A Further Thought on the Treads on the Batmobile

I’m still on about Batman thanks to that brief exchange with my pal.

If you remember what spurred my last post, it was about the treads on the Batmobile’s tires. My pal’s contention about the treads was that if it were to snow in Gotham, as has been established it does, these treads would lead anyone back to the Batcave.

I can see his argument, but I don’t agree with it.

While the treads on the Batmobile being little Bat Symbols is kinda silly, it would not lead to the tracking issues he contends except in a very specific, and short-lived instance in certain snowy conditions. I have a few reasons why.

• When traveling at a high enough speed, unless the snow is particularly thin, the disturbance with the tires would kick things around enough to make it a non-issue. 
• Even if the snow was thin, then arguably the journey of the Batmobile/any vehicle would lead to it melting. If the snow were falling quickly, as in a blizzard, the heat from the car passing over would generate, at worst, slush and then be covered over. After all, you don’t suffer from excessive traction in the snow; you suffer from a lack of it. Snow, by its nature, lends itself to tread issues.
• The car generates what we can presume is a good amount of heat, so likely the snow would melt and not retain the treads for long on city streets and this wouldn’t be any sort of issue when off-road.
• If we’re being specifically critical of Schumacher’s Batman movies, then we have to acknowledge that being decked out in enough neon to be seen from the moon also would be a bigger concern than tire treads.
• Again, if we’re staying specifically focused on Schumacher’s films, there’s a version of the Batmobile that’s designed for traveling on snowy/icy roads that doesn’t use tires. It’s called the Bathammer. No, I don’t know why it’s called that.

This still doesn’t address the fact that the lack of tread would make the Batmobile handle miserably in the snow. Batman would be better off just letting the criminals own the night, or using his Batcopter, Batwing, The Bat, or his Batplane to get around town if he’s needed.

Snow Days & Another Thing Or Two

As fun as it might seem, it’s not like Batman can call things off because of inclement weather. If the Post Office delivers in any weather (ha ha, not true, actually, but whatever), then Batman can’t be shown up by a civil servant. He couldn’t just call a snow day.

Or maybe he’d have to?

Risking a wreck in the Batmobile where he’d need a tow truck would necessitate a self-destruct in the Batmobile hot enough to incinerate trace evidence. Nolan destroyed the Tumbler/Batmobile in The Dark Night, so we’ll allow that he has the contingency.

But in non-Tumbler iterations of the Batmobile, he’d have to worry about being stranded if the car was destroyed. Additionally, it’s not like he could blow it up in a residential zone or the suburbs. It would attract too much attention and could lead to some awkward questions.

Man, this is not where I expected to end up with this blog.