How would Batman handle Coronoavirus in Gotham?

[gregpersons]

It occurred to me while reading the news that Batman's armor & usual modus operandi would be particularly useless against a viral pandemic. His face is exposed! Doesn't matter if you've got the BvS Armor if you keep getting dude's blood on your face.

"Contagion" and "Legacy" address the idea of a plague in Gotham -- right in the middle of the 90s Bat crossover and also part of that mid/late 90s wave of contagion media -- and the Clench isn't terribly dissimilar to Covid-19, although it's obviously more comic-booky and exaggerated.

"Contagion" particularly, and "Cataclysm" later, address the thematic idea of Batman's mission changing when the threat becomes environmental / existential -- his helplessness in relation to the scale of it, and ultimately finding meaning in helping individually to the extent of his energy and ability.

However the specific mix of things happening now with Coronoavirus in the real world would present a different challenge.

---Maintaining social isolation / quarantining

---Creating and deploying tests and vaccines

---Incompetent / greedy government and corporate control and management

---Overextended hospital and health teams

---The degree to how seriously to take it, since it's not a plague that makes you grow green spots, but is one that will cause mass death

---It might be safer for Batman to not physically interact with anyone else and he's forced to conduct as much Wayne/Bat business as possible remotely and with drones.

It seems to me the only answer would be for Batman's endgame -- he would take complete control of Gotham in a police state. Wayne Enterprises could dedicate all resources to curing / testing as much as possible, over-fund every hospital, etc. He could throw magic money at the problem on one end, and on the other end, use Batman drone tech to enforce curfews and minimal contact until the disease has been fully controlled.

The crime rate would drop to 0%

And from there, why would Batman ever loosen his grip?

He's solved the problem. He's in complete control.

Seems like a cool story is possible in that area. It's kind of like "Injustice" with a bit of the mostly unexplored premise in "kingdom come" but for "Batman rules Gotham like Bane" --- "Breaking Bad" but with pharmaceutical drugs instead of meth in the "Batman" universe.


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Anyway I'm just also opening this up to slightly OT discussion of if social distancing is giving time for re-reading or finding new Batman books / media. What are you reading / watching?

[Restingvoice]

He'll loosen it because he doesn't want to be in control. His ideal Gotham is the one where they don't need Batman anymore. So once the danger passes, he'll return his usual focus on uprooting criminals and corruption, securing Arkham, relying on Gordon and the good team of GCPD.

Controlling Gotham sounds like something 90s Azrael would do though

[Confuzzled]

Like in Snyder's All-Star Batman, he'll broker a deal with Ivy to come up with a cure.

[Frontier]

There would probably still be crime going on even if the city was under quarantine, so I would expect he'd still be out there making sure the city is safe while the villains try and take advantage of it.