Liam 
It’s canonical that Batman is just a weird guy in a suit. Cloth ears, mask, cape, no special powers at all. So what’s to stop competitor Batmans? When commissioner Gordon lights the Bat-signal who’s to know how many Batmans would rock up and then who authenticates the ‘real’ one?
Does Bruce Wayne spend significant time putting down competitor Batmans like a mafioso protecting his own shakedown territory?
Put it another way: Batman seems to exist as an inexplicable monopoly over being a weird guy in a suit [good]. And there is obviously very low barriers to entry for weird guys and girls in suits [bad] in the premise. So what’s going on?
Deborah Pickett@liamvhogan I feel that if any comic has addressed this question, it is The Tick.
Biggles 20X6!@liamvhogan ping @thewetmale we have have the trifecta again
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Hangover - We Are Back Baby
JP@liamvhogan that's why Batman has so many gadgets and vehicles: only the real Batman could afford the capital outlay in R&D and manufacturing. The outward display of disproportionate wealth is how he authenticates himself.
@daedalus I think this is getting closer, that wealth concentration creates a very high barrier to entry for new Batmans. But that doesn’t seem to hold true for villains, who display the same capital-intensive and labour-demanding (of hired goons) activity?
@liamvhogan look around you. Goons are cheap and plentiful. Hell, there are lots of people who will happily volunteer for free if they get a chance to do violence to people they perceive as "other", especially when they feel shielded from consequences by the wealth of their patron.
Also: Batman exercises restraint (no guns, no direct killing, a unified and somewhat restrained aesthetic). Think of the rich people you know who have neither taste nor restraint. Of course they're villains.
@liamvhogan *galaxy brain* of course, one could argue that Batman is also shielded from consequences by his wealth, and his taste and degree of restraint is questionable at best, making him a villain as well.
@daedalus @liamvhogan It feels like you’re saying that they’re all sociopaths and that Batman is presented in a better light because it’s his people writing the account?
@futzle @liamvhogan *gestures broadly at reality* where is the lie?
neoluddite@liamvhogan it explains why there have been so many different batmans over the years.
You can't have Adam West batman any more, he got bat-clubbed over the bat-head with a bat-iron pipe back in 1988 by Michael Keaton, who put his bat-feet in bat-concrete and made him bat-sleep with the bat-fishes