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Batman
is a copyright of DC Comics, used here without permission for information
purpose only.
Introduction to Batman, the Dark Knight Detective.
A Fool's errand.
An ideal summary of Batman's story
and motives, from Sasha Bordeaux's reflections.
Perpetual Mourning.
An interesting perspective on the
Dark Knight, and one of the most beautiful short stories of Batman ever...
Gotham
City blues.
Frank Miller's intro to Year One.
Batman: Year
One.
The story of the beginning of Batman's
career, with a few images and quotes.
Batman
over the years.
Some of the best moments of Batman's
stories in recent years (in need of drastic expansion)
Batman, From Detective Comics 751
and 746, Art by Shawn Martinbrough, Copyright (2000) DC Comics, used without
permission for information purpose only.
Bruce Wayne. A child who has undergone a personal tragedy that left him with a terrible heritage... a man who has enlisted himself in a mission that he knows to be unending, patrolling the melancholic nights of a town almost without hope, striving to protect everybody from evil and loss. An impossible mission that he pursues all the same, every time as the first time, still unable to get used to it. If he were slightly less formidable, intellingent, skillful and resolved, he could seem pathetic. But Batman is not pathetic, he is just lost... a champion of martial arts, the supreme detective, a technology wizard, a man with an iron self-discipline lost in a perpetual mourning. This little tribute of mine to the greatest detective and crime-fighter of all times has also the purpose of casting the appropriate light on a character that is often perceived as merely ridiculous or amusing.
It is interesting to have a look at two of Batman's appellatives:
detective
and dark knight. To be at the same time a
detective and a knight involves a partially paradoxical state of being.
An ideal knight obeys some rules, is bound by chivalry codes, his battles
are standardized according to severe protocols and do not require particular
investigative skills, although a knight is supposed to be an excellent
fighter.
The ideal detective, however, besides being versed in
the use of guns and other weapons/fighting skills, has the fundamental
task of reconstructing the truth of a crime by giving nothing for granted,
his only bounds being given by the law, his only loyalty being devoted
to the truth in a sense that is different from that of a knight. A detective
is more like a modern wizard, the magic being substituted by the scientific
method and by forensics. There are some parallels between knights and detectives,
but the differences are also remarkable.
Batman is a character that embeds both figures. He is
a detective in that he is trained to collecting and interpreting evidence,
connecting and deducing facts, following leads, using forensics sciences
at the highest levels etc. At the same time the detective is also a knight,
since he has given himself a mission that is more typical of a knight than
of a detective: protecting the innocents, helping the poor (as Bruce Wayne)
and the unfortunate, fighting both the effects and causes of criminality
at a fundamental level. Also, Batman set himself rules that usually detectives
do not follow: he never carries guns or similar weapons, and he never kills
no matter the situation, although he can be very hard on an enemy with
his martial arts and non-conventional weapons. Batman also teaches to young
prentices with a dedication and rigor that go well beyond a mere professional
relationship that is expected between junior and senior detectives, for
example in a police force.
Batman is thus a single character condensing several
interesting aspects. At times the detective prevails, at other times the
knight surfaces, but they are both there and contribute to give us this
interesting and at times tormented figure. In connection with other characters,
it is interesting to note that in the crossover "Marvel vs DC" Batman and
Captain America have both been chosen as the best representatives of the
DC and Marvel universes respectively.
Both characters are basically human with no metahuman habilities (except for the serum in Cap's blood), rely on training, experience and strategy rather than sheer power, and in a sense are outsiders. Batman is an outsider because of his traumatic experience as a child and his constant need to perfect himself and keep everything under control, to prevent what happened him to happen again; Cap is an outsider because, after his decades spent in hibernation, he finds himself living in a world with different values and is in a sense out of his time. Nonetheless, both characters have played fundamental roles in the DC and Marvel universes main teams (JLA and Avengers) and remain a point of reference for most characters in both universes.
This little page is structured as follows:
A Fool's errand.
An ideal summary of Batman's story
and motives, from Sasha Bordeaux's reflections.
Perpetual Mourning.
An interesting perspective on the
Dark Knight, and one of the most beautiful short stories of Batman ever...
Gotham
City blues.
Frank Miller's intro to Year One.
Batman: Year
One.
The story of the beginning of Batman's
career, with a few images and quotes.
Batman
over the years.
Some of the best moments of Batman's
stories in recent years (in need of drastic expansion)
Quoting Sasha Bordeaux from the 10c adventure:
His life is a story of tragedies.
It created him, and will assuredly end him as well.
