Batman is awesome.

Top scientific minds have proved this fact in repeated clinical trials. The general public will have the chance to confirm it for themselves with director Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, opening in theaters today.

But what, specifically, makes millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne's alter-ego awesome? Here's a primer from a longtime fan.

Batman has no superpowers.

Bruce Wayne is just like the rest of us. Well, he does have the millionaire playboy industrialist thing working for him. But he can't fly, he doesn't have the proportional strength and agility of a spider, and he doesn't turn big and green when someone annoys him. He was driven to fight crime after the murder of his parents.

Admittedly, the rest of us might not react to such a traumatic event by putting on tights and identifying with a skuzzy flying mammal. But Batman copes the best he can: by making criminals pay.

Batman's enemies don't have superpowers either.

The Joker, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman - not one was exposed to cosmic rays. When Batman hits them, they bleed. When they hit Batman, he doesn't do so well either. These are street thugs and ne'r-do-wells that broke down and bought costumes.

Poor Harvey Dent wasn't even a ne'r-do-well. The Gotham City district attorney was on the side of law and order until - well, you'll want to see The Dark Knight for the details. Let's just say that the character of Two-Face results.

It's all about the noir

Batman, alone among superheroes, draws on the rich vein of film noir first mined by Hollywood in the 1930s. The character's first appearance was in Detective Comics, after all. Both the Batman comic books and films have seized on the dark milieu. Dark, dripping alleyways. Fedoras aplenty. And ample tommy guns for the bad guys.

No other comic character is darker. No other imaginary locale has more problems than Gotham City. And no other film franchise needs more fake fog.

Those wonderful toys

James Bond and Q have nothing on Bruce Wayne. Perhaps to make up for the aforementioned lack of superpowers, Batman turns to technology to fight crime. He drives a batmobile, flies a bat-plane, steers a bat-boat, rides a bat-cycle and employs a load of other bat-things to fight crime.

Where does he keep these items? In his bat-cave, of course.

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