The following contains spoilers for Batman #130, on sale now from DC Comics.
In the superhero genre, there's perhaps no one as capable and adaptable as the Batman character. The nominally human hero has survived truly wild circumstances in the past, with his latest test pushing him further beyond the limit. But his latest brush with death comes with a thematic connection to another big hero of 2022.
Batman ends up surviving a truly wild aerial crash in Batman #130 (by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles), reaching Mach 9 while escaping Failsafe. In the process, Batman basically gets his own version of the opening sequence from Top Gun: Maverick -- with both Bruce Wayne and Pete Mitchell surviving some truly wild crashes after breaking the sound barrier multiple times over. But a question of who did it best still remains and begs for further investigation.
Batman's Top Gun Moment Explained
After confronting Failsafe on the Justice League Watchtower, Batman finds himself stranded in the vastness of space without a spaceship. Batman quickly tears apart a dismantled ship, finding the parts he needs to make an impromptu platform to ride. Batman deduces a way to ride the platform down towards the Earth will require him to go at nine-g to return planetside before his oxygen gives out. Using his grappling gun to reposition himself when he needs it, Batman ends up going 40,000 miles an hour -- theoretically breaking the sound barrier by over fifty times.
The process takes hours, and eventually, the sheer strain of the effort takes its toll -- with Batman eventually losing consciousness from the pressure. Batman does his best to deal with the chaotic landing and is eventually able to rely on his Bat-Suit to slow his descent enough to successfully land. It's a wildly impressive feat, showing Batman managing to hit 9G and still survive a pretty wild crash. Funny enough, he's not the only pop culture hero to even do so this year.
Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick is one of the biggest films of 2022, featuring plenty of impressive aerial spectacle. The opening sequence of Top Gun: Maverick focuses on Pete Mitchell (Cruise) working on an advanced new hypersonic jet as a test pilot. When the project is put at risk by doubtful higher-ups, Mitchell ignores orders, and (with the help of his team) is able to showcase the true potential of the jet by pushing it to Mach 9 and finally Mach 10. However, his decision to keep pushing the plane further beyond Mach 10 ends up destroying the plane and almost killing him, setting the stage for the rest of the film. While the circumstances might be different, Batman and Pete Mitchell were basically tasked with the same kind of challenge, and both performed admirably. It's notable that while Mitchell was able to withstand the full force of 9G, Batman ended up losing consciousness briefly due to the intensity of the force.
Batman Versus Top Gun's Maverick
However, Batman was withstanding it far longer than Mitchell's test flight, and without any of the assistance of a plane absorbing the impact. He also ended up going faster thanks to the sheer force of his flight back to Earth. Both also ended their mission in a similar way, coming to a crashing halt while still surviving. But while Mitchell was able to more or less walk away from the situation, Batman was quickly forced to get back to fighting Failsafe right after his crash. At first glance, Mitchell would seem to have more in common with Hal Jordan than any other superhero. The Green Lantern is also a death-defying pilot in his civilian identity.
But Batman and Mitchell surviving basically the same turn of events highlights how the two nominally human heroes can go beyond the limits of reason and do the impossible -- even finding ways to survive reaching speeds far beyond what mortal men were ever meant to reach. Beyond that, Mitchell spends the film training a new generation of pilots, effectively getting a new band of sidekicks for a dangerous mission -- similar to the Robins and Batgirls who work with Batman. Given this newest feat from both characters, Tom Cruise's Mitchell might be a bit more like Batman than anyone realized.