Right off the bat, no pun intended, there are going to be some folks that have an issue with the idea of Batman becoming a black man, and no, there’s no gender-swapping here since the idea of Lucius Fox’s estranged son, Tim Fox, taking on the mantle of Batman is a fairly natural progression since in the comics it would appear that Lucius Fox has taken over the Wayne fortune. But getting down to the issue of Batman being taken over by a person of color, there’s really no problem with it since one thing that a lot of people are already realizing is that many hero stories have been dominated by white men and women for a long time, and seeing more people of color behind the mask isn’t an issue since the nature of the hero isn’t changing along with their skin color, which means that the heroes aren’t going away entirely, they’re just changing. A lot of people aren’t likely to take this change without a few complaints since they’ll point out other heroes that could take over instead of making this shift to one of their favorites. But the truth is that the heroes we’ve been idolizing for a while should all be old men and women, well, maybe not all of them since there several that don’t age because of who and what they are, and the writers of course. The reality is that a lot of heroes have been able to defy time for quite a while thanks to their popularity and the manner in which they’ve been written more often than not.
There’s almost always some way to bring a hero back since death is almost never permanent in the comics, and people don’t want things to change in such a radical manner. The most radical change of all would be if Batman suddenly wasn’t the richest, the most skilled, or the most prepared person in the world. This would mean that the idea that just because he’s Batman doesn’t mean that he’s going to be able to take on anyone at any time because he’s so paranoid that he prepares for absolutely everything, even when it comes to his allies. But it does feel as though this might be something that writers will want to cling to in light of the change that is coming since one of Batman’s biggest draws has always been that he’s prepared for anything and can take on pretty much anyone since he has the kind of training that has made him proficient in well over a hundred different fighting styles and has left him adaptable to just about anything. If that were to change, then it might be a radical shift, but passing on the mantle to a man of color isn’t that big of a shift if a person really sits down to think about it. The hero mantle is able to be taken on by just about anyone, so long as the ideals are upheld and the hero behind the mask is someone that people can get behind thanks to their purpose and their actions. It does bear saying that if someone were to try and write a white person into a role that was held by people of color though that there might be a much greater outcry since a white Cyborg, a white Black Panther (which would be ridiculous anyway), or a white Storm of the X-Men would be shown absolute disdain and likely find the idea being canceled without question. That’s really the only hypocrisy when it comes to changing up the roster of heroes, since if it works one way it should work all ways in the name of equality.
But a black Batman sounds kind of interesting since it’s bound to be a new take on the hero’s identity and what he might stand for and what he’ll accomplish. Of course, that’s just due to being a different person altogether since Bruce Wayne was known throughout the years to be kind of a serious individual without much of a life and an almost scary obsession with his role as a crimefighter. It will be kind of interesting to see how Tim Fox takes to this life and what kind of hero he’ll be, which is to say that the big hope is that he’ll be different and effective in his own manner. But another big hope is that race will be left out of this in a big way, even though it’s bound to be a factor that will come up more than once, which is funny since Batwoman season 2 will be featuring a woman of color, and not much is being said about this. Perhaps the less said the better, at least in terms of the switch. It definitely leaves more room to speculate on how effective these new heroes are going to be when it comes to the fans and their own stories. Change is hard when it comes to pop culture, but sometimes it’s necessary.
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