Just what is the appeal of Batman these days?

[Psyren]

The Arkham games actually make it pretty clear Bruce Wayne is one of the wealthiest people in the world, and Arkham Knight goons say several times that shooting at Batman is nearlyi pointless, but they shouldn't even try with "the other guy in a cape", which is a sly reference to Superman.

Oh I wasn't holding them up as a great example of a Batman adaptation or anything, just that they are slightly more coherent than the comics by not needing to explain some of the JLA dissonance. They've quickly gotten ridiculous themselves though, what with Batman powersliding through the streets in a tank and gunning down more disenfranchised- excuse me, robots, only robots - in the latest installment.

[Sapphire Guard]

Isn't that kind of like blaming a homeless shelter for the homelessness problem?

The Bat gets simultaneously blamed for being both too perfect and not perfect enough.

[Peelee]

Oh I wasn't holding them up as a great example of a Batman adaptation or anything, just that they are slightly more coherent than the comics by not needing to explain some of the JLA dissonance. They've quickly gotten ridiculous themselves though, what with Batman powersliding through the streets in a tank and gunning down more disenfranchised- excuse me, robots, only robots - in the latest installment.

I love the nonlethal electric shock that is given to the people I nonlethally run over at full speed with boost on Bleake Island. Nonlethal! Still a fun game though

[deuterio12]

That makes me realize something.

Bats regularly kicks/punches people unconscious.

However, it's a known fact that the human body doesn't go unconscious easily. If you inflict enough physical trauma to make somebody pass out, chances are that you inflicted some serious, lasting damage. Even professional experienced medical teams in controlled enviroments have trouble safely putting somebody to sleep, sometimes there's complications and they never wake up. Batman meanwhile in your average adventure will knock out dozens/hundreds of goons in a matter of hours/minutes.

So basically for decades bats has been turning Gotham's population into an army of of brain-damaged people due to extreme concussions and whatnot. No wonder they keep going back to work with the Joker, they couldn't possibly hold a normal job!

[Lacuna Caster]

However, it's a known fact that the human body doesn't go unconscious easily. If you inflict enough physical trauma to make somebody pass out, chances are that you inflicted some serious, lasting damage. Even professional experienced medical teams in controlled enviroments have trouble safely putting somebody to sleep, sometimes there's complications and they never wake up. Batman meanwhile in your average adventure will knock out dozens/hundreds of goons in a matter of hours/minutes.

Yeah... that's another potential problem. A well-executed sleeper hold is relatively safe, but there aren't many other methods of putting someone's lights out without risking serious damage. (In the animated series he'd often tangle up goons with a bolas and/or leave them gagged and cuffed, but the arkham series shows him snapping femurs like nobody's business or punching opponents off 20-foot drops, which I guarantee does not put someone quietly to sleep.)


Anyway. As for the general appeal of the character... well... Psyren compared Bruce Wayne to Reed Richards, T'Challa or Tony Stark earlier, but I think while those characters are canonically at least as intelligent, I would say the distinction is that their stories aren't actually about intelligence. The better Batman stories require him getting inside the head of the villains and/or piecing together forensic evidence about their plans and whereabouts, and the steps are laid out in enough detail that the reader can more-or-less follow along. Mr. Fantastic does cosmic future-science, and Iron Man can engineer nanotech bio-armours, but by their nature these accomplishments tend to be rather opaque to the lay audience, such that most of the appeal is derived from action and/or soap opera. Batman is about a lost mind seeking in the dark, and how you can make your own light.

[Psyren]

Isn't that kind of like blaming a homeless shelter for the homelessness problem?

The Bat gets simultaneously blamed for being both too perfect and not perfect enough.

DC are the ones putting him in this situation though. There's no universal law that says he has to be both patrolling the streets and dealing with cosmic threats; they're the ones who decided that.

Again, Marvel went the more sensible route of having multiple tiers of marketable hero. Not only is that more internally consistent, it also means that the occasional crossover (e.g. Jessica Jones beating up some invading Skrulls) feels fresh and exciting.

I love the nonlethal electric shock that is given to the people I nonlethally run over at full speed with boost on Bleake Island. Nonlethal! Still a fun game though

So basically for decades bats has been turning Gotham's population into an army of of brain-damaged people due to extreme concussions and whatnot. No wonder they keep going back to work with the Joker, they couldn't possibly hold a normal job!

