Why the world needs Batman

“If I could kill him with my bare hands, I would.”

Anger is in the air. A seven-year-old girl with wheat-blonde hair and blue eyes is abducted, raped, murdered and dumped in a culvert outside the city’s Fresh Produce Market. Over the course of a year her 26 year old murderer shows no remorse, no emotion other than appearing to be enjoying the attention of the courts. People on the scene are reduced to tears. Protests ensue, with ordinary people, headmasters, rugby players, trade union officials, celebrities and politicians laying flowers of remembrance and holding placards pleading for the death penalty. A professional athlete steps forward, saying: “We are sick and tired of crime. The death penalty should definitely come back.” One leader says, “We have insufficient deterrents in the justice system.” Another says, “We have a sick society.”
But does anyone do anything?

The sickness spreads, with sickos making newspaper headlines every day. Criminals prey unabated on the weak, breaking into homes, sodomising in the dirt of church yards, shooting, torturing, killing. Distraught survivors uproot and leave with what remains of their families. In a double murder, double sodomy case, the villain enters a packed court to cheers and applause. The judge says to the two faced 23 year old baddie, who smiles often during sentencing, “Sometimes I got the impression that you were proud of what happened…One moment there is a friendly man, the next moment a monster”. The Jekyll and Hyde criminal is sentenced to two life sentences. The murderer’s father, a retired head of the local prison, holds a press conference outside the court to assert his son’s ‘innocence’. Does anyone oppose this insanity, this mockery of justice?

And then there are serial killers, like Albert Fish. An American sado-masochistic paedophile, a torture murderer, serial killer and cannibal. He would rape young children, boys and girls, then cut up their bodies and eat all except the children’s bones and their heads. What terror is there out there, to terrorise the likes of these?

Pop Psychology

The postmodern mindset attempts to deal with a world that is fragmenting, disassembling and disconnecting either by doubting reality, or conveniently employing disassociating or compartmentalising cognitive processes. Compartmentalisation is a defence mechanism. It allows the mind to function by shutting off certain processes (and memories). All of us do this every day, by blocking out bad news. The result is a dualistic perception of reality. Disassociating interrupts the process of causality and consequence. Hence, postmodern men might feel untroubled by the habitual anti-social behaviours from their dark side – such as chronic alcoholism, or consuming hardcore porn – in order to pull off playing perfect gentlemen to their spouses and families.

The Dark Mythos

How does Bruce deal with this stuff? He’s anti-social, he keeps up some measure of appearances as a gracious host, but it is obvious that he prefers his own company in order to brood; and he needs plenty of space to vent his vigilantism. In virtually all the recent Batman movies, we see Bruce experiencing flashbacks. He is obviously troubled by the long ago barbs of the past. Is this a sign of a mental disorder? Sure enough, Batman’s creators saw fit to add Arkham Asylum into the mythos, a place where not only the insane but the criminally insane end up (and often escape).

Arkham Asylum’s alter ego is Wayne Manor. And even the manor itself is built on dark and hollow foundations; the site is condemned by the municipal authorities for its chronic sinkhole problems. And like many men, Bruce Wayne spends inordinate amounts of time down there, in his cave sunk below ground, below what we can see, and this transforms him. Revenge has taken over his whole life. It cannot be healthy when dark obsessions consume a man. This doesn’t convey heroism, but a mental disorder. Our fascination with this fatal flaw reveals the extent of Batman’s darkness in us.
A large proportion – 1.2% (or 3.2 million) – of the US population are suffering from the mental disorder known as Bipolar Disorder. The disorder is characterised by:

1. Increased energy and restlessness
2. Being easily distracted
3. Little sleep needed
4. Unrealistic beliefs in one's abilities and powers
5. Poor judgement
6. Spending sprees
7. A lasting period of behaviour that is different from usual
8. Increased sexual drive
9. Abuse of drugs, particularly cocaine, alcohol, and sleeping medications
10. Provocative, intrusive, or aggressive behaviour
11. Denial that anything is wrong

Some points explain Batman’s behaviour. Arguably, many do not.

Somewhere in the darkness of vaporised buildings, a smouldering man and a student who chokes to death on dirt are hints of the dissolution of America, cracks appearing on the mighty machine-heart that drives commerce in our world.
In Batman: The Killing Joke,1988, the Joker says to Batman “…there’s no difference between me and everyone else. All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day…You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there’s a point to all this struggling."

Bruce’s Bad Day

Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne, testified against a gangster, and this provoked the killing services of Jo Chill. Chill, recruited by the selfsame crime lord, was no more than a petty thief suffering in the growing economic depression that was gripping Gotham’s streets. The little boy Bruce saw his parents gunned down in Gotham’s ‘Crime Alley’. There and then the child vowed "by the spirits of my parents [I will] avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals.”

