Batman and his need for time to prepare

Batman is one smart cookie. He has dedicated his life to fighting crime, and he has gotten quite good at it. While he lacks the super powers of Superman or Green Lantern, he uses his intellect to come up with ways to put an end to criminals' reigns of terror.

Like James Bond, Batman has a variety of gadgets at his disposal. He is also crafty enough to escape from almost any trap by keeping a level head and, in his words, keeping his wits about him. His strategic planning hit a new high in the Tower of Babel arc in the pages of JLA. In this story, it's revealed that Batman has come up with plans to incapacitate every hero in the Justice League should they go rogue or become brainwashed.

Batman fans, ardent as they are, have decided that Batman can win any fight as long as he is granted time to prepare. I'll buy it with heroes like Superman or Green Lantern, who have obvious weaknesses that can be exploited, but it's getting ridiculous. No matter who you pit the Dark Knight against, the question inevitably arises "Does he have time to prepare?"

Come on, what other character gets that sort of leniency? I know, Batman has a lot of gadgets in his utility belt, but it doesn't house everything. It's not like hammerspace, there's a finite amount of things he can have on hand. Furthermore, while he has gadgets that are useful in many situations, he doesn't have a gadget for every single circumstance. I mean, you do know that the bat shark repellent was a joke right?

While prep time can be useful, it gets to cartoonish levels. No matter how outmatched the dark knight is, the response is always the same. Batman vs. Darkseid: Does he have time to prepare? Batman vs. Galactus: Does he have time to prepare? Batman vs. Cthulu: Does he have time to prepare? Batman vs. Satan: Does he have time to prepare? Batman vs. God Himself: Does he have time to prepare?

Knock it off! You guys really need to stop with that. Unless specified beforehand, you should assume that no, he does not have time to prepare. It's like if every time I pit Superman against someone, I were to ask "Well, does the fight take place in the sun?"

I like Batman, I'm a fan, I read the comics, but this whole "time to prepare" thing is really getting out of hand. While he does his fair share of planning in major crises, that only goes so far. A lot of his ingenuity comes on the spot so it's not like he's losing a major asset if you take away that circumstance.

Let's be honest here, the only reason people have that is so that they can say that he'd build a device to negate whatever it was he was battling against to win the fight, and that's cheap. It defeats the whole purpose of the X vs Y discussions when you give yourself a deus ex machina like that.

The weird thing is that he's the only character who gets it. You would never ask someone who would win in a fight between King Kong and Godzilla or Jason and Michael Myers and have someone say "Does Kong have time to prepare?" It sounds ridiculous in any other situation, but with Batman it's commonplace.  I even adopted an unofficial policy that I dubbed "God-Wayne's Law" that decrees that if the question of whether Bats has time to prepare for a fight is brought up, he automatically loses.

Batman's awesome, you'll get no debate from me on that point. However, I think we should tone down the whole "he can win any fight as long as he has time to prepare" thing because it really is getting out of hand.