WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Batman, now in theaters.
From the trailers for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, it did seem like the film would focus heavily on Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne and Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle as the Dynamic Duo. There wasn’t any Robin involved, suggesting it’d go the route of The Long Halloween and modern team-up stories from the likes of Tom King where the Bat and Cat would work together, rather than antagonize each other, in their romantic crusade to save Gotham.
However, as The Batman played out and Paul Dano’s Riddler kept using sadistic mind games to leave the Dark Knight stumped, he relied more on Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). They eventually became partners, leading the charge against Riddler and other villains, but the sad thing is they were terrible at the job.
The Batman and Gordon Are Public Menaces
By The Batman‘s midpoint, Bruce realized Selina was too personally invested in the war because Carmine Falcone was her father. Her mom, Maria, died dancing in his club for his goons, and now, so did her friend, Annika. As such, Bruce deferred to Gordon for a sting operation, which made sense because Gordon backed him vehemently against cops who hated the idea of vigilantes. More so, Bruce trusted that Gordon wasn’t corrupt, unlike his peers.
It led to a chaotic scene at a warehouse where Catwoman crashed the party, stealing Falcone’s money and causing the thugs to fire on her and Bruce. Gordon shielded them with gunfire, which allowed the Bat to chase Penguin with his Bat-mobile. The problem is they caused a massive smash-up on the highway, with Bruce not even caring how fuel tankers were flipped, trucks turned over and innocent cars got damaged. He didn’t bat an eye at the explosion, obsessed with smashing into Penguin’s car. He eventually took Penguin hostage, allowing him and Gordon to play good cop, bad cop.
Sadly, none of them addressed the disaster, which felt fit for a Zack Snyder movie, forgetting that carelessness causes civilians to die. To make it worse, this reckless endangerment didn’t even make the news. Had Gordon at least told him to be more careful, it’d have shown they were trying to be better in terms of collateral damage. At least Selina lurked in the shadows with her thefts, not endangering the public, which made her seem like the more caring hero.
The Batman and Gordon Aren’t Great at Detective Work
On his own, the Bat was a pretty decent detective, which stemmed from him studying abroad for years. His knack for math and science helped him out when it came to solving Riddler’s ciphers, plus he had Alfred, who used his military background to help the Caped Crusader out in his second year of crimefighting. But when Bruce got together with Gordon, they seemed more tunnel-visioned and driven by emotion rather than logic.
It led to the aforementioned kidnapping of Penguin, who they thought was “El Rata Alada,” or the “rat with wings” that Riddler wanted to take out for stringing together Gotham’s corrupt network. They thought Penguin sold out the Maroni family for protection from the cops years ago, only to weasel his way into the Falcone empire to possibly launch a coup. But when he was tied up, Penguin mocked them for their bad Spanish and misunderstanding the riddle.
He even sarcastically called them the “World’s Greatest Detectives,” as he pointed out “rata” should be preceded by “la.” This gave Bruce insight to unlock a website, as Riddler’s clue was “URL” and not “You are el,” which led to the Bat discovering the target wasn’t Penguin. The winged rat was actually a winged falcon — Falcone, who struck a deal and used politicians and cops to run the city for two decades. It left Bruce and Gordon with egg on their faces. What also made them rookies was how they left Penguin at the site tied up, not even intimidating him or striking up a deal to remain silent. It meant he could have alerted Falcone to the duo hunting his gang down, which would have made The Batman‘s final act tougher when Selina, Bruce and Riddler went after the Italian mob boss to end Gotham’s corruption.
See how Bruce and Gordon botch the case in The Batman, now in theaters.
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