Gotham City Living

The Social Dynamics in the Batman Comics and Media

Erica McCrystal

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350148925
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Critica letteraria di fumetti e graphic novel

Framing Gotham City as a microcosm of a modern-day metropolis, Gotham City Living posits this fictional setting as a hyper-aware archetype, demonstrative of the social, political and cultural tensions felt throughout urban America. Looking at the comics, graphic novels, films and television shows that form the Batman universe, this book demonstrates how the various creators of Gotham City have imagined a geography for the condition of America, the cast of characters acting as catalysts for a revaluation of established urban values. McCrystal breaks down representations of the city and its inhabitants into key sociological themes, focusing on youth, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class disparity and criminality. Surveying comic strip publications from the mid-20th century to modern depictions, this book explores a wide range of material from the universe as well as the most contemporary depictions of the caped crusader not yet fully addressed in a scholarly context. These include the works of Tom King and Gail Simone; the films by Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton; and the Batman animated series and Gotham television shows. Covering characters from Batman and Robin to Batgirl, Catwoman and Poison Ivy, Gotham City Living examines the Batman franchise as it has evolved, demonstrating how the city presents a timeline of social progression (and regression) in urban American society.

1

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 “appropriate” 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 youths—some who turn to crime and others who embrace heroism. Batman often tries to morally steer Gotham’s youth away from criminal influences, as he realizes that children and adolescents are greatly impacted by their surroundings. Through Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, this chapter looks at the ways in which Gotham’s youth cultivate moral judgment.

Batman’s 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 Marcia’s theory of identity formation as well as trauma theory to see the impact of trauma on child development in Gotham. Through Robin’s 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 Batman’s guidance of Gotham’s 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 America’s 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 Collier’s 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 “Horror in the Nursery,” the 1948 article quotes Wertham saying, “The 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 stultifying” (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 “burial service,” said, “Believing 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 more” (qtd. in The Washington Post 1948). Then on December 10, 1948, students at St. Patrick’s 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. Mary’s High School conducted a mock trial where comic book characters “ ‘pleaded guilty’ to various charges of leading young people astray and building up false conceptions in the minds of youth.” A Girl Scout troop initiated a crusade against the comics, which ended in a comic book burning. The students at both St. Mary’s High School and grade school pledged not to read or purchase “objectionable publications” 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: “Another 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 literature” (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. Wertham’s claims, arguing that his evidence is inadequate and unjustly projects vexations with the state of society onto the comic book industry:

This extreme position which is not substantiated by any valid research, is not only contrary to considerable current psychiatric thinking, but also disregards tested research procedures which have discredited numerous previous monistic theories of delinquency causation. Wertham’s dark picture of the influence of comics is more forensic than it is scientific and illustrates a dangerous habit of projecting our social frustrations upon some specific trait of our culture, which becomes a sort of “whipping boy” for our failure to control the whole gamut of social breakdown. (1949, 195)

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 “social frustrations.” 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 Wertham’s conclusions merely unsubstantiated opinion (200). The inconsistency of research would make Wertham’s 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, “Our researches have proved that there is a significant correlation between crime-comics reading and the more serious forms of juvenile delinquency.” 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, “Even more than crime, juvenile delinquency reflects the social values current in a society” (149). An uptick in juvenile delinquency—which is a result of the comic books according to Wertham—would 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: “The subcommittee believes that this Nation cannot afford the calculated risk involved in the continued mass dissemination of crime and horror comic books to children” (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 “the comic books placed so temptingly before our Nation’s children at every corner newsstand are clean, decent, and fit to be read by children” (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 America’s 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 2005–6). 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 “to exhibit higher levels of violent thoughts, anti-social and aggressive behavior, fear, anxiety, and hostility, and desensitization to the pain and suffering of others” (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 games—regardless of their content—are 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 development—whether 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 America’s 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. Gotham’s 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 Gotham’s youth if he wants to repair an ongoing cycle of criminality.

Batman’s efforts to morally steer Gotham’s children and adolescents started very early in the franchise. In Batman #3 (Finger and Kane 1940e), Batman fights a group of thugs—one 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, “We’ve 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!” 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 Batman’s side, ...