For all its excitement and the fact that it is beginning to improve, the DCEU was off to a rocky start at first. That difficult beginning laid a path for the Justice League that was decidedly darker than most interpretations of these characters and their stories.
After Christopher Nolan’s wildly successful Dark Knight trilogy, the DCEU felt the need to keep up the Frank Miller interpretation of Batman on the silver screen. However, this gave all the movies a much darker tone than necessary, and resulted in a much darker Batman. While Batman is a fairly dark character, he is still a person, and Batman in the DCEU is simply too dark to be the Bruce Wayne fans know and love.
10 He Lost Dick Grayson Already
One of the most tragic parts of Bruce Wayne’s story is when he lost his son, Jason Todd, to the Joker. Even more tragic was when Jason was revived and brought back as the mild villain/anti-hero Red Hood. Jason and Bruce have a very specific dynamic, as do Bruce and his first “son,” Dick Grayson.
Dick and Jason were both Robins, but, after their careers as Robin ended, Dick chose instead to become Nightwing. However, this played out much differently in the DCEU. In this franchise, Bruce Wayne lost Dick, his very first Robin, to the Joker, and still hasn’t gotten him back— if he ever will. This grieving, grim Bruce is much darker than the standard fare.
9 He Doesn’t Let Anybody In At All
For all his grim faults, Batman is an interesting character because of the people he chooses to spend his time with. He could, at any point, completely isolate himself and dedicate his life solely to the Bat, but he chooses to continue living in the way he does, having a partially normal life, because he’s still a human person.
However, Bruce Wayne in the DCEU doesn’t let anybody in. Even Alfred rarely succeeds at having a real conversation with Bruce, who feels more like an island than anything else. The only people who even come close to being let in by Bruce in the DCEU besides Alfred are Superman and Wonder Woman— and, even then, only just barely.
8 He Has No "Family" Of Any Kind Other Than Alfred
Batman is typically surrounded by a varied and colorful cast of characters in the majority of his incarnations. Not only are the villains around him absolutely outrageous, but so are his allies. His best friend is Clark Kent, aka Superman, an optimistic farm boy with a sunny attitude; in addition, Bruce Wayne has multiple Robins, and frequently works with children.
He also has other characters like Catwoman who are involved in his regular life. However, none of these people are present in Batman’s daily life in the DCEU. He is standoffish at best and has no true friends or family to speak of, save for Alfred.
7 His First Instinct Is To Kill Or Destroy
In order for a story like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to work, Batman cannot know Superman in the least. If he knew Superman even a little bit and trusted him as he usually does, he would know that Clark is as far from a cold-blooded killing machine as someone can get.
Now, Batman does always still have contingency plans should Superman go haywire, but this does not mean that Batman’s first instinct is to destroy anything and everything he perceives as a threat. Lex Luthor manipulated Batman and Superman against each other, but it wasn’t very hard to do, as Batman apparently is on edge at all times and is willing to kill anyone around him as needed.
6 He Is Willing To Do Things Batman Usually Doesn’t Do
After Bruce saw the Knightmare future scenario in his dream in Dawn of Justice, he was far more willing to use firearms and guns. While Batman does not wield guns himself, the Batman present in the DCEU is more than okay with utilizing bad guys’ pre-existing weapons against them.
Whereas Batman in most media would rather use his regular fighting techniques before he ever wielded a gun, even one that wasn’t his own, Batman in the DCEU has no such qualms. He sends bullets and guns flying as if he were totally okay with it, which this version of him just might be.
5 He Is Burdened With Incredible Guilt
Typically, Batman and Superman don’t meet for the first time in a battle so huge and dramatic that Superman ends up dead by the end of it. As a result, the Batman present in the DCEU is burdened with a huge amount of guilt and negative feelings around Superman that don’t usually exist.
Batman feels responsible for killing Superman and for taking him away from the world, and he shoulders a lot of that burden silently and in complete isolation. This makes him an even sadder and heavier character than he already was before, all the darker for his grief and guilt.
4 He Is Already Tilting Towards The End Of His Career
As the Justice League forms for the first time in the DCEU, Bruce Wayne proves that he is no spring chicken. In fact, while Superman is at the very beginning of his career, Batman is already older and starting to edge towards the end of his own. He’s seen a lot of horrible things and been through terrible life experiences, and all of these weigh on him greatly.
The Justice League should only just be beginning, new and light and free, and yet Batman has been through so much before this that he’s already darker than he should be by this point in his life, no matter what universe he’s in.
3 Pessimism Won Out In Him Long Ago
With so many horrible experiences in his past, Bruce Wayne doesn’t see much point in being optimistic about his future. He believes that the worst will inevitably come to pass, and all he does as Batman is beat back the tide that will, eventually, come in, no matter what he does.
He can’t just do nothing, but the Batman present in the DCEU feels like he doesn’t believe he’s actually doing much at all, either. Batman is no longer even mildly optimistic, but just straight pessimistic, believing the worst of everyone and everything around him at all times.
2 He Is Struggling To Adapt To The New World
For many years, metahumans and super-people have existed in the world of the DCEU. For instance, Wonder Woman has been around for at least a century, and presumably others like Martian Manhunter have existed for some time in hiding, as well.
Batman wants to get to know these other heroes and begin working with them, but he still struggles to grasp what it means to be more than human, what it is to go beyond that. He doesn’t quite grasp that these people are still human and can be trusted just as well as he can, but he’s not there yet.
1 He Barely Ever Has Human Moments Of Levity
While Batman may be grim and dark and all of that regular sad stuff, he is still a human man. He experiences joy, he laughs, he can be happy, even if it doesn’t seem like it based on his recent run of films. For all that Batman is allowed to brood, he should also be allowed moments of levity.
If all a man ever does is mope around in his grimdark lair, it makes it less and less believable that he gives a damn about the world around him and what happens to it. Batman in the DCEU barely ever has any happy moments and hardly ever smiles, which makes him seem even less human than his actual inhuman peers.