DC in General: Worlds Without Batman

Let’s look at some DC shows set in or around Gotham or using Batman-related characters.

• Batwoman: season one of which took place four years after Bruce Wayne gave up being Batman and skipped town after killing the Joker.
• Titans: season three of which starts with Bruce Wayne giving up being Batman and skipping town after killing the Joker.
• The DCEU: after months of ignoring rumours that Michael Keaton would be replacing Ben Affleck as the film-verse Bruce Wayne, taking a Nick Fury role in the films, it looks like he will be playing an aged, probably retired Bruce Wayne in the Batgirl movie. Zack Snyder’s Justice League already had a middle-aged Batman close to retirement, years after all his major villains were dealt with and the death of a Robin, and now Batgirl’s going even older.
• Pennyworth: last I checked, Pennyworth was still set during the early flirtations of Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane, so Bruce Wayne is still many years away from being conceived.
• Gotham Knights: reports on this in-development show which might not happen have the inciting incident being the death of Bruce Wayne.

WHY IS MATT REEVES THE ONLY ONE WHO GETS TO HAVE AN ACTIVE BATMAN IN HIS PROJECT

WHY DO SO MANY DC PROJECTS INSIST ON SETTING THEMSELVES IN A POST-BATMAN WORLD

Batman is DC’s most popular character, but so many of their live action projects insist on having all the cool Batman stuff already have happened. They need Batman to have been active for decades prior to when our story begins, and either have already retired or be on the verge of retirement. Zack Snyder wanted an aging, veteran Batman for Batman V Superman because Return of the Dark Knight is apparently the only Batman comic he’s read, but why doesn’t anyone else want Batman to be a peer of the other heroes, not the Old Man on the Mountain who’s already pretty over it by the time the age of heroes begins?

It’s all a little much, I don’t like it, I wish they’d stop it.

Okay, DC rants over, let’s talk nostalgia.