I have loved Batman from almost as early as I can recall. As
I push the ever aging and failing mechanism I call a brain to recreate the
images of my past, I am filled with a sense of happiest during those earliest
of years. One of my happiest memories was being four and a half years old on
holiday in Florida. It was the only true holiday I recall as a child. Even then
the model for what I like best about a “holiday” was set during that dreamlike
time. We were a circus family, in the middle of running our own circus, and so
we saw circus people and circus-related places. I got my head stuck in the
railings at SeaWorld and I saw Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. I
remember our Mexican driver and my amusement that the steering wheel was on the
other side the cars. These were all great recollections, but some of my most
comforting memories came from staying at the hotel. I wasn’t used to staying in any other
accommodation than a wagon (caravan). I remember falling in love with two icons
that have stood the test of maturity: Charlie Brown and Batman.
I first saw the Caped Crusader, the Gotham Guardian, the
Dark Knight Detective in one of his less than admirable incarnations: as a
member of the Super Friends. Knowing how I loved the show so much, my parents
kindly bought me a slide show for my View-Master. However, besides this and the
single episode I saw that was my last interaction with this not-very-great DC
commissioned venture. However, for me the single scene that struck me the most
was appearance of Batman and Robin. I recalled Batman descending his Batcoptor and
noted the sailor-like way the animators had him grip the rope. For the
following Easter I received a miniature Batmobile car instead of a chocolate
egg. I became intrigued by the heavily edited anime cartoon “Battle of the
Planets” because the series main antagonist, Zoltar, had a pointy eared mask
that resembled Batman’s.
The circus knew I was Batman mad. The only superhero who
would match my enthusiasm for him was Marvel’s Spider-Man. I speculate that it
is because both of these hugely popular and enduring icons – which I think
resemble the gods of Greek, Roman and Norse mythology – were inherently very
fallible compared the majority of American comics superheroes, but in my heart
it was simply the look and their respective worlds. The artist who first got me
into writing, even created a book for me with stories where I featured as a
Batman character.
I recall when we stopped touring being read a Batman
pocketbook that contained three excellent stories I relished. The first pitted
Batman against Captain Boomerang. Little did I know then this character was
traditionally an enemy of DC’s lightning fast superhero, The Flash. Despite a
scene where Batman threw his batarang against one of the villain’s namesake
weapon of choice, this story least excited my imagination. I loved the story
that introduced Catman and Batman stuck in a gigantic web that forced him to
tear his costume in order to escape. The final story featured Barbara Gordon’s
Batgirl and was a dark entry even at that time. I loved the elaborate (and
rather ridiculous) way Batgirl faked her death with a dummy when a gunman shot
her and she was seen fall from a building. Superheroes always seemed to be
falling from buildings at the end of episodes when I was child. I recall being
on the edge of my seat when I saw the live action TV version of Spider-Man
being gorilla pressed off one at the end of one episode.
The early ’80s saw Batman’s continued development into the
more mature character that had first appeared in Bob Kane’s original comic
strip of “Detective Comics”, issue 27 in 1939. I wouldn’t read these original
strips until I was into my early 20s and started buying collected editions. As
a child I was vaguely aware of the apparent contradictions between the Batman
in the comics and the one that was generally featured in British media. Just about everyone who wasn’t a child or a
comic fan associated him with the 1960s camp TV show. I admit to loving it as a
child and still have a contextual affection for the programme. I saw the movie
when I was very young, coming in at the famous scene where Adam West is trying
to dispose of a bomb. I later watched the whole series with mother when it was
shown on morning television before school.
The TV show was the eventual result of the path Batman had
taken since the anti-comic hysteria and the subsequent self-imposed censorship
laws were brought into force. Bob Kane’s original Batman had shown little
concern in using the same type of weapon that downed his parents, but the 1950s
saw a complete revamping of all the DC superheroes to fall in line with the
Comics Code. Batman and Superman just about survived. Batman had to embrace fighting aliens and the regular villains - like The Joker and The Penguin - became far more comical and light-hearted versions of themselves. By the time the TV show was commissioned, you can see why producers would go with a camp take on Batman. Before the strong establishment of mature comic books, superhero
comics have floated in a peculiar limbo, where they are scared of losing their
child audience, but want to write stories for adults. I guess the 12a or PG-13
certificate is the most perfect symbol for this paradoxical world. On that
subject, I recall Tim Burton’s “Batman” being the first film to be given a 12
certificate in the UK. “Spider-Man”
would be the first to have the altered 12a, over a decade later.
