Following in the wake of DC Comics’ (then called National Comics) success with Superman, the editorial team quickly set about trying to get its freelancers to create the next big thing to capitalize on the success of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation. In May 1939, the world was introduced to “The Batman” in Detective Comics #27—a collaborative creation between writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane. Although it was Kane who struck the deal with National and came up with the name “The Batman,” it was Bill Finger who proceeded to flesh out many of the other distinctive details that have become a part of the Bat-mythos. In particular, Finger and Kane drew upon popular culture influences of their day, such as the film The Mark of Zorro, as well as pulp magazine and comic series such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Phantom, and the Sherlock Holmes series, which all contributed to the overall look and feel of the Dark Knight detective and the world of Gotham City.
The first story in Detective Comics #27 follows the millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne as he dons a cape and cowl and proceeds to catch a murderer more skillfully (and less traditionally) than Gotham’s police commissioner James Gordon. It isn’t until Detective Comics #33, however, that readers would discover Finger’s origin story for Batman; this tale is one that would continue to expand in the decades to follow, each generation putting its own mark on Bruce Wayne and Batman. From the ever-growing and colorful rogues’ gallery to the new and exciting predicaments he found himself in, whether on his own or with members of the “Bat Family,” the core of what made Batman the hero that readers responded to has always remained the same.
Ultimately, Batman’s story is that of a young boy who, in the face of personal tragedy, swore to fight against those who perpetrate harm against the innocent. Unlike Superman, Batman is a superhero who fights criminals with a combination of brute force and fear, guided only by his own strict moral code. This code includes the notion that heroes neither use guns—the very weapon that was used to kill his millionaire parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne—nor do they kill. It is this grim-and-gritty “dark twin” to Superman’s “ur-god” that has thrived as one of the two primary superhero archetypes for more than seventy-five years since his inception (Morrison 2011, 3). Further marking the distinction between Superman and Batman is the fact that Batman is both human and without traditional superpowers. Instead, Batman puts on the appearance of being a “superman” through intense training over a period of years prior to his donning the cape and cowl. He attends the best schools and studies under the most skilled scientists and detectives, in addition to training with the best martial artists of his day. After pushing his mental and physical abilities to the limit, Bruce Wayne then brings the might and vast wealth of Wayne Industries to bear on his crime-fighting crusade, developing a bevy of vehicles, costumes, and accoutrements to further aid him. What is interesting to note, however, is that while the details of each individual story may vary, these core elements have remained the same from one generation to the next.
In his first year of publication, Batman was a far more violent vigilante whose moral code was not as fixed as it is today. During his early appearances, Batman did use guns and even shot a criminal while he slept. Moreover, it was not uncommon for him to allow criminals to fall to their deaths after being thrown from a window. In this light, Batman firmly planted himself in the pulp tradition where moral certainty justified actions taken by a hero. A year later, however, editors felt the need to “lighten up” the Dark Knight, and they introduced Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson’s co-creation, Robin the Boy Wonder, along with Batman’s most notorious villain, the Joker. After seeing Dick Grayson’s parents murdered at the circus, Bruce Wayne adopts the young boy and introduces him to the life of fighting crime as his sidekick. It is during this time that readers also began to see the moral code of Batman take shape as the Caped Crusader takes on the additional role of mentor to his young partner.
Yet, this change also produced a different response when, during the mid-1940s and early 1950s, ultra-conservative critics such as Dr. Fredric Wertham began criticizing Batman as a sort of homoerotic fantasy, with the playboy millionaire living a luxurious life with his underage male ward. In response, DC created the character of Batwoman (Kathy Kane) to serve as a response to what was considered a serious accusation at that time. By the 1950s and until the early 1960s, Detective Comics and Batman adopted a campier look and feel, eschewing the crime noir and pulp atmosphere and opting instead to explore more science fiction and fantasy storylines, which increased in popularity during the postwar atomic era. This culminated in the development of the infamous Batman television series in 1966, starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Although the show would often be criticized in the years to follow for deviating from those core elements that made Batman who he was, it was directly responsible for bringing Batman into mainstream culture. Moreover, many comic creators involved with Batman during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries often cite this series as being their first exposure to the character and superhero genre, claiming it served as a seminal influence in their decision to make Batman comics.
