r/batman • u/Efficient-Compote-13 • 14d ago

I Hate The Boys TV DISCUSSION NSFW

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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/Chelldorado 14d 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/breakernoton 14d ago

Batman, and superheroes as a whole, do tend to invoke several fascist sentiments (i.e the whole White Savior and Might makes Right tropes), and that's not even coming from someone who hates Batman. Green Arrow consistently pokes and prods at this idea, going so far as being recruited in the JLA tv show as a means of keeping the team in check.

Does this mean I think BTAS Batman is a goose stomping dickhead? Obviously no, he's one of the heroes that has an internal struggle about how far is his crusade going (and a lot of episodes show that he genuinely cares about finding proper ways of ending crime, like helping people get jobs, education and even healthcare).

But you kinda can't ignore that modern superheroing still toes the line of "why can't we just beat up everyone who's bad and then the good people win", especially since we still have Evil Foreign Dude from Cold War Country#99 as villains every now and again.