Line #76 Fridge/Batman


1	!!Works with their own pages
2
3	* ''Fridge/Batman1966''
4	* ''Fridge/Batman1989''
5	* ''Fridge/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
6	* ''Fridge/BatmanReturns''
7	* ''Fridge/BatmanForever''
8	* ''Fridge/BatmanAndRobin''
9	* ''Fridge/BatmanBeyond''
10	* ''Fridge/BatmanBegins''
11	* ''Fridge/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''
12	* ''Fridge/TheDarkKnight''
13	* ''Fridge/BatmanArkhamAsylum''
14	* ''Fridge/BatmanArkhamCity''
15	* ''Fridge/TheDarkKnightRises''
16	* ''Fridge/BatmanArkhamOrigins''
17	* ''Fridge/BatmanArkhamKnight''
18	* ''Fridge/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''
19	* ''Fridge/TheLEGOBatmanMovie''
20	* ''Fridge/Joker2019''
21
22	!!FridgeHorror
23	[[AC: General]]
24	* The Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/TheJoker rivalry is full of FridgeHorror moments: among other notes:
25	** Batman, when confronted by former Robin and Joker victim Jason Todd over why he doesn't just kill Joker to save future victims of the murderous clown villain, proclaimed that he wouldn't kill Joker because he doesn't want to give up the "moral high ground" of not killing. [[UnfortunateImplications That's right, Batman would rather let Joker keep killing (and stop others from offing the villain, as seen by the fact that Batman had ZERO problem slitting Jason's throat moments after making this proclamation) simply because of the fact that it's more important that Batman feel smug about himself and his moral superiority over the Joker]].
26	*** Batman's reasoning made more sense in the Bronze Age (back when Joker was slowly transitioning from a prankster who didn't care if he hurt anyone along the way into the current cruel mass murderer): back then, Commissioner Gordon and others made it clear that they would overlook Batman's vigilante crimefighting only so long as he never killed or crippled anyone. The moment he killed anyone, even The Joker, their willingness to look the other way would vanish and they would hunt him down.
27	** It's not that Batman's worried in the abstract that a murder would tarnish him, so much as it is that killing the Joker in specific would. The Joker is, after all, a lunatic, and not in control of himself. Batman, in contrast, tries to be the paragon of self-restraint and dedication to a higher ideal of justice. To kill the Joker, Batman must first admit that the justice he believes in is illusory. He wants to do it, he clearly knows that mathematically, leaving the Joker alive causes more deaths. He just knows that if he kills someone who can't help himself, he may as well be killing innocents.
28	*** The Joker has acted on this multiple times, trying to commit suicide by Batman just to get Batman to compromise his morals. going with the Christopher Nolan's ''The Dark Knight'' [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character interpretation]], maybe he doesn't want Batman dead; maybe he wants the most moral person in Gotham to become a villain to prove his point. It is all just a game to him. Of course, it depends on the writer.
29	*** [[JokerImmunity This phenomenon]] is best explained in the [[WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood animated adaptation.]] Jason questions whether Bruce feels it would be too hard to give up the moral high ground, and Bruce counters that it'd be too damned easy. He elaborates that every day he contemplates torturing Joker like he's done to so many others before putting him down. Bruce basically says that if he breaks his no-kill code for Joker, there's nothing holding him back from killing other criminals. As he puts it, "... if I allow myself to go down into that place... I'll never come out."
30	** Joker knows Bruce Wayne is Batman, especially after Batman unmasked in front of him during the "Batman RIP". While Joker has largely stated that he doesn't care who is under the cowl, the fact that he KNOWS Bruce Wayne is Batman is enough to chill a person's spine given that if the Joker got bored enough, one day he might act upon this information for massive damage.
31	*** [[spoiler:In ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', Joker already knew who Batman was ever since the latter paid a visit to him in Arkham as Bruce Wayne, shortly after taking Dick in. After Bruce shows him the playing card that he left behind from one of their earlier skirmishes, Joker simply turns away and ignores him. This proves that Joker really DOESN'T care who is under the cowl as long as he gets to duke it out with his nemesis for his own [[ItAmusedMe twisted sense of amusement]]. In a way, "Batman" is one of the few (if not only) motivation that Joker has [[WorthLivingFor for livng]].]]
