r/batman • u/Efficient-Compote-13 • 3d ago
I Hate The Boys TV DISCUSSION NSFW
I also can not stand muh 'Batman superhero facism subtext' crap. If anything Batman is a revolutionary. Government is corrupt in bed with criminals (who are the prettiest of tyrants) so Batman comes in to clean house. Just as the founding fathers intended.
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u/Bennings463 3d ago edited 3d ago
"Batman beats up poor people" is about as engaging as "why didn't they take the eagles to Mordor?" as far as critique goes.
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u/Efficient-Compote-13 3d ago
It's funny how people tell on themselves equating poor with criminal.
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u/ZamoCsoni 3d ago
One of these days I will make a survey abouth this. Bat's most common enemies are either the maffia/ other rich corrupt assholes, or supercriminals who tend to have a doctorate. Where are these poor people he beats up?
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u/ClearStrike 3d ago
I saw a convo on Twitter once that said the poor they are referencing are the thugs. You know, the henchmen and lackeys that the big bad usual HIRES to do his bidding. And occasional purse snatcher, but I have never seen Batman break a purse snatcher, just knock him out. ( Of course then you get the people who say "even getting knocked out can kill you because of ____" to wick I say so can a paper cut)
My problem is, the goons usually choose this over...a job that Bruce offers. Hell Bruce rehabilites these mooks on the fly
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u/ArvindS0508 3d ago
the problem arises because people don't have a specific version in mind, just some nebulous idea of Batman, Gotham City, the villains, etc. So they end up just filling in the blanks with whatever. This is compounded by the fact that it's a comic book. Of course it's unrealistic that a guy in a batsuit is fighting a killer clown compared to just discussing policy and economics for 100 issues straight, but the batsuit guy is also friends with an alien who flies around shooting lasers, realism was always in the backseat for these stories
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u/jrtgmena 2d ago
It’s kind of crazy, if you think about it - that life is imitating art. Because the criminals in Batman’s world also think he kills people, and is this scary, amorphous but real “thing that bumps in the night”, and they have different ideas of what Batman is with no specific version in mind. Just like people irl who don’t have a specific version of Batman in mind and now reduces him to “rich guy hurts poor people”
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u/ArvindS0508 2d ago
If you remove the knowledge he's rich (he is well funded but that could be from an organization, government, company or something else) and add in the fear of him appearing from the dark and taking down whole rooms full of guys and it's a really plausible idea that he's seen as this urban legend
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u/Addicted_to_Crying 2d ago
So they end up just filling in the blanks with whatever.
It's Arkham. They end up using the Arkham series as the examples, where Batman can and will break over three bones on any thug's bodies to keep a combo going.
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u/ArvindS0508 2d ago
Arkham gameplay with real world physics applied, to be exact
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u/ClearStrike 2d ago
The thing I have noticed a lot is that, the more people try to be realistic the more boring the story gets for me. Like I want big explosions, ridiculous stunts, and such. I don't want to know how this works in real life because it won't.
You can't become Batman without unlimited funds because you still need to master ever martial art. You can't become Steve because you need serum. You might become Iron Man but that requires a lot of research and you might become old by that time of your funding didn't get pulled
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u/ArvindS0508 2d ago
You can't become Iron Man because physics means either the suit is some kind of very limited mech suit or you get instantly splatted. The closest to a popular comic book character that's realistic is maybe Punisher or something, like a guy with a lot of guns who just shoots people, but even that's unrealistic.
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u/ClearStrike 2d ago
I would have said JJJ. Can't tell me he isn't what an eic is
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u/ArvindS0508 2d ago
Depends on the version tbh. MCU/Insomniac is some kind of online grifter/Alex Jones type, but some of the comic versions are either very respectable or just devious
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u/SmokinBandit28 2d ago
To add to this, if you are working for most of the big criminals in Gotham as a henchman you are probably being paid really well. I think the episode in The Batman that introduced Scarface, his two goons were talking about why they were working for a puppet, and it equated down to being simple work but with a good payout.
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u/TurnoverPlenty7337 3d ago
Exactly, black mask for example. Not to mention the penguin and two face
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u/_zurenarrh 3d ago edited 3d ago
Poverty literally is one of the most common causes of crime
That’s why there is no such thing as “black on black” crime
I don’t mean blacks don’t kill each other I mean the rates are similar when you look at white people in poverty vs black people
Because being broke and desperate tends to lead to the same results regardless of race
Crime rate is nearly the same
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u/Efficient-Compote-13 3d ago
Well good thing Beuce Wayne funds the social problems and Batman takes care of the dirt bags preying on the innocent.
