I made a post on the Batman subreddit saying I would like to see a Batman story where Batman has a civilian supporting cast similar to Peter Parker or Matt Murdock. Bruce Wayne had friends as a kid and went to exclusive private schools. I find it hard to believe his friends didn’t sympathize with him. I think it would be cool if during Batman’s first year he’s obsessed and only wants to be Batman and doesn’t care about being Bruce Wayne, but later on comes to realize he actually wants his friends around and comes to accept being ‘Bruce Wayne.’ That post got downvoted.
Bruce had a childhood friend who came from a wealthy family named Tommy Elliot. Another one was Mallory Maxon. It would be cool if Bruce opened up to Tommy or Mallory or any of his rich friends or a rich love interest. Bruce Wayne doesn’t have to be this statue with no friends who’s overly obsessed with being Batman. Daredevil and even Arrow (which is basically just a Batman show) prove the main character can do both.
Same with Spider-Man. He doesn’t have to constantly be poor and keep getting beat down time after time. With how smart Peter Parker is, it makes no sense for him to always be broke. Dude could get any job he truly wants. And this man is personal friends with at least four billionaires. I find it hard to believe Harry, Tony, Reed, or Danny wouldn’t say, ‘Dude, you can get a part-time job working for me and I’ll give you 200k a year,’ and the best part is since they know who he is, they can give him time off to do Spider-Man stuff.
But people don’t want to see these characters grow or be normal. They want Batman to remain a friendless statue and have Spider-Man keep taking constant Ls.
I dont want to see them grow either tbh. The Simpsons have been the same age for like 30 years.
The writing matures sometimes, and the issues they face remain relevant to the modern world, but the characters persist.
You first and last issue was posting to reddit
It’s the editors who keep resetting things to the status quo.
We’ve had storylines that fleshed out Bruce, two faces origin being one of the more popular ones, but I think the popular story is that Bruce is just an exaggerated character batman plays. Bruce doesn’t really exist anymore. Even the stories where we see batman costume free, the connections that seem real feel like they’re connecting to batman just with his mask off.
I’m also with you on your last point even if I think you were being sarcastic, personally not sure how the story of batman makes sense if he has a mutual loving support structure in his life. It would be interesting to see batman happy, but it just feels kind of like a story ender.
I’d still give your idea a read if it was made, but I’m definitely coming into it feeling kinda wary.
I mean, I don’t really enjoy characters I like changing overtime. They are nor “people” they are just stories, I don’t necessarily want the best for them. I just want them to keep providing the same interesting stories that hooked me on them to begin with.
If they change is hit or miss, and they may loose the thing I like about them.
For Batman specifically I think it starts as a way to clean up Gotham. He’ll quit just as soon as Gotham is cleaned up. But of course it’s a neverending task. Plus even if he cleaned up Gotham, how can he stop there? How can he stop when there is so much left to do.
But! That’s why I like Batman working with the Justice League and Superman specifically. He can never go back to being Bruce Wayne, he’ll always be Batman, but at least with Superman he gets his moments of comfort, however brief they may be.
Batman is cursed to be Batman and not Bruce Wayne. That’s his character.
I’m not against changing some aspects of his character. And as you noted other characters strike a balance. But those are other characters. If we’re changing too much of a character, maybe we just tell that different character’s story instead.
As for Spider-Man, that is a character who, depending on the story and timeline of that story, does try to strike a balance. In terms of being poor I think it’s a matter of being independent. Whenever he works for someone, they tend to want to do things their way. Even if he agrees or he’s doing what he wanted to do, there is still that layer of dependence.
Bruce having friends sets a dangerous precedent to children that being a millionaire is likable
I think it has to do with the kinds of stories these characters are used to tell. Batman is a tortured billionaire who tries to use his vast resources to solve the problem of crime single-handedly, and he keeps people at arm’s length because he’s afraid that personal ties will endanger the mission he’s given himself (or something like that, Batman scholars feel free to chime in if I got it wrong.). Spiderman is a story about a broke kid trying to make a difference in the world with the limited resources he has. Similar goals for both characters, but different preconditions make the stories meaningfully different.
I think these flaws are what endear fans to a particular character because they struggle with the same problems (overly self-reliant, broke as hell) and if you have a character grow past them, you’re now telling a meaningfully different story. Might still be an interesting story, but I get why people who love these characters would consider some changes to be dealbreakers.
This is kind of a foundational feature of serialized character stories: if you want to keep telling stories about the same characters over and over again, they can’t fundamentally learn or grow or change meaningfully, not permanently anyway, because then the appeal of the character fundamentally changes, so you get characters like Batman who are stuck in this sitcom-y eternal purgatory of constantly slamming their heads against their own limitations, and still failing to grasp the root issue. And really I think, it’s not for them to figure out. Their stories are there so that we can see our own flaws in them, and learn from them. And once we have, Batman will still be out there, being a lonely nerd for other lonely nerds to identify with.
isnt peter parker mostly financed by iron mans company in the MCU now.
Not after everyone forgot about him. He’s all alone again.
I guess after no way home that stopped. I don’t know much about next movie but my guess would be a more “street level solitary” spiderman.
For the billionaire friends of Parker you kind of have to ignore it. For the same reason you have to ignore that all these superheroes exist in the same universe. It’s like when people ask how come Spider-Man’s dealing with this threat to the World by himself when all these other superheroes live in the same city. Well the comic isn’t about them it’s about Spider-Man. So you just kind of have to ignore the existence of the other sometimes. It’s one of the plot problems in having a comic universe. It’s unavoidable so we all just kind of ignore it.
If King Arthur finds the holy grail or Edmund Dantes finally sits with his revenge or Sherlock Holmes dies at Reichenbach Falls, that would mean the END. Fans want PRODUCT. They want more Spoody-man. The more can’t be very different, but must be different enough to scratch a new itch. I must have my spoder-mang. I must have Fast but Furious 87. Call of dooter 17. Legumes of Delzo: We’re doing it again. Pokkle-mons. Eat up piggies. Enjoy your slop.
