Bruce Wayne losing his billions made Batman a better character

There are a few things that people know about Batman. He’s vengeance, a master planner, and a billionaire. The latter was taken away from him during The Joker War by James Tynion. Catwoman hacked into Bruce Wayne’s offshore accounts and expected the money to transfer to her. Instead, she was double-crossed. All one hundred billion dollars of Bruce Wayne’s money was now Joker’s.

Eventually, Joker loses (like he always does) and the money goes to Lucius Fox. Fox was unable and unwilling to give Bruce his billions back making him broke by normal people’s standards. He was still Batman just on a budget.

At the time, this looked like a mistake. One of Batman’s biggest “superpowers” is money. What would he do without disposable income, the Bat Cave, and access to Wayne Enterprises and Wayne Manor? The answer was simple. He’d get better.

The fall and rise of Batman

Bruce had to be more careful and creative with his patrols and planning. He couldn’t do things without thinking about the cost. For example, there were times when he had to make gadgets out of things he found lying around. Sure, he’d done this before, but now it was necessary.

As Bruce Wayne, not being part of the billionaires' club cost him access to certain circles where he gained intel. Living in a brownstone instead of Wayne Manor nearly exposed his secret identity. Then there was the time he had to listen to Lex Luthor try and talk him into a team-up. He was also unkept, untrustworthy, and losing his mind.

Despite Failsafe almost killing him, being sent to an alternate reality, and Zur-En-Arrh altering his mind and movements, Batman prevailed. This furthered the theory that Batman wins because he’s Batman and it needed to happen.

It’s one thing to be Batman when you have a hundred billion dollars and access to anything you need. It’s another when you’re backed against the wall. Batman reminded the world that there wasn’t anything that could stop him from being a hero.

Bruce may be rich again and things are back to normal, but we can always look to when James Tynion and Chip Zdarsky brought the Dark Knight down to build him up.

Did you prefer Bruce Wayne broke or rich? What do you think is next for Batman? Let us know on the Bam Smack Pow Instagram and Twitter.