Byrne Robotics: "Batman is insane"

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132674

Posted: 10 November 2012 at 6:37am \| IP Logged \| 1

The Batman that I grew up with was anything but insane. He was totally cool and rational. The world's greatest detective. Capable of extricating himself from situations that would have been impossible for an ordinary man; only due to the training he had given himself since childhood. How could anyone that disciplined be insane?

••

Keep in mind, when it comes to the writers of superhero comics, many (most?) come from the ranks of those who didn't get picked for sports on the playground, and who preferred reading to getting all sweaty anyway.

Many a moon ago, I was visiting Washington DC with some friends, including the tween-aged son of one. The lad had already expressed a desire to join the Army, a notion completely alien to me. As we all climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a squad of GIs jogged past, running up the steep incline. "Remember that," I said to the lad. "Being in the Army is kinda like being in gym class all the time!" "I like gym class," he said.

Which is a pretty good definition of why Bruce Wayne is a superhero, and I'm NOT!

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Kip Lewis
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Joined: 01 March 2011
Posts: 2880

Posted: 10 November 2012 at 7:00am \| IP Logged \| 2

The first question should be: what do you mean by insane?

I mean there is Joker insane, in that his thought processes are so
skewed they don't follow what a reasonable person would do. (But
legally he is sane because he knows that what he is doing is bad and
what is the right thing to do. He just doesn't care.)

Or is it just the vague "everyone has a mental disorder one kind or
another."

Or he is he like a list of fictional heroes being disganosed for mental
issues, like does Sherlock Holmes Asperger's? I have seen several
fictional characters analysed for this, including I think Batman. (People
with this can be very disciplined.) But this is not "insanity" either.

Or is it, if you are different from the rest, there must be something
wrong with you? (Hmmm, maybe this is part of it. Comic fans have
their sanity questioned because we don't follow the crowd and do the
normal expected thing and then the fan uses that train of thought on
Batman, seeing it as a good thing.)

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Darren De Vouge
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Joined: 04 December 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 3586

Posted: 10 November 2012 at 1:32pm \| IP Logged \| 3

Which is a pretty good definition of why Bruce Wayne is a superhero, and I'm NOT!

***

I suspect very few of us could be.

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Sam Karns
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Joined: 26 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7624

Posted: 10 November 2012 at 3:37pm \| IP Logged \| 4

Cops risk their lives every time they works the streets. Are they considered crazy?

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Joel Tesch
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Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 2824

Posted: 12 November 2012 at 9:27am \| IP Logged \| 5

Cops risk their lives every time they works the streets. Are they considered crazy?

I don't think that's a good analogy. Police are part of an organized force with recognized, legal authority. Batman acts alone (or with one other, Robin) and has no such legal authority.

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Rick Whiting
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Joined: 22 April 2004
Posts: 2199

Posted: 12 November 2012 at 11:18am \| IP Logged \| 6

But if you stick around past the "target window", and somehow fail to carry along with you the same acceptance that brought you in in the first place -- and it IS a failure of the consumer, in this case, not of the product -- or if you somehow become a professional in the industry and drag along with you all the questions that would not have been asked if you'd "left" when you were "supposed to"… Well, we pretty much end up where we are.

________________________________

A perfect example of this is a recent interview that I read with the new writer of Iron Man, who ponders the question if Tony Stark is a sex addict. The writer also went on to say that Tony thinks of his "one night stands as interchangeable". And while he did admit that Tony is "a bit of a playboy", I feel that he is delving way to deeply into why Tony sleeps around with a lot of women. I mean seriously, being a playboy is enough of an explanation. We don't need any of that psychobabble crap.

Here's a link to the interview in question.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42062

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David Plunkert
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Joined: 03 July 2012
Posts: 536

Posted: 12 November 2012 at 11:58am \| IP Logged \| 7

-- And while he did admit that Tony is "a bit of a playboy", I feel that he is delving way to deeply into why Tony sleeps around with a lot of women. I mean seriously, being a playboy is enough of an explanation. We don't need any of that psychobabble crap.

iii

Sure there's story evidence to back up a sex addict charge if someone wants to go that route but wouldn't it be better for the writer to ask himself what happens when types like Stark or Bond are no longer considered playboys but dudes with a sex addiction? It would be healthier if they settled down and got married? Thrilling!

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