10 Best Moments From Tom King's Batman
9. Bruce Talks To His Mother
There are a lot of reasons for why Bruce has lived his life the way that he has. All of which vary depending on the author currently writing him. Whether it's because the trauma of seeing his parents die at such a young age really did drive him just as crazy as the villains he fights, or because affordable housing and increased revenue for impoverished communities don't really matter to genuine psychopaths like the Joker.
But for all his drawbacks when writing him, Tom King managed to get right down to the simple truth of why Batman does what he does, and it comes at the end of the excellent I Am Bane storyline.
The basics of this story see Batman trying to use supervillain Psycho Pirate to cure a recently driven insane Gotham Girl. Which is a problem, considering that Bane was using the Pirate to get him off Venom, and Batman stealing him back made Bane relapse hard.
During their final battle, Batman has a vision of his mother, who dissects the reason that Batman is helping Gotham Girl is because her powers gave him hope that he could finally end his war on all criminals and achieve his selfish victory. But after defeating Bane, Batman responds that no, this was never about his parents or his need for his little war to end; Gotham Girl was in trouble, and needed his help, and that's all it has ever been about.
For a writer infamous for making everything just that little bit more complicated than it needed to be, ending this story arc on such a beautifully simplistic note takes you by surprise.