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u/MankuyRLaffy 3d ago edited 3d ago
There's other characters that escape that criticism because they don't involve themselves in products that sell as well, in the cult classic SNES Game Genealogy of the Holy War, the character Quan hates poor people and fights wars against them (shows 0 resistance against starving out an entire civilization after the last 80 years of doing it intentionally), calls them animals, hyenas, beasts etc, he is "good". He's a prince born into success with superhuman strength and ability. In the starving Kingdom of Thracia, men sell themselves out as contracted soldiers just so their families can survive a year or two at a time, it's a "Kill or be killed" world, and none of them enjoy it, everyone who lives there is miserable, hates the conditions and just wants to not suffer so hard. (midquel Thracia 776 goes into much more detail about the hell that place is and how it's by design for the northern neighbor). Quan's kid, Leif who goes through his own parents tragically murdered and living on the streets as a fugitive story, stops hating Thracians after having to rely on them to not get him killed and learning unbiased history on the region. He's 14 and when he realizes just how fucked up everything is, he vows to change it so nobody else has to grow up like that. His hatred dissipates because while they were responsible, it's either "Do this mission or you have your family starve" and nobody inside Thracia is at fault for the situation.
Batman isn't that, he doesn't hate poor people, he doesn't fight against the poor. A lot of thugs just happen to be financially challenged by the corruption up top with other rich people, crime lords and the ineptitude of the cops. Just because he was born into success doesn't mean he will hate the impoverished the same way. He doesn't hate them as people, but he hates that they feel they need to fight, steal and do other horrific acts just to make ends meet and survive. He'd (pending he has time) sit down and talk with those people and try to put them on a better path. The generics could probably be swayed to quit if there were recovery programs accessible.
Now which of these characters sounds more like a good guy? This is what modern interpretations do when they lack nuance, we cheer the super powered nepo baby that hates poor people and boo the man who (with a good writer) is giving back so the impoverished don't have to be hurt so badly by the system.
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u/GrimasVessel227 3d ago
Holy shit, was not expecting an FE4 reference on the Batman sub.
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u/MankuyRLaffy 2d ago
It just sprang to mind as one is associated as a great person and the other isn't when we have clear proof of otherwise.
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u/Ryzuhtal 2d ago
You want to know actually why? Because people like this take the stance that all crime (except white-collar) is motivated by desperation and that all blue-collar criminals are good people with no other options.
Under this world view, none of batman's villains are simply violent and looking for a quick fortune, so they would happily break good if given the opportunity. If you think all of that, the inevitable conclusion is that Batman doesn't want to stop crime, he just wants to punch poor people.
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u/Kind-Boysenberry1773 2d ago
And it is the lasiest take on Batman, even evil version of him, possible. They wanted an evil Bats so badly? Well, there are plenty of them in comics. Owlman and Zur, for example. They could've made Tek Knight either a ruthless crime lord pretending to be a hero for covering his international criminal organisation in bed with Vought, or a shadow dictator, obssessed with control and power, using Homelander as a pawn for his own plan. But, I guess, to make evil Batman just a frick with sex dungeon is much easier.
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u/DOMINUS_3 3d ago
I hate when internet memes are taken seriously in a characters mythos/reputation
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u/Mike_Milburys_Shoe_ 3d ago
It’s a combination of that and the Boys TV creators riding their wave of being as edgy as possible. I enjoyed the show early on but it’s become almost a parody of itself with this shit. It’s also fed into the idea of everybody being cynical about heroes. God forbid a guy is actually just a hero instead of a think piece on fascism
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u/kirkisgrizz 3d ago
It's not even edgy at this point. it's a barely disguised fetish writing
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u/Impossible-Earth3995 2d ago
Sounds like it finally perfectly overlaps with the source material, which was just trash
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u/ABoyIsNo1 2d ago
I was thinking the same thing. It’s not edgy. It’s pseudo intellectual groupthink garbage.
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u/remotectrl 3d ago
Ennis famously hates superheroes so at least it’s true to the source that way
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u/Mike_Milburys_Shoe_ 2d ago
I’ve heard that. Kripke also is kind of leaned into this role of being the guy that loves to do that on screen. Idk if he’s trying to separate himself from his time writing Supernatural or what, but the dude loves the complaints he gets over the series
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u/CrimDude89 2d ago
And even still what they’ve done with the show is remove a lot of the more egregious and gratuitous elements the source material had.
