Bruce Wayne is an interesting character. Bruce was born into one of the richest families in the world, with everything at his finger tips. It looked like the world was his. As fate would have it, his life took a turn for the worst very early when his parents were murdered right in front of him. The pain of loss and a sense of justice (or revenge) lead him to spend his early adult life traveling the world gaining various skills he could use to fight crime...to prevent his tragedy from happening to others.
As everyone knows, he eventually becomes Batman, one of the most legendary superheroes of all time. He possesses no powers, only a strong mind and body. Armed with martial arts, detective skills, and the best technology can offer he patrols the rooftops of Gotham city looking for thugs to pound into the ground.
The interesting question is, what is the fate of a man like this? Defined by tragedy, is he doomed to be killed by one of the villains in Batman's massive rouges gallery? Killed by a random thug on the street who got lucky? Grow old by himself, alone in his mansion? Several stories ranging from the comic books, to cartoons to the movies have created a fate for him, it's almost always just as tragic as his life.
Though it's not a good movie (it's mostly just Tim Burton running wild), Batman Returns shows a Bruce Wayne who is very different from the one in the first Burton film. In the first movie he still got out into the world some. He had parties and pretended to be a socialite, even if that wasn't his desire. By Batman Returns he has become isolated. He simply sits around his mansion waiting for the Bat signal. He lives to be Batman.
Similarly, this is how we find Bruce Wayne in the new The Dark Knight Rises film. He has been out of the game for 8 years but secretly longs for things to go wrong so he can become Batman again. In both movies we see that Bruce Wayne actually died with his parents and Batman is who he truly is. Unlike other superheroes, Batman's mask is his true face, not the mask he puts on every night.
It seems Bruce's story has to end in tragedy (and does in virtually all forms of media). I was happy to see that in The Dark Knight Rises he actually has a happy ending (though some feel that is open to interpretation), finally taking Alfred's advice. Moving on with his life and past the death of Rachel. It's always nice to see a characters redemption.
In other incarnations it didn't end so well. In the classic 90s cartoon we find out he ends up old and alone (Batman Beyond) until he finds someone to pass the torch of Batman to.
In the original Batman movies we find out he gets nipples on his costume and Gotham has become overrun with neon gangs. Perhaps that is the most tragic ending of all. On second thought, let's pretend like those last 2 movies from Joel Schumacher didn't happen and Bruce ended up isolated and alone like in Batman Returns.
In all seriousness, Bruce Wayne is a great character. It's nice to see different endings written for him, though all and all it's probably better to just let him go on being Batman and never define his ending. I always feel that leaving things like that up to the imagination is better than whatever someone can come up with. Your mind can fill in the gaps the better than any writer.
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