Off My Mind: Batman Endangering Wayne Enterprise Employees

from Batman Inc #6

Reporter: But has Gotham's favorite playboy taken it to far this time? Does his public support for the elusive Batman's crusade against crime put Wayne, his employees and share holders in real danger?
Bruce: I'm a prominent and successful citizen of Gotham Mercedes.  My parents were murdered in the street. As you might expect, security isn't the kind of issue I've ever been inclined to overlook. You have to remember that most criminals would prefer not to attract the attention of Batman and his allies. Or me for that matter. 

Its funny how Batman is always willing to let super villains threaten the lives of others, but he is never willing to kill those super villains so that Gotham's problems would be solved.

Super villains can only keep threatening people in you keep letting them escape from jail.

" I think the same way but Bruce knows what to do "

Read the last issue yesterday. Awesome stuff! I hate it when i come to the last page. Feels like two minutes reading, then its over. I wat more. So much more!

" @entropy_aegis: Hi Entropy. It's Scott Snyder. I appreciate you taking the time to read my run on TEC and give your thoughts. And I'd never claim to be doing anything close to what Dini or Dixon have done, or even Jeph Loeb whose TLH and Dark Victory i love, personally. The only thing I can say for our run is that it's a story we all (Jock, FF, Dave Daron, and me) believe in strongly, and what I hope is coming across is that the whole 11-part run is actually one big take on Gotham. It's an exploration of Gotham as a twisted fun-house mirror to the people who try to do good for the city - the way it has this disturbing way of conjuring up villains and challenges that speak to a hero's greatest vulnerabilities. Meaning, for Bruce, Gotham throws back all these villains who are really just extensions of Bruce's own obsessions, taken to the extreme. Two-face being the duality of Bruce's life. Joker being who Bruce would be if he descended fully into the cave... So what we're trying to do is explore how that sort of city - some kind of black mirror city - would treat Dick Grayson. So the Dealer isn't a villain I'm prod of simply b/c he's creepy, but b/c he harnesses the worst in people, the buried desire to be bad and laud evil. And in that way, he's a good foil for Dick. who (unlike Bruce) puts a lot of stock in the goodness in people. He's a more hopeful man, less misanthropic. He has faith in the human character. So a villain that believes in the divine nature of humanity's capacity for evil is something that for me, makes a scary opponent for Dick. For Bruce, the Dealer would be easily dispatched, but he hits a deeper nerve w/Dick. And if the first cycle is about showing Dick how dark regular people can be (hence the crowbar), this second arc is about showing how dark street criminals can be. How unafraid of Batman. And the third cycle... well, I don;t want to give anything away, but I do promise it'll bring the James Jr. story and the Dick Grayson story lines together in a big way. And speaking to the James Jr. story - for me, James is the same nightmare for Jim Gordon that the Dealer is for Dick, just more central and direct. Meaning, Gordon is all about cause and effect, clues adding up. But what if his own son, his only biological child, is a person who doesn't add up? What is that person is an enigma, in a frightening way? (Though believe me, by 878 you will know whether James is, as Babs thinks, a brilliant serial killer, or (as Jim hopes) a troubled young man struggling with a neurological disorder... Anyway, the point is, whether or not we're any good or breaking new ground, we are all excited about the story we have to tell. And it is one big story, one exploration of a singular idea. Thanks again for checking us out :) S      "

I'm really glad G-Man decided to write this.

This is something that I hadn't even though of when I voiced my fears about the repercussions of Batman Inc. back when the first issue came out.

I was completely focused on Batman ruining the fear he inspired by going public, and about the new "batmen" turning out like Jean-Paul Valley, I hadn't even considered the danger facing Wayne Enterprises Employees.

I'm very interested to see how this all plays out, and if this recent development will affect Bruce's decision about the Batman Inc.

