The Flash featured Ben Affleck's final appearance as Batman, in which he addressed one of the biggest problems with the character's many appearances, including The Dark Knight. Despite a tumultuous tenure as Gotham's protector, Ben Affleck's final appearance as the character has been widely praised. From the opening action sequence which gave Ben Affleck's Batman his best DCEU action scene outside of Batman v Superman's warehouse scene to Affleck himself itting he finally got his portrayal right, The Flash was a fitting send-off for his character.

While The Flash's original ending for Batman would have been better suited to Ben Affleck, the rest of his time in the movie addressed many concerns about the character. One of these concerns was not specific to Affleck's version though, and instead linked to a longstanding Batman criticism. This criticism is even prevalent in the DC hero's best outings like The Dark Knight and The Batman, with one of the different versions of Bruce Wayne referencing it in The Flash coming as a refreshing surprise.

The Flash Agreed With The Oldest Batman Superhero Criticism

Besides the criticism aimed at Batman's costume in The Flash, one problem persisted that goes under the radar of most Batman iterations. That being said, The Flash finally addressed the criticism, that being that Batman should instead use his immeasurable wealth to combat poverty in Gotham rather than act as a masked vigilante to stop crime. This is something that has often been raised about Batman's character, as it has never been addressed in any of the character's countless appearances in live-action.

Instead of using his martial prowess to stop the criminals of Gotham, Bruce Wayne certainly has enough wealth to be able to improve the entire city by tackling poverty and other systemic issues. This has always been something raised regarding Batman's character, with the masked vigilante route leading to emergencies of supervillains that only threaten Gotham further. As such, it is refreshing that The Flash highlights this criticism in Affleck's final outing.

Why Batman's Villains Don't Fit The Poverty Theory

That being said, it is unlikely that Batman's major villains would be defeated through Bruce Wayne tackling poverty in Gotham. Batman's villains are rarely created out of poverty, like the Penguin, the Joker, or Two-Face, and most are often privileged in some way. Most of Batman's enemies are simply megalomaniacs, and crave power over anything else; Joker has rarely been shown to care about money, the Riddler mostly always wants to best Batman, Ra's Al Ghul and Harvey Dent are certainly not underprivileged.

As a result, Batman choosing to fix poverty in Gotham rather than fight crime as a vigilante would likely stop regular criminal activity. However, it would be unlikely for this take on Batman to lead to his major supervillains disappearing. Although, it would be interesting for James Gunn's DCU to focus more on the poverty aspect of Bruce Wayne's character alongside his escapes as Batman, as it would remove any questions over the theory like the one raised in The Flash.