35 Years Ago, Batman’s Most Underrated Story Fixed a Major Superhero Problem

Superheroes are known for their bombastic, action-packed stories. Heroes wear colorful costumes and use fantastic powers, technology, or skills to battle equally flamboyant villains, who often have over-the-top, insane plans, ranging from bank robberies to world domination. Most superhero stories build up to a climactic clash between heroes and villains, ending with a display of strength or cunning that lets the hero come out on top. This is a great formula that has helped superhero comics reign supreme for decades, but it’s far from the full picture, and even farther from what truly makes these stories so impactful. What makes the best superhero stories great is always their emotional core.

Superheroes seem like bastions of hope and strength on the surface, but they’re still people who struggle with pain, doubt, and very human impulses. That applies to every hero, even the traditionally stoic ones like Batman. In fact, Batman is definitely at his best when he’s his most human. He overcomes almost every adversity with unimaginable determination, but that’s what makes watching him struggle with something anyone can imagine hit even harder. Batman works best when people can see themselves in him, and the “Venom” storyline from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #16 to #20 gave us a Batman who struggled with drugs and failure in a very real way.

Venom That Kills More Than It Helps

The story started with Batman failing to save a young girl. He wasn’t strong enough to lift debris before she drowned, and the loss ripped into him like a knife. Desperate to become strong enough to save every life, Batman made a deal with the girl’s father to take his experimental strength-enhancing drug, Venom. As I’m sure you can imagine, it made Batman far stronger, but he became addicted. His mind slowed, and he stopped caring about anything but the pills, going as far as to let a criminal escape to grab a packet of Venom. Batman realized he had to overcome his addiction, but it was no easy task.

Of course, in the end, Batman rejected Venom and saved the day. Before we dig into the storytelling impact, let’s focus on the awesome way this story set up the future. It introduced Venom, which everyone is more familiar with as Bane’s strength-enhancing drug of choice. In his first appearance, Bane actually used Venom to prove that he could master it, unlike Batman. Bane’s initial quest was all about proving that he was the better man, so using the drug that once defeated Batman to defeat him was just one more step towards his total domination. It’s awesome to see what was meant as a one-off item become so iconic in a new way.

The Poison of the Soul

The most important part of this story, without doubt, is how it showed Batman struggle. He brought the scientist behind it to justice, and even overcame his tests with his wit instead of brute strength, but he only achieved that victory from the deepest pits of despair. His struggle was visceral. Batman is one of the coolest heroes, with a huge part of his popularity centered around him having aura. Most stories try really hard to make sure Batman looks cool the whole time, but “Venom” did the opposite. It focused on the ugly truth of Batman’s fall, and spent most of its runtime talking about the pitiable, almost pathetic circumstances.

The suave, stoic Batman was reduced first to a musclebound meathead, then a whining shell willing to do almost anything for a fix, and finally, a broken, rabid, and tearful man who couldn’t even speak full sentences. Even after he finally kicked his addiction, Batman struggled to reject using Venom again. It showed that anyone, even someone as awesome as Batman, could fall, and that there was no shame in falling, only in refusing to stand back up. Bad habits are bad for a reason, but it can happen to everyone. Even Batman needed Alfred’s help to kick his addiction. And even Batman had moments of weakness.

Showing the audience that even paragons of heroism can have human flaws helps speak to a piece of the readers’ soul that comics often ignore. They talk about doing the right thing no matter what, and that’s obviously preferable, but everyone messes up sometimes. Showing Batman hit such a low reaffirms that winning all the time is impossible. Everyone can fall or fail in some way, but you can always pick yourself back up. Time and effort are far more rewarding than easy fixes. Instead of just telling the reader how to be a good person, this tells the reader how to overcome bad decisions, which is just as important to know. This story is all about teaching people how to improve, and it accomplishes just that.

These types of stories will always be important. What’s your favorite story where a hero makes a mistake? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!

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