Is Batman motivated solely by revenge? In the June/July 1948 Chill in Batman #47, the child’s resolve, and the extent of that revenge, is put to the test. Batman finally seizes Chill, but Chill’s own men kill their leader, having found out that he was the cause for Batman’s ruinous crusade against crime. Frank Miller’s version has a young Bruce Wayne waiting outside the courtroom with a gun, but an assassin gets to Chill first, depriving Bruce of bloody satisfaction. How many of us have fantasised the same thing, when courts drag on, and villains are simply incarcerated or set free despite their heinous crimes?

When Bruce Wayne later meets the Falcone, the mob boss informs Bruce that he and Chill were cellmates once, and that Chill bragged that Thomas Wayne "begged...like a dog" before his death. Falcone manufactures this epithet to intimidate the young Bruce Wayne. We can imagine that instead of being intimidated, flames of anger fire up inside Bruce. Batman’s purpose is deeper and braver than just vengeance. We empathise with his attempt to prevent anyone else from ever experiencing what he had to endure as a child. But that’s not all.

Good versus Evil, and Us versus Them

The tragedy in the alley – it is now abundantly clear – lead to a Damascus Moment. The child’s decision shaped the entire life to follow, a life of struggle: good against evil. It is no accident that Batman has enjoyed his most popular support when the world has been unusually gripped by fearful insecurities The battles in Batman (against a series of sickos) reflect a growing unease in society, based on the perception of a growing threat. War and crime infestation underwrite Batman’s success, and today the tide is filled with the flotsam of both.

In her article on Postmodernism and the Batman Phenomenon, Monica Hafer writes: “To survive, the times demanded a righteous sense of Us vs. Them. In Batman’s world…the demarcation line between good and evil was clearly drawn.”
And at no time in world history is this more evidence than during times of war. When Batman was first introduced in 1939 immediately prior to World War II, fears were particularly manifest. Later, Batman’s star rose to successive Zeniths, in lockstep with the first Gulf War in the early 90’s and the present Gulf War, which started in 2003). Happier times saw comics in general struggle, but two fared better than most because Batman and Superman were able to change as times changed. Although Batman is ultimately a symbol of survival, his worst enemy, his greatest threat appears to be widespread happiness.

Batman Goes Camp

One of the happiest and trickiest periods for Batman was the 60’s. In order to avoid termination, Batman was put through the ignominy of camp. Alfred was killed off, Aunt Harriet was shipped in as a motherly replacement, sidekicks were added (Robin, Batwoman and Batgirl) and the mythos was made lighter and more family-oriented. It wasn’t Batman, but the mainstream loved it.
“There’s no escape. It’s all over the place. Madness! Supermadness! The entertainment world offers it on all sides, and the public gobbles it up. Batman conquers TV. Kids swing Batman capes in the backyard, and Bat products are everywhere" March 11th issue of Life magazine
1966--When the spacecraft Gemini 8, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott aboard, was forced to make an emergency landing, ABC … interrupted …”Batman"…to cover the unfolding news story. The interruption caused public outrage from viewers… Telephones in New York and Los Angeles were flooded for hours with complaints. – Trivia Library.com http://www.trivia-library.com/a/history-of-shows-and-major-events-in-television-in-the-1960s-part-2.htm

Darkness Falls

Towards the end of the Vietnam War this light-hearted camp style became a dead end for the Batman franchise, and Batman was once again re-invented. He became a darker character, with many of the original elements brought back, and reinforced. Robin, by popular vote, was killed off. The evolution culminated in Frank Miller’s Batman. Miller brought a 55 year old Batman out of retirement in The Dark Knight Returns (1986); this was 7 difficult years after the Iranian Revolution in real time. Miller’s Bruce Wayne decides to “turn fear against those who prey on the fearful” (Batman Begins).

How do people respond to fear? Batman’s response to the death of his parent is a powerful sense of duty. Consequence and causality are not often seen in comics and seldom in real life. The way some people decide to become doctors or teachers or professional tennis players, the boy Bruce insists on turning the tragic death of his parents into a life’s work. Bruce Wayne’s mission to save the city is Christ-like in some ways, but it’s also a bloodier, more violent version of his father’s work. This departure from his father’s philanthropy has unsettling consequences, not least of all, for the Dark Knight himself.

Secrets and Dysfunction

We see that because he hasn’t let go, his love life suffers. The millionaire is distracted by his obsessions, which sabotages his ability to be a stable partner in a long-term relationship. The inability to deal with pain has created an additional side to him, a dark side, which he keeps a secret. Obsessive secretiveness has made him a dysfunctional partner.

Bruce Wayne deals with the dark’s blurry dissonance by getting into a costume, a dark shape with pointed ears and jagged lines. He mirrors the violence of the perpetrators he pursues. Batman’s schizophrenia may stem from the fact that he was created by two men, but the legacy of only one survived. Bill Kane denied credit to the Batman’s original writer until his death. Did the same thing happen between Batman and Bruce? Did childish wishes for power and control over others doom Bruce Wayne to a dark partnership with a doppelganger he’d be forced to deny for the rest of his life? And are we childish to be fascinated by him?

