I know everyone hates having a question answered with "it depends," but...

It depends. WHICH Batman, the one in the current film franchise, the one from the current monthlies, the one from the Justice League, etc etc?

I am going to make an assumption here, in order to best answer your question. We'll put aside the issue of Batman trained by ninjas in the films, or the question of whether in the comics Batman operates with sort-of-superpowers when interacting in stories alongside Superman and other such characters. By "become Batman" you mean the basic concept of Batman that we all could agree upon -- a master of martial arts, of forensic and detective skills, of gymnastics, of science and chemistry, of history and geography, of the workings of organized crime, of criminal psychology and physiology, and a man with a suit offering protection against bullets and knives and electrocution but which allows him to move as fast as an Olympian runner and acrobat.

The simple answer is, no. Unless you really boil Batman down to a very diluted level as just a really strong, fast, good fighter who can jump far and with good street smarts plus an education in crime and psychology, and who wears a lot of armor and a mask.

The genius of Batman is that it pretends to be realistic, it lets us convince ourselves that with enough money and training, we could become Batman, too. But it's still fantasy, it's just a fantasy that is more compelling and convincing and thus more fun.

If you joined the military and became something like a Delta Force commando of the highest quality, while studying nights to get a double-major in criminal justice and psychology (with a minor in chemistry), then you might also have time to take weekend courses in detective work and get a P.I. license. Then, after probably 10 years to reach all of those levels combined, you might be 28 (if you started right out of high school) and would then need to maintain your physical level while getting a job as a police officer in order to learn real crime solving and detective work on the streets and at crime scenes, to get the experience it would really take to be a master. Let's say you are so good it only takes you perhaps three years to become a top detective and expert in these regards -- now you are 31, and just finished the most basic level of preparation you need to be an expert in just some of the most obvious fields required to match Batman.

Now you have to quit the force, and develop a good cover story for yourself so nobody suspects that Batman might be the guy who is an expert in all of those fields Batman is a master at. You have to have made sure you lived your life never revealing your true feelings about crime and vigilantism etc, and in fact covering it up unless you want to be arrested as a suspect the first time Batman has been around town. You need to spend some time doing dry runs around town to find your way around rooftops and fire escapes, practice running around at night in the shadows and not being seen, and presumably start practicing using your ropes and grappling hooks and other equipment you need for nightly patrols. Do some dry runs, make final preparations in case of emergencies, etc.

And you need to have been investing money and amassing a fortune the entire time, because the technology you'll need to even get close to a real-world version of Batman will cost millions of dollars. So you've done that, and now you start spending the money to get an armored suit full of electronics to communicate with assistants and have night vision and so on. You need a base of operations, so you buy one of those old used missile silos the military sells (yeah, they really do that, and it's pretty cool inside them) and turn it into a secret headquarters for the computers and monitoring equipment and car and bike and other equipment you need for your vigilante life.

Conservatively, you should probably be about 32 at this point. And you are only about to go out on your first night as Batman. Okay, it's taken longer than expected and been pretty hard, and honestly you are not quite as much a master of all fields as Batman, but at least you got the basics and are pretty well trained and smart and equipped. So off you go, looking to stop crime...

...and you're looking. And looking. Oh, wait, you hear police sirens or you get a transmission from picking up the police radio calls, there's a domestic disturbance in progress... well, that's not really what Batman does, so you let that one go to the cops. Then you get another call about a robbery, ah ha! Finally Batman is going into action! You run across those rooftops, swing across to another roof -- whoa crap, that was a lot more dangerous than it looks in the comics! But you're booking it, running flat out and probably hitting, what, a good 10 miles per hour? Maybe less actually because of having to dodge things and stop at the edge of the roof to swing down again.

Anyway, there you are, rooftop to rooftop, and it occurs to you that the cop cars are so far gone now that you barely hear the sirens. So you think "Hmm, no wonder the real Batman has a car, this rooftop thing looks cool but I'll never make it in time to stop a crime that isn't happening within a block or two."

And you don't -- make it in time, that is. The first few nights, you keep showing up and the robberies or shootings or whatever are already over, and you realize that this makes sense because most reports about crimes are only after it happens, not while it's taking place. And you also remember that as a cop, you almost never just walked up or drove up accidentally right where a crime happened to taking place. In fact, you were just one of several thousand cops in your city, and most of you never just stumbled right across a significant crime in progress.