Heh

Anyway. As for the general appeal of the character... well... Psyren compared Bruce Wayne to Reed Richards, T'Challa or Tony Stark earlier, but I think while those characters are canonically at least as intelligent, I would say the distinction is that their stories aren't actually about intelligence. The better Batman stories require him getting inside the head of the villains and/or piecing together forensic evidence about their plans and whereabouts, and the steps are laid out in enough detail that the reader can more-or-less follow along. Mr. Fantastic does cosmic future-science, and Iron Man can engineer nanotech bio-armours, but by their nature these accomplishments tend to be rather opaque to the lay audience, such that most of the appeal is derived from action and/or soap opera. Batman is about a lost mind seeking in the dark, and how you can make your own light.

They have other fairly well-known heroes who can do the street-level detection stuff though, e.g. The Question, Nightwing and Green Arrow. Much like Marvel can use Jessica Jones or Daredevil to tell those kinds of stories when they want to.

[Peelee]

I think we should go back to the days where Marvel characters dealt with cosmic threats and DC characters dealt with having to eat hamburgers nonstop or stop Pat Boone from releasing a record.

[Lacuna Caster]

They have other fairly well-known heroes who can do the street-level detection stuff though, e.g. The Question, Nightwing and Green Arrow. Much like Marvel can use Jessica Jones or Daredevil to tell those kinds of stories when they want to.

Oh, I'm not saying that DC specifically *should* oscillate between street-level and cosmic-level Batman antics, unless who want to split into separate continuities entirely. I'm firmly of the opinion that Superman as popularly conceived must inhabit a rather finely-tuned, semi-utopian universe which is wholly incompatible with Gotham City as popularly conceived, so divorcing the two would probably ease tensions all 'round.

[Ramza00]

That makes me realize something.

Bats regularly kicks/punches people unconscious.

However, it's a known fact that the human body doesn't go unconscious easily. If you inflict enough physical trauma to make somebody pass out, chances are that you inflicted some serious, lasting damage. Even professional experienced medical teams in controlled enviroments have trouble safely putting somebody to sleep, sometimes there's complications and they never wake up. Batman meanwhile in your average adventure will knock out dozens/hundreds of goons in a matter of hours/minutes.

So basically for decades bats has been turning Gotham's population into an army of of brain-damaged people due to extreme concussions and whatnot. No wonder they keep going back to work with the Joker, they couldn't possibly hold a normal job!

Remember Batman was first created 79 years ago, and we did not understand the human body and the human brain as much as we do now compared to the 1930s.

Furthermore while the doctors and medical experts may have recently discovered that this stuff was generally bad did the common man / comic book writers back then understand the latest 1930s medical science?

Hell we are still debating all of this stuff with Football and CTEs (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease caused by multiple head injuries.)

Edit: Correction it was May 1939 so that is 79 years ago not 78.

[Psyren]

I think we should go back to the days where Marvel characters dealt with cosmic threats and DC characters dealt with having to eat hamburgers nonstop or stop Pat Boone from releasing a record.

This sounds pretty specific (and entertaining), got links?

Remember Batman was first created 79 years ago, and we did not understand the human body and the human brain as much as we do now compared to the 1930s.

Furthermore while the doctors and medical experts may have recently discovered that this stuff was generally bad did the common man / comic book writers back then understand the latest 1930s medical science?

Hell we are still debating all of this stuff with Football and CTEs (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease caused by multiple head injuries.)

Edit: Correction it was May 1939 so that is 79 years ago not 78.

The simple solution is for the targets to not be henchmen. Or more accurately, for the henchmen to not be the desperate poor of Gotham. It's not the damage that's the problem - Captain America breaks bones and knocks people unconscious all the time, and he almost certainly hits harder than Batman too. But his targets are acceptable because they're generally mercenaries, not downtrodden civilians.

Penguin and Two-Face have more than enough money to hire a PMC or two, or some "elite mercenaries" to be their security detail. People that we wouldn't be worried about getting a bat-concussion, because they signed up for that out of greed rather than necessity. People that would have no business stealing pearls in alleys to make ends meet.

[Lacuna Caster]

The simple solution is for the targets to not be henchmen. Or more accurately, for the henchmen to not be the desperate poor of Gotham. It's not the damage that's the problem - Captain America breaks bones and knocks people unconscious all the time, and he almost certainly hits harder than Batman too. But his targets are acceptable because they're generally mercenaries, not downtrodden civilians.

