Given the long-running nature of the series, it shouldn't be a surprise that many of the problems people had with the Caped Crusader go back further than they think.
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The Comics
- Batman has always been called "the world's greatest detective", but to prevent his crossovers with superhuman heroes becoming Story Breaker Team Ups, the writers inflated his intelligence and preparation abilities to help keep up. While it was odd for essentially a street vigilante to take on Persons Of Mass Destruction, the idea that a Badass Normal could take on much more powerful opponents was very appealing to read plus helped justify Batman's place in the Justice League of America despite his low level of power. However, these match ups became common enough to reach memetic levels, making it seem like he can defeat anyone because "I'm the goddamned Batman". Now what is odd is why he ever has trouble on his home turf, which has supervillains low on the power scale at worst, let alone why his preparation abilities have not taken Gotham City out of being a Wretched Hive with repeat offenders.
- Batman's infamous "prep time" is more often than not used by power scalers and fanboy authors who want to show Batman's badassery by depicting him being able to go toe to toe with either characters much more powerful than him or entire superteams. The fact that the fights tend to be ridiculously one-sided in Batman's odds (The oponent grabbing the Idiot Ball or not having access to prep time themselves usually being the two most common complains) and usually done to fellate Batman's ego about how he is just soooooo much better than everybody else is a source of ire and annoyance for most fans. This trend started in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, where Bruce infamously managed to beat Superman in a fight. The difference was that Superman was intentionally holding back and it's hinted his powers were weakened by age. Bruce also needed the help of both Robin and Green Arrow to defeat him, and it's more of a Pyrrhic Victory: For all his bravado, the brawl is more of a stand-still and he still needs to fake his death to manage to escape and reorganise his entire crime-fighting operation, while Superman comes out relatively unscathed. Finally, the fight itself is pretty simple and straightforward: Batman and Robin distract Superman long enough for Green Arrow to shoot him with an artificial kryptonite arrow (Clark can't stop it because he has been deafened by a sonic pulse and numbed by an electric attack). In stark contrast, Batman now has highly convoluted plans that border on Gambit Roulette that allow him to solo as much as the friggin' JLA without breaking a sweat, which feels cheap and forced.
- The Joker becoming more bloodthirsty in The '70s was a refreshing change of pace and justified how one who was once written as a goofy prankster could be Batman's Arch-Enemy. It did leave a question of Batman's (and Gotham's law enforcement in general) inability to permanently deal with the threatening clown, but this could be raised to the rest of Batman's Rogues Gallery, and moments where he did something genuinely monstrous were mostly outnumbered by times where he was a capering loon, which made the genuinely horrible stuff all the more surprising. However, the Joker's bloodthirsty side started to stand out a bit too much; the actions of brutally murdering Jason Todd and crippling Barbara Gordon pushed him into Complete Monster territory. Worse, stories involving him murdering people for no reason, working in the shadows of the above two, increasingly became the norm for him, causing him to lose the Wild Card excuse and a lot of his charm. Compare "The Laughing Fish", often seen as a pivotal 70s Joker story, which shows him start out with a completely absurd plan (attempting to copyright poisoned fish) and only killing people when he's angry that they don't take him seriously, with many modern stories where his entire modus operandi seems random murder from square one. As a result, a character whose gimmick was meant to be unpredictability has become notorious for his predictable stories, and a lot of fans believe that making him an exception to Batman's strict refusal to kill would be the more heroic stance for the Dark Knight to take.
- Batman's Woobie tendencies were there almost from the get-go. He witnessed his parents' murder which scarred him for life. Then the Joker was given a Jerkass Woobie background in The Killing Joke (although, given his Multiple-Choice Past, it's questionable how much sympathy, if any, he deserves). Then The Penguin got one, and then Mr. Freeze, and then... until nowadays even third string characters such as the Kite Man (!!!) must have a sob-story to justify their descent into evil.
- Batman's tendency to lash-out at the rest of the Bat-Family whenever he suffered a personal loss. Starting from Jason Todd's death (which was over thirty years ago), whenever someone close to him dies, his reactions are usually lashing out at whoever is near him, from Dick Grayson to even Superman. His actions are always understandable and sympathetic, but in no way depicted as in the right. Yet every time he's faced with this dilemma in modern comics, his actions get worse to the point it borders abusenote , which fans and the Bat-Family themselves have definitely noticed on several occasions, decreasing the sympathy factor to the point that he eventually becomes a Designated Hero.
