WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from "House of Gotham: Finale" in Detective Comics #1058, on sale now.
Although he is one of DC's most iconic heroes, Batman has as many flaws as he has virtues. This is a fact that fans and writers alike have dealt with and accepted in the past, and it is this complexity that helps make him such an interesting and compelling character. In "House of Gotham: Finale" from Detective Comics #1058 (by Matthew Rosenberg, Fernando Blanco, Jordie Bellaire, Rob Leigh), Gotham City's newest villain calls out the Dark Knight on his flaws, not out of a need for revenge, but as a way to let him him know how he has failed the city as a whole.
The Boy, now calling himself the Forgotten, captured Batman and the Joker. He was putting on a demonstration for his followers, many of them children, to show that he would not forget them in the same way the city had. Batman called him out on this, only for the Forgotten to criticize his hypocrisy for using his Robins, who are little more than child soldiers. Their debate over the use of children to fight their battles became secondary to the Forgotten's intent to murder the Joker with an axe, like the clown did to his parents years ago.
The Forgotten took the opportunity to condemn Batman about his actions regarding the Joker. In his eyes, the Batman was an accomplice to every atrocity the Joker has ever committed by not permanently ending the threat. As such, the Forgotten took it upon himself to be the city's vengeance, doing what Batman would not and showing him that the city cannot abide him and his villains using their home like a playground for their battles.
It was a unique perspective on things. Thus far, the Forgotten had shown intense anger and resentment towards Batman. Here though, it was revealed he wasn't motivated to kill the hero, but to prove that his methods were useless. The problems with the Caped Crusader have been addressed before, but this time is significant because it isn't one individual getting revenge on Batman, but one man representing the city trying to convince the Dark Knight that he is a part of the problem.
This all serves as a sort of meta commentary on the ways that Batman has failed the city by way of the thousands who were robbed of loved ones or traumatized by all the villains he refuses to kill. The Forgotten singularly represents all of his flaws manifested not as revenge, but as a way to show him how he has failed as Gotham's protector.
Essentially, the Forgotten is not so much an enemy of Batman as he is to the very idea of the vigilante. He represents a city that has had enough of the cycle of violence that follows the Caped Crusader as he "defends" the city. This new villain is less of an individual force, and more akin to the spirit of the citizens of Gotham who have been hurt by the chaos inflicted on their home by both the heroes and the villains, and is as much a hero in his own way as the Dark Knight.
Source: Trendz OH
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