How old was Bruce Wayne when he developed his stoic, standoffish, and paranoid personality? He is usually depicted as a lively fun-loving kid before his parents were killed. Did their deaths start that personality, or was it his training, or just the natural course of his adult years, that made him that way?
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Nice question. 👍🏻– Doctor DoomCommented Jun 28 at 12:20
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2 Answers
Honestly, it depends on who you think Batman is. Is he Frank Miller's Batman from the 1980's Dark Knight graphic novels? Is he Bruce Timm's Batman from Batman the Animated Series from the 1990s? Is he Adam West from the 1960's TV show? Is he the original Batman from 1939 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger? Denny O'Neill's Batman from the 1970s? Tim Burton's Batman? Matt Reeves' Batman? Or is he the Batman in this month's issue of the comicbook?
Batman is a character written for 85 years by many writers, artists and editors, each putting their own spin on the iconic character, reinterpreting, reinventing, and building upon what went before. Then add to that the movies, TV shows, videogames, etc. Each creator is making their own version of Batman.
So one writer might show the Batman personality manifesting in Bruce's childhood. I think Miller did that in his 1980's graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns. It was not intended to be canon but proved very influential on interpretations of Batman that followed.
Others have shown that Batman's "personality" is part of the costume that Bruce Wayne dons in order to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. In that case, the Batman "personality" was developed when the concept of Batman was created by Bruce Wayne.
With characters like Batman, that have 85 years of conflicting canon narrative, ultimately it falls to the reader to decide which Batman is theirs. Which interpretations they choose to believe and which ones they will disregard.
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1Good overview, but it might be helpful to provide specific examples. Maybe highlight a few key incarnations and their corresponding ages? For instance, Miller's 1980s Batman, and some other versions. This could give readers a clearer picture of how Batman's personality development varies across different adaptations, and directly address the original question. Commented Jun 28 at 12:33
This question contains a hidden assumption - that Batman's personality has anything to do with Bruce Wayne's personality.
In some representations, Batman's personality is born when Martha and Thomas die, and Bruce Wayne's personality dies. Under that theory, Batman's paranoia comes from the circumstances of his birth in a moment of violence and grief. The personality of "Bruce Wayne" that Batman adopts to disguise his goals may be affable and friendly (and often is), but the true personality remains Batman.
For an example of how this works, in the Batman Beyond episode "Shriek" Batman recognizes that the voices apparently in his head calling him "Bruce" are not a psychiatric problem - because when he talks to himself, he calls himself "Batman" - even when wearing Bruce Wayne's clothes (this paragraph taken from another answer of mine).
Since he was alone in the psychiatric hospital at the time he was talking to himself as "Batman" it seems like Batman is (now) the core personality and "Bruce" is the persona (though of course he may adopt a more hostile Batman-ish persona from time to time to terrify the criminal folks he deals with). At any rate, I'd still say that Batman's current personality was born all at once, in Crime Alley, replacing the former cheerful Bruce personality, and now only using the Bruce persona to serve Batman's goals.
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1A distinction should be made between personalities and personas. When in public as Bruce Wayne, he acts like a playboy so he won't be suspected of being Batman. That's a persona. The way he publicly presents himself as Batman is arguably a persona too. After all, it's human nature to keep aspects of yourself hidden from most people. I'd argue that his true personality is most evident when he's alone or with his closest friends, and it's the same personality whether he's in costume or not. Putting on the mask doesn't change his internal psychology, only the way he presents himself in public. Commented Jun 28 at 0:17