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RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN! This Page Intentionally Left Blank RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN! Essays on the Universe of the Dark Knight RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN! This page intentionally left blank RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN! Essays on the Universe of the Dark Knight Edited by Kevin K. Durand and Mary K. Leigh McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London ALSO OF INTEREST The Universe of Oz: Essays on Baum’s Series and Its Progeny edited by Kevin K. Durand and Mary K. Leigh (2010) Buffy Meets the Academy: Essays on the Episodes and Scripts as Texts edited by Kevin K. Durand (2009) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Riddle me this, Batman! : essays on the universe of the Dark Knight / edited by Kevin K. Durand and Mary K. Leigh. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4629-2 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Batman (Fictitious character) I. Durand, Kevin K. J. (Kevin Karl Jones), 1967– II. Leigh, Mary K. PN6728.B363R53 2011 741.5'973—dc22 2011014385 BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2011 Kevin K. Durand and Mary K. Leigh. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover design by David Landis (Shake It Loose Graphics) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com Contents Preface MARY K. LEIGH . 1 Introduction: What Has Adorno to Do with Gotham? KEVIN K. DURAND . 3 Part One: The Ethics and Anarchy of Batman 1. Virtue in Gotham: Aristotle’s Batman MARY K. LEIGH . 17 2. The Dark Knight Errant: Power and Authority in Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns CHRISTOPHER BUNDRICK . 24 3. Why Adam West Matters: Camp and Classical Virtue KEVIN K. DURAND . 41 4. Dark Knight, White Knight, and the King of Anarchy STEPHANIE CARMICHAEL . 54 5. Introducing a Little Anarchy: The Dark Knight and Power Structures on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown SUDIPTO SANYAL . 70 Part Two: Batman and Literary Theory 6. Batman’s Canon: Hybridity and the Interpretation of the Superhero KEVIN K. DURAND . 81 7. Seminar on the Purloined Batarang: Batman and Lacan MITCH FRYE . 93 v vi Contents 8. Queer Matters in The Dark Knight Returns: Why We Insist on a Sexual Identity for Batman JENÉE WILDE . 104 9. The Hero We Read: The Dark Knight, Popular Allegoresis, and Blockbuster Ideology ANDREA COMISKEY . 124 10. Rolling the Boulder in Gotham RANDY DUNCAN . 147 11. Figuration of the Superheroic Revolutionary: The Dark Knight of Negation D. T. KOFOED . 156 Part Three: Batman and Beyond 12. “One May Smile, and Smile, and Be a Villain”: Grim Humor and the Warrior Ethos MELANIE WILSON . 169 13. “And Doesn’t All the World Love a Clown?”: Finding the Joker and the Representation of His Evil MICHAEL SMITH . 187 14. Call It (Friendo): Flipism and Folklore in No Country for Old Men and The Dark Knight MATTHEW FOTIS . 201 About the Contributors . 219 Index . 221 Preface MARY K. LEIGH In collecting a volume of essays related to Batman, there is always the question of how to select the essays and what balance to provide to such a study. In the Introduction, Kevin K. Durand outlines our particular approach to popular culture studies and demonstrates the framework by which the rest of the essays in this collection were selected. This text argues that the Critical Engagement method is the best way to conduct any study of popular culture, advocating for what the interpretation says about the text itself, not how we may use a text to provide examples for a theory. This is not to say that exam- ples for a theory are not useful or important, but that a disciplined study of popular culture needs to take the next step and provide an analysis of what the application of a type of analysis allows the audience to understand about the text under consideration, in this case, the world of Batman in its many conceptions and re-conceptions. In this collection, several essays begin by providing examples at the outset before turning to engage the text in the more rigorous way that Durand terms the Critical Engagement method. In Part One, “The Ethics and Anarchy in Batman,” my essay, “Virtue in Gotham” for example, engages the text and the reader with an analysis of The Dark Knight that, while Aristotelian, is not merely a starting point. Christopher Bundrick’s essay, “The Dark Knight Errant,” explores the psychoanalytic development of Bruce Wayne, providing a lens through which to view his ethical standpoint. Focusing on a particular incarnation of Batman, Durand argues in “Why Adam West Matters” that the Batman of Adam West is particularly noteworthy for its depiction of a theory of friendship that differs markedly from the standard philosophy of friendship from Aristotle forward, drawing together and furthering the ideals presented earlier. In “Dark