Since Bruce Wayne is just a normal human, can a telepath read his thoughts and/or control him? I know he's done all sorts of meditative regimes and everything, but I couldn't think of any comics that addressed this issue one way or the other. Because it would seem to me that no matter what kind of practice he has, he couldn't beat an actual powerful telepath.
I don't see why not, but Batman has encountered telepaths before, and has shown to have enough mental stregth and discipline to throw them off, at least temporarily. The only story I can think of that addresses this question directly is "Identity Crisis" by Peter Milligan, a Detective Comics issue from the early 90s. It begins when Bruce Wayne wakes up to find himself by the river, almost having drowned. He can't remember what had happened the previous night, and returns to Wayne Manor wondering if someone had sussed his identity and tried to kill him. When he returns, he's shocked to find that Alfred has no idea who "Batman" is, and neither does Tim. There is no Batcave, just an empty cellar. He discovers while watching the news that someone else is Batman, and buys some mountain gear and tries to track him down. He fights whoever the imposter is, but is equally matched. He returns to Wayne Manor, where reality is beginning to waver. Batman follows him, and takes his mask off, to reveal.... Bruce Wayne. The "Bruce Wayne" from the beginning of the story is actually The Synaptic Kid, a psychic who tried to read Batman's mind and suss his identity, only to find Batman's mind was too strong. He got confused, and awoke in a split reality where Bruce and Batman are seperate people. So Batman had defeated him by splitting himself into his two seperate, distinct idenitities. At the end we learn that the Synaptic Kid is in a coma, under observation by doctors. Any fan of the Animated Series willl find the description of this story familiar, and despite a very different outcome, it definitely inspired "Perchance to Dream".
Since telepathy isn't real, it's rules aren't always 100% nailed down. But I think it's pretty standard for non-telepaths to be able to block their thoughts. From the Animated stuff I recall two examples. In The Batman, Bruce is able to block Jon Jones from reading his thoughts with his mental disipline once he realizes he's a telepath. Also, in JLU, pretty much all the Cadmus government agents are able to block telepathy using the same method. So there is a way for normal unpowered people to resist it. Strong minds are harder to read or even impossible. But the X-Men version is another story probably.
Pretty sure that Bruce would at least be temporarily susceptible to telepathic attack...but I'm sure that his mind is so tuned and trained in mental discipline that he would be able to shake it off. In the Justice League adaption of "For the Man Who Has Everything" Batman is taken by the black rock plant thingy and someone already mentioned Perchance to Dream from Batman the Animated Series.
Depends on the telepath, I'd say. Despero controlled Batman as recently as Crisis of Conscience. As for reading his thoughts, A character on Heroes was able to shut down a mind reader by thinking in Japanese, which the mind reader didn't understand. I'm sure Batman could easily do something similar.
Oh I just remembered, Zatanna mind-wipes Batman in the Identity Crisis mini-series which makes him create Brother Eye. Duh. So if Despero was mind controlling Bats does that mean he could have learned his identity then?
Yes, but I doubt he'd care all that much being an alien overlord. I mean Darkseid would know all his secrets but he never bothered using them as an advantage since there's little point.
That only worked well because Matt Parkman's powers were entirely verbal in nature--most comic telepaths have the ability to receive visual information broadcasts as well, and many have the (frankly less credible) ability to actively read memories whether the owner of the brain is consciously or unconconsciously accessing them or not. Bruce Wayne's face in a mirror looks the same in English and Japanese... And if he hadn't been overconfident he wouldn't have been shot Spoiler: sigh... Final Crisis with a gun from the future!
Funny this should come up. I saw about three minutes of an episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold (?) this morning where he blocked an attempt to mind control him using techniques he learned in Thailand, I think it was.
Wouldn't a bullet that goes through his mouth or eyeball be his biggest weakness? Or a semi hitting him at 100 mph and running over him?
Dunno, but since this is Darkseid we're talking about I'd say yes. But he leaves the mental torture (all torture, really) to DeSaad since he doesn't find any amusement in torturing people.