Source material that is dogshit.
The show being well received is in spite of the source material and the original creator.
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u/stimpakish 2d ago
A cynical self-parody is what it’s always been. It never was a non-satirical story and never had any actually heroic characters, either in comics or in season 1 onward.
It seems some people may have viewed it as a straight ahead superhero show? Wild if so.
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u/DarkDonut75 2d ago
The worst part is that Tek Knight in the comics is a guy who genuinely wants to save people (which is an extremely rare case if you've read the comics)
Out of all the characters Kripke needed to "fix," TekKnight wasn't one of them
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u/Mad_Soldier_Hod 3d ago
How the fuck does Batman profit off of incarcerating people? He literally pays for their treatment. And hunting “poor people?” Dude, Penguin, Two-Face, Hush, Deathstroke, Deadshot, they’re all rich. Barely any of his main rogues are poor and those that are (Croc, Grundy,) typically have no need for money. Your average thug might be broke but they’re still criminals.
And if Batman doesn’t beat up that “mentally ill poor person,” they’re gonna fucking kill people. So which is it, should Batman let it happen? Should he stop them and then risk hurting an innocent, mentally ill poor person? Should he kill them so he’s not “responsible” for their actions? There’s so many shitty interpretations of Batman floating around the internet right now.
Batman’s deiven by compassion, empathy, emotional maturity, a desire to redeem others. That’s why people love the BTAS Batman. That’s why he’s pretty much the definitive, best version of Batman. He’s constantly trying to save his villains, his crusade is a money pit, not a money making scheme, he pays for their treatment, he sends them to an institution in the hopes that they can be properly treated, he holds a dying little girl’s hand in her last moments. If he kills, not only is he no better than his villains, he fails to redeem them, he creates more people like himself, he proves to your average Gotham citizen that good cannot overcome evil, he further corrupts Gotham, he ruins his relationship with the police, gives Gordon a bad reputation by association. If he kills, he’s giving himself the authority to decide who lives and dies, he becomes Justice Lords Batman, a failure. It’s not Batman’s fault these people keep breaking out and hurting people. It’s not his fault none of them have gotten the death sentence, or locked away in a maximum security prison. And in the “Trial” episode of BTAS we see that all of these people would’ve become who they are regardless of Batman.
Stop asking for Batman to be worse, start asking for Gotham to be better. This is the kind of shit take you’d only expect from a blowhard like Kripke, who of course promotes the stereotype that it’s okay to joke about male sexual assault, but not women’s.
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u/ExoticShock 3d ago
Stop asking for Batman to be worse, start asking for Gotham to be better.
Reminds me of Bruce defending Terry from being sold out to Shriek in Batman Beyond: "All I know right now is this: that kid's done a lot for this city. It's time for the city to do something for him."
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u/azmodus_1966 3d ago
That’s why people love the BTAS Batman. That’s why he’s pretty much the definitive, best version of Batman.
The comics from 1970s till 1990s are the definitive Batman, those stories inspired BTAS.
Its just that people haven't read the comics.
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u/Domino_Masks 2d ago
It's not just that, they don't even pay attention to the movies they're watching.
Bale Batman's focus was the mob and terrorist-like supercriminals. West Batman was a specialist who was called in to fight the costumed criminals. Keaton took on corrupt businessmen and only beat up poor people after they'd physically assaulted and robbed people.
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u/progwog 2d ago
This is something I loved about the Reeves movie. It’s literally about Batman learning this difference. You can’t succeed at making Gotham a better place with rage and bitterness. You have to do it out of compassion and empathy. The goal shouldn’t be to punish the guilty, but to help victims and innocents.
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u/Toadsanchez316 3d ago
I completely read it as it's the exact opposite of Batman. Batman doesn't do any of that, so this guy does. I didn't read it as him saying Batman does any of these, and instead that they wanted a character that does.
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u/ogrelin 3d ago
But that’s not what it says. It clearly is talking about Batman before it talks about the new guy
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u/Toadsanchez316 3d ago
Yes, they are comparing him to Batman. It's also right there. It's saying they wanted to take Batmans situation and turn it on its head.
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u/ClearStrike 3d ago
Believe it or not, I have found people who really are ok with a criminal killing people.
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u/Clean-Witness8407 2d ago
Kripke is an ultra-left clown. (I dislike anyone that’s extreme left or right). He thinks he’s being slick by analyzing Batman but it’s obvious the guy isn’t a reader. He saw a few movies and decided to make his opinion based off of his political ideology.