By your second week, you are getting unhappy that 90% of the crimes you've even seen up-close are just pathetic junkies buying crack from another pathetic junkie selling drugs to support his/her own habit. And nothing makes you feel LESS like Batman than scaring sad homeless crackheads. You tried to chase down a kid who you saw punch a lady and take her purse, but you can't really pursue that kind of thing by running on rooftops, you gotta do it the hard way by chasing him on foot down the sidewalk... in your full Batman costume, where everybody can see you. People are taking photos on cell-phones, and yep there's a cop car at the intersection and he saw you, and now he has his lights on and it's YOU he's after. Great, you have to let the kid go so you can run down an alley and climb up a fire escape to the roof to get away.

At last, week three, you get lucky -- an armed robbery, right there across the street! You leap down onto the hood of their car, cape over the windshield just like in The Dark Knight Returns. And a teenage kid in the passenger seat fires a shotgun though the windshield in panic, blasting your torso.

You are wearing armor, though, haha! So it merely shreds your costume and knocks you off the car onto the street, but man that hurts! And it takes your breath away just long enough for the car to speed off. You get up, angry and just in time to see everyone taking your photo again and staring at your shredded outfit. Then the police come around the corner, and you run off again but this time you are injured because although the armor stopped the slug it still bruised you and broke a rib. You are fast, but not fast enough this time. The police draw their guns and order you to stop. You turn and grab for the smoke pellet on your belt to help hide your getaway, but unfortunately for you the cops see you reaching for something and open fire... and you suit's armor is already a mess from the shotgun blast earlier. Uh oh.

When you wake up in the ICU, your mask and costume are gone, you're in a lot of pain, but the doctors successfully removed the bullets and re-inflated your lung. The downside is the set of handcuffs trapping you in the bed. As a master detective, you can of course easily pick the lock on the cuffs to escape, but on the other hand the staph infection you caught after surgery is pretty bad and you feel like s**t. So you wait until night to sneak out -- except you fall asleep on your pain meds, and wake up the next morning to the police coming to pick you up and take you to the infirmary at the state prison. Where you will spend a month recuperating until they can transfer you to the county jail for your first court appearance. During which your only comment to the judge is, "I guess it's not really possible to become Batman."

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na! Batman!

Just for kicks, I'm going to take the opposite side of the debate from Mark's brilliant answer. My main problem with his take on it is that it kind of ignores the premise of Batman. In my mind, the question isn't whether anyone could become Batman, it's whether a person with the right situation, talents, and personality could.

Bruce Wayne's parents were killed when he was around 10, so let's assume he starts training then. Plus, he's the heir to a fortune of billions. Those factors solve a lot of the timeline and equipment issues right there.

Does Batman even go to college? I don't think so. In public, he's a dissolute billionaire playboy, and in reality he's an obsessive crime fighter. Neither of those really requires a degree! So he has more time for real preparation. And you sort of have to assume that Batman (Batman!) has an incredible level of motivation as well as intelligence and physical talent.

I do think a "real world" Batman would have to operate a bit differently from what we see in the movies. He would rely a lot more on surveillance, incapacitating enemies from a distance, setting traps and stings, informants, etc. The whole idea of getting into a firefight or fistfight every night just wouldn't work. So you have to interpret those kinds of events as exceptions instead of regular events, which I think is an acceptable read on the comics or movies. Much of his training would be focused on handling and surviving situations where things go awry, but he would try to avoid those exceptions as much as possible. Plus, swinging around town to find crimes is completely unrealistic. That's why he would need more surveillance and advance planning.

Maybe that doesn't sound like Batman to you, but I'm ok with a slightly more realistic version. He would have much of Gotham under surveillance of some kind, and he would spend his time going after criminals the police can't prosecute and organized crime, not patrolling the streets hoping to get lucky.

We could have all the money in the world, engage in the best teachers and trainers in the world, and spend as much time as Bruce Wayne did, as young as he did, and we still wouldn't be Batman.

What makes him Batman is his mind, his character, his willpower, and his emotions. When his parents were murdered before his eyes, his rich-boy lifestyle of comfort and happiness was brought down all around him. yes, he still had Alfred and his money, but he lost his parents, and he would give anything to have them back. For a child to experience that, and then turn his sorrow into righteous anger, and then go off on a 12-year journey to train himself into a crime-fighter with specializations in so many fields and peak human stats. This isn't something that anyone can just say, "Ok, time to go train." It takes dedication, but more importantly, a strong desire to accomplish it, and willpower to overcome the obstacles.

