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Youth and Gotham City: Raising Criminals, Training Vigilantes, and Influencing Readers
The comic book industry has traditionally catered its content to its youth audience. Historically, concerns about the negative impact of sex and violence on young readers caused the entire comic book publishing industry to self-regulate and establish âappropriateâ standards of content. While the principles of appropriate content have changed greatly over time, comic books still often speak to young readers in a variety of ways to entertain, inspire, or educate. The Batman franchise uses all three purposes as it illustrates the complexities of growing up in an urban environment rife with crime. Many stories contain troubled youthsâsome who turn to crime and others who embrace heroism. Batman often tries to morally steer Gothamâs youth away from criminal influences, as he realizes that children and adolescents are greatly impacted by their surroundings. Through Lawrence Kohlbergâs theory of moral development, this chapter looks at the ways in which Gothamâs youth cultivate moral judgment.
Batmanâs efforts are also motivated by personal experience. Bruce Wayne was a child of Gotham who skipped adolescence to become a vigilante due to childhood trauma. This chapter examines adolescence through James Marciaâs theory of identity formation as well as trauma theory to see the impact of trauma on child development in Gotham. Through Robinâs character, the Batman franchise has been able to create a relatable young hero, one who develops from boy to man and grapples with teenage troubles while simultaneously serving the city as a vigilante. While there have been multiple Robins throughout history, the existence of Robin serves as an inspiration to American youth. Both his experiences and Batmanâs guidance of Gothamâs young population impart wisdom and life lessons to young comic book readers, while children of Gotham who become criminals illustrate corruptive influences within the city.
The Comic Book Industry and Americaâs Youth
The comic book publishing industry has a history of criticism regarding the appropriateness of content for young readers. The fear, especially in the 1950s, was that crime, violence, and sex in comic books could have a dangerous influence on children. A largely vocal and influential critic of comic books, psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham, began his crusade in 1948 in an article in Collierâs Magazine that published the results and conclusions of his research. He continued to publish and speak at events declaring the dangers of comic books on the youth of America. Titled âHorror in the Nursery,â the 1948 article quotes Wertham saying, âThe comic books, in intent and effect, are demoralizing the morals of youth. They are sexually aggressive in an abnormal way. They make violence alluring and cruelty heroic. They are not educational but stultifyingâ (qtd. in Crist 1948, 22). He considered the glamorization of sex and crime detrimental to childhood development. The apparent lack of educational substance made comic books even less appealing in the eyes of critics, who found no redeemable qualities in such reading materials.
Public responses to the comic book problem included comic book burnings across the country.1 On October 26, 1948, in Spencer, West Virginia, 600 grade school students burned two thousand comic books. Thirteen-year-old David Mace, who led the âburial service,â said, âBelieving that comic books are mentally, physically and morally injurious to boys and girls, we propose to burn those in our possession. We also pledge ourselves to try not to read any moreâ (qtd. in The Washington Post 1948). Then on December 10, 1948, students at St. Patrickâs Parochial School in Binghamton, New York, burned a mound of two thousand comic books and pictorial magazines. Students of SS. Peter and Paul Parochial School in Auburn, New York, followed suit on December 22, 1948, burning comic books that they gathered from their homes. In Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on February 24, 1949, students of St. Maryâs High School conducted a mock trial where comic book characters â âpleaded guiltyâ to various charges of leading young people astray and building up false conceptions in the minds of youth.â A Girl Scout troop initiated a crusade against the comics, which ended in a comic book burning. The students at both St. Maryâs High School and grade school pledged not to read or purchase âobjectionable publicationsâ and to boycott retailers who sell comics (Southeast Missourian 1949).
In December 1948, in a letter to be read at all masses in churches in the Albany Diocese, Bishop Edmund F. Gibbons called for a boycott of comic books and pictorial magazines: âAnother evil of our times is found in the pictorial magazine and comic book which portray indecent pictures and sensational details of crime. This evil is particularly devastating to the young, and I call upon our people to boycott establishments which sell such literatureâ (qtd. in New York Times 1948). The involvement of religious institutions and individuals in the protest and destruction of comic books deemed them immoral and contrary to sacred teachings. Across America, there was a call for a widespread control of content and exposure. Those in positions of higher moral authority preached and influenced others to effectively self-censor by refusing to read.
However, some individuals disagreed with the claims that comic books were dangerous to young readers. In an article published in the Journal of Educational Sociology in December 1949, Professor Frederic M. Thrasher criticizes Dr. Werthamâs claims, arguing that his evidence is inadequate and unjustly projects vexations with the state of society onto the comic book industry:
Aside from criticizing the lack of research behind the claims, Thrasher finds that comics critics are neglecting opposing research and instead creating a narrative to respond to âsocial frustrations.â Instead of scrutiny into the real root of the problems with youth delinquency, Wertham and other comics critics imagine a negative social and developmental influence. Thrasher also finds Werthamâs conclusions merely unsubstantiated opinion (200). The inconsistency of research would make Werthamâs claims purely theoretical; however, his criticisms gained tremendous public acknowledgment.
