I have to confess that for many years I was a Bat-Fanatic. Starting with seeing Tim Burton's Batman film in the theater in summer of '89 when I was six, I started a lifelong fascination with him. Since then, I've seen every theatrical release, collected the action figures, watched the cartoons, read and collected hundreds of comic books/graphic novels, and even created a scrapbook with images and articles of him from numerous magazines. I still have that scrapbook with one hundred plus pages and it displays that I have an eye for collage. With that being said, I have my problems with the Dark Knight, and I am jaded with him and decisions that DC Comics has made in regard to him. Here are the key reasons:
1. He is overused.
Is it possible to overuse a character? Oh yes. Marvel's character Wolverine was killed off at one point because his comics oversaturated the market. Batman is lucky in this regard. Notwithstanding, there is no internal logic to teaming him up with every conceivable character in the DC universe, crossing him over with a host of characters outside of the DC Universe, and starring him in numerous monthly titles. What you have is a character forced to do more than anyone possibly could, with a confusing, and conflicting backstory. The creators also try to accomplish this while keeping him young and saddling him with a new sidekick once a generation, as if everything that has transpired happened in less than 10 years. It stopped making sense a long time ago. DC is in a vicious cycle that involves using Batman for any cartoon for film adaptation (for goodness' sake, how many Batmen were in the Flash movie?) because he is their main selling point, despite having legacy characters that put comics on the map 80 years ago. Their inability to market themselves beyond Batman is making them broke and their overuse of the Caped Crusader is the proverbial equivalent of digging yourself a hole without a way to get out.
2. Political Messaging.
Batman isn't immune to the new generation of woke messaging. For some reason, woke writers are incapable of creating new characters to be their voice box and so they transfer their attitudes to established characters instead. In one fairly recent story, Batman is bemoaning the fact that he is white-privileged. This is despite the fact that he has tried harder than almost any other superhero to understand criminals and the economic conditions that often create them. I heard that writers wanted to make him bi-curious despite consistent depictions of him as a straight guy. The messaging is transparent and the character ceases to be a mode of storytelling and becomes a platform/wailing wall for "social justice."
3. Moral Ambiguity/Deconstruction.
There are often tales when Batman questions his motives and keeps going back to why he's Batman or in some cases, he compromises his own integrity. While neither trope is necessarily bad, they become overbearing when used too often. This is commonly done these days in which a character and the fans of the character question if he/she/they are really doing any good in the world. I see this in cop shows too where people are protesting them all the time. It gets old, so old it has disgusting laundry stains. I've honestly had it when these stories become less about a protagonist trying to solve problem and more about how the world sees them as the problem. Let heroes be heroes again. If the rationale is to "elevate" the story beyond entertainment value, bear in mind that not every story needs that. Not every story has to be a hot take on terrorism, police corruption, or racial inequality. Batman is no exception.
4. The "No-Kill" Rule.
I used to be an advocate for Batman's "no-killing" policy, but then there's the Joker. For example, if we use the classic Dark Knight Returns storyline, before the Joker is actually doing anything in the story, he already has a reputation for having killed around 200 people. By the end of story, he kills an audience of 600. At one point, Batman mentions in his interior monologue that that he has "murdered" people by letting Joker live and still, he can't bring himself to finish the Joker off when presented with the opportunity. This happens way too often in the comics. The fact of the matter is for the past 80 years, the Joker has been allowed to get away with his crimes by shipping him off to Arkham Asylum, Gotham City's answer to a revolving door. The rationale behind this is that killing is a line Batman can't cross because it will make him as bad as the criminals he fights. (This is despite writers contradicting that in the same storyline. Take Batman Begins for example.) In the modern interpretation of the Joker, he has killed enough people to fill a sizeable city. When you have a mad dog like that, the best service Batman could perform is to kill him for the sake of public safety. Who is he trying to save by not doing so? If life is so sacred to him, then at some point, preserving the lives of decent citizens should take precedence over sparing the life of an unrepentant psychopath. In numerous stories, it has been mentioned that the Joker may have a "super sanity" meaning that he is fully cognizant of his wrongdoings and commits them because he likes to do so. Insanity isn't a defense, then.
