Although his enemy fires a gun at him, Batman shows no fear — and no mercy. Dangling from a rope, Batman zips through the night air, landing with all his weight on his foe’s neck, which breaks with a sickening snap. And that’s it — one fewer villain in the world.
This isn’t your father’s Batman. (That Boy Scout Adam West would never do such a thing.) He’s not even your brother’s Batman. (Tim Burton’s vision was dark, but whimsical too.) No, this killer is your grandfather’s Batman, the Dark Knight who, in his early 1939 appearances in Detective Comics, didn’t show any qualms about dispatching the bad guys.
That vigilante extreme isn’t on display in “Batman Begins,” the new film version that swoops into theaters Wednesday. It didn’t actually last long in the comics either — soon enough, Batman adopted a code against killing — but the film shares the dark tone of the original comics. The vengeful hero beneath the cowl (played this time by an imposing Christian Bale) decides that, although it’s wrong to kill criminals, that doesn’t mean he has to save them, either.
With that attitude it’s no wonder that, 66 years ago, artist Bob Kane and author Bill Finger modeled their new hero after a creepy, nocturnal mammal. Bats, after all, are insectivores that spend their nighttime hours ridding the world of undesirable creatures. But the dark detective surely made a striking contrast to the art form’s other breakout star, Superman.
Of course, Batman doesn’t have any special abilities, either. He’s just a man in a mask. OK, a rich man in a mask. It helps to be a millionaire when you’re fighting crime and injustice. In that regard, Batman is similar to famous precursors such as The Scarlet Pimpernel (who first appeared in 1905) and Zorro (1919).
“At the heart, he’s a very inspirational character,” says Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics (who, 25 years ago, edited the monthly “Batman” title). “Most of us get angry at the random violence of the world and say, `I wish I could do something about that.'”
Batman is also successful. In the decades since his first appearance, he has become the star of a multimedia franchise that includes comic books and graphic novels; television and film, both live-action and animated; and countless toys, T-shirts and other merchandise. Nor does his cultural dominance show signs of waning — or at least, Warner Bros. hopes not, having pinned its hopes on the Bat in the summer-blockbuster movie sweepstakes.
The flick will likely surprise some people strolling into a darkened cinema expecting light summer fare. After all, Batman has often been superhero bright. Sometimes it worked (the frothy “Batman” TV show of 1966-68, with its daring visual style); sometimes it didn’t (the last two “Batman” films of the ’90s, not nearly smart enough to succeed as camp). Not even Burton’s convoluted 1989 attempt to get to the darkness at the character’s core accomplished what director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer have with “Batman Begins.”
It’s an apt title for several reasons, first because it signals to moviegoers that it’s time to start over. Like the “Batman: Year One” comic book story line from 1986 by Frank (“Sin City”) Miller and David Mazzucchelli that partly inspired this screenplay, “Batman Begins” takes its audience to a time before a cadre of crazy villains began to plague Gotham City. This Gotham is instead plagued by problems familiar in the real world: an indifferent elite, urban blight, mob bosses, crooked cops.
If that doesn’t seem like the Batman you remember, it’s nonetheless true to how he really began. In his earliest, pulpy adventures in Detective Comics, he fought everyday villains; the likes of the Joker and Catwoman didn’t appear until a year later, when he graduated to his own title. And although his eye-for-an-eye code didn’t last long, it’s the most potent example of the darkness that sets Batman apart from the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash, his super-powered compatriots in the Justice League.
Bruce Wayne chooses to wage his costumed crusade not because he’s an alien sent here from another planet, nor an Amazon gifted by goddesses, nor a policeman bestowed with amazing powers by a freak accident. No, the key event in Batman’s origin is something far more tragic: As a child, young Bruce watched in horror as a Gotham thug murdered his parents. “That’s a theme that resonates universally,” says Dan DiDio, executive editor at DC. “Batman is driven by a motivation people can understand. At the core, in all [the character’s] multiple incarnations, what remains is the boy who’s lost his parents before their time.”
