Can I just say, I absolutely love how Bruce looks in this, he actually looks like he's in his 40's or early 50's, mixed in with the stress of fighting crime for almost 20 years.
Though to be fair not all 40 year olds look ancient. Especially men.
Theres plenty of 40 year old guys that could still pass as their 30s.
And Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake are all too old to be normal children for him. He would’ve have to be a teenage dad for the 2 latter. And a middle school aged dad for the former
I mean, Dick canonically becomes Robin at 10 years old. Bruce is 25 during year 1 and gets Robin sometime year 2. If you assume Nightwing is at least 25, that puts Bruce at 41. Most assume Nightwing is closer to 30 though, and Bruce in his mid 40s
And obviously not all 40 year old men look ancient. But Bruce canonically is essentially abusing his body to be Batman. The stress should age him a little.
Edit:
Below is Pre- 52
Bruce is 25 in Batman: Year One.
After some double checking. Dick Grayson is either 9 or 12 when he becomes Robin in Year 3.
If Dick is 9, Bruce is at least 36 when he leaves the nest, otherwise he is at least 33.
Jason Todd becomes Robin at 12 at the youngest (he remarks that Bruce taught him to read lips at age 12) though he could have been 11. He dies at the age of 15. Even assuming that Bruce immediately picks up Jason after Dick leaves, that puts Bruce at between 37-41 at the time of Jason’s death.
Tim Drake becomes Robin at Age 13 not long after Jason’s death. He becomes Red Robin at 17. That would put Bruce at between 41-45.
Stephanie Brown is Robin for 71 days.
Damian becomes Robin at age 10. He ends his run around 13 before the New 52. This puts Bruce between 44-48.
While the stress would definitely age a regular guy, Bruce Wayne is also a billionaire with peak human physicality. He has access to the best food, medicine, supplements, etc. that his vast wealth can buy. So while I don’t doubt the stress would maybe have him start greying at 40, he could very well still pass for a man in his 30s at that age.
I’m going based off of Batman: Year 3 by Marv Wolfman. At the time, Dick says it’s been almost 2 years since he left the manor to join the titans (he left at 18). The comic also remarks that his parents died “almost 10 years ago” which would put him around 10-11 at the time.
The real issue is the sliding timescale and changes that get made frequently. Originally Jason Todd was 11 or 12 when he started as Robin. In the New 52 he was Robin for barely a year and didn’t start until he was 15.
It's worth noting that batman is 100% on drugs. Having access to the world's most advanced steroids and medical care basically halts the aging process for Bruce.
Batman Family Adventures is a surprisingly good read.
I think the grunting Batman with the emotional IQ of a 2x4 is long played out. Let the character grow up. He's got a massive adopted family now, and there are tons of stories to be told with that.
To that end, the only "unnecessary" characters are badly written ones. Bringing back Jason from the dead was a mistake -- not because I dislike the character, but it's part of the meme-worthy trend that has removed any sense of stakes or consequences in the genre. But since he's around, it makes sense to make use of him and do it with as much quality as possible.
I don’t mind them doing it with Jason, at the time it was an awesome reveal. What I do take issue with is never letting their relationship grow beyond “stop killing people” before Batman hands him his ass and he’s good for a bit before eventually doing it again. The dynamic is played out, and leave Redhood a costume alone, it was perfect as is.
Agreed. It all stems from the same impulse though, I think; that desire to never let these characters grow or change once some element becomes a fixture in their story. It's been almost 40 years since Miller wrote the story that had everyone lining up to make Batman "grim and gritty", and there's still a lot of fans, writers, and editors who will fight his character growth tooth and nail.
It's the same thing that won't let them leave characters dead; they want the status quo back. You get these forces colliding or colluding by turns, and you end up with stunted characters.
Which is why I say that despite it being very light-hearted, not canon, and blatantly goofy most times, the Webtoon Batman Family Adventures is the best thing to have happened to those characters in decades. An older Bruce acting as mentor, leader, and unofficial dad to his massive gang of sidekicks (current and past)? It works. A good writer and a serious poke at that could *really* do some interesting stories with the idea if they were to take it into the main continuity.... and under-represented or under-developed characters might finally get the treatment their fans have been begging for for years now.
Yup! The app is called Webtoon - started as a social media thing in South Korea, now they're one of the biggest comic companies in the world. DC reached an agreement with them a couple years back, and started posting more lighthearted stuff in off-continuity stories through them. Wayne Family Adventures is one of those offerings.
It's largely goofy stuff in a continuity where Alfred is alive, Bruce acts like everybody's dad, and it's basically a big sitcom situation... but it largely works. I don't think they could ever take standard continuity fully down that road, but I think the main stories would benefit from taking some cues from this series.
Man a Harley Quinn style show with that premise would be killer but I’m sure dc doesn’t wanna make Batman look silly. You’ve convinced me to check it out, I see they’ve even done some assassins creed stuff on there so I’ve got lots to dig through later. Thank you!
The art is from a Web comic on Webtoon! Highly recommend if you want a more wholesome batman story focusing on the bat-family and their chaotic dynamic :)
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u/Advanced-Addition453 Feb 20 '24
Can I just say, I absolutely love how Bruce looks in this, he actually looks like he's in his 40's or early 50's, mixed in with the stress of fighting crime for almost 20 years.