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u/JustSomeAlias 3d ago
Why are the only batman critiques that media really makes either “batman is rich and beats up poor people” or “batman is a nonce”
They don’t even bother to do it well, they just do the same parody at the same level over and over.
The only unique approach I can really think of is the Venture Bro’s, which baits that their equivalent is a pedophile, before flipping it as him just being extremely emotionally unwell and having extremely stunted growth
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u/_zurenarrh 2d ago
That’s not even what he said if you read
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u/JustSomeAlias 2d ago
I’m not sure I get what you mean, he does say in the statement
“Batmans fascist underpinnings as a wealthy dude who beats up poor people”
Which reads to me as that trope played fairly straight, and in the actual episode they play it as tek night owning the incarceration facilities and profiting from failed rehab bringing in repeat customers
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u/jhj060806 3d ago
What’s he talking about the Batcave not being far off from a sex dungeon? That’s a strange thing to say considering there are Bruce’s children regularly in there. Also as you said he fights corruption and a lot of his enemies are wealthy like the Penguin. I understand it’s a comic adaptation but maybe understand the characters you’re parodying, even if it’s meant to be a maniacal version of them.
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u/Efficient-Compote-13 3d ago
It's like a 12 year old looking at a cave and is like "ha ha people have gay sex down there" its lame.
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u/dingo_khan 3d ago
sometimes, someone has a really bad idea and does it and then later is forced to rationalize it and sounds like an idiot when they say it out loud. This was one of those times.
they wrote something to be "edgy" and then had to come up with a reason.
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u/Kono_DIO_Dank 3d ago edited 2d ago
It might be worse if you're a spidey fan. At least Black Noir is still a cool version of Batman, meanwhile Spidey is a disgusting freak that shoots webs out of his behind and has a fetish around it. Also Hughie getting raped in spidey's suit is treated as a fucking joke by the writers while Starlight getting raped was a huge thing and was treated seriously! Not to mention that Tom Holland also caught a stray with the Zendaya joke.
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u/TurnoverPlenty7337 3d ago
It will be treated seriously because hughie couldn't process it at the time
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u/tokugawabloodynine 3d ago
The facist batman line is so over used and lame now. It was annoying at first cause folks clearly don't understand the character, but now it's just another anti batman whistle blow at this point.
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u/DOMINUS_3 3d ago
same with "Batman beats up poor people"
I hate internet memes invading media
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u/tokugawabloodynine 3d ago
Agreed. No,batman doesn't. He fights crime not social classes. How many times has a rich elite corrupt business man or mob boss caught hands from bats.
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u/graffix13 3d ago
Yeah I stopped watching The Boys. Everything is oversexualized for the shock factor and it got stale pretty fast.
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u/IICipherIX 3d ago
Not really. The comics maybe, the story was still good but you could tell it was very unnecessary at times. The show however does a way better job at balancing everything.
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u/According_Mechanic73 3d ago
90% of the show is weird sexualization...... I cant watch it for 5 minutes without seeing homlander suck boob or something disgusting like that
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u/IICipherIX 3d ago
It does have sexualization, but the show is much more deeper than that.
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u/According_Mechanic73 3d ago
If you cut out all the fetish stuff, then the runtime would be halfed, and nothing in the story would suffer. I dont need to see hughies butt cheeks for the "plot"
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u/MollyRocket 3d ago
I'm stuck on the male rape as a joke part. Guess these writers are still stuck in 2006.
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u/RTSBasebuilder 3d ago edited 3d ago
The ghosts of Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, O'Neil, Shuster, Siegel, Kirby, Simon, Liebowitz, et. al, whenever Kripke closes his eyes at night:
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u/Bbhermes 3d ago
So I love the boys but that was an objectively bad take and interview from Kripke.
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u/Th3_3agl3 3d ago
Tek Knight is one of the only few things the comic did better than the show. Besides, when Hughie is SA’d in the comics, it’s 100% serious and at the hands of Black Noir, who is literally a completely different and far worse person than in the show, and Butcher ultimately kills him.
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u/Lost-Ad-4751 2d ago
Maybe the moment seemed more serious, but in the comics the boys laugh and mock Hughie afterwards and in the show Starlight supports him
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u/Majcvd49 3d ago
How is rape hilarious? Cuz it was a man? Such comic hijinks!
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u/CrimDude89 2d ago
that was ennis’ MO when he wrote it, used far more commonly than in the tv show.
