Last Thursday, November 26 2015, the English teacher Ana Rita Martins
came to our class to lecture us on comics and more specifically, the superhero
Batman (which is integrated into the syllabus of this course).
First, the teacher introduced the context of the creation of the comic
book: the first comic strips began to appear in newspapers that were, then,
entitled "funnies". It was only in 1933 that a collection of these
funnies were compiled into one single volume (<i>Funnies on Parade</i>).
In this sense, comics can be understood as "narratives told by a sequence
of pictures with the dialogue of the characters incorporated into the pictures
in the form of speech balloons" (Harvey 1996: 3).
As these narratives became more and more popular, new comic genres
started to appear. The success of <i>Action Comics</i> and its hero
Superman marked the beginning of the Golden Age of Comics. So, in 1939, Bob
Kane and Bill Finger created Batman.
Batman's secret identity is Bruce Wayne, an American billionaire, philanthropist,
and owner of Wayne Enterprises, who watched his parents being murdered when he
was younger. He swore revenge and since then, a sense of justice kept rising
within him. As such, Batman could be considered as the dark half of Superman
(which is often associated with light, and even Metropolis, where Superman
operates, seems to be the opposite of the dark, crime-ridden Gotham City).
Bearing this in mind, Peter Coogan's definition of the superhero does
not seem to fit entirely with the Batman character: "a heroic character
with a selfless, pro-social mission; with superpower - extraordinary abilities,
advanced technology, or highly developed physical, mental or mystical skills;
who has a superhero identity embodied in a codename and ironic costume, which
typically express his biography, character, powers or origin (transformation
from ordinary person to superhero); and who is generically distinct, i.e. can
be distinguished from characters of related genres (fantasy, science fiction,
detective, etc.) by a preponderance of generic convention. Often superheroes
have dual identities, the ordinary one of which is usually a closely guarded
secret." (2006, 30)
Despite having a superpower (advanced technology), a superhero identity
(codename and iconic costume) and dual identities, Batman does not seem to be
entirely selfless and with a pro-social mission: I mean, he does try to fight
criminals, but always as a way of avenging the murder of his parents. And
because fighting fire with fire only generates more fire, the hatred that
Batman has for crime, only seems to generate more hate.
Curiously, Batman's existence seems to be entirely dependent upon the
existence of Gotham City as a crime-ridden place. And this holds an interesting
duality: because, by day, he is Bruce Wayne, the billionaire, which seems to
influence the inequality within the city, consequently leading to crime; and,
by night, he is Batman, the crime-fighter.
With the ever growing popularity of this character, various
interpretations of it emerged; in 1986, however, Frank Miller explored the
character’s darkest roots, thus giving birth to <i>The Dark Knight
Returns</i>. To this day, there are still multiple interpretations of
Batman and Gotham City, such as Tim Burton's cinematographic adaptation in 1989
and Christopher Nolan's in 2012. And whether you love this character or you
hate it, there is no one who can disagree with its status as a pop culture
icon.