It wasn’t until I read Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight
Returns” not long before the release of Burton’s film that I realized just how
much this character had to offer. From this point on I wanted him dark and I
expected ever increasingly complexities. I got it with Alan Moore’s “The
Killing Joke”, which saw the first Batgirl get turned into a quadriplegic and
the wondrous juxtaposition of Batman with The Joker so brilliantly lain out.
When Burton’s film came out I took full advantage of acquiring all the
republished and re-released material I could find. Two thick collections of
short stories – “The Further Adventures of Batman” and “The Further Adventures
of the Joker” – were commissioned, producing a fascinating array of different
interpretations of the Caped Crusader. Having got to like the streetwise Jason
Todd as the new Robin – although I have never really liked the concept of a
Robin – I was struck by his death, decided by the reader voting, at the hands
of The Joker in the superb globe-spanning saga, “A Death in the Family”.
Frustratingly Todd would be brought back, seemingly defying one of the very few
times a character didn’t follow the clichéd “comic book death” gimmick. Even
more annoyingly he came back in a very good story that was turned into an
entertaining animated movie, “Under the Hood”.
Burton succeeded in redefining Batman in the eyes of popular
culture, bringing him closer to the darker form he had been re-taking in the
comics since the demise of the TV show. He tried to push the idea further with
his own brand of Gothic in the sequel, “Batman Returns”. This was even better
than the original, despite some rather ridiculous elements relating to Danny
DeVito’s otherwise great depiction of The Penguin. I just wish we could have
been spared the reared by penguins and having penguins armed with rockets
aspects of the film. Michelle Pfeiffer, of course, stole the show, even from
the great Christopher Walken in a rather redundant role, as the incredibly sexy
Catwoman. Sadly Burton’s film, despite
being a box office success, did not do as well as his first attempt. He might
have been ahead of his time and it wouldn’t be before Marvel started making
headway at the turn of 21st century in mainstream with scope outside
of campy heroics. Warner Brothers’ response to the disappointing box office
return was to employ Joel Schumacher for this particular franchise’s third
instalment.
Despite a scene in the circus and the only U2 song I have
ever liked, Schumacher pretty much undid everything Burton was setting up in
“Batman Forever”. Long before the like Sam Raimi and others were carefully
plotting their fantasy franchises so that sequels would be carefully thought
out and plausible continuations of plots set up in previous films rather than
the transparent cash-in efforts that have long dominated genre pictures, Tim
Burton had several elements put in place in his films. One of the most notable
examples was Billy Dee Williams playing the newly elected district attorney,
Harvey Dent, a character set to become the scarred coin-flipping villain know
as Two Face. Schumacher would bulldoze over this completely as he cast Tommy
Lee Jones to play the role. The whole film brought Robin into the frame and it
was intentionally made to be a ‘90s update on the 1960s camp TV show. Having
spent several decades trying to bury this image, there was again full in the
fans’ faces. With this picture being a bigger hit than Burton’s previous
instalment, Schumacher camped things up even further with the final part of
this particular franchise, “Batman and Robin”. The film has gone down in
history as one of the worst blockbusters ever made.
