Is Batman Still the Hero We Need or a Relic of the Past?

Batman is the most popular superhero of all time. When you say that, a lot of people will bring up Iron Man or Captain America because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s more recent successes, but as popular as they are, they’ve never had the cultural cache of Batman. Bill Finger and Bob Kane gave readers a character who would stand the test of time. Batman has been everywhere, from comics to film to TV to video games to basically every piece of modern media you can think of, and generations of fans have grown up with him starting at the earliest stages of their lives. Batman has always been there for most of us, and he’s even managed to outshine the first superhero ever, Superman.

Batman has many memorable stories, reaching back to the late 1930s. Batman has been able to morph and change with the times, and lends himself well to all kinds of stories; basically, Batman fits in every fictional genre. However, the 2020s are a very different time and we’ve been seeing people question the role of the Batman for a long time. Batman’s adventures have given readers the best villains in fiction, and some stories that changed the way comics worked. Batman has played a big role in redefining the superhero more than once, but is it time for him to retire with other older, passe superheroes? Has our modern age left Batman behind or can he be redefined once again?

Batman Is a Victim of His Own Success and a Changing View of the Wealthy

So, there are several problems with Batman, and most of them have some common causes — his own success and the way we look at the wealthy in the 21st century. We’ll start with the symptoms of the former. Batman is the most published character in DC Comics, possibly in comics as a whole. Batman sells books, so DC puts out a lot of Batman books. Back in the Infinite Frontier publishing initiative, most of the books DC was putting out were Batman books, from the mainline to the Black Label. Now, Batman can definitely work in a lot of stories, but one of the problems with that is too many times we get similar Batman stories. There are often unique Batman stories — Ram V’s “Gotham Overture” from Detective Comics #1062-1089 shows just how many different places you can take Batman (and it blessedly doesn’t have the Joker in it; it’s a long story but you need to read it) and the ’90s book Legends of the Dark Knight show that off — but most of the time we get the same Batman stories over and over again. If DC was putting out multiple Batman stories that all went different ways (something they’ve been better about doing in 2024 and 2025), there would be less bellyaching about the character. However, we get so many Batman crime noir all the time that fans groan even when their favorite creators get a Batman book because most of the time they’re going to be doing stories that are basic Batman. On top of that, Batman gets the spotlight that lesser DC character used to get. Back in the ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s, there were still a lot of Batman stories, but it didn’t feel like he was the entirety of the DC Multiverse. That feeling has become massive in the last few years.

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If you’ve been online in geek spaces for any amount of time, you’ve seen people question why Batman doesn’t use his wealth to help people more directly. Now, obviously, there is something to this idea, but Batman does. Wayne Industries is the biggest employer in Gotham, and there have been issues where Batman literally tells people to go apply at the company and they’ll get a job. Bruce Wayne funds multiple programs for the poor of the city. Can he do more instead of paying to make armor to fight Darkseid in? Yes, of course, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t do a lot. We’re in a bad time for the wealthy (well, I mean, it’s never a bad time for the wealthy, but I’ll explain) when it comes to the public perception of them. Batman came about during a time when the wealthy were looked at as superior people. Stories like the one of Batman taught us that wealth and privilege often went to people who were the best of us, and that we should all try to be like them. That’s not really an idea that works in the world of 2025. The wealthy have been exposed for what they truly are — parasites hoarding the wealth the lower classes create and gaming the system so they never lose power while the rest of us lose most of it to them — and that changes the way fans look at Batman. Batman’s expenditure on what amounts to a person using violence to deal with their own problems instead of going to therapy doesn’t look the way it does. It’s annoying as a Batman fan to see people say something like, “Batman beats up poor people,” but there’s definitely a lot to the idea. Batman is an old fashioned view of the world in a lot of ways, one that doesn’t always translate well to the realities of our current situation.

Batman Can Still Work In Our Modern World With Some Tweaks

Superheroes are my favorite thing in my fiction. Their malleability is what has made them so great. The best superheroes can grow and change with the time, so when you ask me if Batman is a relic of the past, I answer that question with this statement — yes, he definitely is but he doesn’t have to be. Batman is a character who first appeared in 1938 and has stayed vital for nearly a hundred years. The reason Batman has stayed vital is because he’s so able to change with the times. A lot has changed about the world since even 2015, but that doesn’t mean that Batman can’t change with it.

The story of Batman, at its core, is a story about a person having the worst thing happen to him and making a vow that it would never happen again. It’s a childish idea, but our world is made of childish ideas. Wanting to save people from the pain he experienced is a noble ideal, and it can still be served. What we need for Batman are creators who are willing to tell more varied type of stories and rebuild the mythos. I want more sci-fi Batman, more Batman cosmic horror, more hopeful Batman. Give us the character who works in every genre. People complaining about Batman not doing enough to help the poor? You can easily fix that problem. Batman may feel outdated at times, but he doesn’t need to.

What do you think about Batman? Is he a relic or can the character stay vital? Sound off in the comments below.