"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
That's not the premise of superheroes. It's that all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Or, with great power comes great responsibility. If you had the powers of Superman and never used them to help anybody ... well, you would at least not be a very admirable person. I suppose you could say it's not your job, and that would be true, but still.
Batman's lack of super powers makes it easier to find a way to have him challenged or put in real danger, but it also obscures that a key aspect of the superhero genre is super powers, or abilities beyond what any regular person could do.
Why don't you use your special abilities or powers to kill people?
Yeah, you really shouldn't need to ask that question.
He’s created an environment where vigilantism is essentially accepted over the rule of law and the police rely on people in masks to solve crimes. Corruption and organized crime still remain just now people also have to deal with super crime.
As opposed to virtually everything else superheroes do?
Dropping Maroni achieved nothing. Not only did the guy not give him the information he needed (partly because he didn’t have it) but it was clear that criminals were a lot more afraid of the Joker than they were of Batman. In fact, one way to interpret Bruce taking the fall for Harvey’s crimes at the end of the Dark Knight was because he needed criminals to be afraid of him again.
B:TAS used the origin of Bruce knocking the Joker into a vat of chemicals.
This is all a nicer way of what I said the superhero genre is about. Even then, given what a hell hole superhero universes are, it can be said the heroes either fail at this, or worse, don’t want to actually help given how often they defend villains from righteous retribution.
The last one pretty much applies to Batman too.
We wouldn’t need to if the writers would stop bringing it up.
I'm not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. Bruce explicitly took the blame for Two Face's actions to preserve Harvey's public image so that he could remain a beacon of hope and a symbol of change for Gotham. Why would he need to build up his "street cred" if he had every intention of retiring?
However, I do agree that on the whole Batman's existance has played a role in the development of supervillains in Gotham.
It's the Dynamic Duo! Batman and Robin!... and Red Robin and Red Hood and Nightwing and Batwoman and Batgirl and Orphan and Spoiler and Bluebird and Lark and Gotham Girl and Talon and Batwing and Huntress and Azreal and Flamebird and Batcow?
Since when could just anybody do what we trained to do? It makes it all dumb instead of special. Like it doesn't matter anymore.
-Dick Grayson (Batman Inc.)
He should just scream Martha, criminals will automatically flee in terror. MARTHA.
Commissioner Gordon pretty much let it be known to Batman that if he ever kills, even if it's the Joker, that he would see him as a criminal and would bring him to justice.
Within the context of Dark Knight Rises, it's clear he pretty much immediately retired. His motivation was not to make Batman a symbol of fear, but to make Harvey a beacon of hope. Harvey's image is used to pass progressive anti-crime legislation that benefitted Gotham City more than Batman could.
It's the Dynamic Duo! Batman and Robin!... and Red Robin and Red Hood and Nightwing and Batwoman and Batgirl and Orphan and Spoiler and Bluebird and Lark and Gotham Girl and Talon and Batwing and Huntress and Azreal and Flamebird and Batcow?
Since when could just anybody do what we trained to do? It makes it all dumb instead of special. Like it doesn't matter anymore.
-Dick Grayson (Batman Inc.)
During Kingdom Come Magog kills the Joker - and is not considered guilty for this (but after that, a immense mess begins). I think if Batman kills somebody probably Gotham will found him guilty - the jury will be influenced by the Owls, Penguin, the mobs, Harvey Dent...