On the Breaking of Batman
As almost all followers of DC Comic's classic character Batman knows, Batman, also known as Bruce Wayne, was "broken". This all came about during the Knightfall crossover spanning Batman issues 492 - 500, Detective Comics issues 659- 666, and Showcase 93 issues 7 and 8. The character of Bane figured out the mystery of Batman's alter-ego; that Batman was really Bruce Wayne. After realizing this, Bane went to Wayne Manor to fight Batman and defeated him, breaking his back, and leaving him crippled, therefore "breaking" Batman.
With all the hub-bub about the "breaking" of Batman, fans are missing the point that I feel DC Comics is trying to make. If you take a look at the most popular of the class of comic book characters called "superheroes" in this day and age, most, if not all, have been "blessed' with super powers of some form or another. With the X-Men, it's obvious. They have their mutant abilities, like Wolverine with his claws and healing factor, Storm with her weather control, and Gambit with his kinetic-energy object charging ability. Of course, then you have Superman; he's pretty much an alien who looks like a human but has "unnatural", superhuman, alien race abilities. Vampirella and the characters in Vamps, not to mention Morbius, are all vampires. The new book Fathom features a lead character with water-based powers. Even Sailor Moon and her Sailor Scouts had their planetary powers. True, there may have been some classic characters without superpowers, for example The Punisher or even Daredevil, but those character's popularity is on the decline.
The only comic book character today that is still widely popular, so popular that several movies have been made about him and still more are in the works, that is classified as a "superhero", yet has no "superpowers" to speak of, is Batman. Batman is simply a human being, rich playboy/entrepreneur Bruce Wayne, who has access to highly advanced technology. He's just a guy with a big bad computer and lots of neat gadgets and gizmos. He wears the tight, form-fitting suit and flowing cape and cowl that the pevaling attire for today's superhero, along with a clashing belt to hold his gadgets, gizmos, communicators, and of course his wallet, because even superheroes need a licence to drive their big, shiny, hyped up cars with attached turbo rockets. He wages a one man war on evil, psychotic supervillans, like all superheroes do, but he found it to be too much, since he is only human, and allows for a sidekick, Robin, a normal teen named Dick Grayson.
When DC Comics decided to have Batman broken and crippled, they were trying to stress an important aspect of Batman: the fact that his is only a human. Batman is really Bruce Wayne, who is really just a normal human being. A rich human being, but a human being nonetheless. When his parents were brutally murdered, he decided to fight crime to help keep others from having to go through what he had to go through. But, being just a human, he would get injured and bruised and battered. This added an edge of reality to Batman that made him popular. Comic fans would read a Batman comic book and say, "Wow! This guy might really exist someday! He's a guy like me with a few high-tech weapons and stuff! I could be him!" But all humans have a weakness. Big bad boy Bane decided that Batman had to go, to he decide to waltz on in his home and bust him up! Bane ended up breaking Bruce Wayne's back, supposedly putting him out of the crime fighting business for good. The point DC Comics is trying to make is that nothing lasts forever, that no real human would have "superpowers", or be invincible. They are stressing that Batman is weak without his toys, and that with out them, he is just a guy running around in a funny suit.
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