Ben Wan
- Oct 4, 2021
- 3 min read

Why "Bruce Wayne Should Just Use His Money To Help Gotham" Is a BAD Take

Updated: Oct 6, 2021

"Why doesn't Bruce Wayne just use his wealth to stop crime in Gotham City?" HE ALREADY DOES! We respond to the Internet's most popular "unpopular" opinion on Batman by diving into the character’s 80+ year history of philanthropy for Gotham City (as Bruce Wayne AND as Batman). Then we explore a hypothetical world where Bruce was never Batman and only a philanthropist by going through each member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery and asking- how much could his money have REALLY prevented them from breaking bad? If you know someone with this take, send them this video!

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction: "Bruce Wayne Should Just Use His Money to Help Gotham" & Our Response

As mentioned in the episode, the examples shared of people's "unpopular Batman opinion" were all gathered by our research assistant, Dan Yamat, who found them relatively easily.

Garth Ennis's opinion on Batman being an "aristocrat who beats up poor people" came from this article.

We mention our previous guest Rob Ayling, who did the short Living in Crime Alley where Batman encounters a desperate father who stole to provide for his kid and lets him go. You can check out that film here:

14:17 What Bruce Wayne Really Does With His Money- The Wayne Foundation & Charities

As acknowledged in the episode, a ton of the comic book images came from a Twitter thread by The_BatFamily. Check out that thread here: https://twitter.com/TheBat_Family/status/1316006509923520512

Examples that we added include:

- The fact that Bruce Wayne attends the circus because it's a charity event, as seen in Batman Forever

20:47 How Bruce Wayne Helps Fight Poverty, Orphans, & Victims

Examples that we added, on top of the images from The_BatFamily twitter thread were:

- Adam West's Bruce Wayne funding anti-crime centers in "Hi Diddle Riddle," the pilot for the 1966 Batman series written by Lorenzo Semple Jr.

- Bruce Wayne donating Wayne Manor to becoming an orphanage at the end of The Dark Knight Rises

23:53 How Bruce Wayne Helps Education

Examples that we added:

- Bruce offering to fund scholarships for kids in Burnside in Batman 89 #2, as covered in our video on it here:

27:41 How Bruce Wayne Helps Unemployment & How He Treats His Employees

Example that we added:

- Bruce providing for Fred Stickley's family after his supposed suicide in Batman Forever

- The Animated Series episode "Old Wounds" written by Rich Fogel

30:05 How Bruce Wayne Helps Reform the Justice System

Example that we added: - Bruce Wayne funding Harvey Dent's campaign to become District Attorney

30:46 How Bruce Wayne Helps Rebuild Gotham & Other Cities

Example that we added:

- Bruce Wayne going to D.C. to ask the government to help Gotham. We covered this, as well as a lot of Bruce's attempts to save Gotham post-quake, in our coverage of Cataclysm and Aftershock last year: