As everyone probably knows by now from having seen The Dark Knight Rises or at least reading up about it, there is an eight year gap between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises during which time Bruce Wayne quits being Batman and disappears from the public view. Being the Batman fan I am I just have to say that Bruce Wayne retiring from the Batman just does not make sense to me for two reasons.
1) The Batman does not quit-
In the movies Batman faces three great tragedies that supposedly causes Bruce to retire from his identity as the Batman: the death of Rachel Dawes, the fall of Harvey Dent, and being wanted by the cops for taking "murdering" Harvey Dent. The thing is he's faced worse in the comics. His friend Harvey Dent would become Two-Face just like in the movie and he would have to fight his former friend many times throughout the years. More tragic than that is the death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker which as we know haunted him for many years, and continues to haunt him since he has had to fight Jason Todd now known as the Red Hood. Other tragedies have hanuted him in both comics including the crippling of Barbara Gordon and the death of Sarah Essen Gordon both by the hands of the Joker. However, despite these tragedies he never quit being Batman. Also Batman has been hysically defeated in combat after being crippled by Bane. However, Bruce Wayne makes sure that Gotham still has its hero by choosing Jean Paul Valley as his replacement while he recovered. The only major time that Bruce Wayne retired from being Batman for a long period of time was in the Dark Knight Returns, but that was only in an alternate universe in which Batman never recovered from Jason's death, that did not take place in the main universe.
2) Gotham peaceful?
Supposedly after Dent's death, Gotham is at peace for the eight years before Bane comes to Gotham. That just can't be. Gotham is not known for it's peace otherwise you may as well call it Metropolis. Surely, new threats would have arisen that Batman would have to face whether it's minor villains like Ventriloquist or Clayface or Killer Croc., or some of the big leaguers like Mr. Freeze, Riddler, Penguin, or Poison Ivy. Also some of the main villains from the movies could have escaped from Arkham or wherever they're held. Why would someone like the Joker or Scarecrow sit in their cells twiddling their thumbs for eight years when they could have easily escaped and caused more chaos for the Batman.
The point is Bruce Wayne will always need Batman and Gotham will always need it's hero just like Metropolis or Keystone City will always need Superman and the Flash. Evil never takes a rest especially in Gotham.
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