Wertham combined all of his findings and arguments in his book Seduction of the Innocent ([1954] 2004, 164), where he argues, âOur researches have proved that there is a significant correlation between crime-comics reading and the more serious forms of juvenile delinquency.â He also states that comic books contribute to maladjustment in children (10). Wertham deeply criticizes not only comic books themselves but also society. He argues that a society that produces seductive, violent comic books is guilty of contributing to detrimental effects that comic book reading may have on a young reader (12). Additionally, he believes, âEven more than crime, juvenile delinquency reflects the social values current in a societyâ (149). An uptick in juvenile delinquencyâwhich is a result of the comic books according to Werthamâwould indicate a misalignment of social values of the society that created the comic books.
In response to the controversy, the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary created an investigative subcommittee and held hearings in April and June 1954 to investigate the impact of the comic book industry on juvenile delinquency in America. After hearing from expert witnesses, its interim report Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency was released in March 1955 and presented the following conclusion: âThe subcommittee believes that this Nation cannot afford the calculated risk involved in the continued mass dissemination of crime and horror comic books to childrenâ (United States Congress 1955). The recommendation was not for governmental censorship but for parents, publishers, and citizens to actively seek to eliminate the exposure of youth to crime and horror in comics. The subcommittee called upon the comic book industry to ensure that âthe comic books placed so temptingly before our Nationâs children at every corner newsstand are clean, decent, and fit to be read by childrenâ (United States Congress 1955). The main concern of Wertham and the subcommittee was how American society was educating its youth through reading materials.
Anxiety that comic book reading could influence social behavior prompted the formation of the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) and the adoption of the Comics Code in 1954. The code set regulations of appropriateness for content in comics. After going through some revisions over the next sixty years, the code was completely abandoned by comic book publishers by 2011. Today, concerns have shifted to debates on the impact of violent media on adolescent behavior. As early as the 1960s, researchers began running studies to determine the effects of violent television and movies on adolescent antisocial and aggressive behavior.2 The Motion Picture Association of Americaâs modern ratings system was established in 1968. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 encouraged the entertainment industry to create voluntary ratings of television programs to give parents information about content, and in December 1996, the TV Parental Guidelines were created.
In 2005, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed the Family Entertainment Protection Act (United States Congress 2005â6). The bill sought to prevent businesses from selling or renting video games rated Mature, Adults-Only, or Ratings Pending to anyone under the age of 17. The bill claimed that research demonstrated that violence in media causes individuals âto exhibit higher levels of violent thoughts, anti-social and aggressive behavior, fear, anxiety, and hostility, and desensitization to the pain and suffering of othersâ (To Limit the Exposure 2005). However, Congress did not enact the bill. Then in 2011, in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the Supreme Court ruled to overturn California legislation that prohibited the sale and rental of violent video games to minors. The court ruled that video gamesâregardless of their contentâare protected by the same first amendment rights as books, plays, and film.
Violence in media continues to be a hot debate, and as so many comic books have been adapted into TV shows, films, and video games, the industry is constantly scrutinized for its content and influence on youth. Despite the presence of crime, violence, and sex in the Batman franchise, the comics and adaptations impart many lessons for young readers to learn. The franchise includes several adolescent characters whose experiences allow for the exploration of child and teenage developmentâwhether toward crime or heroics. These characters also have to grapple with the everyday struggles of teenagers, which makes the comics more relatable to young readers. The fictional characters, especially Robin, serve as representations of Americaâs adolescent population.
Criminal Influences
The children of Gotham City are often depicted as products of their environment. Gotham is rife with criminality and poverty that can have a big impact on childhood development. Gothamâs youth are vulnerable to criminal influence that can strip them of their innocence and turn them into a new generation of criminals to plague the city. While Batman needs to combat any threat that comes his way, he also needs to find ways to provide for and support Gothamâs youth if he wants to repair an ongoing cycle of criminality.
Batmanâs efforts to morally steer Gothamâs children and adolescents started very early in the franchise. In Batman #3 (Finger and Kane 1940e), Batman fights a group of thugsâone of whom turns out to be a boy. After following him to a deserted warehouse in the slums, Batman discovers that a criminal has been serving as a teacher at a crime school at the warehouse, instructing boys on how to pick pockets and crack safes and encouraging them to admire criminals. Bruce tells Dick Grayson, âWeâve got to make these boys hate crime and evil, and not look up to a racketeer like Big Boy Daniels who is probably their ideal!â To reverse the situation for these boys, Bruce first rents a barn to make a gym for underprivileged children living in the slums. Then, Dick showcases his fighting skills to the boys. He encourages them to join the new gym and teaches them to be honest in sports. Batman and Robin provide an outlet for the boys that focuses on fair play and tries to steer them away from criminal activity. When Big Boy Daniels later goes to the crime school to recruit boys for his mob, Batman warns the boys and scares them into staying out of trouble. Batman fights Big Boy, and Dick rallies the boys on Batmanâs side, ...