There have been villains who have be given insane training as well, but as long as they do not have the willpower and resolution as Batman does, they can never beat him. Not forever, at least.

It isn't his gadgets, or his wealth that defines him as Batman; it's his resolve (I've read that somewhere before, can't find it..).

So while we could go through all that training, and with perfect genes and all the money to boost up your physical and mental stats to react to the best training, we may only become as strong a crime-fighter as Batman.

Greg makes a very good point about ignoring a lot of the premise of the Batman story. The training would be shifted a bit earlier. With a good deal of endurance training and martial arts training from an early age, he would likely be able to make one of the US military's Special Operations Forces. The most likely route would be for our real life Batman is to join the US Navy and become a Navy SEAL as they have no prior service time requirements and a prospective candidate can start at 18, or 17 with a parent's permission. Within 3 years of enlistment he would be a full fledged Navy SEAL. If he signed up at 18, makes it into SEALs, he'd be about 21 and serve out another 5 years (enlistment contracts run for about 8 years I think) as a SEAL and would get a lot of real world experience.
In terms of education, Batman is an autodidact and a polymath, he would likely immerse himself in literature pertaining to psychology, forensics and criminology and be entirely self taught. He may opt for an online degree to keep up appearances. I would guess he'd stick to psychology, the other degrees would raise too much suspicion. Since there's probably a decent amount of down time while in the Navy he'd have plenty of opportunity for self-study.

The other thing that Mark's answer whole hanging around rooftops things while waiting for a police scanner or siren to alert him to a crime is a ridiculous waste of time. Batman would let the crime come to him. He would simply hack into something like the NYPD's COMPSTAT GIS, and be able to pinpoint crime hotspots in a particular neighborhood, right down to a specific street corner. He could even have someone in his company hack it for him. If our real life Batman's background is closer to the fictional background his company is probably a vendor for the defense and police, they probably sell this stuff to cities like Gotham/NYC already and he would easily have access to a backdoor.
Since Batman works off of fear and paranoia, something that would be rampant in criminal pathologies, he wouldn't need to take down a lot of criminals. He would just need to take down a few and have the word spread that a lunatic in heavy body armor and pointy ears that can't properly turn his head is running around and beating the shit out of criminals.

No, not today.

However, I suspect that becoming Batman was borderline-plausible when he was first written in 1939.

The Batman most of us know today from Nolan, Burton, Morrison, Miller, Loeb, and other artists is a different creature (of the night) than his first incarnation.

In short, he wasn't so extreme. The modern Batman story (with exceptions) has to keep pace with the most exciting presentations in every field he engages in. As a pugilist, he has to match the slick violence of the latest Hong Kong flick. As a man-about-town, he shames today's worst paparazzi footage. His tools are always a model ahead of James Bond, Ethan Hunt, and Skymall. That's not even approaching the sort of science-fiction levels of hyper-genius he shows when he plays with the rest of the Justice League.

Batman is a superhero with all the lurid fantasy that implies, but he started more as a pulp hero - a much more sensible target. Pulp heroes were tough, two-fisted do-gooders with a knack for invention and maybe a few skills from the Mysterious East. As a rule, they weren't demigods.

So, what exactly would be different in 1939?

Education

First, his knowledge pool. In order to be the World's Greatest Detective, Batman has to master the forensic arts and have a grounding in just about every applied science. Put simply, there wasn't as much to learn back then. Serology (blood tests) couldn't distinguish gender yet. Entire sub-fields of computers, explosives, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and nuclear power either didn't exist or were in their infancy. Those that did like botany or automotive maintenance had a smaller depth of knowledge. Basically, the bar to be a polymath (Da Vinci, Franklin, Heron-Allen, etc.) who pushes the limits in several human enterprises simultaneously was much lower.

Detective Prowess

Police investigation was relatively low-tech and unsystematic. No CSI, in other words. Psychiatry was in its adolescence and many mental disorders lacked anything resembling effective diagnosis or treatment. If Batman had a gift for these subjects, he could personally innovate much further in criminology and sociopathic profiling, adding plausibility that one man might consistently outperform teams of professionals.

