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  1. #1
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    Default Can Batman, the World's Greatest Detective, solve these real life mysteries?

    Batman is transported to the real world. He will act in character for the duration of his time here. While he won't have the Batcave transported here, he does have a Rick and Morty style portal gun which he can use to travel to the Batcave and grab anything he might need.

    Round 1: Can Batman prove that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, who murdered him, unravel any larger conspiracy involved, and if so get these people arrested? He was one month.

    Round 2: Can Batman prove that Jimmy Hoffa was murdered, where the body was buried, who was involved, and get anyone still alive who was involved in the crime to go to prison? He has one month.

    Round 3: Assuming that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone, can Batman definitively prove who was involved in the JFK assassination and why, and get anyone who is still alive arrested? He has one month.

    Round 4: Can Batman discover the identity of the Zodiac Killer and get him arrested if he is still alive? Batman has one month.

    Round 5: Can Batman decipher the Voynich Manuscript? He has one month.

    Round 6: Can Batman discover who was behind Cicada 3301? He has one month.

    Round 7: Can Batman definitively prove the existence or nonexistence of alien life in our universe(Not the DC Universe). For this one, he has a year.

  2. #2
    She/Her Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh's Avatar
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    Yes. He operates on a scale far beyond what's possible for us.

    /limit
    Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran

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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh View Post
    Yes. He operates on a scale far beyond what's possible for us.

    /limit
    There's no doubt about that. What I was wondering was to the *how* he would solve these mysteries. Batman comics for the most part don't really go into Bruce's methodology beyond having crazy gadgets and the batcomputer.

  4. #4
    Extraordinary Member Pendaran's Avatar
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    That's because in general comics writers aren't mystery writers. It's not that Batman doesn't have showings that demonstrate having a big shiny crimesolving brain, it's just that it's asking a lot from your average comics writer to show that in ways other than crazy gadgets and the computer or having Batman turn out to know something others don't or etc.

  5. #5
    nice to meet ya! master of read's Avatar
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    honestly, it's kind of hard to show that part of batman in live action since most directors focus on his physical abilities. for me, there really hasn't been a live action batman portrayal that really captured his incredible deductive mind. mostly because, like pen said, most comic writers aren't mystery writers.

    that being said, i can see him solving these cold cases pretty convincingly.

  6. #6
    Astonishing Member Shellhead's Avatar
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    Since we're all about the feats here, maybe it's worth looking at how Batman tends to solve mysteries, then consider if those methods are relevant to these real world mysteries.

    I'm not the biggest Batman fan, so I'm more familiar with the various tv, movie, and animated versions of Batman than the comic book version. With that caveat, it seems like Batman often solves mysteries Sherlock Holmes style, by spotting a detailed clue that he can automatically associate with a very specific location in Gotham City. That won't work well for any of these real world mysteries, because none of them take place in Gotham. Another way is that Batman finds a local criminal who tends to know about related criminal activity, then hangs that guy off the edge of a tall building until he spills the beans. Again, that won't work in the real world, because Batman wouldn't have that knowledge of criminals outside of Gotham. A third way would be bringing back a possible clue and running it through some kind of lab or computer analysis for the aforementioned sort of Sherlock Holmes deduction. That could work okay, assuming Batman is able to bring those resources into the real world.

  7. #7
    Extraordinary Member Pendaran's Avatar
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    As far as the comics, he's solved various mysteries by having a vast, advanced encyclopedic knowledge of science and what all have you that's basically impossible for anyone from, y'know, reality, to have.

    Or he'll look at crime scenes and within little time at all have analyzed them beyond what a full forensics team could do, so forth. He figured out the nature and way to resolve Julian September's probability cancer reality distorting thing (though not quiiiite in time to not be done up by it himself) just from deductive reasoning.

    He should be able to tackle all these fine, between stuff like that and being able to take trips back to use his resources.

  8. #8
    My Face Is Up Here Powerboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shellhead View Post
    Since we're all about the feats here, maybe it's worth looking at how Batman tends to solve mysteries, then consider if those methods are relevant to these real world mysteries.

    I'm not the biggest Batman fan, so I'm more familiar with the various tv, movie, and animated versions of Batman than the comic book version. With that caveat, it seems like Batman often solves mysteries Sherlock Holmes style, by spotting a detailed clue that he can automatically associate with a very specific location in Gotham City. That won't work well for any of these real world mysteries, because none of them take place in Gotham. Another way is that Batman finds a local criminal who tends to know about related criminal activity, then hangs that guy off the edge of a tall building until he spills the beans. Again, that won't work in the real world, because Batman wouldn't have that knowledge of criminals outside of Gotham. A third way would be bringing back a possible clue and running it through some kind of lab or computer analysis for the aforementioned sort of Sherlock Holmes deduction. That could work okay, assuming Batman is able to bring those resources into the real world.
    You kind of get into a conundrum because one method is the Sherlock Holmes method which is deriving facts from physical evidence that could not possibly be derived from the physical evidence in the real world. That is to say, he only knows it's evidence because the writer says it's evidence and that he can derive the things he does from it. But he does it, both Holmes and Batman.

    For purposes of this scenario, the OP is stating that Batman gets all of his crime-solving abilities that he has in the comics which means he would solve all of these mysteries in relatively little time. The movie versions may be another story.
    Power with Girl is better.

  9. #9
    Super Moderator The Watcher's Avatar
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    Batman easily solves everything thanks to the portal gun he was given. He just conveniently sidesteps to a universe where the crime or mystery has already been solved and then uses the knowledge he picks up there to go after clues to solve it in our universe.
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  10. #10
    Prince of Duckness Beadle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Watcher View Post
    Batman easily solves everything thanks to the portal gun he was given. He just conveniently sidesteps to a universe where the crime or mystery has already been solved and then uses the knowledge he picks up there to go after clues to solve it in our universe.
    This is now my head-canon.

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