Exploring the fan theory that Batman is a figment of Bruce Wayne’s imagination

The internet is brimming with fan theories that range from the plausible to the wholly outlandish. Whether this be the famous Pixar theory that claims all the studio’s films are connected or the one that argues Jar Jar Binks was actually the sith lord behind the scenes in Star Wars, many have tickled the imagination. However, arguably the most intriguing concerns ‘The Caped Crusader’, Batman. 

Eleven years ago, a theory emerged from the Reddit user u/slugboy, who posited that Batman is not actually real. Instead, he’s the figment of the imagination of Bruce Wayne – an insane patient locked up in an asylum. It’s safe to say that this supposition has been a polarising one, with the debate around it still raging. 

The theory states that after witnessing the murder of both his parents in the alleyway, the young Bruce Wayne struggled to cope with the catastrophe and snapped, developing into a full-blown psychopath. The trauma was augmented by Alfred’s inability to care for him, which drove the young man into a permanent state of psychosis. 

Slugboy wrote: “After the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne’s young mind cracked, and he created the character Batman as a detective that would solve the mystery of his parents’ murder. Alfred couldn’t take care of the child that had gone insane with grief, so he sent him to Arkham Asylum, a place Bruce grew to revile. In Bruce’s delusional state, he made villains out of the caretakers and gave them names based on their physical characteristics or general demeanour. Since he would never solve his parents’ murder, he created stories in which these villains hatched preposterous schemes, and he would foil them as a means to keep himself distracted.

“Alfred would come to visit and attempt to be the voice of reason but never could really get through. Dr. Jonathan Crane tried various methods to snap Bruce back into reality, but Bruce’s reality is so terrifying that he receded back into the delusion. Dr. Edward Nigma, a therapist, would try to reason Bruce back into the real world, but Bruce would twist his words into riddles. So, he continues to chase these villains and bring them to Arkham Asylum from which they will inevitably escape – because they were never actually incarcerated.”

The most interesting part of the theory is that all the villains from the Batman story, including The Joker, Harley Quinn and Scarecrow are all creations in Wayne’s mind. 

The Joker, the saga’s primary antagonist, provides a foil to Batman. He’s the darkness to Batman’s light, with the superhero’s constant triumphs over him symbolic – they represent Wayne attempting to get over his sickness or, more importantly, overcoming the evil that killed his parents. 

As FandomWire points out, it is a medical fact that the mind cannot create new faces, so Dr. Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow) and Dr. Edward Nigma (The Riddler) making their way into Wayne’s imagination as villains is entirely possible.

FandomWire also suggests an interesting point. This is that Harvey Dent, or Two-Face, as he is most well-known, is a manifestation of Wayne’s lust for justice. Harvey Dent was once a model citizen and the district attorney of Gotham City, but he turned to villainy because of the crime he suffered at the hands of evil, which positions his tale as a mirror to Wayne’s. In some ways, Harvey’s story alleviates Wayne of the guilt he feels as he’s not the only one grappling with internal darkness. 

Elsewhere, it has been suggested that Harley Quinn’s behaviour is the child within Bruce Wayne, Scarecrow is the fear he harbours, and Poison Ivy’s plants represent the parental care he needed as an orphaned child.

Although it might be tenuous, I wouldn’t be too surprised if one day DC Comics made this big revelation or a film adopted this narrative.

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