Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman #101

In the latest issue of Batmanit's just been confirmed that the Dark Knight is no longer a billionaire, meaning that his crusade against crime in Gotham just got a pretty significant budget cut. However, does this mean that the Justice League has lost their funding as well? Batman has long been the League's primary benefactor and financial backer. How will his financial problems affect his team?

In Batman #101 from writer James Tynion IV with art by Guillem March, Batman is dealing with the aftermath of the Joker War, which was extremely destructive not just for the people of Gotham City, but also to him personally, both as Bruce Wayne and as the Dark Knight. Joker attacked Batman and the city on a level like never before, and a big reason for that was his theft of Bruce's billions, taking over his company, and gaining all of his weapons and technologies that Batman would have used to go after Joker himself. Now worth billions, Joker was able to pay off the media and finance his own private army of clowns, outfitting them all with Batman's gadgets and vehicles. While Catwoman was able to get a good portion of those funds back, she gave them to the CEO of Wayne Enterprises and friend of Bruce's, Lucius Fox. In the issue, Fox tells Batman that he could give him the money back, but he could never use it to fund the Batman ever again, due to the intense government scrutiny that is now on Bruce Wayne. As a result, Bruce elects to have Fox keep the money, facing a new era where Batman is going to need to be much more grounded.

Related: Batman Finally Admits: The Joker is Right

However, something that was not mentioned in Batman #101 was what this potentially means for the Justice League. Batman has long been the one to take care of their funding, making sure that they all have the provisions and resources they need to save the world time and time again. Thanks to Batman's money, the Hall of Justice was created, providing the League with a base of operations on the planet. Additionally, Batman also had the Watchtower satellite built in orbit above the Earth, which no doubt requires continual funds to maintain. Both facilities seem like they would still need financial support to keep them running, so what happens now?

the Justice League Watchtower in DC comics

In prior eras of the DC Universe, Bruce Wayne was not the only one helping to finance the Justice League. Other companies such as Kord Industries and Queen Consolidated also helped with financial support as well as some arms of the government such as ARGUS. Even Lex Luthor built the League a new Watchtower after their first one was destroyed in a bid to join the League in the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe. However, in the current universe, it's unclear if there's anyone else helping to support the League. it could very well be that Bruce was the primary, if only, financier, which could mean some possible problems for the League going forward.

Hopefully, the Justice League won't have to resort to bake sales to keep the lights on, and some new funding will come about if this issue gets mentioned at all in DC Comics going forward. It's possible that the publisher could gloss over this problem and ignore it completely, though that would certainly seem somewhat lazy on their part. Perhaps the funding could come from Fox himself as a public effort from Wayne Enterprises to win some good faith back after their company was used to terrorize Gotham? In the meantime, fans will just have to wait and see what happens with the Justice League's funding in the future and come up with their own ideas for a solution as Batman continues with a much leaner budget.

More: Which DC Hero Was The Best Leader of The Justice League?