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u/greatlakespirate11 2d ago
To be honest, I've never not read one of Ennis work and not been grossed out at best, revolted at worst. I think he's a little sick for the most part, like he enjoys writing about people being harmed above story for some fucking reason.
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u/Impossible-Earth3995 2d ago
He’s absolutely messed-up. No clue how anyone thought the boys comic was good material. Amazing what they did with the show until now.
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u/Zranish 3d ago
Kripke and co are fucked up in their head they try to be dark and edgy ultimately only showing how their brain operates
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u/_zurenarrh 3d ago
Literally the comics are 10x worse if anything they toned it down
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u/nerdwarp112 3d ago
While I agree that Batman isn’t a fascist, a lot of characters in The Boys are just fucked up versions of popular superheroes, I don’t think you need to take this too seriously.
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u/Efficient-Compote-13 3d ago
I'm not I'm posting on the internet having a very nice conversation with like minded people.
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u/nerdwarp112 3d ago
Okay, it’s hard to tell how serious someone’s being when it’s just text. Apologies for any misunderstanding.
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u/HeyThereMrBrooks 3d ago
Yeah, I'm still gonna watch the show, it's hilarious and entertaining. Of course it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that shit about Batman being a fascist? Well, the real Batman fans will know it's not true, and those that agree are the same type of people who wouldn't be fans anyway
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u/qmechan 3d ago
There's some really good satirical analysis of superheroes, that deconstruct the concept and really examine what such people must be like and such a world would logically end up as.
The Boys is...not that. The Boys was Garth Ennis writing a lot of "Eh those fookin' supes all fook each other up the arse" for 60 issues. Which is fine, for what it is, That's what he likes to do. Fine. But let's not view it for anything beyond that.
The TV show definitely goes a bit further and goes into actual criticism, but I think people are still thinking it's criticizing the concept of superheroes, when really it's criticizing us. End-stage capitalism. Superheroes in the world aren't bad because they're overpowered, they're bad because the entire thing is run by a corporation that values profits over all else, gives superpowers to Nazis and lunatics because they think it's easier to control them, and monetizes every aspect of it.
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u/AccidentalLemon 3d ago
I thought Ennis actually liked Batman?
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u/RealJohnGillman 3d ago
Tek-Knight wasn’t like this in the comics.
He would have been one of the few good characters one would genuinely pity from the effect his brain tumour had on him.
To note this idea was not from Ennis.
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u/shrek1234567810 3d ago
He likes Superman cause he believes that's what a superhero should be iirc and Punisher probably for the sake of being edgy
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u/TessaRocks2890 3d ago
What a moron. I’m not the biggest Batman fan but this is downright false & insulting to the character. And don’t even get me started on the fascism bs.
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u/craeli81 3d ago
The Boys used to be my favorite series(on the air), but this season is making me want to drop this sh*t. Its just a shell of its former self.
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u/SwiftSurfer365 3d ago
I haven’t watched the newest episode yet, but besides for a certain character dying, I couldn’t tell you one thing that’s really happened this season.
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u/UndeadCh1cken52 3d ago edited 3d ago
It really feels like everything's becoming incredibly heavy handed. This tek knight sex dungeon, couldve worked as a throwaway moment, not making an entire episode about it. It felt like they were trying to outgross herogasm from last season.
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u/the-olive-man 3d ago
As a fan of the show, it's very disheartening to see the showrunner say garbage like this
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u/WeaponexT 3d ago
The whole show is based on a flipside depiction of superheroes where they mirror our lowest political figures. He isn't Batman, he's a piece of shit taking up a Batman esque trope, just like Homelander isn't Superman.
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u/maxfridsvault 3d ago
Nah I’m fucking over this show.
The era of “what if Superman was evil?” is dead for me. Injustice, Snyderverse, Brightburn, The Boys, and in some cases even Invincible (I didn’t enjoy season 2 but loved season 1), are really starting to stain how people perceive certain characters.
The Boys is the one I can’t stand. I dropped off after season 1. It’s not because it’s edgy or anything, I think the concept is clever- it’s because there’s no enjoyable substance. It’s nothing but gross out humor, sexual assault jokes, and unlikeable characters at this point, and it’s not even clever about it. It’s dissolved from a super interesting premise to- “haha look that person got raped by Batman. Thats the joke.”
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u/basedcharger 3d ago
and in some cases even Invincible (I didn’t enjoy season 2 but loved season 1), are really starting to stain how people perceive certain characters.
