LogFAQs > #899562590

ParanoidObsessive posted...

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.

I would imagine Bruce cares more about wearing the mask to protect loved ones and those within his sphere than any monetary concern -- which, when you consider one of those he tries to protect is an elderly guardian, has some pretty strong shades of Spider-Man.

And every iteration of Batman -- or, at least, every *major* iteration and most minor as well -- has him keeping the mask and costume. Batman never operates as Bruce Wayne, it's always Batman. Even if he was Batman 100% of the time, he'd still be Batman rather than Wayne.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

(Though Robin + Jubilee is a perfect match regardless, since Jubilee was a blatant Robin riff, right down to wearing the exact same color scheme. Which they openly mention during the Marvel vs DC fights that led to Amalgam in the first place.)

And orphans whose parents were killed by criminals... wait, Robin wore pink? Oo

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Obviously, the sidekick thing goes back to the old 1940s-era comic mentality where every hero had a young sidekick (which lasted even into early Marvel, with Rick Jones), but from an in-universe perspective the idea that this dark, brooding vigilante (or hairy berserker killing machine) is dragging a young teen sidekick into lethal situations is kind of fucked up, so it makes for interesting thinking to break down just what sort of motivation leads to that sort of thing.

Jubilee is less dragged along than she stows along. Right from her introduction, she's chosen to follow characters and just hide. In fact, wasn't pretty much every version of Robin pretty much the same? They discover Bruce is Batman then insist on being a sidekick. The only exception is the altverse stuff like All-Star Batman.

And Batman trains his sidekicks because he knows they're going to do it anyway and this gives them a better chance of staying alive. I can't recall how much training Wolverine ever gave Jubilee, other than something tied to the X-Men. That kinda sets the two apart, though, since Wolverine's sidekicks come from the X-Men and are kinda battle-tested already whereas every Batman sidekick (except Damian) receives heavy on-the-job training.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Spider-Man, on the other hand, while being more than willing to team-up with pretty much every young hero (and most of the old ones) in the Marvel universe, never really had a sidekick, because his mentality didn't really led itself to one. Short of the brief period in Ultimate Marvel where Peter sort of became the Uncle Ben figure to Miles Morales, he never really had that type of interaction. Even characters like Spider-Girl were usually independent and just happened to use the name (the same way most of the Spider-Women were).

Yeah, but keep in mind that Wolverine doesn't really keep sidekicks around nearly as long as Batman either. He tends to rotate between X-kids.
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There are precious few at ease / With moral ambiguities / So we act as though they don't exist.