Why does everyone love Batman so much? Out of every DC hero (and Marvel hero even), why does he get so much praise? Batman has the most loyal fanbase I have ever seen. Whenever you point out a single minor flaw, they get extremely defensive and start shaming you over nothing of real significance. My friends and I have a term for this. It’s called Bat-worship.

Bat-worship is when someone is such a die hard Batman fan that they get blinded and push away logic and reason so that they can make believe that Batman is a god and that he can do anything because he “is Batman.” When my friend brought up a hypothetical fight between Spider-Man and Batman, we agreed that Spider-Man would win because he is more powerful than Batman, he is faster than Batman, and his spider-sense helps him to the point where Batman’s stealth is rendered useless. He brought it up in front of a Bat-worshipper. The Bat-worshipper immediately got on the defensive and started saying that Batman would win without a doubt…ok what was his evidence? “Because he’s batman and he preps for every situation.” That’s not only dumb, but it doesn’t make sense for many reasons. 1) Because he’s Batman is not a real argument; 2) How could he prepare for unpredictable situations? That doesn’t make sense and contradicts itself; and 3) For a fair fight there would have to be either no prep time for Batman if Spider-Man doesn’t get any, OR there has to be prep time for both and that’ll render it useless.

Anyway Batman is supposed to be the world’s greatest detective. A street level hero that fights low- level common criminals and serial killers. What DC decides to do because he’s popular is shove him into every single book when it’s clearly out of his league. Like being on the front line when the Justice League goes into battle, or dealing with Metahumans that Superman or the Flash take on and struggle with. It seems like since he is there arguably most popular hero, they think they should make him a meta.

Now, you might be saying “You’re overreacting!”, “You don’t like Batman just he’s popular!”, “You’re just a Marvel fanboy and hate everything DC!” NO! I like Batman as much as the next guy. The Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies of all time. But once I show you this last thing that is upcoming in the comics later this year, you will acknowledge that DC is full of Bat-worshippers and that he is overrated. In Suicide Squad Rebirth #22, Batman is considered a Meta-Human. According to Matt Mueller of comicbook.com, “The reasoning for it has been teased by DC in Dark Days. In that series, it is revealed that Batman had contact with Nth metal in an unexpected way when he was healed by the metal dionesium. Since it contains Nth metal properties, Batman was essentially restored to peak condition. The Joker also revealed that Nth Metal can have unexpected effects once introduced into the bloodstream, turning normal beings into metas.” Also the new Justice League/Batman story is called “Dark Metal.” One “that will push Batman, Superman and heroes of the Justice League beyond their limits to take on threats unlike any our world has ever seen!” Batman is the Key to some sort of dark multiverse aside from the main multiverse and could potentially shatter every universe in the entire DC multiverse. Does that sound at all like the street level hero every one totes as the best because he’s the most human out of the bunch and the most realistic? No. No it does not.

People’s perception of Batman got too out of hand and it’s changing the character forever. His popularity is pushing him to the front of everything DC, like how he going to be the center of the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) , how every DC game is a Batman game, how there is even a spin off movie for Batman in a non-DC franchise (Lego Batman), and how they are trying to make him a bigger deal than he actually is. Overexposure can hurt a character, look at Spider-Man. When it got announced that he will be rebooted for the third time in under 20 years, people on the outside groaned and said, “Another one?” And I think we’re getting to that point with Batman.

Batman works because he is human in a world of gods. He gets the smaller, less harmful villains while other heroes get the big cosmic and supernatural villains. Once you reach out of that reality and don’t acknowledge his weaknesses (yes, believe it or not Batman has the same weaknesses as you and me), it becomes silly and just not Batman.

* photo via Google Images under the Creative Commons license