10 Problems With Batman Nobody Wants To Admit
So why doesn't he just kill The Joker?
75 long years after his appearance in Detective Comics #27, and the Dark Knight is still sitting pretty. In fact right now he might be at his strongest since his debut, with the Christopher Nolan movies and Scott Snyder's run on the main Batman comic book being amongst the best portrayals of the character to date, and some of the most compelling stories to boot.
Bruce Wayne hasn't changed a whole lot since that first issue, with that almost mythical origin story, costume and modus operandi passing through into popular culture to the degree that people who've never picked up a funnybook in their life know his deal. Batman isn't just a comic character, he's a cultural icon.
People have accepted all the little foibles about the character, like the tragic origin story which Gotham is currently oh-so-helpfully expanding upon, the propensity to dragging rather young sidekicks into his quest for justice, and the pointy-cowled costume. Batman has shown himself to be resilient to all sorts of takes, from the campy Adam West sixties TV show to the grounded in reality incarnation of the Dark Knight trilogy. He's a malleable, adaptive superhero who nonetheless always returns to certain core aspects: some of which should probably be played with, analysed and questioned as much as whether or not the costume should have visible nipples.
In those 75 years there's been plenty of chances to draw attention to the more troubling idiosyncrasies of the Caped Crusader, but most tend to shy away from them. The signal will be shone onto these shadowy, forgotten parts of the Dark Knight through the ten problems with Batman nobody wants to admit.
Number one: why don't he and The Joker just kiss already?