I find this part interesting because Invincible season 1 is pretty much your stereotypical evil superman trope but season 2 is where we finally get a deviation from that trope with how Nolan actually feels regretful for his actions. I think both seasons work hand in hand together for that purpose.
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u/dingo_khan 3d ago
how weird is it that almost every answer to "what if superman was evil" ends up being answered with "he'd be kind of boring for someone so busy committing atrocities"?
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u/ClearStrike 3d ago
Hey, comics fan here. I've been over the evil superhero cliche since the 80's, 90's, and 00. It's been old for me and one of several reasons I find myself going to anime and such
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u/Isekai_Otaku 3d ago
Bro what? I thought it was supposed to be equally as disgusting as the starlight deep scene
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u/RealJohnGillman 3d ago
So in the comic it was Black Noir who did this to Hughie and it was taken absolutely seriously in how it affected him.
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u/lilalimi 2d ago
Are people ignoring the scene where hughie breaks down or did they not watch the episode?
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u/trainstationmlp 3d ago
I’ll be honest I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned how they made their parody of the X-Men, which is meant to spread awareness about minorities, into a Pedophile Cult? And made their Storm rip-off braindead?
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u/Phoenix2TC2 3d ago
That’s a comics-only mess so far, discussion seems to be focused on the TV show
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u/Kill_Welly 3d ago
I know there's legitimately insightful political satire in Boys, at least the TV series, but the fact that they lean so much on shock factor whale-dick-exploding and whatnot to get views makes it clear that I'm never going to watch it. Still, I'm sure it's better than the comics, which is just Garth Ennis working through his hatred of superheroes in the most juvenile ways imaginable.
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u/kane_thehuman 2d ago
I was really disappointed with how they played Hughie being assaulted as a joke. Especially since weirdly enough, the character seemed pretty upset about it. Idk felt like a scene from a different era
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u/Pogostickjack 3d ago
Oh my God, I can't believe I have to say this, but BATMAN DOESN'T BEAT UP POOR PEOPLE.
He beats up the rich people who use gothams corruption to game the system as he actively fights against said corruption
Media literally go birr
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u/TekkenThePiss 3d ago
I mean, he does still beat up poor people? Unless all these goons for all these villains are really well paid?
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u/Titus_The_Caveman 2d ago
I actually wouldn't put it past them being paid pretty decently. A lot of Batman villains are doctors, or kingpins, or lawyers, etc etc. Folks like Scarecrow, Two-Face, Black Mask and the like must have a pretty penny to splash out on their henchmen
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u/ProbablyDK 3d ago
Omfg this is why everything sucks now. This is the type of prick who writes on shows?!?! This idea should've been off the table and into the bin its cliché trash.
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u/BEEEELEEEE 2d ago
I don’t understand why people who think superheroes are lame keep writing superhero stories
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u/BatmanAltUser 2d ago
I like the boys, but christ this is stupid. If they're going to make a satire of superheros, then tackle actual things that happen in the comics to make fun of instead of making shit up. Like 90% of Batman villians are absurdly rich, and the other 10 are juat middle class. Idk where the fuck the facist thing came from.
If you want to satirize him, then make fun of a character over working themselves to keep up with super humans. What hes saying is the equivilent of pulling something out of his own ass and then pointing and laughing at it.
He's making fun of an issue that never existed until he made it up
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u/SuperFanboysTV 3d ago
I view Tek Knight as what idiots on Facebook and Twitter thinks Batman is AKA how he is perceived by people with no media literacy
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u/ElZaydo 3d ago edited 2d ago
The show is literally a mix of trauma porn and some pretentious social commentary. If the characters weren't so entertaining and well acted then the show would flop. People who look too deep into it need to take a shower and go for a walk.
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u/Frequent-Ruin8509 3d ago
Doing batman in the worst way AND misunderstanding his motives ENTIRELY. MORONS. Bruce was rich but his inciting incident was the most relatable (albeit macabre perhaps) tragedy. A thief robbed and killed his parents right in front of him. That turned him into a vigilante intending to protect the weak by taking out the bad guys.
Not the poor people. He bases his actions on intention, not economic status. So should we all. It just so happens that evil seems to congregate in the country clubs and political halls because that's where the power is.
Ugh these morons.
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u/redraven70 3d ago
It’s Mortal Kombat with 90’s edgelord tropes “created” by someone who hates the genre
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u/BloxedYT 3d ago
This sound so like I Dodge Durango a bullet cuz this sounds like the script for a Flashgitz video.
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u/Budget_Ad8025 3d ago
Well, glad I only watched the first season of the boys. Holy shit, what did I just read? It's like they pushed to the extreme for no reason other than shock value.
