**In this scenario, the passage of time operates like it does in reality and the amount of stress and strain the human body can take is only minimally exaggerated. So 24 hours in a day, 12 months in a year, a 35-40 year old body is more worn down than that of a 20-25 year old body. Also the roles and functions of society are more realistic than the exaggerated-ness of serialized storytelling, (ie, convicts can escape prison but it’s not like they could escape every 3 months only to be immediately be put back in without a drawn out legal process)**

Given these perimeters, what’s the possible amount of times a super villain could escape Blackgate Prison or Arkham Asylum during Batman’s career? Say that Batman could only do his job from 25-50 years old before his body just physically cannot do it anymore. How many times would he really run into the Joker, Two-Face, Killer Croc, or Ra’s al Ghul within that 25 year period?

I think he’d likely run into the Joker for example, maybe 4 or 5 times total throughout his career. Or say the Mad Hatter only twice or the Court of Owls only that one time. Maybe Man-Bat/Kirk Langstrom was only a one time encounter.

This of course does mean that the format of Batman’s stories have to have a definitive conclusion and stray away from the serialization present in comic books. I started thinking about this because I was reflecting on the superhero movie genre. They all have a definitive end to characters and stories. I think a great example of what I was talking about with the thought experiment was in the Dark Knight Trilogy. A three movie arc that has a definitive end to the hero(retired Batman) and the villains (dead Harvey Dent, Ra’s al Ghul, Bane) yet one antagonist character persisted throughout all three. Scarecrow. Yes he was the main focus of the first film but he escaped. He was captured by the beginning of the second film and then released from prison 8 years later in the third film by Bane. Batman in this trilogy only encounters Scarecrow twice but you can make an argument for three. That’s in his entire career as Batman.

(tl:dr) Basically if the medium wasn’t created to have petty crooks and super villains alike waltz out of prisons and immediately get thrown back in essentially without even a court appearance for the sake of serialized plots, how many times do you think Batman would really encounter his greatest enemies within his 25 years as the Dark Knight?