If one of our billionaires decided to dress up like a bat and beat up thugs it would be an improvement. Instead we get a dozen Lex Luthors and no batman.
Always mildly annoyed by this type of meme.
First and foremost: Gotham is fucked. Like... really fucked. Evil secret societies run the place, the water supply is very likely poisoned in various ways, both conventionally and naturally, there's ancient evils buried under the city that have been corrupting it for centuries, a portal to hell in the asylum. We can say "Oh surely a food bank would help" and Wayne absolutely does do that via foundations in both of his parents names.... but all the shit to erase systemic poverty in the world can exist and The Joker, Zsasz, Mr. Pyg, The Court of Owls, Solomon Grundy, and the like are still going to be doing their shit (Not to mention big alien threats like Darkseid.). Likely most of his villains would still be on their grind except maybe Mr. Freeze who actually could have his problems solved by money.
Secondly: You gotta suspend disbelief. Make Superman a transitional power source and no one is gonna read it anymore, even if it would be 'realistic'. Any number of heroes could readily solve a number of the worlds issues. Why doesn't Iron Man put Arc reactors everywhere to power the world on clean energy? How come Storm doesn't get rid of every hurricane before it starts? Why doesn't Ice Man freeze up the poles and cool the planet down? The Flash could instantly deliver supplies to places in need. It's realistic, but it's boring, and boring doesn't sell comics. Okay, maybe Ruins but that couldn't be like... a whole series.
I think they did a comic where Iron Man did exactly that, but it ended with him going mad with power.
The problem with Super Heroes is that if Reed Richards isn't useless, you don't have a comic anymore.
For those who don't know what I mean...
Super Geniuses are really good at coming up with cures for "Anicent Polymorphic Diseases created by an Alien Civilization that threatens to turn us all into robot slaves!" that "Work like no bacteria ever before seen under a microscope.", usually having a 100% cure rate by the end of the storyline, it might take a while... like 5 issues spanning over three weeks in-universe
Cancer has them completely stumped and the best they can do for you is to show up in costume when you use your make-a-wish foundation favor to meet Spider-Man.
Gotham is Florida?
Here's a Tumblr post about how different versions of Bruce Wayne (comic books, animated series, etc.) have donated huge sums of money to charities and other improvements to Gotham City.
Meh. Only suckers give a shit about the “generosity” of billionaires. Tax them. Tax them down to millionaire status. Why should they dictate what programs get funded? It’s never worked before.. it’s not suddenly going to start now.
I mean, your own tumblr link is proof of that. After all, Gotham’s still a crime ridden shithole, isn’t it? Clearly Bruce Wayne doesn’t know what Gotham actually needs.
Points for talking about real issues but also this is a pretend fantasy billionaire we're talking about
In Turkey, our taxes are going to other billionaires anyway...
better yet, fundamentally remove their power to rise again and build a system where money is not equal to power.
I like how every response to this is complaining about how he, a fictional billionaire that can't actually change the status quo due to how superhero comics work and their inherent nature as propaganda, isn't doing enough. He runs a rehabilitation program for members of gangs like the Penguin's that are often working for these supervillains out of desperation and then hires them at his companies after, hiring convicts at twice the rate of other companies? Well, he should be paying them more than [undefined number]! Clearly, he's only doing this because it makes him richer than his infinite money already does! AND he hasn't even overthrown the corrupt government and installed his own socialist paradise. Clearly, everything that happens in the comics is all his fault, and he only acts when he deigns to trickle down some money to the poor and huddled masses that he sneers at from his golden throne.
It's like complaining that Superman doesn't just lobotomize Lex Luthor and be done with it since he's just going to keep doing evil things and hurting people. Not only did he do that in that alternate timeline where he became dictator of the world "to permanently stop crime," but they also wouldn't have a story anymore if they just did the Marvel movie thing of killing off the villain at the end of every movie.
It’s like complaining that Superman doesn’t just lobotomize Lex Luthor and be done with it since he’s just going to keep doing evil things and hurting people. Not only did he do that in that alternate timeline where he became dictator of the world “to permanently stop crime,” but they also wouldn’t have a story anymore if they just did the Marvel movie thing of killing off the villain at the end of every movie.
