Since I can remember, I have been enthralled with Batman as a character. We’re not just talking the Batman from the movies, either. I read the comics, watched the television shows and yes, I even watched those campy movies before Christopher Nolan, who took them to an entirely new level altogether, got his foot in the superhero genre.
So, why Batman? Why Batman, when there are dozens of other heroes, some of whom have the same kind of notoriety as Gotham’s Dark Knight? Why not Superman, whose only weakness is the dreaded Kryptonite? It’s simple, really. I don’t like Superman because he isn’t human enough – he doesn’t have enough flaws for me to relate. Batman, on the other hand, has more than enough flaws.
Bruce Wayne, though certainly not the only one to take up the cape and cowl, is the Batman who has always stuck with me. He isn’t always a good guy. He can be selfish and brash, and he doesn’t always know why he’s fighting so hard for a city like Gotham, yet he never stops fighting for it or the people within its walls. He knows that Gotham can be a terrible, dark city, but that has yet to keep him from doing his best to try and rescue what life and goodness it has left.
Some people say that Bruce Wayne has had it easy, and I suppose, at first glance, it might appear that way. His parents’ untimely demise aside, Bruce grew up in the lap of luxury. Whatever he wanted, he was given. This is one of the many reasons I love him. Rather than being content in that luxury and spending his money on things that would only better himself and his extensive corporation, he instead chose to invest in ways to save others.
So, perhaps Bruce Wayne had it “easy,” but I believe that where we come from holds a lesser importance than where we are going and what we are doing with our lives in this moment, not in the moments past.
There is also the argument that Batman isn’t a “superhero” at all, which might be a valid point, but it is a point that only drives home the reasons I love him. No, Batman might not be able to fly (not without the use of his gadgets, anyway), and he can’t blow things up with his laser vision (he has actual bombs for that), but he is absolutely and positively human. Tragically human, at times. It is this human element, this ability to be beaten and broken, that makes Batman believable and relatable, and it is that reason (of many) that he is my favorite of the superheroes.
