Haven't heard the essay, but an intrigued by your subject line.

The roads are too lousy for Batman and Robin to get far. Batman is an urban sort of guy.

Maybe Spiderman. Not Wonderwoman, too conspicuous.

If they really wanted to get bin Laden, it would be Army Ant.

A breed of ant genetically modified to subsist on rocks. It marches in hordes, reproduces while marching, and eats every living thing in it's path and some of the stuff that isn't living.

It can chew through rocks into tunnels, live at high altitude, and be laser-guided right to a tunnel opening.

They aren't that fast, but they are 100% lethal, and they never give up. Turn some loose in the Fall, and in the Spring those suckers are hopping around on one foot, then the other, then the other, then the other, then the other, and then the other just waiting to get going.

bin Laden would look like a Halloween ornament before you could say "Labor Day".

Arf