So I just finished re-reading Batman: War on Crime - It's one of the best Batman comics I've read, by the way. If you haven't read it I highly recommend you do, even if you're not a Batman fan. You can read find it and other great stories by Paul Dini and Alex Ross in The World's Greatest Super-Heroes.
Anyway, like I said, it's one of the best Batman stories out there. It had a pretty simple premise, but it made a clear distinction between the persona of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and made his humanity the driving force behind the story.
Now, that's not to say that more recent Batman comics haven't show-cased his humanity, but I feel like writers recently seem to be focusing a little too much on him just running from rooftop to rooftop, being stoic, badass Batman, laying the smack-down on the criminal underworld.
But he understands that crime does to people, and that many of the villains in his rogues gallery - even though they've done horrible, inexcusable things - are really decent people who are legitimately insane and aren't fully responsible for their actions. And as much I do love seeing Bats kick butt and take names, his humanity should constantly be front and center, reminding us exactly why he's chosen to do what he does, and I just wish that where a bigger focus.
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