Opportunities for Heroism

As for the police, many great answers here have talked about how Batman's behavior would be quickly stymied and/or unnecessary. Yet at the time, police corruption existed at a scope unheard of in America today: no internal affairs, little federal oversight, a vast spoils system of payoffs practically institutional, brutality and bigotry seen as normal, no Miranda rights, crime families arguably more powerful and politically-connected, and immigrant neighborhoods profoundly oppressed and ignored. This might not make Batman more plausible on its own, but as a vigilante he would have more unambiguously good acts to perform.

Technology/Gear

Modern Batman is all composite armor and supercomputers. That's expensive. Original Batman was a man in a hand-stitched gray bodysuit. His simple tools (rope, grapnel, binoculars, flashlight, forensic reagents, etc.) were the eclectic mix of policeman and spelunker – two professions not known for lavish budgets.
There were a few more expensive tools. A small camera would have been pricy, for example. He did have a car and an autogyro pretty early, but they weren't as fantastic as modern versions. Still, all easily in a period millionaire's (or modern decamillionaire's) budget; no need to limit the list to the Forbes 400. The really wacky stuff, spaceships and Bat-shark repellant came later.

Keeping a Low Profile

Anonymity was a more manageable challenge. Lack of camera phones, video surveillance, or the internet would help maintain a secret identity. Even for a local celebrity like Bruce Wayne, the odds of the average person recognizing him on the street were small without any effort on his part. It wasn't automatically assumed that some government office had every citizen's biometric information. The prospective Batman could spend much less time covering their tracks and making alibis and more time reading a textbook or weightlifting.

Athletics

Speaking of weightlifting, Batman was always described as in peak physical shape. Even taking that at face value, I argue that this was a much lower standard seventy years ago. The men's marathon record has changed by 23 minutes (Kitei '35 – Kipsang '13). The Olympic 110m hurdles have gone from 14.1 sec. to 12.8 sec. And that's just at the peak; the lower slots would be even less competitive. The specialization and intensity of athletics today is hard to overstate. The likes of a multi-gifted Jim Thope (who was still a generation earlier) will probably never be seen again. Once upon a time, an amateur could run with the best because the best were usually amateurs

The Martial Arts

I'll admit this next point is more speculation, but the 30s and 40s were a unique time for the martial arts. Batman's chief weapon is fear. It isn't enough to defeat a foe, he must shock and humble them. He needs to develop a reputation for doing the impossible. A modern crook on a steady diet of UFC, Parkour webclips, and Tony Jaa films has pretty much seen it all in terms of what's possible in human combat. However, a hustler who came of age in the Great Depression will have seen boxing and maybe Greco-Roman wrestling or Savate (effective and versatile in their own right, of course). Arts like Judo and Karate were known in the Americas but not popular. Meanwhile, the seeds of the modern martial arts scene were sprouting if you knew where to look. The Gracies in Brazil were founding BJJ. Imi Lichtenfeld was a few years away from inventing Krav Maga. Russian Sambo was young but gaining prominence. William E. Fairbairn and his contemporaries were developing early “commando” styles like Defendu. If a person had the resources to travel and the connections to meet fighting experts across the globe, even the basics of these arts would have been revolutionary in an American back-ally.

The characteristics of Batman’s suit are strikingly realistic, according to Robert T-I. Shin, the Head of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Tactical Systems Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. “The Batsuit is not so far out there. All the functions are very possible,” he says. “But there is some work going on at MIT that I think Batman hasn’t capitalized on yet. Our technologies could make Batman a better-equipped superhero.”

“In general, we’re all over the technologies required by the Batsuit,” says Shin, who also directs Beaver Works, a collaboration between Lincoln Laboratory engineers and MIT School of Engineering students and faculty. What about night vision? “We have had that technology for a long time,” Shin says. Fire resistance? “Yes, that’s not hard.” Communication? “Not a problem.” He is ticking off the necessary items. “Yeah, they’re almost all doable, yep, yep, yep.”

“Now let’s talk about making the suit better,” says Shin, starting with Batman’s cape. People use sailcloth wings to fly all the time. “You don’t even need a full cape to fly. It’s basic stuff,” he says. For what could lie in store, Shin points to the research of Professor Yoel Fink, director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics and CEO of the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America. Fink’s research is on the development of new fibers and fabrics that will have the ability to see, hear, and sense their surroundings; communicate; store and convert energy; control temperature; and change color. “We could make Batman a cape that changes color, or that acts like an invisibility cape by projecting what is behind him and matches to the scene like a chameleon. With our technologies, Batman will have an even more capable cape.”

