Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
Apparently DC thought otherwise, since otherwise it wouldn't have been made. though he was doing six original justice league members, so Batman was kind of a requirement.

also broad strokes similarities don't really count for anything in superhero comics. there is probably more superman clones than anyone can name or list, "flying brick" is an incredibly common set of superpowers. rich gadgeteer is probably on the same level of archetypical-ness where its so basic that you could argue Doctor Doom and Lex Luthor are the same level of broad strokes similarity as Batman.
DC didn't do it as a thought experiment. DC did it as a marketing ploy. A rather good one, at that, but "what would modern day Stan Lee with all the knowledge of 60+ years of this character have done if he created this character 40 years ago from scratch" doesn't quite fit the bill of the thought experiment. Might as well ask what if Peelee had invented calculus instead of Liebniz and Newton, if we're going to go the route that DC did.