1. Why are people limiting attacks to Gotham?  Doesn't exposing Wayne Enterprises as the financial pillar of Batman's war mean that all WE offices and subsidiaries are potential targets?  Why would you strike at the Batman in his hometown now that you know you can attack him anywhere WE- a multinational corporation- has personnel?  You can argue that people in Gotham aren't risk adverse- a disturbing argument that essentially says they're asking to be victimized- but what about all the employees that work at WE outside of Gotham?

2. People mentioning Stark aren't up on their Iron Man.  In one of his more recent encounters with Ezekiel Stane, several of his international headquarters were blown up by Stane with high potential casualties.  It's only common sense to strike at the purse strings of your enemy when they're known.

3. The "employees are even MORE secure NOW" argument is befuddling.  If transparency is security then why doesn't Batman just completely unmask or reveal the locations of the Bat Caves?  The arguments being used to claim exposure protects the employees should extend to Wayne's identity and the Bat Caves if taken to their logical conclusion.

" Living in Gotham in of itself is a health and safety hazard.

"

In Gotham, I have to think anyone working for WE was already a target.  Most major corporations are; its why they generally have fairly good security onsite, as well as other considerations.  One building I worked in had retractable pylons in the event an unauthorized vehicle attempted to penetrate the building...that should be read "car bomb", by the way.  In the current environment, I don't think this necessarily increases WE risk, save that maybe its added a vector of threat or two, but on a much smaller scale than say a "terrorist group".

"

The same could be said about any employee that works for Tony Stark... but I don't remember a story where someone went after any of his employees (thats not including Rhodes, Pepper or Happy)

 

Stark obviously thought it out... I'm sure Bruce did the same!

"

Workers can always leave, sure there are other jobs in Gotham

 Very, very happy to see Scott Snyder post here on Comicvine!

Last year, Rucka and Williams set the bar impossibly high on Tec with their Batwoman run, but Snyder (and Jock and Francavilla, whose pencils blow me away each month) has managed to bring Tec to the very top of the Bat-books pile. Considering the competition, that's no small feat.

I haven't read issue 876 yet (I'm always 2 weeks behind since I live in Europe), but everything so far has been deliciously nightmarish (knife-wielding Babs in issue 873 still terrifies the crap outa me!).

The best compliment I could pay Snyder is to say that there's a little bit of Dini in his focus - not in the tone, themes or style, because Snyder is very much his own voice and not an imitation of somebody else, but in the way that, like Dini, he understands how you can't write a truly compelling Batman book without placing Gotham at the heart of it, without writing the city as a central character.

In Streets of Gotham, Dini and Nguyen practically gave us a study of how the "Gotham of yore" has endured into modern times - it's a Gotham steeped in tradition, a city that's very much like its founding families: majestic, full of secrets and shadows, equal parts nobility and shame, high rises and dank alleyways.

Snyder's Gotham is more nightmarish, a twisted rabbit hole/gaping mouth. It offers a warping landscape that coils itself around the psyche of the characters, feels for the cracks in the armour and morphs into the most unnerving and rattling scenery for them.

In a way, Snyder's Gotham reminds me of Morrison's Doctor Hurt: instead of going after "the Batman" with brute strength, they challenge the men behind the cowl, wear them down psychologically, chip away at their fortitude and mental strength by building a custom-tailored hell for them. Except that Gotham - maybe paradoxically for a creature of stone and steel - feels more organic and animalistic than most human foes would.

That, and Snyder just gets what makes Dick a Batman of his own. That's the biggest challenge for Bat-book writers these days and Scott clearly doesn't have a problem with it. No need to check the colour of the symbol to know it's Dick and not Bruce.

Wow... Sorry for being so stupendously off-topic, but when I'm enthusiastic about something, I tend to get carried away. :)

Look at JLA tower of Babel for example. He's got his own, secret marching orders :)

I think he is, yes. But that's Bruce's way. He's obsessive and stoic and solitary and inconsiderate and the greatest detective... He's thinks of the greater good, but not on a person-to-person level. His employees are endangered, sure. But the world is safer. That sort of thing. He's like a general in a war. he looks at the board, you know? That singularity of purpose and the sort of unilateral decision making - that's who Bruce is, and why, in my mind, he's destined to live his life (mostly) alone. Bruce's pathological nature is what makes him so fascinating to me. He's my favorite superhero for this reason - his cause is totally noble, but the execution and underpinnings are self-destructive and obsessive. 

