Controversial Batfamily Opinions

[Harpsikord]

I've seen (and participated in) threads akin to this one in other boards on this forum, and thought it might be a good idea to stick one up here. Basically the premise is to post opinions about members of the batfamily, or the behind the scenes aspects, that you have realized are controversial opinions to have around these-- or most-- parts. Here are a few examples, and some of my own:

Bruce Wayne is hardly interesting; the rest of the batfamily are the more interesting ones.
Damian Wayne is probably better off dead.
Barbara Gordon as Batgirl is weak, whiny, and was an unnecessary character degradation.
Scott Lobdell is the best writer for Red Hood and the Outlaws.
I now consider Roy Harper and Starfire unofficial members of the batfamily.
Cassandra Cain is vastly unappealing.
The "Harley Quinn" series is trite and disgusting.

How about you guys?

[brandnewfan]

Batman is actually my least favorite character in the Batbooks.

Tim Drake should be gay.

Harley Quinn's solo book is boring and unfunny.

[Claude]

A Batman who gets on well with - and has an honest, caring and friendly relationship with - the Bat Family is a more interesting and engaging character than Solo Batman or Untrusting Batman.

There shouldn't be a huge gulf between "Batman" and "Bruce Wayne".


Sooner or later, there needs to be a proper Red Hood batfamily story that addresses what on Earth everyone thinks about Jason Todd running happily about the place.

I'm not convinced that Stephanie Brown can carry her own title without being Batgirl - but she and Bluebird (and Carrie Kelly?) should work under Barbara on a new Birds Of Prey.



Dick Grayson has a more interesting dynamic with each and every other member of the Family than Bruce does.

[Tupiaz]

The batfamily is in general unimportant.
For the most part the batfamily lack their own flavour and arch enemies.
Getting a new Robin nor or in the near future would be ridiculous.

[BooCoo]

Bruce should get married, with a wife that becomes an "oracle" type character balancing him out. Her reaction to his deep psychology and secrets? "Big deal."

[tako]

Dick Grayson should have sex with every woman in the DCU.

Wait, no, that's not an unpopular opinion. Everybody agrees.

Carry on.

[HLOTS]

Never liked the Dick/Tim relationship. Always found them annoying together. Glad they're not close anymore.

Loathe the Dick/Babs ship.

[Step]

New 52 Harley's characterisation has been pretty bad for the entirety of the new 52, the only one who got her right recently was Tom Taylor in Injustice, and that wasn't even new 52!

Her solo book isn't funny either, and the only reason I'm sticking around is cause she's my fav DC character and that might not even be enough for long.

I find the women of the batfam are far more interesting than the men in general.

Solo batman is not interesting to me.

I LOVE the Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn friendship but it doesn't make sense in the New 52, what with Poison Ivy being more of an anti-hero and Harley being more of a straight villain, either Ivy should influence Harley to be better or they should just break it off, hell they were fighting on opposite sides in the Gothtopia story arc, Harley's group captured Ivy, how are they still buddy-buddy?

[retical]

New 52 Harley's characterisation has been pretty bad for the entirety of the new 52, the only one who got her right recently was Tom Taylor in Injustice, and that wasn't even new 52!

Her solo book isn't funny either, and the only reason I'm sticking around is cause she's my fav DC character and that might not even be enough for long.

I find the women of the batfam are far more interesting than the men in general.

Solo batman is not interesting to me.

I LOVE the Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn friendship but it doesn't make sense in the New 52, what with Poison Ivy being more of an anti-hero and Harley being more of a straight villain, either Ivy should influence Harley to be better or they should just break it off, hell they were fighting on opposite sides in the Gothtopia story arc, Harley's group captured Ivy, how are they still buddy-buddy?

Exactly. Their relationship does not make any sense.

[nepenthes]

All Star Batman is the one and only origin of Dick Grayson

Dark Knight Strikes Again is the most fun ever had in Batman comics

Scumachers Batman & Robin > The Dark Knight Rises

Batman should be shown to have a better diet - he should be constantly devouring protein bars on rooftops and mixing up shakes from tap water in peoples kitchens.

Barbara Gordon can be Oracle AND Batgirl at the same time - see Batman Incorporated #8.

Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer should NOT be married....just yet.

The Joker should be cured with neural surgery and hidden away from the world in the Batcave as Alfred's new apprentice.

The Batman editors and DC in general should follow the lead of whats happening outside the comics more closely. In terms of content, style, marketing, cross promotion, everything. Comics are far too insular

Tim Drake should be gay.

A Batman who gets on well with - and has an honest, caring and friendly relationship with - the Bat Family is a more interesting and engaging character than Solo Batman or Untrusting Batman.

Dick Grayson has a more interesting dynamic with each and every other member of the Family than Bruce does.

You can never have too many members of the Batfamily, and really the only thing that should be harped on an emphasized should be the little details that define their differences and their various levels of compassion and antagonism between each other:

Cass Cain is easily the most awesome and creative Batgirl, Stephanie Brown is the most fun, and Babs should be the most dangerous but the decision to neuter her computer skills demotes the character below all her male peers. The latter should be rectified and all three should work together to create a huge geek-girl faction of comic readers united under the Bat's banner. I need comics to suggest to my sister, dagnabit!

Agreed!