He cannot escape it. Starting in
that moment when Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down before his eyes...
sent from this world without reason
by a man who wanted their money and contented himself with taking their
lives...
a moment he lives again every night.
[...]
But it is that tragedy that drives
him. A vow made to his parents, to their memory.
Not solely to avenge. To protect.
To keep what happened to him from ever happening to another soul.
To become the man who could keep
that promise. For over a decade he traveled the globe...
[...] He diverted suspicion. Made
Bruce Wayne a man of the society pages. He thought he was ready.
His first attempt nearly killed
him. All he had done, all he had learned, and it wasn't enough.
He needed to become something more.
And he did.
Carrying the fight forward to the
streets of Gotham, trying to shield the innocent, striving to punish the
guilty.
Every night for over ten years.
Doomed to failure, again and again.
Because it is a true fool's errand.
Because his quest is impossible.
Even if the lunatics like the joker
and poison ivy were locked securely away forever...
parents would still be murdered...
children would still become orphans.
And before someone thinks that the
foolish errand makes the one who pursues it a fool himself,
let me clarify: he knows all this
better than anyone. But he does it anyway [...]
He never talks about that, about
what he has sacrificed, about what he's denied himself,
about the friends he's driven away,
or the isolation he feels.
He doesn't talk about much, actually.
Only his work. It's starting to worry me...
[...] This is Gotham by night. Chaos
uncorked on a regular basis.
There's always something. He tries
to stay on top of it.
Computers in the cave monitor the
emergency and the local news...
feeding him a constant stream of
information through the radio in his cowl.
Speed is everything. He can never
be fast enough.
some nights... some nights seem to last forever.
He's already there when I return.
Showered and cleaned up, an punishing himself. Another tragedy.
[He saved everyone at the fire
alarm, everyone but Gabriel Munez, a twenty four year old, a law student.]
He blames himself, [even after
saving that jumper at the Colby building.] He always does.
Sometimes... this sounds silly,
I know...
but sometimes I feel like he's
going away. Like maybe he's already gone.
How much pain can one person bear?
(From "Batman, the 10c adventure", by Rucka, Burchett
and Janson, march 2002, copyright 2002 DC comics.
Used without permission for information purpose
only)
This short story starts with an invitation for the reader. The dark knight is entering an autopsy room where the dead body of an unidentified murdered young woman is being held. As we approach the autopsy room, we are invited to consider...
"Make yourself at home in this world.
From where you are now, you can probably see it all.
You know now that hospitals are
not the worst places of human despair.
The back alleys of this city, the
shadows, the places of interminable tortures, the battlefields:
All the places where human misery
and iniquity try to avoid the light of day
are now open to your vision."
"Tell me, dear soul. Is it true
that we live only in a dream, at a dizzying speed,
and then move on to leave a space
for others?
Others for whom we must leave a
clean place setting. "
"Does the individual count for nothing?
Are we only preserving the general features of humanity?
The broad brushstrokes?"
"I know you can't answer these questions, but you're welcome anyway."
"Come in. Share the banquet. Share this dance."
...examining the body according to the art of detection, finding evidence that can lead to the murderer.... Batman does this every time, but still can't get used to it... He also starts a short investigation that will lead him to identify the victim, and while he collects evidence in the neighborhood where the murder occurred, we are offered his most secret thoughts...
"People think I'm a knight. A savior.
But, in truth, I'm only a vessel
to hold the memories of those who've passed on.
Those who've no shell left to store
them."
"They must think I revel in my victories: It must seem like I never lose a fight. "
"I lose plenty."
"The ones I couldn't get to. The
ones I couldn't save in time.
Those are the ones I'll mourn forever."
The woman has now a name.... Chelsea...
"Luckily, you hadn't digested your
last meal, Chelsea. There're only
a few places in the neighborhood
where you were found that serve
blueberry pie at this hour of the
morning."
"You only have your thoughts and dreams ahead of you."
"You're someone. You mean something. "
"I'll remember. You're within me now. "
"Forever."
From "Perpetual Mourning", by Ted McKeever, Batman B/W #1, copyright (1996) DC comics. Used without permission for information purpose only.
Batman is a rather complex character that is usually underestimated, due especially to the sixties "camp" TV show and to a number of versions that are not consistent with the basic character background. This is well expressed by Miller in the introduction to "Batman, Year One":
[...] For me, batman was never funny.
I was eight years old when I picked up
an 80-page annual from the shelf
of a local supermarket. The artwork
on one story looked good and scary.
Gotham city was cold shafts of concrete
lit by cold moonlight, windswept and bottomless,
fading to a cloud bank of city
lights, a wet, white mist, miles below me.
