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Fears of a Clown
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Published: July 17, 2008
Updated: 07/16/2008 08:50 pm
Batman is back, and he's looking pretty spry for a 69-year-old.
The movie The Dark Knight is a sequel to the 2005 hit Batman Begins, in which director Christopher Nolan and actor Christian Bale presented a dark, more realistic take on the vigilante-in-a-batsuit. This time around, Batman is up against his number one adversary, the Joker. Much of the advance buzz on the film has revolved around the Joker and particularly the tragic death of Heath Ledger, the actor who plays the "Clown Prince of Crime" this time around.
Since his introduction in 1939's Detective Comics # 27, Batman has become one of the most popular fictional characters in history. He appeared in comic books, newspaper comic strips, movie serials, TV shows, cartoons, video games and, of course, movies.
John McNally, an associate professor of English at Wake Forest University, is a longtime fan of the character.
"According to my mother," he said, "the first word I ever spoke was ‘Batman.'"
McNally's fascination with superheroes recently led him to co-edit (with Owen King) Who Can Save Us Now?, an anthology of short stories about superheroes and how they might function in the real world.
John Floyd, an artist who lives in Thomasville, has worked on Batman many times over the years, inking such titles as Detective Comics, Shadow of the Bat, Legends of the Dark Knight and Batman: Gotham Knights. He is now working on the Batman spinoff comic Birds of Prey, about a team of female crime fighters led by the former Batgirl. His first issue of Birds of Prey is due in comic shops this week.
"I believe watching the Adam West Batman TV show was how I first became a Batman fan," he said. "I think it was also my first exposure to comic books in general, through television. I have an old photo of myself at age 4 wearing a Batman Halloween costume. He's a deeply interesting character, with one of the best superhero outfit designs in comics."
One of the most appealing aspects of Batman, McNally said, is that he's a superhero who doesn't rely on superhuman powers.
"He's just a guy in a bat suit," McNally said. "Mass popularity of characters is almost always proportionate to how much we'd like to be that character, and in Batman's case, we could be that character. In theory, that is."
Batman's origin has been reinterpreted over the years, but the basic story remains intact: Young Bruce Wayne, the son of a wealthy couple, watches in horror as his parents are gunned down during a mugging. He grows up training himself to the peak of human perfection, both physically and mentally, to become the ultimate detective and wage a war on crime.
For good measure, because criminals are "a superstitious, cowardly lot," he dresses in a dark, sinister costume and does his work at night. And thanks to his family fortune, Wayne can afford nifty toys such as the Batmobile and his utility belt full of gadgets.
"Personally, I prefer more realistic scenarios to ones where, say, a baby is blasted off a distant planet and lands on Earth," McNally said. "Bear in mind: Superman pre-dated space travel, so we're a more savvy now, which isn't to say that we can't suspend disbelief, of course. The Batman origin is just easier to swallow."
Every hero needs a villain to face off against, and Batman has a huge rogues' gallery including such memorable characters as the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face and The Riddler. But his most popular enemy has always been the Joker, a grinning, chalk-faced villain first introduced in 1940.
According to McNally, "People are fascinated with bad guys who are over-the-top, who are fun to watch. Even a character like Hannibal Lecter has panache! They're what I call the ‘likeable-unlikeable characters,' which is to say, characters who you want to hang out with for two hours on the screen, just not in real life. Bad guys who are too realistic aren't all that fun to watch. Those would be the ‘unlikeable-unlikeable characters.'"
"I think the appeal of the Joker is that his appearance is based on a circus clown, and there's something almost inherently creepy about a clown's made-up face," Floyd said. "Someone who never stops laughing and smiling while committing acts of violence is frightening, and he's also funny.
"During the six years I've done artwork on Batman comics, I've had the opportunity to work on the Joker several times, and he's usually in the best Batman stories I've done."
He is particularly proud of Batman: Lovers and Madmen, a storyline that ran last year in the comic book series Batman Confidential and was recently reprinted in a hardcover graphic novel. It reinterprets the Joker's origin story.
"It will be interesting for me to see how similar the movie's origin for the Joker is to the story I did with (writer) Michael Green and (co-artist) Denys Cowan," Floyd said. "Judging from the previews, this looks to be the darkest take on the Joker that film audiences have seen."
So why are superheroes still so popular, with recent hits such as Batman Begins, Iron Man and the Spider-Man films?
"Superheroes tap into our primal desire to pit good against evil, and to watch good triumph," McNally said. "Again, it's about wish fulfillment. Ambiguity doesn't sell tickets. But I also think that most people secretly desire the superheroes' dual lives. Who wouldn't? By day, you're a grunt worker, a regular schmo; by night, you're flying through the air and kicking butt. Most of us probably live a dual life, but I suspect it's not nearly as interesting as Batman's."
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