Remember that part in The Dark Knight when the Batman knock-offs all pop up in the multi-level parking garage to help the Caped Crusader dispose of some European gangsters, but they just end up getting in the way? They tell the Batman that they were just trying to help, and Wayne chides them for facing men with guns while wearing hockey pants. This may ring some bells for you, but Stephen Lawrence, the subject of the curious new documentary short Being Batman, has evidently forgotten that brief bit. (I’d guess he’s also glossed over the part in The Killing Joke wherein writer Alan Moore suggests that a man would have to be insane to dress up as a bat and fight crime at night.)

Because that’s exactly what Lawrence does on a nightly basis: he gets suited up in a heavily-armored DIY Batsuit and stalks the streets of Ontario suburb Brampton in search of a crime in need of foiling. He sounds like a total crank, but Being Batman (highlighted by the good folks at /Film) suggests he may be a more complex character than that. For one, he’s no dilettante in a dimestore costume. Lawrence is ripped, always a good start for superheroics, and he’s spent a hefty chunk of his life training in martial arts. He’s a steady hand with ninja weaponry, and he‘s capable of delivering a more merciless beatdown than anything Robin could muster.

He‘s pretty much the living embodiment of the word “quixotic,” but it‘d be unfair to dismiss Lawrence as a nutjob out of hand. He’s clearly driven by a strong sense of right and wrong, and takes his duty as seriously as its many hazards. It turns out you don’t have to be a billionaire to be the Batman after all.

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