Batman was as soon as investigated by social companies over his Robins

We all know that Batman has had a number of Robins, however we speak much less about how that succession of children appeared to the folks of Gotham City. How did Bruce Wayne, a famously idiotic billionaire bachelor with a behavior of adopting oddly similar-looking orphan teenagers, by no means elevate the eyebrow of a metropolis social employee?

In one 2003 comedian, he lastly did. Civil servant Felix Desidero determined that perhaps it was price wanting right into a extremely influential billionaire whose final ward had died in a “warehouse fire” in Ethiopia. It was a basic drawback of superhero secret id in very critical trappings.

Batman solved the issue in an uncommon approach: by telling the reality.

Each Monday, whereas the comics trade takes a little bit of a break, we’re wanting again at a number of the stand out moments in comedian historical past — or at the least in bizarre comics historical past. Think of it as half society pages of superhero lives, half studying suggestions, half “look at this cool art.” There could also be some spoilers. There will not be sufficient context. If you missed final week, learn this.

Welcome to Gotham Knights

At the door to Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne refuses to talk to social worker Felix Desidero about the late Jason Todd. “Fine...” Desidero mutters as he stalks away from the slammed door, “I’ll subpoena you. Sicko.” From Batman: Gotham Knights #42, DC Comics (2003).

While the entire “Batman getting investigated by Gotham’s social services” arc got here to a head in Batman: Gotham Knights #45, it was actually the end result of a 12 months of storytelling from author Scott Beatty and artist Roger Robinson (with a couple of visitor artists), who took over the title after the exit of its originator, Devin Grayson. Beatty continued the deal with Batman household dynamics with a number of interwoven storylines.

Like the perfect dramatic tv, the principle narrative of Batman: Gotham Knights would intersect with the setup of different storylines that might finally repay points later. Bane exhibits up with proof that he is likely to be Bruce Wayne’s unknown half-brother, and stays within the manor for a bit whereas an unbiased hospital manages a DNA check. Man-Bat’s runaway son takes up secret residence within the Batcave, surviving off of Bruce’s untouched sandwiches. Alfred turns into gravely in poor health from an unknown virus and the entire household has to quarantine within the manor whereas the Justice League picks up their patrols. Beatty juggles all of those tales expertly, whereas Robinson completely nails the motion, character drama, and comedic beats.

Meanwhile, via all of this, Felix Desidero will get increasingly more annoyed with how everyone in Gotham is okay with Bruce Wayne’s childcare file.

Look, Bruce Wayne is notoriously sketch

Social worker Felix Desidero explains to his superior that he began investigating Bruce Wayne — a man recently cleared of murder charges — after he found a private investigator trying to obtain Wayne’s paternity test results, and then the investigator wound up dead. His superior mentions that Wayne is a very influential man, in Batman: Gotham Knights #44, DC Comics (2003).

Desidero is a father, a current transplant to Gotham City, and makes a speciality of runaway teenagers, so he’s obtained loads of motivation and no in-born respect for the Wayne household title, which just lately rebuilt the complete metropolis. Plus, he has all this proof of sketchy happenings pointing to Bruce.

Bruce was just lately cleared of a homicide cost — however solely after he fled jail. Desidero has no approach of understanding that it was a body job arrange by one among Batman’s enemies. Just like he has no approach of understanding that that current DNA check wasn’t to determine Bruce’s offspring, however to seek out out if he and Bane shared a father. And he couldn’t know that that personal detective bumped into visitors after Bane found him snooping round and spooked him.

To Desidero, Jason Todd’s demise is likely to be years within the rearview, however the truth that no one batted an eye fixed when Wayne briefly took Tim Drake, one other teenager with an off-kilter residence scenario, into his family deserves a tough have a look at the scenario. His Gotham-native boss doesn’t inform him no — however he warns him that if Wayne actually is the villain Desidero suspects that he’s, that is Gotham City. Old cash goes a good distance in sure very particular instructions.

Social worker Felix Desidero’s boss, Willie, warns him that if he’s going to investigate Bruce Wayne, he should think about how influential the guy is, in Gotham Knights #44, DC Comics (2003).

So how is Batman taking all of this?

Mmmmm, not effectively.

