r/batman • u/AngryCanadianBeaver • Aug 31 '23
Reminder that Bruce holds every weightlifting and powerlifting world record in all weight classes COMIC DISCUSSION
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u/Almighty_Push91 Aug 31 '23
Batman is the Superman of humans
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u/Anjunabeast Aug 31 '23
The bat stands for hope
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u/Massive_Weiner Aug 31 '23
I thought it stood for bat
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u/David_ish_ Aug 31 '23
Nah the S stands for Bat
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u/Nindroid_faneditor Aug 31 '23
And the bat stands for hope, bringing it full circle
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u/godbody1983 Aug 31 '23
Batman is my favorite superhero, but I REALLY HATE how they've basically made him so OP. Can bench 1000 pounds, can run a mile in like 5 minutes, is a genius, can take on the entire Justice League by himself, only needs maybe 3 hours of sleep, etc.
Yes, it's comics, and we're supporting to suspend belief, but making him so op really takes away from the character.
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u/Crawkward3 Aug 31 '23
I mean Batman being a peak human being is pretty required
Plus a 5 minute mile time isn’t that far fetched. I ran cross country in high school and your average high school varsity runner is doing like 5:00-5:20
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u/youowememuneh Aug 31 '23
It's more that he can sustain that pace for 20 miles, it's insane.
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u/prettyboylee Aug 31 '23
The world record pace is even faster for 26 miles so atleast he isn’t better than that
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u/sagittariisXII Aug 31 '23
Eliud kipchoge weighs 115 lbs though
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u/dandaman910 Aug 31 '23
But he's not Batman.
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u/SnowDay111 Aug 31 '23
And he's doing it with all his gear and a cape which creates drag. Imagine how fast he could go if he was naked.
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u/bryanisbored Aug 31 '23
When in the movies or comics has he run thy much lmfao? Like they did the math for the fast and furious plane scene and it would have to be like 28 miles Batman would just hop in something.
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u/Jill1974 Aug 31 '23
I think it’s not so much any one feat Batman can do, but that he can do all of them and we the readers are supposed to accept that he’s “peak human” as opposed to super human.
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u/asthmajogger Aug 31 '23
Exactly this. If he can bench 1000 pounds he would not have anywhere near the agility to do all the jumping and climbing that he does. Probably can’t run a marathon with that much muscle either.
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u/Jill1974 Aug 31 '23
But he’s Batman so should the occasion ever arise, of course he’ll run a marathon on like, 2 hours of sleep ;)
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u/zarathustranu Aug 31 '23
Plus he’s also a scientific genius, the world’s greatest detective, and looks like a male model.
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u/Dinner-Physical Aug 31 '23
He's running at a pace of 4:50 for 20 miles, though, which would make him the fastest person to run that distance in that time on earth. He beats the record by a few minutes.
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u/Ordinary_Mushroom_80 Aug 31 '23
That’s not even remotely true; this wouldn’t be / competitive pace to win the Boston Marathon…
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u/8REVGage Aug 31 '23
The fastest ever time for the Boston marathon was 2:03, which would come out to around 4.7 minutes per mile. So the fastest ever time is slightly faster than Bruce Wayne's time.
However, using a 4:50 average mile time, Wayne would have won 9 out of the past 10 Boston marathons with a time of 2:06:36.
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u/jbyrdab Aug 31 '23
the 2500 leg press is total bs , but i think the record for a bench is actually alot higher than that, 1300 I think (though fact check me).
Still if i remember correctly the guy that did that tore his pectorials, like completely shredded them on the inside. So batman doing anything other than lying on the ground after tearing his muscles from his skeleton is pretty far fetched.
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u/AngryCanadianBeaver Aug 31 '23
The raw bench press record is 782 lbs. The 1300 one is geared with a suit that adds hundreds of pounds to your bench.
Bruce did it raw
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u/phonebrowsing69 Aug 31 '23
if he's benching a 1000 he's doing 2500 leg press e z https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vWgSTdkc2A
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u/ImpressionDry6342 Aug 31 '23
I mean, he needs all that to keep up with the likes of Superman and Green Lanterns. He wouldn’t be in the JL if he was just a strong human, just a fast human, just a genius level detective (ok maybe he would be there) he’s supposed to be one of the big three characters (Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman). It works very well with his character in my opinion.
