4. Bruce Wayne Makes DC Comics Stagnant
When you look at comics from then to now there are several issues that stand out above others, that are all created by the idea that hundreds of characters all exist in the same continuity. Green Lantern and The Flash are the primary examples of a deliberate passage of time. There have been several heroes to become the Lantern of Space Sector 2814, and multiple men to don the Flash uniform, in the midst of these transitions you have several teenaged superheroes grow into adulthood including Batmans sidekick Robin. Wally West, Dick Grayson, Roy Harper and Donna Troy are all introduced as teenagers. In the landmark series The Judas Contract from the 1980s Dick Grayson makes it clear hes been Robin since he was 8 years old. When he makes this claim hes college aged, later this same character would eventually join the police academy and become a cop, and Bruce Wayne is still Batman! If you were going to be generous and say that by the time he graduates the police academy, Dick is 23 years old, then it would have been 15 years since he first joined Batman. If Batman is even 35 by the time Dick becomes a cop that would mean that he was 20 when he teamed up with Robin. Can you honestly accept the idea that Bruce Wayne became Batman before he was old enough to drink? The math doesnt support that. Even if you buy the idea that Batman was barely a man when he started fighting crime, how old is Alfred? Commissioner Gordon? Characters, who were obviously over 40 when the story began, are still running around without an AARP card. DC spent so long ignoring this worsening issue that the fact that Batman seemed to be able to resist the aging process despite having the most dangerous job in human existence that it became something of an inside joke, or even worse a point of pride. Frank Miller wrote once in the 25th Anniversary edition of The Dark Knight Returns that his motivation for writing the story was the personal issue he had with the fact that Bruce Wayne was perpetually 35 years old. Bruce Wayne became a monster that had grown out of control, insinuated into the framework of the comics industry like a cancer that had spread so far that removing him might kill the patient. So what does DC do to address this issue? They make their entire story painfully circular. After Crisis fixed the continuity nightmare created by the multiverse, DC was in prime position to let Bruce Wayne live as the regular mortal he was. Dick was waiting in the wings; he had become Nightwing which is a transitional identity between Robin and Batman that is beyond obvious. The stage was set for Dick to assume the mantle, and then DC got gun shy. Batman is the benchmark that all comics are compared to, not just DC comics, but all comics, which selling power is literally determined by how it performs next to Batman. DC couldnt risk the potential loss of income so they went about business as usual, the rest of DC comics progressed as Batman stayed perpetually the same. DC even went as far as to hire Frank Miller to come onboard and rewrite the characters history, house cleaning that is only necessary if you admit that his initial origin suggests that his current existence doesnt make sense. This practice would become common place across all of comics including revamps for Spider-Man, Iron Man and others. DC created the business model that it was more prudent to constantly tell the same story over and over again instead of attempting to tell new stories. Thats why comic books tend to come full circle every so often with companywide events that promise massive changes that ultimately result in reestablishing the status quo.