For all the movies that Batman has appeared in, there have been a few characterization missteps along the way. With so many films, it’s inevitable that there will be more than one error regarding the character of Batman over the years. Different actors have taken different approaches to playing Bruce Wayne, but most details remain consistent about him.
There are some fundamental elements to the character, however, that simply need to remain the same if the character is truly meant to be Batman. When the DC movies made these mistakes, they really just proved they’ve been getting Batman all wrong this entire time.
10 Batman Would Never Kill People
While Batman is occasionally indirectly responsible for a death, the Batman that exists in the comics has a strict rule: no killing. However, in the movies, Batman doesn’t seem all that concerned about keeping people alive. Over in the movies, Batman has killed dozens of people and is shown giving people obviously life-threatening injuries with seemingly no care as to whether they live or die afterwards. In addition to the people Batman just outright kills, those he leaves for dead add to his kill count to make him seem like a much different and more callous man than he truly is.
9 Batman Typically Doesn’t Use Guns
When Batman was first introduced, the character was given a gun, but it quickly became clear that this didn’t suit the character. Almost immediately, Batman’s gun was removed; even more, part of his character became the fact that he does not use a gun.
However, in the movies, Batman is almost constantly using a variety of guns and gun-like weapons. His Batmobile has guns mounted in or on it; he takes guns from other people and wields them constantly, and he allows others to use guns when they work with him.
8 Batman Wants To Maintain His Secret Identity At All Costs
In the comics, Batman would do essentially anything to stop people from finding out that he’s Bruce Wayne. If people ever find out who he truly is, his entire life will collapse, and he — and those he loves, and all of Gotham — will immediately be put into grave danger. In fact, when people figure out who Robin is, it’s enough to dismantle the entire Justice League. The fact that Batman tells people he’s Bruce Wayne all the time in the movies seems dramatically out of character for someone who knows how high the stakes are.
7 Batman And Superman Are Closer Than Family
Batman and Superman are closer to each other than brothers; they’re best friends, and they trust each other implicitly. In the comics, in fact, Superman willingly gives Batman a shard of kryptonite so that Batman could stop him if he needed to.
Batman compiled ways to stop all of the Justice League, but Clark willingly gave Bruce the only weapon that could kill him. It’s hard to see them at such drastic odds in the movies; it’s especially difficult to see them pitted against each other before they even get the chance to know each other.
6 Batman Is An Incredibly Talented Fighter — And Not Just With His Fists
Bruce Wayne trained for years with the best and most skilled instructors around the world to become the most talented fighter he could possibly become. With all that training, it seems obvious that Batman would incorporate many different fighting styles, including his extensive acrobatics abilities, into his battles with the villains of Gotham. However, the Batman that exists in the movies seems content to punch, kick, and grappling-hook his way through everyone he comes across. He seems happier pushing a bad guy off a roof rather than using his acrobatics or intellect to fight him, which is unfortunate because that’s simply not Batman’s style.
5 Batman Has A Wide Array Of Technology And Specialized Bat-Devices
Batman develops a number of advanced devices specifically for his own use. In the comics, he famously wears a utility belt, on which he has practically every device or piece of technology he could ever need. When Adam West played Batman, he always had some sort of Bat-Spray or Bat-Repellent or Bat-Bomb to use on his villains. While this seems to be a character staple, however, Batman almost never gets all his cool devices on the silver screen. He only has random pieces of generic tech as they apply to the plot and, of course, his faithful fists.
4 Batman Is Good Friends With The Justice League
In the movies, it seems that Batman considers himself a sort of de facto leader of the Justice League, while simultaneously viewing himself as an entity apart from the JLA. He thinks he’s a lone wolf and fights often with his teammates, but this couldn’t be further from the truth for Batman.
In Bruce Wayne’s reality, he’s good friends with most of the other members of the Justice League and considers them to basically be his friends. As he lives most of his life as Batman, not Bruce, this makes sense — but never really gets shown in the movies.
3 Batman Is A Philanthropist And A Hero As Bruce Wayne, Too
Bruce Wayne, unfortunately, doesn’t get as much screen time as he should. While Batman is the one that most viewers come to see, establishing Bruce Wayne as a character is equally important to succeeding as a Batman film. In most of Batman’s movies, Bruce Wayne appears fleetingly; when he does show up, he’s typically aloof or off-the-rails. The movies prefer to show Bruce Wayne, playboy, and almost never depict Bruce Wayne, the philanthropist, and hero of Gotham in his own right.
2 Batman Is Never Truly Alone
DC movies seem to be under the impression that, because Batman says he wants to be a lone wolf, that he is a lone wolf. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Batman works with other people, like the Justice League, because he wants to. He doesn’t need to; if he didn’t want to be there, he wouldn’t be. However, Batman chooses to fight with the Justice League; he chooses to become best friends with Clark Kent; he chooses to adopt children and take care of them; he chooses to keep Alfred in his life. He chooses to surround himself with people because, even if he says he’s a lone wolf, he’s not. He may be lonely, but he is never truly alone.
1 Batman Needs A Robin
One of the most obvious and fundamental problems with most silver screen depictions of Batman is that he doesn’t have a Robin. What Batman needs more than almost anything else is a Robin to balance him out. However, it seems that the movies don’t value Robin as deeply as they should, as he’s rarely, if ever, included.
The Dark Knight trilogy introduced an adult “Robin” whose name was literally Robin, and the DCEU has indicated that Jason Todd is already dead — though they’ve never talked about or shown a Robin beyond Jason Todd’s destroyed suit. The fact that Batman rarely ever gets his other half is a disappointment of the highest order, and proves that these studios will never truly understand Batman.
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