Much tea has been spilled about how Batman is awful because he could do much more good by spending his money on social programs. This is an entirely valid reading of the character, particularly given the way he is often written. This is a short essay about why I disagree.
In essence, my frustration is that the same could be said about any superhero. Nearly all their powers could be put to better use than violence. Imagine the Flash building homes, Green Lantern mining distant asteroids. Superman doing...anything! The webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal had an excellent comic on that very point. To be honest I'd love to see superheroes doing more real good in their worlds. But these are adventure stories. At some point the adventure has to kick in. We suspend our disbelief about a better use for the hero's time as part of the buy-in for the story.
(Tangentially, a better criticism might be that violent super heroes should not be framed as capital-G Good Guys. IMHO the best adventure fiction always has total bastards for protagonists. Characters like Cugel, Fafhrd & Grey Mouser, Conan, The Brothers Grossbart, etc.)
Admittedly, there is one additional wrinkle to Batman (& Iron Man, & Green Arrow) that makes him different from other superheroes, and does weaken my argument: Batman's "super power" exists in our real world. We're all suffering under the rule of real-life Batmen, like that weenie who cosplays as the founder of Tesla, or the guy whose brutal warehouses are the reason you or one of your friends have to piss in a bottle. It makes Batman's misuse of his powers hit home a little harder than Superman's. This issue has been exacerbated by nerds who think "more realistic" is synonymous with "better." Even worse, those are the same oversized infants for whom Objectivism wasn't a temporary phase. They actually think it describes the world accurately, which is icky as all hell.
All of which is to say that if someone can't stomach Batman, I 100% get where they're coming from. They're not wrong for hating the character, I just think they're wrong if they think other people should also hate him. There are many versions of the character which are less " " " g r i t t y " " ", and can easily be enjoyed as a bit of simple fun. Tim Burton's batman, or Bruce Timm's both come to mind. Far enough removed from being a libertarian fantasy that I, at least, can love them.
That being said if someone wants to go all-in on a story that recotextualizes Batman as a murderous, cop-supporting nark who hates the poor and props himself up on completely arbitrary moral high grounds, I'm there for it.
—Nick LS Whelan
April 3, 2021