Rewatching old Batman TAS and am surprised how many times I take the criminal's side. Batman there just reinforcing the capitalist patriarchy. Turns out he's not the hero we need.
I think that precisely what makes TAS good - and the good Batman stories in general - is how, at least in characters' first appearances, it seems that the idea is to show how social problems have driven these "villains" crazy, and the objective is always, with some exceptions (i.e. Red Claw), to make the audience sympathize with them, producing social awareness of this problems in the audience. Unfortunately, as the characters are reused, they are reduced to caricatured villains and the incentive to sympathize with them fades. For example, Two-Face appears as an antagonist in 6 episodes and only in the stories Two-Face and Second Chance is he depicted as a human being. And this only gets worse in the sequel: The New Batman Adventures.
I actually think it's a good thing that, despite generally showing some sympathy, Batman always opposes his antagonists when they reach a point of social rupture: Batman is not a revolutionary, because Bruce Wayne could never be a revolutionary. Batman not being exactly on the side I would be on is not a problem: it gives the cartoon a verisimilitude.
Now, regarding "the hero we need" and other ideas of the sort, present in Nolan's films and Miller's comics, they are radically fascist, there's nothing to discuss.
"I grew up poor, my family had to struggle, my uncle beat me and/or died... but instead of getting handouts!, life threw me a curve ball and radiated/bit me into bootstrapping myself! and helping my community or something. I dunno, cops don't show up anymore."
The actual superhero/blockbuster/action/thriller propaganda is that problems are always caused by a few bad apples. But there is no spoiling the bunch. Once the newspaper and honorable elder governmentals get wind of it all is return to the good old status quo.
That is the real problem - that we learned to not question the rules of the system that lead to negative outcomes. That rules and conditions that make negative outcomes all but inevitable.
Of course debating the financing of institutions and bylaws that impact socioeconomic policies would make for an awfully dull superhero movie!
Not related to the movies themselves but I remember from the original Spider-Man run in the first 100 issues, Spidey goes to a prison riot and understands the guards are the abusers and supports the formation of the inmates union iirc
Marvel Defenders of the Status Quo: https://youtu.be/LpitmEnaYeU
Great video! The way I've always seen it is that since there are superpowers both in the hand of good and bad people it becomes the job of the good people to prevent the bad ones using their powers for bad stuff and only that. But I mean at the end of the day these movies are just pulp designed to turn your brain off with for a few hours so there's that.
If you can, read MiracleMan by Alan Moore. Spoilers to the middle of the comic, MiracleMan destroy all weapons on earth, redistribute all resources and eliminate money from human society, with his powers create technology that fulfill all human needs and recluse himself. The comic stop being about him, and moves to how people live in a new society when an actual God makes your wishes true, and the subsequents decades of prosperity for everyone. The comic was never finished, sadly, but it was implied that things were about to go dark soon.
Alan Moore didn't though it was realistic to have super heroes, like superman, existing in out society while keeping the status quo as it is. Some things fundamental to our capitalist society, like the insurance industry, cannot exists in the Marvel universe where from nowhere half New York can be destroyed.