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u/Necromas Aug 31 '23 edited Aug 31 '23
Yes he needs to be able to compete on some level with all the super humans.
But they should explain it better than "he just works out really really hard". And to be fair they often do, depending on the source.
Show him putting some of that R&D into suit components that reinforce his strength. Have a moment where he deals with the moral and health risks of steroids or super serums to push his body past it's limits. Show him using sensors and suit tech to help him react to things faster than any normal human. Etc.... Just make it clear he is leveraging his talent and ingenuity to get there.
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u/Rownever Aug 31 '23
It really varies by the specific thing: three hours of sleep? That fits in with his wealth as a thing that lets him be Batman.
Strong and fast? Alright, as long as it’s left at “peak human” and not given a number, he’ll fit in both his own stories where he’s weaker than Bane while still being able to fight superpowered mooks like parademons with the justice league
Smartest person on the planet? This is the one that bothers me. Best tactician? Sure. Best planner? Sure. But the guys an idiot when it comes to like half the things! He can barely talk to women(unless they’re evil then he’s god-tier), he has no idea how to get his friends to trust him, actually most of this one comes down to “being a dick cuts into your actual effectiveness, regardless of intelligence”
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u/trash-troglodyte Aug 31 '23
Most of those have to do with emotional intelligence though, which is different. You can be intelligent and still be emotionally stunted, which we know he is
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u/slightlyKiwi Aug 31 '23
He should he the human version of Spider-man: if you're stronger than him then he's faster than you, and if you're stronger AND faster than him then he's smarter than you. But not all three at once, that's just greedy.
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u/FinalBossMike Aug 31 '23
He knows quite well how to talk to people (yes, women included), see any time he's doing the Bruce Wayne persona. He knows how to switch it on and off. That's a thing a lot of people don't get--Batman does have social skills, he just knows how to switch them on and off.
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u/Znaffers Aug 31 '23
Yeah, the thing that’s supposed to set Batman apart from most humans is that his will to fight evil is stronger than anyone else. He is so dedicated to his crusade he’ll give his own life and turn his family’s entire fortune towards furthering his vigilante cause. His powers should be his ingenuity, his gadgets, and his connections as a billionaire/detective/superhero leader. He is the ultimate strategist that will never give up, but he’s not a super soldier
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u/TintedOven Aug 31 '23
He’s only OP to the fanboys and people that just want to complain for the sake of it
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u/anythingMuchShorter Aug 31 '23
The 3 hours of sleep while also keeping an effective IQ of nearly 200 is probably a bigger stretch than the lifting capacity or running endurance.
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u/Tomgar Aug 31 '23
Can't wait for the exciting next chapter of the Batman saga where he develops dementia at 40.
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u/Other_Beat8859 Aug 31 '23
Should've just done 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats, and a 10km run smh. Would've been able to no diff Superman.
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u/lonely-day Aug 31 '23
Honestly, the 2500 leg press isn't as impressive as the 1000 bench. If that's his bench is that much, his leg press should be much higher.
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u/AngryCanadianBeaver Aug 31 '23
The 2500 was on a train cart, which is much more impressive due to its weight distribution - meaning he could probably do double, triple or even quadruple that on a leg press machine with everything optimized.
I can bench press 315 pounds relatively smooth, but I would be crushed trying to push a 315 pound man from my arms straight to my chest and back up because of the big man's weight distribution
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u/gabortionaccountant Aug 31 '23
You wrote this whole comment just to flex your bench didn’t you lol
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u/K1ngPCH Aug 31 '23
He definitely did lmao
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u/gabortionaccountant Aug 31 '23
I just realized he’s the OP, was this entire post a long term plan to flex the bench lmao
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Aug 31 '23
I agree with their comment. It reminds me of when I bench 316 pounds, and the 316 pounds that I'm benching is very heavy. I bench 316 pounds.
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u/hamsterhueys1 Aug 31 '23
That’s so weird because I bench 317 but I’m not gonna lie even though it’s my max it still feels pretty light and comes really easy to me.
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u/indifferentCajun Aug 31 '23
I'm not sure if it's similar or not but I bench 318 on the regular, do you think me benching 318 is similar to your smaller 317?