Batman’s inexact weapons are another area that could use some improvement, according to Shin. “Maybe he could use a smarter projectile. So he can throw it out, and it’s programmed to recognize a person. It won’t harm other people — it will only chase that particular target.”

The Dark Knight’s super strength could use work too, says Shin. Spiderman has superhuman characteristics while Batman only appears to be very athletic, he observes. “I can see future Batsuits with a small power module as a nuclear power source. The suit itself could actually augment him to gain more super strength,” he says. A virtual assistant for extra support is also a possibility, he says.

There may be some trade-offs though. The new Batsuit might not be as sleek and stylish as its Hollywood versions. Modern special police and military don’t “wear pantsuit-like things like Batman,” says Shin. “We’re not quite there in terms of making the suit really thin and fit to the body while also having all the technology. We must decide between agility and the extra strength and speed. Protection versus functionality,” says Shin, with a thoughtful pause. “If we include all these technologies in the Batsuit, it’ll be quite tough for him to move around. We have to make decisions that leave Batman at his best.”

I did not write this all credit goes to its rightful owner at MIT Is it possible to make a Batman suit?

The qualifications are time, effort, focus, technology and youth. Oh, and several folks mentioned money. So let's start with money.

I'm going to assume our Batman (creative franchise) candidate is an American Billionaire. So if you're not one of the 410 people on the Forbes 2011 list of the wealthiest people in the US, you're not going to be Batman. (http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires#p_41_s_arank_-1__225)

Provisioning Batman, even before globalization with Batman Incorporated, is at least a billion dollar project. When you're buying or building cars, computers, weapons, and facilities at the state of the art instead of the state of the market (after the manufacturing learning curve), you pay a stiff premium. Buy secretly and you'll pay even more. To stay a billionaire after spending a billion on your Batfleet etc., you must start with $2 billion. That cuts the Forbes list in half, to 219 people worth $2 billion in 2011.

How about youth? Let's set an arbitrary cut off of 60 years old to allow for the long hours and physical endurance required of the training, the job the public life, physical therapy and counseling at Arkham Asylum. That leaves Warren Buffet out but Larry Page and Bill Gates in. If you're not on this list, you cannot become Batman. (And perhaps one of these folks is already in training or is already leading a double life, but that's another question. I'll leave it as an exercise for our Quora Community to further winnow the list based on talent, aptitude, and inclination.)

Under 30
#52 Mark Zuckerberg, 26. $13.5 B, Facebook.
#420 Dustin Moskovitz, 26. $2.7 B, Facebook.
#362 Scott Duncan, 28. $3.1 B, pipelines.

Under 40
#24 Larry Page, 37. $19.8 B, Google.
#24 Sergey Brin, 37. $19.8 B, Google.
#336 John Arnold, 37. $3.3 B, hedge funds.
#268 Daniel Ziff, 39. $4 B, hedge funds.

Under 50
#362 Milane Frantz, 41. $3.1 B, pipelines.
#512 Ken Griffin, 42. $2.3 B, hedge funds.
#145 Pierre Omidyar, 43. $6.7 B, Ebay.
#268 Robert Ziff, 44. $4 B, hedge funds.
#44 Michael Dell, 46. $14.6 B, Dell.
#268 Dirk Ziff, 46. $4 B, hedge funds.
#488 Tom Gores, 46. $2.4 B, private equity.
#564 Marc Benioff, 46. $2.1 B, Salesforce.com.
#30 Jeff Bezos, 47. $18.1 B, Amazon.
#362 Dannine Avara, 47. $3.1 B, pipelines.
#564 William Wrigley, 47. $2.1 B, chewing gum.
#304 Edward Lampert, 48. $3.6 B, Investments.
#540 Philip Falcone, 48. $2.2 B, hedge funds.
#69 Abigail Johnson, 49. $11.3 B, Fidelity.
#362 Randa Williams, 49. $3.1 B, pipelines.
#540 Nicolas Berggruen, 49. $2.2 B, Investments.

