I saw a thread on Twitter and Reddit asking whether characters like Batman, Iron Man, and Iron Fist actually need to be wealthy for their stories to work. Some people were saying that, in the DCU, Batman doesn’t have to be rich—he could just be middle class and the story would still work. Similarly, if the MCU gets rebooted, Tony Stark wouldn’t necessarily need to be wealthy and could be working class instead.
A lot of people argued that this would make these characters more relatable and easier to root for. Personally, I’d say no. Elseworlds stories are fine, but if you’re adapting these characters into movies or TV shows, you should stay at least somewhat comic-accurate. Their wealth is a key part of who they are.
Stark Industries, Wayne Enterprises, and Rand Industries are characters in the story too, and they play important roles in shaping these heroes and their worlds.
It’s similar to how Clark Kent being a reporter or Peter Parker struggling financially are essential to their characters. Those traits help define their stories.
What do you think?
That’s the fantasy of superheroes: that people with power can be guided by morality.
One of DCs currently running batman series called Absolute Batman is quite literally this. Bruce Wayne is born to a school teacher Thomas and a social worker Martha Wayne who are on their best day maybe middle class. His only advantages in this run are that he is still extremely intelligent and he is a 6 foot 8 behemoth. There are other differences that make this run of batman compelling but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may want to read it. The first issue covers most of the differences between this batmans universe and others. I’m quite enjoying it personally.
Depends on how much the story is built on them being rich. If Tony Stark weren’t rich, maybe the story would still work but it would be very different
Unless they are metahuman - probably, yes.
There are exceptions, like The Punisher, but he’s not really a “super” hero (at least, not in any of the media I’ve consumed, which is admittedly not very much). Heroes like this are great at saving the day, but its just not believable that they can save the world or the galaxy or the universe.
Iron Man without money is some dude in a garage who spends his lifetime building the arc reactor and the Mark I. By the time he’s gathered enough resources to build a Mark II, he’s already 60.
Batman: I could see a street level Batman without as many gadgets in a more rudimentary batcave still be Batman. I think this is because if you take away all of the wealth Batman is still Batman, an excellent detective with extensive martial arts training who enjoys terrorizing criminals.
Iron Fist: that’s a title, like Ghost Rider or Spawn there are other Iron Fists that are not rich. So while not exactly the same there are some Iron Fists that are not rich.
Iron Man: I don’t think Iron man without money would work. Either you would have to change a core detail of him or it wouldn’t make sense that he’s not rich. The main defining characteristic of Iron man is his suit, which requires an extraordinary power source. So either he doesn’t understand the power source (e.g. it’s an alien artifact) or you would have to explain why he doesn’t sell products with a similar power source and becomes rich.
The problem with Batman and him having extensive martial arts training is the fact that to have extensive martial arts training like that you have to be wealthy. To travel the world to do the sales to train and all the styles he did typically requires a certain level of comfort in order to afford the luxury of not only traveling but then spending enough time to master those things while at the same time feeding yourself and taking care of yourself. Not only that but the amount of gadgets he has is definitely high level. If he weren’t he’d be closer to like say Daredevil who lived a comfortable life but had nowhere near any money to do all the training he did. Daredevil fortunately has a superpower in his hearing and sense of sight through that. Iron fist was much the same way. Extensive martial arts training because he was rich enough to go get the extensive martial arts training. Ironman is definitely one that needs to have the money. I mean we have the example of iron heart who was not very rich had to rebuild everything and wall yes genius level had nowhere near the resources to build the many Mark versions of her suit and we can see how much struggle she’s had to even maintain the one she currently has. Which she did have to steal to be able to get in the first place.
Batman has to be free from the need for a real job, plus be able to run the Batcave research infrastructure that developed the Batmobile, the Batplane, and all that. Plus keep Alfred on staff and in on the secret, plus stay with his backstory of Thomas and Martha Wayne being murdered. Wayne Enterprises came much later. Bruce Wayne’s original guise was being an idle playboy in Wayne Manor.
Spider-man isn’t rich. If you want a non-rich superhero, you might check him him out.
Or heck, I’m old enough to remember Reid Fleming, the World’s Toughest Milkman.
If you made Bruce or Tony middle or lower-class people, you could still make an adventure out of that. It’s just that all of the heavy infrastructure would need to be completely rewritten. Skills and abilities would allow them to do amazing things, but they just wouldn’t have million-dollar tech at their disposal.
The character would be the same, but the story would have to take a very different path.
Batman probably doesn’t need the money; he was originally just a really good Sherlock Holmes type detective. Didn’t have gadgets. Hell, he even used guns.
Ironman, on the other hand… I’m split. In the movies, he builds his suit in a cave with scraps sure… But he didn’t make the power source. The other dude with him did. In the animated series I’ve seen, his father made the power source. IDK about the comics; I was more into Spider-Man than anything else so I never read Ironman. Tony is smart and capable; but only when it comes to engineering. And if he can’t engineer a power source for his suits, he has no chance of being as helpful. Dude is also kind of an asshole and an alcoholic. If he didn’t have money, I don’t know how much people would have put up with his behaviour.
Tony Stark broke idea: he’s a genius who got into uni on scholarships but then got kicked out because of alcoholism. He now works at a scrap yard as he tries to sober up. He’s also been working on making a suit to help his mother who has multiple sclerosis move. One day the Power McGuffin falls from space into his junkyard. He studies it and makes it a power source. Yadda yadda some tragedy happens and he makes the iron man suit
You should watch Ironheart. Riri Williams is a black girl from inner city chicago, and she built a suit of power armour in her garage. She has a lot of money problems.
Also, in the comics Moon Knight is rich, but in the MCU he works at the London Museum gift shop.
No one should watch Ironheart. Who hurt you?
I like Ironheart.
Does it get better? I watched the first 1 or two episodes but stopped because the first real decision the young black female hero makes for herself is to join up with a gang of criminals which felt really problematic to me.
No. Watch a review if you’re curious about the story progressions, but the short version is she continues to be a narcissistic idiot.
Ironheart was dumb as hell, though. She didn’t need to join a gang to make money. If she built a bunch of gadgets and an Iron Man suit in a college classroom, then she can build something and sell it. Or go back to Wakanda and get an internship there.