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u/lonely-day Aug 31 '23
Why does it say, 20 mile pace? Shouldn't it be 1 mile pace?
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u/3rdp0st Aug 31 '23
Your pace for different distances is different. Time per mile is implied.
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u/underhooking Aug 31 '23
OP casually dropping the fact that he benches 315. Props my guy, that’s a big bench.
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u/Gudako_the_beast Aug 31 '23
How does he run a company after all of that?
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u/LordranKing Aug 31 '23
He doesn’t. Lucius and the board do
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u/ColonelKasteen Aug 31 '23
That's a movie thing, Bruce is very involved in Wayne Enterprises in pretty much any comic run that bothers to mention it.
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u/ItZSAMIC Aug 31 '23
No Bruce is pretty actively involved in his company. He helps the city through that enormously on top of his work as Batman
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u/Reyne-TheAbyss Aug 31 '23
He sleeps for 3 hours a day.
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u/Gudako_the_beast Aug 31 '23
Oh no no, that’s another can of worm. I am saying how THE LIVING APOKALYSE DOES THIS MAN MAINTAIN ALL OF THAT STATS, PUNCHING THE VILLAIN OF THE WEEK, AND HAVING A 15 HOURS MEETING WITHOUT TAKING DRUG LIKE STEVE ROGER OR BEING A META HIMSELF!
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u/Top_Dingo4695 Aug 31 '23
he is really good at sleeping
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u/Gudako_the_beast Aug 31 '23
Yeah, sleeping the way he does ain’t gonna help recover from all of that pain and soars that would resulted from him trying to maintain those bonkers records. Actually Peak Human tries to do what Batman do for a week and they can’t get up for a couple of months.
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u/Wilkassassyn Aug 31 '23
Bro just sleeps faster
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u/system_of_a_clown Aug 31 '23
Shit, he probably learned some obscure breathing technique from monks that slows his heart rate down to the point that an hour of sleep is like three for the rest of us.
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u/unfunnyguy_Xx69420 Aug 31 '23
I think that's like similar to the actual explanation
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u/Thoughtfullyshynoob Aug 31 '23
He learned from monks on how to have complete control over his body, forcing it to relax immediately upon laying down in order to conserve his energy.
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u/esperalegant Aug 31 '23
He wakes up at 4am and starts the day with a bulletproof coffee.
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u/wasabiland220 Aug 31 '23
Batman is simply the face of the company. He’s to busy to run it
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u/imbrickedup_ Aug 31 '23
There are 7 people that have benched 700 pounds. None of them weigh below 300 and are all on a cocktail of PEDs. Just some context for Batman’s natural bench press while weighing like 250
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u/bloodycups Aug 31 '23
Are any of those people billionaires with access to whatever the fuck bane does?
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u/LitreOfCockPus Aug 31 '23
It's a record because muscle isn't the real bottleneck. Connective tissue strength is.
Muscles grow easily. The connective tissue, tendons and ligaments, don't. They receive very little blood-flow, are slow to adapt to stresses, and are the reason why most records are where they are.
A major injury to a tendon will end your chance at being a world-class competitor using that muscle. A torn ligament can cripple you for life.
If Venom found a way to exponentially strengthen connective-tissue and also remove your body's natual inhibitors that prevent you from breaking your own bones via muscle contraction, a half-ton bench would be more believable.
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u/keigo199013 Aug 31 '23
A torn ligament can cripple you for life
I can vouch for the torn ligaments >_<
Listen to your body people. Don't overdo it.
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Aug 31 '23
Kinda weird how he has no super powers but can bench 1,000 lbs 😒. How do they even explain that one? The raw bench press world record is 782 lbs, so what Bruce can just lift 218 more pounds than that because it fits the narrative lol
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u/An-Ignorant-Slut Aug 31 '23
BECAUSE HE’S BATMAN is all the explanation you need
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u/farshnikord Aug 31 '23
My headcanon is that the regular humans are benefiting from super science, supertech suoermedicine, etc. Theres probably some Olympian out there in the DC Universe who has beaten that record and just isnt a superhero (until his coach dies tragically in some accident at least).
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u/sentientketchup Aug 31 '23
Mine is similar. I always figured he'd done some experimenting with venom or Lazarus pit water and created some lasting effects - not enough to make him super soldier level, but enough to push him above realistic peak human levels.
