Batman really is a superhero, as it turns out.

It began very oddly, as police in Montgomery, Maryland, pulled over a fully-costumed, caped crusader -- spike-earred, face-covering cowl and all -- driving along in a Batmobile, a black Lamborghini sporting Bat-plates.

And so it was, about those plates, that Batman was pulled over, the cops wondering about those plates, that car, that Bat-driver.

The real license plates were inside the car.  The plates that had been mobile, mounted on the Lamborghini, displayed the Bat-symbol.

It's been about a week since this tale came out of nowhere, and now the rest has become known.  Baltimore county businessman, Lenny Robinson, age 48, is now unveiled:  Batman.

He visits sick children in the hospital, in his Bat-costume, and has done so since 2001, giving out Bat-toys and encouragement as he goes, spending about 25-thousand dollars a year on the kids, being, as Lenny says, "... strong for them, and to make them smile as much as I can."

There you go -- an authentic superhero, by any measure, in any kind of clothes.

At least we now know where real heroes feel at home when they go out on a roam, and are not gone extinct, not simply vanished from the range forever, as it sometimes appears.

The kids would tell you where at least one hero dwells, no longer quite-so-much alone, not quite-so-much flying solo in their own hospitalized hells.

The Bat-story:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/baltimore-batman-lenny-ro_n_1387932.html

The Bat-video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17564941