TechSmart 121, October 2013 TechSmart 132, September 2014 | Page 34

COMICS

KNIGHT OF THE
OLD CODE
This year celebrates the 75th
anniversary of one of the world’s
most enduring superheroes,
Batman. Comic book guru Moray
Rhoda believes that The Dark
Knight is probably more relevant in
today’s morally ambiguous world
than he has ever been before.

O

riginally created for DC
Comics in 1939 by artist
Bob Kane and writer Bill
Finger to satisfy the public demand
for more superhero fare after the huge
success of Superman, Batman is the
antithesis of the Man of Steel. Here is
a hero with no superpowers that uses
superb deductive abilities, technology,
intellect, supreme fighting skills and
the ability to instill fear in the criminal
ranks as his crime fighting weapons.
Even his clothes are different –
gone are the bright red and blue of
Superman, instead Batman sports
dark, sombre colours plus a generally
grimmer outlook on life.

I am the night
What makes Batman different
from any other hero is the fact that
any one of us could be him. Of
course achieving it would take an
almost psychopathic amount of
determination, time, fighting skill,
strength, indomitable will and an
inexhaustible supply of money (and
good medical insurance). There are
probably better ways to deal with the
trauma of witnessing the murder of
one’s parents at an impressionable
age than conducting serial nocturnal
assaults on the criminal underground,
while masquerading as a billionaire
industrialist playboy by day. At his
core though, Batman is defined by this
early trauma.
Despite the anger that drives him,
Batman strives to dispense justice
and not revenge. He lives according
to a rigid code whereby criminals in
Gotham are dealt with in a clinical,
brutally efficient, but always non-lethal
manner. This is the exact opposite
of his arch nemesis, The Joker, who
kills and maims as he pleases, but
somehow cannot (does not want to?)
kill the Batman.

Come here Robin
Batman could be the biggest danger
to the citizens of Gotham, but it is his
code and his humanity that make him
a force of good instead. The 1950s
reading public understood this and
was less repulsed by the character’s
initial remorseless marring of criminals
than they were by the allegations of
homosexuality between Batman and
his ward Robin.

AT HIS CORE THOUGH,
BATMAN IS DEFINED BY THIS
EARLY TRAUMA.
Psychologist (and true comic book
villain) Fredric Wertham’s book
Seduction of the Innocent came
closer to destroying Batman than
The Joker ever did, and resulted in
the creation of the infamous Comics
Code Authority (Wertham’s critique
on comics has been completely
discredited since).

A man for the people
This highlights another reason
why Batman is such an enduring
character: adaptability. Batman is
many things to many people. To
mainstream fandom he is a symbol
of justice above all. To others he
embodies the resilience of the human
spirit and the courage to always stand
for what is right. Being a symbol of
triumph over adversity to people who
need to find the will and the strength
of conviction to fight for who they
are despite society’s judgment is in
fact quite fitting. After all, he is the
goddamn Batman.
As Raymond Chandler put it, “If there
were enough like him, the world
would be a very safe place to live in,
without becoming too dull to be worth
living in.”

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September 2014 | TechSmart