Why Batman is the best superhero (period).

            It seems that people have been doubting batman. Saying he goes against the morals of society and is considered an unnecessary vigilante. Have you ever lived in Gotham? It is not a society driven by the common people for the common good, in fact it is one of decay and it is its own underworld full of criminals and scum. The society of Gotham has a gun to its head and the only person really holding the trigger back is the Dark Knight. Kant’s categorical imperative goes out the window here, as Gotham is sliding down that slippery slope to corruption faster than any city in America. Batman does not wish for the perilous situation Gotham has found itself in, but he does wish to save it from itself. This is the only thing that may seem unethical, and maybe Ra’s Al Ghul was right and Gotham should just tear itself apart. Gotham has placed itself beyond the bounds of reason and it is for this reason that Batman acts unreasonably (at least in Kant’s eyes). However, Batman follows his own categorical imperative when it comes to the greatest immoral act possible, he does not kill no matter what the situation (he technically does kill the Joker in the Dark Knight Returns, but that was Frank Miller’s own spin on things). In fact, this is the moral principle that he founds himself off of and is the reason he can be viewed as an idea rather than just a person. Batman himself is a philosophical concept, as he is the real superman. His will drives him more than any personal goal. Most of the time, he takes the largest falls, but in doing so enables him to have the greatest rises. 

“Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Both Alfred and Bruce’s father present this idea to Batman/Bruce (who is Bruce Wayne?) in “Batman Begins” and it is often what acts as a drive for Batman. Gotham has fallen and Batman is trying to help the city learn to pick itself up. Categorical imperative has been lost, since a virus is spreading and if it continues morality will no longer be in question at all in Gotham. Kant seems to rely on a belief that nature will always restore order, but how is order to be restored if no one cares for it. I agree that if no one was to kill or steal the world would not have to worry about killing or stealing, but people do kill and steal. Thomas Wayne tried to restore order in Gotham without a closed fist, but Gotham rejected him and fell into a deeper hole of decay. Batman is not bound by flesh; he is an idea that Gotham can feed itself off of.

Kant also seems to believe that reason is pure and any truly rational person will arrive at the same reason and logic in any given situation. In other words, if all people looked at an event rationally they would come to a reasonable conclusion about it. I do not find that reasonable at all. I can rarely agree completely with anyone when discussing a moral dilemma. Even in class when we were discussing whether to hit one or four people with a train, disagreement and discussion ensued. Kant had great faith in people’s morality, but in truth it is still something that is being explored, and until a universal moral code is agreed upon, categorical imperative is a weak philosophy. People are different and possess different will and reason, and it is for this reason that I tend to agree with Nietzsche’s moral philosophies more than I do Kant’s and it is for this preference that I see Batman as the real Superman.

Kant believes in a universally true moral law, he brings morality to the metaphysical realm and then back to reality. He believes in doing unto others as you would want them to do unto you, but most people do not care for the moral duty another applies himself/herself to. This is where Nietzsche comes in with the idea of mastery of self. You have will and you have morals, but they are your own. Self-morality is a personal journey that is developed throughout life. This journey may be shared with friends, family, and environment, but certainly not the entirety of humanity. People will found themselves in corrupted moral codes, though it is not corrupted to them. We develop our own morals and try to stick with them, sometimes a moral dilemma must be solved and from that we learn. Morality does not currently have a fixed state, it is evolving and sometimes breakthroughs and revolutions are made in morality and the form of it changes within the world. Morality is a beast worth taming, though it is a wild one that is hard to capture. When an individual grabs the reigns of his own morality he becomes a master of it, and master’s are often adored and followed. Batman has founded his morality and is using it to defeat the corruption of morals and will that Gotham has become engrossed in. The citizens of Gotham recognize the virus, but lack the will to eradicate it. This is where Batman steps in and tries to help save the city from it’s own weakness. In essence it is the overall morality of Gotham vs. Batman’s own morality, and the winner determines the stronger morality.

Surely Kant had good intentions, but he was not viewing humanity rationally rather he was viewing it with rose-tinted glasses with which he believed a natural and general rule of morality lied outside of our reality. But morals exist because reality can be unreal at times, and humans learn to cope and hopefully evolve. If a universal moral code is to be formed is it not necessary that we at least try and test different moralities until the strongest and surest rise, just as Batman’s own morality rises above the corrupt moral mentality of Gotham? I think it is necessary to at least give it a shot.

(One more thing) If Superman had super-strength, then he could just knock into someone while he was running or even just lean over to pick something up and accidentally knock heads with a person thus he would unintentionally kill them. Superman has definitely killed more people than Batman, and is usually considered the less intelligent of the two as well. Superman is a nice superhuman jock, while Batman is a strong-willed nerd/detective/playboy/billionaire. What is not to love about Batman, besides the fact that no one is Batman?