Penguin and Two-Face have more than enough money to hire a PMC or two, or some "elite mercenaries" to be their security detail. People that we wouldn't be worried about getting a bat-concussion, because they signed up for that out of greed rather than necessity. People that would have no business stealing pearls in alleys to make ends meet.

I'm afraid I rather resist the idea that economic desperation is the primary motivation of career criminals, and in particular the idea that material poverty would excuse or justify the Joe Chills of the world. The low-level footsoldiers involved in drug gangs, for example, often make less money than they could working 9-5 in retail, and there's good evidence that crime rates are most strongly predicted by a region's gini-coefficient, not by absolute income levels. Psychopathology, ambition and group affiliation play a much larger role than unpaid rent.

That's not to say the Bruce Wayne shouldn't be spending time and attention on bettering the lot of the poor- because that's what a well-meaning person with the resources available should be doing regardless, and if you can provide more constructive outlets for ambition and group-affiliation so much the better- but I don't have particular difficulty with the idea that Joker's thugs are legitimate targets for a beatdown.

[Peelee]

This sounds pretty specific (and entertaining), got links?

Of course! Most of the ones I know of are Superman or Superman's Friends comics, but they're so dumb they're awesome. I don't think that's what they were going for, but hey, go with what works.

Spoiler: SuperMan's best power, Super Metabolism!

Show

Spoiler: Superman controls the Billboard Top 100

Show

A very clever artist even drew up some Marvel equivalents. She made me wish Marvel went the same delightfully-stupid route back in the day.

It's been a long time since I've been there, but there's a site that Chronicles it. The URL would get censored by the forum filter, sadly. If you're interested, I'll ask a mod if I can link it to you.

[Talakeal]

I love the nonlethal electric shock that is given to the people I nonlethally run over at full speed with boost on Bleake Island. Nonlethal! Still a fun game though

When I played through that game my roommate would shout out "NON-LETHAL!" any time I did something that should have realistically killed someone, it was, a lot.

It was really funny when the game bugged out, one time I even suplexed a guy off of the roof of a skyscraper and ended up slamming him on the pavement 30 stories below. Non-lethally of course. Because I'm Batman.

[The Glyphstone]

Of course! Most of the ones I know of are Superman or Superman's Friends comics, but they're so dumb they're awesome. I don't think that's what they were going for, but hey, go with what works.

Spoiler: SuperMan's best power, Super Metabolism!

Show

Spoiler: Superman controls the Billboard Top 100

Show

A very clever artist even drew up some Marvel equivalents. She made me wish Marvel went the same delightfully-stupid route back in the day.

It's been a long time since I've been there, but there's a site that Chronicles it. The URL would get censored by the forum filter, sadly. If you're interested, I'll ask a mod if I can link it to you.

This one, right?

[Peelee]

When I played through that game my roommate would shout out "NON-LETHAL!" any time I did something that should have realistically killed someone, it was, a lot.

It was really funny when the game bugged out, one time I even suplexed a guy off of the roof of a skyscraper and ended up slamming him on the pavement 30 stories below. Non-lethally of course. Because I'm Batman.

A friend and I do the same thing! That's what inspired that post, in fact.

This one, right?

That it! Also, wow, the layout's changed a lot since I last went. Also, mods rock here.

[deuterio12]

Remember Batman was first created 79 years ago, and we did not understand the human body and the human brain as much as we do now compared to the 1930s.

Furthermore while the doctors and medical experts may have recently discovered that this stuff was generally bad did the common man / comic book writers back then understand the latest 1930s medical science?

Hell we are still debating all of this stuff with Football and CTEs (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease caused by multiple head injuries.)

Edit: Correction it was May 1939 so that is 79 years ago not 78.

Some years ago I picked up a Batman comic and there were hydrogen-engine cars and also they point out that they won't explode even if you shoot the engine with a regular gun because the hydrogen isn't kept in a free gas state. And bats even goes around explaining the finer details to the thugs that were expecting it to go up in flames like some old zeppellin.

That's pretty modern real-world science. Can't Bruce keep up with medicine advancements too? This is, Bats got his spine broken, one would expect him to be on top of medicine history.