[cgh]

All Star Batman is the one and only origin of Dick Grayson

Dark Knight Strikes Again is the most fun ever had in Batman comics

Scumachers Batman & Robin > The Dark Knight Rises

Batman should be shown to have a better diet - he should be constantly devouring protein bars on rooftops and mixing up shakes from tap water in peoples kitchens.

Barbara Gordon can be Oracle AND Batgirl at the same time - see Batman Incorporated #8.

Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer should NOT be married....just yet.

The Joker should be cured with neural surgery and hidden away from the world in the Batcave as Alfred's new apprentice.

The Batman editors and DC in general should follow the lead of whats happening outside the comics more closely. In terms of content, style, marketing, cross promotion, everything. Comics are far too insular

Haha, these are awesome! Although I liked The Dark Knight Rises so I disagree there.

Some other things:

1. Damian Wayne should stay dead. His story is over.

2. If Talia is resurrected, she should continue to be a global-empire badass. When she gets mad and puts on that skull mask, it's all kinds of awesome.

3. Tim Drake is irrelevant.

4. Unmasking Dick was a great move as he'll finally become his own man as a Jason Bourne-like super-spy.

5. I never liked Oracle and I don't want her to return in any capacity.

6. I kind of like Joker's Daughter. She's just really really crazy and unlike most other female villains.

[brenster21]

i want to see jason todd in his own solo book, fighting crime as the red hood in DC's worst city, Hub city. (it is not like the question is using it)

[Batman Forever]

Schumachers Batman & Robin > The Dark Knight Rises

For sure. I will never get tired of watching batman and robin. Dark Knight Rises was exhausting enough for an entire lifetime. And doesn't feel all that much like a batman movie to me besides.

Batman should be shown to have a better diet - he should be constantly devouring protein bars on rooftops and mixing up shakes from tap water in peoples kitchens.

YES! I am so sick of writers having him neglecting meals. Bruce would be completely anal about what he eats and when.

The Batman editors and DC in general should follow the lead of whats happening outside the comics more closely. In terms of content, style, marketing, cross promotion, everything. Comics are far too insular

Disagree. I've seen nothing that indicates this helps comics. Neither sales wise nor imo content wise. If anything the comics need to try and do more to distinguish themselves as a unique medium and trailblaze new characters, new stories, new directions. Mine stuff to fuel the mythology of batman in pop culture, because comics aren't popular, and if they are only used to form an echo chamber with the bat-media that actually is popular, well then they've lost what makes them important.

Plus, the idea of executives deciding what comic creators used to decide makes me queasy.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Basically the premise is to post opinions about members of the batfamily, or the behind the scenes aspects, that you have realized are controversial opinions to have around these-- or most-- parts.

I like this premise.

-Authoritarian Batman is boring. Unhappy Batman is boring. Jerk Batman is boring. People, please stop writing him like this. Denny O'Neil, The Animated Series, and Morrison's Batman are what Batman "should" be like.

-Barbara is more interesting as Oracle, but she is not a good supporting character for Batman. I don't buy that Bruce would need Oracle in most cases. Oracle would work better in Birds of Prey than in Batman titles.

-Jason Todd is uninteresting and should be retconned out of canon. Damian Wayne is Jason Todd done right. The only way I wouldn't want Jason retconned is if Dick is ever Batman again.

[kcomics]

I've seen (and participated in) threads akin to this one in other boards on this forum, and thought it might be a good idea to stick one up here. Basically the premise is to post opinions about members of the batfamily, or the behind the scenes aspects, that you have realized are controversial opinions to have around these-- or most-- parts. Here are a few examples, and some of my own:

Bruce Wayne is hardly interesting; the rest of the batfamily are the more interesting ones.
Damian Wayne is probably better off dead.
Barbara Gordon as Batgirl is weak, whiny, and was an unnecessary character degradation.
Scott Lobdell is the best writer for Red Hood and the Outlaws.
I now consider Roy Harper and Starfire unofficial members of the batfamily.
Cassandra Cain is vastly unappealing.
The "Harley Quinn" series is trite and disgusting.

How about you guys?

Orphan is an underused character with a lot of potential.

Damian Wayne should have his own fan-made solo series to develop his character.

Scott Lobdell IS one of the best Red Hood writers we've ever had. That arc at the end where Jason helps rehabilitate Duela was just golden.

The Harley Quinn series is self-satire of the Batman franchise, but they do a somewhat decent job characterizing Harley, or at least it's better than some of her comics where she goes full Deadpool. The OOC Joker moments are also adorable.

Bruce Wayne as Batman is fun; he just has to be paired with one of his villains, friends, lovers, or proteges for it to show.

Duela Dent should be back on the Teen Titans; she is a fun character when she's written correctly, and an anti-hero Joker girl who is not Harley Quinn and is also a master of disguise is a nice concept.

Batman: White Knight and some of the more famous Elseworlds' Joker stories should be adapted to animated movies. (Does DC have some kind of rule where they can't show the Joker as anything besides a villain in animation? Even Crisis on Two Earths had him blowing up himself to kill some bad guys, and he was clearly one of the good guys in that universe.)

DC should hire and pay the fans to help them come up with good storylines for underused characters. I'd jump for the opportunity if DC had a Kindle Worlds series.