Two puzzles about the Bat-signal:
a) What happens if Commissioner Gordon needs to contact Batman in the daytime? Or on a night that doesn’t have low-lying clouds? I can see why the tv version installed a Batphone.
b) If I were a Gotham City villain, I’d hole up with a rocket launcher in a building near the one with the Bat-signal. Then when the signal comes on I know Batman will soon be on the neighbouring roof. I watch, I aim, boom.
The tv versions also had overconfident villains that put Batman in ingenious but flawed death traps instead of just shooting him outright. I can see why the movie versions introduced body armor.
Batman Begins/The Dark Knight answers both of these questions.
1. Bats are nocturnal. Bruce Wayne sleeps during the day.
2. In TDK, Gordon says that Batman doesn’t usually show up when the signal is used. The thug with the rocket launcher would have a long wait. I’m not sure a LAWS rocket or something small would kill Batman, because of the armor, but it would kill Gordon, and that might set off a huge manhunt. Such a plan would ultimately be self-defeating.
But wait, who says Batman doesn’t investigate the surroundings before appearing? Maybe he spends hours looking around for snipers first.
Possibly, but that would make for boring television. “Batman’s log: Street Corner A-23. I have finished this section, and finding nothing but used cigarettes and a sleeping homeless guy, I’m moving to A-24″.
“addendum to previous entry: beat sleeping homeless guy to a pulp, for the fun of it. Some nights, it’s good to be alive”.
Ah, so it’s the Frank Miller version.
Of course, even if they did shoot the building Batman was on, he’d still find a way to survive. Cuz he’s the Goddamn Batman.
“Or on a night that doesn’t have low-lying clouds?”
In Gotham City, there are no such nights.