Ya know, rather than this whole Zur En Arrh bullshit with Batman having a secret moreBatmoreMan posthypnotic suggestion persona, why don't we ever address Bruce's actual repressed emotions? The effects of the implicit compartmentalization of all the things he wants to do but "can't" because his obsessive dedication to The Mission/The Crusade won't let him?
And not just the sad inner child shtick we sometimes get, but like all the childhood he didn't have, all the impulses he tamps down by that famous sheer force of will. They all have to go some place, on the other side of some psychic fence to where the "Batman" isn't. And not just all the innocent indulgences but the darker ones too, and honestly? The alter ego shouldn't even be Batman. It's just the Bruce Wayne lurking under the surface, all the, "Hey, you know what we could do..." intrusive thoughts that he has to deal with, all the abuse of power he always has to carefully consider and consciously say "no" to night after night. The kind of Jungian Shadow Self that is just the defacto repository for all those thoughts and feelings deemed "not me" by Bruce's super ego.
I dunno what avenue would be better for it. An extension of the this whole Zur thing we've been faffing about with? Maybe a situation with Madhatter trying to deprogram the Batman out of Batman, only to leave behind a confused and impulsive Bruce with no ethical/moral preoccupations with doing good? Maybe some kind of situation with Hugo Strange or Harleen picking his brain and teasing this other persona out of repression? I mean, I guess it could be a mix of a few of them: Like, if Zur is in a robot and not in Bruce's head now, what does that leave the inside of Bruce's mind like? Could it be that the impulses and temptations aren't kept at bay by mere "will" but by Zur himself, the embodiment of The Mission? Psychically/metaphysically beating down all those thoughts and feelings not deemed useful or necessary to being Batman, a second psychic embodiment made to be the whipping boy, forever being put in his place, now left without a prison guard? (I mean heck, there's always room for some magical doppleganger shenanigans, because why not, though that feels like it's less thematically potent...) And surely there's some room for some good Dent drama in all this right?
I know this is kind of just a lot of lite remixing of the Batman and Detective Comic plots that's been ongoing for like a full year and running now... But is the forever torture of being a superhero fan, there's just always going to be more good ideas with halfbaked executions than actual good comics, and that shit just gets to swim around in my head for forever. If only I was more inclined to actually write some of these myself......