I was with you until this paragraph. I don't know how many people someone needs to be directly responsible for the death of before punching their heart out becomes justified, but I do contend that if instead of condemnation Batman had hugged Superman and apologized for not doing it himself Superman wouldn't have spiraled into conquering the world...
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.
He should pay his employees more. I don't care if he pays them twice the average for their positions, he is clearly wealthy enough that his businesses can afford it.
In that post he bankrolls many things that should already be subsidized by the state.
Also it's not systematic, it's just within his sphere of interest. If he physically sees you suffering he will make a grand public gesture to end it and buy himself some PR at the same time. This is the conservative mindset. Live two cities over? Tough luck. Anonymous donation? No of course not, Wayne Enterprises needs all the publicity it can get.
He picks and chooses his favorites, like every billionaire out there.
To be fair, as common of a criticism as this is
In the lore the Wayne Foundation uses Batman's fortune to fight poverty, and a lot of Batman media goes out of its way to show Batman is always willing to give his villains a chance to turn their lives around.
It only fails because retiring a villain permanently is bad for comic sales (But quite a few like Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn at least find themselves in the Heel-Face Revolving Door)
Now Frank Miller wrote a few books detailing why "Rehabilitation is naive and something suggested by the Radical Left because they don't understand how the real world works."
But Frank Miller is a crazy person who also wrote a book where a Pedophile-Coded Batman goes on a killing rampage and Vicki Vale's ass talks to the reader.
In Batman begins, the issue is corruption.
Everyone knows Falcone is guilty but no one has the legal ability to arrest him.
So Bruce Wayne becomes a vigilante in a more Luigi kind of way in which he is willing to risk things cause he has the tools to do it right.
The whole point of Batman is doing all he can with his resources, even if that means breaking the law.
But yeah, we know today that the most effective thing he can do is not even charity, but pay for lobbying
It's a feature in all superhero media. They don't touch the status quo, or the systems we live in. It's always the fault of a few rotten apples and they're taken care of. Normal people don't need to apply, it's up to a few people with special power to fix it. And in reality, people with money see themselves as more special and empowered than normal people.
Those who pursue power or money and nothing else are statistically more likely to achieve the most money or power. It's a filter or selection process. So a 100 billionaires are much much less likely to care, or to know, how a society should function except for what they learned and practiced: capitalism as the wealthy exploiting the masses and buying political power to gain more money.
They are narrow minded nerds in their own specific fields. Techbro's reprogramming reality. In that way the villains stupidly applying their narrow minded views or delusions to social problems is a quite fitting metaphor.
So even if Bruce Wayne would pay lobbyists and donate to political campaigns and do it wisely, he would be the rare exception and outspend 100:1.
Isn’t the genie in the original story a trickster?
The genie will probably make everyone poor when Aladdin wishes for more equality.
If they start making kids shows have revolutionary heroes, it would be too "woke" and get banned.
Well that and stories depend on conflict, if you create a perfect society, you lose out on conflict. Sometimes you just have to stop dreaming if you want the story to be any good.
The only story I know of where people solve EVERY problem is Scribblenauts, and that's because it's hard to get more overpowered than Maxwell's Notebook.
Heck they even did a DC Crossover where you can pretty much make Maxwell invincible by adding the adjective "Kryptonian" to yourself and Kryptonite isn't even a problem when you can just add an adjective claiming it's fake or just a toy.
After all, how long has it been since any version of Robin Hood was on the screen?
A rich guy dressing up in body armor and going around beating up poor people to fight systemic corruption is the most believable part of the whole Batman franchise. In his original incarnation he had a gun too.
IN ONE OF THE animated series/movies uses it to kill zoom.
That's actually the Thomas Wayne that becomes Batman from The flashpoint timeline!
The Wayne Foundation is a charity organization run by Thomas Wayne and Wayne Enterprises. For a time, Bruce Wayne lived in its office building's penthouse to be closer to the city.
The Wayne Foundation funds medical scientific research and helps people with research by providing facilities and training.
Bruce's first action as head of the Wayne Foundation, was the creation of a new program called "Victims, Inc. Program" (VIP), which would help the victims of crimes who need financial support.
