'Because He's My Father, You Idiot': Batman as Literal and Figurative Father Figure to the Dark Age of Comics (original) (raw)
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The polarisation of Batman and its significance in contemporary culture
Batman is one of the world’s most popular superheroes. Since its creation by Bob Kane in 1939, Batman has given birth to an array of comic books by various authors, along with television series, film franchises, and an unparalleled cult following. Arguably, part of the popularity has to do with the fact that, like us, he is human, and on a seemingly simple but honourable mission: crime is evil and it has to be stopped. Yet, in what follows, what will be argued is that beneath this virtuous veneer lurks a darker reality, something indissociable from the character of Batman and unpalatable for most of his fan base. In short; Batman initially faces fascist antagonists who effectively support the neoliberal agenda, then he faces fundamentalists who do not support the agenda, causing rifts in his ethical code. Batman himself is a social liberator but fans believe Batman to have an unshakeable ethical conscience, in what follows we will analyse Batman’s ethical rifts in an attempt to define his social and to an extent political stand. This essay will trace the progressive polarization of Bruce Wayne from a brooding loner to an ahistorical opiate through his alter-ego Batman, to a reluctant fascist, to ultimately a socially-engaged anti-neoliberal critic in Christopher Nolan’s film trilogy as well as the graphic novels from which the films draw inspiration.
"I'm Eight Years Old Again": Batman's Tragedy, Memory, and Continuity
Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media, 2019
Whether in comic books or their movie adaptations, Batman stories return obsessively to the moment Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed. Using Cathy Caruth's definition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as "the overwhelming events of the past repeatedly possess[ing], in intrusive images and thoughts, the one who has lived through them", this essay focuses on how Batman's origin story must be continually revisited to allow him access to his heroic identity. The dreamlike "oneiric climate" of continuity as described by Umberto Eco, however, makes forgetting an ongoing threat, and later comic book events such as Crisis On Infinite Earths attempted to wipe superhero memories clean. Subsequently Grant Morrison et al. sought to bestow "hyperconsciousness" to Batman during their run, allowing him and his stories access to seven decades of previous adventures-and transforming the narrative experience into a game of recognition for the long-term audience. But both Morrison's and Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's subsequent time on the Batman title inflicted amnesia on their hero. The former created a vicious vigilante, without a secret identity holding him back; the latter a well-adjusted Bruce Wayne, without a Batman at all. Examining the differences in these approaches to memory illustrates how remembering itself is a heroic act in the tragic continuity of superhero stories. Full text available: https://refractory-journal.com/im-eight-years-old-again-batmans-tragedy-memory-and-continuity/
Bourdieu vs. Batman: Examining the Cultural Capital of the Dark Knight via Graphic Novels
Framescapes: Graphic Narrative Intertexts, 2016
Bill Finger and Bob Kane's character of Batman is undoubtedly one of the most popular characters in the DC superhero-verse, instantly identifiable to a range of audiences. The chapter examines how the perception of Batman had changed since he has been the focus of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) by Frank Miller, Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth (1989) by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. I discuss how the aforementioned graphic novels increased Batman's status in popular culture, his 'capital,' not only because the medium of the graphic novel at that time (1985-1990) was being heavily marketed as more literary than the comic book, but also because these graphic novels directly addressed socially-relevant and complex themes related to urban neuroses, psychological trauma, and class warfare. The public's perception of the 'idealised' superhero was also undergoing a fundamental change, superheroes increasingly being presented as morally-conflicted vigilantes rather than mythical saviours, Batman being the most prominent of this 'new' type of hero. By utilising Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Capital, I argue how different mediums, authors and audiences developed Batman's cultural capital, Bourdieu's Theory of Capital concerned with the ways in which consumers of cultural goods use said goods as markers of status, and how these ideological markers are constructed through social conditions. The chapter concludes with a depiction of how the world of Gotham has become embedded in Western popular culture via the aforementioned graphic novels, and the media inspired by them, such as Nolan's trilogy of films and the Arkham Asylum video games. Batman has become a symbol of both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat alike, representing our fears in regards to change, urbanisation and class.
Stepping out of Divinity: Tom King's “All-too-human” Batman
Galactica Media - Journal of Media Studies, 2020
Theis paper focuses on American superhero comics-i.e. superadventures and their likeness to mythology. Our goal is to understand how subtle changes in the characterization of a superhero may make them more congruent with the present day morality and ideals of the society, even if a given character is willing to directly challenge that morality. Through a close reading of Batman #53, in which Bruce Wayne states that Batman is like a god and that he does not believe in him anymore-nor should the people of Gotham-we discuss the symbolic meaning of Bruce Wayne's phrase and the implications for the readers' understanding of who the Batman is and what he stands for. One of the main impacts of this characterization is that Batman ceases to be the "interventionist god" as he was portrayed in many stories in the last decades, and learns to embrace the frailty and limitations of the human condition.
