1. Bruce Wayne Would NEVER Retire!
In the comic book DC Universe, Bruce Wayne vowed after his parents' death to dedicate his life to fighting crime in an effort to make sure no one else ever had to feel the way he did on that traumatic night in Crime Alley. As an adult, Batman's mission is characterized as a never-ending war; for as long as he has air in his lungs, Bruce Wayne is going to put on the cape and cowl and take down bad guys. In
The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan took a different approach in presenting Batman as an invaluable symbol for Gotham, but also a destructive addiction for Bruce Wayne. The need to be Batman was something Bruce Wayne had to overcome and he did, as demonstrated by his happy retirement in Florence with Selina Kyle in the film's final moments. A small, but very vocal segment of Batman fandom simply could not stand for this. After all, Bruce Wayne would never retire in the comics. He would have to be killed or permanently crippled in order to stop. This is all true in the DC Universe, but this logic ignores the inherent need for a never-ending Batman and the creative liberties afforded in the serialized storytelling of monthly comics. Bruce Wayne will not retire in the comics because DC needs to sell new issues of a handful of Batman titles each and every month. Fortunately for the publisher, no one seems to mind Batman perpetually being in his 30s. Simply put, the character does not have to deal with age and the fact that as a mortal man, Bruce Wayne cannot actually be Batman forever, nor would he effectively be able to do the job well into his 40s, let alone his 50s or 60s. Stories like
The Dark Knight Returns are great hypotheticals, but the mainline DC continuity has not and likely will not adequately address Bruce's inevitable death or retirement. Christopher Nolan did not have to sell another Batman movie after
The Dark Knight Rises and Warner Bros. has the luxury of rebooting the franchise anytime it needs to now that general audiences are hip to the idea. Thanks to the different needs of the film medium, Nolan was afforded the ability to explore the end of Bruce Wayne's time as Batman. He chose to do so in a respectful manner that honored the legacy of the character while also remaining very consistent with the narrative and themes of the rest of the trilogy. When looking at the vitriol some have for Bruce Wayne retiring after a decade or so of service with an eight-year gap in the middle, one has to wonder why there was not a similar sentiment when
The Dark Knight was released in 2008. In that film, Bruce had been on the job for about a year when he was already looking to hand the keys to Gotham's future over to Harvey Dent so that Bruce could live happily ever after with Rachel Dawes. The Joker foiled those plans and Bruce could not truly retire, but his intentions in that film were no different than they eventually were in
The Dark Knight Rises. The only difference is that Bruce was actually successful at retiring in the final film. This iteration of Batman never took a vow to spend the rest of his days fighting crime. He focused on the disease, not the symptoms of crime in Gotham. Bruce's plan was to use Batman as a symbol of hope for the good people of Gotham and "turn fear against those who prey on the fearful." He took aim at the mob, as that was the entity responsible for the roadblocks that kept good citizens from saving their own city. Batman was successful in taking down the mob while also overcoming unexpected challenges, courtesy of villains like The Joker and Bane. In Nolan's grounded world, Batman was a very mortal man who aged and sustained injuries from which he would never fully recover. Bruce Wayne never intended to be Batman forever; it just looked like it might end up that way for awhile. Instead, he accomplished his goals in dissolving the mob, removing new threats, and creating an enduring symbol that will inspire new protectors of Gotham when they are needed, like John Blake. In this iteration, Bruce Wayne was able to all of those things plus something else his comic book counterpart will never be able to do: overcome his need to be Batman and move on with his life. If any character has ever earned the right to enjoy a happy retirement, it is Bruce Wayne. Nolan ought to be commended for caring enough about the character and believing enough in his own vision to provide a definitive, satisfying ending to the story of an ordinary man who turned tragedy into the motivation to accomplish something extraordinary.