The street sounds were a soft,
sad roar, unbroken and unchanging.
Then somewhere, [...] a pane-glass
window shattered. The sound was almost
pretty, like chimes. The chimes
became a single ringing bell, a burglar alarm, the old kind.
A Thompson machine gun spat at the bell. A madman laughred wildly, maliciously. The laughter echoed forever.
A shadow fell across me, from above. Wings flapped, close by and almost silent.
Glistening wet, black against the
blackened sky, a monster giant, a winged gargoyle, hunched forward,
pausing at a building's ledge,
and cocked its head, following the laugh's last seconds.
Moonlight glanced across its back, [...] striking a triangle at one pointed bat's ear.
It rose into space, its wings spread
wide, then fell, its wings now a fluttering cape wrapped tight
about the body of a man.
It fell past me, its shadow sliding across walls, growing to swallow whole buildings, lit by the clouds below.
The shadow faded into the clouds.
It was gone
... the 80 page giant comic cost 25 cents, but I bought it anyway.
Frank Miller, Los Angeles, 1988.
Here I am going to develop a description of Batman based mostly on some key DC comics stories that I find to be in line with the character. The basic story of Batman is the following, and is taken from "Batman, Year One", by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
Bruce Wayne is the son of Martha and Thomas Wayne. Bruce's father Thomas is a doctor. The Waynes have been a rich family for several generations, and Thomas inherited the family's wealth, while serving and aiding the poor and people in need both as a doctor and through charity. The family butler is named Alfred Pennyworth and is the last in a line of butlers that have been serving the Waynes along several generations. He is trained in combat medicine and in a series of practical tasks that go well beyond being a typical butler.
One evening, after the Waynes have brought the kid Bruce to watch a "Zorro" movie, while walking back from the movie theatre in Gotham city, a robber halts the Wayne family in order to rob Thomas and Martha of currency and jewels. However, the Waynes resist and the robber shoots them. The kid witnesses the death of both parents and is left crying on their blood-stained bodies in crime alley. All sense has left Bruce's life...
Alfred is going to take care of the boy. However, Bruce is resolved to do everything in his power to fight and prevent tragedies as the one he has undergone. Bruce finishes his school at the age of twelve, and then travels the world for twelve years, learning crime-fighting and criminology from the best universities and experts. While travelling, he also studies several martial arts from the best masters. Eighteen years after his parents tragic death, Bruce comes back to Wayne manor. The family fortune has been attended to by Alfred, and Bruce keeps a cover as a rich playboy. It is time to start the mission, yet...
I am not ready. I have the means,
the skill--but not the method... no. That's not true.
I have hundreds of methods. But
something's missing. Something isn't right. I have to wait. I have to wait.
Bruce alters his aspect and walks through the districts of Gotham where crime is largely diffused, disguised as a dark skinned and scarred tough guy.
It's been educational. I was sized
up like a piece of meat by the leather boys in Robinson Park.
I waded through pleas and half
hearted threats from junkies at the Finger Memorial.
I stepped across a field of human
rubble the lay sleeping in front of the overecrowed Sprang Mission.
Finally the worst of it. The East
end. Hard to believe it's gotten worse.
In this first tour, he provokes a pimp involved in exploiting
young girls in the red light district of Gotham, and fights both him and
his friends. Although being stab by one of the pimp's protegees, Bruce
easily wins the fight, when two police agents reach the place and the older
policeman shoots Bruce, catching his shoulder. Bruce faints and is loaded
in the police car. Bruce comes back to his senses and realizes that if
he is caught his mission is over. Bruce manages to free himself of handcuffs
and attacks both policemen, including the one driving the car. Bruce's
maneuvers cause a car accident, and Bruce manages to save both fainted
policemen before the car explodes. Then Bruce goes back to his car, while
still bleeding profusely, and reaches home. He sits in a dark room, desperate
and bleeding...
At the same time Bruce came back from his studies abroad, police lieutenant James Gordon arrived in Gotham city by train, while his pregnant wife, Barbara, was joining him by plane. Gordon took service in the Gotham police department.
Gotham City. Maybe it's all I deserve
now. Maybe it's just my time in hell.
Twelve hours. My stomach's been
trying to eat itself for the last five.
Barbara's flying in. I don't care how much it costs. Train's no way to come to Gotham.
By now Barbara's gotten her tests
back. I only hate myself a little for hoping they came out negative.
This is no place to raise a family.
Initially Gordon opposes Batman and tries to arrest him, as he would do with any other vigilante. Gordon is a painfully honest and good policeman in a corrupted department and administration. Due to his courage and selflessness, part of the press make a hero cop out of him, which saves him from the danger of being executed by the corrupted commissioner's men. Day after day the deeds of Batman impress Gordon more and more...
