Batman Creator Bob Kane's Headstone. Photo by Lynda M. Langley
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
x A ck NO wl E D GMEN ts Michael covers it in his autobiography, The Boy Who Loved Batman. While I have additional reasons for thanking every individual mentioned above, I must again thank two important and gracious human beings in particular: Michael Uslan for contributing this book’s foreword and Denny O’Neil for the introduction. It is an honor, sirs. Jerry Robinson’s gone now, but I remain forever grateful to him. Hired in his teens to work on the art a few months after Kane and Finger created their masked avenger, Jerry contributed much to their mythos and brought those early days to life for me. He was always a warm and considerate man who spent as much time asking about me, my work, and my opinions as he spent answering my questions. I’ll never get to meet the late Bob Kane or Bill Finger. We can’t chat about their creations. I can’t watch them greet fans, hear them recount anecdotes from their amazing lives, or thank them for everything they set in motion and all that their legacy has meant—not face-to-face anyway. This book is more than my answer to a question the man who played my childhood hero once asked me, as you’ll soon see. It’s my heartfelt “thank you” to Bob and Bill. Jerry too. Batman creator Bob Kane’s headstone. Photo by Lynda M. Langley. FM.indd 10 5/5/2012 8:37:57 AM xii FORE W OR D Left to right: Comic-Con panelists Robin Rosenberg, Michael Uslan, Travis Langley, Adam West, Jerry Robinson. Photo by Alex Langley. up bias, prejudice, and fear against the Joker and his compadres. Indeed, these psychiatrists and psychologists now see Batman as more of the bad guy than the so-called supervillains he opposes. They give no credit to the Dark Knight for his decades-long non-use of butterfly nets (while not specifically mentioned in the article, I’ll venture to guess that the term “butterfly nets” is also no longer politically correct) to corral his opponents who break out of Arkham seemingly every Wednesday the new comic books go on sale. The bipolar opposite of this rather sensationalistic approach to Batman and the comics with all the trumped-up charges against the Caped Crusader is the scholarly and insightful book you now hold in your hands. Superherologist Travis Langley is a university professor and an eminent scholar on the psychology of comic book superheroes and their real-life fans. Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight represents the culmination of his professional journal articles, chapters, blogs, many convention panels, and lifetime of contemplating the nature of heroes both factual and fictional, especially the one who guards Gotham. His professional credentials, mixed with his love for comic books and the character of Batman, create a fascinating, entertaining, and educational read. What makes Batman tick? Are superheroes with secret identities schizophrenic? Is Batman neurotic? Psychotic? And are Batman’s rogues gallery of supervillains truly not rogues or supervillains, but rather victims of a heartless society who FM.indd 12 5/5/2012 8:37:57 AM BE N EATH TH E CO W L 7 Nobody today gets to read that first Batman story without already knowing that the vigilante puzzling authorities will turn out to be the bored rich boy who spends his time, up until the final panel, as Commissioner Gordon’s literary foil, a sounding board to whom Gordon can voice his thoughts—no more than we might scratch our heads over a classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel because we can’t figure out mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll’s connection to that lout Mr. Hyde. We know the name and face of the man behind the mask, but what lurks behind the face? The question “Who is Batman?” strikes deeper than Batman’s cowl, Bruce Wayne’s façade, or any name he chooses to use. It’s a who question packed with why: Why does he fight crime? Why as a vigilante? Why the mask, the bat, and the underage partner? Why are his most intimate relationships with “bad girls” he ought to lock up? And why won’t he kill that homicidal, green-haired clown? Does Batman have bats in his belfry? Right to left: Bat-Films executive producer Michael Uslan, Batman television actor Adam West, and psychologist/superherologist Travis Langley discuss Batman and the Joker at San Diego Comic-Con International. Photo by Alex Langley. c01.indd 7 5/5/2012 7:39:06 AM WHICH BATMAN? 