Is Batman Becoming Too Dark and Violent Again?

[MajorHoy]

Yes, I know it's Tony Daniel writing this (from Detective Comics 6), so it doesn't really count in some people's view, but didn't we just go through a phase not all that long ago where Batman became so dark and all, eventually resulting in the Brother Eye fiasco?

It seems the Batman I use to remember would have found a way to knock the gun away so that neither Batman nor the desk clerk would have been severely injured by the shot gun blast . . . shooting off "all the toes on his left foot" doesn't sound like an injury he'll be able to recover from after a few days in the hospital.

But, I'm probably just old and cranky, and their are a bunch of readers who likely think Batman is coddling the criminals by not being tougher on crime. (After all, they keep breaking out of Arkham Asylum because he won't resort to lethal force.)

[thwhtGuardian]

It comes and goes in cycles so I'm not bothered by it too much.

[batGRRRl4ever]

He just needs 10cc's of Adam West's version STAT to help balance him out more!

[Dr.wonderful]

Bruce.

Do we HONERSTY need to bring in an ANOTHER Secret Society that would forced you to eat Humble pie? Remember R.I.P? Oh, and howzabout Count of Owls?

[TZDEKA]

Yes, I know it's Tony Daniel writing this (from Detective Comics 6), so it doesn't really count in some people's view, but didn't we just go through a phase not all that long ago where Batman became so dark and all, eventually resulting in the Brother Eye fiasco?

It seems the Batman I use to remember would have found a way to knock the gun away so that neither Batman nor the desk clerk would have been severely injured by the shot gun blast . . . shooting off "all the toes on his left foot" doesn't sound like an injury he'll be able to recover from after a few days in the hospital.

But, I'm probably just old and cranky, and their are a bunch of readers who likely think Batman is coddling the criminals by not being tougher on crime. (After all, they keep breaking out of Arkham Asylum because he won't resort to lethal force.)

I don't think the Brother Eye stuff had much to do with Bats being too harsh on criminals. I think the bigger thing to worry about is the writers losing sight of the fact that Batman wants to help people and has a complex relationship with his allies, not a totally dickish, paranoid relationship with them.

[Rawhide Kid]

I stopped reading Batman and Robin for this exact reason.
I don't take any pleasure on seeing little boys bathed in gore or killing someone. It is unecessary and it is too easy to write this kind of thing.
The big panels with gritting teeth became tedious very quickly.
It is the anti-fun equation and I don't enjoy it.
Or I'm getting old, I can't say...
(I really miss the days of Grayson's Batman with a lot of fun and weirdness)

[maxpower00044]

Nope. Darker and more violent, the better. You guys can keep the campy-ness.

[FHIZ]

Considering he once made someone shoot their dick off, the big toe seems tame.

[Captain Rabbit]

Co spidering he once made someone shoot their dick off, the big toe seems tame.

Haha, Are you referencing Jekyll and Hyde? I've never read the entire mini but I remember seeing a page online where that appears to have happened.

Anyways, the whole New52 in general has been pretty violent. Some writers probably write Batman more violent than others. Even Morrison had him holding a man's face to a buzz saw.

[Oskar Von Strange]

Nah, the more the better.

[Drz]

He's always been dark and violent, but what Morrison brought in addition to the violence and darkness was innovation, insanity, james bond vibeness and a sense of mass scale that you don't see from the other Bat-writers at all.

[booyah]

nope. never.

[El Sombrero]

I think it's more a problem with individual writers than it is with some editorial edict for the character or whatever.

I read the Batman & Robin 8 preview today and it was just gross. I don't want to read about Damian (or anyone for that matter) killing some dude by sticking his fingers in his brain. Then the Joker face thing in Tec 1, etc.

Snyder's Batman is quite violent but it doesn't feel like it's absolutely disgusting or extremely over the top.

[Free-Man]

We'll soon have Morrison's Batman Inc. running again so that should balance it out again. I admit that since BATB was cancelled on TV there's been relatively little light-hearted Batman fare, but Morrision's stuff is usually better in that respect, at least in the whackiness department.

[The Red Deluge]

I consider myself reasonably desensitised and there's nothing a major publisher can come out with that is going to offend me. Animal Man looks pretty weird but that's it.

Th umbilical chord scene from SAGA #1 was worse than anything the New 52 has thrown at us so far.