I miss this Batman...

[Buried Alien]

Can you imagine Batman doing something like this today?



Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[JBatmanFan05]

Yea, Batman was so awesome like this in the Bronze Age. A little bit of everything in his character. Even Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry wasn't as super serious as Batman often feels like today.

I have that whole period above custom bound so now I can see the full serial scope of Batman from 1979-1986 before Batman #401.


More and more Batman writers should watch BTAS, which reflected the kind of Batman you just displayed...a balanced Batman. The Shadow-like dark avenger but fun and romantic also, Bruce and the Batman.

We need more Matt Wagner on Batman.

[Assam]

While the Bronze Age may not be my favorite era of Batman stories, that will likely remain Alan Grant's work, Bronze Age Batman himself was probably the most consistently great version of the character.

[Frontier]

I feel like we still see this Batman every now and then, if not in the comics but in other media.

[Sacred Knight]

I keep hoping that new eras will restore stuff like this to Batman's characterization. But everytime I think there's the chance it doesn't go anywhere. Him potentially getting married is the next tease of perhaps him lightening up some. Here's hoping.

[JBatmanFan05]

Here's hoping.

I think King, despite some old school trappings he uses, is not the droid you're looking for, the hope you seek. He and Snyder seem to be almost this new zenith of anti-Bronze Age style Batman, more the Frank Miller and Moore direction (more just Marvel even maybe). Some positive trappings and themes and messages, but the characterization is no/little light, no/little balance.

That's what I loved about Morrison's end to Inc, he noticed how impossible it is to drag Batman back to the light. His end was a comment on Snyder some, even though they seem to get along and all.

[Flash Gordon]

Yeah, this is the guy I enjoy too.

[Agent Z]

Can you imagine Batman doing something like this today?



Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Sure I can. Being scary is Bruce's whole character.

[Buried Alien]

Sure I can. Being scary is Bruce's whole character.

But being funny has been MIA for decades.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Agent Z]

But being funny has been MIA for decades.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

He's never been known for being funny.

[HandofPrometheus]

Balanced Batman is the best Batman.

[JBatmanFan05]

Batman has had a playful sense of humor like Spider-Man and Superman and others:
Zstop3333mmmmmmmmmmmnn.jpg

[CryNotWolf]

He's never been known for being funny.

That's a strange thing to say when he helmed the greatest comedic capeshow of all time.

[Buried Alien]

That's a strange thing to say when he helmed the greatest comedic capeshow of all time.

...and the Golden and Silver Age comics that he appeared in monthly in the decades before the TV series also weren't uniformly bleak and grim. Bob Kane and Bill Finger, not Frank Miller, created Batman.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[ChaoticScholar]

GraysonBat almost did that.