Under 60
#336 Daniel Och, 50. $3.3 B, hedge funds.
#595 Winnie Johnson-Marquart, 51. $2 B, SC Johnson & Sons.
#459 Mark Cuban, 52. $2.5 B, Broadcast.com.
#595 H. Fisk Johnson, 52. $2 B, SC Johnson & Sons.
#80 Len Blavatnik, 53. $10.1 B, Access Industries.
#208 David Tepper, 53. $5 B, hedge funds.
#46 Steve Ballmer, 54. $14.5 B, Microsoft.
#310 Mitchell Rales, 54. $3.5 B, Danaher Corp.
#459 Warren Stephens, 54. $2.5 B, Stephens Inc..
#595 Lee Bass, 54. $2 B, oil, investments.
#595 Helen Johnson-Leipold, 54. $2 B, SC Johnson & Sons.
#2 Bill Gates, 55. $56 B, Microsoft.
#39 John Paulson, 55. $16 B, hedge funds.
#114 Steve Cohen, 55. $8 B, hedge funds.
#136 Eric Schmidt, 55. $7 B, Google.
#595 S. Curtis Johnson, 55. $2 B, SC Johnson & Sons.
#595 Kelcy Warren, 55. $2 B, pipelines.
#10 Christy Walton & family, 56. $26.5 B, Walmart.
#110 Steve Jobs, 56. $8.3 B, Apple, Pixar.
#336 Paul Tudor Jones, 56. $3.3 B, hedge funds.
#440 Ronda Stryker, 56. $2.6 B, Stryker Corp..
#540 Jin Sook & Do Won Chang, 56. $2.2 B, Forever 21.
#595 Henry Samueli, 56. $2 B, Broadcom.
#254 Robert Rowling, 57. $4.2 B, Investments.
#420 Oprah Winfrey, 57. $2.7 B, television.
#459 Stanley Druckenmiller, 57. $2.5 B, hedge funds.
#488 Marianne Liebmann, 57. $2.4 B, Cargill, Inc..
#512 Rodney Lewis, 57. $2.3 B, Natural gas.
#540 Randal Kirk, 57. $2.2 B, pharmaceuticals.
#57 Paul Allen, 58. $13 B, Microsoft, investments.
#136 Charles Ergen, 58. $7 B, EchoStar.
#149 Andrew Beal, 58. $6.6 B, bank, real estate.
#347 Ron Burkle, 58. $3.2 B, supermarkets, investments.
#393 Riley Bechtel, 58. $2.9 B, engineering, construction.
#540 Bharat Desai & family, 58. $2.2 B, Syntel.
#196 Patrick Soon-Shiong, 59. $5.2 B, generic drugs.
#310 Leon Black, 59. $3.5 B, private equity.
#336 Trevor Rees-Jones, 59. $3.3 B, oil & gas.
#347 Steven Rales, 59. $3.2 B, Danaher Corp.
#409 Nancy Walton Laurie, 59. $2.8 B, Wal-Mart.
#440 David Sun, 59. $2.6 B, computer memory.
#540 John Doerr, 59. $2.2 B, venture capital.
#540 David Shaw, 59. $2.2 B, hedge funds.

Mark Hughes' original piece is pretty much gloves-off awesome (as are several of the responses) but the effects Batman has upon his city, at least in the more recent incarnations, seem to be as much (if not more) about his reputation than his actual deeds. One very public and well-reported rampage across the rooftops sows the seeds of fear in the criminal element with far more efficacy than any police force, because the rampager (rampager?) is faceless, shapeless and unknown. He could be anywhere, anyone! Take a small step back from the minutia of Batman's physical trappings and what you have is a modern terrorist. Batman's focus, of course, is to strike terror into the hearts of the criminal element, and due to censorship issues his body count is relatively low, but his methods are pretty much the same.

The effects of terror on a society are plainly visible. A few well funded zealots take down some highly visible real estate, and suddenly the public sees terrorists everywhere. If you describe a comic book character as someone who "has a vast fortune, lives in a cave, has an arsenal of frightening and exotic weapons, has influence everywhere, and could strike at any time" and you get Batman. Apply that job description to the real world, however, and you may come up with quite another name (well, until recently, anyway…)
The modern interpretations of Batman are as much about someone with the means to manipulate public opinion as they are about gas guns and super cars. A single human being, suitably outfitted, can accomplish whatever they set out to do and there are countless examples of this, both good and bad.

While Mark's argument that the modern, popular interpretations of the Batman persona are unlikely to exist in the real world are spot on, it is based upon fictitious accounts, which are highly stylized for presentation in 4 color and on the big screen. If you look at the archetype in broader strokes and overlay the complications of reality, a person with the right financial resources, PR budget, political connections, physique, and cavern access could strike terror into the hearts of the criminal element today. The real argument, IMHO, shouldn't be "how could someone make themselves into a modern-day Batman," it should be "how to stop a modern-day Batman from spawning a modern-day Joker."

