Money Rules Gotham

                A gentleman once stated: “mo’ money, mo’ problems”. This wise proverb warns us about the danger of money, such as how it can make people do terrible things; both the person with the money and the people that know that person has money. I agree with this statement, for the most part. However, I think a more accurate phrase would be “more power, more problems”. Money is just the modern representation of power. There have been plenty of other versions of power that also corrupted and enraged humans just as much as money. While a lot of power came from money directly or money had a factor in its importance, there are examples such as physical strength, intelligence, heritage, and genetics that also allow people to gain power over other men. So I just want to say that money is just an extension of power in our society.

                So does money create monsters? Since the definition of a monster can mean different things for different cultures, the answer to this question isn’t fixed. Monsters can mean fictional creatures that instill fear, or a real living being that have done something so horrible that they do not even seem human. Both are the case in the comic book world of Gotham, the city guarded by Batman. In this city, criminals commit crimes that almost always resulted in the deaths of several human beings. A majority of these villains also have supernatural forms and abilities that allow them to commit crimes that are even more inhuman. A common word that the civilians of Gotham shout at these criminals is “Monster!”, and obviously for a good reason. They go out of the norm for both human behavior as well as sometimes their appearances. But what created these monstrous people in the first place? The origin of just about every Batman villain starts with money. There are villains like Penguin, Black Mask, and Deadshot that commit crimes for the sake of being wealthy. There are unfortunate villains like Mr. Freeze, Two Face, and Poison Ivy that are created as a side effect of someone’s greed. A few villains like Scarecrow and Victor Zsasz have gone insane due to problems that rose with money. And then there are a few villains like Bane and the Riddler that commit crimes as a challenge to Batman in order to become famous. The only character where money doesn’t seem to be the main cause of their villainy is the Joker, but this is due to the lack of knowledge behind his origin. Every other villain was created to gain money and power in Gotham, and all of them can certainly be classified as monsters.

                As a side note, the villains of Gotham are not the only ones that can be called a monster. Batman himself is monstrous in his own way. Batman is monstrous to the criminals of Gotham; probably more so than they are to him. His outfit is meant to create fear amongst the criminals. In every representation of the Batman universe, there is a scene when a few small time criminals whisper about the bat shaped monster that have been injuring wrong doers. These criminals usually dismiss this as a rumor, until Batman appears and beats them up. The average criminal is still a human being, so the idea that a man is roaming the streets dressed as a bat and beating people up sounds inhuman. Batman himself satisfies the same requirements to be considered a monster, just like any of his adversaries. And guess what made him go into crime fighting? Murders committed by a thug that wanted money (not to mention the wealth he inherited that allowed him to get all the gadgets).