Post about class with Ana Rita Martins on Comics (by Patrícia Silva)

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.