this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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^ Specific question. Guess they also asked if they would like Bruce Wayne.

I fundementally have NO idea what the answer here is lmao.

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[–] itappearsthat@hexbear.net 51 points 7 months ago (1 children)

they would hate bruce wayne as like a soros-type figure and love batman as a good honest citizen who beats the shit out of (SLUR REMOVED)

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 48 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Yes. Meanwhile libs would love Wayne as a good woke billionaire and publicly handwring about Batman's breaches of civility while quietly enjoying the way he Cleans Up The City. r/gotham would be full of phone vids of him "nonlethally" pulverizing guys' spines while all the comments cheer.

Communists would hate both (the correct position)

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 29 points 7 months ago (2 children)

there was that one time though, when he did a real cool thing. too bad this isn't what he does 99% of the time

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Mans literally walking into a mine with an actual top hat and cane, doing some casual sexual harassment as one does. Supes not having any of it apparently porky-scared

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Supes orchestrated the whole situation specifically to teach the mine owner a lesson after rescuing miners from a cave in. You can read it

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

kitty-cri-screm nooooo supes just leave their ass down there

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Congratulations on your new policy. May it be a permanent one! (If it isn't you can expect another visit from Superman!)"

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 9 points 7 months ago

I respect the intervention on behalf of the miners superman rat-salute-2 but you're too kind sometimes

[–] itappearsthat@hexbear.net 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

does he have a mustache here or is that just shadows lmao

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 12 points 7 months ago

Definitely the shadows but I fw Batman w/ a Stalin stache givin rich fucks the gulag

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Communists would hate both (the correct position)

I dont think communists hating both would be the correct position inherently actually. Maybe Bruce, depending on portrayal. But Bruce in some portrayals does WAY more like actually good things with his money than any real world billionaire has ever done. So I think some nuance needs to be applied there.

Much, much more nuance needs to be applied to Batman though. And I'm exhausted of the surface level understandings of the character many leftists apply here. I'm not going to write it all again, but I talk about some of the things that are inarguably good things that Batman does in this post, in addition to the Court of Owls situatation Smeagol pointed out. . Its also worth noting that there is a huge variety of portrayal to Batman and some Batman portrayals are borderline fascist, while others do more to alleviate the aspects leftists dont like.

[–] Smeagolicious@hexbear.net 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's really a shame that so many portrayals of Batman seem to really really love the Dark Knight Returns, which is absolutely fascist. I actually quite like a lot of Batman stories, but I do wish the writers would just stay the fuck away from any Frank Miller influence. Honestly never trust a Miller/ar who makes comics

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 8 points 7 months ago

Yeah the influence of Dark Knight Returns on Batman stories really sucks.

[–] Montagge@lemmy.zip 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They would love him. A billionaire instead of using his money to end poverty spends it on devices to beat the shit out of poor people.

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Keep in mind that if he were real they would not know that Bruce and Bats are the same person. So they wouldnt know he's a billionaire.

Also keep in mind that depending on the version/portrayal, Bruce Wayne does a fair amount of anti-poverty stuff in Gotham. But "Would they like Bruce Wayne" is a side question here.

Also keep in mind, that the best way to answer this question is to assume all of Gotham comes with him, otherwise its a completly different question for two reasons

  1. Theres no supervillians irl
  2. Real world police departments would not be cooperative with him like Jim Gordon is.

So to have a Batman that is fundementally the same as the comics, we have have most of the rest of Gotham so those two things are the same.

This means that he's not just beating up poor people. He's fighting mass murderous supervillians. He's breaking up organized crime. He's exposing police corruption (he does this last thing a lot lol). And most of the poor people he "beats up" are like, muggers who are victimizing other poor people. He also does dumb shit like stop bank robberies, but lets keep the full scope in mind here. Hell if we bring the entire DCU with him, then he's also a member of the Justice League and regularly saving the world from destruction lol.

