this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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If I remember well, Batman does not have superpowers. He’s a guy who’s rich, trains a lot, is smart and due to being rich is able to get great equipment to use.
One could argue that his genius level intellect and his master detective skills (best detective in the world) are borderline superhuman.
Then it could be argued that he was born with his powers
Same if you consider his power being money
Exactly. We see plenty of Bruce’s physical training. But how often is he depicted designing, implementing, debugging, or maintaining any of the software that is guaranteed to be necessary for the majority of the seemingly endless well-beyond-cutting-edge technology underpinning most of his practical abilities and every one of the impressive number of deus ex machinas in the franchise?
OK, so the only logical conclusion is that he (or Fox as proxy) outsourced most or all of it, requiring obscene wealth. Batman fans may not like it, but money is unequivocally the key super power of the troubled Wayne heir, not his genius or inventiveness. Without the money, Bruce becomes a washed-up chess boxing enthusiast at best, or a cop at worst, but definitely not Batman.
How often? Sometimes. A lot less often than we should. But it's indicated that he does design a LOT of the equipment in various ways.
Personally I'd love to see a little less Uber-Goth Batman and more of the World's Greatest Detective.
Yeah I think that was the crux of my disillusionment with the character as a young adult lol: just the constant handwavy “rest of the fucking owl” implication that Bruce has been designing something somewhere between the pages, or well before the story began, when I come to learn that thing is a difficult problem in an active research space, or has been built already but required years and hundreds of engineers and scientists to implement, and the writers apparently didn’t check because Bruce’s technical ability was just a magic hat for the plot
Totally with you. That was something I was happy to see them revive in the Arkhamverse. And they really nailed that aspect of the character in that franchise.
A long time ago, I read that his superpower was, or was theorized to be, luck. No idea if that's canon anywhere.
I’ve always theorized that his power is “superhuman willpower.”
He has the massive will to obsessively train, study, and do all the things he does. Becoming one of the strongest, smartest, and most effectual people alive. I doubt any human has a higher willpower than Bruce Wayne. He has even out-willpowered Wonder Woman’s lasso-of-truth.
I don’t really think that would carry over canonically, or else it would but heads with Green Lantern lore. There are multiple people that seem to have more willpower than Bruce Wayne. I think the only argument to Bruce not being a Green Lantern could be that be likes to instill fear, which us a big no no for the GLs.
There's an Elseworld story where Bruce Wayne becomes Green Lantern.
Even outside of the Elseworlds title, Bruce has worn a Green Lantern ring before. It is the reason the Yellow Lantern ring first rejects him.
True, but wasn't he also the only human (or otherwise, I think) to dodge Darkseid's eyebeams? Admittedly it would take willpower to get to the point of being physically able to do so, but from what I understand of the eyebeams, also quite a bit of luck.
Wait, I thought he did get hit by the beams and they sent him back in time, and through what could only be described as an exceptional demonstration of determination and willpower, he worked his way back up through time- through ages & ages, to confront Darkseid again. Maybe we’re thinking of different storylines?
It's very possible. I've never read more than a handful of Batman comics. A while ago I was big into TVTropes and Wikipedia regarding some superheroes; I'm pretty sure I read there that he was the only one to have dodged them.
That's why I keep providing caveats and prefacing my statements with things like "I read ... " My claims are by no means authoritative and I don't mean to represent them as such.
Actually, the further I type this comment, the more I think my source was the Death Battle research team. I did not follow up with primary sources.
That said, a quick search suggests that maybe whatever I read or watched was referencing the cartoons, rather than the comics. DB, as entertaining as they can be, generally sources whatever favors their desired outcome. If it was TVTropes or Wikipedia, they might not have referenced the source or I might have forgotten.
He's an orc. He's batshit crazy and believes whatever wild scenario that keeps him alive or out of a situation will happen so strongly that the world bends to his will.
At first I thought, not very lucky to have your parents gunned down in front of you. Now I’m thinking how lucky he was to also not be shot. Damn…
Possibly the hypothetical power hadn't manifested, or maybe had done so only in part, at that point.
Iron Man is a better example of a superhero who created powers for himself, but he isn't one of the three most popular
iron man also doesnt have powers, those are his power/battle armor, eventhen he is beaten easily by villians with superpowers.
Yeah, I know, I'm saying he created powers for himself by creating the armour with powers
His superpower is being rich enough to be called eccentric instead of just crazy. You know, crazy, like the label used on all the villains he fights.
The best Batman stories tend to display that the only difference between Batman and his rogues is that Batman's insanity doesn't make him dangerous to the general public.
His superpower is plot armour.
That's the power: gadgets. And also being a genius detective, but largely the gadgets.
So, steroids?