Is Batman Actually a Fascist?

When Batman beats goons to a pulp because they supposedly deserve it, he’s approaching criminality as a moral choice. There’s an obvious correlation between social inequality and criminality, and it’s simplistic and dangerous to say some people are just “bad.” Still, when Batman goes out at night breaking bones, he ignores the core issues of Gotham City’s economy and simply flexes his millionaire's muscles. By the way, this is the main argument used to defend the idea that Batman is fascist.

This is, incidentally, the rationale du jour of Red Scare Era KKK. Lynching black labor activists for agitating against the local government. Batman quite literally hangs people from lampposts, in a manner highly reminiscent of the "strange fruit" Billie Holiday sings about. They also popularized "policing" neighborhoods through night raids against black businesses that were deemed "criminal" purely through their relative success. Again, this goes to the manner in which Batman routinely roughs up members of the "legitimate" side of (what the author has decided are) criminal businesses.

Bruce Wayne’s vast financial resources only complicates the Batman character. The idea of a millionaire spending thousands of dollars on gadgets he uses to beat down poor criminals is problematic, to say the least.

It should be noted how many members of the Klan were, themselves, landlords and politicians and industrial millionaires of the era. They used their superior resources and their political connections with the police to engage in violent vigilantism against "criminals" like Emmett Till and Joe Spinner Johnson. And they organized within the Klan to promote racist policies at the public level, in the same way that Wayne Enterprises influences politics in Gotham City.

Let’s take Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns timeline, for instance. That Batman is unquestionably a fascist.

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Batman puts himself above the law and brainwashes an army of lost souls to enact his will, crushing everyone he defines as an enemy. Instead of acting on a moral gray area, Miller’s take on Batman extrapolates some of the Dark Knight's tendencies to show how the vigilante’s crusade against crime could turn him into a full-blown fascist.

Probably the most naked example.

Obviously, this varies by writer. And you can always find more liberal/leftist authors who have re-positioned Batman as explicitly anti-slavery, anti-apartheid, and pro-union labor. But these are very novel interpretations, relative to the character as originally portrayed.