Cosmo Digital

Due to my undergraduate Honors Dissertation, I have been recently doing some intense study into Batman comics. Recently, I have been giving some thought into the character of Batman, and of his origins. As most people know, a young Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of both his parents, and he vowed to fight criminals from that day forth. The main question I attempt to answer within this article is this: Is Bruce Wayne/Batman so obsessed over the deaths of his parents that he can never overcome that tramatizing event?

Origins and Historical Changes

forthcoming

An Obsession or a Lifestyle?

It is very easy to write off Batman as an obsessed person and nothing more. But this would be ignoring large portions of Batman's surroundings.

Look at Batman's technology. He has tanks and planes at his disposal. His batcave is powered by a prototype fusion reactor. He has dozens of Batmobiles in all makes and models. His computer and security systems are among the best in the world. The point I am trying to make is that this setup costs money. Lots and lots of money. Bruce Wayne has to have sunk literally billions of dollars of his own fortune into becoming Batman. This is in addition to all the expensive technology he simply steals from his own company. This setup only enhances and promotes his obsession. He has a vested interest in fighting criminals as Batman, if only because he has shelled out billions of dollars to become Batman.

But this extreme setup raises a pertinent question. Is this merely an obsession at this point? Or has it expanded so greatly that now instead of an internal obsession, it is a lifestyle choice? In addition to the billions of dollars that this lifestyle costs, Batman brings in other people to fight crime with him. This is most notable with Robin, who lives with him both as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Is he drawing these other people into his obsession? Or rather are they themselves choosing to enter into this new lifestyle of fighting criminals?

[As An Aside: notice that I wrote "criminals", not "crime". Batman does not fight the causes of crime, only the end results. The figure of Batman is incapable of fighting against poverty, or starvation, or broken homes. Bruce Wayne can do some of this through charitable organizations and such, but Batman can not. The only thing he can do as Batman is punch out the victims of poverty who turn to crime and get caught. If he were to fight the root causes of crime, he would end up destroying himself. Batman depends on crime. It is his habitat, and if it were to disappear, so would he. Therefore, Batman has a vested interest in crime continuing, because it keeps his own existence going as well. Perhaps this is why he never kills any of his supervillains, even though they kill hundreds or thousands of people.]

Batman or Bruce Wayne: Who is Real?

A lot of authors really like to play on the "Batman as the real identity" facet of his character. That is, they like to view Bruce Wayne as being the costume, while Batman is the true person underneath. This was also seen in the most recent Batman movie, Batman Begins, towards the end. But this creates a question. If Batman is now the real identity and Bruce Wayne is merely a facade, then are the deaths of Bruce Wayne's parents still relevant? In order to become Batman, the obsession to fight criminals proved to be so encompassing that it drove out all other aspects of Bruce Wayne's persona. If this truely happened, then the original drive (to revenge his parents' deaths/honor his parents' memory) is no longer around. If the drive is no longer around, then the reason Bruce Wayne became Batman is greatly diminished.

I believe this fact is what separates this from a simple obsession. If this was Bruce Wayne fighting crime, then it would be an obsession. But it is not Bruce Wayne any longer. Bruce Wayne died along with his parents. After Bruce Wayne died, Batman rose from his ashes. And Batman's lifestyle is fighting crime, with all the expensive elements that go along. Bruce Wayne's parents are nothing to Batman. They are just another set of people victimized by criminals. The disconnect between his original life and his new life are quite extreme.

And into this psychological setup comes the Joker. The Joker realizes that Batman is his own complete person, independent of any alter ego or secret identity. Several times throughout the comics the Joker has the opportunity to take off Batman's mask and see the person underneath, yet he never does. He does not need to. The Joker already understands that Batman is a concept, and that the idea of "Batman" needs to remain. For the Joker is the conceptual opposite of Batman, and each concept (life/death, order/chaos, shadows/light, etc...) needs the other to survive.

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