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Home , Alan Brennert, Black Bat, Broken (Armstrong novel), Disguise, Jester (Quality Comics), Joker (The Dark Knight)

*I'm Not Fooled By Tbat Cheap Disguise" 183

athletic prowess, and state of the art gadgetry, terrifying enemies who dare cross his path. The had a secret identity, that of '", wealthy 10 playboy. At a very young age his parents were killed on the streets of City'". Later, he used his inheritance to travel around the "I'rrt Not Fooled By That Cheap Disguise" world, seeking masters of iustice and the martial arts, honing his body to perfection. A man with an obsession for justice. When he was ready, he returned to '" as TheBatman, ready to terrorizc William Uficchio and Robefia E. Pearcon the evil doers of the city and to avenge the death of his parents.3

This copy suggests the minimal components of charactcr which have circulated for fifty years in various media and among diffcr- cnt publics; film-goers, television viewers, readers, etc, The Dark Knights's identity has fluctuated over time and across media ns The Floating Signifier multiple authors and fan communities competed over his deffnition. The tensions in the character's identity became clearly apparent in A colony of small, bright-yellow, vaguely bat-like obiccts flo6tr ln , the bat-hyped summer of '89 when a myriad of Batmen simultancor"rsly vied for cape pool of white.' A spoon dips into the bowl, scooping up rnore of thi the and cowl-in the film and its numcrous tie-ins, the syndicated television series, the ongoing runs of Detuctivc "crunchy bat shapes, with natural flavors of honey-nut, "2 On thc brelk, itnd Batman comics as well as in graphic novels, The Killing anJ fast table stands a black cereal box, a familiar black bat irr n ycllow rfd loke 'fhe Dark prominent prominently emblazoned on all six sides. Knight Returns most among them. Thc highcst profile During the summer oI1989, this bat-logo permeatcd Arnerlcan gglr Batman, the latest site of fifty years of bat-hype, appeared in the Warner Bros. film. The scriptwriter, Sam Hamm, claimed that the ture/ appearing on candy, boxer shorts, leather medalli on s, crs rrl rt gr, ba;S pcrvasiveness of this particular Batman granted him automatic authcn- ball caps, nightlights, sterlingsilver coins-in short, on flny ite ur e cptbh t icity. you wind up doing when you're putting an of bearingthetrade-markedimage (orunlicensedlikcncssur tlrereoJl,'fu "What existing charac- tcr in a major you're bat-logo's omnipresence diffused its meaning, reducing thc wrarlrtg tt'! Hollywood ffIm is essentially defining that charac- tcr for a whole generation of people; and most people have certainly black bat in a yellow oval to a mere gesture of participr tiorr i rr e pa ll l0Uhl lrcard of Batman, probably cultural moment. While the intended meaning of that prrrt icipetln6 but they are not that familiar with it. So wlrat you're doing becomes of rpso have varied greatly, and while many bat-logo purchascrs rniglrt heve sort facto canonical."4 The fllm,s tlircctor, very little knowledge of the Batman mythos, thc logo, at tltc Tim Burton, similarly asserted the canonicity of the Warner,s ll;rtrnan, arguing that possessed carried the connotation "Batman" and thus indicrtcd the ptrrt: his leading man, Michael Keaton, thc corrcct acknowledgement, however minimal, of the chnrnctcr, attributes for the role. The Batman "is the one comic book hero One of the more bizarre consumablc exprcssions ol hat rrrEnll, wlro is not a but a human being. Since Michael is hardly a hrg hc-man, but looks just like a guy crunchy bat breakfast cereal pointedly rcfcrcnccd thc r'lrrrrrlr'lpf t* regular off the strcet he was perfcct lor thc role."s Caped Crusader, the box copy using such tcrms ns "terrilyirrg," " ( sion," "death," "killed," and "cvil docrs." 'l'ltottglt tltc;c lFllllt )thcrs disagreed. writer belicvcd that have constituted a potcntially distastcful corrrrotutivr ltnttte fil; llrc choice of Keaton rnade littlc sctlsc. "Michacl Kcaton truly contra- vcrtcs thc wholc point rlf llatman, thc prornincnt tasty bat shapes, thc sidc pancl contrrining tlre nr nur:rnrltrlly [{crc's only supcrhcro witlrout spccial p{)wcr!r; hcre rized most of thc salicnt charactc:ristics of thc l)rrrk Krrtglrl 'n onc ol tlrc vcry bcst tlctcctivcs who evcr Irvctl, lntl hc's being plrryctl hy a nt'rowrry corrrctliarr irr;llirstic itrntor. l'ltrtl, itr a capsttlc, in tlre kirrtl rtl crrotteortr thtnkrng llrrrt tftronrr lllrrrs,"o llis ttrttlc wrts'l'lrr tlaltrlrrr, A rlrrrk, ruyrtcriorrr rlutrltet uf thf, Ittrlcctl, lltc Keatott ('dEtitUl lrarl ptorlrrt'r.rl nrrrlr wlrlenprctrl tlinuPgrorrrl. tk'lytrrH, rrigltt, stnlkirrg llrr nncclr, r'urtrlrralr wttlr tlrr itltelll1eng!., lncnt ttr{t tht Wtll Slreel lrntttttl rarr * ltulrt lt,U{c Allrt,lr r;ret.rrlatirrg

