The article talked about Superman much better than I can, but it had an undercurrent running through it that interested me. It used Batman as its primary point of comparison for Superman and was not very nice to him. Batman has "basic hedonistic flaws (as we all do)", he's faux-"deep," he's right too often, he only nods at humanness without taking any of the penalties, he's crazy and militaristic, Batman OP nerf Batman, etc.
Not as a response but inspired by the article (the point wasn't "Batman is boring," it was "Superman is interesting," and making comparisons to Batman as a face for other "popular heroes" [switch Ironman for Batman and it's the same article] was just the means), I would like to speak, personally, about why Batman is my favorite hero, and my favorite character in comics in general.
I've heard/read a somewhat disturbing number of reviews or commentators who blithely describe Batman as being a power fantasy. This article does, as well as the excellent Supergods by Grant Morrison. He's a rich carefree playboy by day who gets to beat up bullies at night and doesn't have to answer to the law, he's obscenely rich and can do whatever he wants and hey bonus - no parents to tell him what to do. Morrison specifically said that he hits the fantasy coming and going, as both Batman and Bruce Wayne.
That's always rung hollow to me. He may well be written with that in mind (I'm obviously not "disagreeing" with the man who's written some of the very best Batman stories), but that's never been why I liked him. I've certainly never wanted to be Bruce Wayne. Batman never has, either, not really. Superman is really Clark Kent; that is to say, at his very core, he's a farmboy with superpowers rather than a superhuman pretending to be a farmboy. But playboy Bruce is just a persona, a way for Batman to disappear. There have been a number of storylines through the years of Batman deciding to just never be Bruce Wayne again; live in the Batcave, fight crime all the time. They've always been really interesting because they expose how he really sees himself: he's Batman pretending to be Bruce Wayne, and Bruce is the mask. Even when he's playboying it up, he's far too driven to actually "enjoy" himself. I think anybody who wants to be Bruce Wayne isn't reading carefully enough.
Look at those dead eyes.
So do I want to be Batman?
No, actually. I did when I was five (and I did my "sad orphan walk" until my mom told me to stop), but now I don't. He's powerful and he's talented, but he's also really and essentially broken. Eight year old kid sees his parents murdered, grows up and travels the world to become a master of martial arts so he can personally end all crime by punching it? Nobody thinks that's going to work, not even the writers, not even the other characters in the comics, not even Batman. He knows he can't succeed, he knows he can't save everyone, but he's so broken and so afraid of more people dying that he has to try. One of my favorite moments in Batman is in the Cataclysm storyline (after a giant earthquake, an enemy Batman cannot punch, has leveled Gotham, killing thousands) when, distraught at how little he can do against a natural disaster, Batman hugs Alfred and says "I'm not good with death." Surrounded by death he cannot prevent, Batman needs a hug.
Even his greatest strength, his crazy-preparedness, has really hurt him. In the famous "Tower of Babel" Justice League storyline, Ra's Al Ghul steals his secret plan to incapacitate every member of the Justice League and uses it against them. Wait, what, he has a - of course he does, he's Batman (says the fans). But when Superman finds out about it, he's not, ah, not quite so impressed (Batman ends up getting kicked out of the Justice League for that one). Similarly, in the War Games arc, ex-fourth-Robin Stephanie Brown wants to get back into Bats' good graces, so she finds a plan on his computer that's intended to end the threat of gangs in the city by putting them all under the control of Matches Malone. The catch is that Matches Malone is one Bruce's other personas, so it turns into an all-out gang war, killing hundreds and ultimately leading to the (ultimately retconned) death of Stephanie Brown. In other words, he spends all his free time figuring out how he would kill people if he wanted to, which he doesn't, but that doesn't always work out.
"My bad."
If I don't want to be him, why do I like him?
The first reason is simple: he makes for interesting stories. Like Tolstoy's "Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," Batman stories are consistently interesting in new ways as they delve deeper into his damaged psyche. Between his aversion to death, his dead sidekicks haunting him, his insane antisocial tendencies, and his gallery of villains all reflecting facets of his own insanity, there's lots of room for deep and fascinating Batman stories where he doesn't even throw a punch.
The second reason is his one truly positive trait. I said above that even he knows his task is futile; thing is, he keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going. Even when he loses Jason Todd, he enshrines him and keeps going in his never-ending war on crime. There's a reason they call him the caped "crusader," and it's not for the alliteration. Batman's greatest strength, and the essential reason I believe he has endured, is his willpower. His ability and need to keep going, keep going, keep going, even (especially!) when it's a bad idea. He's not alone in this, of course (Superman's greatest moments are when he's refusing to back down, and the Green Lanterns literally weaponize willpower), but he's the best. Even Superman and Green Lantern will sometimes back down, but Batman never will, he will never give up; that's his superpower. The article from the beginning (full circle!) points out that he effectively has super strength as long as he says "good thing I did all those push-ups yesterday," but that's the thing: he did do hundreds of push-ups the day before, because he does that every day. Batman is like Captain Ahab: he's insane, and he knows his obsession is going to kill him, but that's what he needs to do, and goddammit he's going to do it.
Googled "Batman Moby Dick";
Was not disappointed.
-Charlie
You said, "even he knows his task is futile ..., he keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going."
ReplyDeleteAs Camus said, one must imagine Batman happy.