Although I guess bats been hit in the head quite a lot of times, so clearly that's the explanation, he's heavily brain-damaged too! No wonder he keeps sending the Joker back to that place where he already escaped a million times from.

[Psyren]

Ah right, superd-ckery. It's been a long time since I visited.

I don't have particular difficulty with the idea that Joker's thugs are legitimate targets for a beatdown.

They're dangerous, without a doubt. But I can't for a second believe that someone of sound mind would want to sign up to be in his crew either. Nor for that matter Penguin, Two-Face, or even the Riddler.

But the more important point is that they are pretty much able to rebuild their crews from scratch almost instantly whenever they break out of Arkham. Where is all that manpower coming from, if not societal disarray? Unless it's the same group of mooks getting their limbs reset repeatedly, in which case, see previous comments about the mentally ill of Gotham.

[Lacuna Caster]

They're dangerous, without a doubt. But I can't for a second believe that someone of sound mind would want to sign up to be in his crew either. Nor for that matter Penguin, Two-Face, or even the Riddler.

Bear in mind it's a big city, and there are varying definitions of unsound mind.

The revolving door at Arkham is one of those meta-textual artifacts you just have to ignore, I think- in the event that the prison system was genuinely incapable of either confining or reforming inmates, then the death penalty for supervillains would be legislated very quickly.

[deuterio12]

But the more important point is that they are pretty much able to rebuild their crews from scratch almost instantly whenever they break out of Arkham. Where is all that manpower coming from, if not societal disarray? Unless it's the same group of mooks getting their limbs reset repeatedly, in which case, see previous comments about the mentally ill of Gotham.

Credit where credit is due, if nothing else Gotham's public health service is top notch stuff.

No matter how many hundreds/thousands limbs that Bats breaks, you never see any cripples in the streets and the hospitals always have more room. Nobody complaining "cousin Bob needs 3 operations after his run with Bats, where will we get the money?".

This is, somebody has to be reseting the Joker's limbs after each adventure with bats.

Gotham's medics really take their oaths to heart, if I was in their place I would make sure to "slip up" in the operation and make sure the Joker is never getting off a bed by himself again after the 1468th time he shows up covered in orphan blood.

[Sapphire Guard]

Thousands of broken limbs? What storyline is that from? You're acting like every night is an Arkham game, but on each night there was basically a war happening. That's not a daily thing.

Who says mercenaries are not disaffected poor? Bat victims are typically armed, dangerous opponents actively engaged in violence, treated more gently by him than the police, their bosses, or other gang members.

The Joker's reputation is greater than the actual damage he does, he veers more towards 'elaborate scheme with few victims but psychological damage' than widespread devastation. Each of which are months or years apart. Any time we follow someone breaking out of Arkham, they either already have an empire to take the reigns of or have to rebuild/take over.

There's no universal law that says he has to be both patrolling the streets and dealing with cosmic threats; they're the ones who decided that.

It's comics. There's not much that is universal.

You're mashing all the continuities together and treating them as one world, and then blaming the Bat for being in a long running comics universe.

In the long term, social initiatives are nice, but in the short term, someone needs to act to keep that building from being blown up.

[deuterio12]

Thousands of broken limbs? What storyline is that from? You're acting like every night is an Arkham game, but on each night there was basically a war happening. That's not a daily thing.

It is. A common theme in bats histories is how little sleep Bruce gets because by day he pretends to be a rich playboy and by night he goes around getting his fix by breaking limbs. How despite spending every night all night breaking limbs, plenty of crimes still slip through. You never really see Bats going "another peaceful night, I can just brood over this building."

Heck, there was that time when Bats and supes swap city vigilance for a night and Bats bored out of his mind and going full cold turkey because the worst he finds at Metropolis are some kids doing graffiti in a park (while supes has his hands full at Gotham even with super speed and super senses).

Plus, we've seen there's a whole secondary market in Gotham based on providing themed secret bases and silly customes and whatnot for Joker and pals. You can make a living out of it for how common it is.

Who says mercenaries are not disaffected poor? Bat victims are typically armed, dangerous opponents actively engaged in violence, treated more gently by him than the police, their bosses, or other gang members.

Name one time that the Gotham police goes around breaking the mooks limbs or heck the mooks being antagonistc to each other. And even if it happened once or twice, it's hardly a common theme. Gotham's police is nice and the minions stick with each other.

