Batman! easily DC’s most popular character, his logo can be seen on wide-eyed children’s backpacks and cynical Generation X-ers alike. The character has changed to the tastes of audiences through out the decades. Batman has been the aspiring fascist dictator of Frank Miller’s comics. The apologist for the patriot act in Nolan trilogy and the stoic champion for justice with Kevin Conroy’s voice for DC Animated Universe. The erudite backroom brawler of the Adam West series and the overdramatic showman of the Burton films. He’s made puns while written by Neal Adams and insisted he works alone in the 90’s whilst being in The Justice League.
Batman doesn’t have a personality anymore, every reader’s Batman is different. Fans ascribe a personality to Bruce Wayne, cherry-picking the media and actions they want for “their Batman” because of this creative teams can create a ripple through the Bat-community with their decisions writing the character, one example would be Bruce Timm whose idea of Batman is god’s gift to women and the only member of the Justice League who can save the day on their own. Timm wrote a prequel to Batman Beyond where he revealed that the Bat-family broke apart because Barbara Gordon and Bruce Wayne were having an affair leaving Dick Grayson feeling dejected. Some fans think it’s creepy that a man in his early 40’s was having an affair with a 19 year old, some dislike that Bruce Wayne could be such a lying manipulator and others think it’s just awesome that Batman shags so much.
The truth about Batman is that he’s a Mary Sue, but this only seems to be brought up as a problem when it’s a female character. Batman isn’t just a Mary Sue he’s the Mariest Sue to ever Mary a Sue. Everything comes easily to him, quantum mechanics he can learn that in a night he’s in tip-top physical condition. He can even be such a jerk that he can commit acts of child abuse (yes actually think about what he did to Jason Todd) but still be allowed in the super boy-scouts floating clubhouse in space.
Now these are all usually problems with a character, no consistency and creepy creative teams drooling over them so hard you suspect they need to wear his cowl to get an erection. Telltales format of game actually makes these a strength because you can’t make a choice thats out of character for him, and you can make him whatever kind of Batman you want. There are of course limitations to this you can’t choose between Burton’s Art-Deco Gotham or Dick Sprang’s Gotham where every factory has a giant fully functioning version of what they make on the roof. You’re also limited in how much you want to work alone as Batman because you can’t drop in Robin to help you punch criminals. You also can’t pick which villains you want in each storyline so you have to stick with the obnoxious pseudo marxist Penguin the developers created. But your character of Bruce Wayne is exactly as Brutal or Merciful as you choose. You can have him try to seduce as many reporters as you like, have him distrust Jim Gordon and be as rude to Alfred as you like as the story unfolds.
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