Manic Monday--Why The Bat-Signal Is A Pretty Terrible Idea!!

If you think about it,the Bat-Signal is a terrible idea.

I mean, putting out a general call for your super-hero, that everybody can see? What could possibly go wrong?!?

Take, for example, the time they used the Bat-Signal of the 1940s--the newspaper ad--to get in touch with the Fighting Yank...

Really, that won't cause any problems--right?

Wrong!!

Yeah--all the drunks, idiots and wannabes will show up, claiming to be the real thing!

The inevitable result--a little ultra-violence!!

So the hero has to waste time settling their hash before getting around to the urgent problem he was summoned for!

OK, that may have a bit harsh...

But the same principal must apply to Gotham City, right? Every time the Bat-Signal flares up, the nut-jobs and poseurs must turn-out, right? Not to mention the paparazzi, the lawyers, the super-villains, and the guys in hockey pads...



Look, governments and police commissioners--just use Twitter DM's or email lto get ahold of your heroes...it will save a lot of hassle in the long run.

From Startling Comics #27 (1944) and some Batman movie...

The One Way In Which Green Arrow Is Better Than Batman

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you think about it for 30 seconds, the Bat-Signal is pretty inefficient, not to mention stupid.

Scene:
BATMAN: Why did you use the Bat-Signal, Commissioner?
GORDON: Two-Face is loose and just robbed two banks on the upper east side!
BATMAN: But I was just patrolling the upper east side!! I only left to come see what you wanted with the Bat-Signal! Now I have to schlep all the way back there?
GORDON: Well, I would have called or texted, but somebody won't give me his damn phone number. Paranoid much?
BATMAN: Shut up.

Anyway, I trust you can see what I'm getting at here. The Bat-Signal says "Batman, you're needed," but doesn't say where or how. So the Caped Crusader has to go to police HQ, and only then to the scene of whatever crime. Terribly inefficient.

Green Arrow, though? He has that problem licked:

See how easy it is? Just by adding a little information to the Arrow Signal, you've cut out the middle-man, as it were. Ollie & Roy don't have to waste time going to the Commissioner first--they can just go to the (general) location where they're actually needed!

That is the one and only way that Green Arrow ever has been, or ever will be, better than Batman.

Well, OK, two ways: at least Green Arrow is actually in the TV show about Green Arrow (cough cough Gotham cough cough).

From Adventure Comics #174 (1952), as reprinted in Brave And The Bold #117 (1975)