#going full Sundowning Julie Newmar of Sunset Boulevard when Bruce dies after a long happy marriage

[rassilon-imprimatur]

Like, y’all know how in Venture Bros. the whole point of OSI vs the Guild of Calamitous Intent and the whole world being slave to this parodic, pastiche-laden game of “superheroes vs supervillains” is blatantly revealed to be so the villains don’t lose their minds and behave much worse? They’re locked in the games of their choosing, enabled and humored, so they don’t set the goddamn world on fire? That’s more of what Batman needs to blatantly be like. The pendulum swing of Westian camp and pop art to gory giallo, the kid fantasy of being Robin and being Batman’s best friend vs being a kid surrounded by dangerous, villainous egotists who see him as their nemesis. The villains are active threats that harm the innocent, but they wanna play games of death traps and capers and outsmarting their greatest foes, who happen to be Batman and a twelve-year-old. Bruce is just as much a scary, blood-soaked brute smashing these narcissists to pulp as he is reaching and begging “Please, let me help you.” Etc etc.