Comments on: How Bad Can It Be?: “Batman Year 100”

By: Pater Tenebrarum

Pater Tenebrarum — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Mises is not an ‘arch-conservative’ economist, he was a defender of classical liberalism and among the leading intellectual lights of the Austrian school of economics. In fact, the vigilante Batman accords far more with the ideas of classical liberalism than anything else. He is not appointed by the State to ‘do good’ – he does it out of his own volition. He intervenes where the State fails. He is not a state-sanctioned law-man – in fact, the history of the Batman as it stands today describes his relationship with the state-appointed police as highly ambivalent (for instance, in Miller’s ‘Year One’, the police try to arrest the Batman, forcing him to fight them – vigilantism is illegal, after all). The essential point that Pope grasps is not only that the Batman ‘stands up for the little guy’, but that he does so regardless of the fact that the government would rather he go away. Bruce Wayne/Batman would not act the way he does if he were not a libertarian. He would instead call 911 and hope that the intervention of police – if they arrive in time – will suffice to ‘help the little guy’.

By: William Coventry

William Coventry — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:35:00 +0000

Which would likely lead to a stalemate/Mutually Assured Destruction. Worked for nukes at least so far.

By: Dgrey395

Dgrey395 — Thu, 12 May 2011 09:33:00 +0000

Eh, sort of. Bruce Wayne didn’t create Wayne Enterprises, his father did. Bruce inherited all of those millions and the infrastructure to make all those cool toys. That’s what bugs me about Batman (and Superheros in general): the reader is supposed to identify with them on some level and maybe even learn something. But unless the reader is born super-rich or an intergalactic super immigrant, the moral is mostly lost.

By: Emote Control

Emote Control — Sun, 08 May 2011 10:33:00 +0000

You fail to point out the ending. How does Batman defeat the conspiracy? By making the plans for their doomsday weapon publicly available on the Internet! Sure, he leaves some of the instructions out. But how hard will it be for other competent scientists to fill those gaps in? In fact, it seems to me that Batman has made the world a much more dangerous place.

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:01:03 +0000

So if a man stands up against the government is always for “rational selfishness"? Or does he seeks the "common good" by fighting policies that end up hurting the people?

Pope's Batman is not selfish. He wants to stop a plan that involves killing millions of people. Police States (that emerge from big government plus the abolition or violation of individual rights, which are the real "common good") end up killing a bunch of their own people always, no matter in which country or continent they are, they always do, and people should be more aware of this fact, specially americans (I'm not one).

I also like the Batman, because he is the greatest example in comic history of what an individual can achieve with the power of his own free-will; he believes in Truth and the lines that separate good from evil, never compromising his believe; and finally, he defends the honest guy from the abuses of society's collective failures or "criminals", and if the crooks happen to be in government, that does not changes anything.

By: JustABatmanFan

JustABatmanFan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:54:20 +0000

But they did mention Batman fighting crime several times. Sure, it wasn't shown upfront, but that doesn't mean it was a bad story.

I wonder what you thought of V for Vendetta?

By: JustABatmanFan

JustABatmanFan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:54:20 +0000

But they did mention Batman fighting crime several times. Sure, it wasn't shown upfront, but that doesn't mean it was a bad story.

I wonder what you thought of V for Vendetta?

By: JustABatmanFan

JustABatmanFan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:54:20 +0000

But they did mention Batman fighting crime several times. Sure, it wasn't shown upfront, but that doesn't mean it was a bad story.

I wonder what you thought of V for Vendetta?

By: Now is not the Rhyme. » Lead Story » Batman: Year 100

Now is not the Rhyme. » Lead Story » Batman: Year 100 — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:22:21 +0000

[...] I recently read a review of this book that basically stated that he felt as though Pope inserted his own Libertarian political views into the story and didn’t display Batman’s desire and drive for the “greater good.” He compares Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which he says kept the focus on the sacrifices that Bruce Wayne must make to protect the city he lovesâ€”letting go of the woman he loves, even taking the blame for a murder he didnâ€™t commit, all for the greater good. He continues to point out that we never actually see him fighting street crime, only Batman taking down the government. [...]

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