Why wasn't Barry Allen effected by his mother's death like Bruce was

[TheDarkKnightReturns]

Bruce always had issues.

The biggest problem with Batman is the way the writers try to make him 'inevitable'. He watched his parents die in a dark alley... there was no way he WOULDN'T become batman from that... yet also try to make Gotham such a dark miserable place where there are at least dozens of kids every year who's parents are murdered in front of them... Statistically there should be a LOT more Batmen running around.

Same with Flash. Despite the fact that his parents death was a retcon and his personality was already established... Lots of parents are murdered, and not all the kids grow up to be broody dark vigilantes... Some just cope better.

By Batmen you mean the Batfamily hum.

[TheDarkKnightReturns]

I think they're both pretty traumatized by it, in their own separate ways.

Except Batman saw the whole thing in his face at a very young age and he lost both of his parents.

[phantom1592]

Yeah... exactly. If seeing family killed makes vigilante heroes inevitable... Statistically there should be a LOT more bat family!
What 10? Since bruce was 8 years old?? Gotham should look like marvel manhatten.

[Lee Stone]

Yeah... exactly. If seeing family killed makes vigilante heroes inevitable... Statistically there should be a LOT more bat family!
What 10? Since bruce was 8 years old?? Gotham should look like marvel manhatten.

If we took the statistics of one of the most violent cities in America...
And give it the population of New York, to make it about the same size as Gotham... about 8 million...
That would be... about... 4,000 murders per year.

If Bruce is in his 30s..., let's say 35... that means there's been about 108,000 murders since his parents were killed.
If a quarter of those murders had children... and removing 20 years of data to account for possible aging of those children into adults... there could be 15,000 vigilantes in Gotham.
4,000x15 years=60,000
60,000/4=15,000

[bat39]

If we took the statistics of one of the most violent cities in America...
And give it the population of New York, to make it about the same size as Gotham... about 8 million...
That would be... about... 4,000 murders per year.

If Bruce is in his 30s..., let's say 35... that means there's been about 108,000 murders since his parents were killed.
If a quarter of those murders had children... and removing 20 years of data to account for possible aging of those children into adults... there could be 15,000 vigilantes in Gotham.
4,000x15 years=60,000
60,000/4=15,000

Again, its not a formula. Every kid who sees his/her parents murdered doesn't choose to become a vigilante. It just so happens that one kid chose to react that way, and he happened to have the resources and support he needed to make it a reality.

[Lee Stone]

Again, its not a formula. Every kid who sees his/her parents murdered doesn't choose to become a vigilante. It just so happens that one kid chose to react that way, and he happened to have the resources and support he needed to make it a reality.

But wouldn't 'realism' require basis on formulas and statistics..?
Otherwise... it's fiction.

[Unfinishedsentenc]

Except Batman saw the whole thing in his face at a very young age and he lost both of his parents.

It's not a competition. And it's still pretty damn tragic regardless of how it happens. Plus, I think the personality and emotional capacity of the kid plays a bigger part than the extent of how horrible the death (or deaths) was.

[Mia]

Because Bruce Wayne is a type A personality who likes to fix things...or at least won't stop until justice is achieved. Or to be crude Bruce can't live with being a victim and he feels that's what happened when his parents were murdered.

Whereas Barry is more of a c'est la vie type of guy. Remember with the retcon Barry was more interested in exonerating his dad than finding out who killed his mother. But honestly it's all just lazy writing by Johns who decided that the only way for a super hero to be interesting is to copy Batman's background.