5 Things About Batman That Have Aged Poorly

Batman is one of the greatest and most popular heroes of all time. He is one of the stars of DC, standing alongside Superman and Wonder Woman as a part of the Trinity, and has led and stood alongside the Justice League as it faced countless threats. Everyone knows who the Dark Knight is and his near-perfect origin story. Young Bruce Wayne watched his parents be gunned down in front of him, and dedicated his life to making sure nobody ever felt the same pain he did ever again. After years of mentally and physically conditioning himself to his peak, Bruce would return to Gotham and become the Batman. He would fight to save his city every night, in both body and soul. It’s such a simple vow, and yet has spawned one of the most universally beloved heroes of all time.

However, as iconic as that origin is, not everything about Batman has aged so well. He’s existed since 1939, and while much of who Batman is and what he does has withstood the test of time, there are a few aspects that will occasionally show their age. Not every idea pitched in nearly ninety years will be a good one, after all. So let’s take a look at five things about Batman that have aged rather poorly.

1) Being a Billionaire

Back in 1939, the idea of a billionaire using his endless wealth and resources to quite literally wage a one man war on crime made a lot more sense. Nowadays, one of the most common misconceptions about Batman is that he selfishly funds his crusade instead of simply investing in improving Gotham City. Most crime can be traced back to societal failings involving money, after all. Now, the people who insist this have obviously not read Batman’s comics as Bruce Wayne is personally responsible for about ninety percent of all philanthropy and societal change in Gotham, but the city’s corruption runs so deep that literally no amount of money will be able to change it. Still, this is a major contention point that separates Batman from feeling relatable to the average fan, and that’s not even getting into the ethical questions about the existence of billionaires. There might be a reason the Absolute Universe chose to nix this part of his character.

2) Being Deputized by the Police

Not many people know this, but prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of the timeline Batman was actually deputized by the Gotham City Police Department. It wasn’t uncommon for older comics to refer to Batman as “the greatest lawman in the world.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with Batman being deputized, and thus working with the law instead of so unabashedly breaking it as a vigilante, it feels contrary to who he has become as a character. Batman is a man who fights not just evil people, but a corrupt system that so often throws them away. With how vile the GCPD has been depicted, even with a good man like Gordon weeding out the troublemakers, it would feel disingenuous for Batman to work alongside them so closely. Batman works hard to be trusted by the people of Gotham City, and those people do not trust the GCPD. It’s no wonder why Batman has stepped away from this connection in modern interpretations. I would not want a police officer who is allowed to operate as freely as Batman, honestly.

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3) Robin

I love Robin. The Boy Wonder is a critical and essential part of Batman’s mythos, and two-man teams call themselves the Dynamic Duo for a reason. I would pay unholy amounts of money for Robin to appear in The Batman Part II. Still, no matter how much I love him, I also can’t deny the very obvious problems people bring up with Robin. Namely that Batman would allow a child he takes under his care to fight crime as he does. Crime was much simpler and much less dangerous back in the Golden Age, far less serial killers with flamethrowers and more crimes committed to the tune of nursery rhymes. People could look past Robin being a kid when he was fighting the Penny Plunderer, but the modern Joker? Some people just can’t right that in their minds.

4) The Original Batwoman and Bat-Girl

Bat-Girl has a hyphen because I’m not talking about Barbara Gordon, but the very first incarnations of Batwoman and Bat-Girl, Kathy Kane and Bette Kane. After the infamously controversial Seduction of the Innocent started a country-wide wave of panic that comic books were corrupting the youth, and specifically that Batman and Robin displayed clear signs of homosexuality, the higher ups at DC insisted that the Dynamic Duo needed love interests to dissuade those rumors. Thus came Batwoman and Bat-Girl, the feminine counterparts to Batman and Robin. Unfortunately, the two were no more than walking stereotypes. Instead of being treated as equal heroes, these two were instead just bat-themed damsels in distress. They needed to be saved more often than they did any saving, and frankly, added nothing to any story they were in. Nowadays multiple incredible women have taken the title of Batgirl, Cassandra Cain being my personal favorite, and Kate Kane is a completely different who has actual agency. She’s also Bruce’s cousin in the new timeline, so there’s still a little weirdness given she was made to be his love interest, but this is still way more preferable to what she was before.

5) Joker

When he was first introduced, the Joker was nothing more than an average villain with a clown gimmick. The entire joke about him was that he was a deeply serious and ruthless character who dressed like a clown, but the modern Joker hardly resembles his past self at all. He’s always been a cruel, evil villain, but modern comic books will convince you that the Joker haunts the Devil’s nightmares. Ever since the release of The Killing Joke, writers have been constantly raising the stakes and the consequences every time he appears. It’s gotten so comically out of proportion that even flashbacks to older eras can’t portray Joker as anything less than a demon given snow-colored flesh, just look at Batman/Superman: World’s Finest Annual 2025 for an example of this. Modern Joker is pure shock and awe achieved through copious amounts of gore and cruelty, nothing at all like simply being a supervillain. Batman refusing to kill the Joker will always make sense with his character, but there are plenty of people who insist that letting him live will only result in horribly escalating death, and the writers seem intent on keeping that true.

So there we have five aspects of Batman that have not aged nearly as well as other aspects of him have over the decades. Think something else belongs on this list? Let us know in the comments below!