What makes Batman Batman?

[The Screw on Aaron]

I been thinking lately (which my mother says is a miracle in general!) About what makes certain characters so good.

Sometimes you get a book where the artist and the writer just get the look and feel of a character, they just understand them more than others. Sometimes it's awful and doesn't look or sound like the character at all and it's just******* awful.

The funny thing is that most of the time people agree on what's good and what's bad in my experience at least, when I talk to somebody about Spider-man I say that the key to the character is his suffering combined with his sense of responsibility and generally people agree with me, but sometimes they say the key to his character is his funny attitude or something else like that or a certain template that the character follows.

Whatever it may be there is some universal things that make a good classic character and I was thinking it would be neat to discuss what makes the character spot on or what writers and artists have truly capture the character, I thought we might do it in a similar fashion to the writer threads set up by the main man ISteve so here it goes with a character I think a lot of people are fans of and so many writers and artists have done.

What makes Batman Batman?

[acomicbookgirl]

For me, his intelligence and he doesn't have super powers.. He always comes out on top no matter how bad the situation is.

[Labor_Days]

It's mostly paranoia and grappling hooks.

(I prefer superhero Batman (JLA) to detective Batman (Detective comics). Both are good though.)

[MastaP]

staying power I guess. His origin is so universal it can be related to and interpreted multiple ways and still seem relivent.
although even after almost 70 years he's still essentially a pulp character

[paper]

The fear and respect of his peers and enemies alike.

[paper]

Also money. But that fear and respect put him on a level that Tony Stark will never reach.

Batman is an idea. He's not scary by himself. It takes the fear of those who see him. A mirror into the soul of a superstitious and cowardly criminal.

Someone like Hawkman or Green Arrow might scare you, but Batman is fear.

[Labor_Days]

The fact a human, through determination & intelligence is able to stand among individuals who by all rights are Gods. Is one of coolest things you can write about in the superhero genre.

Superman getting owned by Martians? Flash frozen in ice? Wonder Woman's action figured discounted? Pssh. Batman is not taking any bullshit.

If I may paraphrase Paul Pope: "...He's someone born into an over-arching police state; someone with the body of David Beckham, the brain of Tesla, and the wealth of Howard Hughes... pretending to be Nosferatu."

[The Screw on Aaron]

If I may paraphrase Paul Pope: "...He's someone born into an over-arching police state; someone with the body of David Beckham, the brain of Tesla, and the wealth of Howard Hughes... pretending to be Nosferatu."

I love Paul Pope's Batman he really gets the characters ability to get out of every situation imaginable logically.

[Six Gun]

For me it's partly his unrelenting desire to see justice done, his black and white morals and the fact that he as a human is held in the same esteem by his peers that metas like Wonder Woman and Superman are held.

But most of all, it's the same reason that the 300 spartans in 300 are so awesome, they were humans who had devoted their lives to one purpose, to be the best warriors that the earth had ever know, and they were. I think that most people wish that they could be so dedicated to one thing or another, but the truth is that few ever get that chance. Bruce Wayne does, and he does it perfectly, training his mind into that of the world's greatest detective, his body to the point that he can crack skulls each and every night without faltering and his spirit to attain a no fear attitude that allows him to stand atop the JLA's pantheon of great heros despite his like of meta abilities.

[DrWally]

Also money. But that fear and respect put him on a level that Tony Stark will never reach.

I've been thinking about this lately - rich guy Stark vs. rich guy Batman. Bruce Wayne has one thing that Stark has never really had -- extreme self discipline. Batman thinks his way out of a problem, uses what resources he has, Stark builds a new super suit with a fancy new gizmo. Batman's utility belt has always been the "go-to" plot gimmick for lazy writers that can't craft a good story or an interesting way for him to get out of a tight spot. So, the utility belt was always one of the biggest gags of the old campy Batman TV show. But Iron Man? His whole Iron Man suit is one giant super powered "utility belt" -- just imagine Batman without the person wearing the belt -- that's Tony Stark. Batman is a man that happens to have a utility belt, Iron Man is a "utility suit" (of enormous power that always has some easy way to get out of a tight spot), that happens to have some guy in the suit. One is a man, the other is a suit, so therefore one is inherently more interesting.