- Bruce's emotional constipation and Control Freak tendencies have fallen into this in recent years. This interpretation of him has been around since the 80s and has entered the public consciousness and become his primary portrayal; the issue, however, is that writers never allow him to actually grow beyond it. This and his inability to communicate and show that he actually cares for his family has been an ongoing issue for decades that no writer has tried to resolve and has made him more unsympathetic as the years go by as his militaristic treatment of them almost borders on cruelty. Thus, many fans are disillusioned with the entire concept now and believe that Bruce should just ditch the cowl, get actual therapy, and let someone else take up the mantlenote instead.
- For those who consider Robin and the other members of the Bat-Family a sin, it's worth noting that Batman was only a loner for eleven months between his debut in Detective Comics #27 and Robin's debut in Detective Comics #38. So while people might claim that Batman has and always should be a brooding loner, that stopped being true within less than a year while the Dynamic Duo lasted for decades.
- As well acclaimed as The Dark Knight Returns is, it did kickstart some less than desirable trends in both the main Batman comics and Miller's later Batman work.
- The book helped destroy the notion of Batman as a light-hearted camp character but he is noticeably more of a Blood Knight and borderline psychotic here than even most other "serious" interpretations of the character. This part of the character is unfortunately ramped up to eleven in the two Miller Batman books above where the character is practically insane.
- Another case is Miller ends up using heroes besides Batman, notably Superman. Though accepted here, as Batman and Superman have been linked together since the 40's as friends, in later works Miller displays a tendency to present heroes more powerful than Batman as utterly incompetent and ineffective.
- This story also serves of the origin of the infamous Prep Time argument, with many Batman fanboys claiming because Batman beat Superman in this storyline, he can theoretically beat anyone. It also set the tone for all future Batman vs. Superman fights as "Batman beats up Superman and wins while insulting him" which, while shocking and effective when used for the first time here, became less accepting the more it was repeated.
- As well regarded as the story is, it's also seen as the main reason so many writers write Batman as a psychopath, instead of just driven. It's easy to accept such an extreme depiction in an Alternate Universe, less so when it becomes the character's canon personality.
- At the time, Miller's decision to focus on the tension between Batman and Joker was considered a novel take on both characters' psyches. By the time of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, when Dick Grayson is the new Joker specifically becomes so because Batman rejected his sexual advances, it comes off more as Frank Miller having personal issues with homosexuals.
- Prior to this, the Joker was primarily known for gimmick weapons and bad jokes. Miller's decision to reject these elements in favor of a Darker and Edgier Joker were well-received at the time, but was widely derided by the time of All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder.
- In recent years, Harley Quinn, once the Ensemble Dark Horse from Batman: The Animated Series, has become heavily divisive, with many seeing her as a Spotlight-Stealing Squad with a heavy amount of Character Shilling taking time away from other characters. But Harley's time in the spotlight came as a result of becoming a Breakout Character from her debut show, winding up as a Canon Immigrant to the comics because the audience couldn't get enough of her—she would even get roles in The Batman, a one-off guest appearance in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a major role in Batman: Arkham Asylum, a semi-recurring role in the short-lived Birds of Prey show, and one of the three founders of Gotham City Sirens. All this would cumulate in her being added to the main roster of Suicide Squad when DC relaunched their titles as the New 52, even though she'd never been traditionally associated with the squad in the first place. Despite all that, Harley still enjoyed a great deal of popularity due to the fact that she was still kept closer to her traditionally villainous roots while maintaining a very loose grip on sanity. But when she was given her own solo series, Harley was rewritten to be a violent and insane Anti-Hero rather than the lunatic criminal she had been portrayed as (largely in an attempt to get her away from being the Joker's girlfriend), while also glossing over the crimes she did commit during her villainous stint, and it was from there that most portrayals started to take after that iteration. Not helping matters was that Margot Robbie's take on Harley in the Suicide Squad movie was universally lauded by even the most ardent of critics, and she would continue to get increasing roles in other projects despite having little reason to be there other than to give major name recognition (notably the Birds of Prey movie would have her as the lead despite never being associated with the team in the comics), including her own animated series. Even that brief resurgence back to popularity didn't last, as most depictions would always default right back to the anti-hero portrayal while still giving her a great deal of Character Shilling, turning fans against her just as quickly as they reembraced her. This trend would hit its nadir in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League when her Arkhamverse iteration executed a Brainwashed and Crazy Batman without much fanfare, making fans wish DC would just make Harley a straight up villain again.
