I just get tired with modern media presenting Batman as "a serious character for serious adults". Like, Matt Reeves saying "We're going to make a gritty and realistic Batman"
Batman was a very serious character when he first appeared. But those were serious times. Fascism was on the rise in Europe and here at home. We were on the verge of entering a second world war as we were just coming out of a world wide depression. Organized crime was gaining a foothold in the cities. And juvenile delinquency was becoming a very big social problem.
And that was the state the world was in when four of comics biggest icons, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain America, were created.
This was Batman then:
Spooky. Scary. A dark avenger of the night, fighting gruesomely disfigured and insane villains like the Joker, Two-Face and Clayface.
And then the 50's and 60's rolled around and Batman started appearing in cartoons, as as on lunch boxes and coloring books. And then there was the TV show with Adam West. So in the comics it was sci-fi adventures with Bat-Mite in the 50's and campy villains and puns in the 60's.
The 70's came along and creators like Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers took Batman back to his pulp roots.
And then there was the 80's and Frank Miller. In the DCU, Batman's been played pretty straight ever since.
To me, the thing that makes Batman such a great and truly iconic character is the same thing that makes the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet and Zorro great. An all consuming love for justice, and the idea that one man can make a difference. And that's it. To me (And I get it if you disagree) Batman represents
justice.
To me, Wonder Woman represents
truth. Not "my truth", not "your truth", just the truth. She's a poet, a philosopher, a scientist and a scholar. To this day, I never thought of her as a warrior and it makes me sad to see here with a sword and a shield. She represents an ideal to little girls and women: That they don't have to accept the limitations that man has put on them. That they can be anything they want to be. She'll fight if she has to, but only if she has to. She is meant to inspire, not mete out vengeance. Yes, truth. It's so appropriate, because her creator, Dr. William Moulton Marston, created the
systolic blood pressure test, which led to the invention of the polygraph machine, the modern lie detector.
Superman is simple. He's a
friend. In the 1979 movie directed by Richard Donner, Lois Lane asked him "Who are you?" and he simply replied "a friend." That's it exactly. He's there when you need him, someone who can do all the things that we can't. He has powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, and he uses them for the greater good and in the service of society.
Steve Rogers. Captain America. He's pretty basic, too. He's a man who does
good simply for the sake of being good. He was a weak kid who was bullied the entire time he was growing up, and now he stands against fascism and for freedom. He sees tyrants and fascists as bullies and thugs and he will stand up to them every time. He's maybe one of the few heroes in the Marvel Universe who can give orders to a God and the God obeys him simply out of respect.
I think that's why these characters have been around for decades and have become cultural icons. Obviously there have been many different interpretations and no one can say that there is only one right way to look at them. But if you boil them down to their essence that's what you've got.
