Batman Reveals He Trained His Body to Respond to Injury in a Totally Inhuman Way

Warning! Contains Spoilers for The Penguin #12!Batman has been fighting crime for decades, constantly going up against absurdly dangerous people – naturally, he’s been stabbed, shot, and bludgeoned from every possible direction. Shockingly, Batman trained his body to feel all of this pain without filtering any of it out.

The shocking way that Batman’s body handles pain was revealed in a preview for The Penguin #12 by Tom King and Rafael De Latorre. In this story, Batman is on the way to save the Penguin from his villainous daughter, and he has to go through an army of criminals to do it.

While getting shot or stabbed certainly hurts, usually, the body quickly goes into shock, and that dulls the pain. Unfortunately, it seems to dull everything else as well. So, over the years, Batman has trained his body to never go into shock, meaning he feels every single shot and stab that he takes.

Batman Feels Every Hit He Takes

Pain Is Definitely Part of His Game

It’s hard to describe just how much danger Batman willingly throws himself into every single night. He often goes up against criminals who wield knives, bats, or even guns. This list doesn’t even include his rogues: villains who have specialized weapons, such as the Penguin’s deadly umbrellas or the Joker’s infamous acid-spraying flowers. It’s easy to imagine that the first defense against this is numbing the pain, simply taking drugs or using a system to never feel the damage Batman goes through, but Batman has actually embraced the opposite.

Batman explains that while shock is nice because it numbs pain, it also numbs everything else, including his thinking and decision-making abilities. When Batman is constantly dealing with life-or-death situations, he has to be able to make decisions as fast as possible, or else people will die. He can’t afford to go into shock when he gets stabbed or shot; he simply has to feel allthe pain he goes through. This is an intense solution, but it’s not surprising that Batman would do everything he can to keep his mind clear. Batman famously never drinks alcohol for the exact same reason.

Batman Feels Every Wound He’s Ever Taken

It’s Part of His Strategy

The Penguin has revealed a ton of details about Batman and his relationship with the Penguin, including how Batman and Cobblepot worked together for years. Readers also got greater insight into the Penguin’s family and personal life. The series has continued with fascinating reveals, and by far the wildest is how Batman deals with pain. Having the mind of the world’s greatest detective, it makes sense that Batman wouldn’t want shock to dull his senses, but feeling every hit he takes night after night is an incredible solution that truly shows how great of a hero Batman is.

The Penguin #12 is available September 4th, 2024 from DC Comics!