So, I recently watched a video where two weirdos (High praise coming from me) debate whether Batman is a choice or a curse, going through B:TAS, TNBA, JL, JLU, and Batman Beyond.
It’s interesting, but my issue is: They only focus on ONE version of Batman, the main Kevin Conroy one, with touches of Terry Mcginnis
So, let’s discuss! Every Batman we can think of! Was Bruce always doomed to become Batman? Is Batman who he actually is? Was it a choice? Who knows?!
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I am Batman
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If the weirdo’s video didn’t factor in comic lore they are missing huge pieces of the puzzle. For example, if we’re to believe Barbatos from Dark Knights: Metal, he is the one who deliberately created or at least shaped what Batman had become.
Like all things–depends how you look at it (whether or not Bruce had a choice).
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I forgot about this. Let’s factor it out, only because Batman is still a nearly unbeatable genius and Barbatos is dead, so it’s more likely that he was saying that just to screw with Bruce, seeing as he also says Bruce had been with him for decades when it had only been about a week.
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It’s a good point. Bruce still continued to be Batman after DK: Metal. Choice.
Or was it destiny? The mystery continues…
I think Barbados was referring more to his incorporeal influence rather than actually making himself known directly.
I could be wrong, but one of my takeaways from Metal was that Bruce ultimately accepted that Barbatos did in fact influence his life in a real way, but he was kind of like “I don’t care. Batman is bigger than you now.”
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In a sense I suppose. I mean, if Barbatos really did make it so Batman would exist in the Prime Universe, then in a way he’s responsible for every version of the Dark Knight, including the Timmverse one, who retired the second he had to use a gun. Barbatos can essentially lay the pieces, but in the end, it’s up to Bruce.
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A good point that could be made for a lot of Comic characters. For example, Frank Castle may be a cold-hearted murderer, but his PunisherMAX version killed roughly 48,500 people, all the worst of the worst and no innocents. The one time he thought he DID kill an innocent, he was ready to blow his own brains out until he realized he was tricked.
My point there is Castle does what’s in his ability to rid the world of crime, like Batman does, minus the murder.
Are Batman and Frank Castle similar? Not really?
Are they both somewhat necessary evils? Yes.
Does that absolve Castle? Hell no, but still.
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It was by choice, in Batman Forever, Batman said he choose to be Batman, not because he have to be, but because he choose to be. 
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True, but that was written by the same man who thought Batman And Robin would be a smash hit…
I think we can take anything from Batman Forever with a grain of salt.
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To reference the Kevin Conroy version, the movie Mask of the Phantasm showed that Bruce’s promise to his parents is VERY STRONG, he ends up begging at their tombstone begging for permission to step away from crime fighting because, to paraphrase, he “never expected to be happy”. I think about this scene a lot, and shows that his choice to be Batman in essentially every continuity is both a choice and a curse.
The main comics version of Batman has shown him with…many flaws that can often make him come off as unlikeable and a prick. Many times he and fans will argue that he has to be like that or he has to make those decisions. While that might have been true at one point…that’s no longer the case. There are so many new allies and heroes in Gotham, he can choose to retire or at least steo back significantly
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Apt! Personally I find the unlikeable version of Batman to be decidedly more likeable. Likeable heroes is what Superman is for.
I’m too lazy to look it up, but I recall in the City of Bane arc there was a lot of dialogue between Thomas and Bruce about the choices and responsibilities of Batman’s existence. At one point I think it was implied that [unheroicly] ego is a big part of it i.e. “Batman is cool. Batman is mine. Only I can be Batman. I like being Batman.”…to paraphrase. You never really get that vibe outside the comics.
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Agreed. Plus, either the ten million bats out of the ground were a sign from his parents or Creeper was lurking around scaring bats.
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It was a choice in moments of heart break and change you get two options give in give up or become something more then you are.
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A hero has to be a monster if your harmless your only ever going to be a victim
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Regardless of how misguided B&R was (thanks in no small part to our good friends in the Warner Bros. marketing department), BF actually gets ol’ Batsy quite well. His characterization in the film is solid–even more so in the script.
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