Is Batman Truly is the Hero that Gotham City Deserves?

The Silent Guardian, The Watchful Protector

In anticipation for the release of The Dark Knight Rises Thursday at midnight, I anxiously rewatched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight this weekend.  The Dark Knight is, indeed, an outstanding movie. I reflected on what made it outstanding for me and so disturbing for others, and what made Hell Boy a B- movie for me and a great flick to others. And I realized, it was the *human* factor.  (Incidentally, this is why Dexter and Breaking Bad are so popular—the heros and the villains are equally fallible. We like that.)

Let's take a closer look at the characters.  The Joker, however, is beyond good and evil; he is a madman, which makes him all the more scary.  You can’t reason with a lunatic, so-to-speak. Harvey, with whom the hope of Gotham rests, falls tragically. Batman is questionable at best.  Yet, Bruce Wayne recognizes the fallibility innate in his own masked persona and knows he cannot be the White Knight that Gotham needs (but doesn't deserve) like Harvey Dent would have been. The protagonist and main subject of this film is not Batman and his fight against crime; there's a larger story going on here—it's about one city's fight for humanity.  In a post-9/11 world, Nolan's Batman series (and especially The Dark Knight) spotlights Gotham City's citizens as the film's focus and supports it with the rage-filled characters who crop up in an attempt to bring to it their own version of justice.

• Ra's Al Ghul — Believed his League of Shadows to be the right hand of God.  Their mission was to indiscriminately deal justice to those places infested with corruption.  Ra's Al Ghul deals in absolutes.  He led his  ninja force to facilitate the "do over" of Gotham, just as they've done for centuries with other cities.  (E.g. Rome after the Punic Wars.)
• Batman — Overcame his own vengeance in the first film to protect the "good" people of Gotham.  Regardless of how corrupt the city became, they were never beneath redemption—he would descend beneath them all. (But unlike Christ, who was perfect, Batman will have to get his hands dirty in order to make things right.)  His purpose was to lead Gotham out of moral poverty by cleaning the dirties streets first.  Batman's only rule is to preserve life.
• Joker — The anarchist.  In his insanity, Joker manages to see the world through a frighteningly accurate, if not pessimistic lens.  His sole mission is not to "watch the world burn," as Alfred puts it; that is merely a consequence of Joker's true purpose—to unmask the world and allow it to reveal its true nature.  He is surprised when people overcome their natures and decide to NOT act out of self-interest.
• Harvey Dent — Gotham's White Knight.  As a human idol, he was capable of showing Gotham that crime could be fought through the system and win.  He was an ideal.  Unfortunately, the purity of his motives buckled when the system he depended on let him down.  Oh the humanity!
• Two-face — Born from the ashes of Harvey's half-dead character, Two-face is emotionally lobotomized after the great tragedy that befell him. Completely amoral now, he uses dumb luck or chance to determine the fate of those who stand beneath Lady Justice's sword—the same way he was given a 50% chance for mercy, he affords the same benefit to his victims.

As identified by The Joker, the people of Gotham are fundamentally corrupt and fickle (even the best of them) and too often allow fear to rule their actions.  When times get hairy, they require a scapegoat to save them from the justice THEY deserve.  In the end, the people of Gotham ultimately do prove the Joker wrong at a pivotal moment in the film, proving there is a thread of morality that makes them worth saving.  The brilliant thing about this franchise is that all of these servants of justice are messed up (accept for Harvey—who later gets messed up), but Batman is the only one who is willing to play the role of the metaphorically abused wife who silently stands by her man, unwilling to give upon him, slowly chipping way at his worst character flaws, and being present to take the beating when a beating is required—because he can take it.

But does Gotham really deserve an ultimate hero; someone who can push/carry them through these trying times? This reminds me a lot of our upcoming elections in November.  One of our candidates is willing to watch the world burn, and I'm beginning to wonder if that is in fact what we could use most...