The Movies
The Batman Film Series:
The 1989 Batman film suffered from several problems that were forgivable at the time, but would persist in later Batman movies and reached their peak with the Franchise Killer Batman & Robin, while also even managing to still leave a lasting impact in films that came about long after it had fallen out of the spotlight.- The first film was 'Batman: starring Jack Nicholson as The Joker.' Batman Returns was similar — its two villains combined have more screen time than Batman. This was largely tolerated at the time since both films were only the 1st and 2nd installments in the series (with the 1st one in particular being most contemporary audience members and critics' first proper exposure to Batman at all), Batman still contributed to the plot enough in both films to feel relevant to the stories, and the big name performers portraying the villains in both films put on good enough performances to make their characters' degree of focus feel worth sitting through. Unfortunately, this led the way for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin to become overcrowded with villains and the same 'villain shows up, teams up with other villain, they fight Batman, Batman wins' plot repeated in every sequel, while also having the villains be portrayed by big name actors who turned in performances that made it feel very suspiciously as if they'd only been picked for their names rather than for their ability to properly portray their characters. Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer both left the series because they felt that the movies had become more about the bad guys than Batman. Somewhat tellingly, Burton's Batman even gives a definitive identity and origin story to the Joker—which he has never had in the comics—but is surprisingly vague about Batman's origins. note
- Batman Returns introduced another problem not only for the Batman movies but for comic book film sequels in general: The Extraneous Secondary Villain, in the form of Catwoman. Max Schreck and the Penguin are the film's main antagonists, while Selina does her own thing and doesn't really affect the main plot besides a very brief alliance with the Penguin. And even then, her only job was to distract Batman long enough for the Penguin's mooks to hack into the Batmobile, which another mook could have done just as easily. CinemaSins went as far as to call her the "Patient Zero" of the "Too Many Villains in a Comic Book Movie" cliche. To this day, though, she's probably the best example of this, as she's a well-rounded, intelligent and charismatic antagonist with a lot of emotional depth who leaves a serious impact, while also carrying a lot of symbolism that fits perfectly into the film's themes and helps her serve as a mirror to Batman, Penguin and Shreck. Moviegoers in 1992 were probably also too distracted by Michelle Pfeiffer in skintight latex to notice that she wasn't strictly necessary to the plot. And the fact that Catwoman's involvement in the story also allowed for a fairly compelling Romance Arc with Batman also helped in the drama department.
- The two biggest flaws present in all four of the Burton/Schumacher Batman films were the semi-obligatory casting of A-list actors as the main villains (whether they were any good in the role or not) and the Bizarrchitecture (which was reasonably subtle and effective in the first film, but by the fourth had become an obscene distraction). You'll notice that the Nolan films invert the first trope by having an All-Star Cast in every main role and avert the second altogether by shooting all their outdoor scenes on actual locations, rather than on soundstages or in front of computer green-screens.
- Batman & Robin is incredibly campy, but there was a certain level of camp present in Batman that only increased with every following installment. The first film had most of the Joker's scenes, from the giant revolver to the museum robbery, and the second film had the Penguin remote-controlling the Batmobile with an arcade machine and eventually plotting to destroy Gotham with an army of missile penguins. However, in these cases, the camp was balanced out with the dark noir and gothic aesthetics and themes that Batman had become known to general audiences for by that point. It's also worth mentioning that the Joker is a character who lends himself better to camp, what with his clown gimmick that led to some darkly humorous scenes. Mister Freeze, meanwhile, had just benefited from an animated reimagining that portrayed him as an unemotional, yet tragic figure - a far cry from Schwarzenegger's singing television jingles while wearing bunny slippers, yet still also faithfully recreating the character's brooding and tragic characterization from the animated series at the same time.
