this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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I like how every response to this is complaining about how he, a fictional billionaire that can't actually change the status quo due to how superhero comics work and their inherent nature as propaganda, isn't doing enough. He runs a rehabilitation program for members of gangs like the Penguin's that are often working for these supervillains out of desperation and then hires them at his companies after, hiring convicts at twice the rate of other companies? Well, he should be paying them more than [undefined number]! Clearly, he's only doing this because it makes him richer than his infinite money already does! AND he hasn't even overthrown the corrupt government and installed his own socialist paradise. Clearly, everything that happens in the comics is all his fault, and he only acts when he deigns to trickle down some money to the poor and huddled masses that he sneers at from his golden throne.
It's like complaining that Superman doesn't just lobotomize Lex Luthor and be done with it since he's just going to keep doing evil things and hurting people. Not only did he do that in that alternate timeline where he became dictator of the world "to permanently stop crime," but they also wouldn't have a story anymore if they just did the Marvel movie thing of killing off the villain at the end of every movie.
I was with you until this paragraph. I don't know how many people someone needs to be directly responsible for the death of before punching their heart out becomes justified, but I do contend that if instead of condemnation Batman had hugged Superman and apologized for not doing it himself Superman wouldn't have spiraled into conquering the world...
I don't disagree, "Deny, Defend, Depose" and all that, but if the villains actually got stopped once and for all, the comic book companies wouldn't be able to keep the storylines going. They'd have to come up with new material, and Gods know that that's the kind of thinking that causes executives to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.
Although, a storyline where they force the Joker to go to therapy and work out his problems might make for an interesting series...
that's the Harley Quinn origin story...
Yeah, but I mean the Joker actually getting better, not making someone else worse.
The Joker gets an office job, finds a small business café nearby where he likes to read historical fiction, adopts a cat from a shelter, has a psychotic break and believes he's trapped in a simulation created by robots to use the electrical energy produced by his body to sustain their own existence. You know, a normal life.
You should really watch Harley Quinn the HBO show, it's not quite that but Joker has a recovery arc and it's pretty good.
You're thinking about it in-universe. But Batman wasn't revealed to the world through an act of God. His nature, his limitations, his friends and enemies, his entire city were all constructed to enable the fundamental narrative of a billionaire in a suit indulging in violent vigilante power fantasies.
Of course you're right that within that particular framework "giving away all his money" doesn't make narrative sense. That's the frustrating part; not that a character is arguably acting "irrationally" (that happens all the time), but that the stated reasons for their irrationality are convoluted and clearly backtracked from "well without it the story doesn't work".
The end result is that Batman is basically John Wick but depicted as a hero which I've always personally found very gross. This criticism is applicable to most superheroes but the dissonance is especially strong with Batman.
I completely agree. Like I said, it's the inherent narrative issue and propaganda aspect of superhero comics that they support the status quo at all times.
My comment was specifically about people treating Batman like a real person in the comments here, because he only exists within that narrative framework, and to act like he's an actual billionaire is silly. It's inherently capitalist pro-billionaire philanthropy and status quo propaganda, but that's not what people are complaining about. They're upset that the fake billionaire (really an infinite-aire) is paying his workers who don't exist poorly or whatever.
I've always said that Batman's superpower is money. He's basically the most capitalist superhero that you can think of. Just buying his way out of problems with Bat Anti-Shark Repellant. But criticizing the environmental damage of all that Bat Anti-Shark Repellant rather than the status quo behind the comic reinforcing the idea that money solves all problems is just funny.
Edit: Basically, I imagined some 25 year old angrily ranting the comments here to a couple of kids in a comic book store and had a good laugh about it.