This Is Not My Batman

There are two different Batmen in the DC universe these days. (OK, I know there are 52ish, but let's not go there right now).

There's the one we're most familiar with: the Dark Knight Detective, the man driven by childhood tragedy to stop crime and save lives and throw
engine blocks at criminals and thwart homicidal maniacs.

And then there's the one who tries to secretly rule the world from behind the scenes. He's Blofeld.


Oh, he'll argue that he's a "good" manipulative mastermind, that he's merely trying to make the world safer for us all. Check out these panels from Five of a Kind #1, the lead-in series to the new Batman and the Outsiders.

Now me, I'm pretty old school when it comes to the Caped Crusader. Heck, I don't even believe that Batman belongs in the Justice League. It always seemed to me that going out into space to fight Starro is too far away from his mission statement; how many citizens of Gotham City get murdered by the Joker or Two-Face or the Black Mask Gang while Batman is monitor duty?!?

But being in the Justice League was at least minimally defensible...a threat to the world is, by extension, a threat to Gotham. So, while I'm not thrilled by it, I accept it.

But Batman constructing the OMAC system to "protect" the world from superhumans? Batman deciding which "new world order" is the correct one? Batman engaging in complex political manipulations to affect governments and topple regimes? Batmen needing a secret team to run Mission:Impossible plans in foreign countries?

That's not my Batman. That's just Amanda Waller or Maxwell Lord, except we're supposed to approve because we "know" Batman is good. This is Tony Stark territory.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying this isn't a natural character development for Bruce Wayne...you can certainly make a good case this kind of shift in focus makes perfect sense for him. But I don't like it. This is not my Batman.

I don't want to read about Superman becoming a Hero for Hire; I don't want to read about the Flash's adventures with the Mystic Elves of Sherwood; I don't want to read about Tony Stark becoming a fascistic dictator (oops, too late). These might all be good stories, but they take the characters too far away from what they are, from their roots.

So when I see Batman manipulating things so both Boomer and Nightwing leave the Outsiders, plotting to topple Checkmate, and while generally ignoring Gotham, well, that's not my Batman. And it makes me sad, because I miss him.

Of course, this explains Batman's total absence from Countdown. Let's see: a re-powered Black Adam was hiding out in Gotham City, a re-powered and oddly behaving Mary Marvel is hanging out in GC; Trickster and Pied Piper, who killed the Flash, are hiding out in GC; Penguin is summoning the Suicide Squad to take out Trickster and Piper, again in GC...and not one single panel of Batman in the entire series (excluding the 4 pages in #50, which merely re-told the Batman vs Karate Kid fight already presented in JLA). Guess he's too busy overthrowing governments or something to actually care about what's going on in his city...that's not my Batman.