I was, for some reason, reflecting on Batman yesterday, why he had become a jerk who trusted no one. He hadn't always been like this, what changed?
- Batman said he created his elimination strategies because of some "Agamemno(?)" situation, where the Leaguers bodies were stolen. He felt someone needed to be ready to stop the heroes if they went rogue.
- I assume the Brother Eye was an offshoot of that philosophy.
- It could be because he subconsciously remembered being mindwiped, and it twisted him against his friends.
But it seemed like the changed occurred sometime after Knightfall. Batman gave his mantle to Jean-Paul, and honestly, Jean wasn't quite ready for that. Or to put it another way, he wasn't ready to accept that title, and still play it the way Bruce had. Things didn't go well. Jean-Paul began to use tactics more suited for the Punisher, or at least Wolverine, which was a big no-no to Bruce Wayne.
So Bruce rushes himself back into the business, cutting himself off from his friends and partners to an extent in the process (I don't know that Nightwing or Robin knew Bruce went to Shiva for training). He tries to get Jean-Paul to stand down, but the future Azrael feels like he's better suited to protect Gotham, forcing Batman to square off with him.
Ultimately, Bruce Wayne regains the title of Batman, but I don't think he was ever really the same. He trusted Jean-Paul, when it may simply be that Jean-Paul needed more time to be ready. With more seasoning, he could have done things Bruce's way, but it was too soon. Robin wasn't able to keep Jean-Paul under control the way Batman asked, which wasn't really fair to ask of Tim either.
Still, you could argue that from Bruce's viewpoint, trusting people had turned out poorly for him. I just wonder if it had any effect on his gradually cutting himself off from others.
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5 comments:
I want to apologize for all the trouble I caused; it's true that I wasn't ready to be Batman. Not really my style of doing things anyway...
Azrael: It's OK. There's nothing in the rules that said Batman had to turn into a huge jerk just because things didn't go exactly like he planned.
He was pretty much a jerk, I think, since Jason Todd died. Though he steadily degenerated afterwards. But he had his moments of awfulness in JLI as well.
But he does seem to be getting better now. :-)
Batman is never going to be as shiny and happy as he was in the 60s or even 70s. But it went way too far way too long, to the point where a dedicated Bat-fan like myself dropped all his titles for several years.
Azrael didn't help matters, but I agree with Kalinara: it all started going downhill when Jason died.
Things do seem better now. I'd be happy to see a Batman similar to what has been seen in B:TAS and JLU. It looks like that's what DC has in mind.
For your edification, Agamemno was the villain behind The Silver Age, a fifth week event plotted by Mark Waid wherein the super-villains switched bodies with the heroes.
So you can see how it all sort of follows logically.
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