[quote=@Hellis]
[@Shorticus] Batman is S-Tier, just becouse how ridiculously op preptime is and how DC basicly consider him the most dangerous of the big three. BUt your pretty much on the money. Your fame/infamy is also considered when talking Tiers. You can be basicly superman but if all you do is petty theft, your gonna be considerd B-tier at best!

[/quote]

It really depends on the writer AFAIK. Yeah, preptime is AMAZING. But Batman CAN be denied that preptime, and when he is, he's typically worse for wear. That's why the Joker, despite literally just being [i]a lunatic with a gun[/i] - or a knife, or what-have-you - can take him on.

Even in the same comic book series or the same TV Show, Batman's usefulness fluctuates greatly. I'll use JLU as an example again: sometimes he's able to outsmart the greatest villains, and sometimes he kind of flies a batplane and wishes he had something more to do than play transport / emergency airlift.

...But then again, he's always doing SOMETHING, and is always contributing SOMEHOW, which is more than can be said for a lot of characters. Even if he isn't able to fight, he's probably helping devise a plan. I'd still call him A-Tier - he [i]can't[/i] decide the fate of a star system or stop a galactic warlord without help from someone like Superman, Green Lantern or Wonder Woman. But when you pair him with one of them, he basically is as tough as the people he's partnered with... if not tougher.

I guess I'd summarize it as "The best general still needs an army." Though Batman is still a really good fighter who can take on anyone A-Tier and below.