Batman. I am so sick and tired of Batman. I don’t know if I’m just transferring my distaste for Bob Kane or my personal history and introduction to Batman mythos (basically I watched Batman Beyond and anyone in the suit that wasn’t Terry and any Bruce that wasn’t Old Bruce became a let down) or that I reached my Batman saturation point early on or any number of reasons I’ve managed to pull up to defend myself when people try to fight me about it. Maybe one day when I will write a well constructed paper about why exactly I hate Bruce Wayne and the culture surrounding him, but I hate essay writing more than any fiction character in existence.
I’m not even stating I hate all Batman stories or the rest of the Gotham crew, there are plenty of great Batman stories out there, I just don’t like Batman himself. Also listening to everyone go on about how incredibly badass and untouchable Batman is makes him sound like the new Chuck Norris meme, which is incredibly unfortunate but only serves to add to my hate.
I agree with this, and I considered putting him down as my answer, though honestly, what I hate most is this stupid narrative that Batman is the most ~realistic~ hero out of the lot just because he’s human, as if motivation is all it took for Bruce Wayne to become the Batman, or that Batman is somehow the one that people should aspire to be like the most.
Ugh, good god, if I get one more asshole who insists their love of Batman is because of his “gritty realism” as a way to legitimize their own juvenile power fantasies as something attainable and therefore totally-mature-you-guys, I may spontaneously combust.
Man, I HATE the gritty realism :( I honestly can’t stand the Frank Millar branch of Bats, it’s so juvenile hiding behind adult themes. Batman stories first appealed to me because he’s a detective, they’re crime stories, but with a fantastical twist. The other superheros never really appealed to me because most of them were just fighters, more idealized brawn. My two childhood draws were Bats and Spidey, and that’s because they didn’t resort to see villain, fight villian, but a lot of their crime fighting involved investigations and sleuthing. Now there’s a lot of people who think Batman should be this supersmart brawler, but I much prefer the idea of him being in shadow 80% of the time. The mystery is what makes it great.
It’s like an old coworker of mine at the comic store used to say about Batman Begins: While it’s a great movie, it’s a terrible BATMAN movie because he doesn’t spend any time doing detective work; he works out, pays for gadgets and fights people.
Like everyone knows, I LOVE Batman. But I’m indifferent on Bruce Wayne, it’s the iconography I love. I love the POTENTIAL of Batman, the potential Batman and the rogues gallery have at telling good crime stories with just that extra fanatical twist. That’s why the Joker’s such a great villain - he’s skinny and frail but he’s a goddamn genius and sets up these elaborate schemes for try and foil Bats, but when the solution is for Bats to just punch through it I lose interest.
I think that’s why I’m actually not a fan of Harley. On paper Harley’s a great character, a sort of emotional foil for Joker because it’s impossible for a character like Joker to be any sort of emotional, but then she’s trotted out like this giggling idiotic infantile character played mostly for comic relief with the ‘but wait she’s smart’ bone thrown in occasionally, and it’s just EXTREMELY FUCKING ANNOYING especially when you remember SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE IN HER GODDAMN THIRTIES.The only version of Harley I’ve liked since BtAS has been the Arkham City version - the first game was still annoying with her idiotic whining.
Also no one should try to be Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne is goddamn fucking insane. He dresses up like a Bat for heavens sake.
tl;dr I forgot what my point was. I’m still naming my first son Bruce.
(Source: gailsimone)
