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Make a list of the core elements of DC's Batman. The things that, if he were to be adapted into a TV series, a movie, a video game, or in a new way in comics, what needs to be there. When 'New 52' Batman writer Scott Snyder made that list ahead of a planned revamp of the DC line, he found one thing in the Batman lore that, while assumedly 'part of the package,' actually wasn't.

His generational wealth.

And that's what set DC's biggest hit in the past decade, Absolute Batman, into motion.

“What parts feel vestigial if you’re starting them over?” Snyder says rhetorically in Comics! The Magazine #1.”Well, the wealth, first of all. Right now, my kids don’t see billionaires as folk heroes. It’s a bigger leap. And you want your heroes to feel like underdogs. Why not start with generational wealth?”

That idea went beyond just the zeroes in his bank account, but went to his upbringing. In Absolute Batman, a young Bruce Wayne trades an upbringing in stately Wayne Manor for a harsh childhood in Crime Alley. Without that wealth and that privilege, the upbringing he had by Thomas and Martha Wayne changes, as does the idea that his family would be able to afford the guiding hand of Alfred Pennyworth.

For Snyder, it went even broader than that.

“But once you do that, you realize that it’s not just about wealth. It’s about Batman being a representation of order. And from there, the Joker, ever the antithesis of Batman in his mythology, is all about chaos. So, what if you flip it? Here, Batman’s not just deprived of wealth. He’s an agent of disruption. He’s an agent of change in a system that’s corrupt. And then Joker would represent that very system.”

He is vengeance, he is the night, he is... one of Popverse's favorite subjects. Learn how to do a Dark Knight movie marathon right with our Batman movie guide, and for the true World's Greatest Detectives out there, dive deep into the heart of Gotham City by getting to know Batman with Popverse. Here are some of our latest Batman stories:

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