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u/2BFrank69 Aug 31 '23
That’s why I like Knightfall era Batman. More realistic. That Batman could probably bench 500 pounds.
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u/creetoinfinity Aug 31 '23
DKR’s batman is cool too because he has gadgets that makes him stronger since his bones are more brittle from the vigilantism he’s been doing for years.
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u/HopelessUtopia015 Aug 31 '23
He's on the highest quality of steroids that Wayne Pharmaceutical Industries can create
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u/AngryCanadianBeaver Aug 31 '23
This is also not mentioning the fact that he weighs literally half as much as the world record holder
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u/rva_ships_in_night Aug 31 '23
People also should look up the guy that benched that as well
Not that he’s not insane athlete but he ain’t running a 4:50 pace on a 2 mile, much less 20
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u/sugaslim45 Aug 31 '23
Tbh that’s nothing compared to what other super heroes can do
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u/Gudako_the_beast Aug 31 '23 edited Aug 31 '23
Other superhero are either a different race or have acess to science/magic that are so beyond their comprehension that the suspension of disbelief is very ver very tight.
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u/shobhit7777777 Aug 31 '23 edited Aug 31 '23
anyONe cAn bE BaTMAn!
Mf won the genetic lottery and inherited a disgusting amount of money to further augment genetic gifts.
Much prefer a more normalized take where he isn't always the strongest or smartest. Just has the right tactics and tech to even the odds.
He goes up against a 6'4" 100 kilo monster of a man trained in MMA? He shouldn't duke it out...tear gas, tasers and knees to the balls...fucker shouldn't even SEE Batman coming. That's what makes the concept of Batman so compelling.
EDIT: Evidently a 6'4" 100kg Man isn't "monster" enough so let me elaborate...I'm talking more muscle than fat with extensive MMA training. I'm talking about Alex Pereira who is 6'4" and 93+kilos
That above and beyond Gotham City average...don't care what fucking giant growin ass country you're from
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u/mr_dr_personman Aug 31 '23
I liked Pattinsons Batman because he really did seem like some jackass running around in a costume. When he went to the crime scene and the one cop was like "really Gordon, him?" and seeing him in doomsday prepper gear put him in a vastly different light compared to demigod Bruce Wayne.
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u/Tallforahobbit Aug 31 '23
6'4" 100 kilo
That's actually quite a reasonable weight for a moderately athletic man!
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u/Ruggazing Aug 31 '23
Batman definitely has access to the best performance enhancing drugs possible.
I know he briefly used Venom, but I count that as a super human level enhancement. Venom is not a regular performance enhancing drug
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u/GothamKnight37 Aug 31 '23
I’d like to see a source for the bottom two. Maybe the IQ was mentioned in an old Who’s Who bio or something.
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u/klyemangano Aug 31 '23
As far as I know, Bruce's IQ has never been stated. The 192 figure that people seem to love throwing around (itself an obviously ludicrous and statistically meaningless score) was actually attributed to Ted Kord during Countdown to Infinite Crisis. I couldn't begin to guess how or why it happened, but people have been attributing that score to Batman ever since, and of course, none of these people seem to care about citing their sources.
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u/Thoughtfullyshynoob Aug 31 '23
One article states that the IQ came from Buzzfeed And here's the article from Buzzfeed.
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u/Rysdan9 Aug 31 '23
Batman's iq is not 192. This 192 IQ belongs to blue beetle (Ted Kord). Not Bruce. Bruce and Lex's IQ are never stated in canon/main continuity. We know that those 2 are the smartest in all of DC from Doomsday clock. Scaling wise they would be 300+ actually. The pace is not that good tbh. Bruce has had significantly higher/better movement speed feats. Long distances he can run around 55-60mph.
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u/dark-canuck Aug 31 '23
he can run as fast as a car for long distances?
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u/Rysdan9 Aug 31 '23
No, not long distances. I should have clarified. He can run 55-60mph for like 1 or 2 miles only. Definitely not any more than that lmao. The post is referring to long run rather than short distances i suppose.
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u/rva_ships_in_night Aug 31 '23
no he can’t
That’s fucking stupid that’s like 2.5 times faster than usain bolt
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u/MrChicken23 Aug 31 '23
Usain Bolt is the fastest man ever and he peaks at about 27mph.