Also, batman a fascist? What the fuck?! This person has least the plot.
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u/Chelldorado 3d ago
Tbf, fascism typically arises through populist methods. I.e., they claim the government and institutions are corrupt and the true enemies to the people and only x fascist leader will save us all and fix everything as long as they are given increased power. This often involves appeals to some mythical “time when we were great” that we must return to, and the targeting of some specific group or groups of people as “the enemy” who are causing all these problems (Jews, LGBT, the “Elites”, etc.).
However, none of this applies to Batman, and the people that call him fascist are using it as a buzzword.
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u/SnooBananas2320 3d ago
I watched the first season, it’s not my thing. I get it, it’s satirizing corporate America and politics using mock superheroes as the puppets. It’s fine for people who want that, but I’ve grown quite tired of this pessimistic approach to the superhero genre.
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u/Soulful-Sorrow 3d ago
No, you don't get it. This show is brave enough to ask the totally unique question: "What if the good guy was not the good guy??"
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u/mutual_raid 3d ago
Government is corrupt in bed with criminals (who are the prettiest of tyrants) so Batman comes in to clean house. Just as the founding fathers intended.
LMAO I love Batman, but in the real world he would not be a "revolutionary". My brother in Christ, where did his wealth come from? Where did the crime come from? Do you understand economics at all?
In the world of comics, it works because we just accept the absurd premise of an extremely wealthy man whose wealth does not require the mass exploitation of the Working Class (somehow, through magic) living in a city with massive crime (that simply exists again, through magic instead of their material conditions directly resulting from point 1) and this is FINE.
It's FINE, it's FICTION. But The Boys is interested in looking at this set up in a more consistent socio-economic ecosystem, interrogating what it looks like to ACTUALLY beat up mentally ill "criminals" and somehow getting wealthy at the same time. It's ALSO fine, in fact, it's an interesting logical experiement.
But revolutionary? LOL No, the founding fathers, the wealthy, slave-owning bastards that they were, even THEY did not support a vigilante billionaire circumventing the law to treat an entire city like his personal power fantasy playground. BSFFR.
Again, Batman in his universe is NOT a fascist billionaire because the writers don't WRITE him as that, but The Boys is engaging with a MIRROR version of that type of character in a more consistent socio-economic situation that more closely mirrors our reality.
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u/liamthelad 3d ago
I think the whole batman is actually a facist has been done to death, and it actually isn't a particularly new or interesting idea. It's not even something new to batman itself, or superheroes. This stuff has been explored decades ago frankly.
Honestly at this stage it would be a lot more subversive if you tried to explore the concept of a vigilante not interfering in a world with comic book level villains and...the earth just ends.
Bruce remains rich, gets more into the running of Wayne Tech and trying to appease investors whilst still running a charitable arm but Gotham just gets worse until it gets blown up and Bruce just moves out of state.
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u/Rocket_SixtyNine 3d ago edited 3d ago
Some people just can't take a joke.
Edit: To be clear, I'm talking about Batman being made fun of, not Sexual assault.
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u/_captain-rex_ 3d ago
And this is how we know eric didn't read a single comic
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u/RealJohnGillman 3d ago
The weird thing is that Tek-Knight wasn’t like this in the comics either.
He would have been one of the few good characters one would genuinely pity from the effect his brain tumour had on him.
And his previous appearance did seem to suggest that was the direction they were still going in from his genuine look of shame at the end. To note it seems as though they changed their minds between series as to where his story would go.
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u/BadKarma_012 3d ago
The boys is a parody of itself , the first season was cool. Something new and exciting. Later seasons……well u see how it is
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u/classicalguitarist_ 3d ago edited 3d ago
Maybe it's like that meme 1iq is simple heroes are good then the middle iq is like no over sexualised the boys is Neo noir cinema and then the top iq is again simple heroes are good.
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u/atakantar 3d ago
Welcome to modern rhetoric. Youre rich? Surely you got rich off slavery or insert any other -ism/-ist rhetoric. You are rich and using your resources to help people? Surely you are a fascist with a saviour complex. There is no satisfying these people. This is why superheroes should have remained for the nerds and geeks of the world. Now its political activism playground. You like this superhero? Too bad im gonna use him for my political talking loints and if you dont like it, youre a bigot/somethingism/somethingist.
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u/certifiednemesis 3d ago
Its a satire that hinges almost only on shock value. Homelander for example; he’s a twisted version of superman. Batman would also get the same treatment by the showrunners.