, l{:l 184 Uricchio and Pearson "I'm Not Fooled By That Cheap Disguise" I t15

about the film's financial prospects in the lace of fierce bat.fcn dlrd= writers, artists, directors, scriptwriters, performers and licensed mallrt' fection. facturers have continually "authored" the Batman, with the speciflcit' ,,Eveff The report deeply disturbed |on Peters, co-producer of the fllnr, ies of various media necessitating the selective emphasis of character analyst I knew sent that to me the day it came out. It iust dcflated ev€ff: qualities. Unlike some fictional characters, the Batman has no prirnary body. . . . Nobody wanted Keaton. . . . We were ostracizcd by the Blt= urtext set in a speciffc period, but has rather existed in a plcthorrt ol community. They booed us at the Bat-convention. "T Tim llurt(,n rcetAed equally valid texts constantly appearing over more than five dccudcs, less solicitious of fan reaction. "There might be something that'r rtgfi. This has freed him from temporal specificity. The Batman rcmaitts legein themovie. . . . ButI can't care aboutit. . . . This is too hig a butCt untouched by the ravages of time, an eternal thirty year old, with orrly movie to worry about what a fan of a comic would say."t a very selective accruing of canonized historical events.'u This debate over the "real" Batman replicated that surroundlnt t* Neither author, nor medium, nor primary textt nor time peritxl tlc- sixties' television program and reflected an ongoing scrics ol ehnn# fines the Batman. In the absence of these other markers, charactcr, tlrat transmutations. , "creatol" of the Batman, descriherl thC is, a set of components, becomes the primary marker of Batttrort tential audience for the 1989 ftlm. "Every ten years, it [tsatmanl texts: the key components of the Batman character have constitutcd thc you see. Right now there are two factions. There arc thc huhy hx sine qua for any Batman narrative in any medium. This cxclusivc who know the TV show; they don't know the dramatic c(ltnle emphasis on the primacy of key components distinguishcs thc llnttntttt prior to that, so they think the movie is probably going to hc e entnCfi from other series/serial fictional heroes, where character figurcs prorltt- Then there are readers who know the roots from which he rrattre, fhl nently but not exclusively among the defining elements. he is a , mysterious, a loner."e Consider, for example, , |ames Bond and l'hilip Mrrr= The years since the publication of Miller's The Dark (nlgrlt R lowe. Despite these characters' appearances in films, and even tlteit have seen the greatest array oI character transmutations Arrd vlt continuation in literary form beyond their creators' dcaths, thci r cetrt ral of heretofore sacrosanct canonicity. The "miscasting" of the 1{ identity resides in a series of literary urtexts penned by singlc rutlrttrs ftIm constituted one of its lesser heresies. Grcatcr trnnagrrtrltffi and set in single time periods. Hence, were one seeking to dcflne Sltcr- cluded the establishment of a continuing (sexual) rclntionrhlp wlth lock Holmes/ one would turn not to the latest in a scrics t;f tttttncrtlrts the revealing of his secret identity to as well a; ntsklnl pastiches but would turn to the ftfty-six short storics attd four trttvcls |oker the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents and thcn killirrg hlm, of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle written between 1887 and 1927. lndccd, tlrc Da* Knight Returns featured a fifty year old Batnrfltr dnd t fan cornmunity in this case tenanciously valorizes thcsc texts lr tlte . Gotham by Gaslight set the Batman charactcrr urr(l ktc single canonized repository of Holmes' character, cxtraptllatirtg lrottr the late 1880's, where the Batman encountercd fack the ltippcl, lR them the key components of the Master's identity. Whilc a sct ttl of the Demon, the Batman married the daughtcr of alr ure lr villflp key components centrally identifies the Batman, thc bat-fan has tto even had a son. authoritative repository of these key components to turn to but is flcctl This moment in the last decade of thc twcntieth centutr, instead with an ongoing and potentially endless strcam of new textn. represents the most divergent set of refractions of the llotrrtalt By contrast, other fictional characters such as Bugs llunny atttl Whereas broad shifts in emphasis had occurcd since 19.19, I here Mickey Mouse, though similar to the Batman in bcing rnultiply rtu" had been, for the most part, consecutivc and conterrtrral, NrtW, thorcd and not bound to a particular medium, urtcxt ttr pcriod, dillcr created Batmen, existing simultancously witlr thc oltler ll€lmFn from the Batman in that they function as actors/cclcbritics rlthe r thntt television series and comic reprints and back inaucr, all rl rrs characters." Bugs Bunny can appcar in an opcra, a Wcstcrtt, I Shcr' recognition and a share of thc markct. llut the corrtrarllcllnttt wood Forest advcnture, a scicltcc fictirur film, ttr cvctl, ;ls "ltitttscll" el them may threaten both thc intcgrity of thc corrrnrtnllly loll1 thc Academy Awarcls, ln cnch cost', hc plnys rr rolc within tlre ttrtrrntive coherence of the fans'livcd cxpcricncc of thc clraracter rtecettlff rrs wcll as c()n$tilnlly retttoittittg, llrrgs lltttttty, in sinril:tr Iasltiott to rttclt Batman's continucd succcstn, llcsh and bkxrtl cotttttcrltarli sn ( ltottcho Marx, ,tttrl ttttlike llugn lltttttty anrl Mit:ke y Who in tht llutnrcn? Likc Holnrcu, lkrnrl srrl Molluwr, Mou$c, tlrc llatntgtr'e lrl ol Lry r'ntrrltotrcrrla hrrttga wrtlt tt rt;rrtrttctrlrtr Thc vcry nfltrtrr of tlre llalrnrrrr'r lexltrsl e xiHlrntc rrvrgh tn gt:rrerit: ftrrtrt, itt lltr'lleltttolt'q t dqt', r lltrtl llglrltttlq,."'t'ltc ltterl hulhthlc, ttlward frtgtttcntottorr. Sirrt:r lrrn t'rrtlrnll i11 lU,ig, nutnFttlla wrrll('n by lltlttttttt f,lttl ,,Gtlrtr lrt',, l'tlllill l)r"tttttr ()'Nrrl ar a t'lt$lat'l('t 186 Uicchio and Pearson 'I'm Not Fooled lly That Cheap Disguise" 1 t]7

