The Story of Batman is an intriguing story about Power

[Razard86]

Batman is a story about a young boy born into a wealthy family-The Wayne Family. Bruce is the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, and watched his Mother and Father get gunned down by a criminal in the alley for their personal belongings on their person. Batman at a young age is distraught and seeks to stamp out crime and corruption in Gotham (many police and government officials have ties to organized crime) by fighting crime as a masked hero.

Now the irony of this whole story is Batman is himself a criminal because fighting crime is the Police's job. Batman is not part of the government, so when he fights crime he is also comiting crime at the same time. Now notice Batman despises the deception of the criminals and the corrupt government officials yet he engages in deception by hiding his identity. Batman seeks to bring their deception to the light of day, and expose the identity and the acts of those corrupt government officials and gang/mobsters yet he acts at night and seeks to hide his identity. 

Batman's story is also one of vengeance as he doesn't do it out of the kindness of his heart but out of anger and resentment of the pain he faced. Also Batman enjoys immense power and riches just because he was born into a wealthy family and because of great genetics and hard work becomes arguably possibly the most physically fit human on the planet. So he enjoys great physical fitness, great wealth, and you'd think he's be happy? But no!!!! Batman carries his inner demons openly in secret as a symbol of a brooding Bat!! 

One of the many complaints of those in Bat family of various Robins is Batman's callous nature. Batman only has one rule (which he use to break in the older comics all the time) do not kill but everything else is okay. Batman will beat the living hell out of you, possibly even to paralysis but he won't kill. He also does not do this for moral purposes, but to retain his sanity because Batman knows the truth of what he is....by all intents and purposes a rich man who spends his entire life jumping from roof top to roof top to fight never ending crime is not sane. So he knows if he does not give himself some rules he will become the very thing he fights against.

This is why the Joker is such an interesting villain because the Joker reveals the lies that Batman tells himself by showing Batman that he is basically wasting his time. The Joker points to the bullshit of society with all its lies and pretend caring nature, and asks Batman why does he protect people when everything in society is ultimately meaningless. That Batman is just one man in a city of many and everyone is lying, and cheating, and deceiving and then acting as if they are some how more good than the people they lock up. That it is better to see the world burn, and to not live by rules because the very people who write the rules don't live by them. 

Batman looks at the Joker and sees himself. He sees what he could be had things been different. Every villain Batman faces is a product of that same corrupt environment called Gotham. When you read the backstories of all the villains many of them were good-natured people who ended up suffering some pain and decided to "take revenge" on those around them. Every villain pretty much sought power in the only way they knew how because in Gotham it is survival of the fittest. So how are any of them different than Batman? They didn't have the privilege of being born into a wealthy family? They didn't have the privilege of being raised by one of the most loyal people on the planet, a butler named Alfred Pennyworth. Batman for all his self-righteous anger had more advantages than they did and he uses it to oppress the very victims of oppression!!! The so called villains.......notice Batman's hypocrisy.....in the eyes of the so called villains...Batman is the tyrant!!! There is only one rule in Gotham....might makes right and Batman is the strongest might in Gotham and uses his might to impose his will onto Gotham. Isn't this interesting? Batman originally asked who checks Superman...but Batman....who checks you?

Edited September 29, 2023 by Razard86

[Reignforest]

Batman assumes crime is a choice, and not the cause of survival under unfortunate circumstances.  How often does he target other rich individuals,  or invest in education to prevent people from growing up in toxic conditions? Also I see his use of power over others as a direct comparison of his lack of internal strength. Which is really what it takes to make the world a better place. It's basically propaganda to make people believe that professions like police and soldiers are honorable.  Which they can be, but only in self defense. Proactive violence is only destruction. 

[jimwell]

23 hours ago, Razard86 said:

The Joker points to the bullshit of society with all its lies and pretend caring nature, and asks Batman why does he protect people when everything in society is ultimately meaningless. That Batman is just one man in a city of many and everyone is lying, and cheating, and deceiving and then acting as if they are some how more good than the people they lock up. That it is better to see the world burn, and to not live by rules because the very people who write the rules don't live by them. 

That’s a valid perspective. So, it's ok not to intervene and do something good for society. Societies around the world deserve all the shit they're getting. 

But another valid perspective is that you do good things to other humans not because they're good and deserving, but because you're good.

In my case, I honor the 2 perspectives, hence I don't t feel any pressure to do sth good and I don't feel any guilt. 

[Razard86]

On 9/29/2023 at 11:59 AM, Reignforest said:

Batman assumes crime is a choice, and not the cause of survival under unfortunate circumstances.  How often does he target other rich individuals,  or invest in education to prevent people from growing up in toxic conditions? Also I see his use of power over others as a direct comparison of his lack of internal strength. Which is really what it takes to make the world a better place. It's basically propaganda to make people believe that professions like police and soldiers are honorable.  Which they can be, but only in self defense. Proactive violence is only destruction. 

I think he has done some of the things you stated but not sure as you know each DC writer, writes Batman differently. I will say they don't do enough in my opinion to show how Batman as Bruce Wayne attempts to use his wealth and status to actually change Gotham. I think the comics does a good job to show that money and status are not enough if you want to create cultural change also.

On 9/30/2023 at 10:55 AM, jimwell said:

That’s a valid perspective. So, it's ok not to intervene and do something good for society. Societies around the world deserve all the shit they're getting. 

But another valid perspective is that you do good things to other humans not because they're good and deserving, but because you're good.

In my case, I honor the 2 perspectives, hence I don't t feel any pressure to do sth good and I don't feel any guilt. 

I'm not saying its not ok to intervene, I'm just saying its foolish to pretend that once you attempt to fix a problem, that it doesn't make you part of the problem. Batman actually makes Gotham worse in certain ways, for example the Joker does many of his dastardly deeds to get Batman's attention. Also because of Batman crime has become more intricate, harder to catch. If crime is a virus, and Batman is the anti-virus, crime keeps getting patched to bypass his defenses, Batman makes crime have to be smarter to avoid detection and as a result he produces smarter/crazier criminals. 

To showcase how smart your main character is, the villains needs to create elaborately complex crimes, since Batman is one of the smartest people on Earth you have to create very smart villains to go against him. So anybody that does crime in Gotham better do their homework because if you don't then getting an F means jail time when the teacher shows up. LOL.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Razard86