Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero Book

Foreword James Kakalios Kakalios, James

Pt. I Bat-Building Blocks: Exploring what Batman became by beginning where he started

Ch. 1 The "Before" Batman: How Buff Was Bruce? 3

Ch. 2 Guess Who's Coming for Dinner: Bruce's Twin Brother, Bob, and the Human Genome 11

Ch. 3 The Stress of Life: Holy Hormones, Batman! 30

Pt. II Basic Batbody Training: Laying the foundation for Batman's physical prowess to be later exploited by his skill

Ch. 4 Gaining Strength and Power: Does the Bat That Flies the Highest or the Fastest Get the Worm? 45

Ch. 5 Building the Batbones: Brittle Is Bad, But Is Bigger Better? 64

Ch. 6 Batmetabolism: What's for Dinner on the Dark Knight Diet 76

Pt. III Training The Batbrain: Batman on the path to mastery of the martial arts

Ch. 7 From Bruce Wayne to Bruce Lee: Mastering Martial Moves in the Batcave 101

Ch. 8 Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: But What Was Batman Doing? 123

Ch. 9 The Caped Crusader in Combat: Can You Kayo without Killing? 138

Pt. IV Batman in Action: Knight moves with Batman when he acts as the Caped Crusader

Ch. 10 Batman Bashes and Is Bashed by Bad Boys (and Girls): What Can He Break without Getting Broken? 161

Ch. 11 Hardening the Batbody: Can Sticks and Stones Break His Bones? 180

Ch. 12 Gotham by Twilight: Working the Knight Shift 199

Pt. V A Mixed Batbag: Pondering possible pitfalls along the path to bathood

Ch. 13 Injury and Recovery: How Much Banging until the Batback Goes Bonk? 219

Ch. 14 Battle of the Bats: Could Batgirl Beat Batman? 239

Ch. 15 The Aging Avenger: Could the Caped Crusader Become the Coped Codger? 247

Ch. 16 TheReign of the Bat: Can You Really Become Batman and Remain Batman? 260

Appendix Batman's Training Milestones 265

Bibliography 269

Index 285