32	** Dan Jurgens, during the most recent version of the "History of the DC Universe", opined the notion that Joker specifically carried out his attack on Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon (which led to him trying to drive Commissioner Gordon insane and crippling Barbara Gordon for life) in ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' not to make a point about the slippery slope of insanity, but because he wanted to destroy people Batman cared about in order to hurt him in order to compensate for the fact that he couldn't kill Batman himself. Given how Joker is insane enough to be playing chess on God knows how many levels, that adds a new level of horror as far as why he picked Gordon for his experiment.
33	*** Not to mention the fact that Joker basically crippled Batgirl without even KNOWING that Barbara was Batgirl. Though he later found out after the fact, it's a scary thing to know that Joker eliminated one of his main enemies as an innocent bystander.
34	*** This bit of FridgeHorror was partially undone by her conversion to Oracle. He didn't eliminate her. Not even close.
35	* The Joker is, in a meta-way, the greatest hero in the DCU. Many times, The Joker's insanity is described as not insanity at all, but rather, "supersanity": a level of sanity that legitimately qualifies as a super power, and makes him appear to be insane to everybody else (after all, in a lunatic asylum, the patients would probably all perceive a sane person as being crazy). This is not the brilliance. The Joker's supersanity has also been said to grant The Joker MediumAwareness. The Joker is the only character who seems to be aware of the fact that he is a character in a comic book. This is also not the brilliance. The brilliance is that, being a transcendently sane person aware of his existence as a character in a comic book, he is aware that A) all the people around him do not really exist, and therefore are not alive in the first place, and B) every story must have a villain. Ergo, The Joker is just playing his part to entertain us, the readers, without whom the comic world would not exist in the first place. By playing the part of an insane homicidal clown, he is helping to save his universe from non-existence.
36	* Joker, the most dangerous maniac in Gotham who often gives even his fellow Rogues [[EvenEvilHasStandards the willies]], once [[ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh created worldwide pandemonium]], and [[ComicBook/EmperorJoker once turned the universe into his playground]], was originally just a normal man who got a bath in acid at Ace Chemicals. Later, he tosses Harley in there. Ace Chemicals is still operating with the good ol' disregard for safety regulation that Gotham is known for. In other words, it is very easy to make a Joker. This then becomes AscendedFridgeHorror in ''ComicBook/BatmanThreeJokers'', which reveals there are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin three Jokers]], [[spoiler:and they've been trying to make more]].
37	* People make a lot of jokes about Batman grooming his Robins to be child soldiers, but consider: Bruce's understanding of healthy father figures ends with a shellshocked eight-year-old's worldview. Everything after that, Bruce was being mentored by shady figure after shady figure before he returned to the caring parentage of Alfred. Bruce was the original child soldier, and he volunteered for it.
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39	!!FridgeBrilliance
40	[[AC:General]]
41	* There's one moment in ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'' that smacks HARD of FridgeBrilliance. After the earthquake decimates Gotham, Jim Gordon actually considers looking for a career outside of Gotham, only to discover that to law enforcement outside of Gotham, he's considered a joke. Now us as readers would feel immensely insulted at this, since we KNOW that Jim Gordon is the hardest working, most honest, good man in the entire Gotham police force, maybe even the DCU, but then put yourself in those cops' shoes: Gotham is a WretchedHive with the highest crime rate in the nation; it's constantly plagued by the most insane, violent criminals in the entire DCU; is legendary for police corruption; and to maintain a semblance of order, the police actually informally condone the actions of a masked vigilante. From an outside point of view, Jim Gordon does seem like a total incompetent.
42	* Originally, Two-Face was just a nihilistic thug who felt that he might as well make decisions on a coin toss. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation The idea of having a split personality could've been invented by the quacks at Arkham,]] since Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously called Multiple Personality Disorder) is infamous for being faked by sociopaths and/or created by doctors. For every person for which the diagnosis would be relevant, there are several patients who were put under hypnosis by doctors who created the mental construct believing they were just exposing an existing problem.
43	* Have you ever noticed why Gotham City, whenever it is depicted in comic books, film, television shows, cartoons, or video games, is always depicted in a thick fog? Well, if you need to make something like the Batsignal, which is basically a giant flashlight, visible against the night sky so that a vigilante can see it from anywhere in a giant metropolis like Gotham, what better weather condition to have than constant fog?