- The Batman movies directed by Tim Burton had several of the same problems that would later appear in the DC Extended Universe films directed by Zack Snyder. Like Snyder's movies, Burton's garnered some backlash for divisive casting choices, deviations from the source material and a dark approach that bordered on the excessive. The difference was that Batman (1989) came out at a time when blockbuster comic book movies were scarce with the public having limited exposure to superheroes outside of campier material made for children. As such, audiences were subsequently more open to Burton's interpretation and forgiving of his mistakes since there wasn't yet a public consensus on the standards of a good superhero movie. Since most film critics at the time weren't too familiar with the original comics, the general discourse also wasn't dominated by hardcore Batman fans who would've demanded for a more faithful adaptation. However, by the time Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released, superhero movies had become amongst the most popular and critically acclaimed genre works, leading to colored audience perceptions and less room for error. Further not helping matters was how the increased influence of geek culture in film discourse and advent of the internet also allowed DC fans to have greater sway in discussing Snyder's films in terms of fidelity to the original comics. Another oft overlooked aspect is that Batman (1989) was well-received at release while Man of Steel had a more divisive reputation that would overshadow much of the franchise going forward. Subsequently, audiences were more accepting of Burton's movies largely because they were created in a climate that didn't have competition that would inflate expectations.
- Batman killing criminals. As Zack Snyder pointed out in interviews, the Batman from the Tim Burton movies did in fact kill, or at least caused situations where the criminal died, such as killing the Joker at the end of his first movie or letting his goons die by their own mistakes. However, Burton's liberal use of Disney Villain Death and Gory Discretion Shot makes the Batman's kills look rather cartoonish instead of disturbing, and nobody brings up the deaths in-universe so that the audience is less likely to become fixated on these kills. Plus, the film never really discusses the notion of Batman and killing in any way, helping make audiences not dwell on them. By contrast, Batman killing people in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice drew ire from regular moviegoers because unlike with the Burton films, BVS did draw attention to it, by having Batman being angry at Superman for the events of Man of Steel, which makes Batman's actions look hypocritical of him since we see him actively killing people in ways that are far less justified compared to Superman's Destructive Savior issues from Man Of Steel, the only justification being the offscreen death of Robin. Not only that, but because the gap between the two films has long since made the idea of Batman's "no killing rule" a widely accepted part of his character, it meant that when Snyder had Batman killing criminals with no remorse while also having Batman act in a way that seemed hypocritical, people were livid and found it to be a bad direction to take the character, and remained a controversial debate of his portrayal in the DC Extended Universe.
The Dark Knight Trilogy
As much as the Dark Knight Trilogy is agreed to have revitalized Batman's cinematic reputation after Batman & Robin tainted it, it also incorporated several flaws that would eventually reach a fever pitch in not only later DC Comics film adaptations, but also some of its own later installments.- The manner in which the series influenced the stylistic direction of the early entries in the DC Extended Universe and, to a lesser extent, comic book movies as a whole. When Christopher Nolan rebooted Batman with a far grittier and more grounded series of stories, he was acclaimed for having vanquished the legacy of Batman & Robin. The thing was, the real reason why his films were so successful was because he also remembered to tell engaging, complex stories with three-dimensional characters; the darker tone was merely the means by which he did so rather than the main draw in its own right. Furthermore, Batman, as a Vigilante Man who turned to crimefighting after the murder of his parents, proved to be exceptionally well-suited to a darker reimagining. Lastly, Nolan's films had significantly more moments of levity and warmth than many people remember, and they were also surprisingly optimistic, emphasizing the decency of common people. When DC Comics and Warner Bros. applied such Darker and Edgier elements of the Dark Knight formula to Superman with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, taking them into overdrive while they were at it, they got hit with much backlash, to the point where some even compared it to the excesses of The Dark Age of Comic Books.note
- This article
