Just Stay at Home

At approximately 1,700,000 square miles, Africa is the second largest continent in the world. A billion people live in Africa's fifty-four countries. In short, Africa is very big and has a lot of people.

Which is why the "Batman of Africa" is so mystifying.

Now it's true that we don't know what form this story will take. This could simply be a case of crossed wires between the writer and the publicity department. But assuming the statement is accurate, the idea of a single Batman operating in Africa is a little absurd -- even for a comic book about a man who fights crime while dressed as a bat.

There are two thousand languages spoken in Africa. I'm sure Bruce Wayne can speak in a variety of languages but even he can't pull that off. Batman has a lot of trouble fighting crime in one great metropolitan area. How many people do you think live in Gotham? More than a million, I'm sure. Africa has twenty cities with populations of greater than a million. Any "Batman of Africa" is going to need fifty times the skill of Bruce Wayne and a hundred times the money.

I could get behind a series of regional Batmen; maybe that's what we'll get. We could have a North African Batman and a Sub-Saharan Batman. But if France gets its own Batman then why not Algeria? Kenya? Ivory Coast? Nigeria?

Africa is often tragically ignored by people in the Western World. But Africa contains 15% of the world's population. It's the birthplace of the human race. Surely Batman Incorporated can spare more than one man?