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Name: Edgar Salomão MunguambeStudent Number: 211051144Module Description and Code: Media and communication project (LMC311)Supervisor: Dr Adrian KonikDate: 04/10/12

The polarisation of Batman and its significance incontemporary culture

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Introduction

Batman is one of the world’s most popular superheroes. Since its

creation by Bob Kane in 1939, Batman has given birth to an array of

comic books by various authors, along with television series, film

franchises, and an unparalleled cult following. Arguably, part of the

popularity has to do with the fact that, like us, he is human, and on

a seemingly simple but honourable mission: crime is evil and it has

to be stopped. Yet, in what follows, what will be argued is that

beneath this virtuous veneer lurks a darker reality, something

indissociable from the character of Batman and unpalatable for most

of his fan base. In short; Batman initially faces fascist antagonists

who effectively support the neoliberal agenda, then he faces

fundamentalists who do not support the agenda, causing rifts in his

ethical code. Batman himself is a social liberator but fans believe

Batman to have an unshakeable ethical conscience, in what follows we

will analyse Batman’s ethical rifts in an attempt to define his

social and to an extent political stand. This essay will trace the

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progressive polarization of Bruce Wayne from a brooding loner to an

ahistorical opiate through his alter-ego Batman, to a reluctant

fascist, to ultimately a socially-engaged anti-neoliberal critic in

Christopher Nolan’s film trilogy as well as the graphic novels from

which the films draw inspiration.

In the interest of exploring this issue, firstly, a brief

history of the origins of the Batman comics will be outlined and the

relationship between its genesis and the changing politico-economic

climate in America will be elaborated upon. Secondly, with reference

to the New Marxist writings of the Frankfrut school, arguments

concerning the link between capitalism and fascism will be explored,

with a view to determining the significance of the perpetually

corrupt capitalist milieu that is Gotham City. Gotham City, the

setting of the dark knight’s crusade is important as its socio-

economic features can be understood as ultimately giving birth to

Batman. Thirdly, although Batman is a response to the system, is his

presence justifiable? Is his response to the changing form of

villains justifiable? In the interest of answering this question the

duality of Bruce Wayne the billionaire industrialist playboy, and his

alter ego Batman – the outlaw crime fighter – will be analysed. This

part of this part on the essay will draw on The Chomsky-Foucault Debate on

Human Nature (2006) and ethical conscience as documented by John

Rajchman. Fourthly, Batman’s later years will be analysed as a

reflection of the contemporary movements against the corrupting

influence of neo-liberalism, based on Naomi Klein’s readings in The

Shock Doctrine (2008) and Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the

Globalisation debate (2002).

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This research is important because it will shed light onto why

Batman is relevant, not just for its entertainment value but as a

social commentary.

A brief history of the DC comic superhero Batman

The inception of Batman as a comic superhero is arguably

indissociable from the socio-political realities of the 20th century.

During the turbulent political times of the 1930-40s in the USA,

comic books like Batman became a form of escapism. As the political

climate changed in the 50s and 60s, the relatively lighter mood of

the era turned Batman into a sunnier crime fighter. However, over the

next decades, as doubt in the American Dream was fuelled both by the

Counter Culture, and through the growing excesses of neo-liberalism

in the 1970s and 1980s, Batman turned back into his brooding,

violent, obsessive and authoritarian persona. Arguably, we have yet

to see a change in this narrative trajectory, as linked as it is to

powerful politico-economic, and indeed fascist forces, which show

little sign of disintegration in the contemporary era.

The golden age of comic books

Comic books evolved out of newspaper comic strips. The first

introduction of the standard format for American comic books was

Funnies on Parade in 1933 (Brooker 2010:195). Action comics introduced

Superman in 1938, the first comic book superhero, and with the

success of Superman, editors at National Publications (what we now

know as DC comics) requested more superheroes. In response, Bob Kane

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created “The Bat-Man”. Batman was originally written in the style of

the pulps (inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through

the 1950s) (Ellis, D; Locke, J & Gunnison 2000:2), so the character

was much darker than Superman, who had the persona of a boy scout.

Bob Kane cited his influences as being The Mark of Zorro, The Shadow and

Sherlock Holmes (Brooker 2001:43). The first Batman story, "The Case of

the Chemical Syndicate," was published in Detective Comics #27 (May

1939). Contextually, the 30s marked a decade where many Americans

grew interested in tradition and folklore for reasons that related to

the failing economy. The stock market crashed in October 1929

resulted in the Great Depression that marked socio-political turmoil

in the 1930s which lasted until the early 1940s (Duhigg, 23 March

2008). The Great Depression originated in the Unites States which and

spread to almost every country in the world while unemployment in the

US grew to 25%, in some industrial countries it rose to as high as

33% (Frank, R; Bernanke, B 2007: 98). Indeed, during the Great

Depression, bankers became so unpopular that bank robbers such as

Bonnie and Clyde became cult heroes (Toplin 1996:4). Beset by

atrocities and insecurities, many Americans in the 1930s longed for

heroes and comic books, like movies, became a form of escapism.

During the Great Depression comic books rose to their peak

popularity; in what became dubbed as “the golden age of comic books”,

70 million people - roughly half of the US population - developed a

voracious appetite for comic books (Kelley 2009:1). This was not only

because they were so cheap, selling for as little as 10 cents an

issue; in addition it was because they provided fantasies on how to

deal with the turbulent times. Moreover, Batman’s brooding, dark

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persona resonated with the sentiments many Americans had over the

harsh times.

