Monday, November 16, 2020

HOW I FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH BATMAN

HOW I FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH BATMAN


As a kid I had superman underwear, superman cape, superman pants and felt like the sky was the limit. I then changed my stance and realized I was only a man and thought Batman was the coolest. Why wouldn't he be? He's a detective at his core. And depending on the writer, they would have him with a "made" family with Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, etc. For being a loner and isolationist, he sure was on a lot of teams like the Outsiders as well as Justice League of America and Justice League international.  The dude had a lot of friends for the trauma he had endured and the whole death of his family.

Then writers started giving him a lot of toys. I mean, a lot of them. A bat-everything for the occasion. The 60's gave him even Bat-shark-repelent in his tool kit. In the event that he ran into sharks fighting crime in the city.  I didn't balk at that. In fact, it was starting to feel like it was just all too perfect. He's not superman, or the flash. or even aquaman, who if we're being honest would have handled that shark situation a whole lot better. At the very least not have to resort to repellent of some kind to pollute the ocean with.

The reality is I can never be Batman. In fact, he's as unattainable as trying to be like Superman.  Batman depends entirely on the super power of being super rich. And yeah, it's not even really self made. He got it when Mom and Dad were iced on the street.  The writing of the story wants to make you feel like he went away and turned down all the luxuries of being rich to become the fighter he is, but without that money, he would have never been afforded the chance to learn or travel. He's not built up on his own. He's entirely owned by special interest. His super power and origin isn't his parent's death, it's the side of his inheritance. Otherwise he'd be some poor orphan who just gets lost in the broken system.  They even tried to answer this by bringing in Dick Grayson. Who was an oprhan because his traveling circus performing parents weren't super rich.  But even that falls short because Batman, with the power of money, just saves him. One kid out of the whole lot is nice, but it's also just one kid.

Let's talk about his rogue's gallery. They're made up of a bunch of mentally unstable people. For a while it seemed like Arkham Asylum is a place that would tackle their illness. But it seems like it's run like any other government institution and rampant escapes and even making the criminals far worse is a common practice. Hell, Joker was able to create more super villain in there by creating Harley.  So it's really not doing its job as an Asylum for rehabilitation.  And having a masked Bat run around the streets under the concept of justice just brings out more of the insane to come out and meet him toe to toe.

Really makes you think how effective or even productive Batman is. But hey, he can show off some really neat and crazy concept toys that he, much like Iron Man, have the situation where they are selling the new inventions to government contracts  - which just creates more villains due to government overreach.  In all, this whole crime fighter thing really doesn't sound like it's helpful to anyone other than the hero complex that Batman is addicted to.

I'm pretty sure that if Batman, as Bruce Wayne, just paid a higher tax rate and still remain filthy fucking rich, would do far more for the city than any of his night time antics. At the very least he wouldn't have to deal with getting so many scars and he'd not cause so much damage to the city.  

Oh well.   Fuck batman


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