To me the real interesting fall out from Batman Inc. may come later.  I came away from Grant Morison's run (to this point) with the feeling that Batman did have a super power and that super power was Bruce Wayne.  The run showed that Bruce is the only one who could handle what he went through and not come out a dangerous sociopath.  The Gotham cops showed that. Bruce defeating Hurt showed that, when the Joker told Hurt that he has no idea what he's dealing with. Hurts entire approach was based on the psychology of normal men.  And even further Darkseid recognized Bruce's greatness and tried to clone him all attempts failed.  None of the clones could handle the stress of the imprint.  

Move to Batman Inc.  - we all know Batman breeds cooky villains well Bruce can handle a looney like The Joker and those who have dealt with him for so long can. But how will any of these new Batmen handle dealing with that level of crazy?  They are bound to breed the same type of enemies. I wonder if all the Batmen have the mental fortitude needed and what happens if they don't?

I think that`s exactly what is going to happen in a few months or a year . But hey wouldn`t it be boring if there where no problems ?!

There have been many Batman stories where Wayne Tech or some company that Bruce Wayne owns was attacked and robbed. I don't think anything will change

Dave BARON, not Daron - typo :)

Hey battling evil as a business was never going to be easy

Is Wayne Enterprises public?

" I think the same way but Bruce knows what to do "

" @sEsposito7 said:

" @entropy_aegis said:

" @sEsposito7 said:

" This is one of the problems that I have with Batman, Inc. -- I just don't think Bruce would ever 'come out' the way the he did. It was a bad decision, and it's just not characteristic of him.

I've argued before that Batman, Inc. is or is going to be pretty much a flop, and this is one of the more pragmatic reasons behind my argument. Also, Dick is operating in Gotham and we've seen very little presence (in Detective Comics, at least) of Bruce or Wayne-Tech. I think the people of Gotham would have caused a much larger backlash than was shown post-announcement, let alone the people around the world who are effected by Batman, Inc. at the staggeringly fast past of 1/6 of an adventure per 3 months. -.-When the dust settles, Batman, Inc. is going to be one of those 'meh memories' and Detective Comics, and Dick as Batman in general, will be regarded as one of the great runs of our time. Which is good news, because at least Batman, Inc. won't be a total loss. "

When the dust settles Tec won't be remembered at all,Paul Dini and Dixon wrote spectacular tales in tec(which were better than this) and neither are that fondly remembered.The simple reason is that like this tec those tecs did nothing in the long run,they were all small time well written books,nothing more.INC will be remembered,whether it sucks or succeede cause it atleast tried to do something memorable. "

I have to respectively --  thought thoroughly -- disagree with you. We can both agree that Inc. will be remembered. However, I believe that it won't be remembered very fondly. It's plagued by a lack of momentum (which is cause by delays) and by a story that really doesn't seem to do what it wanted to do. That's just my opinion.As far as 'Tec goes, you can't possibly say that Scott Snyder isn't breaking new ground -- he definitely is. Dick is Batman, and more so than Morrison did in Batman and Robin, we're really getting a feel for what that's like for him. The entire story is about something different. It started out as Dick in Bruce's world (Gotham), but Snyder has morphed that theme into Dick in Dick's own Gotham. The villains, the darkness that Dick is surrounded by; everything is a reflection of who Dick is as a person and how he's very different from Bruce.I cannot see this run being forgotten. It's just too good. The one thing that it might have against it in terms of longevity is that it might not stick with Bruce fans. I'm a life long fan of Grayson, so for me to love the series as much as I do is only natural, but I can see how maybe some fans of Bruce may not care all that much about the series in the long run. But it's not fair or correct to say that 'Tec is not doing anything in the long run. "