guide for DC writers/ states: "Everything with the exception of hia continuity and containtnent. Thc iterative events/ that is, incidents ol friends' welfare is bent to the task he knows he can never accomplish, obsessive crime ftghting, display the Batman's traits/attributes, consti- the elimination of crime. It is this task which imposes meaning on 0n tute the dominant generic form and embody the character's hegemorric existence he would otherwise find intolerable."ta function, as we shall discuss later. What then are the key components of the Batman and how did wr 3). Recuruent Characterc. The Batman's interactions with thc goocl go about identifying them, given the lack of authodtative texts ancl tlrc guys and bad guys around him help to define him. Characters suclr rrs non-accruing nature of events? Of the many components that cotrsti Commissioner Gordon, Robin I (), Alfred, and thc foke r tute the Batman at any one time, we have privileged the lowest common all entered the Batman's world by the early forties and have maintaincd denominator of long lasting and recurrent components that often srrcrrr a constant/ though sporadic, presence. Though we use these characters to appear in self-conscious and reductionist articulations of the Batrnsrr here to deftne the Batman, these characters could themselves bc clcfincd character such as the cereal box side panel. Even at this momcnt ol along many of the same parameters as the Caped Crusader. For cxlurplc, multiple and competing Batmen, the character remains a rich man wlrrr the |oker has traits/attributes (rhetorical mode and whimsical approaclr dresses in an iconographically specific (cape, cowl and bst- to crime), fixed and iterative events (an origin story and obscssivc logo). Because of the murder of his parents, he obsessively fi.ghts crirrre, criminal activities)/ recurrent characters (Batman and Robin), se ttirrg using his superb physical abilities in combination with his deductive (Gotham City) and iconography (green hair, white facc, bright rctl capacities. He maintains his secret identity of Bruce Wayne, whu liver mouth set in a permanent grin). in Wayne Manor in Gotham City. He is surrounded by a supporting 4l Setting. Batman/Bruce Wayne lives in Gotham City, which lrrrs cast o{ friends and foes. the same symbiotic relationship with him as the recurrent charactcrs. Five key components constitute the core character of the llatnran: As the put it, "When is a man a city?" "When it's lJatmnn or traits/attributesi events; r€curr€rlt supporting characters; setting artrt when it's Gotham. I'd take either answer. Batman is this city. . . . 'I'hat's iconography. We briefly adumbrate these components here. why we're [the Riddler and other costumed villainsJ hcrc. That's why 11. Traits/Attributes. Put most succinctly, the Batman might be we stay. We're trying to survive in the city. It's huge and contrldictory said to have four central traits/attributes: wealth; physical pr{rweiil and dark and funny and threatening."" The fluctuating imagc of (lo- deductive abilities and obsession. The batbible provides a morc de tsiled tham City relates to the fluctuating nature of crime in thc Ratrnan's breakdown of these central traits/attributes: the Batman is "tough lrrrl world and has implications for the playing out of thc Batmrn's hcgc- not brutal;" "probably the best martial artist alive, and one of the hrtt monic function. gymnastsi/' "strong and athletici" "srflart with an IQ comfortrrhly tu 5) Iconography. The Batman's costume serves him wcll in lris e ntl- the genius numbers;" "trained, an autodidact;" "obsesscd... but lll less war against crime. The colors which permit him to lurk urrsee n irr the fullest possession of his mental and moral faculties;" "cclihatey" the shadows and the invocation of a terrifying crcaturc of thc niglrt and "compassionate." He is also the "heir to a large furtuuc, urtitnslerl both enable him to seize the psychological element of surprisc frorn at nearly 100 million dollars." Gotham's criminal element. ZJ. Events. Two different kinds of events constitutc this corrrpn= While various artists have redesigned elements of thc costurnc (short nent: ff.xed and accruing events, such as the origin strlry, arrtl it(.rltllvE, cning the ears or adding a yellow circle to the chcst cmblcn'r), thc that is repetitive, non-identical and non-accruinll cvcnts, rnost oI wltlch lrasic elements of cape, cowl, gauntlets and logo have rernaincrl crrsily involve crime fighting.ta The central fixed cvcnt, thc origin siory, ir lhe itlcntifiable, as one would expect in primarily visual tcxts. T'aking thc source of many of the Batman's traits/attributes, which plrry t hcnrsclver cue of costumc and cognomcn, bat-likc shapcs, likc thc brt-prclix, out in the iterative events. ;rbound in thc Batrnan's world. Thc batmobilc, thc batcopte r, thc brrtur- Until recently, the fixcd and accruing nnd helrce, cltnonizctl, e vflllt rrng and thc bat-ctcs, ;tll servc as rcpositorics of the h;rt-krol<: hlrrck, have been few in numbcr: tlrc origirt; thc appe lrancc of l{ohin arrtl nuntc slriny, with rr ltitt wing tlt'sigtt ittr:orporlttccl wlrcrc possihlc. few other ccntral characters; irrrtl tlrc crscs rclirtcrl to tlre llrrt r'Eve Witlrorrt lhc prt'rcrrcc ol ;rll llvc kcy cronrponcnts irt sorrtc lornr, llrt' trophies. In thc prcse nt nronr('nl ()l ('xlr('nl('t:llltrirt:lt'r rclrrrt't i()tr/ ('dllnll- llirlrrrirrr ('t.il$('H lo lrc llrr llalrrrirrr, ycl tltt';rrirnirrily st'rit's rlrlrrrt'ol ized evcnts scr:nlft to hc;rtrrlilcntlittg, wtllt ittrlrlrt'rrtiorrs ltrr t'lratarlef llrt'ch:rrircler l)rnnrlB lailly wirlt'viur,illl()1r irt tltc lrcrllnrcnl ul tlrcsc "/'ltt Nol l'r"'lt"l llr I lt'rt t'lrr''t1' I )l';!lrtsr"' lN') 188 I lrit'cltio rttrd l)etrsrtt

,,sltt.t:t:t1,, rrr;ttcrral lty You will havc ttl 1ltrxlttr.,, rrll :l lt'|,,lll;lt lr;tsts, acloss time and 1ucdia. Thc clasticity of the collll)orlrlllh components specialpctrpletlrlrtwrllttt;tkt.y.rttt;rttlrltt.tvrtttltrlhuyyrtttrlll:lg;lzltIt.rt but in this mtlmcnt of cxtrt:ttrc clrarat'lel l)y allows for great stretching, In the cascof llA'l MAN, tlrr:, wtll bc lrke tlrc following: st()rlc$ ,er,,ctio,, ih" B,t*,, p, i,r t,r i, r v r s i I, I i I v iirrgl(.lr;ttt, ittttl itrtists likc: fi.r Stirtltrr' Archie Goodwi., Stcve " ' ,,tltllcrt.ttt,,, Alex Toth, Marshall Rtlgcrs, . . . ;tlttl sirlrilar talcrrtcd, but il:ffili:;-.H "special" peoPle.'" A DC advertisement in the same issue oI Rolling Sl rttlrr th*t lcrt l t tt etl d cover Story interview with Michael Keaton declare d that thc ct tt tI Patty'r Today, a substantial portion of published fan corrcspontlt'ttct: cott tttllg'lt'w gritty, graphic and grown-up comics had comc of agc' "Yott ."rr, ,rrihorship issues. The attendance of comic book aut6,rs rll colll l(' l.rrlerl l:ttt ;;;i6;* they,vi caughiup with you!"ro Thc advcrtisttrctrt conventions boih reflects and enhances their stattrs withi. tltc the curient {our most diveigeni comic book Batmen : 7'It e l0 I I i n y/,/i' 6v Those within the industry assert that thc llrllll('s ol wtll or,autrst llttlrtttttt ()'Nt'il, ittrtl Moore/Bolland, The Return of the Datk Knight, Thc ",r--rrrlty.f."o*" *rit"., such as , Frank Millcr, Dc'tltis ( )'Nerl/( f rtl stories Ever Told, andThe Batman Movie Adaptation by B;;" and well-known illustrators such as Brian llll:r'd e,tl l;ll llg,r'lltel i,;ir; llrt' *ry. ifr" simultaneous presence of these divergcnt llattpctt, Sienkiewicz on a cover guarantee greater sales. Thc cll1crgellc.. rll urrtl tlte wiih the advertising r"irr", the appeal to adult rcatlcrslri,, clirect distribution syste=m, which permitted morc itcctlratc lr;rt:kitrg (high-pr.icctl) tclrttttla [y marketing of graphii novels and special format of individual title saies, further augmented comic-$ogk ar'rtt'rrristlt shift in the comic book markctplacc''' now used by both thc r.nai.rc.ttrrt' l,*rk ,li tlg"Ai -r'ioi . ;i;;.i;;o r royrlty system In ihe first tfrree decades of the Batman's existcncc, lkrb Kattt', ttut^, i,r-p'r"i.r,OC and Marvel. Hence, a system which cfl;lcctl rttttlt,tslltlr lgllt wrty t() (rllc cited in every nartative expression as the charactcr's "crcillot," and insisted upon conformance to the h.usc stylc has givcrt bat-tcxts. Itt rtctttrtltly, r.lFlf ol t;ttrtlity itrrrl creditfortheproductionof themaforityof 'l which relies upon individual authorship as a critcriotr sttlxrtrllttrlf F oiuncreditedghostwrlters andghost-artistsr all expcctctl to rnarketability. books An Krtttp their styles to the dominant Kane look, workcd on thc This economic incentive prompts authors/write rs t

