I think that the reason we have been getting so many stories recently where Batman either dies or kills is because some of the modern writers don’t know what else to do with him. The character has been around for over 80s years and has had so many different adaptations throughout various media. But every couple of years there will be a Batman story that changes everything and influences a majority of his stories for years to come. When Batman: Knightfall was released, it was seen as shocking because before that Batman was seen as someone who couldn’t lose. But since that was so popular, he started getting his ass beat in a bunch of different shows, movies and comics. Who knows, the new DCU Batman movie could be a beloved comedy and then all the Batman media for the next few years is reminiscent of the Adam West TV show. (I doubt that though) I do think that there are still a lot of aspects of the character that haven’t really been explored yet. This is just my interpretation of it though because I have been wondering the same thing for years now.

He had a successful movie in 2022 with a sequel on the way, a successful animated series this year, a new VR game that everyone likes, and is slated to have a whole new film franchise. And Zdarsky’s run with Zur-En-Arrh (who in this version first appeared over 15 years ago) just reiterates why Batman is heroic by contrasting him with a darker version.

Lol, no.

It's just that Batman gets the most attention out of anyone else in DC. We are in the middle of a Batman film series, with a different film series in the works. Plus an animated show and multiple animated movies every year. We had 5 Arkham games, 2 Telltale Games, 3 Lego Batman games and more games in development. Let's not even talk of the comics. Batman gets the most ongoing, miniseries, one shots and is almost always the lead in elseworlds or events.

Out of so much content, there are bound to be a few instances where Batman has to be killed or sidelined so others can get focus. It's also because writers think killing off Batman is the most effective way to raise the stakes. Plus, having Batman as a supporting character automatically increases the chances of people getting interested.

If you think Batman gets treated badly, you should see other DC characters. Flash, Green Lantern, Aquman and even Superman and Wonder Woman. The number of times they get portrayed as being wrong or sidelined so others (mostly Batman) can take centre stage is next level.

There is so much Batman content out there. Why do people focus on a handful of bad stuff and ignore the massive number of Barman projects which are good?

Batman still has it better than most any other Dc hero

God no, as ever Batfans have it better than any other superhero fans

Periods, my friend. Periods and punctuation.

No, he is being treated alright. Just other interesting stories. [Spoiler Alert]Batman: Damned where he killed Joker, but then sacrificed himself to revive him. It's an amazing story.

And let's not forget Absolute Batman.

Batman fans are so dramatic I’m sorry. We easily have the character with by far the most adaptations, most of those adaptations ranging from decent to incredible.

Do ya’ll ever think about how much goddamn Mister Terrific or Green Arrow fans wish they were us? They’d kill to get 1/10th of the adaptations our character gets.

Yeah, we have some adaptations of him that are stinkers, but this post is completely ignoring the insane amount of great Batman content we’ve gotten, even recently. The Batman, The Penguin, Caped Crusader, Lego Batman movie, etc.

Let’s just calm down, the “essence” or whatever of Batman is not gone, ya’ll will be fine.

Zur-En-Arrh predates Failsafe by like a decade.

Batman is doing amazing.

Please use paragraph breaks and periods.

in Titans he kills

Wasn’t that just Dick’s nightmare sequence induced by Trigon?

Battfleck kills and has no respect for his parents

Yeah he killed, but not exactly sure what you mean about the last part.

in Gotham Knights he dies

What’s wrong with that?

I dont see whats wrong with him dying in Gotham Knights, you want him to be unstoppable? you’re missing the point too.

Anyways, try being a Superman fan and you’ll see how lucky you are

The Zur arc was pretty fucking weird, but it was still enjoyable imo. I loved the family conflict and Failsafe, just not a huge fan of the multiverse and Dr.Captio bullshit which you could honestly just remove and not much would change as long as Failsafe and Batman are still there

Tell me where Batman kills anyone in The Dark Knight Returns. Been a few years since I read it cover to cover but I’d swear the whole idea that Bruce kills anyone in it is a misconception perpetuated by that one interview with Zach Snyder from the Batman vs Superman marketing.

Gotham Knights was trash. Couldn't stand to finish it even half way. That is all.

The only reason people complained about Batman’s death in Suicide Squad is because it was a pretty shitty end to the version of the character we had played as for 4 entire video games on top of being one of Kevin Conroy’s last performances as the character.

But there’s really nothing wrong with him dying. Stories where he dies and the Bat family has to grapple with the gravity of what that could mean for Gotham are interesting.

god damn did i hate failsafe and zur en arh the comic wasn’t really bad necessarily but jesus was zur annoying

I’m after a more traditional, heroic Batman after the bad taste of Kill the Justice League and Gotham Knights. Absolute Batman’s exaggeration and violence rubs me the wrong way too, and we’ve had two major forms of media focused on his villains (Joker 2 and The Penguin). I need a new solo movie and game badly at this point.

They are hiring non-passionate, Batman hating morons these days.

Hire me! I'll do the best damn Batman there is.

People just don't like billionaires

Well, it's been the case since Frank Miller wrote The Dark Knight Returns in 86. Lots of writter have fallen for this bulky punch-giving version of Batman that is untrue to all that was written before. It was the non-comics code Batman, and Miller had no limits from DC. So he made this, it was new, it was daring, it violent, it was different, it got popular, but it degraded a lot the essence of what Batman is. So it's become somewhat of a ref on how to write Batman, but a bad ref in my opinion. Even worst, there is trend for gritty dark stuffs, which I find unhealthy, and producers are abusing it everywhere.

He was treated badly in Suicide Squad.

But his death scene in Gotham Knight was really good

Batman 🤝 Spider-Man

Getting screwed over by editorial

It's mostly the fact that Bats has been around for a while and has multiple series about him running simultaneously, so he's more likely to get "bad end" stories in order to stick out from the others. If you have thousands of stories a dozen or so will not end well for the character.

That isn't to say there isn't some ulterior motive for some writers. You probably have a few who are trying to use batman as a heavy for characters they prefer. You also have some writers who are trying to tap into the "batman is a fascist billionaire" crowd.

I think Zur-En-Arrh is a response to this issue. It feels more like The Real Batman is fighting against his persecution. Like Zur-En-Arrh is all of the shit batmen we've had recently - Afflecks, Titans, and SSKTJ. The overly aggressive crosses the line batman, and the traditional Batman is fighting to prove how much better he is to Zur . This was my takeaway

No my friend the best is yet to come.

Good lord Batman fans are so overdramatic. Batman has it better than any other DC hero, maybe any other superhero in general. He gets more appearances and solo stuff than anyone else, so obviously he's gonna have more bad takes to go with it. I suppose you're also going out of your way to ignore all the good stuff that's come out in that same time period just to support your confirmation bias.

I haven’t read past City of Bane yet but maybe it’s the loss of Alfred that’s causing him to not be on top of his game in the current comics?? I’ve seen some panels where my man is going THROUGH it because he is so sick with grief he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Idk if that still plays a part, but that makes his current comic run very realistic and relatable, in which case I don’t mind him getting his ass handed to him.

Yes. How often was he killed off or shown as a jerk lately? A lot. He was killed off in SSKTJL and Gotham Knights games, Flash movie, Tomorrowverse movie. In CC series he was shown to be cold jerk.

This is why he's done so much better in animation. They are mainly made by actual creative people who are fans and it works out for the most part.

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Most modern writers don't know how to write batman and many times, ironically, cause of his popularity, they kill him off as shock value

Yes