Tag Archives: batman

Batgirl: Transcending Bad Beginnings

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Once a upon a time in the world of comics, a man named Fredric Wertham wrote a book called Seduction of the Innocent where he made accusations that the relationship between Robin and Batman was too gay. Mostly because the children that he spoke with that identified, though giving that it’s 50s science I’m going to take that with a grain of salt, as homosexual wanted to live like the two of them. Fellas, is it gay to want to live in extravagant wealth without financial worry? Also that they constantly saved one another, which I guess only women need to get saved. Fellas, is it gay to want to get saved?

To combat this, they created a Batwoman and Batgirl who were Kathy and Betty Kane respectively. They were to create a kind of Batman family like how Superman had his family of himself, Krypto, Lois Lane and Supergirl. They were unpopular and were dropped after only a few appearances. Batman comics started losing favor continually and then along came Batman ’66. It helped to revive Batman’s popularity but there was a problem in that they were still considered gay. Well, that shouldn’t be a problem? You had Batman flirting with Catwoman all the time. That shouldn’t be an issue! You had a beautiful woman portraying her, the wonderful Eartha Kitt. What could possibly go wrong…

Oh right… she’s a black woman. And if they can’t have gays on the TV in the sixties, you certainly couldn’t have an interracial relationship. What to do? Well, you follow Rule 63 and introduce the female version of a character. Thus, bursting from the twin foreheads of racism and homophobia comes Batgirl portrayed by the beautiful and racially acceptable Yvonne Craig.

Through her, Batgirl rose to heights of popularity where it was rumored she might be getting her own TV show at some point. They did something innovative with the character, which was having her be the daughter of commissioner Gordon. This twist was held over for when she was reintroduced in the comics along with her signature red hair.

Barbara Gordon would maintain the role for a long time until the dark ages of comics got her and she was crippled by the Joker. The years she spent as Oracle were important to the character as well. Since then through multiverse changing shenanigans she has reclaimed the title. Though I did like Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain in the role. Maybe one day I’ll sit down and talk about those two, especially the bullshit around Stephanie Brown’s death.

The thing I want to point out though is that sometimes a great character can come from anything. Including the nonsense that is homophobia and racism. While I might have had a kind of downer take on all of this, I think that it was worth it for Batgirl to be here.

She’s risen above giving Batman and Robin a case of the not gays and became a cornerstone of the franchise. When they made both Batman the animated series and The Batman, they included her as part of the core group. I can’t think of anyone who would not consider her in that role. Maybe I’m hanging out with the right comic book fans or the reality is that that’s where she deserves to be.

Best Tone for Batman

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Well, it’s certainly not that.

The thing with comic book characters is that their interpretation switches from author to author. What one person thinks can cause others define them in a certain way down the line. They bring their ideals and concepts to them.

So, what tone do I think is best for the Batman? Well, for me it’s a man that’s deeply hurt and wanting to do his best to help people. He can get angry but he’s not angry all the time. He’s done work on himself to deal with things throughout the years. He can crack jokes and smile.

The mask is off and the truth is that I think that the best tone for Batman is the one from the DCAU. From the picture above, this is his reaction to the Joker hanging from a catwalk over an inferno. The Joker is screaming for help and Bats is just casually looking down at him. Bemused above all things.

When he gets angry though, it’s chilling to see and that’s of course part of the wonder of the late and great Kevin Conroy. There’s one episode where Batman encounters this cruel man that uses children as his slaves to steal for him. When he eventually captures the man, Batman says that he took an oath to never become judge, jury and executioner but he sorely wishes that he was.

How does he handle his villains? He constantly seeks their rehabilitation and to help them. There’s an episode where the Ventriloquist gets released and tries to go straight. Batman spends a great number of nights hanging outside of his apartment to make sure that he doesn’t get dragged back into the underworld. As Bruce Wayne, he gives him a job working as a mail clerk in Wayne Enterprises.

It’s been said that if you can’t write a scene with Batman comforting a child, then you’re just writing the Punisher in a cape. And that brings us to the greatest scene with this Batman.

A dying psychic child has caused damage to a city and when she goes it becomes permanent and will essentially become a nuke affecting a huge swath of the city. Amanda Waller, who I’ll eventually give an entire post to, has a device that will kill her. Batman states that he’ll be the one to use it on her.

Ace has had encounters with him before and lets him into her hiding place. He finds her swinging on a swing set. She tells him that she read his mind and knows two things: that she will soon die and that he isn’t going to use the device on her.

She asks him to sit with her and he sits down on the swing with her and offers her his hand. She dies peacefully and the damage is reversed.

Perfection.

You have to keep the main things intact with Batman, the sorrow at the loss of his parents. The anger at the world for it but he should never be a monster. He should always be someone who is trying his best in an unstoppable war on crime.

At least that’s how I’ve always seen him.

The Spider-Man Factor: Make Your Hero Suck(a little bit)

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Batman prepares. Batman is always prepared. Superman can do anything. These are the reasons that these characters are loved and people think they’re boring. They’ve lasted for so long. But it’s also been said they’re hard to write for.

There is a problem in DC where super powers can become so godlike that it becomes hard to think of challenges for them. The great cry in every MCU movie is “Why don’t you just call the Avengers?” well, in DC it becomes “Why does anyone try anything when Superman is around? Or Shazam? Or the Green Lanterns?”. There are so many massive threats that it’s ridiculous that anything other than God coming down to throw down with the heroes of Earth.

Marvel understands this and has kept most of their heroes “street level”. They are only able to do so much. It’s why people can become fearful of mutants. Some mutants are known as Omega level and that means that they can destroy the world if they so want. In my eyes, that just means that they’re on the same level as Superman.

When Spider-man fucks up, you can say, well that’s just who Spider-man is. He’s powerful, super strong and fast. But you could probably kill him with a small army and some air support. There’s a reason that his villains to bring him down didn’t need to ascend to god level, they just had to come at him all at once.

You can see this in Supernatural, the boys hunt monsters and all these things for near two decades during the run of the show. However, they’re still idiots and that makes them compelling. Because even the best fuck up.

That’s how you should be able to write Batman and Superman but people think of them being too perfect. Too powerful. That’s why one of the most loved versions of Batman is the one from the animated series. He’s a human. He’s smarter and stronger than the average human but he can still get stabbed by the Joker.

We don’t want Gods. We want good people doing good things. A hero shouldn’t stand above you but with you. They should be selfless and kind and inspire you to do the same. There is of course some variation to keep them interesting but that’s what a hero does.

It’s something that I try and put in my writing. I write the person first and then figure out what their power would do to them. Would it make them good? Bad? Corrupt? That’s up to what happens when I put finger to key and pen to paper.