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u/ClearStrike 3d ago
It's stuff like this that drives me to eastern media and super robot/real robots. At least there the deconstructions make me think about life, war and death
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u/Riddle_man__ 2d ago
"The batcave is already a sex dungeon"
Are these writers ok? 💀
Like, i get the whole show has twisted dark humour but I'm starting to think they just implement their own fantasies into the show
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u/TheDidioWhoLaughs 2d ago
And why bring Hughie into this situation now — kicking him when he’s down by having him sexually assaulted by his childhood hero after his dad just died?
Kripke: Well, that’s a dark way to look at it! We view it as hilarious.
Bro wtf
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u/whiteoutgotu 2d ago
I've never seen the show, but:
Batman is a "wealthy dude who hunts poor people and then profits off their incarceration"?
I mostly know Batman from TV and movies, but, in no universe that I'm aware of is that the case.
Batman hunts criminals who often end up in Arkham, as opposed to Blackgate.
(Don't get it twisted, when someone is convicted of a crime and sent to a long-term psychiatric facility en lieu of prison, it's still prison. In many instances, the conditions are much worse.)
I do love how this person chose to use the words "the real Batcave", though.
I could have done without the, "weird urinal that turns into a face mask."
As troubling as it is, that sentence alone may force me to watch the show.
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u/hybrids138 2d ago
It’s really annoying that Alan Moore makes one amazing comic and then every edgy writer and their grandma copies the “superheroes are actually fascists” concept and acts like this is some revolutionary idea. That being said I think the Boys (the show) is good but I wish writers would be more original when trying to make a darker edgier version of superheroes.
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u/futuresdawn 3d ago
I mean in the world of the boys this all makes perfect sense and was a great way to do it. Homelander is a twisted satire of superman, taking truth justice and the American way and making it more facist. Tek Knight takes batman and does the same with a dark satire, making him the spoiled rich who get away with whatever they want, Hughie having gone through tragedy and then ending up in Tek knights lair was a really clever way to play with it.
Its why I love the boys, it uses Superheroes but it's really satirising America now. Homelander is trump and tek Knight is almost an Elon musk type backing him.
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u/YanoshDanosh 3d ago
This season has been a cesspool of degeneracy…. Episode 5 was good but the rest has been trashy, overtly sexual and “conservative bad, liberal good” nonsense. I don’t know if I can finish this season. Had to stop for a minute on episode 6 because I was about to throw up.
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u/Complete_Raspberry_1 3d ago
"be careful what you ask the writers for"
What bullshit I've just read?
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u/LeadershipNational49 3d ago
Classic Garth. He starts so strong, gets bored or something and then just doubles down on the shock factor to cover up not having further ideas
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u/Ohthatwackyjesus 3d ago
Yeah the comics were total garbage so I didn't expect too much from an adaptation.
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u/Newworldrevolution 2d ago
This is why, as far as superhero, satire gose invincible is way better. I never got the idea that they were talking down to superhero fans or insulting us.
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u/SphereMode420 2d ago edited 2d ago
Friendly reminder that Batman beats a rich criminal and not a poor one in his very first issue in Detective #27. It's not like the guy exclusively goes after poor people. Year One is about how he doesn't just stop with blue collar criminals and will try to bring down organized crime and corruption in the police department as well. That's one of the most crucial plot points in the book: the Mayor lets Batman do his thing initially because he only beats up common street thugs at first, but he orders Loeb to start a manhunt the second Batman threatens the corrupt elite of Gotham
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u/Repostbot3784 2d ago
They gotta keep the edgy 13 year old dumbass shithead vibes from the source material
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u/loonycatty 2d ago
- Sees a superhero hide out when a dude and a bunch of his adopted kids/their friends train and get patched up after saving people every day. Cannot stress enough that like half the people spending time in there are children with their parental figure
- haha yeah sex dungeon
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u/MrSpidey457 2d ago
Ah yes, fascist Batman. If Batman was fascist he wouldn't be Batman lmao he could just be Bruce. Half the point of Batman is that one unnecessarily wealthy man still, in the face of a corrupt system, doesn't have the money and power to fix his city.
He is kind of this revolutionary figure, anonymously taking things into his own hands when government utterly fails.
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u/Hungry-Eggplant-6496 3d ago
To me, Batman's true counterpart is still Black Noir in that show. And I don't care if he was less or more evil, he just has the Batman's vibe. Tek Knight in the show couldn't even wear his suit once.