You’re thinking about it in-universe. But Batman wasn’t revealed to the world through an act of God. His nature, his limitations, his friends and enemies, his entire city were all constructed to enable the fundamental narrative of a billionaire in a suit indulging in violent vigilante power fantasies.
Of course you’re right that within that particular framework “giving away all his money” doesn’t make narrative sense. That’s the frustrating part; not that a character is arguably acting “irrationally” (that happens all the time), but that the stated reasons for their irrationality are convoluted and clearly backtracked from “well without it the story doesn’t work”.
The end result is that Batman is basically John Wick but depicted as a hero which I’ve always personally found very gross. This criticism is applicable to most superheroes but the dissonance is especially strong with Batman.
I completely agree. Like I said, it’s the inherent narrative issue and propaganda aspect of superhero comics that they support the status quo at all times.
My comment was specifically about people treating Batman like a real person in the comments here, because he only exists within that narrative framework, and to act like he’s an actual billionaire is silly. It’s inherently capitalist pro-billionaire philanthropy and status quo propaganda, but that’s not what people are complaining about. They’re upset that the fake billionaire (really an infinite-aire) is paying his workers who don’t exist poorly or whatever.
I’ve always said that Batman’s superpower is money. He’s basically the most capitalist superhero that you can think of. Just buying his way out of problems with Bat Anti-Shark Repellant. But criticizing the environmental damage of all that Bat Anti-Shark Repellant rather than the status quo behind the comic reinforcing the idea that money solves all problems is just funny.
Edit: Basically, I imagined some 25 year old angrily ranting the comments here to a couple of kids in a comic book store and had a good laugh about it.
You’re thinking about it in-universe. But Batman wasn’t revealed to the world through an act of God. His nature, his limitations, his friends and enemies, his entire city were all constructed to enable the fundamental narrative of a billionaire in a suit indulging in violent vigilante power fantasies.
Of course you’re right that within that particular framework “giving away all his money” doesn’t make narrative sense. That’s the frustrating part; not that a character is arguably acting “irrationally” (that happens all the time), but that the stated reasons for their irrationality are convoluted and clearly backtracked from “well without it the story doesn’t work”.
The end result is that Batman is basically John Wick but depicted as a hero which I’ve always personally found very gross. This criticism is applicable to most superheroes but the dissonance is especially strong with Batman.
I completely agree. Like I said, it’s the inherent narrative issue and propaganda aspect of superhero comics that they support the status quo at all times.
My comment was specifically about people treating Batman like a real person in the comments here, because he only exists within that narrative framework, and to act like he’s an actual billionaire is silly. It’s inherently capitalist pro-billionaire philanthropy and status quo propaganda, but that’s not what people are complaining about. They’re upset that the fake billionaire (really an infinite-aire) is paying his workers who don’t exist poorly or whatever.
I’ve always said that Batman’s superpower is money. He’s basically the most capitalist superhero that you can think of. Just buying his way out of problems with Bat Anti-Shark Repellant. But criticizing the environmental damage of all that Bat Anti-Shark Repellant rather than the status quo behind the comic reinforcing the idea that money solves all problems is just funny.
Edit: Basically, I imagined some 25 year old angrily ranting the comments here to a couple of kids in a comic book store and had a good laugh about it.