by David Christopher Bell of Cracked asserts that Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker, while still legendary in its own right, "ruined comic book movies" in the long run. He was, and still is, acclaimed for his off-kilter vocal delivery, overall aura of total madness, and deliberately obtuse, nihilistic motivations; his lack of any clear goal beyond general chaos and destroying Batman's image made him terrifying. And of course, Ledger's untimely death — and the urban legend that he had killed himself as a result of getting too deep into character — only boosted the stature of his final role.note The Joker copycats, however? A slew of annoying Large Ham villains who used all manner of strange, distracting accents and voices, leave the heroes alive for no reason beyond making some point about "breaking their spirit", deliberately get themselves caught as some sort of poorly-explained Xanatos Gambit, commit heinous crimes For the Evulz even if they seem to go against their stated end goal, and are written as being insane to justify why their evil plans are so full of holes. Many critics have claimed that Jesse Eisenberg's widely-panned performance as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice seemed like a very calculated attempt at recreating Heath Ledger's Joker, right down to the odd quirks and mannerisms. They also noted that while those characteristics made sense for a flamboyant and unhinged villain like the Joker (a deranged lunatic who dresses up like a circus clown), they didn't really fit a character who is supposed to be a brilliant and cunning Corrupt Corporate Executive. - If there's one thing people consistently mock about The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, it's the guttural growl Christian Bale puts on for Batman, to distinguish him from Bruce Wayne and, presumably, to disguise his voice. They say it sounds silly and cartoonish. For some reason, the first film tends to escape this criticism, despite the guttural voice making its debut there. The main differences probably lies in the fact that: 1) in Batman Begins, Batman's longest line is perhaps five words long, and otherwise he speaks very little, while in the second and third films he holds long conversations with various characters while using that voice, and 2) that in Begins, Bale was simply lowering his voice an octave, which produced a clearly understandable but still distinct voice whereas in Dark Knight and forward he overdid it, making his voice the hard to understand growl we're all familiar with.
- Many of the issues people had with The Dark Knight Rises were present in The Dark Knight. In both films, Batman often felt less important than the villains, characters' motivations were often bizarre, villains accomplished their goals with near omniscience like they had magical powers, and plot holes littered the story. In The Dark Knight, however, these problems were masked by Heath Ledger's legendary performance and the portrayal of helplessness in the face of terrorism that invoked real-world fears of the subject. The Dark Knight Rises, however, had a less engaging villain in Bane and a clumsier handling of its real-world subject matter (in this case class warfare), and so these issues were harder to ignore. Additionally, the confusing plot in The Dark Knight was seen by many as thematically appropriate for a film about The Joker, given that he's explicitly meant to be a character whose actions defy rational interpretation; Rises had no such excuse.
- The fight choreography of Rises was criticized by several viewers due to how tame it was, with several scenes showing extras falling over without even getting hit. In truth, the trilogy has never been the best when it came to delivering fight scenes. Begins made heavy use of Jitter Cam, making it nigh-impossible to tell what was going on, and The Dark Knight still suffered from Batman really only using one fighting technique, with the steadier camera only making the weak combat more noticeable. It was easy to overlook this in those two films however, because Begins was showing the origins of Bruce Wayne as a crime fighter, and the shaky cam also reflected how he was viewed as inhuman by those he was facing off against, alongside it allowing for a better variety of moves, best shown off in the final battle between him and Ras Al Ghul. Meanwhile, Dark Knight showed him using much more gadgets and vehicles in spectacular fashion, which more than made up for the weak hand-to-hand battles. It also helps that neither Joker or Two-Face are known for fighting skills, but rather their intellect and insanity. Rises however, not only continues the trend of showcasing weak fist fights with a steady cam, but the main villain, Bane, is also supposed to be a highly skilled warrior trained by the League Of Shadows, which isn't properly conveyed in either of the fights with him, while the vehicle action and gadgetry wasn't really anything different from the previous films, which only magnified just how poor the fighting was, especially in the wake of later superhero films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Zack Snyder's Justice League, which were heavily praised for having well executed fist battles.