I largely agree, I think, that real world Republicans would like real world Batman, but I want to make sure you understand all the nuance of the question and arent opperating on a surface level understanding of the character and his world.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Bruce Wayne does a fair amount of anti-poverty stuff in Gotham

A lot of billionaires do the same (obviously for tax benefits), in fact libs/conservatives use this as an example of the system "working" to show how under gommulism the same wouldn't happen.

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Like I said to bucky above.

He does it in a way that no real world billionaire has ever done or will ever do.

Bruce Wayne is not like any real world billionaire, especially in recent comics portrayals. He simply cant be analyzed the same way.

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm really not sure I understand how it's any different? Doesn't he just pour more money and a little more effort into it? The effects are the same.

[–] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago

blushing-engels just saying we like this rich dude

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There is no amount of charity or anti-poverty stuff that can make up for being a billionaire.

If we bring the whole Gotham, we bring Poison Ivy, the real hero of the setting who Batman opposes.

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 10 points 7 months ago

There is no amount of charity or anti-poverty stuff that can make up for being a billionaire.

He does it in a way that no real world billionaire has ever done or will ever do. Its not reasonable to hold real world standards because he doesnt do milquetoast philinathropy lol. Its a completly different thing that you cant analyze the way you do real world billionaires.

If we bring the whole Gotham, we bring Poison Ivy, the real hero of the setting who Batman opposes.

Poison Ivy is a fairly minor villain, who noteably is actually not purely a hero because she's done some pretty awful things. I know good leftists who actually hate Ivy, I forget the full reasoning but I read a good essay on it once. Again, you're subtracting nuance to a fictional character so you can do the surface level buzzword takes every leftist does lol.

In modern portrayals Ivy is an anti-hero usually, and Batman hasnt fought against her in like over a decade.

[–] SovietyWoomy@hexbear.net 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They would love him at first, but turn on him the second he beats up an entrepreneur like Penguin.

[–] BurgerPunk@hexbear.net 18 points 7 months ago

Batman went woke smh

[–] Rx_Hawk@hexbear.net 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don’t think Batman kills enough poor people for the modern right to like him

[–] BurgerPunk@hexbear.net 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Right wing would love Batman. He's a fascist vigilante. They love every fascist vigilante - Rittenhouse, thst dude that choked the homeless guy on the subway, that guy that shot those kids on the subway in the 80's. Thay love them.

The left would hate both

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I feel like they would also love batman from a "law and order" angle. He cleans up the streets, and beats up the low-level-drug-dealers while the CRT-trained cuck woke cops just sit there!

[–] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 7 points 7 months ago

Of course, Des, isn't that Batman's main purpose? I guess, besides that, he just keeps on putting on kid's gloves, when it comes to the main supervillains, by placing them into unsecure asylums... it's like that old poem, yk...

The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from off the goose.

kirby-jammin

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

He's a fascist vigilante.

THis depends heavily on adaption/portrayal and is a very surface level understanding of what Batman is that is unfortunately very common in leftist circles.

(Im actually beginning to regret asking this question here because I forgot how annoying leftists are about Batman lol).

[–] BurgerPunk@hexbear.net 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Sorry. I was never really a Batman fan. Except for the Animated Series and Batman Beyond - those were both rad as hell.

I don't know a lot about different takes on the character and I'm sure there's good ones and certianly non-fash ones in the fiction. And its cool to enjoy fiction and comics and games for itself. But thinking about it outside of fiction, its hard to imagine one man going costumed vigilante in real life not being fascist though - which is a big part of what Watchmen is about.

Sorry to join in on the annoying leftist dogpile lol - its not really an original take on my part now that i think about it

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I get it when it comes to addressing the question of how it would work irl. But like I said elsewhere, the question of "how would the real world react to Batman" has to be taken from the pov of a Batman who is similar in the majority of ways to the ficitonal one, which means bringing over most of the characters that influence him as well. Which kind of fundementally changes the question. A real world Batman wouldn't have much legitimate good to do lol. Most crime he could fight would not be something that he ought to fight. So unless he went against police derpartments (which to be fair, batman has done in fiction), there wouldnt be much space for a "Good Batman".

