the-swift-tricker:
it’s easy to mock the concept of batman’s secret identity and think it’s ridiculous that nobody would realize that he’s bruce wayne but if some lady suddenly showed up late at night dressed in full military grade kevlar and started fighting crime in los angeles i wouldn’t look at that and think "ah it’s kylie jenner
you-got-it-capstar:
Same logic applies to Clark Kent tbh I wouldn’t see Superman, the crazy powerful alien, zooming past me and go “i think he’s secretly an award winning journalist”
the-swift-tricker: "it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…anderson cooper?!
appendingfic:
Me: "sees masked man fighting both crime and police corruption* Me: I have no idea who that is, but it is NOT a billionaire.
spifalling: People don’t even recognise tony hawk without the skateboard what do you expect
livekyoto:
People don’t even recognize Tony Hawk WITH a skateboard, bless them. Source: the-swift-tricker 66,205 notes
And for Batman it’s not even about looks. Batman has a shit ton of super expensive gadgets (the batmobile, batplane, etc.) not to mention it’s all high-tech experimental military shit.
Like, how many people in Gotham can afford those kinds of things and have access to that kind of technology? The list can’t be very long.
I can sort of understand corruption and social inequality being so high that they don’t know which rich asshole is playing vigilante, they would just suspect that one of them is. The armament Batman uses, well Wayne industries would be the obvious explanation, but it isn’t like rich assholes wouldn’t have other options. Who was the rich asshole with a jetpack/high altitude drone flying it near airports in Los Angeles?
Batman would act not only as an example of social inequality and different standards for different social classes because of that suspicion, but as proof that only the rich and powerful can get away with acting like a vigilante while anyone else who does it to just try to protect themselves can’t. It would probably be Joker’s whole reason for being as influential as he is, “what a joke! well, if we can’t be the vigilantes we might as well be the criminals that steal from this corrupt city”.
I think there’s a considerable number of rich people in Gotham who could afford it, but the police is never really going to investigate them, they don’t have the power to even begin preparing the lawyers and the search warrants. They specially wouldn’t begin with the ones making large donations to the city who’s also the owner of one of its major employers.
However, the argument does begin to fall apart when one considers that other companies and industry leaders would want to spy on Wayne and that batman’s “secret” hideout never really changes. Competitors and law enforcement would eventually put two and two together.