An Tran has studied martial arts since childhood, mastered parkour and powerlifting, and is working on a bulletproof bodysuit.
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I’ve searched for a suit of flexible body armor every year since I first heard about its existence seven years ago. Now a company has finally made one; it is almost exactly what I’ve been looking for. This time my internet search takes less than an hour—the suit is designed for stuntmen to wear beneath their clothes. It’s really just compression gear with impact-resistant inserts made of non-Newtonian gel. My first exposure to the substance was a video of a man with a beanie being bludgeoned by a steel shovel. It works fairly simply: Motion is the only way to distribute energy, so the way to make flexible body armor is through chemistry. The molecular weave of the gel tightens up in response to blunt force and, as the molecules move toward each other, the impact is spread across the surface of the pad. This stunt-suit makes a perfect base, but my sides would be unprotected. I’ve worked as a stuntman before and we rarely took hits under our arms. But I need this for combat and blows to the side and ribs are common in fights. I’ll need to stitch additional pads into the lining, but this find is still monumental; every other supplier for this kind of body armor required a government I.D. or, being designed for motorcyclists, were poor choices for combat. Here, I’ve found the base for my battle suit, my first step to becoming bulletproof.
The steps to come have already been mapped: procure a Kevlar stealth vest; research materials suitable for lightweight chainmail for stab and slash protection; procure a ballistic helmet to modify; construct boots and gloves; etc. Two years ago, I told my girlfriend at the time, “It’s on my bucket list. Eventually, I’m going to make a functional vigilante suit.” She asked why. I answered, “Because Batman.” She told me he’s not real and I told her, “I want to prove that a person can actually be as skilled and as educated as Batman.” She repeated herself: Batman isn’t real.
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I’ve been planning the suit for over five years now, ever since I learned about the technology from a fellow parkour practitioner when I was in Canada. It made perfect sense to me: my father is a sifu—a kung fu master—who trained the South Vietnamese military and who began my combat education when I was nine. In the eighteen years since, I’ve studied a litany of traditions: tai chi chuan, wing chun, savate, bagua zhang, aikido, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and many others. I can fight; I can leap across rooftops; I took up powerlifting and became one of the strongest men in the country. Building a suit and actualizing one of my earliest childhood fantasies seemed like the obvious next step. More importantly, it seemed feasible, despite how many times others told me—have continued to tell me—the idea’s absurd.
The planning took years. Gel armor stops neither bullets nor blades; I had to hit the comic books for both motivation and research. I needed stories of Batman’s drive to sacrifice everything for his mission, his devotion to his city, his unswerving drive toward improving himself and honing his skills. I’ve always needed his stories to tell me not to give up. But his armor sucks—mostly Kevlar or plate armor—both useless against piercing weapons. Deathstroke’s scale armor makes a lot more sense, but scales are heavy and still inferior to chainmail. There’s still a lot to be done before this suit’s complete, a lot of research, a lot of money, a lot of cursing at a sewing machine.
I know I have to be a little crazy to not only contemplate this, but to put my plans into motion. I’ve done some hard looking into my own psychology; I’ve confronted my personal demons. I’m okay with being a little crazy, but there are serious dangers I need to avoid. Batman tempers trauma into training. He turns pain into power, despair into discipline. Batman is pure intelligence and raw force; he’s become a paragon of manhood, a self-educated genius, a warrior, a corporate leader. But I’d be a fool to say that Batman should be a measure of masculinity. Becoming Batman is not the same as becoming a good or healthy man.
When Tim Drake becomes the third Robin in A Lonely Place of Dying, he speculates that Batman needs a Robin to balance him out. I think this is a pivotal observation; I think we need to be wary of just how much we idolize fictional crime-fighters. Batman buries his emotions. He has renounced femininity; women are largely transient and replaceable—Alfred, Dick, Tim, even Jason, the slaughtered Robin, are fixed in the Bat-family while the women come and go.
When I think about building this suit, I also think about the man I want to be. Dick Grayson, in a heart-wrenching episode of Young Justice, says it perfectly: “I always wanted—expected—to grow up and become him […] but that thing inside of him? That thing that drives him to sacrifice everything for the sake of his mission… That’s not me. I don’t want to be the Batman anymore.” When I think of the man I want to be, I think of Robin—any of them, including the women. Robin is the balance to Batman’s darkness. It’s too easy to argue that Batman is a perversion of masculinity, but if you look at the set , you see a different person. You see love, compassion, joy, worry, grief and all other facets of humanity.
