Why We Like Rich Heroes Like Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen

Cordu Krubally
TV Movies
TV Movies Comics Arrowverse DC

Barry Allen: What are your superpowers again?

Bruce Wayne: I’m rich.

These two words, taken from last year’s Justice League movie delighted fans and reminded us of everything we love about wealthy heroes like Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen. They’re mysterious, powerful and, more importantly, they’re brutally real. The superhero element of these characters may be fantasy, but often they’re underlined with a morality that injects some much-needed realism into a fictional world.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The Batcave
According to Forbes, Wayne Enterprises' annual net income is valued at approximately $31 billion. The cost of maintaining Batman is approximately $682 million.

One of the main appeals of rich superheroes is that they’re rich. And, logically, this billionaire status affords their alter egos a lot of enviable super luxuries. Most people born into multi-billion dollar fortunes lead regular lives. They live in opulent mansions, own expensive foreign cars, and build multi-billion dollar franchises. You know, regular people stuff.

But wealthy superheroes like Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen take the dream one step further. They build Arrowcaves and drive Batmobiles. They hire efficient British butlers to run their households and superhero operations. And can we talk about the gadgets?

Wealthy superheroism, as showcased by Wayne and Queen, explores affluence in its extreme. With a moral compass and a billion dollars, rich superheroes live out the kind of conversations you might have with your friends. Their resources read like a thought experiment into what you could do with unlimited funds. The answer? Buy a lot of cool things. Naturally.

Born This Way

Batman and Martha Wayne: Flashpoint Timeline
'I'm not the hero of this story. I'm a man who's been corrupted by his own unbearable pain. I'm a man who has too much blood on his hands to be called good.' - Batman (Thomas Wayne)

When it comes to the crunch, we may like rich superheroes because their gadgets are cool, but we revere them because we can relate to their struggles. Sure, none of us has ever scaled a 60ft building to stop an intelligent gorilla from taking over New York, but the problems of heroes like Wayne and Queen are more complex than the villains they face. Our protagonists are ultimately mortal beings, with weaknesses rooted in realism. Their origin stories are human: shrouded in loss, retribution, and self-realisation.

These characteristics are evident in both Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen, but they also hold true for rich superheroes as a whole. And you don’t have to look too far to find them. In one of the most literal iterations of The Dark Night: The Flashpoint Batman, millionaire Thomas Wayne is the one who takes up the mantle of Batman after his son Bruce is killed in a robbery-gone-wrong. His wife, Martha, goes mad after the loss of her son and later becomes Batman’s archenemy – The Joker. Although this origin story is by no means the darkest in the DC universe, in a twisted way, it’s perhaps the most realistic.

Strip away the gadgets and the vigilantism and Thomas Wayne’s Batman is essentially a father, grieving over the loss of his son. He feels an overwhelming sense of guilt and love that still tie him to his estranged, now insane wife. When Wayne the senior sacrifices himself and his entire universe to save his son, he acts in a way that any father would, and despite his riches, this human motivation makes him relatable.

Rich Is a Superpower

Arrow: The TV Series
Under the hood, Oliver Queen still lives up to the hero title.

The 2016 DC Comics series, Rebirth established Oliver Queen as an advocate for social justice. Aside from trick arrows and sewer villains, the storyline explored the obligations of the rich to the poor and voiceless. Though the series’ modern take on the character upset a lot of fans, the ‘new and improved’ version of Oliver Queen isn’t that new.

Questions of what those with power owe those without are ever-present in the superhero genre. DC has used this trope before, adopting heroes like Superman as an archetype. In the 1998 comic Superman: Peace on Earth and the 2008 movie Man of Steel, Superman struggles with what it means to be powerful and questions whether one man can ever really possess the power to change the world. Add money to this narrative, and rich superheroes start to explore a real-life parallel that counterparts like Superman can’t convey.

In their daily, non-superhero lives, the super-rich of the comic-verse are a reflection of wealthy living as it exists in the real world. We hold our rich and famous accountable for their actions, and in some ways, we expect them to represent the best of us.

In real life, our heroes often fall short of being role models, but our favourite fantasy superstars give us the kind of heroes we deserve. Their everyday heroics allow us to indulge in the reverence we expect to give real celebrities.

The Spy Who Saved Me

Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins
The name's Wayne, Bruce Wayne. Out of costume, Wayne leads an even more glamorous and clandestine life than his alter ego.

With the expensive gadgets, dapper suits, and double lives, the plot of most Batman stories would fit quite comfortably into a 007 novel. Part of the excitement of the superhero genre has always been the double lives our heroes often lead. But rich superheroes raise the stakes even further. There’s an allure to the secret lives of the rich that makes the men behind the mask as compelling as the heroes.

Arguably, our fascination with rich superheroes is a two-fold affair. It’s impossible to separate the characters from their money, so ‘rich’ certainly lends to the appeal. But it doesn’t end there. Ultimately, we appreciate these heroes because they’re profoundly accessible. And more like us than we often realise.

Cordu Krubally
Writer, inciter and candle-stick lighter. I've never met a book I didn't like. DC, Imagine Comics, anime and cosplay.