Evolve Batman, EVOLVE! Dammit!

[Mr.Hades]

In my opinion, this character needs to evolve. Batman’s wards have grown and evolved (Robin into Nightwing) yet Bats has remained roughly the same. I agree that he has his fair share of great stories which have ’shaken the apple cart’, but the status quo of the character has remained roughly the same. I would like to see the character age a little and move him more towards the character he is/will be/may become in ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ or ‘Kingdom Come’, hell even ‘Batman Beyond.

I wanna see Bruce/Bats as a more grizzled man moving into his middle age, as opposed to being an eternally youthful 20-30 something. I mean, the guy has suffered a broken back and yet he is still leaping around with Batgirl, who is many years his junior, with ease!

I would like to hear what others think about this! Is it just me that thinks this way?

[WillTurner]

Yes. The same as no matter how many drinks James Bond has he never has willy problems, and Lara Croft can traverse the jungle with two hot air balloons in her shirt.

You want method watch a Merchant Ivory film.

[Spidey]

Not gonna happen. Even though I honestly wish it would happen like that. Original character gets old, new character moves in and takes the throne, but noooooOOO. Comic writers are absolute pussies. "Hey, we find found a winner. Let's milk him til he's dry. Nobody woud notice that he's 50 years old yet retains his youthful appearance and charm!" Balonogna! As much as I love Spider-Man, I woul have loved for his daughter to have taken the throne. Comic writers and editors = pussies!

[Mr.Hades]

Don't get me wrong WillTurner, I'm not saying "How is it that Batman wants to stay hidden, but drives around in a black sports car with fins on' or 'how come he never gets exausted with all the jumping, hitting' etc. If you do start examing any comic book character in depth you can ask a million questions about 'how does he/she do this/that'? I'm talking about evolving the Batman in respect to how he is written.

To get an idea what I mean I will use a character from one of your examples..

James Bond. Having taken hundreds of women to bed and killed hundreds more foes in the field, Bond is promoted to the head of the secret service, now taking on the role of 'M'. Now writers of the character have any opportunity to explore this story as Bond is presented the 'big picture' and has to deal with up and coming double O agents, maybe harbouring a yearning to be back out in the field killing/seducing and perhaps doing so on occasion?

Just a few random ideas, but do you get what i'm talking about? i'm not saying destroy everything the character is about. Far from from it. I feel some of the best Batman tales are the 'Elseworlds' stories and generally narratives that take a bolder step towards what the character could be.

[Captain All That]

I think it's a great idea... let him make a couple of mistakes... let Robin pick up the slack without even communicating what he's doing... let Batman live with the fact that he's slipping and develop the character from there.

It's funny how in Batman Beyond, Wayne waited until he was old to select someone to follow in his steps... would love to see him plant the seeds now. Not train another sidekick... but train another batman.

[F!]

I've never been comfortable with the idea of a replacement Batman. It's not an identity that can really be handed off.

[WillTurner]

You can show Batman failing without changing the character ie not saving a kid (albeit less cliched).

Again taking the James Bond example, this is what pissed me off about Die Another Day- they took a great intro idea (Bond is beaten, tortured, comes out looking for revenge) and turned it into another glitzfest, albeit excruicitatingly bad.

[acosby]

Every replacement Batman story has sucked. Why would we want to subject ourselves to another one?
Besides its simple economics; you don't mess with a formula that works. Its like classic coke or the whole spider clone thing, spiderman's new costume etc. etc.
It would be alright to do as a long term non continuity arc just so that if it sucks they could just cut and run.

Now that I'm thinking about it, besides maybe the flash, what main character has ever had a decent replacement? Most of the ones I can think of were never nearly as cool as the originals.
Usagent, war machine, spider clones, Azriel as batman, guy gardner/john stewart and there are probably more I can't recall.

[DannoE]

Wasn't Dark Knight Returns basically the official "Batman in his 50's story"? I'm pretty sure that the Foreword to one of the newer versions actually says that or something like it.

[xadrian]

Characters in comics, to me, are as close to myth and collective stories as we're going to get. Much like ancient greeks told stories of the gods and titans and heroes and they traveled down through the ages. We have no way of knowing whether or not Hercules existed, or Jason, or Athena, or any of them. But they're so ingrained they will never die. They will also never change. You can tell Apollo stories until the end of time and he'll always be a youthfull blonde aryan guy with a white tunic and a gold helmet. Sure there may be stories of him AS a youth or even an old man, but he's the type (like Batman or Superman) that should always be allowed to live across time and never change. Because they are our myths, our stories.

Like it or not, there's nothing that even comes close. Even if you don't read comics, you know about Spiderman, and Superman and Batman and Wonderwoman, almost in the same breath as you know Zeus and The Cyclops.

There are even gray areas where our myths are built off of old myths (Wonderwoman, Thor.)

I say leave him alone. People will always be able to tell stories of him in any time they choose, but his charm and staying power is in his timelessness. He's an archetype.