However, the television series’ popularity proved temporary, and it failed to pull in a significant number of new comic readers. It was in this period of the late 1960s and early 1970s that comic creators Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams took over the franchise and reintroduced those gothic and darker elements that fans responded to so strongly from the first issues. In spite of having to work around the restrictive guidelines of the Comics Code Authority—put in place following the persecution of the comics industry by Fredric Wertham—O’Neil and Adams returned Batman to being a hero of the night who fought monsters such as the Man Bat and shadowy criminal organizations that terrorized the world, as seen with the many storylines surrounding Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Shadows.
It was this version of Batman that Frank Miller reimagined in a dystopian future in his seminal Dark Knight Returns series, shown also in his updating of the origin story in “Batman: Year One” in Batman #406–408. Where O’Neil and Adams reintroduced the gothic elements to the character, Miller’s work in “Year One” grounded the character with a sense of realism previously unimagined in the world of Batman, let alone the superhero genre. Moreover, Alan Moore took his turn on the series in his classic graphic novel, The Killing Joke, which imagined a sort of deconstruction of Batman’s greatest villain, the Joker, and what led to his becoming the Clown Prince of Crime, not to mention the disturbing psychological connections between these two theatrical characters.
Gotham
Most Americans would recognize “Gotham” as the dismal urban landscape of the Batman stories; many also would realize that “Gotham City” is a thinly veiled eponym for New York. Few, however, would trace the name back to a village in Nottinghamshire in England, as well as to a reputation for madness stemming back to the days of King John: according to legend, the village that bears this name avoided a taxing encounter with the greedy king of the Robin Hood tales by pretending to be insane, thereby earning a reputation for “wise foolishness.” “Gotham” has been associated with Manhattan at least since Washington Irving; Irving’s ironic appropriation of this sobriquet might be a left-handed compliment to New Yorkers, who are, perhaps, “crazy like a fox.” Moreover, a dim reflection of the England of Robin Hood seems a fitting setting for the adventures of the Dark Knight.
C. Fee
Today, Batman thrives like no other superhero. For almost twenty years, Batman has driven more than 8 percent of all comic book sales, according to John Jackson Miller. Moreover, the various Batman franchises have combined to be the highest-grossing superhero films of all time and account for the second- and third-highest-grossing superhero movies, according to IMDB. With crossovers into video games with the highly successful Batman: Arkham series, as well as television shows (both animated and live action), it is clear that Batman’s place in mainstream culture is assured.
Although Bruce Wayne’s creation of the Batman persona is one born of deeply tragic events, the creation and success of the comic book superhero is not without its own small measure of tragedy as well. Bob Kane was afforded the legal credits for Batman’s creation, but this is due strictly to his having omitted Bill Finger’s involvement in the comic when negotiating his contract with National. As a result, Kane left Finger in the position of being merely a ghostwriter—employed under a “work for hire” contract who owned none of the work he created, nor did he receive any credit for his efforts. In an interview with The Comics Journal, Jerry Robinson (creator of the Joker and co-creator of Robin) commented on the situation between Bill Finger and Bob Kane:
He was very quiet, intense, unassuming and insecure. His position vis-à-vis Bob made him more insecure, because while he slaved working on Batman, he wasn’t sharing in any of the glory or the money that Bob began to make. … That was one thing I would never forgive Bob for, was not to take care of Bill or recognize his vital role in the creation of Batman. As with Siegel and Shuster, it should have been the same, the same co-creator credit in the strip, writer and artist. And Bill died broke. (Groth 2007)
It is somewhat ironic that a person who spent much of his working career telling stories about a hero and his crime-fighting partner, who defended the weak and protected the public from those seeking personal gain, would fall victim to his own partner.
Forrest C. Helvie
See also DC Comics; Kirby, Jack; Lee, Stan; Marvel Comics; Spider Man; Superman
Further Reading
Brooker, Will. 2001. Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon. London: Continuum.
Daniels, Les. 1999. Batman: The Complete History. San Francisco: Chronicle.
Groth, Gary. 2007. “Jerry Robinson.” The Comics Journal 1 (271, November 18): 80–81. http://www.tcj.com/jerry-robinson-been-there-done-that/. Accessed August 24, 2015.
Jones, Gerard. 2004. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. New York: Basic Books.
Leverenz, David. 1991. “The Last Real Man in America: From Natty Bumppo to Batman.” American Literary History 3 (4): 753–781.
Miller, John Jackson. 2013. “Top Comics.” Comichron: The Comic Chronicles. June 2013. http://www.comichron.com. Accessed August 24, 2015.
Morrison, Grant. 2011. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human. New York: Spiegel.
Rollin, Roger. 1970. “Beowulf to Batman: The Epic Hero and Pop Culture.” College English 31: 431–49.