Hot take: If Batman is injured and unable to help the Justice League it will not be Nightwing who swoops in and suddenly leads them.
I feel like I’m going to get flamed for this but the Justice League is filled with many capable heros (Superman, Wonder Woman, any of the green lanterns, ect!) and Batman’s absence does not have to be filled with the Batfamily. Don’t get me wrong I like the Batfam, but they are not the pinnacle of dc and you cannot insert them into any situation as though they are more important than characters who have a lot more experience and credibility to their roles in the Justice League.
It is wrong to say that the Batfamily have the best skills and any heroes in the Justice League can simply not compare. The members of the Justice League are powerful and adept, Batman does not call on the robins or Batgirls for assistance in jobs that the league can do.
It’s really annoying to find that in certain tags the majority of the posts are just Batfam glaze or centred mainly around the Batfam. Please pick up a Justice League comic or watch one of the animated shows to see that the Batfamily has basically no relevance to the League. This is not me saying that the Batfam is never included in the Justice League, they get mentions or are sometimes in the background of panels, they are not involved to the degree that some people seem to preach.
This goes back to my main point- there are so many capable leaders in the Justice League, the Batfam are not going to take over and lead the League one day. They may have prominent roles in certain stories lines and become members, but not the leader.
The Justice League will never have a single leader, to say it does shows that you have no understanding of the League’s purpose. The league is a product of team work and mutual respect, there may be the core founding members, but there is no single member who is in charge of the Justice League- everyone makes contributions. Each member has a role and varying degrees of how involved they are in decisions. If the League was just lead by one person it would be a dictatorship and the League fights so many dictators it would make no sense for them become the thing that they fight against.
I understand that Batman is the strategist in the core members comics but this does not automatically make him the leader or the most important. Martian Manhunter often coordinates the team and when the league expands it is his responsibility alongside Red tornado, Mr Terrific, ect to organise rotors and choose which members are most appropriate for missions. Wonder Woman is also an important strategist and a heavy hitter, without her contributions the League would struggle. The Green Lanterns, Hawkgirl and any extra-terrestrials are vital in updating records and helping to understand different cultures, if the League didn’t have some of this information it would struggle to formulate plans and be empathetic. Zatanna and Dr Fate provide insight to the mystical side that the League requires to understand situations, not all members are equipped to fight against demons and the supernatural but these characters are.
My point is that if the Justice League was just mainly the Batfam it would fail. None of them can deal with inter-dimensional rifts or fight back against mystical monsters. The League is sustained by its diverse members not one type of hero would be enough there needs to be a broad range of abilities. Like it or not the Batfam has relatively no range of skills when compared to the Justice League.
In addition to this it is completely wrong to think that Batman would say to the League members “Oh my kids could do a much better job than you at this, I’m just going to call them in.” This is incorrect on so many accounts. At any one point in canon at least one his ‘children’ dislike him and they all have their own separate lives and patrols. If you were a Batkid and got called in by Batman to do a job that you know another League member could easily do, you’d be concerned. Jason Todd being a sharp shooter does not mean that if Green arrow is on the battle field Batman is going to turn around and say “yeah but Jason could do a better job”, he’s going to let Green Arrow do his job, because 1, he is better at it and 2, there is no time to call someone else in just because you prefer them! The same goes for all his kids, Damian can use a sword but so can Katanna, Tim is a great detective but so is Question, Barbara is great at hacking but so is Cyborg. There is nothing wrong with the Justice League members and you cannot just erase them because you like the Batfam.
I did not expect this to turn into a full on rant, but I do want to say that I am not anti Batfam. If you look at my blog the majority of my posts are Batfam related. This is what makes me really annoyed, because I can appreciate the Batfam and understand that they aren’t going to be the leads in every single comic. I love reading Justice League comics and sometimes it’s really annoying to see people have takes that completely dismiss and disrespect characters that deserve the spotlight in comics they are actually in.
It’s not my intention to be rude or offensive to anyone and I don’t want to disrespect people. These are just my thoughts and please feel free to share yours in a respectful manner.
