WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Batman, now playing in theaters.
The Batman has hit theaters, and with the film comes another wave of viewers nitpicking the practicality of the Caped Crusader and his impact on the city of Gotham. One of the most popular nitpicks that always comes up is the fact that Bruce Wayne is a billionaire and therefore could be more effective in his crusade to save the city by spending his money on the city rather than on Bat tools and toys. However, this nitpick has been addressed not only in The Batman but most effectively more than 15 years ago in Batman Begins.
The essence of the nitpick is that the Batman persona is a waste of money, and Bruce Wayne’s money, time and effort would be better spent being put directly into the community. However, that’s just not how Gotham City works, and there is a reason that Bruce resorts to the Batman mission. In The Batman Thomas Wayne created a fund to directly help the city. He donated a billion dollars to create the Renewal Fund, and it had essentially no positive impact on the city. Instead, it became a hub of corruption and allowed crime lords to take over the city.
Batman Begins goes even further to explicitly explain why throwing money into Gotham won’t create the same change that Bruce Wayne could create as Batman. When Bruce returns from Princeton for Joe Chill’s parole hearing, Rachel drives him to the Narrows and expands his understanding about the true fundamental, foundational problems of Gotham. She walks him through how the system of justice is broken in the city. The city’s problems are systemic, not financial.
This point is even further explored when it’s revealed that Thomas Wayne nearly bankrupted the family and the company by doing what people say Bruce should do. He poured money into the city via donations and public works programs like the rail system, and yet the city continued to decay. It also ignores the continued charity that the Wayne Foundation provides for the city even after Thomas and Martha’s death. While the details aren’t deeply explored, there are multiple indications of the Wayne Foundation’s reputation for public outreach and support. The action people joke about was proven to be a failure and not a solution in Gotham.
Additionally, Batman Begins takes the time to distinguish between people who break the law because they are starving and have no other options, and those who take advantage of the system and are the real root of the crime problem in the city. Then after making that distinction, Bruce clearly targets the later category and doesn’t spend his time beating up petty criminals for kicks. He’s targeting the people who make blanket donations an impossible solution. It’s exactly why he thinks the arrival of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight is a sign that his Batman project may be able to come to an end. The point of the Batman project is to fix the systemic issues that blank checks are unable to fight.
The Wayne Family donating money to a corrupt system does nothing to help the ordinary people of Gotham if those institutions, which dictate how the money is spent, remain untouchably corrupt. It’s fine to joke about the extreme nature of Bruce Wayne’s Batman project, but it’s also worth noting that these nitpicks have already been well addressed, not only in the most recent live-action adaptation The Batman, but also way back in 2005 in Batman Begins. Bruce Wayne’s Batman persona may seem like a wild solution, but it’s the only one that will work in Gotham City.
For the latest take on the Caped Crusader, watch The Batman, now in theaters.
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