9 had known Batman from other media, but memory is a funny thing and the cartoon burned its way backward through time as if it had retroactively gotten there first. He remembers that as his earliest Batman even though he knows this cannot be right. My younger son discovered Batman more like I did, as a preschooler unbothered by details like the fact that Batman didn’t really exist, which may be why, of the two boys, he became the bigger Bat-fan. His enthrallment started with Batman Returns toys that came out months before Batman: The Animated Series debuted; however, the most powerful impression seared into his young mind—for him, where Batman begins—was the edited-for-TV Batman Returns Batmobile breaking away parts of itself so it could speed through a narrow alley. His previous passion for toy cars locked onto that vehicle. Batman amazed him, and so did his toys. Knowing that the man in the costume is a Six Flags performer doesn’t reduce the child’s awe over meeting Batman in person. Photo by Travis Langley. c02.indd 9 5/5/2012 7:38:25 AM WHICH BATMAN? 27 The Caped Crusader’s kid-friendly adventures in early Silver Age comic books commonly saw him meeting space aliens (Batman #128, left) or mutating into one wacky form after another (e.g., #147’s Bat-Baby, right) instead of delving into any deeper concerns. Photo by Lynda M. Langley. when mainstream comic books lost much of their innocence: Bat- man’s sidekick heads to college; Green Arrow’s sidekick gets hooked on drugs, as does Spider-Man’s best friend; the Green Goblin mur- ders Spidey’s girlfriend Gwen; and the Joker, now deemed insane, resumes his old habit of murdering people left and right.34 A more serious Bronze Age ensued and lasted until Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) set off a rattling chain of Multiverse makeovers, and Reagan-era superhero deconstructions Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Watchmen (1986–1987) inspired many creators to turn comics even darker deep into the long-lasting Modern Age, the Dark Age of tarnished heroes (see chapter 13). Despite inconsistencies, revisions, and errors, the modern Batman has the longest semblance of a continuous fictional history. The Silver Age Batman both is and is not the same as the modern. Rather than create even more Batmen who might bump into each other while bouncing between even more universes, authors attribute changes c02.indd 27 5/5/2012 7:38:26 AM 52 BATMAN AND PSYCHOLOGY previously having a child or because they finally reached the point in life when they actively chose to have one. Under these circumstances, the potential for overprotecting and spoiling the child is great.70 Adler stressed that he referred only to general tendencies, not universal rules, and that one must consider the entire context and the child’s life circumstances. Like Freud, Adler emphasized the importance of early years and experience, not only in terms of what happens but how the child interprets events. Adler felt that three basic childhood circumstances contribute to a faulty family lifestyle: health problems, pampering, or neglect. In Bruce Wayne’s case, he may have shifted from experiencing pampering due to his family’s sheer wealth even if his parents had handled it well to practical neglect by simply not having parents at all. Adler specifically discussed how orphans, abuse victims, and passively neglected children can experience similar deficits through the lack of a loving parent. Having had parents he loved, Bruce knows the pain and the void of what’s missing. When Bruce loses his parents, he loses milestone experiences his wealthy peers even had in common with children of the working class. His parents’ murder stays in Batman’s head. Detective Comics #457 cover by Dick Giordano © DC Comics. c03.indd 52 5/5/2012 7:41:09 AM 56 B atma N A N D P sy C H OLOG Y Cognitive Development: Thinking Batty Thoughts Long before he makes the crazy-sounding decision to run around dressed like a bat, Bruce Wayne first makes the decision to wage war on all criminals—a goal in some ways crazier than wearing a mask because one person cannot fight all criminals. To understand how the decision to fight crime anonymously evolved somewhere in between those two points, we should look at how his general think- ing ability developed. The moment his parents die, he is already Batman even if he has not yet figured that out. He immediately grasps the meaning of what has occurred and quickly forms his life’s goal in response. Unlike a much younger child who thinks death is as reversible as sleep if aware of it at all,4 Bruce is old enough when his parents die that he can already recognize the concrete and permanent reality of that loss as well as its basic wrongness. His eyes wide with shock and horror as he utters, “Dead.