Batman. He's made enemies of every
criminal in Gotham-- and nearly every official.
They've only got him cornered because
he got hurt saving an old woman's life.
They-- I mean, WE, of course...
while Gotham city keeps on revealing itself more and more corrupted...
... and not about Batman. He's a
criminal. I'm a cop. It's that simple.
But-- but I'm a cop in a city where
the mayor and the commissioner of police
use cops as hired killers... he
saved that old woman. He saved that cat.
He even paid for that suit. The
hunk of metal
[gun]
in my hands is heavier than ever.
Eventually, Bruce saves Gordon's child from an abduction, and Gordon is finally convinced. Gordon will become captain and subsequently commissioner, due also to its press popularity, and will support Batman in its activities in several ways.
With "Batman, Year-One" Miller and Mazzucchelli provide us with a hard boiled version of the origins of the Batman character. At times it seems to be reading one of Chandler's novels. Gordon might well be saying, with Philip Marlowe:
"I sat there and poisoned myself with cigarette smoke and listened to the rain and thought about it"(The Big Sleep, 1939)
"I thought of lots of things. It
got darker. The glare of the red neon sign spread farther and
farther across the ceiling. I sat up on the bed and put my feet on the
floor and rubbed the back of my neck. I got up on my feet and went over
to the bowl in the corner and threw cold water on my face. After a little
while I felt a little better, but very little. I needed a drink, I needed
a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country.
What I had was a coat, a hat and
a gun. I put them on and went out of the room." (Farewell
my lovely, 1940)
Several subsequents stories maintained this melancholic/hard-boiled atmosphere.
Recent years' favourite moments
The book of shadows
An interesting one-shot, with batman investigating the
disappearance of a young boy and ending up against a kind of satanic sect.
A story displaying singular and evocative art, showing the loneliness and
melancholy but also the beauty of the nights in a big metropolis called
Gotham, Batman's fight with outer demons opposed to his perpetual control
of his inner demons.
[comments to be written]
Batman Black and White: Perpetual
Mourning (by Ted McKeever)
This short story is, in my opinion, the best of the whole
"Batman B&W" series, and one of the best Batman short-stories ever.
I have quoted from this story above.
Batman in Grant Morrison's JLA
In a dream-team of people who can move the moon, run
as fast as light and handle green plasma with the most powerful weapon
in the universe, Batman still plays a key role thanks to his strategic
and detective abilities [comments to be written].
Batman from JLA 39-41 (World War
III), Art by Howard Porter and John Dell, copyright 2000 DC Comics. Used
without permission for information purpose only.
The low way to the golden mountain
This is part of the "No Man's Land" story-arc. Larry
Hama and Paul Gulacy (see also "Shang Chi" on
Paul Gulacy) give an interesting flash on Batman's committment to justice,
out of any easy sentimental or emotional drive:
What happened to the Lynx I used
to know? The Lynx who thought only of herself?
The Lynx who was only interested
in wealth, power, and good times?
You think that because we're criminals, we don't have hearts?
Don't tell me you are doing this hero bit because of your inherent love for humanity.
No, it gives me a charge.
It is selfish, in that it feeds my ego and makes me feel more important,
and, yes, there is the thrill of
the violence justified by a righteous cause --
-- isn't that what you get out
of it, Batman?
[........]
"That is what comes from trying
to do good in the world? Of being a HERO?
A child dies? All that ferocious
goodness I felt.. it has turned to cold ashes!"
"You think that being a hero is FUN? That it's a GAME?
A hero is a person who stands apart.
A hero is no longer a part of the mainstream of humanity.
A hero treads the razor's edge between
heaven and hell because
a hero is not bound by sentimentality
or the vagaries of public opinion.
A hero is held to a higher standard of truth and justice."
"Then I don't want any part of it.
I don't want to be a hero if it
means being like you!".
"I'm a crime-fighter and a detective.
I don't call myself a hero.
It's not a job description, it's
an appellation...
bestowed upon one by posterity..."
Batman, addressing Lynx in "The
low way to the golden mountain", Shadow of the Bat #90, 1999
DC Comics. This is a link to the company that is publishing Batman's comics. Several message boards on the dark knight are available.
The Dark Knight. An interesting Canadian web site on the dark knight with a lot of information, designed and managed by Patrick Furlong.
The Golden Age Batman Site. A web site dedicated to the golden age Batman, by Bill Jourdain.
The
Gotham Gazette. A web site devoted to a Batman dedicated web magazine.