This idea to dress up simplistic characters in a more mature raiment always ends with the final product letting both the characters and the issues at hand down. It's for people who have infantilized themselves into seeing the whole world through a fandom
More seriously: Batman is a child's fantasy. His entire existence is predicated on the idea that there is a class of people called "criminals," identified by their cowardly and superstitious nature, and if someone would just punch them all hard enough everything would be okay.
In a world where systemic issues must be reckoned with, Batman simply doesn't work or even make any sense. He must, by his nature, exist in a world that is much simpler than ours.
Look at real-world attempts to do what Batman does: a bunch of clowns running around in Halloween costumes trying to break up drunken brawls in the middle of the night.
It's gets even wilder when you consider that the most truly "mature" takes on batman as a concept have been the cartoon versions that are able to touch on serious subject matter within the framework of a world where batman makes sense and would be needed. We don't have super villains in real life.
An example being an episode of the 90s cartoon where he saves a little girl from being kidnapped by her abusive father who stole an invincibility suit. It worked so well because it never broke the "save the day" fantasy but still gave us enough substance to chew on.
I had a realization in the past couple years that the answer to the question "Can't Batman do more for Gotham by using his money?" is to NOT EVER ASK THE QUESTION.
If the answer is that he can use his money to reform Gotham, then we don't really have a need for Batman anymore and that's not what you want out of, well, BATMAN. If the answer is that the money won't help... then you're going down a road towards saying some uncomfortable things about people.
That is the same line if thought as to why cancer and other sicknesses still exist in these universe with all the advanced alien tech, magic, and super geniuses everywhere. It would break the logic of the story. Or cause the plot of Alan Moore's miracleman
On the one hand, the fantasy of Batman would probably be better if he was mostly going around punching evil rich people. on the other hand isn't that basically what he does
Mostly unrelated to your actual point, but one could make an in-universe argument Batman is a child’s fantasy; he is obsessed with being the sort of thing he wished had been there to stop his parents from being killed in front of him. Being Batman is a coping mechanism.
I actually think grafting those things onto him have weakened the core of the character. You don’t need those things at all unless you’re overcomplicating the premise.
Even 60s Batman had corruption and incompetence, because if the mayor and police commissioner Gordon could stop Louie the Lilac or Egghead with common sense tax policy and government intervention, there would be no need for animal Zorro in a rocket car to punch and/or dance until they're defeated.
Sure. When you mature Batman is depressing if it is taken as a struggle between "good and evil". But if you read it as a combat between madness and sanity, it becomes more interesting.
Also, it would be a really fucking boring book. Because again: he’s cartoon character. All those long-running & successful pulp books about systematic social betterment through philanthropy aside, of course.
In grad school, I got into a little spat with a guy in one of my media studies class who was doing his dissertation on Batman when I said basically this. He was so annoyed. But like, broh. Putting sex and violence into children’s entertainment doesn’t make it any less childish.
I was a professional cartoonist at the time and written about/studied comics and the history of comics for a couple of decades so I know why he might be annoyed. Doesn’t make him right, though.
I *love* Batman. And I love superheroes. I love children’s entertainment. I just got over the idea that because I love it, it must be High Art when I was… well, I was probably like 40 but better late than never
I think the perfect balance is the Bronze Age, where heroes were allowed to confront simplified, abstracted versions of real issues.
This also was going on during the period when I was 6-12 years old, but I'm sure that's a coincidence
There’s plenty of ways to find profundity and depth in works that are inherently childish, but all of those come from engaging with them on their own terms, and not from insisting that they’re Serious Business For Grown-Ups
A perfect example of this is Saint-Exupery's 'Little Prince' which is deeply moving when reread as an adult without having to be anything other than what it is
I think the implication is that Bruce Wayne pours the money from Wayne Enterprises into making a better Gotham & the villains he deals with are just too big of problems for anyone else to handle.
That or it's escapist fiction and you shouldn't think too much about it.
There is one scene in the comics where he foils a plot as Bruce Wayne: He walks in and tells the goons "If you're smart enough to organise this and you can act right, you're hired"
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This idea to dress up simplistic characters in a more mature raiment always ends with the final product letting both the characters and the issues at hand down. It's for people who have infantilized themselves into seeing the whole world through a fandom
You need all three. Because otherwise it's not a vigilante shaped problem, it's a vigilante *caused* problem.
That's why it's such a liberal take - "Batman should just pay taxes"
He does. He's a pillar of the community on paper.
Oh, wait…
This also was going on during the period when I was 6-12 years old, but I'm sure that's a coincidence
That or it's escapist fiction and you shouldn't think too much about it.
Bruce Wayne DOES canonically use his wealth to tackle structural issues, but also nobody's going to buy a comic book about that.
Batman is not a very good character when we remember that he's a billionaire dispensing his own justice against petty criminals.
Now, the 60s tv show? Yeah. A lot of animated Batman shows? Sure.