Bruce Wayne is literally the kind of .1%er that can only live in fiction: an actual good one, that uses his wealth ethically in all the ways no one with that degree of wealth would ever do in the real world.
Not unlike how Batman is the ideal fantasy vigilante taking the law into their own hands (i.e. uncorruptible, unbiased, and uncompromising in his ethics), Bruce Wayne is the ideal fantasy billionaire that isn’t a drain on humanity.
Neither are realistic, neither exist in real life, and that’s the whole damn point. It’s aspirational and escapist.
It’s the reason why Lex Luthor is a villain and Bruce Wayne isn’t.
People are exactly as intent on imagining Batman as a real world evil billionaire, as they are on imagining Elon Musk as a comic book superhero billionaire.
A lot of people consuming superhero media are kids who don’t know how the world works. They’re learning about the real world from paying attention to the mundane parts of comics and movies. I learned what an insurance agent is from watching The Incredibles. Most kids these days know what a Walkman is because of GOTG.
Kids know Batman isn’t real because they don’t see anyone talking about real batman in real life. But they hear grownups saying billionaires have their best interests at heart, so they don’t question Bruce Wayne.
If your argument is we can have any unreasonable myth we want in comics, why not have Aryan Man, the genetically perfect superhero created by white supremacist eugenics? Batman is a problematic myth on par with Aryan Man.
Why are people so intent on this meme?
Bruce Wayne is literally the kind of .1%er that can only live in fiction: an actual good one, that uses his wealth ethically in all the ways no one with that degree of wealth would ever do in the real world.
Not unlike how Batman is the ideal fantasy vigilante taking the law into their own hands (i.e. uncorruptible, unbiased, and uncompromising in his ethics), Bruce Wayne is the ideal fantasy billionaire that isn’t a drain on humanity.
Neither are realistic, neither exist in real life, and that’s the whole damn point. It’s aspirational and escapist.
It’s the reason why Lex Luthor is a villain and Bruce Wayne isn’t.
People are exactly as intent on imagining Batman as a real world evil billionaire, as they are on imagining Elon Musk as a comic book superhero billionaire.
A lot of people consuming superhero media are kids who don’t know how the world works. They’re learning about the real world from paying attention to the mundane parts of comics and movies. I learned what an insurance agent is from watching The Incredibles. Most kids these days know what a Walkman is because of GOTG.
Kids know Batman isn’t real because they don’t see anyone talking about real batman in real life. But they hear grownups saying billionaires have their best interests at heart, so they don’t question Bruce Wayne.
If your argument is we can have any unreasonable myth we want in comics, why not have Aryan Man, the genetically perfect superhero created by white supremacist eugenics? Batman is a problematic myth on par with Aryan Man.