Batman Inc. (DC Comics)

Batman Inc. has held my attention in a way few multi-character open-ended comics titles have. I just think the concept is way overdue. Why would an orphaned overachiever, born into vast industrial wealth, not eventually find a way to exploit his heroic alter ego by franchising him? Well, he finally has. Batman has always had undertones of capitalism run amok—all the key players (Batman included) are either hordeing cash and jewels to fund extraordinary involved laboratories and subcultures, or (hello, Catwoman) they’re just attracted by expensive shiny things.

The first half-dozen issues of Batman Inc. were about Bruce Wayne (the first and foremost Batman, just back from the dead) inviting a cultural rainbow of fresh recruits to don the cowl and join his new international crimefighting organization, in which a host of specially picked community crusaders have been invited to the don Batman’s signature cowl.

Wayne visited Japan, a Native American reservation and other areas which had bred their own Gotham-esque protectors. But the action has recently shifted to the nuts and bolts of how the corporation will run. A bunch of potential investors, in fact, have just gotten trapped in a computer game! Oracle has to help Batman find a way of the cyber maze! And the old capitalist coots seem positively energized by the experience.

Corporate risk assessment was never like this, and Batman has never been as conscious of the corporate culture which begat him.