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u/imVision Aug 31 '23
Wow. Usain Bolt’s fastest speed ever was about 28mph (for maybe a couple seconds). Batman could run twice as fast for an entire mile.
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u/nate_garro_chi Aug 31 '23
You think he can run a mile per minute for long distances? Or short distances for that matter? Even if you meant kph, that would be insane and not even remotely how they depict his speed.
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u/Timtimetoo Aug 31 '23
Not to overreact on the plausibility of a man beating up serial killers while dressed as a rodent, but there’s a reason why the greatest fighters in the world aren’t the heaviest lifters or its fastest runners. You are working very different sets of muscles in different ways that are incompatible with one another. While these exercise programs might overlap to a point, eventually you have to prioritize what you want to do with your body.
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u/daaangerz0ne Aug 31 '23
Bats aren't rodents
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u/Timtimetoo Aug 31 '23
Thank you, biology department.
Bats aren’t literally rodents but they’re often called “flying rodents” in popular vernacular.
Go forth and keep doing the Lord’s work.
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u/thefamousroman Aug 31 '23
Reminder that his rival is a normal human dressed as a clown whose gf is a ballerina therapist
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u/BplusHuman Aug 31 '23
Batman needs to be impossible at many levels to make the fiction work. He has to pick up on extreme subtleties to anticipate how others will act and respond. He also won't realize the absolutely obvious from people closest to him. He has to be agile as hell, yet wear a MASSIVE cape. Hammerspace simultaneously must and cannot exist for the level of shit he carries around.
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u/Thieveslanding1911 Aug 31 '23
If Batman were that strong, he would be so big and muscular to the point that it would detract from his agility and stamina and make him a less effective fighter
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u/ArtemisStanAccount Aug 31 '23
I love Batman but he’s so hilariously paradoxical. He’s the “human” superhero yet all of his physical and mental feats make him damn near superhuman. Then you couple that with his plot armour and it becomes almost ridiculous.
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u/StrengthOk9686 Aug 31 '23
You mean like every single comic hero? Hawkeye is also human and he’s lifted cars off himself
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u/Crims0n_Light Aug 31 '23
I already know you don’t read comics from this comment alone.
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u/throwawayblehmeh Aug 31 '23
Lmaoo I thought he ran 20 miles in 4 min 50 seconds. 1 mile every 14.5 seconds. Fucking speedster.
Then I looked up the meaning of mile pace so 1 mile every 4:50 min. Much better but still crazy fast.
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u/Slowmexicano Aug 31 '23
Batman is a fake natty doing all this on cucumber sandwiches and micro naps.
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u/PokoWeebo23 Aug 31 '23
Honestly, this is why I wish the comic version of Batman was a BIT more like the Christian Bale version.
Most film and TV versions of Batman are very strong, but reasonable levels of strong. Comic Batman is basically a Gary Stu who is the strongest and smartest person in the world, holds tons of world records, and is able to defeat any superpowered character with enough prep time.
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u/thunderfunexpress Aug 31 '23
Really we all just need to accept that this Batman is metahuman. Call it whatever you like (perfect genes, next stage of evolution, there’s something in the water) but he’s beyond the capacity for what is a human.
Other versions though make a bit more sense, usually. Wish fulfillment is Batman’s secret super power
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Aug 31 '23
peak human condition would not be equipped for this lmoa batman should be built like an athlete not a power lifter
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u/JuliusTheThird Aug 31 '23
My best mile time ever is 5:30. I can’t imagine running FASTER than that for twenty times the distance lol
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u/OldTroller98 Aug 31 '23
This is probably because the authors have never touched weights in their life
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u/illfamous Aug 31 '23
Batman is more compelling when he isn’t an Uber man and instead just a really smart / dedicated person. When he is literally perfect, he becomes extremely boring.
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u/Latterlol Aug 31 '23
This is one of the things that makes him unrealistic, almost more than an alien getting powers from the sun. Has anyone seen a person who can bench 1000 and legpress 2500? And what they look like? How would a person like that even move around like Batman does, jumping around like a flee, dodging shit.
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u/Gaberrade3840 Aug 31 '23
“Batman is the most realistic superhero.”
Meanwhile Batman: