The Inherent Autistic Nature of The Batman
The concept of “The Hero” has existed for millenia in all different cultures and methods of storytelling, but in today’s society, it has superheroes like those in Marvel’s highly successful cinematic universe that have captured the people’s attention in order to see a person prevail over even the most difficult obstacles that life could create. DC, another popular comic company and publisher, has many strong characters that garner favor from their audience with one of the most popular being The Batman, billionaire Bruce Wayne. There have been many iterations of Batman throughout comics, cartoons, Hollywood action films, and more. However, through these different mediums and portrayals of the character, a common theme of many autistic traits are found within Bruce Wayne and his existence as a hero. This stems not only from the trauma he faced as a young child and the resulting mental health issues caused by that event, but in his personality, his struggles with relationships, his interests, and the very creation of his alter ego as The Batman in the first place. The authour, as someone who has not read many of the DC comics, will demonstrate how these different aspects of the comicbook hero combine to create a character that can easily be read as autistic or otherwise neurodivergent by the audience through the movies and cartoons scene and fan written works that include and study this character.
In most stories of Batman, Bruce Wayne creates this vigilante alterego during his twenties to fight crime in the city of Gotham, New Jersey using the funds he has as an old money billionaire in the United States because he witnessed the murder of his parents when he was eight years old during a robbery gone wrong. Trauma, especially that which happens at a young age, leaves a lasting impression on the psyche and so it stands to reason that Bruce Wayne would have experienced mental health issues after he was, in one night, violently turned into an orphan at the loss of his loving parents. Such mental illnesses he likely would have faced are depression, anxiety and other panic disorders, PTSD, as well as others that deal with grief and loss combined with needing control and issues of trust. He also likely would have faced issues creating and maintaining relationships because the most inherent and fundamental connection he had, that of a parent to a child, was ripped away from him unexpectedly. His issues with relationships would have likely come from any possible isolation Wayne created for himself due to the trauma and ensuing mental illnesses he suffered. While these mental health issues do not make Bruce Wayne autistic, there are many links to the symptoms of different mental illnesses to the manners in which autistc people act added to the proclivity of autistic people to suffer mental health problems due to the altered manner in which they experience and process stimulants in the world.
In many fan created pieces, the authors analyze Bruce Wayne and find that he is more true as Batman than he is as himself and so never lets go of the mask. While comicbook heroes are known to wear masks to hide their identities by simply covering their faces, autistic people use the act of masking to try and maintain the appropriate actions and customs of the neurotypical or allistic society. They pretend to not be autistic in situations and so act as a different person. This act can be seen used by Batman in the different masks he creates for himself. Bruce Wayne, the true person underneath, has created at least two personalities or identities for himself. For everyday life, there is “Brucie Wayne” the ditzy billionaire who laughs off everything and anything because that is what is expected from him from both other members of high society and the rest of the population who view rich people in certain ways due to parasocial relationships. “The Batman” is also a manner of masking used by Wayne not only be being a crime-fighting alter ego, but also because Batman is allowed, but also expected, to act very differently from Brucie or Bruce Wayne. Batman is allowed to be sullen, quiet but intelligent, and able to use different fighting abilities in order to pursue his interest of fighting crime, as will be discussed more later. The author does recognize that Batman is less of a masking technique in a way because the hero is not expected to make friends or act polite in company but instead allowed to show more of the natural mannerisms of an autistic person however, The Batman must also be a form of masking because he has a reputation of being the “World’s Best Detective” and a very terrifying vigilante. In character studies by different authors, it seems like Bruce Wayne, the real person, is a very quiet and intelligent man who relies on his interests and the masking he does because he is not comfortable showing his true self to the world when really he is still that grieving child that lost his parents.
Having both a secret identity and the early trauma, Bruce Wayne is often shown to have issues creating or maintaining relationships with other people. While he does raise many children, both in general and in the crime fighting lifestyle, it is seen in many comics and storylines that those father and child relationships are often fraught with issues caused by lack of proper communication or other problems that oft seem to lie with Bruce and his words and actions, or lack thereof. Batman is also a member of the Justice League, a worldwide group of heroes that band together to fight larger threats than everyday crime, but he does not often share his true identity with the team nor does he communicate his plans or thoughts with the other members in many different versions of his character. The reason this is considered an autistic trait of Wayne’s is because autistic people in real life have issues with relationships either due to their own personal needs being considered different to normal society and the differences that exist in allistic versus autistic communication, espectially in those autists who are selectively mute or nonverbal, whether that is all the time or simply during specific episodes. This makes it very difficult to understand the allistic people around them or to be understood by the allistic people because it is unknown the best way to communicate and so it is hard to correctly place a level of closeness with that person or to maintain the correct relationship or closeness with them at all times. Batman is considered to be selectively mute by the author because many times he simply does not speak, like when he does not communicate his plans to other heroes, or simply hums and grunts instead of using full words or sentences. In the 2022 film The Batman, Robert Pattinson, who plays Bruce Wayne, often does not respond directly to remarks made to him both as Wayne in daily life or to officers at crime scenes when he is Batman. The hero also is known to frequently leave Police Commissioner Jim Gordon before the man can finish the debrief because, to Batman, he already has all the needed information and so there is no point in continuing the conversation no matter how rude it is considered by Gordon. It is also likely that Wayne would have different scripts for any interactions he might have as either Batman or Brucie Wayne in order to maintain the identity he currently inhabits which is a common trait amongst autistic people in order to better mask and communicate in everyday society.
When it comes to neurodivergent people, they are often known to have “special interests” or hyperfocuses that take up a majority of their time and attention. Obviously, for Bruce Wayne, vigilantism as Batman is a hyperfocus because it has become almost his true self in many iterations of the character. Some other special interests that could be considered are his specialty in detective work, martial arts, languages, different sciences, and likely many more. While these are linked to his needs for crime fighting, they are also interests that he has cultivated and become very focused on to the point where he is considered the best in many of those fields, at least within the superhero or “caped” community. He, as a billionaire, has very easy access to study these interests as they come up but still it matches with the neurodivergent process of becoming focused on some media, skill, or other stimulus to take up quite a bit of their attention.
In most iterations of Batman, Bruce Wayne dawned his cowl to ensure that no other person would experience the pain he did when he was only eight years old. He decided to take matters into his own hands and become a vigilante because he did not see a way to place faith in the legal system when the legal system did not save him from being orphaned all of those years ago. This is also often the reason given for why he takes in Dick Grayson, the first Robin and often the first child hero in many DC comic runs, after the boy’s parents fall to their deaths during their circus act after a protection racket tampers with their equipment. While this may seem to simply link to Wayne’s personal trauma and his own selflessness to try and protect the people of Gotham, it can also be linked to another autistic trait. Many people with autism have a very rigid sense of justice or right and wrong which leads to a very specific moral code. Batman has an incredibly strict moral code in that he fights crime as a vigilante, which in itself is a crime, but refuses to kill or go any further beyond the legal system than his vigilantism. This often causes issues in his relationships because other vigilantes do not see issue with being “Judge, Jury, and Executioner.” Examples include members of the Justice League, such as Wonder Woman, and Red Hood, Bruce Wayne’s second son and the second robin, who began killing when he returned from the dead after being killed by the Joker, one of Batman’s villains.
In all, while most writers most likely do not attempt to make Batman or Bruce Wayne an autistic or autistic seeming character, many of the traits he is given do match with those of autistic people in real life. It gives a sort of deeper introspection of the character and how exactly the events in human life can affect a person, but it also brings to question how fictional characters are perceived for these characteristics versus the real people who exhibit the same within our communities. People look up to heroes because their stories usually end in victory which is attractive to the public who exist as living beings that often do not succeed or feel failure in their lives. Whether Batman was intended to represent these autistic traits or not, it is impossible to reject the idea that he does embody them and exists as a revered hero at the same time.
