Am I alone in thinking Batman’s story would be so much stronger if Joe Chill were reformed? Like, Batman goes to confront Chill after Chill gets on parole but saves him from a mugging instead and then as Bruce Wayne, fakes a coincidental meeting and gives Chill a job at Wayne Enterprises? I feel like that is more emblematic of what Batman’s end goal is. To save Gotham. Not purge it. Chill was created by Gotham’s inadequacy. Poverty, the mob, a corrupt police department. Even the Super villains are a symptom of the greater issues. Half of them were created by corrupt corporate malpractice. Helping Chill overcome his past would be something only Bruce Wayne could do and would be his greatest triumph.
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very interesting, and great points. just watched one of my favorite JLU episodes (flash and substance), and this reminds me of flash’s confrontation with the trickster. but still in a way seems out of character for batman to me, and to be honest I’m not completely sure why.
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I’m just so tired of a Batman who kills or coincidentally all his enemies just happen to die. It’s bad writing.
Also, that should be the key thing behind Batman. He will never take a life, not even the one who destroyed his. That’s what separates him from Ra’s or Two Face or even the Question. His revenge is on the corruption of the city, not those it creates.
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I’ll admit, it is an interesting idea and might work. Not sure what DC would think though
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It would definitely be a softer touch than what is the usual for Batman.
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It shouldn’t be. We need a return to form. Miller & Moore had there time, but the 80s were forty years ago. I’m ready for a Batman who is more than a brooding sadboi in a cape or a sociopathic vigilante obsessed with his “mission”.
What the world needs right now is a Batman who understands that even his grimmest foes are still people. Nigma, Crane, Dent, Copplepot, even Joker. A humanist take on Batman would be the most mature take we’ve had in decades. No more edgelord BS.
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Go @Royce.Miller Go! May I add that DC should hire someone like Mark Waid who lightened up Daredevil from his grim and gritty phase that started with Frank Miller and has continued for 40 years. 1970s O’Neil and Englehart type stories that have a balance in which Batman is a human and not the “Bat God” we have today.
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Which, I mean, the current guard still does good work. Love or hate the King’s writing, Bruce asking Alfred to be his best man and telling cat woman she’s preg are truly touching scenes.
I just want to pass that on to everyone else. Give us a day in the life of Pam Isely or Kirk Langstrom, just living their best life. It’s those moments that make big events like heroes in crisis hit home.
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Sound interesting, in Batman Begins we sort of see him reformed that he was sorry he ever committed a crime. If he had not been killed, who knows how he might ended up. Maybe he would’ve started a new better life.
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I agree with all of this, definitely. Somewhere in one of the old fanfiction prompt threads, I wrote a short story to this effect myself and I still think it’s my best work as a writer.
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They did something similar to this a few times in the DC Animated Universe- like when he buys Harley the dress she wanted, or when Bruce Wayne hires the reformed Ventriloquist to work for him.
It’s a very interesting idea. With the Multiverse back in full swing like it is right now, this would be great to see- what Batman would be like if Chill was alive and Bruce showed him compassion. How would that effect Batman, and what effect would a more compassionate Batman have on the rest of the DCU?
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I think there’s merit in this argument, but your suggestion for Joe Chill is a step too far. I wouldn’t mind Bruce feeling regret in the present over his indirect complicity in the man’s death (which is true in both pre-Crisis and post-Crisis continuity, albeit in different ways), but for him to reform Chill would be excessively saccharine.
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We definitely need a kinder Batman, sometimes even just reading a comic book I think “Jeez Batman, that’s just a hired henchman! You’re doing permanent damage!” but I think an argument could be made that Batman is stronger when we don’t have a name to put on his parents murder, the Joe Chill thing (or even worse the Batman 89 approach) always diluted it for me
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The gunman has been named Joe Chill since 1948. How can that dilute it for you?
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Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing a kinder Batman every now and again. In the 60’s show, Bruce Wayne was constantly offering jobs or parole agreements to captured crooks. If anyone remembers the Queen of Diamonds episodes, Marsha’s aunt probably didn’t even spend a day in jail before being offered a job by Bruce Wayne to teach home economics classes. So if we saw more of that in stories to come, I’d be happy to see it.
That said, I don’t think this same sort of mercy should ever apply to Joe Chill. Such a level of forgiveness just doesn’t feel right in that context. Frankly, I would prefer if Joe Chill’s fate was left the way it was in “Year Two“ or even “The Untold Legend of the Batman” (alternatively Batman: The Brave and The Bold’s “Chill of the Night!” 
).
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I find it very unlikely there is an redeeming Joker; redeeming Ivy, Harley, Harvey, and Nigma I see as possible
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There is something similar to this in the Batman Beyond web comic with a descendant of Joe Chill. I believe it’s on here.
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Not redemption, per se, but lean into the fact that he believes he’s a performer. He’s the joker. His methodology should be going to extreme lengths over trivial pranks. Holding Gotham hostage to pie Batman in the face. Pretending to be Batman but going after Jay Walking and 11 items in the 10 item lane. No more abusive boyfriend or unquestioned deity of chaos. And yes, I know I just listed Christmas with the Joker and Bat Joker, those informed my belief that we need to dial the joker back from murder clown to crime clown.
So, you want comics to be more like the 1966 series?
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Not in as many words, but shift the villainy to where it is in real life. Corrupt and Broken systems.
Why is Arkham so terrible? Maybe it’s a for profit prison.
Make the court of owls a more prominent bad guy, and include folks like Max Shrek & Roland Daggett in their ranks. Mayhaps a bit of the ol’ political satire. The man Roland Dagget was based on is now President.
You can still have serial killers and stuff, like Zsasz & Pyg, but just tone down on the whole “carving off his own face” thing.
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