The Bat signal - I don't get it

[Mutate]

Wouldn't the buildings looking down on police headquarters just be full of criminals with sniper rifles when the symbol is lit

[Sanagi]

My girlfriend has numerous complaints about Batman, first among them that he doesn't use sonar. I can't really argue with that.

[Choppa]

Sure, if you apply logic to Batman it doesn't make sense, but then so do a lot of other things. Bottom line- it's a comic.

[rwe1138]

If only Gotham Central was still around to adress this. :(

[The Zapper]

Do you believe the rest of it?

[jadrax]

It does occasionally happen, of course it never works.

Firstly, if your a criminal you don't take the fight to Batman unless your insane. And if you are insane you probably don't want to just shoot him.

Secondly, if you do try it he spots you and hits you with a batarang from behind, because trying to take Batman on his home turf is never going to work.

[shaxper]

Here are some thoughts of mine that (as far as I know) aren't canon, but make complete sense, anyway:

1. Batman probably has some sort of surveilance equipment set up around the rooftop for just such a reason.

2. Swinging down onto a rooftop is a very quick action that even the most accomplished of snipers would have trouble making a target out of.

3. The cape definitely makes his body a more ambigious target. Much harder to aim for a major organ.

4. Batman doesn't stay for very long, and often doesn't make eye contact with Gordan for long, either. I'm willing to bet he's very conscious of his surroundings and trying to get out quickly. An accomplished sniper still needs a good amount of time to position and aim for a target. You don't want to fire and miss, or Batman will be on you in a second flat.

[HeckBoy]

Plus, wouldn't the fact that aiming at Police HQ be a bit reckless? Granted, a sniper could probably get away with it pretty quitely and pretty quickly, but I'm sure shooting at the building where all the policemen work is sure to give the cops extra motivation to catch the sniper.

[The Xenos]

Bah. This Batman is a myth that the GCPD made up to scare criminals. THe Bat signal is just a giant propaganda piece to enforce this scare tactic.

Heh. Actually, I belive the signal has been targeted a number of times.

[filthysize]

That exact scenario happened in Gotham Central. A sniper was just waiting for the signal to be lit, and fired when Bats arrived.

[Jack]

Well, the question you should be asking is why would Batman just hop onto a roof without making sure it was safe? He's smarter than you, after all.

[Citizen V]

I can imagine that the Batsignal is outdated,and should be left to history..but for a nolstalgia sence..they keep it.

[vazel]

Firstly, if your a criminal you don't take the fight to Batman unless your insane. And if you are insane you probably don't want to just shoot him.
Not to mention the bat signal is on top of a freaking police station. That's good guys HQ! What bad guy would sanely go there?

[The Zapper]

Not to mention the bat signal is on top of a freaking police station. That's good guys HQ! What bad guy would sanely go there?

The Joker. Read the Gotham Central "Soft Targets" and check it out. Oh wait...you said sane. HAHAHAHAHA!

[OverMaster]

The Joker. Read the Gotham Central "Soft Targets" and check it out. Oh wait...you said sane. HAHAHAHAHA!

He also did it in an issue of Doug Moench's Catwoman run, and even Pre-Crisis, in the Batman/Hulk crossover.

[Choppa]

IMO no criminal should be daring enough to try to snipe Bats because criminals are suipposed to be "coward and supperstitious" by nature, so they would too terrified of the signal to even go near it.

[mattx110]

Wouldn't the buildings looking down on police headquarters just be full of criminals with sniper rifles when the symbol is lit

there's a 1 in 8 chance that batman chooses to swing onto the HQ from the roof you chose to snipe from. in that case, you delivered yourself to the police at a time you knew batman was going to show up. you will be laughed at forever.

[The Zapper]

there's a 1 in 8 chance that batman chooses to swing onto the HQ from the roof you chose to snipe from. in that case, you delivered yourself to the police at a time you knew batman was going to show up. you will be laughed at forever.

Lol. That's great.

[dreyga2000]

With that kind of logic why don't crminals every pay snipers to sit on rooftops a aim at police headquarters to take out cops?

Gordon is probably just as annoying as The Bat

[CBikle]

The Bat-Signal still makes sense. Sure Gordon could discuss sensitive info through telephone, email or Bat-IM, but all of that could be traced or recorded.

When Batman talks to Gordon on the rooftop (which I'm sure has radio-jamming, noise-baffling and other anti-surveillance measures), the face to face talk allows Gordon to tell Batman stuff "off the record" and vice-versa.

[IamtheRock3]

when the last time in real life though any criminal made an assult on the police station

I mean if where going to add REALISIM in this


Joker did it, but you know dudes kind of crazy

[mgs]

My girlfriend has numerous complaints about Batman, first among them that he doesn't use sonar. I can't really argue with that.

haha. LOL! :D but to the first post, no. do you know how hard that would be to accomplish?

[Agentum]

Ok, it's a comic book, most thing with Batman and his stuff is not very realistic.
But i guess it looks cool and so on.

The common criminals is just plain stupid to do anything about Batman.

I ,mean try to sving around in a city on a rope and see how good it will work, it's just one of these things that has to be in a Batman book.

Even if i think the hookpistol he used in the animated movies was good, it would work, (many other superheroes like Daredevil or such use things to swing around with that wouldnt work at all irl), but maybe not to swing you around the whole city.

The bat-signal is stupid yes, but it's supposed to both scare the criminals that Batman is about to come around and to signal to Batman.
I guess it's one of those things that will stay, like Batman has never been photographed and so on even if we even have seen him being on national television several times, and runing around with his JLA friend in the middle of the day etc..........but still nobody has really seen him.

blahblahblahblah comic book stuff.