Batman as a Sadist?

Below is an e-mail exchange between my friend Alex, who equally loves Batman, and me:

Alex,
Someone gave me a different take on Batman yesterday. They said he was an aristocrat that owned Gotham and controlled most of the corporations there through Wayne Enterprises. By day he hob knobs with young, beautiful woman, and at night (when the corporations are shut down) he beats the shit out of anyone who threatens the status quo.

This person told me his motives were far from moral.

He even said Batman was a sadist, the evil one, the one that picked on the misfit, etc. What do you think of this?

Rose,
I've heard that. The Republican take on Batman. Certainly makes sense in a way. I don't agree with it, but it taps into a vital question: Is everyone who wants to restore order to chaos authoritarian, even dictatorial? Can one establish order without the brutality, force and singularity of mind that Batman represents? I dunno. It's interesting to see that V FOR VENDETTA (the book) was Batman in reverse: the main character was the Joker (down to the smiling mask and sense of levity and absurdity) and he was fighting to tear down totalitarianism with the only tools he had: brutality, force and anarchy. (The movie waters everything down on the assumption that we can peacefully win back rights taken from us, the Velvet Revolution model. The book made no such argument: if one is to escape totalitarianism, one must tear everything down.) So could Batman be the opposite argument: in order to destroy anarchy, one must be resolute to a fault?