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Topic	A Geektivus For The Rest Of Us
ParanoidObsessive 04/06/18 7:44:59 PM #383:	Zeus posted... Other than having a catchphrase, I'm not seeing a lot of disparity. They're both characters with intense survivors guilt over a traumatic family death which gave them a compulsion to fight crime. It's different, though, because the motivations behind it are totally different. Bruce is basically a hurt child lashing out. Batman is a coping mechanism, and fighting crime borders on being a pathological necessity. He doesn't really do it out of a sense of duty, or because he feels like people "need" him (though he'll certainly justify it that way to seem less crazy). At the end of the day, Bruce is very much about "vengeance" - he's just generalized his need to punish a single criminal into a need to stop all criminals. Bruce basically IS Batman - if you took away everything that made Batman Batman, and left him unable to fight crime, he'd go absolutely bugfuck nuts. Bruce NEEDS to be Batman. But Peter's not that bleak, even though he's also motivated by a dead parent figure (in a sense, Aunt May surviving is almost certainly responsible for this - in a world where both May and Ben die, I can easily see Spider-Man being more of a Dark Knight sort of avenging angel. Though it might also help that Peter was older when it happened, and more able to cope like a normal person would). Peter basically learned the lesson that people who CAN help SHOULD help, because otherwise, innocents can suffer. It isn't vengeance that motivates him as much as duty, and he's not fighting crime because all crime is just an echo of that night long ago, as much as he's fighting crime because he feels like he's obligated to help those who can't help themselves. Spider-Man is just the mask Peter wears to protect the people he loves from retaliation - if you took away everything that makes Spider-Man Spider-Man, and left him unable to fight crime, it would be a blessing. Peter would absolutely try to live a normal life and be entirely happy about it - so much so that this has happened multiple times in various canon and what-if stories. Peter doesn't really want to BE Spider-Man. Spider-Man is an obligation. Batman is a coping mechanism. And honestly, Peter's "catchphrase" as you put it isn't really a catchphrase. It's the defining ideology of his life. It's why it gets repeated verbatim so often in so many interpretations of the character - because it basically IS Spider-Man. Zeus posted... Not at all. Batman insisted on keeping a dual identity. The Punisher is just the Punisher. Plus DC has similar serial killing crime-fighters. Several versions of Vigilante were pretty liberal on capital punishment. Bruce kept the dual identity because he NEEDED to - no Bruce means no money means no wonderful toys. Frank didn't really have money, and thus, no need to maintain a separate life. Which is also why almost all of his financing is done by stealing cash off dead criminals that he's shot, or stealing money from drug deals he breaks up (and so on). It's kind of implied a LOT in various Batman media that Bruce would give up being Bruce and go Batmanning 100% of the time if he could. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 "POwned again." --- blight family <cite>ParanoidObsessive posted [p:899185434] in A Geektivu... [t:76102111]...</cite> <quote><cite>Zeus posted...</cite> <quote>Other than having a catchphrase, I'm not seeing a lot of disparity. They're both characters with intense survivors guilt over a traumatic family death which gave them a compulsion to fight crime.</quote> It's different, though, because the motivations behind it are totally different. Bruce is basically a hurt child lashing out. Batman is a coping mechanism, and fighting crime borders on being a pathological necessity. He doesn't really do it out of a sense of duty, or because he feels like people "need" him (though he'll certainly justify it that way to seem less crazy). At the end of the day, Bruce is very much about "vengeance" - he's just generalized his need to punish a single criminal into a need to stop all criminals. Bruce basically IS Batman - if you took away everything that made Batman Batman, and left him unable to fight crime, he'd go absolutely bugfuck nuts. Bruce NEEDS to be Batman. But Peter's not that bleak, even though he's also motivated by a dead parent figure (in a sense, Aunt May surviving is almost certainly responsible for this - in a world where both May and Ben die, I can easily see Spider-Man being more of a Dark Knight sort of avenging angel. Though it might also help that Peter was older when it happened, and more able to cope like a normal person would). Peter basically learned the lesson that people who CAN help SHOULD help, because otherwise, innocents can suffer. It isn't vengeance that motivates him as much as duty, and he's not fighting crime because all crime is just an echo of that night long ago, as much as he's fighting crime because he feels like he's obligated to help those who can't help themselves. Spider-Man is just the mask Peter wears to protect the people he loves from retaliation - if you took away everything that makes Spider-Man Spider-Man, and left him unable to fight crime, it would be a blessing. Peter would absolutely try to live a normal life and be entirely happy about it - so much so that this has happened multiple times in various canon and what-if stories. Peter doesn't really want to BE Spider-Man. Spider-Man is an obligation. Batman is a coping mechanism. And honestly, Peter's "catchphrase" as you put it isn't really a catchphrase. It's the defining ideology of his life. It's why it gets repeated verbatim so often in so many interpretations of the character - because it basically IS Spider-Man. <cite>Zeus posted...</cite> <quote>Not at all. Batman insisted on keeping a dual identity. The Punisher is just the Punisher. Plus DC has similar serial killing crime-fighters. Several versions of Vigilante were pretty liberal on capital punishment.</quote> Bruce kept the dual identity because he NEEDED to - no Bruce means no money means no wonderful toys. Frank didn't really have money, and thus, no need to maintain a separate life. Which is also why almost all of his financing is done by stealing cash off dead criminals that he's shot, or stealing money from drug deals he breaks up (and so on). It's kind of implied a LOT in various Batman media that Bruce would give up being Bruce and go Batmanning 100% of the time if he could. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 "POwned again." --- blight family</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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