Ranma ½ Heir of the Bat

[thezorch]

When she was much younger, Shirahama Nodoka had a brief fling with a young billionaire from America. Her father, who was very traditional, held strong prejudices against foreigners and gave Nodoka an ultimatum. End her relationship or be cast out of the family. He tended for her to marry the son of a friend of the family, due to matter of family honor. Not wishing to cause Nodoka trouble with her family, her lover decides to step aside, but before they part they have one final night together.

Years later, Saotome Nodoka, discovers old paperwork while cleaning house. They were hospital records belonging to her husband. Due to an old injury while martial arts training, Genma's "coin purse" doesn't work, and before his family lost their fortune due to bad investments they tried to get him treatment. Nothing worked, and this was before they got married. This meant only one thing, Ranma wasn't Genma's biological son.

His father was Bruce Wayne.

Needless to say, a lot happens. The truth does eventually come out, and as you might guess all hell breaks loose. Bruce comes to Japan on business, which is a cover for Batman investigating Bane and Scarecrow and their interest in a Lexcorp research facility in Tokyo. Nodoka gets reunited with Bruce with Alfred's help, and Bruce learns he's a father. When the truth is reveal Ranma is torn emotionally. He doesn't know what to make of his news. He can tell Bruce is well trained just by seeing how he walks, and cases a room with his eyes. Eventually, something involving the villains happens and Nodoka is badly hurt, and Nabiki gets kidnapped. Ranma goes on the warpath and Batman tries to convince him he's in way over his head. Ranma won't listen, and after he flattens a bunch of Bane and Scarecrow's thugs he gets doused with fear gas. Nabiki, realizing what the gas does, just smiles...

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that." she tells Scarecrow as Neko Ranma makes an appearance.

When it's all said and done, Batman takes his son to the Watchtower and introduces him as The Dragon to the Justice League. Thus begins an epic story of Ranma becoming the protector Tokyo needs as Japanese supervillains start coming out of the woodwork.

Thoughts, comments?

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

My mother said if can't say anything nice, then say nothing at all. Fuck that bitch, tho.

The premise is stale and cliched. Ranma is Bruce Wayne's son, okay. So that's Ranma's in to the Justice League/Bat Family? You can't just have the paths cross in a more organic method? Nope, Ranma's gotta be just a little more special than the rest of the Bat Family. Also, I know how traditions work, and unless Nodoka didn't tell her super traditional Dad that she got properly impregnated by one of the richest men on the planet, I don't see how he's gonna just tell her "End your relationship with that filthy rich foreigner, we're so stupidly proud we hate free money."

Look up Marriage of Convenience, and tell me how her dumbfuck Dad would be happy to have her shacked up with a barely able to take care of himself, thieving, conniving, moronic martial artist over the guy who could take care of her and their entire family and have it not even put a dent into what he makes in an hour.

Now, kidnapping Nabiki. Is this your signalling that it's gonna be a Ranma/Nabiki fic? Or is it just Nabiki because you know the idea of Akane being taken hostage will go over about as well as the time Principal Kuno had her crucified in front of the entire class? Don't worry, this question is irrelevant. Your real problem is, how are things stacked tier-wise? Is Ranma just that good or is Ranma's little psychotic break what tips him over the edge against a physical God like Bane? Bane who beat and broke Batman's back. Bane who is a highly intelligent criminal mastermind in his own right and well trained in combat even before the Venom?

Then we have the whole Justice League thing? Batman's so eager to show off his new little protege that he whisks him right off to the Watchtower so everyone can be all "oh wow, this guy's amazing". What about training him to be a superhero? To be part of the Bat Clan? Because Ranma's got that sort of personality that can see him becoming a Jason Todd more than a Dick Grayson real fucking fast.

I ain't above or beyond the idea of comic crossoverings. Shit, Ranma is more or less Avengers Initiative material in the Interview stories (a fact that is not known to him but known to the runners of said Initiative), but I'm not cramming him anywhere near the MCU shit because you can't just slap it together and say "Here's a story!"

Instead of just a bunch of strung together cliches, how about something that has some actual substance? A reason for Batman to want to go to Japan, to meet Ranma directly, and for them to either come to blows or deliver blows upon a common enemy? You actually have something with Bane here, but fuck him allow me to shit out a better premise for your story:

Ra's Al-Ghul is sick of Batman's shit, as usual, and in their latest clash The Detective left Ra's especially fucked, so fucked that even the Lazarus Pits can't fix his body this time. With time being of the essence, Ra's decides it's time to find a new body, one that is stronger, with the durability and physicality he needs to match up with his breadth of martial artist skills. So he has his league of shadows search the world and BAM, they find one Ranma Saotome who fits the bill mightily.

Of course, Batman wouldn't be Batman if he didn't catch wind that something was up, so he follows along with this little hunt of Ra's (and optionally Talia's) until he too starts to zero in on the young man that Ra's is so strongly interested in. Bam, the Wild Horse and the Bat meet, and since the kid has some honing to him, Batman decides that taking the kid under his wing and instilling something more than the superheroic abilities of changing into a girl and putting his/her own foot into his/her own mouth would be a good idea to prevent Ranma from stumbling stupidly into the clutches of evil.

Thus you start your Ranma hanging out with Batman arc, while fighting off Ra's ninjas and struggling to keep him and his safe from their machinations. You have a chance to pit him against various threats, have him grow and mature with his interactions with his friends and others, and you can start to have Batman properly influence him and turn him into what you really want out of this crossover: Ranma as Batman.

Shit ain't hard, you just gotta put together more than "Ranma is Bruce's kid, now he's Batman and everyone thinks he's cool."

 

[thezorch]

Whoa, someone's off his meds.

It's just a very underdeveloped story premise that still needs a lot of work, nobody stepped on your puppy.

Thanks for the input though, I like the Ra's Al GHul idea. That sounds very interesting.

 

[PCHeintz72]

I have actually read a somewhat similar concept once on Spacebattles, though not the same....

In that, Ranma ends up in Gotham because of reasons that become clear later. But he is searching for something after having left Japan supposedly without permission, and ends up stumbling into various small time events and mucking things up for lower bad guys... then runs into the fear gas and through plot ends up at Justice League, where an assassination attempt on him goes off and he ends up getting kidnapped without them even knowing... While he is undergoing that, the JL guys discover Japan does not want him back and refuses to sign the papers for him. Which got quite the reaction out of some of the JL characters.

He was not related to Batman in it. Or if so it never came out. Seemed like based on posts it would have been leaning toward a Wonder Woman or other JL character mentorship type deal, not as a superhero per se, but more as a control, though the author could have nixed that....

I'm afraid I do not know offhand if it went beyond that, as that was the last I bothered checking on it.

 

[Sean-007]

thezortch, which version of Batman will you be using?