Why do some people assume Batman is arrogant?

[DCCoolness]

Even Superman calls him this. Just because a man, who is intelligent and crafty, knows your strength and weaknesses does NOT make him arrogant. Batman never brags about his skills.

[Tupiaz]

Batman has an idea that Gotham is his city. When you have that feeling you also have the opinion you are better than other or in a higher hierarchy. That can be seen as as being arrogant. That Batman is cold, distant and analytical doesn't help either.

This:

Probably didn't help either.

[t hedge coke]

Batman has an idea that Gotham is his city. When you have that feeling you also have the opinion you are better than other or in a higher hierarchy. That can be seen as as being arrogant. That Batman is cold, distant and analytical doesn't help either.

Both of those, though, Batman thinking Gotham is his and his alone and there is no other authority and Batman is a cold and distant bastard are rarely the main portrayal, at any given point, and are usually regulated to alternate-reality stories, future stories, or arcs where by the end he learns again not to be those things.

I'd wager what it mostly is, is that the idea that he's those things is attractive in a salacious, and thereby memorable fashion. This is why people remember DKR's Batman as this angry monster of a man, all grit teeth and taking no shit. Not as the guy who gets really really beat up twice, has a heart attack, hugs a kid, saves a baby, and can't bring himself to actually follow through on his threat to Robin that she's fired if she disobeys him again.

It's more attractive to remember him "beating" Superman, when in reality he got in two or three punches on a severely-weakened Superman who doesn't want to hurt him, and then he has a heart attack and is buried. It's less dramatic to remember him in DKR as hugger of children, teacher of youth, or guy who was jealous Superman's so pretty and disagrees with him.

Like that Bill Hicks joke, "he was a loner with friends and a family."

[Tupiaz]

Both of those, though, Batman thinking Gotham is his and his alone and there is no other authority and Batman is a cold and distant bastard are rarely the main portrayal, at any given point, and are usually regulated to alternate-reality stories, future stories, or arcs where by the end he learns again not to be those things.

Granted that this is my city often has a role in the story. It is still part of the mythos and can be a reason why people sees him as arrogant. In the modern version I haven't seen Batman that wasn't somehow cold, distant, (withdrawn might be a better word) and analytical. I didn't say he wasn't caring. In DKR Batman even cares for those you has been forced by circumstances to live a life as a criminal. But how would you define him?

[Bat007007]

Batman has an idea that Gotham is his city. When you have that feeling you also have the opinion you are better than other or in a higher hierarchy. That can be seen as as being arrogant. That Batman is cold, distant and analytical doesn't help either.

This:

Probably didn't help either.

So because Batman was right here, some people see him as arrogant, cold, distant and analytical ? Ok that make sense …

[Tupiaz]

So because Batman was right here, some people see him as arrogant, cold, distant and analytical ? Ok that make sense …

You are mixing things up. Bruce is a cold, distant and analytical general he is withdrawn and not that social. That will often being judge as being arrogant. The clip show Bruce and that he feel he has the right to weapon on the other members so he can exploit their weaknesses. Compare the with Batman has been seeing having an Gotham is mine attitude. All this combine can make the perception of him being arrogant. Whatever Batman is right is not the question it is the way he act without feeling to inform the others (and yes this is all because of tactics). It doesn't change that he can be seen as an arrogant person.

I have yet to so you making any arguments why Batman Should/should not/is perceived as arrogant.

[phantom1592]

Arrogant:

1. making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud: an arrogant public official.

2. characterized by or proceeding from arrogance, or a sense of superiority, self-importance, or entitlement: arrogant claims


You are right that he never brags about his skills, however he does consider himself right and everyone else wrong. He makes a plan, he executes the plan if anyone disagrees with him, screw them. He'll do his plan anyway without them. That is an arrogant attitude of a sense of superiority.

Sadly, his plans ARE usually the right ones to go... but you don't have to be wrong to be arrogant. You just have to believe yours is the right way ALL the TIME....

Rarely have I ever seen Batman take a vote or ask for input... he just makes decisions.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

...because he is?

I mean, I don't ever need to see him declaring Gotham his city, putting down other superheroes, talking down to cops or just generally acting like an entitled, self-important dick ever again. But he did decide that he was going to put on a costume and end all crime, and along the way accepted the job of acting as the leader, or at least tactician, for a team of the most powerful beings on the planet. That's a pretty strong ego.

[Tupiaz]

talking down to cops

I have never seen this. Where this, this happen?

[Jim Kelly]

...because he is?

Exactly.

I suppose you could make a philosophical argument that it's an assumption--everything in life is an assumption made by our brains. We assume the sun is hot based on the evidence of science and our senses. But really, in practice, the sun is hot and it's just true that Batman is arrogant.

He's one of those people who grumbles that they have to do everything themselves, because nobody else has the skill or the intelligence to get things done.

I don't know if he talks down to cops--he ignores them, he takes off without so much as a pleasant word of parting. He presumes that he can always do a better job than a team of dedicated officers and a large department of trained professionals.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

I have never seen this. Where this, this happen?

As I recall, plenty of it, at least implicitly, in Gotham Central (though it worked for the purposes of that series).

[ReverseReverseFlash]

Even Superman calls him this. Just because a man, who is intelligent and crafty, knows your strength and weaknesses does NOT make him arrogant. Batman never brags about his skills.

I'm not sure it's arrogance, but confidence. That, and Batman is depressed and worn out. He does it to deliberately turn people off because he works better alone. It's hard to get the drop on a guy when your friend is a lightbulb and the other is an alien brick wall who can fly.

[Aioros22]

We don`t assume. He`s written as such here and there. It`s not a one note thing. He may not reach those unbearable levels of "Omac" all the time, where we felt Booster had every right to fry his arse (at least I did), but the way he comes up sometimes with the entiltement that his reasoning is always the correct one is not just confidence.

The way he speaks or rather acts upon his closest allies alone tells us that. Always too fast to point flaws and always too slow to admit the same in himself. It kind of feels nice to read Jason, of all people, telling him that to his face around three times in the new continuity.

[Buried Alien]

Both of those, though, Batman thinking Gotham is his and his alone and there is no other authority and Batman is a cold and distant bastard are rarely the main portrayal, at any given point, and are usually regulated to alternate-reality stories, future stories, or arcs where by the end he learns again not to be those things.

I'd wager what it mostly is, is that the idea that he's those things is attractive in a salacious, and thereby memorable fashion. This is why people remember DKR's Batman as this angry monster of a man, all grit teeth and taking no shit. Not as the guy who gets really really beat up twice, has a heart attack, hugs a kid, saves a baby, and can't bring himself to actually follow through on his threat to Robin that she's fired if she disobeys him again.

It's more attractive to remember him "beating" Superman, when in reality he got in two or three punches on a severely-weakened Superman who doesn't want to hurt him, and then he has a heart attack and is buried. It's less dramatic to remember him in DKR as hugger of children, teacher of youth, or guy who was jealous Superman's so pretty and disagrees with him.

Like that Bill Hicks joke, "he was a loner with friends and a family."

He also gently admonished a young boy to not use foul language.

That's the first moment that I thought of the DARK KNIGHT RETURNS Batman as an older version of the Adam West Batman.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[cjp]

I have never seen this. Where this, this happen?

On any given page of All-Star. ( :