On Titans, how do we feel about this request not being something heroic? That it means being manipulative and somewhat villianous?
I’m perfectly fine with it. I’ve always seen Batman as a vigilante, more than a superhero, who works in the grey. He is technically a criminal after all. He’s willing to cross some lines for his mission that other heroes might not.
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I think it’s part of the story; meaning Dick being “Batman” is what causes the downfall of the original Titans and why he distances himself from Batman before the first season. It set him down a dark path that he had to walk away from.
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Not having watched the second season, I’ll say this: Titans clearly uses an interpretation of Batman that I normally really dislike. However, despite my many issues with the show, I actually think its take on Batman serves the purpose it’s intended to because it’s not a story about Batman. Now, the writers seem to be desperate to make it a story about Batman, but as far as we’ve seen it isn’t.
In a Batman story and most Justice League stories, I maintain that he ought to be essentially heroic and that while there is precedent for a more jerkish interpretation, it’s based on a misguided instinct derived from his status as the cool, dark, edgy hero. He’s dark and edgy because he deals with dark and edgy problems and is forced to rely on scare tactics to compensate for his lack of powers, but reading about a superhero who isn’t heroic wears thin very quickly unless played for laughs.
But Titans isn’t Bruce’s story, it’s Dick’s. If a more morally ambiguous/bankrupt Batman enhances Dick’s story, an adaptation is more at liberty to do that because it doesn’t have to sustain Bruce as a likable protagonist. This Bruce is nobody’s protagonist, at least until the writers give in and start actually writing the Batman show they would clearly rather be writing.
I think Batman fights with what he is given. He is a hero, the man who lays down his life for all regardless of his owns wants and desires. His war on crime is one of the strongest convictions ever written in any storyline. And I think Titans is being a bit disrespectful of the character by villainizing him. This Batman is portrayed as cruel through how Robin treats both people and criminals. I don’t think an accurate depiction of Batman is what’s being done in Titans. Then again, I don’t think this Dick Grayson is much of an accurate depiction either. I need my wise-cracking, super-nice-guy back.
I took it as being single minded, mission first even if that entails sacrifice. In this case, manipulating an innocent family member to get to someone. I do think Batman would do that.
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I think what we’ve seen Bruce so far and the view that Dick has are two different things. Most of it is self-loathing Bruce is the easy mental whipping boy for Dick’s anger. But as we saw in season one in the Asylum is himself not Bruce. It is the younger Dick that takes out his anger at the modern day, Dick. The kid is not Bruce did this to me, but you did this to me.
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