44	* One of the reasons why Dick is so much more well-adjusted than Bruce is because Bruce's parents died when he was eight while Dick was closer to twelve, possibly even thirteen. Dick was already starting to grow more independent from his parents and starting to form his own identity while Bruce was at a stage in his life where you rely on your parents for everything, even a sense of self. Another thing is that the Flying Graysons were trapeze artists whose main attraction was that they often worked without a net, and when you work in a line like that you must accept the fact that accidents can and will happen. Dick always knew at the back of his mind that there may come a night where his parents might not come home. He may not ''expect'' it, but he ''knew'' it could happen. Bruce's parents were socialites there was no inherent danger in their lives and thus their loss is so much more shattering for him.
45	** It's also possible that Dick benefited from having what Bruce didn't have: Someone around him who knew what he was going through.
46	** There's also the fact that Dick Grayson found his parents' killer and had that closure only a year or so after their deaths, whereas Bruce Wayne found Joe Chill 15-20 years after his parents' death (or not at all depending on which version of Batman you're reading). Batman and Robin taking down Tony Zucco allowed Dick to move on much faster than Bruce, who still had a few years to discover Joe Chill and Lew Moxon. This is noted in ''ComicBook/SecretOrigins'' #13 when Dick is on Tamaran telling Jericho his origin story.
47	* Being a BadassNormal is what Batman's all about. He's meant to be "feasible" in our world. Nonetheless, it has puzzled me in the past that whenever they give him [[EmpoweredBadassNormal temporary superpowers]], it's always [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower someone else's powers]] or a [[PoweredArmor mech-suit]] or something that otherwise has little to do with bats. Then it occured to me: that is precisely the ''point''. If they gave him non-tech powers entwined in ''his'' mythos (like make a pact with some Bat-god or whatever), those powers would be much, much harder to throw-away by the end of the issue! No matter how well meaning the author of such a story, no matter how carefully he disposes of those powers, the potential for abuse is tremendous... people would be tempted to bring those powers back into the story more and more often, undermining the point of their being a one-shot deal, and it could cripple the hard-earned reputation of the Bat-mythos as the ultimate BadassNormal.
48	* I knew that Batman in recent years is said to have a secret plan to defeat any of his fellow heroes in case they go evil. I came to realize that he did, in fact, also have a plan in place to defeat himself if he went evil: having a second person close to him, with a similar past, who has spent his life studying Batman's fighting style (and adding his own twists to it), is personally familiar with both his lives as Batman and Bruce Wayne, and is young enough that he wouldn't be corrupted by whatever cynicism drove Batman himself over the edge. In other words: Robin.
49	** I just realized that and another thing: his increased detachment and douchebaggery towards his former and current sidekicks in the recent years has been a calculated move to make them able to defeat him if they ever needed to. -- Jericho
50	** The one person he stays civil towards at all times is Alfred. Even when he's angry, exhausted, bitter, etc. He would never hurt Alfred willingly. So if he ever does, everyone will know that he's either gone too far or influenced by another being. And since the entire Bat-Family (and most other heroes that visit the Batcave) love and are loved by Alfred, they will not hesitate to protect him and fight Bruce.-Calico
51	** This does go a long way toward explaining why Batman was distant toward Dick Grayson as he became Nightwing: not only did it allow his former protegee to more clearly establish his own identity (and gain a considerable network of allies, including many of Batman's allies) it increased Grayson/Nightwing's effectiveness should Batman ever need to be confronted.
52	** It also explains why Batman seems to go through partners rather quickly: he's literally pushing the Robins from the nest as they get old enough to operate on their own.
53	** Reading this, I thought of another level... while Batman doesn't really need a fail-safe to protect the world from himself (Bruce Wayne is actually far more dangerous), he DOES need to protect HIMSELF from his own ever-festering dark side. The Robins, Alfred, Jim Gordon, the JLA, all of his out-of-character closeness to people who can stop him is part of a massively-obsessive program to deter himself from going rogue and eventually doing something to disappoint his parents' ghosts. I'm BlackMisterScott, and I approved this message.
54	* It was only recently that I realized why The Joker's trademark outfits are almost always purple, all the way back to his first appearance - his insanity is achieved by ''mixing'' the aspects of RedOniBlueOni (he's AxCrazy and often not concerned with "take over the world" schemes, but at the same time extremely proud and concocts elaborate plots simply to inflict misery on insignificant-seeming people), much like red and blue are mixed to create purple.