CFP: Arkham’s Souls: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Batman’s Villains and Villainesses
With Arkham’s Souls: A multidisciplinary Analysis of Batman’s Villains and Villainesses, we want to give the villains their merit, investigating their psychology, morality, motivations, symbolism, and philosophy. We are looking for papers that specifically analyse one of Batman’s enemies. The approach you choose can be of various types, philosophical or psychological, anthropological or literary. You can focus on gender studies as well as cultural studies. It is essential that your proposal is original and possibly not yet specifically considered by other studies on the genre. Chapters should be between 3000-4000 words inclusive of references, tables, and endnotes. The aim for the volume is to be a part of the Comicstudien series for De Gruyter. For this reason, we ask our authors to consider especially (but not only) the comic version of the mentioned characters. Final essays in German or English will be 3000-4000 words in length. Please send a brief abstract in German or English of 400 words (together with a short bio) by November 15th, 2021, to the editors, Justin Martin (just.f.martin@gmail.com) and Marco Favaro (marco-favaro@outlook.it).
Dawn of Justice: Accountability, Revisioning, and Batman in the Twenty-First Century
Politics in Gotham , 2019
Geoff Klock argues that the enduring significance of The Dark Knight Returns lies in its revision of Batman. This revision does not insist upon an entirely new iteration of the character, but rather attempts to cohesively unite each version, articulated in different years, by different creators, for different audiences, into a single figure. By doing so, Klock argues, the details revealed in Dark Knight, such as an armored chest plate or the violence and injury Batman endures, are retroactively understood by the reader to have always already been there. Zack Snyder’s (2016) Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a work heavily inspired by Dark Knight, as demonstrated by Batman’s mecha-suit, the use of media and government, and the film’s grim themes and visual palette. Critics almost universally hated it; A.O. Scott pithily remarked that the film was “about as diverting as having a porcelain sink broken over your head”—in other words, not at all. However, I argue, in this chapter, that this is precisely the point. Like The Dark Knight Returns, Batman v. Superman attempts a revisionary synthesis of Batman and his politics, not by armoring Batman or pitting him against a Reagan-ized Superman, but by demonstrating the violence that has always been inflicted by Batman against others. In interrogating Batman v. Superman’s use and depiction of violence, particularly as perceived and experienced by Superman, I will draw on Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, Jacques Derrida’s Dissemination, and war and terrorism studies, particularly relating to the use of torture in Guantánamo, as well as Steve Brie’s investigation of fascism in The Dark Knight Returns, Will Brooker’s and Neal Curtis’ readings of the pharmakon in Batman, and Curtis’ examination of sovereignty in superhero comics.
Batman – A Man, a Bat, or Both? A Psychoanalysis and Reader Response of the Dark Knight
Batman, the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the Masked Manhunter, whatever alias he is given, the clad hero is still a relevant icon today as he was back in his May 1939 debut in Detective Comics #27. The attention readers give to a fictional character is not strictly make-believe fluff. More so, the reading of a character requires a suspension of disbelief and the making of a character, a certain mindset. Comic books are not just catered affectations for young children. Although they can be seen this way, the colorful pages provided stories reflective of the feelings from era to era. For these reasons, Batman serves as a pivotal example of both psychoanalysis and reader response theories.
Tribhuvan University, Nepal, 2015
The central character Batman of ‘Batman Begins’ is presented as a superhero though his way of saving Gotham city is quite, and it is due to certain developments - as identified by Robert Jewett and John Lawrence - in conceptual level of traditional myth making that makes Batman, a superhero. Differentiating all the traditional myths as classical, Jewett and Lawrence have coded it as the American Monomyth as the traits of which is the America’s own that is secular superheroism that developed during the period of pop culture, the American origin history. So is the ‘Batman Begins’. It has also a secular superhero, Batman who is - unlike other traditional superhero - no more shown as a transcendental, heavenly and Godly power rather he is shown with some humanly mastering skills such as Martial Arts, Detective with scientifically upgraded instruments and gadgets to perform the superheroic deed of saving Gotham city from evil of archenemy Ra Al Ghul that is realistic along with secular superheroism that leading it towards the American Monomyth. In addition, Batman was generally found to be invented and reasserted specially at the context of its hard time or crisis with its specific purpose since 1939. And, so is the ‘Batman Begins’, it has its own context of post-9/11 terrorist attack and global war on terrorism; and its reassertion as the reassertion similar to the decade of 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90’s is to represent and support for its contemporary national interest of war policy and to spread trust, confidence, faith, and national and patriotic sentiment among its people, society and its allies.