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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5492914" data-attributes="member: 19675">As normal as many an action hero.Just saw one two nights ago that was variation on the 1954 book, I Am Legend- the potagonist was shot with a high-caliber weapon in both legs and either one or both shoulders and left for dead.  Instead of bleeding out and/or being eaten by zombies, he managed to (evenually) get up, stagger down the street, break into a car, hot-wire it, drive the car- which MAY have been a stick (I don't recall)- to track down the man who shot him.  He then gets into a martial arts fight with his shooter.  Now, he does need a little help to win the fight, but he IS doing spin-kicks on legs that have been ventillated by a .45.Then he drives the damsel in distress and himself out of the city- which is going to be destroyed by bombs...in a Corvette.All within the hours before he recieves any real medical treatment for his wounds.  He's a badass, yes, but he's just a human with training.  No super powers.  No soldier serum.  No alien blood.Nightwing- Dick Grayson- was an ordinary human being from birth.  He happened to be an acrobat.  After his parents were murdered, he went through Bats' training program.No mutant blood, no magical rituals, no alien nanotech. Just comic book martial arts.Ergo, normal human.Yes.Because, as I've said, any human who succeeded at going through the same training- and that is all it is, training- would get comparable results.  We know this because other characters who have gone through that kind of training have had comparable results.  And there is a subset of those who have gone beyond and actually gained REAL superpowers- Deathstroke, Paul Kirk, etc.,- who are/were even more badass.I agree with you up to the word "character."  A "paragon of humanity" can only be so if he is still actually human. That just makes pulp characters into a Mary Sues.  If the only things he's got for ingredients to are the same mentors and such- IOW, training- as anyone else might theoretically have to make him über, then all he is is human.The Phantom, Doc Savage- they're just highly trained humans, nothing else.Short answer: they can.  Train in martial arts.  Train the various stealth skills. Train in Knowledge skills.  Use no lethal weapons.  Use gear, and lots of it- and the better the gear, the better you'll do.What you'll find is that the system isn't built to handle the "genius" warrior, but all the other stuff is available.You'll also find that, just like the real Batman, you can only be so prepared.  While you may have a plan to defeat every potential foe you face, you may have to retreat to your home base to get the equipment necessary to implement it.  It's not like Bats carries around kryptonite on his utility belt every day just in case he runs into some rogue kryptonians.  (Or an all-yellow suit to take down Green Lanterns, or some lead in case he runs into rogue daxamites, or...)That just means he took a different career path- it doesn't elevate him above humanity.He can.But when compared to those characters within the context of their fiction, he's just a normal human, ad he starts coming up short.Achilles was invulnerable but for a weak spot that would have been protected by better footwear choices.Hercules and the other strongmen do things that, by definition within their realities, nobody else could do.  Bats actually has rivals & superiors who could match his exploits.Lancelot was the greatest warrior in the world AND blessed by God.Miyamoto Musashi was a real life human, subject to all the limitations that implies- that he was a great warrior and writer does not elevate him beyond that.  (Or were you referring to someone else?)I disagree.As pointed out, he can.</blockquote>

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