55	* If you view their partnership as if they are some sort of comedy duo, Harley Quinn is the Joker's ''straight man''.
56	** Doubly funny, because she's neither a man, nor apparently from the various insinuations, straight.
57	* ComicBook/RedRobin is a ridiculous name, mainly because of the American restaurant chain. But it occurred to [[Tropers/{{Maridee}} me]] that they wouldn't have Red Robins in Gotham. It's a target painted precisely for the Joker. Wouldn't be surprised if they don't have UsefulNotes/McDonalds, either.
58	* Although the movies show the batsuit as jet black, the comics and animated series usually show it as dark shades of gray and blue. But if you read a little about camouflage turns out that if you don't want to be seen at night dark grays and blues actually work much better then jet black. Since no urban environment is ever going to be absolutely pitch black a pitch black suit is going to stand out as a silhouette, while dark grays and blues allow one to hide in the shadows much better. What better choice for Batman? And the cape would further help to breakup the human silhouette that the eye instinctively can pick out.
59	* A cross-media example; one of the frequent observations / criticisms of the ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum Batman:]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity Arkham]]'' series of video games is that the in-game Detective Vision, which enables you to analyse your surroundings and the people around you for clues, threats and secrets at the expense of dulling the surrounding environment to a hazy blue colour and causing everyone you encounter to appear as a skeleton, is so useful it is rarely worth switching it off, which it's felt ends up dulling down the graphics for the player's gaming experience. In the games, as a shout out, this is also what turns Batman's eyes into white slits, as in the comics. Which leads to the inescapable conclusion that in the comics, Batman finds it so useful that ''he never switches it off either'', and because he's, well, Batman, so he doesn't care that the world seems dulled down as a result.
60	* The Red Robin suit Jason Todd and [[ComicBook/Robin1993 Tim Drake]] wear really just seems to come out of nowhere as a ShoutOut to ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. However, Jason found it on Earth-51, where Batman killed every supervillain in response to Jason's death. The Batman of this earth also states that he intended to give it to his Jason when he became older. Assuming that before ''A Death In The Family'' these two earths were identical, this means the Batman of New-Earth developed the same suit for Jason with the same intended purpose. This probably means that Batman predicted that Jason would eventually want to strike out on his own, just as Dick had, and created a suit just for this purpose.
61	** This doesn't pan out for New Earth considering the only reason the suit ended up there was because Jason brought it back with him from Earth-51. Before adopting the moniker Tim even calls Donna to find out the history of the suit since she was with Jason when he got it. It could explain its presence in the New 52 post Flashpoint though where Bruce had the identity ready to hand to someone after Jason's death, according to some authors.
62	* An interesting thought about Batman: he is not your typical vengeance-driven vigilante. He still has faith in law and order. The closest thing he has to a best friend is the Police Commissioner. He works ''with'' the police as much as he works alone, and the worst he will do to a criminal is incapacitate them and leave them for the cops. He realizes the justice system is flawed - ''severely'' flawed in Gotham City - but he does not consider himself above it. He sees himself as a part of the system. An unusual, extraordinary part, granted, but still a part of it. He wants legitimacy. He wants validation that what he is doing is a good thing. Despite being a terrifying, CrazyPrepared Berserker vigilante, he still ''cares'' what the people in charge think of him. Emotionally, he's still a child seeking approval.
63	* After Darksied sends Bruce back in time, Bruce speaks into a recording device "don't forget. Survive." This statement has a dual meaning. It can be interpreted as a memo like: "don't forget, drop-off at 8." Or it could mean "don't forget, or you will die." So its either "don't forget to survive." or "don't forget or you don't survive." Okay yeah, this is a weird one.
64	* Superman's portrayal in ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' is one of the most frequently criticized parts of the story. Most people see Superman being a government agent as wildly out of character. But it actually makes perfect sense. In the story Superman has the (then) modern characterization, which is a totally non-offensive flag waving boy scout who followed strict rules of goodness. Miller very easily finds the flaw in that interpretation, which is that a Superman who is above all a great law abiding citizen and patriot would do exactly what the President told him to do. Even Superman fighting in the Corto Maltese is in line with his participation in World War II. Furthermore, in his characterizations of Batman and the Joker Miller went back to their earliest stories, where Batman was even more violent than he was in TDKR and Joker was a serial killer with an ironic nickname. Miller may have done the same thing with Superman but in a different way. Superman's 1938 characterization actually had a lot in common with Batman as portrayed in the story. He crippled people, he threatened to murder them, he psychologically tortured them, he did whatever it took to get the job done. Miller's Superman began his career in his original characterization and experienced the same BadassDecay that the mainstream version did. That would explain why Batman has zero respect for him, he softened up and forgot what he was supposed to be.
