I saw a thread on Twitter and Reddit asking whether characters like Batman, Iron Man, and Iron Fist actually need to be wealthy for their stories to work. Some people were saying that, in the DCU, Batman doesn’t have to be rich—he could just be middle class and the story would still work. Similarly, if the MCU gets rebooted, Tony Stark wouldn’t necessarily need to be wealthy and could be working class instead.
A lot of people argued that this would make these characters more relatable and easier to root for. Personally, I’d say no. Elseworlds stories are fine, but if you’re adapting these characters into movies or TV shows, you should stay at least somewhat comic-accurate. Their wealth is a key part of who they are.
Stark Industries, Wayne Enterprises, and Rand Industries are characters in the story too, and they play important roles in shaping these heroes and their worlds.
It’s similar to how Clark Kent being a reporter or Peter Parker struggling financially are essential to their characters. Those traits help define their stories.
What do you think?
One of DCs currently running batman series called Absolute Batman is quite literally this. Bruce Wayne is born to a school teacher Thomas and a social worker Martha Wayne who are on their best day maybe middle class. His only advantages in this run are that he is still extremely intelligent and he is a 6 foot 8 behemoth. There are other differences that make this run of batman compelling but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may want to read it. The first issue covers most of the differences between this batmans universe and others. I’m quite enjoying it personally.