In the newer issues of Batman (the comic), Bruce Wayne goes around the world searching for highly trained men and women to become the Batmen of their respective countries. He not only recruits and provides them with his full arsenal and access to his advanced technology, he also trains them personally to think and act like he would. They each have their own "Batman" costume depending on their personality and specific strengths. He calls it Batman Inc. Realistically speaking, what's the difference between this and a top tier security company would be the amount of resources they would have access to? The personnel are well trained and prepared for the job and if partnered up well with the local police force then such a force may actually succeed in their purpose.

Ignoring the fact that being batman is going to cost more money than 99.99% people are ever going to make, batman is still defined by his enemies, which means you would look more like a guy in spandex telling off drunk teens late night, stopping pickpocketing more often than not, other than the occassional murder and rape revention. Hardly the extreme challenges that call for a personal tank, plane and kevlar suit!

No amount of training would make you Batman. That’s according to a Batman writer — Paul Dini, in his Dark Night graphic novel, in which Dini has an imaginary conversation with the Dark Knight:

If a Batman writer says it can’t be done, I don’t know a better authority.

Consider Erik Prince: He inherited a fortune; he became a Navy Seal; he was a paramedic and firefighter; he founded a company that sold and developed military technology, that reportedly had Batman-esque vehicles under development; he became a self-styled international crime (read: terrorism, piracy, genocide) fighter; now he's reportedly building a mercenary army for the UAE.

What Erik Prince's story means for this question depends on how literally you read Batman. I'd say, "No, Erik Prince proves you can't be Batman, and it's hazardous to try." But if you're not given to strict interpretation, his example might prove there may yet be hope that someone (though certainly not you) can be Batman.

If you live in some of the more fevered corners of the Internet, you might also conclude: "Erik Prince proves it's definitely possible to become the Joker or the Riddler, and someone already has."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince

In order to possibly become an extremely watered down version of the hero we all know and love, one must accomplish this.

1. Assuming they are just an average person, they must invest in good stock, which would hopefully make them an overnight billionaire. Alternatively, they could create a really useful, or entertaining app, and hope people like it a lot.
2. Use that money to get double major in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, as well as a minor in Medical Science (This way, he can sow himself up). He might want to audit Chemistry classes as well. Then, Batsy would get an MBA, to keep looks good. And if he really wanted to go the extra mile, a Ph.D in Criminal Justice wouldn’t hurt.
3. Enlist in the military. Assuming he goes into the Army, our vigilante would train very hard to become eligible to become a Ranger (or qualify to be a Green Beret.). He would then have to do so well as to be asked to try out for the Combined Applications Group (Delta Force). Batman would then get into the CAG and serve for several years. Assuming he goes into the Marines, he would try to get into a Force Recon battalion, serve several years, then get into MARSOC as a Marine Raider. Assuming he goes the Navy, our Batman would enlist for the SEALs, and serve several years, and attempt to get into the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group ( SEAL Team Six). If that goes well, he will learn tactics unknown to most men on this Earth. Assuming he goes into the Air Force, he would try hard and work to become a Combat Controller in the 24th Tactics Squadron.
4. Assuming all of this goes without fault, if he is good enough, he will be recruited into the CIA’s Special Activities Division, as part of the Special Operations Group, a paramilitary group considered to be the most elite in the nation. There, he will learn of counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, and hostage rescue, and serve several years.
5. Retire from military service, and begin work as a policeman, then train to work as a SWAT officer. After this he must become a detective.
6. Simultaneously begin to work on a defense company, which he would then have become a government contractor. This company would manufacture practically anything for the military, from firearms, armor, vehicles, steel and other such things. This would provide him with a great deal of revenue, and allow him to continue on his journey.
7. Build for himself a custom car, from the ground up, which would have military-grade hardware and software, and be nigh impossible to destroy. It would allow him to perform reconnaissance operations on mobsters, and contain a myriad of features, such as communications, first-aid, self-protection, armor, and many other things. He would find secret location to be his base of operations, maybe a military silo, a dilapidated building, or something similar. Using his company’s designs, Batman would then manufacture for himself several gadgets to serve his purposes, including Batarangs and grappling guns. Then, our man would create a suit inspired by his time in the military, one that would serve a great capacity. It would allow fluid movement, offer unrivaled protection, and stop bullets fired at point blank.

