Batman vs. Schrodinger's Rapist: Where reality finds fantasy
I've always loved how comics evolve alongside our real world. I have very passing knowledge of the old incarnations of Batman, but know he is quite different today than he was seven decades ago. For example, he used to have a gun, wasn't a crazy paranoid doomsday preper, and wasn't all angsty about his parents' death. He was also way more a detective than a human superman.
Anyhoo, here are some modern Batman characteristics/stories that stood out to me.
Batman vs. Schrodinger's Rapist
A long while ago, I posted Schrodinger's rapist here on Tildes. If you haven't read it, you don't have to. I'm going to take it to the extreme and basically bastardize it a bit for Batman.
Basically Schrondinger's rapist is any stranger a woman meets - he is both a rapist and not until proven otherwise. It comes with a mindset of vigilance and risk assessment. The idea that a woman will evaluate the situation and the stranger for risk and react accordingly to her acceptable level of tolerance. I think this is the perfect characterization of the "trust but verify" Batman. He is hypervigilant, constantly looking for an exit and preparing for flight or fight. Everyone is both trustworthy and not until proven otherwise.
Batman vs. Branding
In the New 52's Batman, Bruce decides branding and expansion is important, and creates Batman Inc. It's a very capitalistic/entrepreneurial take on providing private security, and comes with a tone of "trust depends on branding" and "security requires big money". It may be a good service with good intentions, but has a "selling weapons for protection" franchise-y feel, that I don't think is accidental.
Gordon's Batman vs. Militarizing individuals
I'm going to start by saying I'm not at all a fan of Jim Gordon's Batman. It had potential, but honestly really failed to live up to it.
However, they did do one interesting line, which was Mr. Bloom (New 52, #41-46). I'll try not to include too many details, as to prevent spoilers, but no promises.
Gotham is in it's usual chaos, but oh no, it's extra bad right now, because the real Batman (Bruce) is gone. On the streets there's these seeds that grant superpowers until you remove them or they kill you.
The average lowly citizen of Gotham has felt so unprotected that this seems like a good option. The story starts with gangsters using this and arcs up to normal people using it.
Final thoughts
So what are you thoughts about these points or others? Are there other comics or storylines that stand out as a really good mirror of real world issues and events that stand out for you?
Honestly, I hate anything Grant Morrison has done with Batman. He never understood the character and yet DC gave him carte blanche to reshape the character to his own whims. There's so many ideas about Batman I've read Morrison's take on that I think are just flat out wrong or insipid, like his take on the Killing Joke (which doesn't even make canonical sense, or authorial sense given Moore's own take on it).
The very concept of Batman Inc. runs contrary to decades worth of the character's story. How is a guy whose biggest failing is being unable to trust people (and therefore delegate things) going to go right into franchising his closely guarded self? Shit, how did a guy who clearly has identity issues turn into seeing his Batman self as an alter-ego brand? His whole story is that Bruce Wayne is the alter ego!
The best (and by far most consistent) characterization of Batman is the Paul Dini DCAU version, the one from the 90's cartoon that continued into the Justice League cartoon, and was around for at least the Arkham Asylum game. There were a lot of nuances to that version of the character that were never captured well in the comics or movies (and this is true of all the characters in the DCAU, Dini was perhaps DC's best longterm writer).
These things are all generally implied of the character in the DCAU, they're rarely ever given prominence:
This combination of traits always resolved its way in some pretty interesting ways. One of my favourite moments in the DCAU is when Superman is absolutely just losing it at Darkseid, irrational hatred to the point of self-destruction, and Batman would not let Supes stay behind to die with Darkseid just to feed his rage. It gets to the point where Superman angrily lashes out at Batman with a solid hit—Superman, extremely strong, hit Batman, who is just an otherwise normal human, with force. It was one of the most injured Batman has ever been but that's what it took to get Superman to break out of his rage, when he realized that he had massively injured his best friend.
Batman can take more than a few hits but a solid hit from Superman? Nah, that lays gods out flat. It straight up broke a bunch of Batman's bones. But that's what Batman committed to when he was determined to save his best friend. He wasn't happy about it at all, but he did what had to be done.
Anyway, in terms of Batman comics I do enjoy and recommend:
It was literally the worst. I honestly found it so stupid, I didn't even read it when it came out, but went back to it because of what happens to Damien. But yeah, totally agree with you, it made absolutely no sense at all, especially when you compare it to how Batman works with the Justice League and how little trust he has there. Or when he works with the rest of the Bat family, and how controlling he's there.
For me too. It's honestly the Batman I always think of. And I love the points you listed because they are what makes him such a good character. The movies now are just terrible, there's way too much emphasis on might and gadgets, and not the spirit of Batman.
Honestly wasn't a fan of The Killing Joke, but totally agree with the rest of your list. The Long Halloween is probably one of my favourite portrays of Batman and Catwoman.
Note: accidentally posted as top level comment, so deleting that and replying here.
The Killing Joke is interesting. It's not my most recommended book either but it's worth it for getting a handle on Joker and Batman's relationship, and how they're dark reflections of each other. But it's also Alan Moore's laziest work (as he admits) and it really shows. Those decades of people overanalyzing it (like Grant Morrison) was hilarious posturing, it's not particularly deep beyond that relationship.
But it really says a lot about Moore when his worst work is still some of the best in the medium. Or maybe that says a lot more about the state of comics.
I first read The Killing Joke years ago, and thought it was okay then. I recognize it's an impactful piece of Batman mythos. After all, it gave us Joker's origin story and indirectly Oracle. And like you've already mentioned, Batman and Joker's relationship. It's just so poorly written...And it just doesn't hold up over time. It gets a bit worst with every reading :p
Definitely still a must read for any Batman fan though. Just one of those where the fanfics are better than the original.