End of Day 4 Word Count: 5,392
Ended up skipping over Day 3 why…?
…because my wonderful, much beloved 2 1/2 year old daughter decided that 4:30am was the perfect time to wake up and turn on every light in the house, INCLUDING mom and dad’s bedroom.
Oh sweety… Just wait till you’re a teenager. One day I will have my revenge.
Story Notes
I had a conversation with an old friend of mine about my interpretation of Bruce Wayne/Batman for this novel.
Through the course of our conversation, we discussed how, in the past, the super heroes in comic books were often created to cover a desired type of group or individual that readers were craving. Superman and Captain America were created for people who were looking for an all-American hero. Batman and others vigilante type heroes were created for people looking for someone who would seek justice for them when the law failed to deliver. Many of the Marvel comics of the early 60s and 70s created characters who were heroic, but deeply flawed on a number of levels, or were cast as outsiders and trying to survive in a world that otherwise shunned them.
One of the things that has always bugged me about the evolution of Batman over the decades is how, over the years, despite his skills and prowess in many aspects of his life and vigilante career, he almost always comes off as a sub-standard father except for the rare one-issue instances scattered here and there. It gives you the impression that if he were anyone other than Bruce Wayne, CPS would’ve been battering down his door ages ago.
I hate this interpretation, because it doesn’t make much sense in my mind.
Bruce Wayne lost the two most important people in his life in one violent act. You would think, then, that when young children started making their way into his life and start integrating themselves into his “family”, he would grow to cherish and protect them as best he could.
In my head-canon, his quest for justice in Gotham City would never take precedence over his family if it meant putting their lives in mortal danger. He would never even think of his children as “soldiers”. Calling one of your own children a “soldier” almost sounds synonymous with calling them a “pawn”…
…Someone valuable, yet still ultimately expendable so long as, in the end, your side wins the war.
Going back to my earlier comment regarding creating heroes to fill something desired by the readers, when I started developing the concepts for this novel, I thought about the kind of character Batman/Bruce Wayne is portrayed as by the current canon DC universe.
Incredible detective.
Insanely talented fighter.
Dedicated crime-fighter.
Lousy ass father.
Then I thought… What kind of character would he become if he was actually tried to be a good father from the very beginning, in addition to the rest of the above?
How different would the lives of the various Robins and Batgirls that found shelter under his wings have been if he made as much effort raising them as he did fighting crime?
Then a question crossed my mind… One I still have yet to find an answer to…
“Would readers new to the Batman fandom, or even those who have been fans for ages, want to read stories about a brilliant human crime fighter who actually tries to make as much an effort in raising his family as he does saving the world?”
Even as I continue working on this novel, this and other questions circle my thoughts.
For example… take a Batman who cherishes his family above most else… and then bring out the canon story of how the Joker kills his second adopted son, Jason Todd. Would that version of Batman be able to restrain himself from killing the Joker with his bare hands?
If the lives of any of his children were in mortal danger, would that Batman hesitate to use deadly force to protect them?
And if so, what would the fallout afterwards be?
So many questions, but still not in a position to find many answers.
I wonder…?