Other Media
Batman: The Animated Series
- The romantic relationship between Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon was one of the most criticized aspects of the Animated Adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke, due to many finding it to be No Yay (given their usual father/daughter dynamic and Barbara usually being far younger than him). However, the idea of depicting Bruce and Barbara as a couple goes back quite a bit, as the pairing was originally planned for The Animated Series (though it was scrapped) and later works in the DCAU (such as Batman Beyond and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman) have heavily implied that Bruce and Barbara are dating or have been on a fling. The idea of a pairing that involved a wide age gap was also briefly focused on in The New Batman Adventures, albeit with Catwoman and Nightwing (though Catwoman being the antagonist of the one episode where this happened meant that it avoided the criticisms that would later plague Batman's and Batgirl's ship). However, even in those works, the relationship was mostly limited to brief subtext and was never made the focus, making it easy to miss or ignore unlike The Killing Joke, which brought it to the forefront and made it explicit.
Batman: Arkham Series
- While all the games are generally well reviewed and well received, the prominence of the Joker as really the primary bad guy among everyone else has been criticized, as it lead to the detriment of other villains having a chance at truly taking stage. But this has been a wider-franchise problem for Batman on the whole, since the Joker is so inherently charismatic that he has overshadowed others for a long time in the comics, the cartoons and avoided doing so in The Dark Knight Trilogy only because of Heath Ledger's death. The Arkham games, being a tribute to Batman in different media, could not help over-representing the already over-exposed Joker.
- In most Batman media, the tension between Batman-Joker is subtext and only becomes relevant to the plot in stories where Joker is the main threat. In the case of the Arkham games, it worked well in Batman: Arkham Asylum because the game's smaller island facility setting, overall Bedlam House atmosphere and the main plot (which is the only time Joker is actually involved at the helm) fits that motif better. But in the sequels, the main plot and threat is Hugo Strange's Protocol 10 (and Ra's Al Ghul's plans for Gotham) and Scarecrow's plans to unleash fear toxin and humiliate Batman. In both cases, the Joker's involvement in the plot, and the time devoted to their relationship becomes a Romantic Plot Tumor since every game ends up offering some commentary on their rivalry and mutual obsession. Origins had a good general plot which advertised the Joker as merely part of Black Mask's general scheme, and comics fans were excited thinking Black Mask was going to be a more prominent villain than he was, only to find out that Origins was in fact about Joker's debut in the criminal underworld and the start of his and Batman's "relationship" while Black Mask gets submitted to a thoroughly humiliating Adaptation Decay ending with him being killed off brutally in Arkham Knight's Red Hood DLC, while begging for mercy.
- The series and its poor track record with making good boss fights is another example. The original game was criticized for reusing the same bullfight setup with Bane or opting for thug attack waves instead of direct battles for most of its encounters with any other boss fights being deemed lackluster or boring (with the exception of the penultimate battle with Poison Ivy). While City was praised for having the famous Mr. Freeze showdown and more original boss fights, overall it remained a criticism due to the presence of several (albeit mostly justified) Anti-Climax Boss segments. Origins, a secondary game made by a different studio, was widely praised in its handling of boss battles, making it appear to be an inversion at first. However, Knight, with a few exceptions (notably fighting Riddler in a giant robot suit and tag-teaming with Nightwing to take down Killer Croc in the DLC) lacked several proper boss fights while many combat encounters with thugs and Batmobile tank battles filled their place.
- A common complaint the Arkham franchise gets is how the world appears to be almost entirely populated by criminals and supervillains, with only law enforcement, scientists and the occasional random civilian being the only good people on the streets of Gotham. One could apply this very criticism to the beginning of the series, where Batman spends his entire night fighting supervillains and the other inmates in Arkham Asylum with only Jim Gordon and a few security guards to help him out. It also applies to City as well, as Batman works in an area where outside of political prisoners, everyone is a criminal or supervillain who was imprisoned in Hugo Strange's city-prison. At the time, fans were willing to accept this as both Asylum and City took place in closed-off locations that were intentionally made to keep bad guys imprisoned, so having them run amok wasn't seen as out of the ordinary. By contrast, Origins and Knight received criticism for straining to justify why the entirety of Gotham seems to have nobody but unrepentant villains roaming the streets, which made the stakes in saving the city feel lower than they should be. Origins hand-waves the issue by making reference to people being asked to self-isolate in their homes on to protect themselves during the game's events, while Knight gives the even weaker excuse of making the GCPD evacuate most of the city just so that Batman can focus entirely on fighting Scarecrow, the supervillains he's working with and their respective goons instead of trying to save civilians.
