Batman Isn't Iron Man

So here's the first time I'm using this blog like as it should be. Specifically, here's a rant that I shouldn't have even posted to Twitter (I did anyway though) because it's easily long enough for an entire blog post. Enjoy!

I get it, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is the king of the comic book world right now, but does every superhero need an Iron Man suit?

Spider-Man is wearing one in the MCU, Falcon is too basically, War Machine is literally just another Iron Man, there's a ton of this junk in comics stuff right now. Batman wore a powered suit in Batman v. Superman specifically as a reference to the Dark Knight story line where he did the same thing (how else would he fight Superman?), and for most of the recent films with Batman in them he's wearing a suit that's actually pretty top notch, but then in Justice League he goes ahead and wears another Iron Man suit for the final fight.

"I am Iron Man, DA NA NA NA NA NA- I mean, I'm Batman."

And I still get it, Iron Man suits are cool. Of course they are! And and I don't even need to go into detail about how they are functional from both an in-universe and storytelling perspective, but could we maybe STOP depicting every character in them?

Not only does every hero start too look the same if they're all wearing robotically enhanced suits, it also detracts from their character. Take a look at this article about fan art images of Jake Gyllenhaal as Batman. Predictably, most of the renditions shown are of the segmented plates and overly complicated techy suit variety. What happened to THIS!? Okay just joking, but what happened to this:

a REAL batman (also Superman too)

That's Batman! At least, that's an idealized image of Batman with no added fluff, nothing to distract from his Batmaness.

Batman's a tactician. He's a detective. He's an acrobat. He's got gadgets hidden in his utility belt. How does putting him in a super suit affect those aspects of his character? I'll tell you: it diminishes them. No longer does Batman need to rely on tactics, he's got superior technology. Why be a detective when you can just blast your way through the plot like Iron Man? Acrobatic skills, movement, and finesse aren't necessary when your armor is bulletproof. And forget hiding those silly gadgets, wear them with pride all over your damn body and show them off, otherwise the three-year-olds might think you're dumber looking than Iron Man!

It's just dumb and lazy. We don't need everyone in suits. I understand that there is some need to remove barriers to an audience's suspension of disbelief, and putting these otherwise normal human heroes in super suits helps sell the idea that they can fight the big grey super powered villains they always face at the end of the film, but this is an escalating problem. Once you escalate the level of gear your hero needs to fight the bad guys, how do you back down from there? Once Batman starts effortlessly wearing a super suit to fight super villains how do you deescalate the story to the point where you can tell stories about him fighting the regular old Joker again? This is something that I'll be paying very close attention to with regards to Marvel's handling of Spider-man in upcoming films, given that he's got access to that literal Iron Man suit Tony Stark gave him (though Marvel's probably going to do some sort of time reversal reset of the MCU after these next Avengers films so maybe it won't be a problem in any event).

Not every superhero needs to be indestructible and super strong, that's why there are HUNDREDS of different superheroes and teams where a bunch of different heroes with different strengths and weaknesses work together. Put these super plot armor Iron Man suits on everyone and maybe they'll be cool at first but eventually, as the scale of the battles and power of the villains these heroes face has to grow further and further, these comic book story lines will end up with the same problem Dragon Ball Z suffers from. What once was a tight story with comprehensible stakes evolves into a struggle for the fate of the universe where every character is blasting planets into pieces with a punch.  

But whatever, it's just comic book stuff. There are honestly far more compelling stories with less stupid nit picky problems in them. Have you seen Denis Villaneuve's film, Prisoners? It's pretty good.

Anyways that's just my thoughts on the whole everyone's wearing an Iron Man suit thing. If you wanna read more of these rants as they happen, follow me on Twitter @Sports_In_Space (or don't!).