Comic Books and Batman

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Comic Books and Batman

• Lesson 13
• SOC 86 Popular Culture
• Robert Wonser

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Comics

• Stand out as an overarching symbol of pop culture
  itself.
• They are ephemeral, timely and werent designed
  to last.

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Peanuts

• The characters are all children but they seem to
  have much more insight into life than do adults,
  who are relegated to the margins of the strip.
• Its tone is subtle sadness, a veiled angst that
  begs the readers to ask the great question of
  philosophy Why are we here and What is life all
  about?

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Comic Books

• Comic books epitomize the accessibility, and
  appeal to instant gratification that lie at the
  core of modern consumer culture.

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• The preeminent motive shaping comic books has
  been the commercial motive of publishers to craft
  a product that appeals to paying audiences.
• Because the profit is low, publishers have
  traditionally emphasized quantity over quality.
• This has fueled the use of formulas that can
  easily be duplicated as well as adequately speak
  to the concerns and expectations of their
  audience.
• Formulas are ways in which specific cultural
  themes and stereotypes become embodied in more
  universal story archetypes.

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• Audiences turn to formulaic stories for the
  escape and enjoyment that comes from experiencing
  the fulfillment of their expectations within a
  structured imaginary world.
• Like rock-and-roll, comic books responded to the
  emergence of adolescents as a discrete market
  with tastes and preoccupations of its own,
  sometimes in direct conflict with the mores of
  mainstream adult culture.

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Comic books
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Graphic Novels

• Starting in the 1970s indie publishers began
  competing with the larger publishers.
• They experimented with new styles, more
  sophisticated formats, and stories suited to
  adults.
• Graphic Novels are book-length comic books that
  tell a single story for adults.
• Comics online have become almost completely
  ironic in focus (thanks The Simpsons!)
• More importantly, irony is a basic mindset
• of the carnivalesque.

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Reading Comic Books

• The Superhero genre is still popular today
  because as Barthes argued it recycles an ancient
  codethe code of the hero. This code includes
• A life-saving journey in infancy Superman had to
  leave his home planet of Kypton to avoid being
  destroyed along with it.
• An obscure childhood little is known about the
  early lives of most superhero characters.
• Orphanage some superheroes, like Batman,
  Captain Marvel, Black Panther and Cyclops, have
  lost their parents as had many ancient mythic
  heroes.

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Barthes code of the hero

• Superhuman powers possessed by all superheroes
  (physical or intellectual). Sometimes gained in
  unusual ways (e.g. Spider-man being bitten by an
  irradiated spider gone berserk). He gains his
  spider sense, spiders web.
• A fatal weakness exposure to kryptonite,
  blindness (Daredevil), psychological problems
  (the Hulk), the fatal weakness is a basic feature
  of the hero codeAchilles had a weak heal,
  Samsons strength depended on his hair, etc.

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• Selfless dedication to the common good usually
  at their own expense, the heroes of ancient myths
  and the comic book superheroes exist to help the
  common folk.
• A magic weapon Norse god Thor had a powerful
  hammer. Spider-man has his web shooter, Iron Man
  has a sophisticated suit of armor Batman his
  sophisticated car and array of gadgets, etc.

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Reading Batman Comics

• In 1954 Frederic Wertham published Seduction of
  the Innocent
• Mostly about horror comics but contained four
  pages that suggested there were homoerotic
  overtones in Batman comics
• "At home they lead an idyllic life. They are
  Bruce Wayne and "Dick" Grayson. Bruce Wayne is
  described as a "socialite" and the official
  relationship is that Dick is Bruce's ward. They
  live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful
  flowers in large vases, and have a butler,
  Alfred. Bruce is sometimes shown in a dressing
  gown. As they sit by the fireplace the young boy
  sometimes worries about his partner it is like a
  wish dream of two homosexuals living together."
  Dr Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent
  (1954)

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Is Batman Gay?

• Interesting the moral panic that ensued
• Comics were thought to promote deviancy

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Moral Panic and Comic Books

• Superheroes have evoked moral panic
• In the 1950s concern over violence led to senate
  hearings.
• However as moral panic theory suggests, the
  public outrage and concern was to last only a
  brief period.
• By the 1970s comic books were seen as not only a
  simple form of entertainment, but also as
  mementos of a previous, supposedly more innocent
  period (one in which propaganda could be
  blatant!).

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Comic Books and Propaganda
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