A different angle on “Bruce Wayne is Batman’s sugar daddy”
Bruce thinks certain members of the Justice League dislike him because he can be a bit of a difficult hardass, but really it’s because they know Bruce’s propensity for manipulation and are convinced he has emotionally manipulated poor traumatized Bruce Wayne into bankrolling his insane projects, + his vigilantism in general.
Bruce’s drunken benders and hedonistic pleasure-seeking contrasted against his earnest efforts to improve Gotham paint a picture of a lonely, troubled, yet ultimately very sweet man who still wants to have hope despite everything. Batman is exactly the kind of figure a boy who lost his parents to crime at such a young age would idolize, and he’s now had his life personally saved by Batman a few times too. It would have been easy for someone like Batman to take advantage of him. Bruce may have even been the one to approach Batman first, offering the only two things he knew people wanted from him- his money and his body.
At one point the Justice League meets Bruce Wayne while Batman is absent, and Hal takes Bruce aside to tell him Batman doesn’t have his best interests at heart and he deserves better. Bruce feigns ignorance and changes the subject with a quip, but Hal can recognize the minor jab for what it is. Bruce had gotten defensive. He sighs. Maybe he can try giving Batman a shovel talk.
