Batman is December 2025’s Metropolitan of the Month because he’s making a change in an impactful way. Clad in a comic-accurate Batman uniform, this young man from California asked to remain anonymous because he doesn’t want the focus to be on him. Dressed as the Dark Knight, he’s calling attention to vast inequality in his corner of the planet, shining a bat signal in the sky for change while fighting growing injustices.
At 24 years old, the activist who goes by Batman of San Jose juggles two full-time jobs. By day, he works as an industrial designer. By night, and sometimes during lunch breaks, he transforms into a caped crusader fighting a different kind of crime: systemic neglect of the unhoused.
“I go by Batman just because when I was starting out, I was in high school, and I always felt that whenever you see one of those feel-good news stories, they always spend so much time talking about the person, their entire life story,” he said. “That last little second step is the actual issue they’re trying to solve. So I figured Batman was big and distracting and carries the right message.”…