Stark has always coasted on his wealth, Batman has never used it as a crutch. This is, I think, a key difference. Any Batman story that overemphasizes the "Bat Gizmos" are usually the most uninteresting. Stark craves approval of the latest status quo powers that be, Batman has always mistrusted them. Even if you think Bats is over paranoid, that still makes him more interesting as a character.

And, so much of the character is completely a product of the 30s pulp tradition, the best of all that stuff, so his staying power is quite remarkable. Iron Man? Change the suit. Superman? Pull out the kryptonite. Batman? Write an interesting story.

[JurassicAlien]

What I love about the character is the fact that he doesn't have to be Batman.

Bruce Wayne has all the money in the world, he could basically buy anything he wanted, and have any women he wanted. He could just give his money to the police force and hope they'll do their best.

But that's not what he does, he realizes that there is a world outside of himself. So night after night, no matter how tired or how wounded, he goes out there into the darkness and fights the crime that took his parents. It always drives me nuts when a new writer comes on the book and says "We're finding a new reason for him to continue, he's over his parents by now".

He has a constant drive, he took ten years of his life to be the best at everything, to get into incredible shape and become scary smart. You can pit him against anyone and he will win, not because of the gadgets or the side-kicks, it'll be because of the brains.

Plus he has some of the basic things we all want to be: Determined, and smart. He has the money, but if he lost it, it wouldn't stop him and that's something to look up.

[Six Gun]

Even if you think Bats is over paranoid, that still makes him more interesting as a character.
[/I]

Absolutely

[briangilmore]

What I love about the character is the fact that he doesn't have to be Batman.

Bruce Wayne has all the money in the world, he could basically buy anything he wanted, and have any women he wanted. He could just give his money to the police force and hope they'll do their best.

But that's not what he does, he realizes that there is a world outside of himself. So night after night, no matter how tired or how wounded, he goes out there into the darkness and fights the crime that took his parents. It always drives me nuts when a new writer comes on the book and says "We're finding a new reason for him to continue, he's over his parents by now".

He has a constant drive, he took ten years of his life to be the best at everything, to get into incredible shape and become scary smart. You can pit him against anyone and he will win, not because of the gadgets or the side-kicks, it'll be because of the brains.

Plus he has some of the basic things we all want to be: Determined, and smart. He has the money, but if he lost it, it wouldn't stop him and that's something to look up.



Yes. Totally.

I think some of the best and most telling things about Batman as a human being, and not so much as a superhero, are those that frustrate us. For example, when he does not pursue his relationship with Selina Kyle in Hush. Or when he basically throws away what most regular people strive years to achieve in exchange for his life as a miserable loner, who still acknowledges, but takes for granted the one person who has always loved him most: Alfred.

The sense that in some way he is a little bit like his foes: all psychopaths, which is probably why Arkham Asylum is such a prominent place in Gotham. He is not just some guy with a great knack for justice, he is a deeply troubled, delusional, and pseudo-insane man who cannot move on from the death of his parents, and tries endlessly to get not revenge, but justice, and doesn't realize that although revenge will never bring back your parents or fill that void, that justice might do just as little.

Much like all other superheroes, Batman's weaknesses are what make him interesting, and they are the main aspects that make him who he is.

[JGG0610]

For me it boils down to intelligence, patience and determination. There is no puzzle out there can't be solved with these three things. Taking down another enemy to him is just a puzzle to be solved. It doesn't matter what the parameters of the problem may be, he will find a way out of every situation. His overarching intelligence is the reason that you can't kill Batman the way Superman can be killed. It would take away one of the main assets of the character.

[Billy Parker]

I've been thinking about this lately - rich guy Stark vs. rich guy Batman.

Stark has always coasted on his wealth, Batman has never used it as a crutch. [/I].

Crutch? Stark earned his wealth. Wayne inherited his wealth. You conveniently left out that aspect. Who's got the crutch? Batman.