Way To Explain The "Urban Legend" Angle of Batman

[Super Hero Guy]

Ok, fans are always angry about DC deciding to make Batman nothing more than an urban legend in his universe, which of course makes no sense. So here's one way for me to explain it to myself.

People KNOW a Batman exists. Perhaps during the first year of his career he was an unindetified rumour, but by this point, the people of the world do know there's Batman. They know he works with the Justice Leage of America. But they don't know what he is. Like, everyone in the DCU knows that WonderWoman is an Amazon, and Superman comes from another planet. And atleast most of the other big Superheroes in DC, even if they have Secrets IDs, the public atleast knows they what kind of powers they have, they don't fear going around during the day, they might talk with the media, etc.

But the public doesn't know what Batman does. They don't know he's a guy with fancy gadgets. They don't know whether he has superpowers. He never talks with anyone he doesn't have to. And so on.

[The Mirrorball Man]

That was Alan Davis' approach in "The Nail", IIRC.

[lonewolf23k]

Ok, fans are always angry about DC deciding to make Batman nothing more than an urban legend in his universe, which of course makes no sense. So here's one way for me to explain it to myself.

People KNOW a Batman exists. Perhaps during the first year of his career he was an unindetified rumour, but by this point, the people of the world do know there's Batman. They know he works with the Justice Leage of America. But they don't know what he is. Like, everyone in the DCU knows that WonderWoman is an Amazon, and Superman comes from another planet. And atleast most of the other big Superheroes in DC, even if they have Secrets IDs, the public atleast knows they what kind of powers they have, they don't fear going around during the day, they might talk with the media, etc.

But the public doesn't know what Batman does. They don't know he's a guy with fancy gadgets. They don't know whether he has superpowers. He never talks with anyone he doesn't have to. And so on.

That works for me..

[Mister Intensity]

That makes too much sense. Too bad that's not the explanation DC used when they ran with it. Thankfully the "urban legend" stuff is over (too bad the stories didn't improve).

Mister Intensity

[Lorendiac]

Ok, fans are always angry about DC deciding to make Batman nothing more than an urban legend in his universe, which of course makes no sense. So here's one way for me to explain it to myself.

For what it's worth, the way I heard it was that it was one man's decision: Denny O'Neil in the mid-90s, during his long reign as the editor in charge of all Bat-titles.

And one theory (which may not be accurate) is that he was inspired by rereading Frank Miller's classic "Dark Knight Returns" graphic novel, about a decade after it had been published back in the mid-80s. In it, Miller had a politician remark sarcastically something like this: "Anyway, Batboy would be pushing 60 by now - if he ever was real. Funny there was never a photograph of him . . . mighty funny, I say!"

Apparently Miller just thought it would be a cool idea, for his own purposes, if Batman's existence before his retirement (which occurred ten years before DKR starts) had never been Officially Proved to the Outside World. Even in Gotham City, he had become just an urban legend to modern teenagers who didn't remember him, and outside Gotham he may have always been just an urban legend since nobody ever actually saw him captured on film on the six o'clock news.

I have no problem with that as a background assumption for Miller's DKR set in its own little world, waaaaay outside of the regular continuity! Miller was doing things his own way in that story of what Batman might be like in another 20 years, but he never tried to force that idea down every other writer's throat. But ten years after the fact, Denny O'Neil suddenly took it upon himself to start forcing it down people's throats. Possibly he suddenly said to himself one night, "Hey, wouldn't it be really kewl if that sweeping statement in DKR about Batman never being captured on film were actually 100% true in the modern continuity? And if that means we have to retcon a hundred of the Post-Crisis stories we've already told in the last ten years, so be it! Why not? Batman has never been captured on film; he's just a vague urband legend that the outside world doesn't even take seriously!"



People KNOW a Batman exists. Perhaps during the first year of his career he was an unindetified rumour, but by this point, the people of the world do know there's Batman. They know he works with the Justice Leage of America. But they don't know what he is. Like, everyone in the DCU knows that WonderWoman is an Amazon, and Superman comes from another planet. And atleast most of the other big Superheroes in DC, even if they have Secrets IDs, the public atleast knows they what kind of powers they have, they don't fear going around during the day, they might talk with the media, etc.

But the public doesn't know what Batman does. They don't know he's a guy with fancy gadgets. They don't know whether he has superpowers. He never talks with anyone he doesn't have to. And so on.

That's pretty close to the way I see Batman and his public image. It also resembles various things I've seen about him in stories told both before and after Crisis. Some crooks have seemed to think he might be a vampire or other type of practically-impossible-to-kill supernatural entity, for instance.

[Elevation]

i love the whole Batman as an urban legend hting. It makes him more than the man he actually just is. This is above all his major advantage against his enemies.