This editorial process has enough flexibility to accomodate some of enced this story as well as A Dcath in the Family and "The Laughing the most divergent expressions of the Batman, at least, that is, those Fish."33 This Who's Who Entry again accomodated change yet reveals within the comic book and graphic novel realm. Recently, this flexibil- the containment strategy and self-appointed canonical authority of thc, ity has mani{ested itself in the self-consciously ambiguous construc- DC editorial staff. tions of some of the supporting cast. As the |oker said of his originrnThe While The Killingloke origin may or may not be canonical, the Batnran Killingloke, "sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another . . . ftlm has been declared conclusively non-canonical, indicating that thc if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple-choice! HA HA DC staf{, at least, believes that the comic books truly define the charac- Llli"2e The Riddler, like the |oker, refused to specify his origins, sug- ter. The explicit disavowal of the Warner Bros. film appears even in the gesting numerous possibilities. "I've always been the Riddler. I always comic book adaptation written by O'Neil, the Batman editor, and ptrh- will be . . . maybe it started by cheating in a school history test, photo- lished by DC. The initial splash page shows a strip of film, bearing kcy graphing a jigsaw puzzle. . . maybe I was a carnival barker, E. Nigma, frames drawn from the Batman movie, superimposed over an audicnce thePuzzle King, Conundrum Champion, of Quiz... maybc I in a movie theatre. In the first dialogue balloon on the page, an audicnce decided to turn my talents to crime, maybe I wanted to match wits member says ". . . it's just a movie, for Heaven's sake. "3o The back covcr with . .. with Batman, for the glory ... the fame ... the buck$,"'u' also features a fiIm strip design with further scenes from the movic. Etl i - This strategy of accomodation delimits the realm of possibilities for torlwriter O'Neil said that he intended these film strips to brackct tfttr character construction: a writer may tinker with aspects of the foker's adaptation and distinguish it from DC's continuity.3s origins but a colorist may not give him purple hair. From a legal perspective, the DC staff is right about their calrortit:rtl The strategy of containment which complements the strategy ol authority-their company and not Warner Bros. holds thc tratlcrnrtrk accomodation derives from DC's editorial offtces and from fan response for "Batman and all related characters, the distinctive likcncsscs thcrcol as well. The industry used to assume a total readership turnoYer evcry and all related indicia. . ." as every Batman comic statcs. [)C has gonc three years, making continuity fairly unimpottant.3r The rise of thc to great lengths in protecting bat-expressions through tradcmarkirtg. direct distribution market, the proliferation of comic specialty shops, The Batman Role-Playing Game lists 174 trademarkcd narncs lor pco- and the targeting of adult audiences have given rise to a more stablc ple, devices and places, ranging from Batman specifics such irs IJatcrltn- readership than in the past. Elements of this new readership exhibit an puter, , Bat-shuriken, and Bat team, to bat-spccific loc:ttiotrs almost fanatical interest in continuity issues, constantly writing to and characters such as Gotham City, Gotham Institutc rlf Techrt6[rgy, , complain or suggest resolutions of apparent contradictiotts. Gotham Tennis Hall of Fame, to more locatitlns alttl ttatttes This fan pressure coupled with the co-existing divergent expressions ol such as Chelsea and Elizabeth Powell. These I74 tradcrnarkcd ttart-rcs, oI the character have even necessitated explicit editorial statements abottt course/ include only those used in the game, not cvery [)C tratle lltrtrl<. "' the canonical and non-canonical. The DC legal department/ then, serves to safcguard charactcr itlt'nt it y througlr-trademark and copyright registration and cnforcctrrctrt.' l'[c l r protect ltll', l)By the way, the BATMAN movie (as well as the BATMAN MOVIE censing and rights departments also charactcr idcntity, 8r:lrlt ADAPTATION), IS NOT a part o{ Batman continuity. permission to use Batman images on products.rlr in othcr pttlllic:tt totrs. 2l . . . the tale told in BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE is NOT thc This protection ensures auniformity of iconographic and tlarrative tlt'ptt' definitive origin of the foker. It's simply onc of many I)OSSlllLIr tions of thc Batman and prcvcnts dilution of the tradctnark. Whilt'lor origins. ... fans, canonicity and thus charactcr idcntity rcsiclcs in thc ctlitorial st,;rll's 'l'l 3) Since it is set about 20 ycars in thc futurc, IlA"l'MAN: lE l)Alll( control of thc cotnic botlks, frlr thc larger ptrblic, ch:lr:lctL:r itlctltity rc (Il KNIGHT RETURNS is also N()T consitlcrctl to hc il l)irrt ttorttt;tl sidcs in thc lcgal tlc;.rartnrerrt's colrlrol ol.cottrrtrodity circttllrtitttt rll tlte is a POSSIIILE ftrturc lor l]attn:ttr, ont'wlriclt rrl:ry ()r 'l'lrt' continuity. It ll;rt11rr1 irn{ rcllrt t'tl irrtlit:i;r. llo:rt ing siglrilicr ol t hc hltt'logtt is csst'tt not happcn. Wc'rc N()'l's:tyittg tlr:rt it corrltlrr't ltitppt'll, lrtll tl may tirrlly;r lcgrrl r;rtltcr llt;ttt;l tt;ttt:tttv('('v()(:;lliott ol tllt't:lt;tr;tt:tt't'. would bc a shnntc to Iirtrit rllt'll:llttt:ttt's lttltttt'to tltts ottt'slttry.r' "I rhall btcorttr t btll" Despitc thc rlcliht'r;tlt' ;ttttlrtp,tttly ( (rtt( cttrttrl', tltt' fol

( loI lt;tt tt is intrinsrc to fustice-seeking bccomcs an cntllcss pr()ccss, wit h thc Ii:ttttt;ttt ;t Let's talk about Batman's origin and why I believe it was born in Sisyphus who can ncvcr rcach thc crintc-lrce surrrlllit ol tltc tttottttl'tttt his believability, popularity, and longevity' The Batman young Bruce Wayne was as Sisyphus may roll thc rock up a diffcrcnt path c;tch littrt'bttl rrol , L*, Uri"f, 't loie"i moments in which a lusi a goal, Batman rnay ctlt'nb:rt diflerclt crittrtttitls wtllr i";;"d to watch the b*td murder of his parents at thehands,o{ achieve his the grief all can but not achicvc his g

