Ok, I admit on the face of it this seems like a ridiculous question. Handsome and powerful millionaire by day, vanquisher of evil with a really cool car by night…ok, who wouldn’t want that. I want that am I’m a girl. (Either that or to be Catwoman. Batgirl is just out of the question even if I get a spiffy Batbike.)
But guys seem to want to be Batman…a lot. Even more than Superman. And he can FLY!
I recently had a friend of mine tell me about this jerk who, due to a bill he (my friend that is) was justifiably trying to collect from him, was making his life hell and trying to destroy him. I pointed out that therefore he had an evil nemesis just like {other fictional characters} and Batman. Which of the fictional characters do you think he identified with…and which association made him feel better about his circumstance?
I mean who’d want to be Batman? He’s a poor tormented orphan with a lot of personal demons…or is that in fact the attraction…?
I have my own ideas about what’s desirable about being Batman, but i’d like to hear from the guys (and girls) in question.
Batman is dark and mysterious. He has no special powers so that makes him just a very clever and resourceful dude. Superman is an alien in a seriously-uncool outfit, with a silly name. (ok ‘bat’-man is not exactly ultra-cool, but the concept is cool)
… Not speaking for myself, but Batman is a mega-mega-rich, handsome, single ‘millionaire playboy’ with a huge house and all the accoutrements that go with being rich, as well as cool gadgets and incredible (though not superhuman) strength and cleverness. I can’t imagine what would seem uncool about any of that, minus Robin. The fact that he’s not straightlaced like Superman is also appealing, I think it makes him more of a real person.
I am surprised no one mentioned this before.Batman is cool is because he has Robin!
On a serious note I think why Batman is popular is because he has the money,the cool gadgets,spiffy car and not to mention that his enemies are the coolest.Joker,Riddler etc IMHO are top notch villians.
Back when the first Tim Burton Batman movie came out, I was working in a theatre and as a promotion I dressed as Batman to greet the kids.
It went over really great. We got a Halloween mask of the cowl and made a big cape. Didnt’ do the full rubber suit so I wore a grey top and tights with black shorts. Big boots and a army web belt with lots of ‘stuff’ on it and some black motorcycle gloves completed the outfit.
The kids loved it.
So did most of the adult women. The ones that didn’t flirt with me asked if their husband could borrow the outfit.
There’s a paragraph in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash which goes something like:
“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Columbian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”
And Batman is pretty much that. As opposed to the superheroes who are defined by being superhuman, we can pretend that we too could be just like Bruce Wayne, if only we were billionaires.
of coure, guys convieniently forget that while Bruce Wayne does indeed act like a playboy and dates the most fabulously beautiful women, he never has sex with any of them.
Ever.
He’s always getting called away by the Bat-signal.
Plus I’m fairly sure that Bruce Wayne would have a tough time explaing why he has hideous scars all over his body from the knife/spear/arrow/ax/bullet/hammer wounds that he has received.
Which is related to something else that guys seem to forget. Batman/Bruce Wayne gets beaten on a lot. And even though he won’t show it, I bet Bruce spands most of the time in constant pain.
I have this argument with my son all the time. He thinks Batman’s “lame” because he doesn’t have any powers. I say that’s why I can identify with him. It’s a little late for me to be born on Krypton, but with enough training and gadgets (and a Bat-hound), I could be mysterious.
I think it is a control thing. Batman has suffered loss, but he’s dealt with it by controlling every aspect of his life. He will never be a victim again – that is he credo, even if he doesn’t actually recognize it.
I think that and the generally accepted possibility that beating Batman is impossible no matter who you are (just look at the threads).