Arguably, we can attribute Batman’s longevity as a cultural icon

to his ability to change with the period, while retaining his

iconography. Since the revelation of Batman’s origin in the 7th issue

of Detective Comics, the basic iconography of the character has

remained the same as summarised by Parson and Uricchio:

The character remains a rich man who dresses in an iconographically specificcostume (cape, cowl and bat-logo). Because of the murder of his parents, heobsessively fights crime, using his superb physical abilities in combinationwith his deductive capacities. He maintains his secret identity of BruceWayne, who lives in Wayne Manor in Gotham City. He is surrounded by asupporting cast of friends and foes. (1989:186)

Batman’s sidekick Robin was introduced to Detective Comics in April

1940. Bill Finger, the first writer of the Batman stories, wanted a

sidekick for Batman because, “he didn’t have anyone to talk to, and

it got a little tiresome always having him thinking so Kane announced

that he was planning to ‘put a boy in the story to identify with

Batman’” (1989:46). With Robin the tone of the comics became slightly

lighter and it attracted a younger generation of readers, not least

because Robin wore a more colourful costume that served to brighten

the sombre visuals of Batman’s world. Indeed, many American children

identified with Robin and daydreamed of living with Batman, and said

that “the addition of Robin gave Batman a permanent relationship,

someone to care for, and made him into a fatherly big brother rather

than a lone avenger”(Brooker, 2001:56). Before the introduction of

Robin, like The Shadow1(Stedman 1977:154), Batman was frequently seen1The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally on 1930s radio and in pulp magazines, and finally in a wide variety of other media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime fighting vigilante nationally popularized over the airwaves as a

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carrying a gun; however Robin was the initiator of what is known

today as Batman’s moral code, and in this regard Will Brooker quotes

Mar Cotta: “Batman never carries or kills with a gun” (2001:57)

At this point, editors began taking note of sales and audience

response; letters arrived expressing concern over Batman’s use of a

machine gun, and “the editors thought that making Batman a murderer

would taint his character, and that mothers would object to letting

their kids see and read about such shootings” (Kane & Andrae

1989:45). Also, another reason why Batman no longer killed was the

simple fact deduced by creators Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson,

namely that keeping the villains alive would make them recurring

arch-nemeses. Instead, Batman resorted to beating his enemies with

his bare hands. In fact, DC started an editorial policy that “forbade

any whippings, hangings, knifings, or sexual references. Even the

word “flick was forbidden because the lettering (all in block

capitals) might run together” (Kane & Andrae 1989:46).

The Batman of 1939 and the early 1940s fought gangsters, thugs,

crooked magnates and spies in America; in essence he fought the

villains of the Great Depression (Brooker 2001:50). With the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the US joined World War 2,

and the media became a means of wartime propaganda. Analogously,

Marvel’s Captain America became directly involved in the war; the

first issue depicted Captain America punching Hitler, while many

comic books were exported to soldiers on the front lines for

"wealthy, young man about town" with psychic powers. One of the most famous adventure heroesof the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured on the radio, in a long running pulp magazine series, in comic books, comic strips, television, video games, and at least five motion pictures. The radio drama is well-remembered for those episodes voiced by Orson Welles.

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inspiration. However, in contrast, the Batman of the comics did not

fight the political enemies that the US wanted to destroy, as that

was a soldier’s job on the front lines. Instead, Batman retained his

established identity, and his wartime propaganda only involved war

bond appeals, as evidenced by the cover of Batman #17 (June-July

1943) (Brooker 2001:73). If there was an overt reference to the

political scene it occurred in the episode “The electric brain” of

Columbia’s Batman (1943) serial. Over a pan of the deserted streets

of little Tokyo, the voice over says, “Since a wise government

rounded up to ship the shifty eyed Japs it has become virtually a

ghost street, but only one business survives, seeking out a

precarious existence on the dimes of curiosity seekers.” There in

Little Tokyo, the next scene introduces a patriotic Dr Tito Daka,

proclaiming servitude to his majesty Hirohito, vowing to destroy the

evil democratic forces of the United States to make way for the new

order – an order that will bring about liberation of the enslaved

people of America. The villain is a selfless Japanese man serving the

grander agenda of Japan, whose enemy is the United States; a

reflection on the reality of the times. Upon first meeting Dr Daka,

Batman quips out, “Aha, a Jap!”, today that comment would be deemed

racist and condemned, but back in 1943 this quip served as a vehicle

for propaganda.

Will Brooker (2001:68) is of the opinion that it would not be an

exaggeration to say that in the 1940s no American could walk 10

minutes from their home without being exposed to several messages,

whether borne by radio, cinema hoardings or soup cans, exhorting

people either directly or subtly to keep up the fight on the home

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front. However, by 1941, the Batman template had already been

cemented. The caped crusader had a supporting cast of allies and

foes, a sidekick that doubled sales figures and a social agenda that

made him a positive influence, warding off complaints from parents

(Brooker 2001:62). An impending war was not to change the established

Batman mythos, rather the Batman mythos began to combine realism with

elements of the supernatural, or apparently supernatural (Brooker,

2001:50-51). This hybridity allowed the introduction of human

characters in costumes like Catwoman (Batman #1, Spring 1940),

alongside deformed ‘freaks’ like the Penguin (Detective #58, December

1941), Two-Face (Detective #66, August 1942), Clayface (Detective

#40, June 1940) and the Joker (Batman #1) (Brooker 2001:51).

The silver age of comic books

Most historians maintain that the Great Depression ended with World

War 2. Government spending on war accelerated recovery, and America’s

entry into the war helped bring unemployment down (Romer 1992:757–

784). Additionally, there was a decrease in comic book sales in the

subsequent ‘Silver Age’ of comic books, the 1950s and 1960s. In fact,

popular war time comics such as Marvel’s Captain America were

cancelled due to low sales, as the post-World War 2 era ushered in a

new period marked by the much-vaunted American way of life. The

backdrop to this period, however, was the Cold War, characterized by

an unrelenting global struggle between capitalism (the United States)

and socialism (the Soviet Union). The anti-communist sentiment in

capitalist America wasn’t one of harsh hatred that called for

violence; rather, it was a tug of war between economic and political

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ideologies. Correlatively, the erstwhile dark, brooding Batman

fighting criminals in an economic depressed Gotham City, did not fit

with the American dream of the white collar worker with a suburban

wife, two car garage, a picket fence and two and a half children.

