The action figure highlights the bigger issue with recent treatment of Batman. It’s not just that The Batman and Absolute Batman aren’t for kids. That’s fine, not everything needs to be for every audience, and Batman’s appeal comes from the way the character can be reinterpreted for new generations and audiences. It’s that the stuff made for kids is treated as an afterthought, with none of the excitement that Snyder or Reeves, or Rocksteady’s M-rated Batman: Arkham Knight video game (meaning it was for 17+ only), bring to their work. Previous generations had Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and others firing on all cylinders for Batman: The Animated Series. Today’s kids had Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, and Marc Maron barely deviating from their standard public personae in DC League of Super-Pets. Can we blame kids for not caring?
The Dark Knight Returns… to Kids?
At this point, one might object and insist that Batman isn’t for kids. No, really, these folks exist. After all, they might argue, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” the story by Bill Finger and Bob Kane that introduced Batman in 1939’s Detective Comics #27, ends with Batman glowering with satisfaction when a murderer accidentally kills himself. Batman has always been a grotesque creature of the night who strikes fear into the hearts of cowardly, superstitious criminals, right?
Well, clearly not. Just look at all of the Batman stories made directly for kids. And, you know, the fact that Batman is a guy who wears blue and gray tights and has a big cave with a giant penny and a dinosaur in it. You’re telling me that’s not for kids? Not even a little?
Obviously Batman stories for adults can be told. But so can Batman stories for kids. DC just hasn’t been telling them, at least not in any type of media that reaches kids with the kind of excitement and fanfare of, say, X-Men ’97 or Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. And in the long term that ironically might speak better to the generational longevity of Spidey versus the Caped Crusader.
Of course all is not lost for Batman. As the recent response to James Gunn’s Superman demonstrates, it’s not that kids don’t care about Krypto. It’s that they had no use for the Rock half-heartedly mugging his way through a WB sound booth on DC League of Super-Pets. In other words, if DC actually puts some passionate talents and attention onto kid-friendly Bat-media, children will probably come along.
Signs are good that something like that may happen, as the DCU has two high-profile projects in the works starring the most kid-appealing character in the Batman universe, Robin the Boy Wonder. Robin will appear alongside Batman in the upcoming Brave and the Bold movie while two other variations of the character—the Dick Grayson and Jason Todd Robins—will star in the animated film Dynamic Duo.
