In The Dark Knight, Batman gives up what he knows is best for him in order to save the city: he takes the blame for the murders committed by Harvey Dent so that the city can flourish. Only his butler, Alfred, Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox and Police Commissioner Jim Gordon seem to know the truth (with Gordon being the only one who knows for certain). Batman’s mythos in the film is portrayed to pass on with Gordon’s final speech: that Batman is more than just a hero, he is a symbol. This is elaborated further in Grant Morrison’s Batman, where Bruce Wayne dies. Dick Grayson (the first Robin) takes the cowl (Batman R.I.P, Final Crisis, Batman: Battle for the Cowl) because he realizes that the city needs a Batman. The city needs its symbol: it needs its moral compass.
committed to Arkham Aslyum on many occasions.
Geek Syndicate
drastically change. An identity is created and changes, evolving as time goes on. This theme will be illustrated by portraying the argument that a person’s identity over time will die and be replaced with a new identity. This is the idea of rebirth: a character has died spiritually and been replaced by a new form of themselves. For example, Bruce Wayne died at the age of eight and was reborn as Batman. That version of Bruce Wayne would never live again, it would never be seen what he would have become; instead Batman has taken his place (Halsall, 2010: 33). For example, in the comic Red Robin issue 14 (July 2010), it was argued that Batman was born in Crime Alley: the place where Bruce witnessed his parents being killed resulting in his transformation. In The Killing Joke, (2008) writer Alan Moore presents one of the many Joker origins that have occured over the years. His memory and mind have been warped to such an extent that on many occasions he cannot remember a life before his days as The Joker. Whatever his true origin, the result was that he was born again as The Joker. Jack Nicholson’s Joker says it perfectly in the 1989 Tim Burton film Batman: “I’ve been dead once, it’s very liberating.” These damaging effects on the two characters’ personalities effectively makes them criminals from birth (they were re born when they became Batman or The Joker) and therefore fit the Lombrosian theme of the born criminal.
5
The Criminal
Police Commissioner Jim Gordon has often questioned his relationship with Batman. For example, in Nolan’s 2005 movie Batman Begins, he knows that Batman is a good influence on the city but he also knows that he is an illegal one and in many ways is just as damaging as the villains he stops. Both Batman and his villains are breaking the laws that Gordon is sworn to uphold. Batman’s criminality is shown to be a family trait: he takes in youngsters and trains them up to aid him with his vigilantism. Recently, this included his own biological son: Damian. All the characters in the Batman universe can be viewed as insane. The Joker is clearly insane, committing atrocities for his own amusement. Batman can also be argued to be equally as insane: does a sane person dress up as a Bat and fight villains? Batman might well be suffering from a type of madness known as split personality (Reynolds, 1992: 67). Bruce Wayne (Batman’s out-of-mask identity) creates a different personality (his public identity) to cover up his real identity as Batman.
The Villain
The Joker is the enemy of Batman: he is the ying to Batman’s yang. He has a low moral stance evidenced through the acts he commits. In The Killing Joke (2008) he cripples Barbara Gordon and in Death in the Family (1988-89) he kills Jason Todd (Batman’s young sidekick at the time). The Joker’s origin (that which we know for certain) was a tragic affair. The man he once was fell into a vat of acid, bleaching his skin and scarring his face into a perpetual grin. Society want to stop The Joker and many members of the public (Jim Gordon for example) have been close to killing him. Further he is clearly clinically insane and has been
Rebirth
To examine the idea of rebirth, Foucault’s work on identity in The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction (1990) will be used. Foucault argued that an identity is continually under construction and can never