However, the attempt to update Batman, so that he resonated more with

the economic boom of the times, met with significant problems. As

advanced by Frank Miller, Batman became increasingly more camped-out

(Brooker 2001:174). In particular, 1954 was the publication date of

Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, and within four pages spoke of

Batman and Robin’s adventures in that period in distinctly homoerotic

tones (1955:190-194). Will Brooker is of the opinion that the book

Seduction of the Innocent was a social project which sought to identify,

isolate and examine potential threats to the social body of America,

with the aim of either curing them or cutting them out completely

(2001:117). Homosexuality, like juvenile delinquency and communism,

was constructed as a social problem in the 1950s. Most studies of the

period, including those of the American Medical Association, regarded

homosexuality as a disorder suitable for psychiatric treatment, with

some even advocating shock therapy and hormone replacement to redress

a genetic ‘vulnerability’ (Thompson, 1966:191). In an effort to

salvage Batman, after the readings of Seduction of the Innocent, Detective

comics #253 (July 1956) introduced the character of Batwoman, a

mirror image of Batman, complete with a Batcave and a Batcycle of her

own_(Brooker_2001:145).

Batman was thus effectively re-invented into the ABC

television series Batman (1966-1968). Batman, played by Adam West,

was no longer a vigilante but a friend of the police, who operated in

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plain daylight, smiled and was well received by the media in Gotham

city. And Robin, played by Burt Ward, was always by his side, often

beyond the call of duty. Yet, because of the latter, just like

Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent was loathed by fans for bringing a ‘gay

Batman’ into the public sphere, the 1960s TV show was loathed for

alluding to that interpretation (Brooker 2001:190). Comments of Frank

Miller, Alan Moore and Jonathan Ross criticised the series for its

“burned-out celebrities in tacky, overblown costumes, ‘outrageous’

dialogue, absurd situations treated with ludicrous gravity,

‘slumming’ actors [and] corny jokes” (Brooker 2001:174). Yet despite

criticism by true Batman fans, the series was successful; it saved

the comics which were on the verge of being cancelled due to low

sales. Visually, fight scenes in the TV series began to use captions

like POW! SOCK! And THUD! The idea was taken straight out of the

comics, which made the viewer think of the comics in a subliminal

way. Indeed, while some of the special effects were ground-breaking

and a financial investment for the producers, colour television had

only been around for three years, and Batman took full advantage of

the new potential. The corollary of this was that the Batman comics

were forced to comply with this colourful version of what was once

“The Dark Knight”. Via such means pop art turned comics on the

decline into respectable works of art.

However, no sooner had comics returned from the brink than they

encountered a new and powerful challenge: social-political

complexity. ‘Send Batman to ‘Viet-Nam’, read an unauthorised button

of 1968 (Brooker 2001:229). However, this was not to be, the camped-

out Batman was limited to his fictional world, because the social

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reality of America was more complex. In the latter regard, there was

growing agitation for African-American civil rights and student

protests against America’s involvement in Vietnam. Politically, the

Cold War also continued to brew between the US and the Soviet Union.

In contrast, the Batman TV show never made a reference to the 1960s

nor any contemporary issues; audiences didn’t even know when Batman

was set. Adam West was happy that Batman made his fans ‘feel secure

and happy in a time of chaos and war’. Yet, Brooker (2001:230) points

to an occurrence of viewers in March 1966 complaining that their

episode of Batman was interrupted by newsflashes about the Gemini 8

spaceflight landings, which intimates that America preferred

entertainment over news. It would appear that Batman, at this point,

had become the opiate of people tired of war.

The bronze age of comic books

Enter “the bronze age of comic books”, form 1970 to 1985 (Wahl 2009).

Privatization, trade liberalization and the reduction of social

spending had a significant effect on comic books; they were no longer

cheap, they became corporate oriented commodities. The best artists

and writers were commissioned for the graphic novels, and artists and

writers began getting more credit for their creations. Bob Kane

commented on the further changes Batman went through (1989:135):

I received many letters from comic book fans who didn’t appreciate Batman

being parodied in the TV series and thought he should be taken seriously…My

own opinion is that it was a marvellous spoof, and great for what it was but

it certainly was not the definitive Batman. Since the seventies, those who

have worked on the series have returned to my original conception of Batman

as a lone, mysterious vigilante.

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In this era, Robin grew up and became Nightwing, a solo vigilante,

while other members of the Batman family dwindled into obscurity. At

the same time, in terms of continuity, Batman’s character reverted to

its earlier conception, insofar as he became once again a brooding

loner, trained to the peak of human physicality. A sense of grandeur

was needed for the Dark Knight and this was achieved by making Batman

a founding member of the Justice League of America (JLA), alongside

other DC comics heroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, the Green

Lantern and the Flash. Grant Morrison, who now scripts the JLA, has

described it as a “superhero-renaissance [;]…a common desire to

restore a sense of nobility and grandeur to the super-hero concept…

[through] a fresh and powerful sense of renewed vigour and

positivity” (Brooker 2001:247).

However, importantly, themes of this era included alcoholism,

drug abuse and environmental pollution in a world that is becoming

more aware of the plundering effects of industrial activities.

Noteworthy is the introduction of Ra's Al Ghul in Batman #232 (June,

1971), a rejuvenated 600 year old assassin whose ultimate goal is a

world in perfect social and environmental balance. He believes that

the best way to achieve this balance is to eliminate most of

humanity. As neo-liberalism increases the pressures of everyday life,

precipitating alcoholism and drug abuse – and related criminality –

Batman addresses the symptom with violence, not the corporate cause.

Similarly, Ra’s Al Ghul, while noble in intent, is incompatible with

neoliberal exploitation, and by association marginalizes the real

human voices of protest against injustice. Yet in the modern age of

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comic books, such ambiguity would be increasingly replaced with

critical socio-political clarity.

The modern age of comic books

Following on from the above, the modern age rebooted the Batman

comics. Under the influence of writers such as Frank Miller, Alan

Moore, Tim Sale and Ed Brubaker continued with this drive to return

Batman back to the basics. Batman’s origins remain the same with

minor changes being made to the mythos. In the latter regard, it was

established that Gotham's police are mostly corrupt, setting up

further need for Batman's presence. Paul Levitz, the president and

publisher at DC comics thus describes the essence of modern day

writers and artists:

If you draw the line between Neil Adams, Frank Miller and Jim Lee they areall artists who cast a very full elusion, they are not drawing from a cartooniconography as much as an immersive world, you are here, you are in themiddle of this, this is happening to you along with the characters. (Nolan2005)

Arguably, there are two characteristics of modern age Batman:

firstly, themes in the comics increasingly echo the real world, and

secondly, this vision of the dark knight entailed a progressive

removal of all sidekicks in the interest of turning Batman back into

an obsessed loner. This is neatly reflected in Frank Miller’s classic

graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns (1986), which depicts a middle-aged

Batman coming out of retirement to fight crime in neo-liberal

America. There is realism in the novel, insofar as Reagan is the

president and David Letterman can be seen on television. And while in

Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke (1988), Batgirl is sexually-abused and

permanently paralyzed by the Joker, in A Death in the Family (Starlin 1988-

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1989) the second Robin, Jason Todd, is killed by the Joker.

