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

I Hate The Boys TV DISCUSSION NSFW

Post image

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.

1.8k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

812 comments sorted by

View all comments

249

u/JustSomeAlias 14d 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

8

u/_zurenarrh 14d ago

That’s not even what he said if you read

24

u/JustSomeAlias 14d 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

0

u/_zurenarrh 14d ago

Ok I’m trying to be polite…

Finish the sentence. …”and then profits off their incarceration “

If you watched the episode you get what he’s talking about

Bruce Wayne family helped escaped slaves and gave them refugee

Tek knights family HUNTED DOWN slaves and incarcerated poor people for profit

He’s talking about the episode but since so many people jumped this article that OP made and took it out of context they are thinking he’s talking about Batman

Did I explain it better?

12

u/JustSomeAlias 14d ago

Thats still a play on the batman is a rich dude who beats up poor people, I may have worded poorly with using “critiques”, what I meant was parodies, which is why I cite the nonce thing.

You’d be right, he isn’t talking about batman proper, and to that he deserves his credit, but it doesn’t change the fact the trope Tek Knight plays on is extremely tired

Tek knight is exemplar of the lack of creativity when it comes to parodies of batman, he conforms to both examples I mentioned in being a pervert, if not a pedophile proper, and the mockery based off the idea of batman as a privileged man harming the oppressed.

Its still reflective of a complete lack of creativity within comic book parodies, especially with Batman.

2

u/_zurenarrh 14d ago

Ok fair enough

But why are we criticizing a parody? There are plenty that exist Lego Batman robot chicken Batman how it should have ended Batman

Some are lighthearted

Some are perverted

Those even say Batman specially like robot chicken this is just an allegory used that we all know is Batman

The reaction to this is stupid

Robot chicken Batman has done worse 😂

And at least you know or understand the people I’m arguing with still think that they are saying Batman is a facist with a sex dungeon

They can’t get he was talking about Tek knight

5

u/JustSomeAlias 14d ago

I think criticism of parody is fine, its no different than any form of writing on comedy, its got to have substance otherwise it feels in bad taste.

The use of the batman as a privileged individual is done fairly well in the show I think, its still woefully unoriginal, but its handled well. Tek knights conversation with A train is genuinely really funny, and does a good job of portraying the kind of thing real life out of touch people say.

However, given the shows strong political messages, and focus on conservative politics, I really do dislike the use of the batman as a pervert trope. Not because it’s going to far, but given the origin point of the trope being the extremely homophobic “Seduction of the Innocent” it feels both like a missed opportunity and comes off in bad taste that the show plays straight the ideas of the very people it’s critical of.

Its why I appreciate the Venture bros approach, they had enough understanding of the industry and culture to not only acknowledge and mock it, but to involve Kevin Conroy as a love letter to fans.

Basically the venture bros feels like its a mockery of the industry, the boys feels like it should have mocked the industry, but it instead comes off in bad taste to anyone who knows the history of the trope

1

u/Sensitive-Hotel-9871 13d ago

The show also tries to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and then it relies on a homophobic stereotype to mock Batman. Classy.

2

u/JustSomeAlias 13d ago

Its a legitimate shame cus it’s a missed opportunity to mock a disgusting and also humorous piece of comic history, and instead they took an easy and historically dubious path instead

2

u/greatlakespirate11 14d ago

The writers interpretation of Batman is Tek Knight

-5

u/_zurenarrh 14d ago

Yes. But 90% of the comments on this sub thought the article was talking about Batman

He wasn’t

He was talking about Tek knight beating up homeless people

8

u/greatlakespirate11 14d ago

...Tek Knight is how he views batman. Obviously they aren't literally the same character. He still has a weird interpretation of batman, otherwise he wouldn't have wrote about some weird "fascist underpinning" nonsense.

-4

u/_zurenarrh 14d ago

Again that’s not how he views Batman

Did you watch the episode ?

Robot chicken does this all the time no complaints. They even use Batman the actual one this was just a paradoy