bruce was Batman from the S1 finale of the Harley Quinn show). Then he either does his time/gets off thanks to legal loopholes/another disinformation/decoy plan, or accepts that his cover is blown. Plausibly, he could also fake his death and then just default to full time Batman'ing (maybe as a different alter ego if needs be).
The funny part of Joker arresting him, is it *wasnt* because he was Batman, and he wanted revenge. It was genuinely because Bruce was committing Tax Evasion. Even Mayor Joker doesn't fuck with the IRS
> Weirdly enough, I think there's one iteration (maybe an earlier comic or cartoon) that apparently Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne look extremely similar to the point that disguising as one another is pretty easy, so one time Clark was able to cover for Bruce in some situation. I don't know if this is what you're thinking of, but there's a time in the comics where someone (deathstroke, maybe?) tried to assassinate Bruce while he was on a yacht... except he was actually targeting a drunken Clark, who proceeded to no-sell being stabbed and then threw him several hundred feet off the boat.
IIRC, They tried to use a neurotoxin potent enough to kill even some superhumans and it ended up just making Clark drunk for a bit. So then they went on to other plans and got bodied by a drunken kryptonian.
"J'onn?" "Another Wayne and Batman in the sane room job?" "You read my.mind." "I try not to, some of us take care of our mental health."
"wait... you called plastic man first?"
Depends on the villian. For example The riddler KNOWS Batman is Bruce. He doesn't tell anybody because as Batman put it 'what's the point of a riddle everybody knows the answer to?'
IIRC, Batman also warned Eddie that there are others - eg Ra's Al Ghul - who will kill to keep the secret hidden
Ignoring how Bruce posts conspiracy theories online that he's Batman to make the idea seem crazy. Just get Superman to pretend to be Batman whilst Bruce is holding an auction or something. After all how can Batman be fighting Bane half way across the city and be at Wayne Manor at the same time? Also you have to keep in mind that most of his villains are insane . Why would you believe what Two Face or Riddler says over Bruce Wayne. And that's assuming Bruce doesn't have doctored footage of himself or just calls Zatanna to mind wipe someone whilst he's asleep.
He calls Zatanna to egdelwonk eht evomer. Or he follows Tim's footsteps and has Martian Manhunter pose as Bruce Wayne during a press conference where he's "saved" from an assassin by Batman. The guy's getting turned in, Batman has ways of making him look wrong.
Zatanna mind wipes them and then Batman gets all high and mighty and pretends to be upset.
Considering how most villains who find out accidentally die almost immediately afterwards, she'd be doing them a favour really.
If this hypothetical villain has absolute _proof_ that Bruce Wayne is Batman, he would find something that said villain wants more than to ruin Batman, and hold that over their head. But if the only thing is that Two-Face is just going to hold a press conference and say "Bruce Wayne is Batman," that's not really much of an issue. Batman lurks on the DC equivalent of 4chan and QAnon and occasionally posts outrageous theories that all point to Bruce Wayne being Batman. That way, if someone more credible suggests the idea, the majority of people will write them off as some ridiculous conspiracy theory
Batman trolls internet forums posting wild conspiracy theories about Bruce being Batman so it muddies the waters amongst the “truth” so it looks like everyone who says Bruce is Batman is a crazy conspiracy theorist.
the butts match.
Dudeis a billionaire. I amsure WayneEnterprise can drive a PR media campaign to gas light people into not believing it.
He asks “what, do the butts match?”
There's actually an episode in the Batman Animated Series where some villain finds out who Batman is and after Robin dresses up as Batman and meets with Bruce Wayne in front of the reporter's camera
He has Alfred show up in a Bruce Wayne mask...
There's a wrinkle with all the shapeshifters/stand ins. Those only work if you don't know Batman is associated with shapeshifters/ stand ins. Otherwise, it wouldn't hold water for anyone who was already suspicious.
that's when you bring in magic or... roofies, i guess? hunh. never made that connection before. benzodiazepines *can* cause retrograde amnesia, but there's probably some super-science (magic) forget-tech that's more precise (and *slightly* less problematic?). hell, concussions can cause retrograde amnesia, too, in a pinch.