3: Batman's Good for Exposition
Exposition is generally a tricky thing to handle in a compelling manner on film in general, but gets even more difficult when dealing with action or genre films. Conflict is the source of drama, and conflict is what most of us expect in spades from these kinds of movies. "Talky bits" don't exactly lend themselves to pyrotechnics, but can can still be done elegantly. Remember how much we were "told" by the World Council in The Avengers whenever they talked to Fury? Quite a bit when you stop to think about it. But since they were usually at each other's throats with the fate of millions of lives hanging in the balance, it never felt like we were being lectured at about the plot. This is the sort of role that calls for the creative use of a dynamic personality. Under most circumstances, people simply sitting around talking about what just happened or discussing their next course of action isn't all that riveting. Of course, normally those people don't include BATMAN. Batman's presence immediately makes exposition more interesting, if only because we're automatically interested and invested in him more or less from the get-go. But it runs deeper than that. Batman's also a natural choice for how said information gets gathered in the first place. Put it this way. Some guy droning on about super villain defense plans or enemy movements? Boring. Batman extracting this information from some poor schmuck he's holding upside down as they're both suspended twenty stories above ground? AWESOME. Batman has also been portrayed as a computer expert and master hacker as well as an interrogator, capable of breaking into high-security systems to ferret out information. He has countless surveillance devices that would make Ethan Hunt's IMF team green with jealousy for when he has to listen in on some mob bosses or masked marauders. He takes the Boy Scout motto to its logical extreme. This is one of the reasons that the "Batman is prepared for
anything" gag has become so overused in the comics and pop culture discussions - it works. He really is a good fit for being not only the guy who HAS the the wonderful toys, but best knows when and where to use them. Or at least, he
believes he knows best. The rest of the Justice League? Well, that brings us to...