Now the gang bosses are complete psychos, which just makes it all the weirder anybody would still be willing to work for them. In particular somebody like the Joker who regularly guns down his own mooks for any and no reason.

The Joker's reputation is greater than the actual damage he does, he veers more towards 'elaborate scheme with few victims but psychological damage' than widespread devastation. Each of which are months or years apart.

In that case the Joker and Bruce should be pretty eldery by now.

Any time we follow someone breaking out of Arkham, they either already have an empire to take the reigns of or have to rebuild/take over.

The Joker's reputation is that if you're unlucky he'll shoot you himself for the evulz and if you're lucky you'll get your teeth kicked in by Bats. Something has to be very wrong in Gotham city for anyone to hold any kind of loyalty for the Joker over all those years or accept his "job" offers.

It's comics. There's not much that is universal.

Joker escapes Arkham, raises trouble, gets beaten down by bats and thrown back into Arkham, rinse and repeat.
Sometimes the Joker raises trouble without even needing to escape Arkham, but that's just showing again how poor the security is.

You're mashing all the continuities together and treating them as one world, and then blaming the Bat for being in a long running comics universe.

In the long term, social initiatives are nice, but in the short term, someone needs to act to keep that building from being blown up.

But we've long been in the long term. And Gotham isn't exactly getting better. If bats really wants to turn the city into a better place, he needs to admit he needs a new approach.

This is, at least Lex Luthor has the excuse he's super rich and really good at covering his tracks so even when he's deferated, he can't be jailed. If the Joker always pulled some crazy escape plan and went into hiding without being arrested, that would be a lot more acceptable than throwing him back into the revolving door place.

[Psyren]

Joker escapes Arkham, raises trouble, gets beaten down by bats and thrown back into Arkham, rinse and repeat.
Sometimes the Joker raises trouble without even needing to escape Arkham, but that's just showing again how poor the security is.


But we've long been in the long term. And Gotham isn't exactly getting better. If bats really wants to turn the city into a better place, he needs to admit he needs a new approach.

This, and also - as far as "mashing all the continuities together and treating them as one world" - DC themselves are the ones to have done that, numerous times (Flashpoint being the most recent example, but also the Crisis events etc.) But we still get the same kinds of Batman story coming out of it.

[Lacuna Caster]

It is. A common theme in bats histories is how little sleep Bruce gets because by day he pretends to be a rich playboy and by night he goes around getting his fix by breaking limbs. How despite spending every night all night breaking limbs, plenty of crimes still slip through...

I'm pretty sure a significant fraction of this time is spent doing genuine detective work, which is also something of recurring feature in a range of Batman stories. (Plus, you know, running his company, though that tends to get less coverage.)

Name one time that the Gotham police goes around breaking the mooks limbs or heck the mooks being antagonistc to each other. And even if it happened once or twice, it's hardly a common theme. Gotham's police is nice and the minions stick with each other.

Unless the GCPD operate very differently from any american police force I'm familiar with, I'm pretty sure they use guns to both defend themselves and perform arrests or strike operations, and there are certainly issues of Gotham Central that put this decision front and centre. (Nor, as it happens, are the GCPD immune to brutality and corruption.) I don't blame cops for resorting to deadly force on occasion, but it's not obvious to me that the average gangbanger would prefer being, e.g, shot in the leg to being knocked unconscious.

I would also strongly suspect that Gotham's various criminal fraternities inflict far more carnage on eachother than the local police force, let alone Batman. That's how gang warfare typically shakes out. (Edit: See No Man's Land or Lee & Azzarello's Joker for examples.)

This, and also - as far as "mashing all the continuities together and treating them as one world" - DC themselves are the ones to have done that, numerous times (Flashpoint being the most recent example, but also the Crisis events etc.) But we still get the same kinds of Batman story coming out of it.

Yeah, but it's not exactly the fictional Batman's fault that his real-world parent company won't allow him to permanently accomplish anything. More broadly, you can levy this accusation at a wide range of long-running superheroes. Is it a problem? Possibly. But how is it a problem specific to Batman?

.

[Sapphire Guard]

Renee Montoya, Crispus Allen, and James Gordon have all shot and killed armed attackers. And that's the 'good' police, outside of the MCU (Major Crimes Unit, not Marvel Cinematic Universe) it's implied and shown to be a lot more common. Bullock has a reputation for violence. There are more.

