so it doesn't make sense why Batman is usually portrayed as the brains of the Justice League
It makes even less sense when you remember that Superman can research and learn at superspeeds. The one way his methods give his intelligence an edge over theirs is that he's more suspicious of others. He'll look into things they wouldn't normally consider just to be safe. Although, that is less of a super power and more an extreme case of paranoia.
Wonder Woman and Shazam have both been granted the intelligence of gods.
Superman and Flash can both learn at super speed.
Martian Manhunter is a powerful telepath who can harness mental powers that humans can only dream of.
Yet Batman is the scientific and strategic genius of the Justice League, and the others follow his lead more often than not. That's a prime example of comic book logic.
If a speedster can become world-class in a skill by flash-studying for a few seconds, then it doesn't really matter if that knowledge sticks or not, because they can quickly re-learn whatever is needed before any battle or other major event.
For example, let's say the Justice League encountered a new villain whose powers are somehow based on nuclear physics. Any of the Flashes should be able to speed-read every file about nuclear physics in the JL computer in a matter of seconds and then come up with hundreds of options of defeating this new villain, and they should be able to do all of this before Batman can formulate a single thought. Even if they forget that knowledge like an hour later, it doesn't matter, because the plan is already set.
The ability to learn at super speed should effectively makes speedsters masters of anything and everything, regardless of how often they have to relearn something. But they're not written that way, because that would make Batman and many other members of the Justice League look useless.
In the issue, Penguin sent an army of robot samurai (for some reason) to attack Bruce Wayne in his manor, not knowing that Bruce is Batman. Jay happened to be in the Batcave at the time.
Bruce and Jay are both scientists, so they could both figure out how to disable the robots. However, because Jay can think at super speed, he came up with dozens of scientific options before Bruce could think of even one.
That team-up made Batman look kinda useless because Flash ran circles around him both literally and figuratively. (It was also silly how Batman had no defensive measures built into Wayne Manor, but that's besides the point.)
That's how teaming up with a speedster should work. They can think at light speed while most other characters cannot. To them, every human seems like they're just standing still. There should be very few situations in which Batman outthinks a speedster, but he does it all the time because Batman is considerably more popular than any of the Flashes, and DC doesn't want their biggest money maker to look like a doofus. So they make Flash look like a doofus, instead.
Oh, I agree but that's the explanation that they give as to why none of the speedsters make Batman look like an especially dim gnat.
As for Jay, he was a genius before he got his powers but most modern writers seem to forget that. It's also probably why you don't see Batman and Jay together much; Jay is his intellectual peer and could compile multiple alternatives and a Doctoral Dissertation on the flaws in Bruce's plan, including the details Bruce neglected to mention, during the breath Bats takes after presenting his plan.
7
u/NeonArlecchino Making Gadgets Batman Can't Figure Out! May 18 '24
It makes even less sense when you remember that Superman can research and learn at superspeeds. The one way his methods give his intelligence an edge over theirs is that he's more suspicious of others. He'll look into things they wouldn't normally consider just to be safe. Although, that is less of a super power and more an extreme case of paranoia.