Editor-in-chief of bodybuilding magazine Testosterone Nation T.C. Luoma argues “that the raw masculine qualities of Testosterone need to be transformed and channeled into manhood, which is largely based on being protective, altruistic, and heroic. Manhood, perhaps counter intuitively, also draws on certain feminine traits like empathy, cooperation, and the ability to support and nurture.” If I’m going to build this suit, if I’m going to continue my training, I must understand also how to cultivate the rest of my humanity as well, how to nurture relationships with others, how to love fiercely and grieve safely. The alternative is becoming lost in the dark, becoming bulletproof only to succumb to spiritual rot, death by disease from the inside out. Manhood is more than just power; Batman needs Robin.
Photo—State Farm/Flickr
My biggest question would be who would you protect and from whom?
I’m trying to imagine how truly useful a real-life Batman would be aside from whatever inspirational value (if that’s even a good thing).
Cool thoughts! Thanks for sharing.
#1. You already told everybody your plans to be Batman and now when this Batman type character shows up everybody will know it’s you! How can you have your Bruce Wayne public identity to protect you?
#2. It doesn’t matter how much of a ninja you are, one mistake, one moment too many with your back turned and you can get brained with a crowbar by someone with no training at all.
I think you’d be better off as a combination of Deadshot and The Punisher. Find out who the bad guys are, and then shoot them.
Please be a real superhero. We really need you. Thanks, An Tran!
“If I’m going to continue my training, I must understand also how to cultivate the rest of my humanity as well.” I’d argue that this is not only more important than your armor, but should come first in your self-evaluation. The tired stereotype that empathy, cooperation, and the ability to support and nurture are “feminine traits” (which I should expect from a magazine called Testosterone Nation) is antithetical to a progressive society, damaging to men trying to break away from horrendously outdated stereotypes and women who fear the dominance of corollary “masculine” traits in themselves, a crutch for alpha-male types… Read more »
I think its a great idea – however to truly accomplish the souls task we have journeyed here for we must learn to work together with others so I think you should build a team of superheros and teach others the importance of truth integrity and defense of the meek.
I want to be Robin. You can be Batman. Let’s kick some ass.
If you shall not be Batman, at least teach someone else how to.
We need a Batman.
An-
Interesting idea. You seem to have a number of the physical attributes, but given your size it seems that you would be trading a great deal of speed for protection. Kinda like putting a Cheetah in chainmail. Its still a cheetah and less vulnerable to attack, but it loses its cheetahness. How about focusing on upping the amount of damage you can put out? I have slashproof Kevlar gloves with 10 oz of steel shot in the knuckles. provides protection but also allows me to deliver single punch KOs on much larger opponents.
Lord have mercy.
I’m more powerful than I am fast, actually, so I have an 11ft broad jump. The weight will certainly decrease my power output, but part of that’s acclimation. One of the reasons I favour the Robins is because they’re less than perfect: each needed some kind of weaponry to be able to stand beside Batman. More than likely, I’ll go the Nightwing-route with escrima (although, I feel like right NOW I should note that I’m not planning on fighting crime nor am I condoning anyone break the law… my goals are just to acquire all the skills, knowledge, and materials… Read more »
Just a note: The newest material (stronger and more flexible than Kevlar) is Graphene.
I have slashproof Kevlar gloves with 10 oz of steel shot in the knuckles. provides protection but also allows me to deliver single punch KOs on much larger opponents.
that sounds so damn cool. i want me some.
unfortunately couldnt use them in the uk though
Hey this dude Dead Lifted almost 3x his body weight- he may pull this off.
Do I know you or did you do a search for my lifts? Lol. At USAPL Nationals 2011, I weighed in at 160lbs and deadlifted 480lbs, so I’ve actually done the 3xBW DL already. Still working on 500. Broke a finger since Nationals and my grip hasn’t been the same since.
But thanks! I appreciate the vote of confidence.
No I don’t know you- but I may put your picture on a TShirt…
I wasn’t certain if this was fictional & googled you.
Somehow this has been a bright spot in my day, thx.
Last time I broke a finger my daughter took a Tarzan swing on my pinkie…
No that’s not true after that I was teaching my son how to face off and he broke my ring finger.
hey remember Chain isn’t great for thrust protection from sharp points (it will tend to spread the links if they aren’t welded) , but good luck man. on a more response to the actual content, i had a conversation with some of my daughters male friends last week about being “tough”. Batman is tough, resourceful, skilled etc… But it is all fueled by the tough, the problem is to be tough you need to be toughened, and being toughened is bad, it hurts. we can recover from it, but being toughened means going through trauma severe enough to change you… Read more »
I always wanted to be a real-life Superhero. Yes, comics are stories but in a way they are modern day mythologies, like that of past civilizations.
Hey, we all need a hobby, right?