Warning: Spoilers for Batman #144!The darkest superhero lesson that Batman must face in The Dark Knight continues to plague him in the comics. One of the toughest lessons that a superhero is forced to learn is that sometimes, every tough decision ends in a lose-lose situation. Batman is certainly no stranger to such themes, as he’s had to learn and re-learn this lesson again and again across different forms of media.
Most recently, he suffers that hard lesson in Batman #144. In a world infected by a Joker Virus, no soul is spared except for Batman. Not even the Bat-Family is immune to becoming victims of the virus, much to Batman’s chagrin. As Bruce points out in the issue, the Bat-Family is “the most dangerous collection of people in the world.”
Batman must begrudgingly prioritize investigating a cure over helping his family. Even worse, while there’s no guarantee he will find the cure he’s looking for, there is a guarantee that his family will go out and hurt someone while away from his supervision. The best he can do is distract them while he rushes off to find a cure.
What If Rachel Dawes Became Two-Face in The Dark Knight
If Rachel Dawes had become Two-Face instead of Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight Trilogy could have done even more with the iconic Batman villain.
The Moral Choice Themes of The Dark Knight Come to Haunt Batman
Regardless of the medium and regardless of the company they hail from, a superhero is frequently presented with a choice to make that may not have a positive solution. Sometimes, the solution may even lead to less than ideal results in the aftermath. Batman is no stranger to making such decisions in his daily crime-fighting life, and one prevalent example happens in The Dark Knight. In the film, Batman works with the police to save Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes simultaneously, but still is only able to save one. Even then, Harvey’s dark villain arc leads to Dent’s demise shortly after anyway.
A similar impossible choice is woven into this comic as well. If Batman doesn’t prioritize helping his family, then they could do something treacherous that Batman won’t be able to stop them from doing. They could even hurt someone in a way that they will regret once they are free of the virus. However, if he doesn’t prioritize figuring out how to rid the world of this virus, then no one in the world has a chance to get saved. No matter which choice Batman makes, he will be faced with terrible consequences.
Decisions Like These Define Heroes Like Batman
Perhaps it’s making decisions like this that test heroes at their most vulnerable and thus define their heroism. Batman can’t save his family without neglecting the rest of the world affected by the virus, so he has to focus on the latter, knowing the ramifications. When faced with the choice of saving his family or saving the world, he must choose the latter. It’s perhaps the biggest tragedy of being a hero who’s seemingly capable of saving everyone: you simply can’t save everyone. However, being willing to make choices like the ones in this comic and in The Dark Knight is what makes Batman a hero in the first place.
