Yeah, it is. His main argument is that three people talking on a rooftop for one scene is "amazingly cheesy" and overly friendly. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure three people can have a conversation without getting all touchy feely and being best friends.
I don't really mind if people want Batman to go it alone, but what burns me is when they make this "Batman is a loner" argument. Really? When was this? For roughly two of his 65+ years? Yes, Batman is
lonely because he cannot have a normal life and normal relationships, yes he is a solitary individual, but he also has allies, a support group, and a surrogate family. He has
always had these things.
Giving Batman these things does not diminish his lonely, solitary nature in any way. Quite the contrary: it enhances these qualities. Personal relationships are
always the vehicle through which a character's nature is illustrated. If Batman was a guy rattling around a cave by himself, that'd be probably the
worst way of showing him to be a loner. It doesn't say "Batman is obsessive, solitary figure!" No, it says "There's nobody around for Batman to interact with, which would demonstrate his solitary nature!" How unimaginably boring.
What tells me he's a lonely, solitary individual is when he rejects his surrogate family one moment, and scrambles to keep them at his side the next. He is a very conflicted man when it comes to personal relationships. His better judgment tells him he cannot risk having a family, but his humanity demands one. Because he was not raised normally, he is socially crippled and finds normal human interaction difficult. Batman probably has abandonment issues, too: he doesn't want anyone getting too close, for fear of losing them the way he lost his parents. At the same time, he can never bring himself to shake loose of these people. Accordingly, he comes off as a prick, most of the time, and he prefers it that way because it helps him keep these people at arms length. Conversely, his family finds caring for him difficult because he doesn't know how to reciprocate. In Denny O'Neil's excellent "Knightfall" novelization, there was a moment between Bruce and Tim, where Tim was extremely upset because Jean Paul Valley had just murdered a man, and Tim had been unable to stop it. Bruce recognized that Tim was probably in needing of comfort, but having never learned about healthy familial interactions--due to the early death of his parents--he had no idea what to say or do that might comfort Tim. As such, he said the wrong thing, so Tim got angry and left. This demonstrates Batman's nature and his tragic loneliness better than a guy sitting alone in a cave ever could.
To put it simply, it's the way Batman acts around his friends and family that makes him a loner, not their absence.
I have always found it curious that certain Batman fans rally against these relationships (Robin in particular). I'll never understand how people think Batman will be
more like Batman by removing the characters who define him. How is Batman
more like Batman if you take away his son? How is Batman
more like Batman if you carve apart his mythos and leave only the bare bones? The conflict between Batman and his pseudo-family is what has made the character who he is. Those who say he should be all alone are not concerned with what Batman
is, but with what they
wish he was.
really.
