Politics and Batman

Before I first read this graphic novel, I had my own ideas about the character of Batman. After viewing a few films and cartoons, I thought of him as a playboy and somewhat of a man with deep issues but was still able to have fun. However once I finished this book, I had a lot of  second thoughts. I thought Batman was a man of justice and somebody who wanted to help humanity, but at the end of the novel I was slightly confused. I expected Bruce to be a little bit of a “lost” or brooding soul but he seemed extremely tragic.

The novel begins by introducing the audience to the rapidly decaying Gotham city,  its terribly sad police department that can’t seem to put a stop to the rising crime rate, and a retired 55 yr old Bruce Wayne. Bruce aka Batman, is tired of his city being over run with criminals and its citizens being slain by the mutant gang. He starts to feel like something drastic should be done and when the heat wave over Gotham finally breaks, he returns to his life of crime fighting.  Although most would think that another person around enforcing the law would be a positive, he is not greeted warmly by some of the government officials or the public. A lot of people see the return of Batman as a negative and as somebody who motivates crime instead of preventing it. Seeing him as an out of control vigilante, the new police commissioner puts a warrant out for his arrest. His meddling in affairs that she feels are none of his business, cause her to harbor many harsh feelings towards him.

Although most don’t find Batman as a justifiable way to stop crime, there is not much action done to stop crime. Starting with the President down to the person in charge of police media relations, nobody is willing to stand up and  make the moves that are necessary to handle the issues in Gotham. The cowardice of the government officials and the extreme  masked vigilantes who try to “protect” the streets, speaks volumes about how it seems the creators view politics and the people involved with it. There only seem to be two types of people when it comes to government: cowards who pass on their responsibilities to people beneath them or extremely fed up people who do whatever it takes to make things “right.” These two extremes do nothing to make things better and I feel if there were more of a medium between the two, Gotham wouldn’t have been in such a dire situation.

The only person I feel was a good middle between these extremes was police commissioner Gordan. He tried to do things he felt was in the best interest of the people and not himself. Everyone else who fought the fight between good and evil seemed to have their own interests at heart while Gordan did his job because he didn’t want the city to fall apart (the new commissioner was also a kind of middle) . Batman wanted to protect the people as well but it seemed that he was more motivated by his personal demons of seeking revenge for what had happened to his mother and father years agoo.

Besides this issue, there were a few other things I noted about this novel. The women characters were not portrayed very feminine, in fact most had a lot of male qualities and I’m not sure why (ie Lois Lane I thought was more “attractive” and Robin seemed very ambiguous and was always mistaken for a young boy). I was also surprised with the coloring of the comic. I was expecting something as vivid and lively as the art in Watchmen but there was nothing like that. The art was still interesting but sometimes I was confused and wasn’t sure if I was looking at Batman or somebody else (especially with the the disguises and that fight scene in the mud).

In the end Batman was not what I expected but entertaining and at times confusing. * Side note: I was surprised by how much gutter space was used in this comic and the amount of scene to scene cuts.