Similarly, while in Knightfall (1993), Batman for the first time is

defeated by Bane, a brutal criminal mastermind, in No Man’s Land

(Various 1999) Bruce Wayne/Batman struggles to make a difference

within the wasteland that is Gotham city after a violent earthquake –

in a story is of particular relevance because it resonates with the

increasing struggles we are facing today with climate change.

Inspired by Frank Miller’s graphic novel Batman: Year One (1987)

and Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, Tim Burton’s film Batman (1989) was

dark, nocturnal, broody and violent, and it was a blockbuster. The

sequel Batman Returns (1992) was gothic and even more violent,

featuring ‘freaks’ such as the Penguin and Catwoman. We are facing a

generation of fans with a thirst for action, violence and huge

special effects, and, as such, researchers concluded “that [Tim

Burton’s] Batman movie[s] failed to enter into fan ‘continuity’ as an

‘authentic’ representation of the character” (Brooker 2001:288).

In the reboot, Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed film

trilogy – Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight

Rises (2012) - proves that the Batman accepted by the post-modern

world is closer to Bob Kane’s original Batman of the Golden Age. In

Christopher Nolan’s words from the documentary The Genesis of the Bat, he

“took a comic book hero and treated it in a realistic fashion”

(2005). Batman is now a trained assassin, who acquired his knowledge

over 7 years in the Himalayas mastering the art of stealth,

escapology, marksmanship and multiple martial arts including jujitsu,

panther and tiger. In Batman Begins, Ra’s Al Ghul is Bruce’s mentor,

emphasising that, “Theatricality and deception are powerful agents,

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you must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent”-

advice which Bruce Wayne takes literally. Equipped with a utility

belt carrying all manner of silent weapons, detection equipment,

emergency aids, a grapple gun, Kevlar body armour, a cape and a cowl,

Batman sees himself as a symbol of justice, turning fear against

those who prey on the fearful. Moreover, he stands simultaneously as

a symbol of self-over-coming; because bats are what Bruce feared as a

child, he has essentially become is own worst fear. In what follows,

this essay will draw on Nolan’s Batman trilogy, as well as the modern

age Batman graphic novels from which Nolan drew inspiration, with a

view to explore its neo-liberal and fascist underpinnings in the

struggle between power and justice.

Neo-liberalism and fascism as ideology in Gotham City

Marx’s sociological theory sees the foundation of society as

comprised of two structures; (i) the means of production, being the

resources and technology and (ii) the relations of production, being

the social classes. The hierarchy of the social classes was

determined by who owned the factors of production. The foundation

makes up the economy of the society. Marx believed that economic

determinism drove people in life, and argued that “It is not the

consciousness that determines the person’s existence, but it is the

social conditions that determine the consciousness” (Baradat

1994:157). The superstructure includes all the overarching values of

society; religion, art, law, education, government, ideology, values

etc. As political writer Leon Baradat (1994:158) summarizes, “The

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function of the superstructure is to assure the rulers continued

dominance and to keep the ruled in their place”. Marx’s theory of the

state, as elaborated by Louis Althusser, involves Ideological State

Apparatuses (ISAs) or all the non-repressive realities and

institutions that function to preserve the dominant ideology. The

following are some ISAs according to Althusser: the family ISA, the

legal ISA, the political ISA, the educational ISA, the religious ISA,

the cultural ISA, the communications ISA, etc. Repressive State

Apparatuses (RSAs) on the other hand, function by violence, unlike

the ISAs that function by ideology . Accordingly, RSAs constitute an

organized whole whose different parts are centralized beneath a

commanding unity, while ISAs, on the contrary, are multiple, distinct

and subtle (Althusser 1994: 110-114), yet together they function to

maintain the integrity of the status quo of class domination,

involving the subordination of the proletariat by the capitalist

elite.

With regard to Karl Marx’s Historical Theory (Baradat 1994: 161-

165), the scholar believed his generation came at the very end of the

capitalist era, and in terms of his Revolutionary Theory, he expected

the socialist revolution to occur at any moment through which the

proletariat would throw off their shackles and usher in the era of

communist utopia.

However, the socialist utopia has not occurred and today’s world

is largely dominated by a neo-liberal economic system. The basic

difference between liberalism and neo-liberalism is produced by the

transition from individual competitive capitalism in a free market

system as fascilitated by the former to the monopoly capitalism of

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the latter, which concentrates economic power in the hands of small

corporate political elite (Kellner 1984:97) are free trade, low

social spending, privatization; the consequence of which is growing

socio-economic inequality And popular resistance to this situation

has become very difficult, because, as Thomas Friedman points out,

the ‘invisible hand’ of neoliberal economics only works because it is

supported by the iron fist of the American military (Hayden

2009:107). Yet, this is arguably not something new, because even

before the advent of neo-liberalism, Marxist critics detected the

close relationship between advanced capitalism and fascism.

Marcuse and his colleagues accepted the orthodox Marxist theory

that fascism was a product of capitalist society: its economic

system, institutions, ideology and culture (Kellner 1984:95). They

perceived the roots of fascism in (Kellner 1984:96): (i) Capitalist

socio-economic crisis that was given a totalitarian solution in order

to protect the capitalist relations of production and to secure the

continued control of the ruling class; (ii) institutions such as the

bourgeois family and repressive socialization processes which create

authoritarian personalities who conform to and accept socially

imposed domination; and (iii) culture and ideologies that defend or

transfigure the existing society while mystifying social relations of

domination.

Fascism with its contradictory elements fused into a cultural

synthesis and was able to attract and mobilize a mass movement.