* 198 Uilcchio and Pearson "I'm Not Fooled By That Cheap Disguise" fiIm. DC has recently issued a companion volume to The Greatest the game that the Batman and I have played for so many years, winnrng Batman Stofies Ever Told, The Greatest loker Stofies Ever Told. The is nothingloo ftlm has generated |oker ephemera which accompanies the Batman DC publisher |enette Kahn agreed with the foker that his gamc wit Ir merchandise-toys/ tee shirts, hats, etc. the Batman must continue, since the hero and villain complement crtch His longevity and the frequency of his appearances establish his other so perfectly. centrality to the Batman mythos, reinforcing the key components of his character. The |oker's origin story, in whatever variation, accounts The |oker is out of control, and in this way neither Batman's powcrftrl for his motivation and his iconography. In "The Man Behind the Red mind or strength can surround him. . . . Thus the Batman and thc Hood" (Detective #158 (l95ll), The |oker bungles a million dollar heist foker form aYin/Yarg duality, the |oker needing the Batman (for who from The Monarch Playing Card Company and escapes the clutches of else could appreciate thebizarre genius of his acts?) and the Batnr:ttr the Batman by diving into a catch basin for noxious chemicals. The needing the foker (for who else, truly, could test him?) It is a worltl chemicals transform him from garden variety thief into the familiar of passionate, binding opposites.o' Clown Prince of Crime. The |oker tells the Batman about looking at and the have needed each other throughout thcir himself in the mirror after the accident. Voice over narration: ". . . I The Batman |oker year relationship, performing a bat-dance pas de deux in which looked at myself with growing horrot." Panel dialogue:-"That chemi- frfty each partner measures his step to the other. The starterd his caI vapor-it turned my hair green, my lips rouge-red, my skin chalk- |oker career as a smiling killer who murdered for profit, countcrcd by an white ! I look like an evil clown !" Voice over: "Then, I realized my new no-nonsense, vigilante Batman. In the fiftics and six- could terrify people." uncomplicated, ties, the became a relatively harmless merry prankster coulltcred Both the Batman and the |oker have their origins in cruel twists of |oker by an uncomplicated, good-natured, boy scout Batman. fate. fust as the Batman responded to his tragedy by dedicating himself increasingly out-of-control is a raging madman who to justice, the responded to his by dedicating himself to perverse, Today, an foker |oker people pleasure (The Com- absurdist crime. Both singlemindedly pursue their goals, the Batman kills 206 for Dark Knight Returnsl, shoots missioner Gordon's daughter and photographs her nude body to drive striving to impose order on an unjust universe and the |oker doing his her father rnad Killing and eludes justice by becoming the best to enhance the chaos of a meaningless world. Just as the Batman lThe [okel Nations, where he tries to gas the adopts a distinctive costume which enables him to blend with the Iranian ambassador to the United (A the Familyl. The Batman fre- shadows of the night and to strike terror into cowardly, superstitious entire General Assembly Death in quently captures the and incarcerates him with the rest of the criminals, the |oker makes the most of his deformity by adopting a |oker home the insane, -like outfit to strike terror into his victims. Both acquire endless recurring villains in Gotham City's for criminally Arkham Asylum. The graphic novel of that name features the most accessories based on their names and costumes/ the foker striving to psychotic of them all, who is so insane he may be sane. A psycho- keep up with the Batman with his |oker-mobile, his own utility belt, )oker the case to his long-time adversary. etc. therapist explains |oker's Sometimes the characters themselves address their symbiotic rela- tionship. A panel tn A Death in the Family alternates medium shots . . . we're not even sure if he can be properly defined as insane. . . . It's quite possible we may actually be looking at some kind of super- of the and Bruce Wa1me, as the latter thinks, "We've been linked |oker sanity here. A brilliant new modification of human perception. More the to each other for so long, neither of us truly understanding bond." suited to urban life at the end of the twentieth century. Unlike you The too, recognizes the bond that links them together, though, |oker, and I, thc |oker seems to have no control over the sensory in{ormation typically for him, speaks of it as a game. In a story where the |oker he's recciving from the outside world. He can only cope with that knocks out the Batman, he stands over his urrconscicltts body musing, haragc of inpr.rt by going with thc flow. That's why somedays "His life is mine. . . . I can crush thc brcnth ottt ol lritn . . . c[[ortlcssly! lrcr's rr n.rischicvous clown, othcrs a psychopathic killer. He has no I can, atlast, triumphl llut suclt rt ltollow victory ! ... I've rtlways rc:rl pt'rsorr;rI i t y.''' envisioned my winnit.rg as a rt'sttll ttl t'tttttrirt,rl . . ;rl lltr t'nrl ol t ltitlrr struggla bctwectt tlrc lJrtltrrrtrt ;tttrl ttty:irll lrrrrr ttstttl', ltts tltlrt ltvt' Wlrrlt'tltis ttr,;ty rtt;tl