“Knightfall” and “Knightsend” proved to be among the
strongest stories of the 1990s, allowing the new villain, Bane, to join
Batman’s most popular rogue’s gallery. The decade also saw the great work of
Alan Grant who gave us Scarface and the Ventriloquist. The early 2000s ushered
in a wonderful array of interesting stories, including the issue spanning
“Cataclysm” and “No Man’s Land”. Greg Rucka did an excellent job in condensing
the huge story arc of the latter into a very entertaining novel. He also the
type of framework I feel works best for superheroes when converting them to a
medium outside of comics. He kept Batman within his own reality. There was no
guest appearance of Superman or mention of any science fiction. This was
exactly the direction Christopher Nolan took with his own Dark Knight trilogy
of movies. Nolan completed what Burton had touched, but took it a stage
further. Staying true to his own vision and using the material of Frank Miller
and Alan Moore’s solo Batman masterpiece, Nolan knew how to handle the Gotham
Guardian on his terms. Heath Ledger even topped the great Jack Nicholson with his
interpretation of The Joker as a nihilistic lover of chaos, defined beautifully
in the line spoken by Batman’s butler, Alfred: “…some men aren't looking for
anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or
negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn”. Besides the casting
of Liam Neeson and the rather spasmodic fight cinematography of the first instalment
and the mistake of having the fully costumed Batman duke it out in daylight in
the third instalment, Nolan pretty much gave me the Batman I wanted.
I haven’t dipped into the stories of the Dark Knight for a
while, but the iconography continues to fascinate me. Alan Moore did an
ingenious job of explaining that Batman was really just as demented as The
Joker. He was just demented towards crusading against crime. Batman is a normal
human being albeit one with a high intellect and the genetics to be able to
hone Olympic standard athleticism. He present us with a look at fanaticism for
good, and many of his writers have explored what happens when these firm ideals
come against others. His utter distaste for Marvel comics own rather more
extreme vigilante, The Punisher, provides an interesting exploration. However,
it is not unfamiliar territory. DC has had the Dark Knight face several other vigilantes
that overstep his own moral line, including Alan Grant’s political figure, Anarky.
Suspending the ridiculous idea that a man would dress as a
giant bat, the main premise makes Batman a very interesting portal to explore
the realities of crime in psychological, political and moral terms. Some of
Batman’s most fascinating qualities are the lines he will not cross and his own
unyielding code. In perhaps one of DC’s most brilliant sagas, “Identity Crisis”,
we see an exploration of the moral dilemmas faced by those who choose
administer justice. Despite being the least super-powered member of the Justice
League of America team, he is the one who most resolutely stands by his
principles. The graphic novel, “Night Cries” and the novel, “The Ultimate Evil”
even pitted Batman against paedophiles, once again testing Batman’s own ideas
about justice.
Maybe it is the slight Gothic level of absurdity of Batman
that makes him that much more of a mirror and a symbol for many of our own
views on vigilantism than his more grittier counterparts in films like “Death
Wish”. He is a noble man, but hugely judgemental. His alter ego as an
ultra-rich playboy provides some Freudian temptations to explore in terms of
repression. In many ways he is a compartmentalised James Bond. He is, of
course, not a pure creation in the first instance. Batman and his rogue’s
gallery were clearly inspired by the Dick Tracy comic strip, as well The Shadow,
Zorro and the French film, “The Bat”. Like Superman, who was created a year
before, he represented the spirit of hope for justice in an America that was
coming out of the Great Depression, seeing the rise of organized crime and the
threat of a second world war.
Today we live in what seems to be an ever more complex
world. Taking a wider view and looking back to the characters cast alternately
as heroes and villains of the past, we can understand how fanaticism can take
hold of individuals and their followers. People just need a cause and then it
needs to be decided whether the means justify the ends or that the ends are
good in the first place. Fiction has
absorbed this with its ever more ambiguous characters. Batman, more or less,
stands for the consensus of what the majority of his readers believe to be fair
justice. However, the stories reveal that even this has consequences and these
consequences often involve the deaths of innocents. Batman has evolved over
time. We are currently at a time where writers are allowing themselves to blur
the lines ever more with fictional villains and heroes. It is a delicious
temptation to see how far you can test your readers’ loyalties to the person
wearing the white hat and how much sympathy you can illicit for someone who
began being cast as the villain. I wonder how far we will see Batman’s writers
delving into this ambiguity. Will Batman go deeper into the darkness or are we
going to see another variation of him pulling out the shark repellent spray?
Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com