If the Joker were a real person, there shouldn't be any mercy and he should face death like Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Honestly, I thought Charles Manson should have been executed. To see characters advocate for Joker in the storylines is becoming too frustrating because Joker always, ALWAYS pulls a fast one and will kill anyone who gives him an inch. I'm not saying Batman should go for wholesale slaughter, but it seems that for someone as consistent and destructive as the Joker, he would be serving society better by killing him. DC Comics won't budge on this one because it is a convenient way to keep the stories going despite the number of enemies the Joker has made. From someone who has been a fan for many years, this is one of the things that has worn me out the most. Batman used to kill in his earliest incarnation, and it seems like gritty portrayals of him since Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns are missing that component to make Batman as tough as they want him to be.
5. Batman Was Plagiarized.
This fact has stuck in my craw and I can't get rid of it. For the longest time, I sang the praises of Bob Kane and Bill Finger for their innovation in creating Batman. Little did I know, Batman's debut appearance in Detective Comics #27, was stolen, story and art, from a Shadow pulp novel Partners of Peril. This is compounded by the fact that they copied stories and tropes established the Shadow on numerous occasions. I created a list a little while ago about instances in which the Shadow did something that the Batman creators imitated or outright lifted from Shadow pulp novels, and it keeps growing. It wasn't just a one-time event. Eventually, the writers and artists at DC Comics were able to spread their wings and create some of their own concepts, but not without continuing to use the Shadow's methods. Shadow creator and writer Walter B. Gibson referred to Batman once as a "clowned-up Shadow." This is pretty harsh, but he recognized the similarities between Batman and his character since they are unmistakable. Batman has been depicted using guns, boomerangs (in his case batarangs), and an autogiro, while battling homicidal clowns and villains using fear toxins, but not before the Shadow. Batman gets his image from perching on rooftops, haunting evil denizens of crime in the night, but not before the Shadow. The entire idea of appearing as a villainous character to terrify criminals came from the Shadow first. I still love Batman, but as I have come to embrace the Shadow's pulp stories, I came to realize that Batman is and continues to be the Shadow's most prolific and successful clone. My love for the Shadow has increased but not without taking the wind out of my sails regarding Batman.
That's enough for now. I've been wanting to get this off my chest and it has been building up for a long time. As much as I love Batman and comics in general, they seem to pale in comparison to the pulp magazines that inspired them. As usual, I will reiterate that no one has to agree with me, but I've been chest-deep in fandom for comics for a long time and so I didn't come to these conclusions without some reflection.
Written by Nicholas Montelongo
1. He is overused.
Is it possible to overuse a character? Oh yes. Marvel's character Wolverine was killed off at one point because his comics oversaturated the market. Batman is lucky in this regard. Notwithstanding, there is no internal logic to teaming him up with every conceivable character in the DC universe, crossing him over with a host of characters outside of the DC Universe, and starring him in numerous monthly titles. What you have is a character forced to do more than anyone possibly could, with a confusing, and conflicting backstory. The creators also try to accomplish this while keeping him young and saddling him with a new sidekick once a generation, as if everything that has transpired happened in less than 10 years. It stopped making sense a long time ago. DC is in a vicious cycle that involves using Batman for any cartoon for film adaptation (for goodness' sake, how many Batmen were in the Flash movie?) because he is their main selling point, despite having legacy characters that put comics on the map 80 years ago. Their inability to market themselves beyond Batman is making them broke and their overuse of the Caped Crusader is the proverbial equivalent of digging yourself a hole without a way to get out.
2. Political Messaging.
Batman isn't immune to the new generation of woke messaging. For some reason, woke writers are incapable of creating new characters to be their voice box and so they transfer their attitudes to established characters instead. In one fairly recent story, Batman is bemoaning the fact that he is white-privileged. This is despite the fact that he has tried harder than almost any other superhero to understand criminals and the economic conditions that often create them. I heard that writers wanted to make him bi-curious despite consistent depictions of him as a straight guy. The messaging is transparent and the character ceases to be a mode of storytelling and becomes a platform/wailing wall for "social justice."