greatest drawn to capers which provide the challenge and fit their In a very self-conscious restaging of the origin event/ the Batman modus operandi. The , for example, could not resist a Maltese rescues a yuppie couple and their son from three instantly identifiable Falcon have steal a while Two-Face would to statue of the Roman God bad guys, muggers with broken or hooked noses, cauliflower ears, and |anus. Iow brows.t'Each conforms to the stereotype of a different marginaiized The highly idiosyncratic and personalized nature of the costumed subculture: Mansonesque biker/hippy; fifties crew-cutted, leatler-jack- psychological villains' crimes relates to their instability-the villains eted hood and contemporary punk. By contrast, the light hair and are always highly abnormal individuals whose crimes result from men- " clearf' good looks of the yuppie family suit them to modeling the tal imbalance rather than more systemic social or political causes. igsslng suits they wear. These potential victims, like others throughout Recently, the villains have been written with greater depth, more in the bat-texts, resemble the waynes, Graysons, Todds and Drakeslwith accord with the canons of psychological realism. Secret Origins Special their blue eyes, fi.rm- chins, straight noses/ noble brows, and Anglo grounds #1, lor example, the Penguin's compulsive criminal activity names much more than the nameless, though often clearly ethnlc, in childhood trauma. The Killing loke sirl;;llarly attributes the foker's thugs. personal motivation to tragedy. The |oker had been an out-of-work The three street punks who attack the yuppie family typify not comic unable to support his pregnant wife. Driven to desperation, he only the appearance of their countless colleagues, but also'their modus participate had agreed to in a robbery. Even after his wife's accidental operandi. Most of Gotham city's nameless criminals, the lineal clescen- gangsters go death, the forced him to through with the crime, during dants o{ the initially nameless thief who murdered the waynes, engage which he tried to escape into a severely polluted waterway. This "degla- in similar thefts and malefactions. Much like local television newsmen, morization" of the costumed villains trans{orms them from flamboyant the Batman expends most of his energy on crimes of violence with madmen into pathetic losers but still insists upon the highlv personal visual potential, ignoring the visually boring crimes of political grafters, nature of their criminal activities and connects them no more closely polluters and slum landlords. In Batman/s universe, those criminals lo the social fabric. necessarily embodying a critique of the system remain ignored while Henri Ducard, one of the Batman's former mentors/ summed up the the violent criminals whom he fights remain divorced from the social relationship between the Caped Crusader and his costumed antago- fabric which produces them. nists: The transiency of these violent criminals usually, of course, prevents any detailed elaboration of their motivation or their social origins. But [The Batmanl . . . functions as a lightning rod fior a certain breed even one of the most fully elaborated and intermittently reappiaring of of psychotic. They specialize in absurdly grandiose schemes, and these bad guys remains largely separate from the roiirl faLric. Boss whatever the ostensible rationale-their tue agenda is always thc Anthony Zucco, indirectly responsible for the deaths of Dick Grayson,s same: to cast B atmem in the role of. nemesis. . . . He alway s tiumphs. parents/ curiously enough experienced a childhood trauma similar to If he failed, they'd be bereft. The pas de deux would have no point. both the Batm3n's and Robin's. His father was killed by hoodlums for Like naughty children, who tempt the of a stem, demanding refusing to pay protection money. young Anthony grew up in the they seek only to shock hirnby the enormity of their trans9res- father, s_ame orphanage as ylung Dick Grayson, but then theiipaths crucially sions. It's the moment of acknowledgement they crave. Thus "good" diverged-Anthony becoming a crime boss and Dick a crime conquers "ev7l." True evTl seldom announces itself so loLtdly."' ftghtei. The crucial difference: "zrtcco was brought up with hatred, and that,s what he returned to the world. Richard Grayson was brought up with Does true evil announce itself less loudly through thc coulrtlcss love-and not even Z.occo,s act of murder could change tliat.,,t3 Dick (iothrrrn ()ityi :riminals in mufti who plague the great metropolis of is good bccausc his parents were good, and Zucco is bad because his rlot really. In the universe of the Batman artists, phrcnology anrl rrllrcrl parcnts wcrc: llx1l, cxplarati.. f,r wrong-doing again 'l'lrc being cast in highly 'scienses" have never lost thcir cxplanatory powcr. rrlrrnclcss t lrrrlin pcrsorral tcnl'ls. ieem driven to crime by anatorr.ry.'lir 1l;rr;rplrr;rst'fcssir::r I{;rllhit, tlrrsc I)cspitt' thc lrrt:l (lr:r( tht'lx.rJ)(,trrrtrlrs ol 'l'his t:rirnt' lravc highly personal- :riminals aren't rcally brttl, t ltt'y'rr' ;rrst tlr;rwrr ll;rtl. "h:lrlncsr" izt'tl tttotiv;tliorrs wlriclr grl;rt t. tlrt.rrr orrlsirlt. ;t srrt'io ..t,,,rrort-r'ic colttcxt, :xtends t

crimes of violence. Gotham has in the past been presented as a light and property relations and enforcing the law. Extratextually, the character cheery playground (resembling Superman's Metropolis) for the merry and the bat-texts serve to gain consent for political authority and the pranks of the costumed villains. Of late the emphasis has been on urban system of property relations it enshrines, and thus support the domi- decay. Commissioner Gordon recently said, "When I first came to nant hegemonic order. Again we ask, who pays the salary of this agent Gotham I thought this city couldn't sink any lower. Every day proves of political domination and this supporter of the hegemonic order? One me wrong ! "to If Commissioner Gordon knew how the batbible describes who has a great stake in the maintenance of the status quo, Brucc his city, the word lower might take on a whole new meaning for him. Wayne. This may initially appear to be a deconstructive instancc ol' "Gotham is a distillation of everything that's dark, moody and frighten- political domination: a rich man devoting his life to vigilante justicc. ing about New York. It is Hell's Kitchen. The Lower East Side. Bed But the Batman's origin/obsession provides an overarching route ol Stuy. The South Bronx. Soho and Tribeca off the main thoroughfares emotional identiffcation even for readers who might have qualms about at three in the morning." vigilante justice. Young Bruce's witnessing of the violation of propcrty Gotham certainly looks "dark, moody and frightening," with its rights-in the fullest sense of human life-both motivates him withirr deserted warehouse districts, garbage strewn alleys, lurking shadows, the text and, more importantly, wins the readers' consent to a politicirl dilapidated buildings, abandoned construction sites, and tiny people position: the inviolability of property relations and the justification ol Iost in dark, deserted streets loomed over by grotesquely embellished their defense by any means necessary (short of death). The divorcc ol skyscrapers. As a line from the Batman script, repeated endlessly in the crime from larger social issues and its embodiment in crazed costunrc film's publicity, put it, Gotham City looks "as if hell had erupted villains or brutal gangsters reinforces the acceptance of this political through the sidewa1ks."s5 This representation of Gotham certainly position. gives a compelling image of late twentieth-century urban decay, as any New Yorker can attest, and the astute reader will certainly see these "I'm not fooled by that cheap disguise. conditions as a causal factor in the high Gotham City crime rate. Yet, I know what you are." like the criminals, Gotham is largely removed from a socio-eocnomic context. The narratives deal with the crime rate, but not the unemploy- The crazed shrink of Arkham Asylum believes the Batman to be the ment rate, they deal with criminal brutality, but not brutalizing slum metaphoric bat that has driven him to madness." We harb