Knight, White Knight, and the King of Anarchy” Stephanie Carmichael leads readers through an engaging character analysis 1 2 Preface designed to allow them to create connections and devise many theoretical approaches on their own. Ethics also leads to analysis of anarchy; thus, in “Introducing a Little Anarchy,” Sudipto Sanyal explores the psychological dysfunction of the Joker and Harvey Dent, respectively, as tools for grappling with the nature of power. Part Two, “Batman and Literary Theory,” opens with an urgent question in literary criticism—what constitutes the canon when there are so many dif- ferent texts vying for readership and viewership? Durand argues in “Batman’s Canon” that Batman presents us with a most interesting moment in literary criticism, a canon in flux that necessarily must include most interpretations of the story, even those that may contradict each other. The following essays approach the canon from many theoretical frameworks, from Mitch Frye’s Lacanian analysis of Batman in the midst of mental crisis in “Seminar on the Purloined Batarang” to “Queer Matters in The Dark Knight Returns,” Jenée Wilde’s careful interpretation of our insistence on a sexual identity for Batman. Andrea Comiskey provides an analysis of popular culture through the medium of popular culture, addressing the many allegorical interpretations of Batman, not just in typical scholarship, but also in the work of journalists, film critics, and online bloggers in “The Hero We Read.” Randy Duncan, “Rolling the Boulder in Gotham,” and D. T. Kofoed, “Figuration of the Superheroic Rev- olutionary,” complete the literary criticism by analyzing the deeply complex world of Batman in comic books, analyzing the role of Gotham as a city to the development of Batman and the reality of a superhero revolutionary cre- ated through careful use of comic book artistry, respectively. Part Three, “Batman and Beyond,” demonstrates not only what we may learn about Batman itself, but also what we may understand about Batman when studying it in relation to another text. Melanie Wilson, “‘One May Smile, and Smile, and Be a Villain,’” and Michael Smith, “‘And Doesn’t All the World Love a Clown?,’” each take on the nature of the smiling villain, alluding to Shakespeare as they explore the concepts of good and evil. Finally, in “Call It (Friendo),” Matthew Fotis places Batman in the concept of another piece of popular culture, No Country for Old Men, drawing readers into a dis- cussion of coin-flipping, a tradition so ingrained in cultures that we often do not see its potential significance for understanding psychological motivation. While all of these essays clearly relate to one another, they also stand as independent examinations of Batman and the universe it has inspired as texts in themselves. As scholars who wish to approach popular culture through the Critical Engagement method, it is the hope of the contributors to this volume that the decision to engage the universe of the Batman as a text is in keeping with this choice. Introduction What Has Adorno to Do with Gotham? KEVIN K. DURAND Superheroes dot the landscape of the 20th and 21st Century imagination. Batman, Superman, the X-Men, Watchmen, and so many others vie for our time and attention, endure multiple reimaginings at the hands of writers, directors, and actors, and continue as a staple of reading and viewing pleasure. However, Batman occupies a particular privilege of place in the superhero pantheon. It is that privilege of place that this volume seeks to explore—to understand what Batman has for our conversations of good, evil, society, indi- viduality, heroic virtue, and thoughts of home. There are those who would quickly dismiss Batman and the rest of the superheroes. They might suggest that they are nothing but comics, caped clowns, easily discarded pop culture artifacts—summer blockbuster, scholarly popcorn that doesn’t last through the movie itself, much less into deep reflection on questions of serious import. Such views clearly are on the wane, but one still encounters them in the quest of truth, meaning, and understanding through the examination of popular culture. Indeed, anytime one comes to popular culture, one is faced with the question of popular culture scholarship—to what extent is popular culture scholarship merely an academic playground in which self-important folks read far more into a work than it contains? Or, perhaps, the question is even more fundamental—is popular culture scholarship worthwhile scholarship at all? There are those who dismiss all things Batman as comic-book culture, as trifling fancy, as superfluous distraction from more important matters. To those “critics,” I will not discuss Batman’s legacy, the psychoanalytic investi- gations of good and evil, the mirror of the world of Gotham and our own, or the grip that Batman has on the imagination of countless people.
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