Lacuna Caster has said everything else I wanted to say.

[Psyren]

Yeah, but it's not exactly the fictional Batman's fault that his real-world parent company won't allow him to permanently accomplish anything. More broadly, you can levy this accusation at a wide range of long-running superheroes. Is it a problem? Possibly. But how is it a problem specific to Batman?

I'm not finding the "fictional Batman" to be at fault, I'm explaining that this disconnect is a problem with the character's ongoing writing and existing premise. As I said previously, comparably rich or smart heroes like Stark and Reed don't have this problem because they are dealing almost exclusively with international or cosmic threats, and leaving the street crime to the B tier heroes. That's a big part of what makes this a batman-specific problem.

Now, Batman may not be the most intelligent muggle in DC (Lex takes that award) but he's far up there enough to know that going back to patrolling the alleys night after night just wouldn't accomplish much in the long run. Which leaves the only reason for him going back to this routine is that he wants to, which leads directly to hot takes/thinkpieces/parodies like this, or this, or indeed Bob's.

[Darth Credence]

As to how Batman can knock people out without a lot of them never waking up, I've always gone with the explanation that it's a comic book universe and does not have anything like real world physics. People are just all around more hardy in a comic book universe.
If we want to talk about how mooks don't get killed while being knocked out, we should start with how did Bruce not get himself killed in the first week of being Batman, if not in training before that. There's just no way that a person could actually be Batman, even if they dedicated their life to doing so, so people are naturally hardier in universe. There is no chemical that will allow someone to change their shape at will, no one could be frozen and then be forced to live out their days in a freezing suit, Lazarus pits cannot exist, no serum will make a Jeckyl/giant bat change, and so forth. Once you accept that any of the major characters can actually exist, it seems like a pretty short hop to accepting that it is relatively easy to knock someone out without lasting harm, and that bones tend to heal cleanly.

As to how he can do both street level stuff and JL stuff, there is a movie explanation and a book explanation. Current movie explanation doesn't even need one - he did street work for years, before any other supers were around, and we haven't seen him go back.
Comic book explanation is that he doesn't want to do JL stuff, he wants to work on his city and take down the mobs, but every story we get is early in his career before he has made a huge dent (unless specifically in a different era, such as Batman Beyond). You can't even fit all of the iconic stories into a single career, much less every story, so you almost have to think of every new team's run as an alternate universe during the same time period. A few stories have to have happened, but if it isn't referenced, it's better to assume any given story has not gone on in that universe. Most teams working on the comics have their own focus, either on big stuff or small stuff, so looking at each as a separate universe works to a degree.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The truth is, Batman isn't knocking out any mooks at all. They're all professional fall-down artists who know it's much better to pretend to get knocked out and let the caped freak go after the boss. Later, you get up, dust yourself off and go home, secure in the knowledge that you got paid up front for this gig and you will for the next one too.

[Sapphire Guard]

In the long run? Maybe not. But in the short term, what, a couple of thousand lives? That's not nothing, especially if you're the one rescued. He's also one of the few superheroes to canonically actually engage and fund social programs.

Stark Richards et al absolutely have this problem, cosmic threats don't prevent them from using their skills/money to benefit the struggling classes. It's just a matter of how far you choose to deconstruct.

[Mightymosy]

Here's a video I stumbled upon which makes a good case why Batman is so popular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4lRkI2ScuA

[Legato Endless]

In the long run? Maybe not. But in the short term, what, a couple of thousand lives? That's not nothing, especially if you're the one rescued. He's also one of the few superheroes to canonically actually engage and fund social programs.

Stark Richards et al absolutely have this problem, cosmic threats don't prevent them from using their skills/money to benefit the struggling classes. It's just a matter of how far you choose to deconstruct.

Pretty much, though as with all genre conceits, the excuses to attempt to justify this are often hilarious, like Reed not turning his technological manufacturing prowess to solve certain global issues because it might lower the bottom line of major corporations.

The MCU seemed to maybe be looking into averting this, but then Tony got distracted from creating free clean energy to obsessing over Orwellian Security Programs. At least Black Panther decided to open some education centers. Maybe it's a PR stunt to make everyone forget about that time in the comics Wakanda wouldn't share the cure for cancer because the rest of the world wasn't morally deserving.