At this level, Jason Todd’s resurrection wouldn’t even be on the horizon for a number of years — he was nonetheless a dependable emotional ache level for Batman. What’s worse than years of stewing in guilt over your little one’s demise and questioning in the event you might have accomplished extra? Being a particularly personal vigilante who by no means shares his emotions, however was simply ordered by regulation to speak to a whole stranger about his worst failure.

A process server, disguised as a pizza delivery man, serves Bruce Wayne a court order at the doorway of Wayne Manor, in Gotham Knights #43, DC Comics (2003).

And Desidero didn’t simply wish to speak to Bruce; Alfred, Dick Grayson, and Tim Drake have been on the record too. And he wished to speak within the manor — presently additionally the house of Cassandra Cain/Batgirl, who has no cowl story for her relationship with Bruce. Also, since she was raised by a world-class murderer, she has no authorized id!

The Bat-family makes an attempt to kind a collective plan — it’s not like they’ll hold a social employee off a rooftop only for making an attempt to do the correct factor — however Bruce isn’t a lot assist.

Nightwing reassures Batman that he and the Bat-family will coordinate to tell a social worker whatever cover story he needs to hear, in Gotham Knights #44, DC Comics (2003).

“Oh yeah, sure,” Nightwing mutters after Batman speeds off, “The whole truth and nothing but the truth. How we grew up in a cave full of bats […] It’s where you drafted us into a war on crime.”

Beatty and Robinson cap the Desidero story line off with a full problem specializing in his one-on-one interviews with the bat-family — which Bruce is suspiciously late to, attributable to crimefighting, after all — a fantastically crafted single problem meditation on the difficult relationships all of them have with their mentor and his parenting type.

After years of estrangement between them, Dick offers a reasonably impartial tackle their historical past.

“He wasn’t my father, and he never tried to be. But he was the closest thing to one and taught me how to be a good man,” Dick Grayson says to a social worker in Gotham Knights #45, DC Comics (2003.) — At this time limit, Dick’s civilian id was as a police officer in Gotham’s sister metropolis, Blüdhaven.

Tim displays on how Bruce’s household has develop into his personal, regardless that his father remains to be alive.

Tim Drake/Robin reflects on how Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson have been big influences on him, in Batman: Gotham Knights #45, DC Comics (2003).

Cassandra, whose struggles with verbal communication have made her a particularly concise speaker, effortlessly performs it cool.

“She’s a family friend of Mister Wayne’s,” Alfred explains. “Just a friend?” asks a social worker, suspicious. Cassandra smiles: “An ally.” From Batman: Gotham Knights #45, DC Comics (2003.)

Alfred, then again, is fucking livid at this imprecation of his household.

Alfred Pennyworth storms out of an interview with a social worker after being asked if he was ever concerned with the welfare of the children in Bruce Wayne’s care, in Batman: Gotham Knights #45, DC Comics (2003).

Finally, Bruce exhibits up, explaining the cuts on his face — from leaping face-first via a plate-glass window — as a snowboarding accident. And similar to he instructed Nightwing, he tells the reality.

Tears slide down Bruce Wayne’s face as he says that he allowed Jason Todd to have hope, “and it killed him,” in Batman: Gotham Knights #45, DC Comics (2003).

In the tip, Desidero packs up his recording gear and presses the investigation no additional, telling Bruce “I’m happy that you just cared for Jason Todd as finest you may, however I would like you to suppose lengthy and arduous earlier than you are taking it upon your self to deliver one other little one into this residence.”

The Batmobile’s tires

Comics author Grant Morrison as soon as famously told Rolling Stone magazine, “You give an adult fiction, and the adult starts asking really fucking dumb questions like ‘How does Superman fly? How do those eyebeams work? Who pumps the Batmobile’s tires?’ It’s a fucking made-up story, you idiot! Nobody pumps the tires!”

That metaphor may simply prolong to a query like “Why hasn’t Batman ever been investigated by social services?” But Beatty and Robinson’s arc in Batman: Gotham Knights exhibits that these questions of realism don’t have to destroy our capacity to take pleasure in a weird fiction. Told the correct approach, they’ll completely improve it.

To learn the total Desidero arc of Gotham Knights, learn from problem #33 via #45. They’ve by no means been printed in a collected version, however you could find particular person points on Comixology and DC Universe.

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