This Time...It's Business!

Batman is arguable the most durable superhero in comic books. His battles against both man and monsters prove him to be an amazing testament to the will of humanity. But there is still one man who Batman must defeat to prove his strength, in a field he has both mastered and rejected. Today I'm giving my Pitch-It for a battle of business between The World's Greatest Detective and The World's Greatest Business Man. Here it is loyal readers, "Wayne VS Luthor: Business As Usual".

Ace Chemical Processing Plant was once a small chemical plant named Kane Chemicals before it was sold by Martha Wayne to another minor business named Apex Chemicals, both companies integrated into the Ace Chemicals we have today. After an incident involving a red-hooded thief and Gotham's own Batman, the plant was shut down and reformed into a landmark of Gotham City. Now, one decade later, one business man all the way from Metropolis wants to purchase this old facility and reopen it, offering plenty of jobs to the people of Gotham, funding from his own company LexCorp, and a possible brand deal to open more Ace Chemicals around the country. Only one thing stands in his way, Bruce Wayne of Wayne Industries. Seeing as how Martha Wayne once owned one of the companies that made Ace Chemicals, Bruce Wayne has a stand in the matter, more so when considering Wayne Industries is based out of Gotham and Ace Chemicals his a Gotham landmark. So the future of Ace Chemicals comes down to this, two rich men and a lot of paperwork.

Bruce Wayne/Batman suspects Lex Luthor-the same man who has plagued fellow hero, Superman-has some nefarious plans for this chemical plant, so he sets it upon himself to gain ownership over Ace Chemicals. To do this, Batman must use his Bruce Wayne persona to negotiate with Luthor at a Wayne Industries board meeting. However, Luthor has his ideas too. For months Luthor has been looking into Bruce's secret, but has run into snags. Both Bruce Wayne and Batman have been seen in the same place at once, not to mentioned Bruce seems way too incompetent to be this legendary vigilante. So Luthor has only one last trick to both reveal Batman's identity and gain ownership over Ace Chemicals: coerce Bruce into revealing his secret to the world. How? By simply egging him on, of course! As Luthor shows up to the meeting he appears tired, he states he was up late watching "March of the Penguins" and this morning he almost got in accident with "some joker" on the highway. After their lunch brake Luthor asks if Bruce could help him with his book of riddles. Luthor claims an employee of his got a bad case of poison ivy from a hiking trip. In order to withstand this goading, Bruce would need to keep calm and focus on the meeting at hand. The meeting itself would go on for three days, pulling in characters like Superman, The Joker, Lucius Fox, and many others. With Luthor and Wayne at even odds, it would all come down to who could make the most compelling argument to the last owner of Ace Chemicals, Maximilian Shreck.
This would be a story baring no physical action, it's more like a battle of words. In a sense, Wayne would be the straight man to Luthor's more instigative presentation. Having these two business men come to blows in this way would expand Batman's capabilities even further, after all we're always told how successful Bruce Wayne's company is, but how often do we see that? Something like would probably last three or four issues and mostly serve as a comedic match of wits. I'd like to give a special thanks to my good friend Matt Miller for helping me craft this idea! Thanks for reading!

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