Earnst Bloch analyses the aspects of fascist ideology in 1940s

Germany, in terms of which the Left’s neglect for needs of mass

participation, security, rootedness and aesthetics, coupled with

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fascism’s ability to provide for them, helps explain the failure of

the Left in Germany and the rise of fascism (Kellner 1984:113).

Fascism is fixated on militaristic image, mass mobilization,

aestheticising of politics through propaganda, authoritarianism and

action, and it uses force against those it perceives as threats;

these are some of the elements that contributed to its success.

Marcuse (Kellner 1984:98) also to the fascist ‘folk community’ being

idealized by naturalism2, which fetishizes natural properties of the

folk, blood, soil, the homeland, racial purity and the Fuhrer – who

supposedly embodies these qualities. Through the above, class

conflicts are kept at bay by an ideology of the nation’s destiny, and

individuals are urged to submit to poverty and indeed to die for the

sake of their country. In this way, fascism provides a defence for

capitalism against crises endangered by its volatile market system,

primarily through protection against opposition to the system. Even

if liberalism proclaimed pacifist-humanitarian aims, it did not

prevent or oppose the fighting of nationalistic wars or embarking on

imperialistic adventures, and this has continued to be true of neo-

liberalism3.

The backdrop of the above, namely Marx’s Sociological,

Historical and Revolution theory, Louis Althusser’s Ideology and

2 Naturalism is the idea that one’s social and physical environments can drastically affect one’s nature and potential for surviving and succeeding in this world. This theory also concerns the primal struggle for freedom to fulfil the existential self within a societal framework3 Naomi Klein argues in The Shock Doctrine (2008:12) that the Bush Administration’s War on Terror epitomized the neoliberal ethos. It was a war on the pretext of protecting the US homeland in perpetuity while eliminating all “evil” abroad, however in reality the war was almost a completely for-profit venture. To begin, the Bush administration outsourced, with no public debate, many of the most sensitive and core functions of government – from providing health care to soldiers, to interrogating prisoners, to gathering military intelligence –at a significant profit for contractors.

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Ideological State Apparatuses, as well as Herbert Marcuse’s Critical

Theory and the critique of Fascism provides a good point of departure

from which to analyze Gotham City before Batman, with references to

Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and the film Batman Begins.

"Gotham" as a term for New York City was coined by Washington

Irving in an 1807 November issue of his literary magazine, Salmagundi,

based on the legends of the English village of Gotham, whose

inhabitants are known for their folly (Burrows, E.G. & Wallace, M

1999:12). Gotham City, for all intents and purposes, is New York

City, and more specifically, Manhattan. Writer/editor Danny O’Neil

goes even further, visually giving grid references and the weather

forecast in his definition of Gotham as, “Manhattan below Fourteenth

Street at 3 am, November 28 in a cold year” (Brooker 2001:48). Co-

creator Bill Finger states that they did not call it New York simply

because we wanted anybody to identify with it. It is useful for the

purpose of this essay to give an overview of crime history in

Manhattan and Chicago as detailed in the History files (1999) of the

Chicago Historical Society. In the mid-19th century New York became a

magnet for poverty-stricken immigrants and many ended up living in

squalor conditions. The Irish established the Five Point Gang in the

19th century and the Italians established the Mafia or Cosa Nostra in

the 20th century, while prominent gangsters such as New York City born

Al Capone surfaced in the prohibition era; an era that gave rapid

rise to the black market for liquor, prostitution and gambling.

Arguably, we see many parallels between Gotham City and 20th century

New York; the gangsters Salvatore Moroni and Carmine Falcone, also

known as “The Roman”, are prominent in the earlier days of Batman -

21

both incidentally of Italian descent with Falcone specifically as

“untouchable” as Al Capone. After moving to Chicago, Al Capone

controlled not only the above mentioned black market activities, in

addition, he also controlled speakeasies, bookie joints, horse and

race tracks, nightclubs, distilleries and breweries through which he

earned a reported income of $100 000 000 per year. Moreover, Al

Capone even did business with the corrupt Chicago mayor William “Big

Bill” Hale Thompson Jr, and had policemen and a spy network on his

payroll. Similarly, in Batman: Year One, Carmine Falcone has police

commissioner Loeb on his payroll and it is implied that he is

involved in racketeering with distinguished members of Gotham’s

elite, including the mayor, when he dines at the latter’s mansion.

Not only has Falcone got the elite in his pocket, Rachel Dawes

mentions that Falcone also “preys on the desperate, creating new Joe

Chills every day” using the desperate, or in Marxist terms the

proletariat, as henchmen for activities such as selling drugs.

Because the proletariat would otherwise be unemployed, they become

loyal to Falcone and hence do not attempt to revolt against the

system. The depiction of the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne in

Batman Begins, Batman: Year One, and the subsequent comics in that

timeline, is that the murder was the result of a petty mugging, but

further analysis reveals that Joe Chill could have been a drug fiend,

desperate for a fix. From a historical standpoint, the crack cocaine

epidemic of the late 1980s and early 1990s in major US cities was

one factor in the homicide rate soaring to an all-time high (US

Department of Justice 1991).

22

Batman Begins establishes that Falcone is responsible for

supplying the streets of Gotham with drugs and crime. When a brooding

young Bruce Wayne confronts him in a bar, Falcone says “Look around

you kid, you see two councilmen, a union official, a couple of off-

duty cops and a judge”, then he points a gun point blank at Wayne,

“Now I wouldn’t have a second’s hesitation to blow your head off

right here right now in front of them, that is power you can’t buy…

that is the power of fear”.

Putting the above analysis of the mob under Falcone into

perspective, having both the elite and the proletariat within his

sphere of influence, implies that Falcone is successful at mass

mobilisation, authoritarianism and applying punishable force, all

fascist traits.

