Batman Ego

Batman Ego was one of the comics that was recommended reading when watching The Batman. As I understand it, this is one of the comics that helped inspire the movie direction.

This read kind of felt like The Killing Joke where Batman was sort of on the edge of becoming something else. It’s like he’s starting to lose his mind due to the double life that he leads.

In ego Bruce Wayne comes face-to-face with his fear incarnate. The fear is in essence The Batman side of his psyche. Him and fear have a deep and meaningful conversation about what they are and what they are not willing to do.

Fear blames Bruce for creating more dangerous villains by becoming The Batman. The bad guys rose up to meet his challenge. Then very much as I argued in the Daredevil/Punisher comic review, fear tells Batman that he must kill The Joker. He says that every person Joker kills is Bruce’s fault due to his high morality “we don’t kill crap.” We know how I feel about that, if not, then read here to see my thoughts on the Punisher and Daredevil’s feud. Fear blames Bruce for all those deaths and holding him back from doing what needs to be done.

I watched the movie and don’t really see how this particular comic had any influence on the film aside from him struggling to stay in line. He didn’t kill anyone in this film, but he definitely let loose and shot some grappling hooks into people. He also seemed dark and broody throughout the film.

I enjoyed this quick read and look forward to some more Batman comics. Generally, I’ve preferred reading Marvel over DC, but this one was really good. If you haven’t read it, I also recommend reading The Killing Joke. Maybe read that one first as it will help you understand some of the events referenced in this comic.