3. Moral Ambiguity/Deconstruction.
There are often tales when Batman questions his motives and keeps going back to why he's Batman or in some cases, he compromises his own integrity. While neither trope is necessarily bad, they become overbearing when used too often. This is commonly done these days in which a character and the fans of the character question if he/she/they are really doing any good in the world. I see this in cop shows too where people are protesting them all the time. It gets old, so old it has disgusting laundry stains. I've honestly had it when these stories become less about a protagonist trying to solve problem and more about how the world sees them as the problem. Let heroes be heroes again. If the rationale is to "elevate" the story beyond entertainment value, bear in mind that not every story needs that. Not every story has to be a hot take on terrorism, police corruption, or racial inequality. Batman is no exception.
4. The "No-Kill" Rule.
I used to be an advocate for Batman's "no-killing" policy, but then there's the Joker. For example, if we use the classic Dark Knight Returns storyline, before the Joker is actually doing anything in the story, he already has a reputation for having killed around 200 people. By the end of story, he kills an audience of 600. At one point, Batman mentions in his interior monologue that that he has "murdered" people by letting Joker live and still, he can't bring himself to finish the Joker off when presented with the opportunity. This happens way too often in the comics. The fact of the matter is for the past 80 years, the Joker has been allowed to get away with his crimes by shipping him off to Arkham Asylum, Gotham City's answer to a revolving door. The rationale behind this is that killing is a line Batman can't cross because it will make him as bad as the criminals he fights. (This is despite writers contradicting that in the same storyline. Take Batman Begins for example.) In the modern interpretation of the Joker, he has killed enough people to fill a sizeable city. When you have a mad dog like that, the best service Batman could perform is to kill him for the sake of public safety. Who is he trying to save by not doing so? If life is so sacred to him, then at some point, preserving the lives of decent citizens should take precedence over sparing the life of an unrepentant psychopath. In numerous stories, it has been mentioned that the Joker may have a "super sanity" meaning that he is fully cognizant of his wrongdoings and commits them because he likes to do so. Insanity isn't a defense, then.
If the Joker were a real person, there shouldn't be any mercy and he should face death like Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Honestly, I thought Charles Manson should have been executed. To see characters advocate for Joker in the storylines is becoming too frustrating because Joker always, ALWAYS pulls a fast one and will kill anyone who gives him an inch. I'm not saying Batman should go for wholesale slaughter, but it seems that for someone as consistent and destructive as the Joker, he would be serving society better by killing him. DC Comics won't budge on this one because it is a convenient way to keep the stories going despite the number of enemies the Joker has made. From someone who has been a fan for many years, this is one of the things that has worn me out the most. Batman used to kill in his earliest incarnation, and it seems like gritty portrayals of him since Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns are missing that component to make Batman as tough as they want him to be.
5. Batman Was Plagiarized.
This fact has stuck in my craw and I can't get rid of it. For the longest time, I sang the praises of Bob Kane and Bill Finger for their innovation in creating Batman. Little did I know, Batman's debut appearance in Detective Comics #27, was stolen, story and art, from a Shadow pulp novel Partners of Peril. This is compounded by the fact that they copied stories and tropes established the Shadow on numerous occasions. I created a list a little while ago about instances in which the Shadow did something that the Batman creators imitated or outright lifted from Shadow pulp novels, and it keeps growing. It wasn't just a one-time event. Eventually, the writers and artists at DC Comics were able to spread their wings and create some of their own concepts, but not without continuing to use the Shadow's methods. Shadow creator and writer Walter B. Gibson referred to Batman once as a "clowned-up Shadow." This is pretty harsh, but he recognized the similarities between Batman and his character since they are unmistakable. Batman has been depicted using guns, boomerangs (in his case batarangs), and an autogiro, while battling homicidal clowns and villains using fear toxins, but not before the Shadow. Batman gets his image from perching on rooftops, haunting evil denizens of crime in the night, but not before the Shadow. The entire idea of appearing as a villainous character to terrify criminals came from the Shadow first. I still love Batman, but as I have come to embrace the Shadow's pulp stories, I came to realize that Batman is and continues to be the Shadow's most prolific and successful clone. My love for the Shadow has increased but not without taking the wind out of my sails regarding Batman.
That's enough for now. I've been wanting to get this off my chest and it has been building up for a long time. As much as I love Batman and comics in general, they seem to pale in comparison to the pulp magazines that inspired them. As usual, I will reiterate that no one has to agree with me, but I've been chest-deep in fandom for comics for a long time and so I didn't come to these conclusions without some reflection.
Written by Nicholas Montelongo
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