Al Capone, although he ordered dozens of deaths and was

personally responsible for deaths, had a strong sense of honour which

he displayed by giving back to the community; he was for instance the

first to open soup kitchens after the 1926 stock market clash, and he

ordered his merchants to give food and clothes to the less fortunate

at his expense. Given that the character of Carmine Falcone is

influenced by the real life Al Capone (Rochev 2012), morale

inspiring community work could also possibly be another reason for

why proletariat does not revolt against him, firstly, and secondly,

against the injustices of capitalist Gotham. Having police

intelligence on his payroll made attempts on Capone’s life by his

rivals unsuccessful, as they were foiled quickly; likewise in Batman

Begins, Falcone pays off Judge Faden to have a public hearing for Joe

Chill, whom he has murdered before he can disclose information

23

concerning Falcone’s illicit businesses, thus a plot against his

business is stopped. Just as authoritarian punishable force is a

typical RSA used by fascists against threats, so too Falcone executes

those he finds threatening, like Joe Chill, and this remains one of

the tools the mob uses to “rule the streets of Gotham”. As such it is

clear that, just as fascism favours monopoly capitalism over

competitive capitalism, from the above reading we can gather that

mobster Carmine Falcone and the corrupt elite of Gotham city wield

authoritarian power over not only the black market, but also the

police and the justice system; hence more and more, Gotham City

begins to emerge as an analogy for neoliberal society. Indeed the

actions of the police in Gotham City are not removed from those of

the mob. Ideally the police are supposed to be an exemplary institute

of law and order; however, upon Lieutenant Jim Gordon’s arrival in

Gotham City by train, the cold reality of fascism is evident when a

street vendor follows Gordon with the simple intention of selling a

book, Gordon’s escort, Detective Flass shows up, picks up the street

vendor by the collar and brutally throws him on the ground, ordering

him to “Walk Skinhead.” Then, addressing Gordon he says, “The name is

Flass, lieutenant. Detective Flass. Commissioner Loeb sent me to make

sure you didn’t miss your appointment with him….Welcome to Gotham

Jimmy. It’s not as bad as it looks especially if you’re a cop”.

Police brutality, a fascist RSA is presented to the reader from the

second page of the graphic novel and laissez faire police officers

like Flass enjoy using it.

History has proved police brutality an enduring feature of

American law enforcement (Burrows & Wallace 1999:838-841);

24

particularly the New York Police Department in the 19th century had

many reported cases. Additionally, the 19th century marked a period of

intense police corruption; rivalry existed between the State-

controlled Metropolitan police and the Municipals controlled by Mayor

Fernando Wood, with the consequence that criminals were arrested by

one police department and rescued by the other. Noteworthy in the 20th

century is the economic downturn of the 1970s that led to some

extremely difficult times for the city. The Bronx in New York, in

particular, was plagued by arson, and an atmosphere of lawlessness

permeated the city, while the police became a network of free

radicals (Johnson 2003:12-41). Arguably, the most famous detailing of

police corruption is by former New York City police officer Frank

Serpico, who from 1960 to 1972 was pushed to the brink at first by

the distrust of his fellow officers, and later by threats and

intimidation, before going undercover to expose their corruption

(Lumet 1973).

Arguably Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the narrative extends

this to the corporate corruption of the neoliberal era. The film

Batman Begins and the graphic novel Batman: Year One best thematise

police corruption when Batman arrives in Gotham City. Officers like

Detective Flass are clearly directly involved in Falcone’s drug trade

in a similar fashion to corrupt officers from the New York Police

department as described by Frank Serpico. Yet, beyond this, rather

than establishing order, police commissioner Loeb’s state prevents it

because Loeb runs the police as a protection network for the powerful

elites, politicians, and drug dealers. The reproduction of labour

power is moreover ensured in Gotham by propagating corruption. In

25

Batman: Year One, a particular scene between Gotham Police Department’s

detective Flass and Police commissioner Loeb stands out, namely when

Flass complains about newly recruited lieutenant Gordon’s

incorruptibility to commissioner Loeb, “So father Donnelly, he slips

Gordon a fifty with the handshake and Gordon, he looks at it like his

hand’s got a disease. Then he throws the fifty in the padre’s face.

He gives the squad a two-hour lecture, puts Schell on probation. He’s

just not fitting in, Gill”. Evidently, racketeering in Gotham is an

unspoken ISA, endorsed by white collar workers like the police, and

it assures the rulers continued dominance. Furthermore, later in the

novel, Flass and four other masked policemen beat up an off-duty

Gordon with baseball bats, hoping to teach him a lesson about the

ideology of the police. Indeed, if even a person of the cloth like

the aforementioned father Donnelly is corrupt, then religion too, as

an ISA of the superstructure, is corrupt, under the powerful sway of

neo-liberalism, which recognizes no boundaries to economic interest.