The Nolan film succeeds in grounding its protagonist in his sad history, which makes his secret identity easier to swallow for skeptics. “If you took the first third of the movie and showed it to someone,” Levitz says, “and if they were somehow so culturally isolated that they didn’t know the name Bruce Wayne, they might not know that the film is connected to comics at all. It’s a very human drama that this man goes through, watching his parents get killed and choosing what to do about it.”
All of which makes Batman the most accessible deity in America’s mythological pantheon. “Everyone knows who Batman is because everybody can relate on some level. Everybody’s been afraid of the night, and everyone’s wanted to be powerful at night,” says Bill Savage, faculty member of Northwestern University’s English department who teaches graphic novels in some of his classes.
As with other mythological characters, Batman’s a very protean figure, Savage says: “Maybe the best parallel is Hercules. He’s been endlessly reinvented over the last two millennia. Some of them are lighthearted and campy and stupid; some of them are tragic and dark. The range of representations of Batman shows the power of the character to be multifaceted, but it always ends up coming back to the Dark Knight characterization. That’s the part of the character that people really connect to. That’s what gives him his endurance.”
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Looking into Bat’s dark past
It didn’t take long for Batman, launched in the May 1939 issue of DC’s Detective Comics, to dominate that title and then assume his own eponymous series. Today he plays a key role in at least six monthly comics. With a little help from experts, we whittled down six decades of “Batman” tales to uncover some of his greatest hits.
“The Batman Chronicles, Volume One” by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, et al. ($14.99)
This reprint collection of the character’s 13 earliest appearances features many firsts, including the debuts of Robin, The Joker and The Cat (an expert thief, she later tacks “woman” onto her criminal alias). These early issues are favorites for author and graphic designer Chip Kidd, a huge fan of Batman (“since I was a zygote,” he jokes). “It’s like watching a work in progress,” Kidd says. “They clearly don’t know what they want to do with the character, and they keep trying different things. Bob Kane can sort of draw, but sort of can’t. Batman has a gun and he kills villains. Before Robin came along, that was the most interesting group of stories overall.”
“Batman: Year One” by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli (new hardcover edition, designed by Kidd with extensive appendices by Mazzucchelli, $19.99)
A startling but letter-perfect re-examination of Bruce Wayne’s early exploits in a crooked Gotham, this tale also features James Gordon as one of the few honest cops and Selina Kyle as a hooker inspired by Batman to dress like a cat. The story in the film “Batman Begins” diverges in many ways from “Year One,” but its spirit is the same — and one key film scene comes directly from a sequence here. “This is one of the best Batman stories ever committed to paper,” Kidd says. “The writing and the art are both top-notch.”
“The Killing Joke” by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, $5.95. In this definitive Joker tale from 1988, the maniac puts both Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara (known to many as Batgirl) through the wringer. Recommended for mature readers, this one permanently changed the Batman landscape.
“Gotham Central: Half a Life” by Greg Rucka et al., $14.99. Gotham Central is DC’s bold attempt to create a superhero comic without the superhero. Instead, the monthly title focuses on the police officers. “Gotham Central is not one of our better Batman sellers, but it’s an essential book that we do,” says Dan DiDio, DC executive editor. “It really helps show Batman’s effect on the people around him: How the common man sees Batman, how the common man deals with the same threats that Batman does.” The five-part story line collected here, concerning Detective Renee Montoya, won an Eisner Award — akin to the Pulitzers for comics.
“JLA: New World Order” ($7.95) and “JLA: Tower of Babel” ($12.95). For a view of how Batman manages to hang with the world’s greatest superheroes, these two Justice League graphic novels should do the trick. In “New World Order,” writer Grant Morrison smartly shows why Batman’s brain makes him the equal of the Justice League’s muscle. In “Tower of Babel,” written by Mark Waid, master villain Ra’s al Ghul turns the power of that brain against Batman’s teammates with devastating results.
“Batman: Cover to Cover” ($39.99). Not a collection of stories but a coffee-table treatment of the cover art from 66 years of comics. This visual feast includes essays and remembrances from Batman writers, artists and editors over the years. In case you ever wondered what Kidd’s favorite Batman cover might be, the answer’s in here.
— Web Behrens
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ctc-tempo@tribune.com