What ground has Snyder broken? I'm dying to know.Villians? you think Dealer is a good villian,some guy who decided to copy Bane and man-bat? or James Gordon Jr? .I'm starting to get a Jeph Loeb vibe from Snyder honestly,he too was overrated for writing crap like TLH and look at him now.This run has only been 6 issues and people are already treating it like some holy book,if you believe it won't be forgotten then how about mentioning atleast one memorable moment ?Again i wont deny that the stories are indeed well written,but they are not better than anything Dini or Dixon did on the title,not even close actually.Batman & Robin was actually more about Damian than it was about Dick.Inc will pick up by this time next year i'm willing to bet that it will completly overshadow all of DC just like Batman and & Robin,everything else will seem worthless during that period.Mark my words. "

I think that the common people that lives in the comics (how else should I name them?) are way dumber than real common people of our world... I mean, if the stories were real, how long would it take for people to raise the question: "so, is Wayne Batman? hey, that's it! of course!" ?

" @entropy_aegis said:

" @sEsposito7 said:

" This is one of the problems that I have with Batman, Inc. -- I just don't think Bruce would ever 'come out' the way the he did. It was a bad decision, and it's just not characteristic of him.

I've argued before that Batman, Inc. is or is going to be pretty much a flop, and this is one of the more pragmatic reasons behind my argument. Also, Dick is operating in Gotham and we've seen very little presence (in Detective Comics, at least) of Bruce or Wayne-Tech. I think the people of Gotham would have caused a much larger backlash than was shown post-announcement, let alone the people around the world who are effected by Batman, Inc. at the staggeringly fast past of 1/6 of an adventure per 3 months. -.-When the dust settles, Batman, Inc. is going to be one of those 'meh memories' and Detective Comics, and Dick as Batman in general, will be regarded as one of the great runs of our time. Which is good news, because at least Batman, Inc. won't be a total loss. "

When the dust settles Tec won't be remembered at all,Paul Dini and Dixon wrote spectacular tales in tec(which were better than this) and neither are that fondly remembered.The simple reason is that like this tec those tecs did nothing in the long run,they were all small time well written books,nothing more.INC will be remembered,whether it sucks or succeede cause it atleast tried to do something memorable. "

I have to respectively --  thought thoroughly -- disagree with you. We can both agree that Inc. will be remembered. However, I believe that it won't be remembered very fondly. It's plagued by a lack of momentum (which is cause by delays) and by a story that really doesn't seem to do what it wanted to do. That's just my opinion.As far as 'Tec goes, you can't possibly say that Scott Snyder isn't breaking new ground -- he definitely is. Dick is Batman, and more so than Morrison did in Batman and Robin, we're really getting a feel for what that's like for him. The entire story is about something different. It started out as Dick in Bruce's world (Gotham), but Snyder has morphed that theme into Dick in Dick's own Gotham. The villains, the darkness that Dick is surrounded by; everything is a reflection of who Dick is as a person and how he's very different from Bruce.I cannot see this run being forgotten. It's just too good. The one thing that it might have against it in terms of longevity is that it might not stick with Bruce fans. I'm a life long fan of Grayson, so for me to love the series as much as I do is only natural, but I can see how maybe some fans of Bruce may not care all that much about the series in the long run. But it's not fair or correct to say that 'Tec is not doing anything in the long run. "

LOL in the real world he would have probably been sued for defrauding his investors and not keeping transparent accounting records. 

THATS A RANDOM QUESTION ISENT IT??

While the article by G Man may be far reaching (over reaching ?), I have a nagging suspicion that this entire announcement of Bruce Wayne funding Batman will be written out of continuity relatively soon.  It seems like such stretch for Bruce to announce that he's the funding for Batman.  Doesn't seem to add up to me as to why the writer would do this.  Granted, Bruce will have already thought ahead of this but again, why ?