Bruce Wayne/Batman’s ethical conscience

Bruce Wayne is very rich, Forbes magazine’s list of the fifteen

wealthiest superheroes slots him at number 7, estimating his net

wealth to be nearly seven billion dollars (Noer & Ewalt 2012), so

when Bruce Wayne takes up crime fighting he makes a moral decision

that it is the appropriate way to spend his time and his parent’s

money. In Batman Begins, on his return to Gotham, Bruce confides with

Alfred and begins to plot his crusade, “People need dramatic examples

to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne, as a

26

man I am flesh and blood I can be ignored, I can be destroyed but as

a symbol…. I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting”. There is

reason in this; Wayne Enterprises, the private company Bruce

inherited from his parents, is profit driven, its board would not

allow the company to focus on the fight against crime, this would not

be a profitable venture, so in this aspect Bruce Wayne’s influence is

limited. The profit motive that drives Wayne Enterprises is shown in

one scene in the film; at the Applied Sciences department Bruce Wayne

learns that Wayne Enterprises’ environmental procedures, defence

projects, consumer products are all prototypes, none are in

production in any level. When the head of the department Lucius Fox

shows Bruce a knife and bullet proof advanced infantry Kevlar armour,

Wayne is shocked it hadn’t been put into production, the reason as

Fox states is because the board didn’t think a soldier’s life was

worth $300 000. The comic books encapsulate how in business money

rules over morals; in The Long Halloween (Sale 1997-1998) at a monthly

board meeting between Wayne Enterprises and the Gotham City Bank, the

two business entities are willing to do business with Carmine

Falcone’s Falcone Imports. On paper the intentions are to start a

legitimate business venture but under the tables Falcone Imports has

the interest of laundering money, at the meeting Bruce Wayne is the

only one who objects the venture to no avail, the bank president

dismisses his claims as wild accusations. Because his influence is

limited as Bruce Wayne, come nightfall as Batman he makes an

intimidating visit to the bank president’s penthouse, as a result the

latter resigns and the business venture does not sail. Batman

evidently is able to engage in the fight against the corrupting

27

influence of neo-liberalism in ways his alter-ego cannot. As Batman,

he has more freedom to fight crime, investigating before striking his

enemies. Chomsky stated that it is not sufficient to assume that

behind governments there is the dominant class, one must locate the

point of activities, the places and forms in which its domination is

exercised. Lawmen can locate the criminals but they are limited not

only by fear of the structures of oppression but also by their

jurisdiction. In The Dark Knight, the mob’s accountant, Mr Lau, seeing

that Gordon’s unit assisted by Batman is closing in on mob owned

banks, leaves Gotham with all of the money to Hong-Kong, far from

Gordon and Dent’s jurisdiction, whilst assuring the mob that the

Chinese would not extradite one of their own. Dent asks Batman to

bring Lau back to Gotham and Batman personally does so with no

hesitation. Operating without any jurisdiction makes Batman an

outlaw, his crusade is a direct civil disobedience to what the state

defines as law. According to Chomsky (2006:44), this threatens a

social order in ways which might bring about fascism. However, the

concept of legality and the concept of justice are not identical;

they are not entirely distinct either. If legality incorporates

justice that leads to a better society the law should be obeyed by

all natural and juristic persons. In case the legal system does not

represent better justice but codified techniques of oppression, then

as Chomsky observes it is proper for a reasonable man to carry out

actions that will prevent the criminal acts of the state, just as it

is proper to violate a traffic ordinance in order to prevent a murder

(2006:46). Gotham’s law does not provide for justice or even

correctness so Batman’s civil disobedience may not be so wrong.

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Society criticizes and attacks the institutions in such a way

that the political violence which has always exercised itself

obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight

against them. According to Chomsky in The Chomsky-Foucault Debate on Human

Nature (2006:41-42) this criticism serves two intellectual purposes;

(i) to create a humanistic social theory that is based on a firm and

humane concept on the human essence, and (ii) to understand very

clearly the nature of power, oppression and terror in our own

society, including but not limited to economic, commercial, financial

institutions, and multinational corporations. With regard to the

first purpose, Batman’s humanistic theory is a society without crime

i.e. a functional sociality in terms of Marx’s the human essence.

Nolan’s re-envisioning of Batman’s origins in Batman Begins regards the

second purpose; a young privileged Bruce Wayne leaves his wealth

behind and travels the world in order to understand the criminal

mind, living with thieves and stealing so not to starve. This helps

him lose some of the basic assumptions on the simple nature of right

and wrong, enabling him to have a much more objective understanding

of the enemy. In the Himalayas he is trained by the League of Shadows

led by Ra’s Al Ghul to be a ninja assassin. Ra’s Al Ghul, deepens

Bruce’s understanding of the criminal psyche. After 7 years away

Bruce returns to Gotham where he vows to cleanse the city of

criminals without becoming an executioner. Although Batman does not

wage a war against oppressive multinationals or commercial

institutions as seen fit by Chomsky, instead he wages a one man war

against arguably worse evils in the form of organized crime and

29

corruption. Bruce’s belief that a compromised order is still worth

defending results in a fallout with the League of Shadows.

The League of Shadows has been a check against corruption for

thousands of years, every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of

its decadence the League returns to restore the balance. They are

self-appointed judges of civilization, believing it is their duty to

eradicate societies they deem unworthy. In Batman Begins Ra’s Al Ghul

discloses to Bruce that the League is responsible for the sacking of

the Roman empire4, the burning of London5, and for the loading of

plague rats on trade ships6. And Gotham’s time has come, the city

epitomizes everything that is wrong with neo-liberalism and western

society by extension. The League of Shadows is incompatible with

neoliberal exploitation and marginalizes the real voices of protest

against injustice such as Bruce Wayne and his parents before him, who

made donations to organizations to help the poor and built a cheap

public transport system in an attempt to unite the city. Thomas and

Martha Wayne’s deaths at the hands one of the marginalized people

they were trying to save is according to Ra’s Al Ghul proof that

4 There are many theories to the historical causality of fall of the five centuries old Roman Empire; such as a combination of factors as the split into an eastern and western empire governed by separate emperors, the rise of Christianity, decadence, lead, monetary trouble, military problems, in tandem with barbarian invasions from the middle of the secondcentury CE (Bowersock 1996:29-43)5 The Great Fire of London began on the night of September 2, 1666, as a small fire in the bakeshop of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II. At this time, most London houses were of wood and pitch construction, dangerously flammable, thus it did not take long for the fire to expand. The fire ended on the 5th after extensive use of the standard procedure of destroying houses in the path. Although the loss of life was minimal, as much as a staggering 80% of the city property was destroyed (Bell 1971:3-4).6 Historically, this refers to the Black death of the 14th century, one of the most devastating pandemics in history, killing 30-60 % of European population. It is thought to have started in China, killing 30% of the population. The plague was carried by oriental ratflees living on black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European history (Ibeji 2011).

30

Gotham is beyond saving and must be destroyed. Political blogger

Chris Canarelli (2012) observed that various critics see the League

of Shadows in Batman Begins and later in The Dark Knight Rises as an

allegory of the fundamentalist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and

