Tynion IV’s Department of Truth is entertaining in its treatment of truth. Coming in with a bit of bias for Tynion IV’s writing.
Snapshots
[Batman] It happened in the little moments. I’d sketch on the edge of a napkin, or at the corner of a page in an old casebook. A familiar building, but with an unfamiliar number of floors. The city skyline with a few added skyscrapers. There was always some minor detail altered. Alfred called them my little Gothams. He said that they were designs for the city that lived in my head. A better city, without all the pain and horror. A city that didn’t need a Batman. He would say, “What if you didn’t put on that suit tonight? What if you gathered all those sketches and started building something that could last? You have a design for Gotham City, Master Bruce. Isn’t it time the world saw it?"
#vigilantism #super-heroes-on-social-order
[Riddler] How long did it take him to stop seeing you as one of us? Part of the Arkham set. Another colorful villain with a gimmick…. You remember that look in his eye, don’t you? The look that says he knows every way he can knock you unconscious the second he needs to. When he learns what you helped build, do you think he’ll see you as a lover, or just another villain, like us?
[Catwoman] There had been darkness at the beginning. I remembered the grime on the streets. The power of the Falcone families and their allies. The city stank with corruption and horror. You were never sure if you could survive the walk from the subway to your rundown apartment. And it felt like Gotham was so broken, it could never become anything else. But then there you were. An old for of crime met a new form of crime fighter, and crumbled in its face. The rules changed then, for a moment. Crime in the city had different stakes. You didn’t have to pay off a crooked cop, or give a cut to a cartel of murderers. If a person had the skills, and a colorful costume, they could rob a bank or a vault for the thrill of it. And sure, they might have to tussle with the dynamic duo. But on a good night, they might get their hands on a diamond the size of a bull’s head, and fleece it for millions on the black market. And they’d put that money back into better equipment. A better costume. Better tools to outwit you.
[The Designer] If I designed a crime with one degree of complexity, he would come back with two degrees of complexity in his means of defeating me. Beating him would require an exponential leap forward. And I spent a year in a room doing just that. I knew to win I would need to become the main I might become after twenty years of battling him, without him evolving in kind.
[Joker] And the forth crook was a jester. And see… he’d been laughing all this time… because he and he alone understood the Devil’s game. With no wise, powerful, or wealthy men left to stop him… the city wouldn’t belong to the three crooks at all. It would belong to the Devil himself. In time, it was the jester’s turn, and the Devil asked what he wanted more than anything in the world. And the jester said to him… I want to be the Devil. And then he killed him.
[Deathstroke] Why do you think they’re afraid? Whose fault is that? [Batman] It’s mine. You think I don’t know it’s mine?! Of course I know! I’ve spent my career and my wealth and power to fight costumed madmen, and they keep coming back, over and over! I keep needing to make bigger and more frightening weapons just to keep you people down!
[Batman] He thought Joker was a garden variety serial killer – that he could be bent into shape… But the joker didn’t want to kill Batman, did he? No matter how far the designer pushed hum, he wanted to kill anybody and everybody but Batman. And The Designer’s plan for the city could never work with me out there. None of the designs could work. The designer couldn’t understand what the joker was. He gazed into the abyss, and it stared back at him. And consumed him.
The Batman-Joker relationship is also explored in Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke .
[Batman] When faced with these terrible shadows, there are two courses of action. Be the light that pierces through the darkness… or become something the shadows themselves fear. Karl Fogle is a light in the dark. A man with wealth he uses to expose the corruption in the city, and make changes for the better. Last year Fogle bought four blocks in an up-and-coming neighborhood and had them declared a historical landmark. Hundreds of low-income families kept in their homes, and developers were forced to abandon an aggressive takeover. There are whispers of an attempt on Fogle’s life.
[Flashback: Batman] It’s not too late. Your past doesn’t have to define you. There is still goodness in you, Cheshire. All you have to do is take my hand. [Flashback: Cheshire] You really believe all of that. don’t you. You’re too late anyway, Batman. Fogle is cold dead by now. I only stayed to see what you would do. [Batman] I let my need to save her from herself cloud my judgment. I was arrogant, and a good man is dead because of it.
[Batman] My favorite was about the scorpion and the frog. In it, the scorpion desperately needs to cross a river, and asks the frog for a ride on his back. The frog is suspicious, because the scorpion’s venom is very deadly. “Why would I sting you? You would sink, and surely I would drown,” the scorpion assures. Satisfied that he was safe, the frog allowed the scorpion to jump onto his back. Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog in the back. As he was dying, the frog asked the scorpion, “Why did you do this? Now we will both die! The scorpion replied, “Because it is my nature."
References
- Batman Vol. 3 #86. Their Dark Designs, Part 1. James Tynion IV; Tony S. Daniel; Danny Miki; Tomeu Morey. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
- Batman Vol. 3 #88. Their Dark Designs, Part 3. James Tynion IV; Guillem March; Tomeu Morey. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
- Batman Vol. 3 #90. Their Dark Designs, Part 5. James Tynion IV; Guillem March; Carlo Pagaluyan. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
- Batman Vol. 3 #91. Their Dark Designs, Part 6. James Tynion IV; Rafael Albuquerque; Jorge Jiménez; Carlo Pagaluyan; Danny Miki; Tomeu Morey. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
- Batman Vol. 3 #93. Their Dark Designs, Part 8. James Tynion IV; Guillem March; Javi Fernandez; Tomeu Morey; David Baron. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
- Batman Vol. 3 #94. Their Dark Designs, Finale. James Tynion IV; Guillem March; Rafael Albuquerque; David Baron. dc.fandom.com . 2020.
Batman is sometimes criticized for not being effective in his plans to improve Gotham. That instead of using his wealth for vigilantism, he should focus on the systematic issues that plague Gotham. sets the scene where Bruce is trying to address systematic issues, but even then, there is still a need for a Batman while the plans are underway. I forget which Batman comic/film took this route, an established development trust from the Wayne fortune, being misappropriated by crime lords, and thus necessitating a Batman.