But bring over Gotham as a whole and everything important about it? there's a lot more nuance there.

and its fine lol. I really should have expected it when I made this thread.

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 4 points 7 months ago

But bring over Gotham as a whole and everything important about it? there's a lot more nuance there.

If the supervillians are real as well, most likely there's going to be a supervillian that Republicans really love (I guess the Penguin?). Their opinion on Batman would hover around being neutral, perhaps slightly in favor until Batman beats the shit out of their favorite supervillian. After that, they'll accuse Batman of having "gone woke" and turn on him.

[–] Vncredleader@hexbear.net 2 points 7 months ago

The whole question is kinda moot for the reason Chris Sims pointed out years ago; Batman doesn't exist in our world, he exists in one in which Gotham city is constantly threatened by goofy gimmicks and supernatural threats. The logic of the universe is such that a guy in a Bat costume is necessary to stop the Joker etc

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 10 points 7 months ago

Would Batman appear on Joe Rogan's podcast or have his own also what brain pills would he sell

[–] UltraGreen@hexbear.net 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I have this long running joke with my gf that's kinda related. We joke about an American right wing Batman called "The White Knight". And he specifically targets those the right wing targets. He's always watching above when pride parades pass through the streets. He only looks for criminal undergrounds at gay bars. Instead of consulting Oracle for info, he consults "Q". Gordon is instead a police union boss, and the "corruption" they fight together is the state government investigating police brutality. He listens to AM radio and believes "caravans" of migrants are making their way all to way to Gotham. The Joker is just anyone with dyed hair and makeup (me). It goes on and on.

But to really answer, I think it's nuanced. It really depends on who the villains are. In Batman, the villains are not realistic. They are campy, ludicrous. But if Batman was real, and the world is the same as it was today, who would Batman go after? The closest thing we have to comic book villains are Wall Street fucks, venture capitalists, landlords. If he targeted those people, he might be cheered on by the left, and derided by the right.

Of course, he could use his Billions of dollars to help better than Batman ever could. But maybe Bruce Wayne being a rich douchebag is how he keeps his identity secret, "no way that guy could be Batman"

But if there is no Bruce, and there is just a masked figure who never reveals his identity, targets those real life villains that I mentioned above; I think he might see some support on the left.

[–] Chapo_is_Red@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago

The "White Knight" sounds a little like Rorschach

[–] RION@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Hot take: as someone who has read a lot of batman and batman-adjacent comics within the past couple months, the "batman is a fascist who beats up poor people" line is just flat out wrong unless your sole experience with the character is The Dark Knight Returns, Batman vs Superman, or heaven forbid All-Star Batman and Robin

Pretty much all the significant Batman runs of the past 25 years like Morrison's and Snyder's have been supervillain focused. Even the more ground-level runs like Dini's deal with serial killers and plain 'ol villains, not random robbers.

There are larger issues with how police and crime are addressed in the comics, but this one just isn't it

[–] autismdragon@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago

Yeah been trying to say this lol.

[–] Vncredleader@hexbear.net 2 points 7 months ago
[–] Emperor 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

On one hand it seems like Effective Altruism on steroids - by day he runs a ruthless corporation so he can buy expensive toys to help with fight crime.

On the other hand, an awful lot of his rogues gallery end up in Arkham Asylum, so he is often fighting the mentally ill and a small percentage of his gadget budget invested in treatment might nip a lot of these issues in the bud.

[–] Vncredleader@hexbear.net 2 points 7 months ago

He put most of it into funding Arkham, which is a problem only really Telltale Batman and arguably Arkham Manor realized. in Telltale Bruce is trying to shut down Arkham Asylum, viewing it as barbaric and inhumane. I won't spoil it but there is a lot of depth to that element in those games

[–] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago

idk, is batman just nerdier version of the punisher? like, thats what dorks like

[–] DyingOfDeBordom@hexbear.net 4 points 7 months ago

They would like batman but hate Bruce Wayne

[–] Hestia@hexbear.net 3 points 7 months ago

They'd call batman a lib and say he should be more like the punisher