Batman: 5 Times He Was A Good Friend (& 5 He Was Awful)

Batman is mostly known as a pretty terrible friend in DC Comics but he has had some moments where he was a pretty great one too.

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The Dark Knight is pretty much a jerk, plain and simple. It’s something that has been part of his characterization since the likes of John Byrne and Frank Miller re-tooled the character in the mid-’80s. With the character being such an anti-social person, most would think he’d be a pretty bad friend.

Most of the time, this opinion is actually correct as Batman has been really cruel to his friends both in Gotham City and on The Justice League on multiple occasions. However, sometimes he has also proven that he has a heart underneath his grey spandex.

10 Good Friend: Firing Dick Grayson After He Was Injured

Batman telling Dick Grayson he has to stop being Robin after he was injured in a battle of The Joker may not have been the nicest thing he’s done, but it’s among his best choices as a surrogate parent. Though Dick may not have seen it that way, it’s clear that Bruce cares about him the way a father would care about their child.

Later versions of the story would paint Bruce in a far less sympathetic light, being belligerent and harsh in his handling of the situation. While this is a shame, the original version of the incident proves that Bruce does care about Dick Grayson.

9 Awful: Not Curing The Joker & Getting His Friends Hurt Or Killed

This topic is too broad to be any higher, but there have been plenty of times that Batman has endangered his friends just by knowing them. What makes this sting more is that often their lives are ruined by The Joker.

Though Batman doesn’t have much direct involvement with the fates of Barbara Gordon or Jason Todd, it does raise one question. If Batman had just put effort into finding a cure for The Joker, would his friends be in such danger?

8 Good Friend: Telling Green Arrow He Beat Him

Part of DC’s bizarre Walmart exclusive comics, Batman: Universe displays a Batman that is far more well-adjusted and nicer to his friends. At the start of the story, Batman and Green Arrow team up to stop The Riddler which leads to The Riddler’s puzzle box spraying The Emerald Archer with a neurotoxin which causes him to attack The Caped Crusader.

Batman handily beat the stuffing out of Green Arrow, but when Ollie recovered, Batman went into full bro mode. Batman claimed that Ollie beat him, which is possibly the nicest thing he could have done in the situation.

7 Awful: Not Telling Gordon The Truth

When Batman began his crusade against crime, it wasn’t long before he found an ally within The GCPD. Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon have been close friends for years, which makes it odd that Batman hasn’t revealed his identity to him.

The writers of Batman comics have bent over backward to find excuses for Batman to not tell Gordon the truth, but most of them feel very thin. Though a lot of people have been in danger because they knew the truth about Bruce, there are caveats.

6 Good Friend: Helping Wonder Woman Find A Place To Decompress

Batman’s friendship with Wonder Woman is one of the most unique in comics. Though they’ve had their spats, there is a healthy amount of respect in their relationship, which is why Batman did the nicest thing for Diana at a rough time in her life.

After a particularly tough mission for Wonder Woman, Batman tells her about a mountain retreat that his father would take him and his mother to when his job got too stressful. He then offered to give Diana the address, giving her a place to decompress.

5 Awful: Knocking Nightwing’s Tooth Out

Nightwing has learned a lot from Batman, but thankfully the former Robin has chosen to forget some of his mentor’s detective tactics. In the “Court of Owls” storyline, Batman has been taken to the limit when Nightwing pays him a visit in The Batcave.

Batman, having put together that one of The Court of Owls’ Talons is Nightwing’s ancestor, insinuates that Nightwing could potentially have been indoctrinated. Nightwing flies off the handle at the insinuation, leading to Batman punching him in the face in order to use his tooth to prove his point.

4 Good Friend: Attending Pa Kent’s Funeral

Superman is possibly Batman’s best friend, but while Batman hasn’t always been the best friend for The Man of Steel, he’s been there for Clark Kent in the hardest moments. After an attack by Brainiac, Superman’s adopted father Jonathan Kent dies of a heart attack.

At the funeral, Clark delivers a eulogy, only to look to his left to see Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth mourning for Pa Kent from a distance. He may not have truly been in attendance, but it more than likely meant the world to Clark.

3 Awful: Never Eating Any Of Alfred’s Meals

Alfred Pennyworth has been Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler for decades, with the noble Brit serving as a source of sarcastic light in The Dark Knight’s life. With that being said, it isn’t like Bruce hasn’t excluded his closest confidant from his negative traits.

Often Batman has proven so busy in his war on crime that many of the meals that poor old Alfred has cooked for him end up getting cold. What makes this all the more inexcusable is that Bruce has several opportunities to actually eat the food he’s been avoiding for years, so at a certain point it has to be Bruce being vindictive.

2 Good Friend: Picking Alfred To Be His Best Man

With Alfred currently being dead in the comics, there has never been a better time to look back at some of the character’s best moments. For example, in the lead-up to Batman’s wedding with Catwoman, Bruce told Alfred that he wanted him to be his best man.

This was an emotional moment for Alfred, which makes sense as Alfred has more or less been a father figure for Bruce ever since his parents’ murder in Crime Alley. Though it ended in tragedy, the moment was one that would put a smile on fans’ faces.

1 Awful: Tower Of Babel

“Tower of Babel” has proven to many fans how much of a scumbag Batman can be, with the choice to create contingency plans designed to take down all of his JLA teammates being almost unforgivable. It almost feels like karma that Ra’s Al Ghul got his hands on them.

Not only did Ra’s use Batman’s plans to hurt The World’s “Greatest Detective’s” friends, but he showed no remorse once the Justice League called him out on it. It should come as no surprise that Batman was promptly kicked out of The League.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/batman-good-bad-friend-family-moments/