He's BATMAN, I'm sure he has his employees covered.

" @sEsposito7 said:

" This is one of the problems that I have with Batman, Inc. -- I just don't think Bruce would ever 'come out' the way the he did. It was a bad decision, and it's just not characteristic of him.

I've argued before that Batman, Inc. is or is going to be pretty much a flop, and this is one of the more pragmatic reasons behind my argument. Also, Dick is operating in Gotham and we've seen very little presence (in Detective Comics, at least) of Bruce or Wayne-Tech. I think the people of Gotham would have caused a much larger backlash than was shown post-announcement, let alone the people around the world who are effected by Batman, Inc. at the staggeringly fast past of 1/6 of an adventure per 3 months. -.-When the dust settles, Batman, Inc. is going to be one of those 'meh memories' and Detective Comics, and Dick as Batman in general, will be regarded as one of the great runs of our time. Which is good news, because at least Batman, Inc. won't be a total loss. "

When the dust settles Tec won't be remembered at all,Paul Dini and Dixon wrote spectacular tales in tec(which were better than this) and neither are that fondly remembered.The simple reason is that like this tec those tecs did nothing in the long run,they were all small time well written books,nothing more.INC will be remembered,whether it sucks or succeede cause it atleast tried to do something memorable. "

" Living in Gotham in of itself is a health and safety hazard.

"

" This is one of the problems that I have with Batman, Inc. -- I just don't think Bruce would ever 'come out' the way the he did. It was a bad decision, and it's just not characteristic of him.

I've argued before that Batman, Inc. is or is going to be pretty much a flop, and this is one of the more pragmatic reasons behind my argument. Also, Dick is operating in Gotham and we've seen very little presence (in Detective Comics, at least) of Bruce or Wayne-Tech. I think the people of Gotham would have caused a much larger backlash than was shown post-announcement, let alone the people around the world who are effected by Batman, Inc. at the staggeringly fast past of 1/6 of an adventure per 3 months. -.-When the dust settles, Batman, Inc. is going to be one of those 'meh memories' and Detective Comics, and Dick as Batman in general, will be regarded as one of the great runs of our time. Which is good news, because at least Batman, Inc. won't be a total loss. "

It's only an issue if the writer makes it.

The employees of Wayne Enterprises are in no more danger with Bruce outing himself as Batman's Q than they were beforehand.  Gotham is a hellish and dangerous place (serial killing sociopaths and psychotics, earthquakes, disease outbreaks, nuclear bombs, massive police corruption and organized crime, etc.) more than any other DCU metro area.  At least now the less crazy threats are less willing to attack anything Wayne out of fear of attracting unwanted Bat attention.  If anything, the employees are safer from all of Batman's rouges except for the Joker, but then really no one is safe from Mr. J.  He is a multi-spree serial killer with hundreds of bodies to his count.  Hitler had a harder time killing people than the Joker does. If I were Bruce, I'd assign a squadron of aerial drones and a cadre of surveillance technicians and cameras to maintain a constant eyes-on the Joker at all times.  

They live in Gotham City. Long story short: if they were really concerned for their safety, they wouldn't live in Gotham. Being a part of Batman inc. doesn't really increase the danger that much all things told.

Personally I think that, as a whole, this won't affect the employees much in a negative way. In fact I think it will bring a very positive. While I do think that there will be some people who leave the company due to the fear of being a target, the rest will stay primarily for one reason...IT'S GOTHAM CITY. Their crime rate is horrible even with the aid of Batman, and if your boss is "helping" him in his war on crime that would essentially make you a VIP of sorts. It would also leave a lot of room to negotiate Raises and Health benefits. On top of that the possibility for increased security would increase jobs, the recommendation for Bruce Wayne would substantial, and if you had a part in making something he actually used against  Two Face, the Joker, or with the Justice League that would give you a lot of bragging rights. Unfortunately this also opens the door for corporate minded villains to disrupt things from the inside i.e. Penguin, the Falcone, etc. as potential staff.