said in distinctive iconography. The storics, in addition to granting him narra- whom he might claim to aid and protect' As fames Gordon iY"r-h" works'outside the law,'as you call it' but the tive centrality, often cede him narrative authority through point-of- irt*ri *i, person and other devices similar to those l"gril;"i;"s that hamper us are hurdled b-y this crimefighter so. he may vicw frames, first naffation, film scholars often argue create identification with a character. While ;;?;;;h;; rrre1 of evil to iustice' ' """ This policeman's wil]ingness //extra-legal" the we would prefer to deal with actual rather than textually extrapolated to use any means necessary, even ones/.to defend constructions of narrative encourage us ,,\^*" provides a particularly clelt, if-chilling, expression of the Bat- readings, dominant cultural his seriously to consider the implications of these narrative devices. man/s role as as an agent of political domination. Nonetheless, extra-legal The bat-texts'intertextual resonance with the larger genre of detec- as we have abov9, serves to disguise his oir"*-rr, (very broadly defined) also elicits support for the Batman's and gain t,rppott""*pt6rr"a for the hegemonic order' tive fiction di-"rrion- Batman from such other Supun"i Stot r. Commentators on the bat-texts constantly activities. Though we earlier differentiated the i. superheroes: he series heroes as Holmes, Marlowe and Bond, he does, in fact, have a ,"i"r ao ihat which sets the Batman apart from other a- man'"to As generic affiIiation with them, proclaimed by the very title of his longest has no superpowert. A; h" himself his said, "I ' ' ' I'm the cover of the fiftieth-anniversary LJl.o, O,Neif has said, it is the quality of human perfectibility which running comic, Detective. Indeed, may secretly issue of this title consciously references the Batman's lineage, showing makes the Batman ,o ,ttra"tire ti readirs, many of w^hom The detective genre has tradition- b"li"rr" that they too could become a bat (with suJficient motivation him and Sherlock Holmes together. publications!) ad- ally privileged the hero and encouraged reader identification with him and lots of trainingl .u, Christianity Today (of all while and his exploits. dressed this utopian dimension of the Batman's character' "But to Unassailable as the Batman's hegemonic function may seem, given God is conspicuously absent from this universe, Batman appears by his own Bat- the above three factors/ some recent bat-texts may have widened incipi- scale the heights to which a mere man can pull himself grace.t personal fissures in the Batman's construction. Miller's The Datk'Knight ;;;1r. i, is d"ifficult to believe that, apafi trom God's ent salvo in the Batman's high-end marketing offen- lrglJy r"a suffering can be turnedto such an advatttage'"62 Returns, the opening aid departed from the Batman mythos by, as we have said, featuring But the Batman d?tberately cultivates a non-human image to sive, abat, alter And the image a fifty-year-old Batman with a female Robin. But his outlawing by the him ln his crime fightlng-h" b"",." 'a11. h_af attacked the Gotham City police force, his resistance of presidential authority and seems to work. Onelt th"e cornered street punks ryho questioned the Batman's role as family, exclaims, "You're not people! Nothin' like you can be his fighting with Superman severely ..oori" far morc h..-rn, so nothing ca., stop you-man' that ain't an agent of political dominantion and actually constituted ffi;;;it;'rio', position caused him to reap- This non-h.r-r. dimension frees him from the standards of significant departures. His new outlaw {;;;.;'i and ultimately to ally with ele- applied to lesser mortals' To quote Frank Miller.again' "I praise his analysis of the social order that ments of the underclass he had initially struggled to contain. Signifi- ifri"f.""ri"r,lo" tfrrt in order for the character to work, he has !o !: 'force however, this alliance took the form of protecting property as i;;;;; ways is beyond good and evil' It can't be iudged bv the terms cantly, can't at the head of the mutant gangs, prevents middle-class *t*orrld rrr" to describe something a man would do because we the Batman, rioters from looting a supermarket. The Dark Knight Retutns problcnr- think of him as a rr,Lan.""o *ih;gh within a dominant political order depictctl ;ts h; might be different from his supercolleagues, the Batman atizes the Batman's role implicitlv irredeemably corrupt and bankrupt, and challcngcs a political systcrr) i, ;;iii;rre sup"erhero than ordinary guy and this status which could continually rc-elcct Rcagan prcsident whilc outlawing tht' endorseshisactions.JuStassuperheroes,superpowerstranscendthosc as ltlnc vigilantc striving frlr rr ;i;;ei";t individuais, so doei their supermorality. The Batman's in- Batman, but reaffirms thc Batman's rtllc functi

to the character's identity amongst the c.entrifugal forces wc havc t'tttt ing draws explicit parallels between the |oker's trauma and the loke merated. Yet the '" following the name Anarky raiscs thc issttc ol gr?;r"'t, as the urges his nemesis to succumb to a iustifiable the whether even this seemingly substantial critique will unclcrrnitrc tlre madness. Batman: Year fhree and A Lonely Place of DyinT show character or be incorporated as another marketing tcchnitlttt', l9r tlrt' gr;;r" h"oming as brutal as the thugs he fights, ignoring his deductive in commodity form is as important as Itis srrlrlror I ,fmU", while relying on his physical prowess to punish malefactors. Batman'S circulation of the hegemonic order. The contradictions of capitalisnr wotrkl tlrtrs While aII these texts challenge his motivation, they don't question andThe permit the commodification of criticisms as long as they rcsttltt'tl ttt his roG as agent of political domination .BothArkham Asylum profits. KiJling stage confrontations between the Batman and costumed loki Yet the endless possibilities of containment and rcfractiott itrlrctt'ttl isolated settings-an asylum and an abandoned fairground- villairis'in all of which act as which reflect and justify the character's extremis and in the Badman character result in tensions, l.rotcttttrtl ;;;;;;;*""ts time-bombs. By contrast, that expression of the charactcr wltit:ll ltrts thus serve to contain the broader social implications. And in both the widest cultural currency remains unthreatencd cithcr by tcxtrr;tl narratives, the Batman emerges intact, i{ not exactly triumphant, from doubts challenges to the Batman's role as agent of political domination/str1'r his trial. Batman: Year Threi and A Lonely Place of Dying raise perfor- porter of political hegemony or by the centrifugal forces of cornrr.rotlili abort his role as agent of political domination, but about his ,rot cation-valorization of authorship, market diversificatlon.'['hc b;rt- *r""".f that role. If he becomes too overtly brutal neither the support- to logo constitutes an expression of corporate presence/control, a poillt ol irrg (Alfred and Dick Grayson) nor the reader can contine minimal contact with the character for non bat-fans, and a magnct lor give"hrrr"ters him their consent. discretionary income. Paradoxically a clearer manifestation ttf priv:tlt' recent texts/ significantly in the regular titles, however' have Some property and the dominant hegemonic order protecting it thltt tltc begun to exhibit self-conscious awareness of the Batman's character it signifies, the bat-logo floats untouched, abovc criticisrn. A h.-g"*o.ri" function," ""rtri, questioning the most central component of the resident o{ Gotham City recently stated, "I've lived in this city for (ilty Baiman,s identity-ih" rrtrr" ofirime and his relation to it. "Anarky'" years and I've nevet seen any of those creeps villainsl. ()r in city,'" (Detective #608-5091, potentially redefinescrime to [costumcd Gothr* surely seen the bat-logo. i""i"a" industiial polluters and real estate speculators. A twelve'year- Batman."67 But he has ;d i;y, calling himself Anarky and dressed in superhero_-like garb, he is kills a manufacturer with the supposedly "safe" sludge Notes a"-pi"gintotheriver,andattemptstodemolishabankbeingbuilt"h"-i"rl (Ncw York on the site of a community of homeless persons. Batman can not utterly l. Thetitleo{thechapteristakenfromGrantMorrison,Arkhanr Asyluttr Anarky,s actions or his definition of crime, but seeks to DC Comics, Inc., 1989), n.p. "orrd"-r,air,i"g"irf, himself from his fellow vigilante. "His cause may be iust- 2. Box side panel, Batman" Cercal (St. Louis, MO: Ralston l)urine Oo., lgtl()). sir?" Bat- but hi"s methods certainly aren't." Alfred interiects, "Really, 3. Box side panel, Batman'" Ccrcal. always legal' r"tpo"ds. "I know, ikro*-,,y own methods aren't 4. "Writer: Sam Hamm," C

