DETECTIVE COMICS #600: The world needs Batman, so...

[starwolf_oakley]

Sam Hamm, who wrote the 1989 Batman movie, also wrote a three-part DETECTIVE COMICS story that ended in #600. The story introduced Henri Ducard, toyed with the idea of a replacement for a paralyzed Bruce Wayne, and had Bruce suffering a recurring dream of Batman killing the Waynes. Hamm wraps up the story with a theory as to why (since 1986) Bruce Wayne's mind plays the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne on a near-constant loop.







On one hand, you could say being Batman is the only way Bruce can be happy. On the other, has being Batman *ever* made Bruce happy?



So, there's the theory. Bruce knows Gotham City and the world needs Batman, so the death of the Waynes is going to go on and on and on.

Comments

[keeva]

This would be the source of a good facepalm icon.

[superfangirl1]

I agree and motto.

[nezchan]

A coward dies a thousand deaths...


...but he ain't got nuttin' on the Waynes!

[psychopathicus_rex]

Batman himself has never made Bruce HAPPY, per se, but there have been moments where he allows himself to feel a modicum of pride or satisfaction in the results of his actions. In one of the Loeb/Sale stories, Bruce seriously considers leaving his crimefighting career behind, at least for a little while, and going off on a trip with a woman who's captured his heart. It doesn't work out, naturally (turns out she's a black widow murderess who has already married and killed four rich men for their inheritances), but it does leave him with a fleeting moment of contentment at the path he has chosen:

"I thought that I didn't have a choice about being the Batman. That Gotham City chose me to protect her. That is wrong. Ever since the night my parents were taken from me, I made the choice. It means that some of my heart's desires may go unfulfilled... but many more are satisfied... It is a GOOD choice."

I know that it's debatable whether the Loeb/Sale stories are canon or not, but I always liked that moment. He's the Batman, by his own choice, and yes, that sometimes means his life sucks - but overall, he's glad that he is who is and does what he does. It's a nice balance, I think - his life is dark, but not completely, and he's content with what light there is.

[icon_uk]

I was NOT a fan of this story when it came out, the years have done nothing to make me warm to it any more.

Me neither..

[steverodgers5]

I hated it at the time, and to me at least it seemed to prove how lousy Sam Hamm was, especially at writing Batman.

Still think to this day that one of the main weaknesses of the 1989 Batman film is the script. And the fact that this guy hasn't seemed to write anything noteworthy since then seems to underline that his contribution to that film's success was neglible at best.

[jaybee3]

I agree. I hate the whole "Batman is ALL and Bruce died in that alley" stuff or the whole Bruce is psychologically screwed up as much as his rogues. Pretty much take on Batman from the 90s till the present Morrison/Dini era was like this. Even when writers like Rucka and Brubaker tried to take a step back from the whole "dark grim Batjerk and there is no real Bruce Wayne" meme (which is what the conclusion of the whole Murderer/Fugitive story was SUPPOSED to be about) the Bat-Editors went right back to it (and then blamed his paranoiac jack-ass-ness on a retconned mind wipe by his JLA "friends). Good riddance to this Batman/Bruce (though no doubt he'll be back when Morrison leaves).

[fifthie]

which is what the conclusion of the whole Murderer/Fugitive story was SUPPOSED to be about

Every single Batman story arc during this era was essentially about starting with grimdark asshole Batman, then bringing him out of it, then going right back to it again for little or no reason so they could do the whole thing over again.

[starwolf_oakley]

Bruce did act like a major league douche in the lead up to INFINITE CRISIS, but there was nothing about there not being a Bruce Wayne. And he was only a douche to other superheroes. Of course, Batman is always a douche to superheroes.

[icon_uk]

Only since Post-Crisis, Year One and the deliberate attempt to alienate him from the likes of Superman. Prior to that he was enough of a human being to NOT be a complete douichebag to other heroes, and would assume that they were worthy of respect, or at least professional courtesy.

[jlroberson]

Batman was actually a casualty of the Crisis--he didn't need alteration. Moench and Barr had him in a pretty good groove at the time that The Event threw off the rails. What Miller did was designed to pretty much fit what they already had because he was actually just filling in details, rather than completely rewriting history(much like Alan Moore, who with Swamp Thing merely changed the INTERPRETATION of the facts rather than the facts themselves). Even ARKHAM ASYLUM and GOTHIC would have fit the existing Batman framework.

The ones who really wrecked things were Max Collins and Jim Starlin, who gave us Constantly Raging Batman. And Thug Jason.

And if I were Batman at that time I'd have been pissed off too. "I was fucking ENJOYING myself in DETECTIVE. Motherfuckers..."

[icon_uk]

For the most part true, and I should have cited Jason Mk2 as a crux point, but even before then, "Man of Steel" and subsequent interactions showed Batman being more than usually smug and aloof with Superman.

[halloweenjack]

I rather liked this, myself. Ducard interested me more than just about any of Batman's other supporting cast at the time, the plot was intriguing, and that last page was just devastating. (It also introduced the interesting idea that Bruce only sleeps for an hour a day, due to advance mental disciplining, but that that means that he gets eight hours' worth of nightmares packed into one.)