Does Everybody In Gotham Believe In The Batman?

[andthegunslinger]

I'm reading through Gotham Central and a character is discussing how she and many other Gothamites do not/did not believe the Batman really existed.

Is this view shared throughout Gotham? The newspapers seem convinced he exists, the criminals appear convinced. Or is it a case of not believing until you see him?

[Kensei]

I'm reading through Gotham Central and a character is discussing how she and many other Gothamites do not/did not believe the Batman really existed.

Is this view shared throughout Gotham? The newspapers seem convinced he exists, the criminals appear convinced. Or is it a case of not believing until you see him?

There is an intersting parallel in that not everyone in Victorian London in 1888 believed in Jack the Ripper. Some believed that several unrelated murders were being lumped together as the work of one man. If Batman chose to operate in a way in which he never went public in any way, I could see where a similar thing could happen. But I think Batman wants the people to know he is there, and lets himself be seen for that reason.

[Sailor Moon]

Considering he's on the very, very public JL, I really only think the slowest of Gothamites don't believe in him.

[Bluebow]

Considering he's on the very, very public JL, I really only think the slowest of Gothamites don't believe in him.

Some people wil believe what they want to believe. intelligence or education only gives them more sophisticated reasoning to accept impossible things or dismiss what is right in front of them. Seeing is not believing for everyone and Batman does use a semi-mythic aspect to instill fear in criminals.

[KurtW95]

If you believe in Batman, clap your hands!

[Sailor Moon]

Nah, I'm sticking with the slow Gothamites explanation.

[Bluebow]

Nah, I'm sticking with the slow Gothamites explanation.

It would not be out of the question for someone to come up with a theory that Batman was a creation of a law enforcement agency such as the FBI or Gotham PD or even Commisioner Gordon, complete with details such as the Bat Signal as a kind of Boogyman for the more gullible criminals. As I just did.

[Sailor Moon]

If he weren't part of the JL, then maybe, but since JL is so public from TV to internet to everything, there's no way for that to be viable pass conspiracy theorists, half of whom don't really believe, just like the idea (just like most in our world). But even without the JL, there would be a limit after such a prolonged amount of time.

[SpideyZERO]

I think most of the Gothamites probably don't care and are kinda "Batman exists? So?"

[Bluebow]

If he weren't part of the JL, then maybe, but since JL is so public from TV to internet to everything, there's no way for that to be viable pass conspiracy theorists, half of whom don't really believe, just like the idea (just like most in our world). But even without the JL, there would be a limit after such a prolonged amount of time.

There are still people who don't accept the moon landings or think that we are secretly ruled by lizards overlords, not many, but some. It does seem unlikely, but there are always a few people like that.

[Sailor Moon]

Yeah, slow Earthlings, slow DCites, different universe, same dumb.

[sunofdarkchild]

Zero Hour retconned the universe so that Batman was just an unconfirmed myth. The Mayor and the police knew about him but never confirmed his existence to the public. It wasn't until War Games that he was outed as being being real.

The thing I never got was the batsignal shining during that period where he was a myth to Gotham.

[The Duke]

There is an intersting parallel in that not everyone in Victorian London in 1888 believed in Jack the Ripper. Some believed that several unrelated murders were being lumped together as the work of one man. If Batman chose to operate in a way in which he never went public in any way, I could see where a similar thing could happen. But I think Batman wants the people to know he is there, and lets himself be seen for that reason.

Two things.

1. I love the hell out of that answer - having made a study of Victorian England (with a focus on the motivations of the Ripper) I can tell you that for a lot of people, Jack the Ripper (whose name was actually coined by a newspaperman called Thomas Bulling who worked for the Central News Agency) was just a myth made up to scare people into either seeking protection from groups like the Nichols gang (a group of thugs who offered protection but were almost worse than the killer himself) or to buy newspapers put out by the Central News Agency.

2. The whole thing about Batman being a urban myth was one of the more ridiculous aspects of post Zero Hour Batman. If there were any connection to pre-Crisis Batman, who used to host parades in the earlier times or even post-Crisis Batman who worked with the FBI and CIA and was in the Justice League (whom someone mentioned) then the idea he didn't really exist is just, like I said, ridiculous.

[carabas]

No, not all Gothamites believe in Batman.

Some people still don't believe in thing like the moon landing, Elvis being dead, or that president Obama is an American.
In all likelyhood, not all Metrolopitans believe in Superman either, even if they've seen him in action with their very own eyes.

[bat39]

Considering he's on the very, very public JL, I really only think the slowest of Gothamites don't believe in him.

I'm not sure about the extent to which one can rely on DC's chronological references...but according to Batgirl # 0 (set '4 years ago'), Batman is STILL considered an urban myth by the GCPD (despite the fact that, by this point, he'd been publicly working with the JL for around a year or so).

While it seems HIGHLY unlikely that most people wouldn't believe in Batman's existence by this point, its possible that while people are aware of the existence of Batman on the JL, they don't believe that he's the bogeyman who's supposed to be haunting Gotham's streets. Or maybe Gothamites simply don't pay all that much attention to news of the JL, and Batman didn't have as high a profile as, say, Superman or Wonder Woman in the early days of the League.

But long-term, its virtually impossible for people not to believe Batman exists.

It would not be out of the question for someone to come up with a theory that Batman was a creation of a law enforcement agency such as the FBI or Gotham PD or even Commisioner Gordon, complete with details such as the Bat Signal as a kind of Boogyman for the more gullible criminals. As I just did.

Interestingly, there was a mention of that theory in Burton's 'Batman'...when the reporter Alexander Knox sarcastically asks a cop if the 'Batman' was on the police payroll...