The Martha Wayne Foundation is a patron and supporter of arts, families, education, and tolerance. The foundation supports and helps to run a number of orphanages and free schools, and provides teachers for those who have learning difficulties. Artists can apply for grants from the foundation to help support them in furthering the arts. The foundation sponsors companies like Family Finders. Family Finders is an organization directed at finding lost people and uniting families. The Martha Wayne Foundation also sponsors and runs dozens of soup kitchens within the city.
It's extremely spot on that instead of doing obvious things that would better the city they just invest in a bunch of industry and tech instead. Very on the nose. Especially the Dark Knight Rises Batman where he had a clean energy program that was the answer to the energy crisis or whatever they were in but he just didn't do it because he thought 'the world wasn't ready'.
'The Batman' is even worse as the Wayne charity, which he should be running, is the center of corruption for Gotham.
The Riddler was justified in trying to get revenge on Bruce Wayne.
It's a Bruce Wayne origin story. Batman hasn't figured out how to be Bruce Wayne yet. The movie is about him realising he needs to do good as Bruce, too.
The Gotham Renewal Fund is managed by city employees. Batman was never told by anyone that he's responsible for it, except the Riddler. And the Riddler was right, and after Batman stops the terrorism, it's implied he starts fixing it.
How is the world not ready? The world was never ready for nuclear weapons, but we got them anyway...
We just need to advance socially as a species faster than climate change, that's all. Easy.
I'm more pissed that Tony Stark having a clean energy solution was a central part of Ironman 1 and forgotten about in ever sequel. It could have been a theme of Ironman 2 if they aligned if Justin Hammer was invested in dirty energy and offered a juxtaposition to Thanos's nihilistic environmentalism.
Problem is, by the time you're successful in Hollywood, you're invested in the status quo and it shows.
I don't think it was plot relevant anymore, so we don't hear much about it; but wasn't an investment in clean energy mentioned in passing on one of the Avengers movies?
It's almost as if he's a crazy person who is responding to childhood trauma in an arrested development kind of way, punching the bad guys who hurt him as a child, forever, rather than dealing with his trauma in a healthy coherent way, almost as if that's a core aspect of the character without which he wouldn't even be the character he is anymore.
In the recent movies, he, or the Wayne foundation, does give a lot of money to charities in the city, and built the monorail system as well.
A fucking monorail is some Musk type bullshit.
The comic writers aren't researching the technical details. The important part is is that they built public transit.
I mean, it's essentially just the metro... but above ground. Except that above ground location is out of the way of existing ground-layer infrastructure like sidewalks and roads.
In essence, it's just the benefits of a metro line with the added benefit of taking up less space from existing areas that can be used for transport. If you already have roads, sidewalks, and metro lines in an area, a monorail can just be another way to get around on top of all that without sacrificing space.
I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's a cool mode of transit, and can be genuinely useful in some cases.
Disney
He doesn't in The Batman (2022). But that's because it's a Bruce Wayne origin story. Batman hasn't created his secret identity yet.
The main reason super man is better than batman is because superman is working class. There's no ethical way to be a billionaire, even if you inherit it.
Superman was born with power and recognizes that he doesn't deserve it so he tries to use that power to help people whenever he can.
Batman was also born with power but decided that that wasn't enough so he travelled the world acquiring more power and then returned home to use that power to enforce his will while wearing a mask to escape accountability.
A friend of mine asked me recently, was I gonna go see the new Batman movie with him. I don’t respect the concept of Batman because of what I understand about politics now.
I’mma lay it out for you. Rich dude owns a corporation, has state of the art equipment, and he uses this to beat up on street-level crime. He doesn’t mess with the industrialists, or the super capitalists, the Murdochs, or the Trumps. He really just fucks with the person that’s just on the corner.
Batman is a conservative’s wet dream. Fuck Batman.
i want batman who is not billionaire yet still manages to achieve same things through ingenuity and community effort
Absolute batman, not born a bajilionare
Project Mayhem.
Except Batman's saved Gotham and the world a few times. Presumably not being a billionaire would make that much harder. Personally, I think the continued existence of everyone we know and love is worth more than all of Bruce Wayne's wealth.