65	* Why does even the Joker have too much standards to work alongside the Red Skull during the Batman/Captain America crossover? Because some of the most popular comedians and entertainers during the 1930s were Jewish, including the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Milton Berle, George Burns and Mel Blanc, among others.
66	** One of the groups the Nazis wanted to eliminate were the mentally ill. Not surprising at all that their partnership fell apart.
67	** A number of times in the comics, The Joker has shown contempt for killers who use crude methods and for villains who are humorlessly grim, and The Red Skull is both. After all, The Joker takes pride in the "creativity" of his murder sprees.
68	** It also could be that the Nazis were a bureaucratic system meant to stamp out "lesser" groups and establish "rightful" Aryan dominance. That goes completely against Joker's chaotic, "I kill ForTheEvulz" MO and his belief that ''any'' attempt at a goal for humanity as anything other than a speck in a cruel universe is even crazier than he is. So he isn't necessarily ''morally'' against what they did, he just thinks they're a bunch of talentless hacks.
69	* Consider the defining traits of the Joker for a second:
70	** His [[MultipleChoicePast origin]] is as mysterious as his [[ForTheEvulz motivation]].
71	** He's a MagnificentBastard who is capable of playing people psychologically.
72	** He's an unrepentant murderer.
73	** He absolutely despises his nemesis, but many people have pointed out that he could be interpreted as [[FoeRomanceSubtext being in love]] with [[HomoeroticSubtext him]].
74	** And finally, his main goal, his only consistency, is that he wants to drive his nemesis to murder and evil, to "bring him down to his level", so to speak.
75	** [[Theatre/{{Othello}} Now who else does that remind you of?]] That's right, the Joker is a modern-day, MonsterClown version of Iago.
76	* The late-[[MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]]/early-[[MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] villain Scarface always refers to Batman as "Gatman," and similarly pronounces all his B's as G's. It seems like just a strange verbal tic, until you stop to consider that Scarface is just a puppet controlled by The Ventriloquist, and the labial "B" sound is one of the hardest for ventriloquists to produce: he created Scarface's "speech impediment" as a way to work around the fact that he's really not that good.
77	* It's a bit weird how wildly different the various versions of Clayface are from one another, particularly the first three. But then you realize the character is one of the few [[OurMonstersAreWeird straight up monsters]] in Batman's rogues gallery, and that the original Clayface was a horror film villain acting in the real world, akin to GothicHorror classics like the Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera or Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari. The second Clayface debuting in the 60s is a hulking radioactive brute out of a BMovie , not unlike Film/TheAmazingColossalMan or Film/{{Them}}. And the third is a disfigured, murderous superhuman like you'd find in the BodyHorror/[[SlasherFilm Slasher]] movies of the 70s or 80s. Clayface is a character who evolves with the horror genre he was created as a tribute to!
78	* Batman's CrazyPrepared nature has become a RunningGag amongst the fandom. But considering just how utterly ''bonkers'' the world of Creator/DCComics is (superpowers, resurrection, aliens, time travel, mind control, the occasional {{Continuity Reboot}}s, etc, etc), being CrazyPrepared actually does make a lot of sense!
79	* Consider for a moment that one of Batman's most famous love interests is the cat themed Catwoman, and then that one of Dick Grayson's own most famous love interests is Starfire, an alien whose species evolved from felines. If you ever need proof about how far the apple fell from the tree...
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81	[[AC: The Killing Joke]]
82	* In WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker, we find out that Joker's ultimate goal was to [[spoiler: make Batman laugh.]] At the end of ComicBook/TheKillingJoke, he accomplishes just that!
83
84	[[AC:Batman RIP]]
85	* When the Black Glove catch Batman in the second-last chapter, what did they do? They trapped him in a coffin and buried him. It's a death-trap. A ''literal'' death-trap.
86	** From which, quite beautifully, Batman promptly escapes.
87
88	!!FridgeLogic

Context Fridge / Batman