Actually exploring Bruce beyond just "I'm vengeance who hunts the night, but how hard do I want to vengeance and hunt the night?" is why we need more adaptations that actually utilize the Batfamily.
It's why Wayne Family Adventures is by far the best Batman media currently running, and it's not even made by DC.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 11th 2024 at 6:29:17 AM
![]()
![]()
Regarding that specific episode, it's hard to tell whether that ep's writer did want to say that Bruce is the mask and used Shriek masquerading as Bruce's psyche to explore that trait or if it was just a plot point to explain how Bruce foiled Shriek's plan to drive him nuts.
Wayne Family Adventures is a breath of fresh air in the Bat Franchise. Heck w/ everything the Bat Family has gone through and how grimmer Gotham has become, I'm starting to see wht Matt Reeves' The Batman emphasized the climax on Batman saving people out of the disaster zone over beating up Riddler's thugs and emphasized the need for Batman to be more than vengeance. Also made me appreciate the Adam West Batman era more (the UN Security Council's fate in that Earth will remain hilarious though).
Edited by KRider on Jan 11th 2024 at 7:34:45 AM
Set! Avenge! "Henshin." Black General! Bujin Sword! Ready, Fight!Batman Beyond said it out loud, but it was probably Batman: Year One that popularized the idea of Bruce taking extra steps to play up the Rich Idiot With No Day Job dichotomy similar to Superman and Clark Kent. The Burton/Schumacher films didn't do much with the idea, though Kilmer did have a notable switch to game mode when business called (while as Batman he tells Dick Grayson "If Bruce Wayne could have sacrificed himself to save your parents, he would have"). Keatons Bruce was kind of shifty and not a big difference from Batman while Clooney had no discernible change in tone or voice which was a criticism of the time, he used his natural voice for both roles.
BTAS made it a lot more explicit, as Conroy had a much lighter pitch for public Bruce Wayne while the Batman voice was both in private and in costume.
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.I think the "Bruce Wayne is the mask" thing actually owes more to Batman's supporting cast than anything else.
Whether you're talking ultra-gritty Batman or campy & goofy Batman, the character rarely has friends/loved ones who are "civilians". Some are in support roles like Alfred or Lucius, while others are crimefighters themselves like Gordon or the Robins, but they're all actively part of Batman's mission, and their interactions with the Caped Crusader are almost always about Batman related stuff.
Meanwhile, how many important supporting characters are there who primarily know Batman in the role of Bruce Wayne, either unaware of the double identity or just primarily interacting with the hero when they're "off-the-clock"? Sure, occasionally the writers will give Bruce Wayne a love interest, but those rarely stick around long - the only ones with any real staying power have been Catwoman and Talia, both of whom are far more part of the Batman side of things than the Bruce Wayne side.
This creates the sense that Bruce Wayne's life is fairly empty, and all their meaningful human connections happen while they're Batman.
I noticed that when I was a kid; Batman doesn't have as steady of a love life as Superman.
Come on! Let's bless them all until we get fershnickered!From Clark Kent (the civilian identity), the love interest I remember is Lana.
Clark was also in love with Lois, but during the 20th century, their relationship was basically "Nice guy in love with a woman who's out of his league", so for a long time, Lois was more of Superman's love interest than Clark's. .
Of Bruce Wayne, a love interest that I remember is The Phantasm/ Andrea Beaumont from the movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
I think the woman in that movie is one of Bruce's few girlfriends (civil identity) that was a real and serious relationship.
The rest of Bruce's love interests are in love with Batman, or they are just there as a facade.
Edited by Luisdalas on Jan 12th 2024 at 11:35:54 AM
Bruce is married to the job.
Clark and Lois are the iconic comic book romance.
Edited by Bullman on Jan 12th 2024 at 1:41:47 PM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup threadAlso I feel another reason why "batman is the identity" is because when you look "why batman does what it does" and go about the death of his parents is dificult not to said batman havent get out of his trauma, unlike Peter parker who also lose his closer father figure see spiderman as bow or obligation of sorts rather than a very unhealthy coping mecanism and the more gothic batman become it was easy to see him in that light.
Hell the batfamily if anything just reiforce this since all of them fight crime like him, many also child of trauma, in a way Bruce dosent have a family as normal guy, but batman did to be alone.
"Keatons Bruce was kind of shifty and not a big difference from Batman"
Kinda but batman returns actually deal with doble identity of bruce and how close it is to selena who is also suffering the same, even pinguin does the same here. pinguin said he is real freak who own it unlike him who have a mask and Selena and Bruce figure out each other identity with the sound of face to face.
Also I found hilarious how batman can have public for lighthearted and darkest version of the chararter almost with ease but is hard for superman to do so.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"You’re a lot more likely to see Peter Parker make connections and pursue goals as Peter which are independent of his goals as Spider-Man (even if they end up being affected by them) than you are with Bruce Wayne and Batman. Bruce using his money to sponsor good causes is probably one of the most common examples on that side, and that’s a bit impersonal.
I always loved the idea that Harvey Dent was a friend that Bruce Wayne could count on in his civilian life.
I'm kinda mixed on how I prefer Harvey to view Batman, but I generally prefer Bruce and Harvey being close friends.
Dark Knight and Long Halloween inverted it though.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"

If anything I always see the issue of zack superman it wasnt that he was more kal el than clark but rather than it was clark kent trying to cosplay superman, which why he look so worry and distant because he dosent really know how to deal with it.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"