Robert Pattinson’s The Batman can’t solve the Bruce Wayne money problem

Through Midway Batman, mayoral candidate Bella Reál (Jayme Swanson) confronts Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) with a criticism you’ve likely heard before: Bruce is a rich guy in a struggling city. Why isn’t he helping more? In the film’s election subplot, Reál is Gotham’s progressive candidate up against a now-murdered incumbent with possibly corrupt ties, yet despite her likely very good policy ideas, her Bat-takes are downright banal.

This is an argument that has come up over and over again when Batman is discussed by adults who have to think about things like “rent” and the thematic implications of the art they consume. Trouble is, it’s a load of guano.

This is simply a superficial criticism. Sound recordings incisive. After decades of arts that reinforced their feelings of greatness without merit, the billionaire class is now being scrutinized by the public.

Warner Bros.

It is true. The Bruce Wayne version of Batman as he is most often portrayed is the “good guy with a gun” argument for billionaires, a fact that any half-decent analysis will almost immediately clock. This also makes it a boring read, because the answer to this question — which is usually wielded as a weird Getcha — presumes that there is a Be better way to spend his money and achieve his goals other than “punching the mentally ill.” This is nonsense, because None of these are true..

Bruce Wayne is not a real billionaire, he is a childish imagination of one where there’s a butler who can do everything you don’t want to and a giant T-Rex in your clubhouse. Gotham City is an absurdly broken city. Vigilante superheroes seem to be the only option. And if there is a mental illness with symptoms that manifest as “freakishly competent murder clown,” it sure isn’t in the DSM.

In other words, Batman can’t just Purchase crime, because that both ignores the reality of planet Earth — where there is no such thing as a criminal class, merely a shifting body of regulation and policy that outlaws and disenfranchises an ever-changing group of people — and the specific, fictional function of Batman stories. Besides, avid readers of Batman comics — and hell, watchers of Christopher Nolan films — know that Batman Does frequently seek other means to solve the problem of “crime.”

It is not difficult to overlook this, as structural solutions for structural problems don’t wear animal-themed costumes. However, it is also more difficult to tell Batman stories when Bruce Wayne is just Robert Moses. This real world argument is why one rich man is so successful. Should’t have too much power over the future of a city).

Image: James Tynion IV, Tony S. Daniel/DC Comics

After trying many different approaches, Batman writers settled on a specific type of problem for their Dark Knight: Costumed freaks. As comics critic Steve Morris writes, most of the imagined better venues for Bruce Wayne’s wealth directly contributes to their origin anyway:

Amongst Batman’s wider enemies are therapists, teachers, postal workers, and ventriloquists. If you support the arts: you’re probably funding an origin story. Support public services? Origin story. There’s no industry which won’t pivot into a villain production line. Once a cop was shot, and was then reborn in the immortal Avenging Wrath for the Murdered Dead. Every single person in Gotham City is one bad day away from turning into a criminal, and Bruce Wayne’s best bet is to hoard all his money and make sure that nobody else gets their hands on it.

This is not to say that Batman’s wealth shouldn’t be interrogated. Writers should — and have — taken some or all of it away, and seen what Bruce Wayne looks like with just his wits and a colorful tarp. Other writers can — and have — used wealth as the fuel for international intrigue (like Batman bare-chested in the desert swordfighting Ra’s Al Ghul) or arcane weirdness (like Bruce Wayne venturing out to study among Tibetan monks to learn the Thogal Ritual, a form of meditation so intense that it simulates death (And the Afterlife).. Even in the United States, this is possible. Batman — some of the better moments in the film are ones when Bruce overlooks something very obvious simply because he’s always been too rich to notice it.

The main argument for Bruce Wayne not being Batman is that he should do more than just be Batman. It postures as intellectualism when in reality it’s just holding a ball over someone shorter than you while daring them to take it — while also suggesting that you are the grounded, sensible one. Listen: There are Bat-fans who love the character because he’s “grounded” and “realistic” and I assure you, they are annoying too.