If there is one complaint that nearly every superhero comic book fan has, it’s that stories never have any lasting weight. It feels like every time a character or team gets a new writer, Marvel and DC force those characters back into a tired status quo in an attempt to appeal to new readers.
From a business perspective, that’s a sound strategy, but for long-term fans of these characters, it feels like their favorite heroes are in a constant state of arrested development. One of the biggest examples of this issue that people bring up is Batman. Historically, yes Batman more often than not falls into the status-quo reset pothole that so many other characters struggle with.
Recently, however, Batman books have typically stuck to their guns and have had long-lasting ramifications. Alfred died in 2019 and still is to this day with no foreseeable signs of his return. Bruce Wayne lost all of his wealth and riches to the Joker in 2021 and he’s still broke as a joke (pun intended). Heck, Batman lost his hand a year and a half ago in the current Chip Zdarsky run and he’s currently using a robotic hand like Luke Skywalker.
However, most of these shifts in dynamics for Batman’s world just feel aimless. There is a lack of cohesiveness to the character right now that stifles any attempts for long-lasting and meaningful development. Yes, Batman’s status quo is different right now but most of the changes feel like they happen for the sake of it rather than pushing the character forward.
As controversial as Tom King’s run on the main Batman book was, there was a definite progression in his character where he learned to live past his doubts and trauma and to love and trust those around him. The entire run revolved around the question “Can Batman be happy?” Through that question, King seemingly aimed to progress the character to a new era that could have led to new and interesting stories.
How was that followed up? They almost immediately wiped all of that development in his character that occurred. 2016-2019 was the last time that Batman felt like a truly dynamic and developed character which sucks for someone like me who loves and adores the character. I have thousands of dollars worth of Batman comics and in (almost) all of those comics, there always felt like there was a cohesive vision to the character and Gotham as a whole.
For example, No Man’s Land was a landmark event in the late 1990s that unified all of the Batman and Batman-adjacent books, and through all of those books, there is a clear unified vision. This event was masterminded by a multitude of legendary Batman authors including Greg Rukka, Paul Dini, Chuck Dixon, and Dennis O’Neil. Despite all of these cooks being in the kitchen, there is a tangible sense of progression across all of the Batman books during this era that developed and challenged the characters in interesting ways.
Today, however, despite having over 20+ books running currently, Batman and his supporting cast feel completely disjointed with no guiding principle guiding these characters. Despite all of these changes to the status quo, nothing feels truly new or fresh, and a lot of the changes feel like they were born from someone saying “wouldn’t this be cool” rather than having an actual creative vision or purpose behind these shifts.
I think a large problem is that there are multiple books where Batman is the protagonist so they all need to be written in a way that allows each author to do their own vision while remaining consistent with the the main book. This just stifles development for the entire Batman franchise because the books always have to make sense within the same general timeframe. It’s genuinely difficult to have like 6 separate plotlines surrounding the same character that don’t intersect.
I know Batman is DC’s cash cow, but at this point, something has to give. I realize the importance of making stories appealing to new readers and that Batman having a lot of books makes DC a lot of money, but at the same time, it’s clear by the lack of fan enthusiasm that Batman has fallen from grace over the last five years.
So how do we fix things? I would say that he needs a bold shake-up that will feel different than anything that came before. The Krakoa era for X-Men, for example, completely rejuvenated and electrified the X-Men fanbase because of its daring shift into new territories and Batman needs that kind of shakeup.