'lhe #156 11953) he even ffghts a pink space monster/ but most fans and writers view 36. Balman Role-Playing Game (Niles, IL: Mayfair Games, Inc., 1989). science-ffctional episodes as aberrant. this and similar 37. , "Growing Up With the Greatest,,, The Greatest Batman Storiet 13. Dennis O'Neil, "A Brief Batbible: Notes on the Dark Night Detective, " unpublished Ever Told (New York: DC Comics Inc., 1988), pp. 7-8. manuscript, April, 1989, n.P. 38. Moore, "The Mark of Batman," n.p. Eco's, not Gerard Genette's, sense. Eco L4. We use the term "iterative" in Umberto 39. Batman Card #238, Second Series, The Topps Company, 1989. deffnes the iterative as follows: "a series of events repeated according to a set scheme 40. Dennis O'Neil, "The foker's Five-Way Revenge,,, Batman #251 (September I97;l). (. . . in such a way that each event takes up again from a sort of virtual beginning, igrroring where the preceding event left otfl. . . ." Umberto Eco, "The Myth of 41. fenette Kahn, "Tribute," Detective Comics #599 (April l919l. Superman," in The Role of the Reader: Explorutions in the Semiotics of Texts 42. Morrison. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1979f p. 117. 43. Alan Brennert, "Tribtte," Detective Comics #600, (Mray 19891. 15. Neil Gaiman, ,,when is a Door. The Secret origin of the Riddler," secret otigins 44. Bob Kane saw both narrative and other reasons for a Robin. ". . . I think it was a bttl Special #l lr989l. move to kill Robin o{f. First of all they were a team-it would be like killinl; l)r. L5. , l:une 29,1989, P. 43. watson off and leaving Sherlock Holmes by himself or Tonto and the Lone Rangcr, Tarzan and 17. For a discussion of the rise of the direct distribution network, we refer the reader to fane. It's the wrong move. And, of course, it kills the merchandizing orr the Parsons' essay in this volume (Chapter 5). Robin. . . . ("Artist: Bob Kane," Comics Interview 70 11989), p. 47). 45. Dark Knight," Comic's Interuiew (1986), p. 18. "Artist: Bob Kane," Comics Interview 3l {1986), p. 17. "Spotlight: 3l 32. 46. Starlin, A Death in the Family (New 19. Batman #205 {November 1958). fim York: DC Comics, 1988). Marv Wolfman, 20. Letter from Greg W. Myers, "," Detective Comics #495 (October 1980). 47. "A Lonely Place of Dying,, pafi l, Batman #440 llggg). 48. Letter from Malcolm Boume, 21. This recent reconffguration of authorship in the comics industry accords with the Batman #440 ll999l. authorship function as described by Michel Foucault. See "What is an Author?" 49. Marv Wolfman, "A Lonely Place of Dying,,, Batman #442. Counter-Memory, Practice (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977). Language, 50. The quotation in the heading of this section is from "Frank Miller: Retum oI thc 22. The masculine pronoun reflects the current dominance of males at the two maiol Dark Knight," The Comics lournal l0l (August l981l, p. 64. companies. 51. Sam Hamm, "Blind fustice" Pfit 3, Detective Comics #600 ll9}9l. for DC Comics in Dennis O'Neil, The Batman Movie Adaption 23. Advertisement 52. Marv Wolfman, "The Coming Of Crimesmith,,, Batman #443 llam,ary l99}l. (New York: DC Comics, 1989). 53. Marv Wolfman, "Batman: Year Three (Partl),,, Batman #4Bb {l919l. 24. Kahn, Call Me Chief!" The New Titans #61 (December 1989). fenette "Don't 54. Batman #443 (lanuary 1990). 25. The quotation in the heading of this section is taken from Alan Moore, "The Mark 55. SamHamm and Warren Skaarcn, "BATMAN,,, unpublished screenplay, Oct.6, 1988. of Batman," h The Complete Frank Miller Batman (Stamford, CT: Longmeadow Press, 1989) n.p. 55. "Spotlight: Dark Knight," p. 37. 57. quotation 26. Mike Gold, "Our Darkest Knight," The Greatest Batman Stories Evet ?old (New The in the heading of this section is from Morrison. York: DC Comics Inc., 1988), P. 14. 58. Eric Van Lustbader, "Tribute," Detective Comics #6O0 (May 19891. 27. For thirty-ffve of his fffty years, two men, Jack Schiff and fulie Schwartz, edited the 59. Batman #7 quoted in Mark CottaYaz, Tales of the Dark Knight p. 4. Batman titles. Most of the editors since Schwartz's retirement had worked with 60. Morrison. him as writers or artists. 61. Personal conversation, Dcnnis O'Neil, September 29, 1999. (fanuary 28. fenette Kahn, "Don't Call Me Chief !" Legends of the Dark KnightS r990)' 62. Dcan Huslcr, "(}rthartr (lrcat (lrows Crim,,, Christianity Today, May 12, l9gr,r, p 29. Alan Moore, Batman: The Killing /o/

32. "Batsignals," Batman #442 ll989l, n.p. 65. Alarr (lr:rnt, "An:rrky tn (i'tlrrrrrr Itly," ltrtrr.lryr.(irrltr.,r #(,011 (lgll9) 33. "Who's Who," Detectivc Corttit:s Arrrtrttl l). llt)119l,. 66. San.t II:trnrrr, "lllirrtl frrstrcr.," l'rrrt lll, ltt'tt,rtn,t, ()rrnrr r #fil)t) (M;ry l9lt9). 34. DennisO'Ncil ,llutrttrttr:'l'ltt,()llicirtl(:()nti( A(ltryltttitttrttl tltt'W(trttrrlln,s.Mttlirtrt 67. Ncil (i:tirrt;rrr, "()rigirrrrl Srrrs,",\r.r,rt ttttvit,,, #l ll',lltul Picture (Ncw York: IXI(lrtttinr ltr( , lt)tlt.)l 35. Ircrson;rl (irrrvt'rsrrtrorr wtllt l)rrtniq t l'Nlrl, 5r'l)l('lttlx'l ?.t',, lt,ll'l()