At last, our Batman would be ready for action, and fight criminals at night. However, this process would take many years, maybe even a lifetime. It would very difficult to pull off even then, much less in 10 years. Rather, we must enjoy the lives we’ve been given, and do what we see best with them.

Cheers!

From The Dark Knight Rises

"A hero can be anyone"

I give to you - Bill Gates.

You never know until you try.

It was always my dream as a child, so I'd encourage my parents to take me to the movies and insist that we walk back to the car through dark alleys. Alas, no one ever even tried to rob us.

Later in life I had the opportunity to develop a nemisis, but unfortunately when I kicked him into a vat of acidic biowaste, he developed cancer and died seconds later when the acid burnt out the lining of his lungs.

I have since decided to set my sights on becoming the Phantom - living in the jungle in a third world country where there are few laws, and beating up on evil stick wielding witchdoctors with my semi-automatic pistols and a trained wolf is way less stress and a lot cheaper. And I get a cool skull ring and a cool skull house to boot. Also my secret identity only involves me putting on a trenchcoast and a fedora and walking around in public on foggy nights. All in all a lot more achievable.

Yes and no. You could train to be extremily fit, study martial arts like Arnis/Doce Pares Eskrima, and get some training in the areas of tracking(as a Bounty Hunter in some American States), but it might not be realistic to go around beating the shit out of suspected criminals unless you plan to use a gun. There's also the question of what type of criminals you'd WANT to fight. Some organized crime types tend to be "in your face" about appearing in public, so, I guess you could try pulling off a hit on them(and face legal repercussions), but, they could also end up killing you before you kill them. Here in Ireland there's a designated terrorist group that calls themselves "The Real IRA", but no, they aren't the same Irish Republican Army that helped win Ireland it's freedom decades ago, dissidents with their own agendas just use the mantle.

Anyway, the "Real IRA" breaks the legs of drug dealers, or worse, when they find out who's been dealing drugs in a given district. They're a paramilitary group, and the reason they're considered terrorists may be because they oppose the system of government in place in Ireland, they don't like that a peace deal let the UK keep some counties in the north of Ireland was agreed upon, and that this state was built on that treaty, nearly a century ago. So, that shows you can fight criminals if you are a criminal fighting other criminals and saying "fuck it" to red tape bureaucracy. Someone could actually do that. Form an armed and illegal group that kills criminals such as drug kingpins, but, I'd say that you may want to lay off the whole opposing the state thing and focus specifically on things like assaulting pimps and drug dealers. You'd probably end up doing a lot of time in prison though. So...that'd mean being like The Punisher, with a team, which is close to Batman in some ways.

You also have to remember there are countless crimes. Some laws are plain stupid, and what's legal isn't always what's good or just. People who do some of the worst damage, do it legally. This includes the police, many soldiers, and business executives. You could consider doing something like investigative journalism independent of any news media business, and exposing corruption, or trying to start a reformist political party.

If you don't care about legal injustices, then there are illegal injustices that people need to stop for the sake of the world. Ever think about getting into combatting animal poaching? You'd be protecting endangered species. That not your cup of tea? Train in anything and everything. Do some time in the military, maybe the police too, and train in many martial arts, and set up a self defence club to help people defend themselves against muggers and rapists, and give lectures on how people can better defend themselves, you'd be more than welcome. So, that way, you can make a living out of helping people at the very least defend themselves from scumbags. I'd say this and maybe volunteering to protect endangered endangered animals, could both be great options. The gun toting vigilante thing would really only have small gains, since there'd always be more criminals, and you'd lose out more if caught. Becoming a reformist leader is possible too, but scumbags in politics and their sponsors would be out to destroy you at every turn...such is politics.

Good luck!

Very interesting point made by everyone out here.. yes there are a lot of angles to it and certainly if one were to argue, it's like a two sided coin (Not the one of Harvey / TWO face) but yes, being Batman could be possible given the scenarios are next to ideal... Even other wise it is not difficult... I'd like to give reference from the movie KickAss.... if something like that can be done in real life, only more intense, then the kid/ person who has been trained from childhood and given real life experience to combat and handle situations would certainly be able to justify the batman tag and become one for a long time.. even sustain being Batman...

As we all know "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villan"