The Man Who Replaced Batman (Part 5): The Vector of the Gun

So, I'm going to skip over the part of the story where: 

• Batman eavesdrops on a Deadshot phone call by hiding in a closet and putting a (I kid you not) wet-rimmed glass to a wall;
• hears Deadshot's giving some crook the all-clear for a heist;
• strong-arms Gordon into a stakeout for said heist, which never happens, thus reaffirming Gordon's dismissal of Batman's concerns about Deadshot as mere jealousy,
• while Deadshot, who set the whole thing up knowing that Batman would tumble to it, laughs at Batman for being a sucker.

Actually, you deserve to see that last part:

Because Batman's vertigo of cognitive dissonance is a thing of beauty.
"But.. but.. I'm... Batman?"

I simply love the fact that, although criminals have been shooting at Batman every night since May of 1939, this time it's just accepted as fact that: Deadshot has a gun and he's going to shoot Batman dead and get away it.  Even though Batman could kidnap Lawton (and Stevens) and sell them into slavery in the Transvaal, or just drop them off in Antarctica without, you know, ACTUALLY killing them.  Or could announce to the public "Deadshot is a criminal who has vowed to kill me so if he shoots me it was on purpose".  No, the crux of the issue has been that Daddy Gordon now believes DEADSHOT, who is his new favorite, over Batman. So fixing that and that ALONE is the only way out.

But first Deadshot gets to shoot Batman.

"It's a perfect night.... FOR MURDER!"

Then Batman turns the tables by back-sassing Deadshot:

"Have you ever killed a man, Floyd?  Ever hear of a man named 'Jabah'?
Yeah; neither has anyone else..."

I know Batman is a master of criminal psychology (you should read his thesis!), but this is still a baller move.  

Batman seldom unleashes the full power of his most lethal weapon: smack talk.

Batman probably spends too much time with the Joker.

Batman definitely spends too much time with the Joker.

Have ever quaked so badly from self-doubt in the face of existential terror that your domino mask falls off? It makes an already bad situation that much more embarrassing. Spirit gum can't hold together a shattered soul.

What would have been really awesome would have been for Deadshot to shoot himself in the head right then and there.  But this is 1950, not 1940, and it's not the style.  

"By telling him I'd rented a white stretch limo to take you to prom and that you'd promised me third base!"

Batman (the modern Odysseus), it turns out, has won again by his usual method: cheating.

Batman's faith in the mathematics of parallax is unparalleled.

Clearly this is unrealistic because a marksman like Deadshot would almost immediately realize that his sights had been altered and adjust accordingly. But what matters is the thematic come-uppance. Deadshot struck at Batman's confidence in himself and Gordon's confidence in Batman.  But Deadshot was vulnerable because his confidence was externally placed -- in his guns-- rather than internally rooted in himself.  

It's the same way Batman defeats Jean-Paul "Azrael/Batman" Valley in 1994.  

It's why the Dark Knight Returns Batman tells his new troops they don't use guns. 

It's the tactical reason Batman doesn't use them himself. Not because he's 'afraid' of using them; but because he's afraid of becoming reliant on such a tool.  Batman's explanation for how he can do things is not "because I have a gun/utility belt/vast fortune"; it's