Warning: contains spoilers for Heroes Return #1!
Marvel Comics just savagely attacked Batman’s entire character – and they did it through a single insult from Blade, the vampire hunter. While Marvel and DC’s potshots at each other over the decades is nothing new, this latest one can almost be described as a character assassination.
The massive Heroes Reborn crossover event takes place in a world in which the Avengers never came together as a team. As a result, the Squadron Supreme of America – Marvel’s pastiche of DC’s own Justice League – is now the premiere superhero team of the world, with seven members including Hyperion (an analogue to Superman), Blur (the Flash), and Nighthawk (Batman). Blade, the only person who remembers the world as it used to be, finds and reunites the scattered Avengers to do battle with the Squadron Supreme and President Phil Coulson: the mastermind behind the changed world.
Now, in Heroes Return #1 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, and Matthew Wilson each Avengers squares off against a member of the Squadron Supreme, and Blade comes face-to-face with Nighthawk. Nighthawk and Blade initially appear to be evenly-matched (Nighthawk has no powers but has trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat, similar to Batman) and Blade takes the opportunity to sharply criticize his opponent. “I don’t get the big deal with you, Nighthawk,” Blade says, and wonders why even his fellow Squadron members are afraid of him. “All I see is some rich kid who bought himself a rep. Bet you’ve had one hard day in your life and never gotten over it. I’m what you get when they’re all hard days.” Since, for all intents and purposes, Nighthawk is Marvel’s equivalent of Batman (backstory and all), this isn’t Blade criticizing Nighthawk – this is Marvel criticizing Batman.
Blade is absolutely right: Bruce Wayne was born into an obscenely wealthy family and, if he so desired, would never have to work a day in his life. Though the tragic murder of his parents undeniably scarred Bruce, he has never moved beyond that moment; in a way, he is still eight years old, retreating into the persona of Batman to mentally distance himself from his trauma. Yet as terrible as the situation is, there are others who have endured far greater pain. For Blade’s part, he was born into poverty, grew up without a biological mother and father, and had an incredibly difficult life as a child (becoming a vampire notwithstanding). Ultimately, the billionaire Bruce Wayne chooses to live a “hard” life as Batman, but Blade doesn’t get to make that choice; it was made for him.
Marvel occasionally trots out the Squadron Supreme whenever they wish to include the Justice League in their comics without incurring the wrath of DC’s legal department. If one replaces every instance of the name “Nighthawk” in Heroes Return #1 with “Batman”, the intent behind the takedown becomes clear: Batman ought to count his blessings. On several occasions in the comics, Batman has lost and regained his fortune – but growing up, Batman grew up without knowing poverty, hunger, or desperation, and these are elements of life with which Blade is innately familiar.
