The Batman Begins, multiple comics and Joe Chill goof

[DrNewGod]

I'm watching Nolan's first Bat-flick for the Lotsa-th time. I still like it. A lot.

There is one piece that doesn't work for me. Joe Chill being identified and punished.

Now I realize that comics has let Batman catch up with Chill. In fact they've done it multiple times.

IMO, that's a mistake. How better to explain Batman's obsession than that his parents' murderer is a faceless boogie-man, who can be confronted only only in nightmares, where he always has the upper hand.

Personally, I've always liked the way that LA Confidential dealt with a similar issue in Rolo Tomassi. Namely, that Joe Chill is a name used to corporealize a person that Batman can never find or deal with.

Thoughts?

[Carabas]

IMO, that's a mistake. How better to explain Batman's obsession than that his parents' murderer is a faceless boogie-man, who can be confronted only only in nightmares, where he always has the upper hand.

My prefered Batman doesn't have an obsession (well, not more than any other superhero) and doesn't do what he does to hunt down and punish his parents' killer, or even criminals in general criminals. He's not hung up on Joe Chill (who has been dead anyway for the majority of Batman's 70-odd years long existance). He doesn't need Joe Chill to motivate him to get off his ass and put his cape on.

He does it so that others wouldn't suffer what he has suffered. That's what he sacrifices his chance at a normal life for.

That was the Batman I liked, not the Punisher-Lite they have running around these days.

[thwhtGuardian]

My prefered Batman doesn't have an obsession (well, not more than any other superhero) and doesn't do what he does to hunt down and punish his parents' killer, or even criminals in general criminals. He's not hung up on Joe Chill (who has been dead anyway for the majority of Batman's 70-odd years long existance). He doesn't need Joe Chill to motivate him to get off his ass and put his cape on.

He does it so that others wouldn't suffer what he has suffered. That's what he sacrifices his chance at a normal life for.

That was the Batman I liked, not the Punisher-Lite they have running around these days.

He doesn't seem much like punisher-lite(though I love that term!) to me, definitely different in tone than what has come before but not punisher like.

[joybeans]

My prefered Batman doesn't have an obsession (well, not more than any other superhero) and doesn't do what he does to hunt down and punish his parents' killer, or even criminals in general criminals. He's not hung up on Joe Chill (who has been dead anyway for the majority of Batman's 70-odd years long existance). He doesn't need Joe Chill to motivate him to get off his ass and put his cape on.

He does it so that others wouldn't suffer what he has suffered. That's what he sacrifices his chance at a normal life for.

That was the Batman I liked, not the Punisher-Lite they have running around these days.

I liked that in Begins, when Chill dies, Bruce realizes how unsatisfying and empty the feeling is. He learns to accept that Joe Chill was not a force of evil, but rather just a symptom of a greater problem, one that he can't solve by just beating up enough criminals. It's a theme that Batman #44 touches upon as well. Batman can't find justice for Peter Duggio by just punching the right criminals, because Duggio wasn't a victim of one singular bad guy. He's a victim of the institutions of Gotham, and Bruce needs to do more to save the city that he loves.

[t hedge coke]

My prefered Batman doesn't have an obsession (well, not more than any other superhero) and doesn't do what he does to hunt down and punish his parents' killer, or even criminals in general criminals. He's not hung up on Joe Chill (who has been dead anyway for the majority of Batman's 70-odd years long existance). He doesn't need Joe Chill to motivate him to get off his ass and put his cape on.

He does it so that others wouldn't suffer what he has suffered. That's what he sacrifices his chance at a normal life for.

That was the Batman I liked, not the Punisher-Lite they have running around these days.

This. There's a wonderful bit in the Brave and the Bold tie-in comic that Sholly Fisch wrote, where Psycho Pirate left Batman in deep ennui, saying he can't save everyone. Billy Batson tells him that, as an orphan, even if someone saved his parents, but not someone else, he'd be grateful they saved his parents.

That, to me, should be Batman's thing. He can't save everyone, but he can save people. He can help people.

[HellHere]

Now I realize that comics has let Batman catch up with Chill. In fact they've done it multiple times.

IMO, that's a mistake. How better to explain Batman's obsession than that his parents' murderer is a faceless boogie-man, who can be confronted only only in nightmares, where he always has the upper hand.

I mean, it's right there in the first Joe Chill story. Batman catches him puts the fear of hell in him and Chill ends up being murdered by his goons who blame him for creating Batman. I prefer it when the killer of Batman's parents is just another criminal. It reinforces the randomness of the world and the pettiness of crime. He wants to stop it because it's bad and he can.

I like to think that his parents murders are the first time Bruce has ever really been exposed to the coldness of the world, and he can't accept it. I don't think he needs another bogeyman hanging over his head.

[JBatmanFan05]

There is one piece that doesn't work for me. Joe Chill being identified and punished.

Now I realize that comics has let Batman catch up with Chill. In fact they've done it multiple times.

IMO, that's a mistake. How better to explain Batman's obsession than that his parents' murderer is a faceless boogie-man, who can be confronted only only in nightmares, where he always has the upper hand.

Personally, I've always liked the way that LA Confidential dealt with a similar issue in Rolo Tomassi. Namely, that Joe Chill is a name used to corporealize a person that Batman can never find or deal with.

Thoughts?

Batman is how Bruce deals with it. You can't have Chill out there. Batman doesn't do what he does to to try to track down Chill. He's not about vengeance. And you don't want the reader thinking he could be about vengeance. The Wayne murders are a closed case and Chill is gone, and how does Bruce deal with that: Be Batman so it doesn't happen to another family.

Chill and his death is what Finger wanted. And Chill and his death make it clear that Batman's mission is not about avenging his parents, it's about rescuing a city from similar fates.