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Bruce Wayne is Gotham's biggest villian
This place seems a bit sparse so lets have some comics talk.
Now Im no hard core Batman fan so Im looking at this from a casual lens but it seems to me that Bruce Wayne has the potential to do SO MUCH for Gotham with his billions but doesnt because he wants to run around at night reliving his revenge fantasy over and over.
Yeah he donates to charities and dedicates an orphans home every now and then but with his economic wingspan you'd think he could dump money into the city to improve it in all aspects.
Thoughts?
TLDR: Bruce Wayne is gotham's biggest villain. Change my mind.
I find when discussing Bruce Wayne/Batman, it really depends on which piece you're referring to. In the new 52 and rebirth (and really since the 90s), there has definitely been more emphasize on the social issues of Gotham. In my opinion, there can still be a lot more. However, the canon run is a detective/action comic. And you definitely don't get this from the movies, but Bruce spends a lot of his resources, including things like sleeping and eating time, trying to solve it. These efforts include providing resources to police, hospitals and other vigilantes. And his battles range from backing activists and politicians he believes in to research and tech.
My personal love of Batman are the detective stories. He's often working on cold cases that have been dropped either from lacking of evidence/leads or because the victims were not of an "important" class.
And honestly, I hardly think even if the wasn't doing all that, that it makes him a villain.
Edit: Thanks for the topic - I'm always up for discussing Batman :P
That is a fair point. I forget every writer/creative team brings a different method to character.
So here is my line of thinking: If the real life Koch brothers (double digit billions in estimated worth) can influence politics on a national level to favor them most of the time, wouldnt Bruce (almost double digit billions in estimated worth) be able to influence politics of one large city to swing things out of the gutter?
Bonus question for a batman fan:
Does batman always win given "prep time"?
You're assuming no one's working against him, which isn't true. The Waynes are one of the oldest and wealthiest family in Gotham, but there are definitely others with comparable wealth, especially since Bruce does spread his funds out to help a lot of different causes. Quite a few stories deal with organized crime and other governments.
This one's fun and the answer is no, which you'll never seen in a movie. Bruce is kind of unlucky. For better or for worst (depending on the type of reader you are), there are actually a fair amount of unanswered/open cases in the comics.
There's a pretty good short in Batman and Robin: Requiem for Robin, where he replays a simulation over and over again to see if he could change the outcome and the answer was no.
Again a good point. My lack of batman experience was going to show I just didnt think it would be this quick. lol Thank you for providing the "experts eye" of Mister Wayne in this.
I will have to find that Requiem for Robin as it sounds good.
Hardly an expert, but definitely a fan :)
I think it's problematic that you think villainy includes donating to charity, but just not donating to charity enough. Heck, I don't donate to charity as much as I could. Am I a villain? Most people don't either. Are most people villains?
Regular people with 9 to 5s trying to make ends meet?
Not at all.
People with more money than they could ever use?
Perhaps. Should we not leave the world a better place than we found it?
People with more money than they can use who also have alter egos claiming to save a downtrodden city?
Good chance, but thats what this discussion is about.
Sidenote: This was just a question to spark comic discussion and liven up an empty sub. I will remember to make this disclaimer next time I post on Tildes.
There are corrupt people in power though. So money alone may not fix it. Batman is also a vigilante so he can get results without limitations.
Buy them or their seat/position.
It happens enough in real world politics.
If the mayor, governor, and <insert governing body here> are on your payroll doing what you say things can change.
Maybe not for the reasons you mentioned, but Bruce does do some pretty questionable things in the name of justice or to help his crime fighting. A big one that comes to mind is surveillance. He funded power and police tech through out the city that is really his own personal big brother.
Or the time he controlled Gotham through robots (Kingdom Come i think).