Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh Leader!

[felis_ultharus]

Well, I'm nearly finished my project on the political themes Batman in the 1980s. I grew up reading Justice League and watching the campy TV show, so I had no idea how right-wing the myth of Batman really was.

Of course, there's always a hint of fascism in any story about masked vigilantes who beat up "degenerates" in dark alleys without the approval of any government, without trials, evidence, or court cases. But the 1980s, this series took a pretty dark turn.

Batman in The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most frightening figures in modern myth. Not because he "taps into primal fears" with that bat-costume of his, although that's what they're always telling us. He's frightening because his ugly politics come out, and unlike in The Watchmen, his far right-beliefs are portrayed sympathetically and without a hint of irony. The later Batman book, A Death in the Family is basically a justification of Reagan and Bush. Quite disturbing.

In other bat-news, I've located the source of the legend that Batman and Robin were supposed to be lovers. It seems that Dr. Frederic Wertham, the psychiatrist who popularized the idea that comic books destroyed the mind and lead to crime, claimed this in his 1954 anti-comic book Seduction of the Innocent. He said Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, living the good life together in Wayne Mansion was a homosexual "wish dream." Presumably, Batman and Robin were dangerous because they might turn kids gay.

DC's official word is that in spite of his playboy reputation, Bruce is celibate. All his sexual energies are funnelled into crime-fighting. The only time he's come close to breaking that is with Catwoman.

Wertham later renounced all his anti-comics beliefs, but his ideas are still popular with a certain protect-our-children crowd.

Comments

[jc2004.livejournal.com]

I know little of Batman and haven't read his stories. What does he actually do to show his political stance (aside from running around in a mask, beating people up)?

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

It happens in the stuff I'm studying now. Both The Dark Knight Returns and A Death in the Family have a lot of politics in them.

In Dark Knight, the elected politicians mess up the world so badly that Batman steps in with a group of vigilantes calling themselves the Sons of Batman. The Sons of Batman had previous been a gang called the Mutants, who had murdered, raped (including small children), mutilated, and robbed for fun. After Batman beats their leader, they transform into the Sons of Batman, and (among other things) use violence to stop a poker game (the state makes gambling illegal), and cut off a clerk's fingers because he was ready to hand over the till to the robbers (they thought he should have fought them off).

When the democratically-elected politicians bring the world to the brink of doomsday, only Batman can save power-outaged Gotham City, and he does it by recruiting the Sons of Batman to subdue the violence that inevitably results (having lived in a city that had no power for more than a week, I can say that it doesn't result in instant riots like it always does on TV -- people are actually a lot nicer). He doesn't seem to have a problem working with rapists/child-abusers/murderers so long as they hit the right people for him.

On the other hand, he has no mercy for the evil transexual Nazi (there are a lot of evil trans people in '80s American media) who robs a store.

After the city is back to normal, Batman fakes his own death and goes underground. He decides he's ignored politics too long -- there are larger problems than street crime. Along with Robin #3 (or #4, or #5 depending on how you count) and the Sons of Batman, he literally goes underground to plan. It's strongly implied that what he's planning is an overthrow of one or more governments.

Two years later, A Death in the Family came out. This one was about Robin #2 searching for his birth mother. He narrows it down to three women, two of them in the Middle East, one in Africa. The Joker, by pure coincidence, winds up in the same region.

It becomes a vindication of contemporary American politics. The Joker winds up working for Iran, and Iran is planning to assassinate the UN for no good reason. Batman waxes philosophic about how diplomatic immunity just protects scum, and how international cooperation is useless. And finally, he's proven right in the end.

The economics are all screwy, too. The story's only victim of Reaganomics is the Joker (this is pretty consistent -- no one in Batman ever steals because they're hungry). Billionaire Bruce Wayne is all compassion -- when he sees the starvation in Africa (you never really see non-criminal poverty in the US). Meanwhile, the African aid worker is diabolical and corrupt.

It just goes on and on. One great read that came out the same year, as I mentioned above, was The Watchmen. There's a character in it who's supposed to be Batman, named Rorschach, and he's a lunatic-fringe rightist and survivalist who believes the world is about to end and is obsessed with communism. But The Watchman is an ingenious read, anyway.

[infinitecomplex.livejournal.com]

I wonder how Batman would feel about having to beat up Stephen Harper and his collection of wingnuts? Would he be able to do it on the grounds that they're a psychotic bunch of power-hungry evildoers, or would his political sympathies get in the way?

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

He wouldn't because they're not criminals. He does hate corrupt politicians, but he doesn't attack them (although he might be on the verge of a revolution at the end of Dark Knights Returns).

If Rorschach (his satirical double) lived in Canada, he'd probably be running for Harper.