The writer of Batman: Detective Comics, Chuck Dixon, interprets the Batman mythos as follows: “I think that, because he suffered his great trauma as a child, he reacted as a child. Putting on a costume, fighting crime at night in the guise of an animal—that’s part of what makes him so enduring, but it’s such a simple, childish reaction to what happened to him. He responded in that horrible moment and it set the course for his life: I won’t be afraid; I will become scarier than they are. It was the wish of a child.” The fact that Batman’s gadgets, his over-the-top batmobile, batboat, and batwing are sometimes referred to as his ‘toys’ (especially by the Joker) reinforce this image of a dark, intimidating child-man.

The World Wants Vigilante-Justice

Die-hard fans applaud Bruce’s application of vigilantism through his alter ego. Even though they know the philanthropist remains troubled throughout his life, in a sense, Batman is probably the most realistic superhero. Though flawed, although he suffers despair like we all do, he uses intellect, science and all his physical and mental faculties to triumph over the encroaches of the dark. Batman, in effect, is the master of the dark, which is allegory for mastery over death itself.
Alan Grant, a creative contributor for Batman: Shadow of the Bat calls Batman one of the most heroic characters ever created. Batman is a mortal man trying to address the problems of his community. Grant says: He is perhaps the only genuine hero amongst all of them. People say Batman is this dark, vengeance-driven, obsessed character, but that’s not Batman in my eyes. That’s just the fuel which drives Batman…but what makes him Batman is a decision. He took a decision to be a good guy… He is a self-made character. He didn’t get superpowers, he’s not a cyborg, he made a choice to be what he is... What defines his character is his decision to do something.

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster."
-Friedrich Nietzsche

And so how does a mortal man become a superhero, or a monster? Batman does not carry a gun, or lethal weapons of any kind. The weapon he embodies is the instrument of fear. But it’s not just the mask and the fear factor that give Batman his advantage. His suitably armoured costume reflects society’s penchant for hi-tech state of the art gadgets. These sophisticated weapons systems are predicated on Bruce’s access to the world’s most secret military weapons (Wayne Industries sells armaments to the US Department of Defence).

Items of the Bat’s weaponry – gas capsules, a rebreather, monofilament cord jumplines, batarangs and grapnels – are docked in his utility harness. His points-weighted cape and the suit are lined with triple-weave Kevlar, and both are covered in fire-resistant Nomex. He has a radio link to the Batcave and night vision inserted in his cowl. Once Batman is prepped and in uniform, he enters the bleak and menacing backdrop of Gotham’s shadow world, with its cathedrals, tall sparkling spires and labyrinthine alleyways. Batman’s modus operandi is to scare the bejesus out of his opponents, and when he engages with them he often cripples or disfigures them for life.

For Bruce Wayne, Batman is a drug, a fiery being that consumes him, as Monica Hafer explains. “The pressure to take action against the social chaos is unbearable. [Bruce] says of his Batman identity, ‘He tricks me . . . when the night is long and my will is weak. He struggles, relentlessly, hatefully, to be free". And Bruce is addressed directly in the comic by his Batman persona, who says to him, "You are nothing—a hollow shell, a rusty trap that cannot hold me—smoldering, I burn you—burning you, I flare, hot and bright and beautiful—you cannot stop me—not with wine or vows or the weight of age—you cannot stop me but still you try—still you run”. …Only an adult mind could truly appreciate those feelings of age and of the longing that is expressed here for the vigor of youth.

Nothing is created in a vacuum. The Dark is a sinister and dangerous place. Black flame engulfs the timbers of good men, apathy and blame infects the common citizens. Every day the poor and the weak cry out against the growing sweep of criminal infestation, but their lamb-like bleats are choked by the maniacal cackling of a screwed up world losing its mind. Will you go alone into the dark, and make a difference? Will you help us?

In the deep darkness, anger, pain and fear congeal into a jagged shape that masks the contours of our Vengeance. “Batman has a personality and purpose all his own, a definable core. He’s neither petty nor petulant. He’s no whiner; there’s no trace of self-pity in his soul. He’s smart. He’s noble. And most important: he’s big. His passions are grand. Even his unhappiness is not depressing, but a brooding, Wagnerian torment. And his triumphs are Olympian.” [Frank Miller’s prologue to The Dark Knight Returns]

We wish that a greater terror was out there to terrorise the monsters of the dark. We wish an eye moved through the sky, like the batsignal, that could elicit a terror greater than the terror that lurks in our streets.

The world needs Batman because it shares the deep black bruises of a painful past. We are voyeurs in his violent vigilantism. We dwell in dark fantasies where fears of the future are bullied into the shadows. But it is our very failure to let go of past pain that lie beneath our fears of the future. If Batman epitomises fear, then surely through his story we see that there is nothing to fear but what we fear to face in ourselves. Like him, we run from the raw memories. Batman is the victim of his failure to deal with personal pain. He is not the champion of fear that he pretends to be. When we cannot let go the dark of our hearts bursts into black flame. These flames are the shadows that haunt and burn the streets of the Great Black Global Gotham that the world has become.

Now, will you go alone into the dark dystopia and make a difference?