Batman General Discussion

The moral debate over Batman's no kill rule has been the crux of some of the best Batman stories like The Dark Knight, Mask of the Phantasm, and Knightfall. It's just that recent comics beat our heads over it because they are out of ideas.

Like the X-men, there's zero progress here. Arkham doesn't get shut down, Gotham's crime rates still high, corruption still rampant, and his villains constantly add more bodies to the graveyard. Batman's no-kill code won't be a problem if the villains he stops actually stay stopped. Use his rogue gallery more sparingly and make new ones so that it won't seem like killing them is the only option to even slowing them down.

Plus maybe add a little fun back to them.

I mean when's the last time Joker just stalked & ruined someone's life for shits & giggles.

Now all he does is shoot, strangle, & stab. Where's the joke?

To be fair, how much have his rogues killed on camera and how much has his rogues's rep done most of the talking? Most of the time Batman has actually succeeded in stopping Joker's mass murder schemes for example.

It's like the Batgod rep which is mostly in the fandom and not actually reflected in the comics itself. Like the most famous of the utterly banal " Batman can totally beat Superman guys " from TDRKR is clearly Superman holding back, and in the end Batman has to fake his own death, while Superman lets it happen, it's quite clear Superman won the fight.

There was a story where the Joker did just that in an endgame comic. It was an anniversary issue i think? it was a throw back to Joker's Favor from BTAS. But yeah The Joker has been kicked upstairs, and can only have book shaking events instead of just robbing a bank.

EDIT: Batman annual 3 if you are interested.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Feb 23rd 2019 at 5:45:07 AM

You know, with how Batman uses his reputation to scare criminals, surprising that there hasn't been a story about people writing lore about "The Bat" online and him just rolling with it.

There was a story about a corrupt billionaire mogul hiring a bunch of writers to write about Batman in order to find a common ground. None of the writer's versions have anything in common. Forgot what the story was called. But according to Batman INC. Batman occasionally visits message boards to help spread his cred.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Feb 23rd 2019 at 5:48:25 AM

Like I said, there's a reason the Nolan movies just had most of the villains faking mental illness.

It was a plot point during Batman Begins, that Falcone's men were faking illness and supported by Crane who fraudulently passed their defenses. No one else faked being mentally ill. The Joker is a an arguable example depending on how you view how honest he is about himself. Two Face is trying to make a point to Gordon. Everyone else in the Nolan verse have plans that don't involve them being crazy.

The Joker was very much obfuscating insanity.

Well with the Joker it's honestly hard to tell, it is a valid interpretation, him just saying what he wants about insanity to prattle on with the minds of the sane. It's like him relying on how people view mentally ill to operate as efficiently as possible. But it's not the main interpretation because the Joker is an overall mystery. Plus don't act like the Nolan versions are the only one to do something like this, The idea of the Joker faking insanity to get easy to break out of prisons originated in the comics, specifically the Batman Black and White short story Case study.

Besides Two Face and the Joker, the other Nolan verse villains don't get insanity played up, only The Dark Knight played with this theme. Ra's al ghul his daughter and Bane were terrorists with a goal. and the sweet sweet revenge on Bruce is a nice bonus.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Feb 24th 2019 at 1:12:38 AM

I never said the Nolan movies were thd only ones to do that.

The problem with the whole “Joker being insane” thing is that he’s just too self aware. He knows that what he does is evil he just doesn’t care

He just plays it up, really.

The Joker isn't crazy, but his worldview is, and I believe that's the main reason people think he's insane. Either you're so nuts you're a clown that kills people because you think it's comedic, or you're so apathetic you're a clown that kills people because you thing it's funny. Out of universe and in-universe nobody wants to believe that someone who can understand right and wrong would be willing to do stuff like this, and the Joker exploits that

And the thing is the writer's still treat as there's something crazy with him. The Joker tries to be un-insaned by the Martian Manhunter and he struggles. The Lazarus Pit's madness gives him a conscience. It's stuff like this that convinces me that the Joker's mental condition is a legitimate superpower and not something natural. Or do the writers think sociopathy=mental insanity? Because Ted Bundy and Hermann Goering could've really benefited from that

Well depending on the writer, The Joker may not actually understand what he's doing his wrong, there was a time the Spectre fought him and couldn't kill him because Joker couldn't understand his actions were wrong.

And generally Joker doesn't see much difference between throwing a pie at Batman's face or rampaging through Gotham with robots and explosives. So this idea does have merit.

One of the many theories out there is that Joker knows that he's the villain in a comic book, and thus it's no big deal if he kills people because A) he's fulfilling his purpose in the plot and B) they were just fictional people anyway. I'd like to see at least one official take on the Joker with this theory written well (so not like how Deadpool breaks the fourth wall).

That statement basically says Deadpool has never been written well in that way which I’m pretty sure is false.

Isn't that basically Deadpool kills the marvel universe.

That's... interesting. So you can become immune to the Spectre by, say, hypnotizing yourself to become incapable of understanding right and wrong? We have plenty of hypnotists in the DC universe who could probably do so.

Or, say, if you built a robot and told it to kill an innocent person, the robot doesn't understand right and wrong unless we assume it has, or can develop a soul. Would the Spectre know to target the robot's creator, or would he target the robot, and be incapable of harming it?

Edited by Soble on Mar 1st 2019 at 7:52:22 AM

Yeah I worded it properly, I meant that in my opinion you couldn't write fourth-wall breaking Joker well if you just made him into a Deadpool clone where it's all played for comedy. Deadpool has been written well (and not so well) but his style of fourth wall breaking wouldn't be suited for the kind of story I would want.

Okay yeah now I get what you mean.

Batman Just Destroyed His Relationship with The Flash.

Spoilers for Flash #65 so beware.

what a shame, I really liked Barry and Bruce's friendship. As much as I like Batman, I don't subscribe to Batgod, so Bruce is seriously lucky Flash didn't beat the shit out of him for that low blow but I see Bruce's logic in regards to Gotham Girl. Unlike characters, friendships tend to stay dead a long time in comics.

Eh, I imagine this will be patched up, it's even indicated in the very book there's a force at work making everyone act like a jerk

CBR always assume the worst in heroes also. A part of why I avoid their clickbait articles.

Edited by Zarius on Mar 1st 2019 at 8:32:15 AM