Something I've been thinking about lately, in the wake of all the discussion around Robert Pattison's new Batman and his questionable mental health.
In general, in and out of universe, the idea that Bruce Wayne/Batman suffers from mental health issues, and is a 'disturbed' individual in some way or form, has gained a fair bit of traction over the past decade or two. It starts at the superficial level of ''This guy dresses up like a bat to beat up criminals so he clearly has issues'' and then delves deeper (''He watched his parents murdered as a child, no wonder he's messed up'' or ''After all the sh#t he's been through as Batman he can't still be totally sane''').
Batman's mental health has been the subject of a lot of stories lately, including most recently Batman: The Imposter.
And all this is interesting of course, and a valid interpretation of the character - especially if you want to be 'realistic' about what the toll of being Batman would do to someone who already had a traumatic past.
But what I'm curious to know is, why is Batman the only superhero character whose mental health is questioned so much?
Surely, a lot of the arguments we make in favor of Batman being 'disturbed' could apply to other characters too?
Bruce Wayne dresses up like a bat to fight criminals. Barry Allen also puts on a suit to fight criminals. The only difference is their color scheme and the fact that Barry (and most of the people he fights) have superpowers. Is possessing superpowers supposed to be what distinguishes a ''100% sane and mentally healthy'' hero from a ''hero with poor mental health''? Let's not forget that in current continuity, Barry Allen too lost a parent at an early age (and lost the other parent to prison). So he's another orphan with a traumatic past...why is he a pillar of mental health compared to Bruce?
No one questions Superman's mental health. This is someone who lost his entire species (well, about 99% of it anyway), including his birth parents! He's spent most of his life hiding his powers from everyone around him and living a lie. He splits his time between being a human reporter (sometimes with a bumbling and cowardly persona totally at odds with who he really is) and an alien superhero with God-like powers. He can theoretically hear people in trouble all time everywhere, knowing that every second he isn't saving people, or even if he is busy saving someone, there are thousands of people who he isn't saving. On top of all this, in some versions, he loses his adoptive parents when he's barely out of his teens as well, so he's an orphan twice over! One can easily use any or all of these to argue that Superman's mental health might not be perfect either. But we usually don't.
If we stick to non-powered 'vigilantes' then consider Green Arrow. The least traumatic version of his origin story still has him spending months on a deserted island away from civilization, being forced to hunt to survive. According to Mike Grell, Oliver became the Green Arrow because he was bored with his life as a businessman and wanted to recapture the primal excitement and danger of his island days. That sounds like a mental health red flag to me! Oh, and he too has traditionally been an orphan (and in more recent versions where one of his parents is alive, that doesn't make his life easier either). CW's Arrow talked a lot about Oliver Queen's morality and whether or not he is just another killer...but not nearly as much about his mental health.
We don't even have to look a lot further than the Bat-family. Dick Grayson also watched his parents being murdered, and unlike Bruce Wayne, he became a vigilante as a child! I mean, he's virtually a child-soldier who spent his teenage years fighting the Mob and psychopathic killers. But because he wears a colorful costume and is 'nicer' than Bruce we give him a clean bill of mental health. Ironically, if Bruce is so disturbed, than wouldn't it follow that Dick, as his ward/foster 'son', didn't have the healthiest upbringing either and might have issues as well? But that seldom comes up.
Hell, what about Batgirl? Barbara Gordon led a nice, stable, upper middle-class life as the daughter of a police commissioner and then one day she decides to put on a costume and become a vigilante inspired by Batman. Is that normal?
Moving beyond DC, on the Marvel side, no one says Peter Parker is disturbed or not mentally healthy, even though he too is a costumed vigilante (who unlike Batman has been doing this since he was a teenager!), arguably suffers a guilt complex over the death of his Uncle Ben, and had to deal with the added burdens of earning a living from an early age and watching his personal and professional life suffer from being Spider-Man.
My point is this - why is Batman the only one singled out on this issue?