15 Changes the DCEU Needs To Make For Its Upcoming Movies

Batman the Animated Series Title Still. (Credit: DC Comics / Warner Bros. Animation / Fox)

Stop With The Damaged Batman

As someone who grew up with cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, reruns of the 1960s Batman and an armful of Teen Titans comics, the current iteration of Batman is somewhat baffling.

It seems like the past few years we have been over saturated with a very specific Batman: an emotionally damaged, angry and vengeful loner who doesn’t kill criminals but comes very, very close.

This is one interpretation of Batman, and it’s an okay one, but it’s not who I think of when I think Batman. Batman’s kind of grumpy and brooding, absolutely, but he’s also someone who adopts a bunch of wayward superheroes, who loves and trusts others, and who does his best by Gotham City as Bruce Wayne as well. In Batman: The Animated Series he talks to Harley Quinn seriously about getting her mental help and back on her feet. In Batman and Robin (the comic) he sets the whole Bat-fam down a movie night, and even opens up about his parents’ death.

Batman’s been through a lot, but he’s not constantly on the verge of a breakdown. Ben Affleck’s Batman actually had a few flashes of this character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (that scene at the beginning where he comforts a child amid the destruction is possibly the most Batman thing he’s done), but it’s interspersed with scenes of him torturing criminals and being too emotionally damaged to function.

Batman is broody, but he’s not a psychopath. He’s still a superhero, guys.