4. Batman Gets His Own Subplot, But No Action
To be perfectly accurate, that's not true, he gets one of the very first action scenes in the movie. In that scene, he gets owned by one of the OMACs that end up multiplying like the plague at the end. This is actually a common plot in Batman stories. He's beaten by a villain early on, only to learn from the fight and come back, eventually overcoming the foe through intelligence, or just sheer determination. In Justice League: Mortal, however, he simply gets the other Justice Leaguers to take care of it for him. He never has another real fight for the rest of the movie. Obviously, he's just a guy, right? That's Batman's whole shtick, he's a human surrounded by gods. What makes him cool is that he elevates himself to their level through intellect and stick-to-it-ness. This requires them to fight side-by-side, rather than Batman just running around in the support mode normally reserved for the sidekick or girlfriend. Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye could well have suffered from this in the Avengers, but that's Whedon's genius - he makes them all look incredibly cool. Here, though, Batman has one fight, which he loses.