What's the public have against Batman?

[suss2it]

It's one of the following

1. People in the DCU can accept a super powered vigilante more readily than a nonpowered one. You can understand it as the metahuman has a duty to utilize their powers, that metahuman law enforcement will take time to implement, etc,

2. DC elseworlds the nail presented a media suspicious of batman because it was unclear what he was.

That's not just from The Nail, that's a pretty common theme in quite a few Batman stories. I think it was especially prevalent in the 90s.

 

[reflection01]

Do people in Gotham know Batman isn't suoerpowered?

 

[Light Lucario]

Do people in Gotham know Batman isn't suoerpowered?

That's a good question. Some people might assume that he does have some kind of super power or that he isn't quite human simply because of the rumors about him, along with how he fights crime in the shadows.

 

[Hordesman]

That's a good question. Some people might assume that he does have some kind of super power or that he isn't quite human simply because of the rumors about him, along with how he fights crime in the shadows.

There also was this bit in the comics of batman being an urban legend too.

 

[Ed Liu]

I think the key point is that Batman is about fear, and fear as a weapon is kind of like a hand grenade. It's not a precision instrument. Batman scares people by design, and while there have been moments when he seems to regret that, it takes a back seat to his one-man war on crime. He chooses to play it from the shadows, but the price is that he becomes the boogeyman whose motives may seem to be on the side of the angels, but where you can never be quite sure.

All that said, it also seems that his ambiguity ought to be played out more. There are times when criminals seem to know he won't kill them, but it would seem to me that it should be a lot less certain. As has been pointed out, I'm sure he'd be blamed for lots of things that he didn't actually do, and he's also not the type who'd work very hard to counter those perceptions since it would be something he could use as a lever to make criminals more afraid of him.

Superman and Wonder Woman play much more publicly, and Superman specifically has gone into PR to ensure that he's not viewed as a threat. I remember Lois & Clark talked about how he finally agreed to merchandising on the condition that the bulk of the proceeds were donated to charity, and I recall that was lifted from the comics. Wonder Woman also has her specific brand of community outreach (which, I'm sure, angers a portion of the population just as it appeals to a different portion), but the point is that she also has a visible, public persona.

Also, I'm not sure I'd take anything in All-Star Batman as canonical Batman. That series struck me as Frank Miller seeing how much he could get away with more than anything else.

 

[Christopher Glennon]

To be fair, it's not like Superman has 100% of the public's trust. I don't recall seeing in the DCAU Batman ever getting it as bad from the public en masse as Superman did during the first act of "Livewire". It took Superman a while to get Dan Turpin to trust him, Hardcastle never did, and Hamilton, one of his closest allies, LOST HIS FAITH in Superman. S:TAS actually ends with most of Metropolis afraid of Superman. Batman never had that happen to him on his own series, and during JLU, Cadmus and whatnot were more concerned with what Superman and the more powerful heroes could do to them than worry about Batman as an individual (Waller having found out his identity).

 

[Srebak]

I guess when it comes down to it, my view of Batman has been "rocked" so to speak.
For so many years, i've watched shows and movies that focused mainly on the heroic view of the Dark Knight, with there only being 4 occasions where any negative talk about him had any effect on me (and not by much at first):


1. The Gotham city councilman's rants against him in "Mask of the Phantasm"


2. One reference to him in "Superman the Animated series" and three others in the crossover "World's Finest"


3. The episode "Trial" from "Batman the Animated series"

and


4. The first season of "The Batman" (the second season was lighter on it, especially with Bats working with someone on the Police force)


Still though, all of that was overlooked in my eyes, partly because i was only seeing Batman as a hero and easily dismissed any character belief that he wasn't. This was nowhere near a problem for me in the later episodes of "The Batman" and the entirety of "Batman: The Brave and The Bold", both of which showed Batman as a hero and nothing else. This was how my opinion of the "World's Greatest Detective" was for years, but when i saw how he was viewed in "All-Star Batman" and in "Beware The Batman", my POV was rocked.


I don't think i ever really had an opinion on vigilantism, only that I initially dismissed it as something you'd only see on television shows or in movies, so that was a never something i took into account when thinking about Batman (ironic, i know). But now it is and it bothers me, especially since i heard negative words about Batman coming from Commissioner Gordon (his long time GCPD liaison) in "Beware the Batman" and from his fellow heroes (particularly the other 2/3 of the DC Trinity) who would later be on the same team with him.


Another factor that i think plays a role in this change in POV is the fact that i've long been stating that DC comics heroes are given more praise and respect in regards to what they do than the heroes of Marvel comics, who are often seen as criminals and are frequently chastised and demonized by people like J. Jonah Jameson and Senator Kelly. Seeing Batman be treated no better than Spiderman sort of flushes that theory down the drain