Batman as the Bush Administration’s War on Terror. The terrorist

attacks of 9/11 were the needle that broke the camel’s back as a

result the Bush Administration fought back, militarily and

technologically in the same way Batman did. The Obama Administration

continued the War of Terror with fruition, killing leader Osama Bin

Laden and key communicators such as Anwar al-Alwaki. According to

Lisa Merriam (2011), the ability of Al Qaeda’s “brand’ to inspire,

motivate and instil fear has sharply declined with these key deaths

Similarly, Batman successfully dismantles the heads of the League of

Shadows in both the first and last instalment of Nolan’s trilogy,

leaving the League virtually powerless. Both victories have indeed

been tied to the principles of conservatism, however Batman is not a

conservative. An important distinction has to be made: on the one

hand the Bush Administration’s War on Terror was almost completely

for profit, many of the most sensitive and core functions of

government – from the provision of health care for soldiers, to the

interrogation of prisoners, and the gathering of military

intelligence (Klein 2008:12). The contractors saw their profits soar

at the expense of American taxpayer’s money and insurmountable

innocent civilian lives in Iraq. Maintaining the U.S. military is now

the fastest growing service economy in the world. On the other hand,

Batman’s crusade is not for profit, the extent of dark knight’s

selflessness is evident when Gordon thanks him in Batman Begins and The

31

Dark Knight, both times his reply is, “You don’t have to thank me”. All

of the military and technological equipment Batman uses is at his own

expense so he is essentially continuing his parent’s legacy of

combating inequality. Contrary to the Bush Administration’s

justification of deliberately sending soldiers to their deaths on the

pre-text that their deaths will not be in vein once the War on Terror

is won, Batman does not kill, period. As a brooding loner a young

Bruce Wayne wants to kill Joe Chill to avenge his parent’s deaths,

but once he sees his decaying city he is able to form an ethical code

beyond his own pain, hence as Batman his crusade is not a vindictive

one. Batman may be arguably responsible for criminal escalation,

millions of dollars in property damage, but never crimes against

humanity such as those of the War on Terror, he does not kill because

killing would make him as bad as the criminals he fights (White

2008:8). Batman is an ahistorical opiate, in this regard his efforts

cannot be disassociated from those of his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, for

instance: In Nolan’s trilogy and in graphic novels such as The Long

Halloween and The Man Who Laughs (Brubaker 2005), he vehemently refuses

to do business with the corrupt; in the No Man’s Land, after the

cataclysmic earthquake hits Gotham, Bruce Wayne leaves to lobby the

government to continue to aid Gotham; at the end of The Dark Knight Rises,

Wayne Manor is turned into an orphanage; and in The Dark Knight he

throws a fundraiser for Harvey Dent’s campaign.

Harvey Dent, hailed as Gotham City’s “White Knight” is the first

legitimate ray of justice Gotham sees in decades. He is heroic,

honourable, intelligent, inspirational and able to tackle crime

effectively, within the law – all without wearing a mask (Cookson

32

2008). In both the film The Dark Knight and the graphic novel The Long

Halloween, Dent is the only person courageous enough to prosecute the

mobster Salvatore Maroni and his associates, in the latter Dent

personally goes undercover to gain insight on the criminal

underworld. Dent is seemingly the hero Gotham deserves, not according

to the Joker though. The Joker is willing to prove that everyone is

corruptible. When he loses his fiancé Rachel Dawes and half of his

face is horribly disfigured, the “White Knight” falls from grace and

becomes the vengeful Two-Face, deciding the fate of his enemies with

a flip of a coin. Dent is clearly an allegory for contemporary

politicians. The audience sees Dent literally turning from hero into

villain, which resonates, particularly with the real world approval

plunge many idealistic politicians (such as Tony Blair and more

recently Barack Obama) take after not keeping their campaign

promises. The alias Two-Face is an appropriate metaphor for all

politicians - none are saints. In this regard Batman, the dark knight

ultimately becomes the only truly incorruptible force for good, a

hero for our times.

Batman and the anti-neo-liberal movement

Batman truly is a hero for our time, his resistance against the

hegemony of the corrupting influence of neo-liberalism dovetails with

the growing trends of oppositional movements. In Fences and Windows:

Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate Naomi Klein discusses

the importance of symbolism in the neo-liberal oppositional movements

(2002:235-237). The anti-corporate signs, the culture jammed logos,

33

the guerrilla-warfare stylings, the choices of brand-name and

political targets that make up the movement’s dominant metaphors. The

activist has to find symbols and hope they become metaphors for

change. Batman is a symbol for justice and the costume forms an

integral part of the symbolism. Distinct to Nolan’s Batman, the

psyche of Bruce Wayne is what justifies the symbolism of Batman. Bats

are Bruce’s biggest fear as a child, he overcomes this fear and

personifies it as Batman in order for his “enemies to share [his]

dread”. Arguably the symbolism of the costume resonates closest with

the symbolism of culture jamming in the anti-neo-liberalism movement.

Kalle Lasn, the founder of “Adbusters magazine” spoke of the

crippling effect ads have on public conscience and supports shock

tactics to disable these ads. He used jujitsu as a metaphor to

explain how culture jamming works, “In one simple deft move you slap

the giant on its back. We use the momentum of the enemy” (Klein

2010:281). The jammer uses an image, a feel from a successful brand

that the consumer remembers to catch the eye. Whether the consumer in

turn boycotts the brand, joins the cause or simply dismisses it,

there is a reaction because the ad resonates, it is the jujitsu

metaphor coined by Lasn.

Particularly in the United States, the backlash in using famous

brand images for the movement comes in the labelling of the movement

by as Anti-American. As a response to the movement, brands such as

MacDonalds and Nike have been re-branded by their respective

corporations as a patriotic duty, just like shopping and baseball are

part of the American way. Corporations are constantly adapting to

the movement, for instance anti-corporate imagery is increasingly

34

being absorbed by corporate marketing. Klein refers to a marketing

strategy used by Gap:

One slide shows a group of activists spray-painting the window of a Gapoutlet during the anti-WTO protests in Seattle, the next shows Gap’s recentwindow displays featuring its own prefab graffiti –the word “Independence”sprayed in black (2002:236)

This adaptability poses a challenge for the movement. The neo-liberal

ideology is so vast that it has no edges, so everywhere that it seems

nowhere (2002:237). Similarly, the corrupting structures that Batman

is fighting against are adaptable. The Joker, both in Nolan’s

universe and in the current comic book continuity is a man who wears

custom clothing, with no I.D, no matches on print, no known name and

no other alias. The Joker is thus an absolute, whose one cause is to

spread chaos, his singularity mirrors that of the neo-liberal system:

it has one cause which is the complete spreading of the cornerstones

of neo-liberalism namely; free-markets, privatization and reduced

social spending, so that they too become absolute. The criminals

Batman has faced in the past have been cowards simply after money,

the Joker however cannot be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated

with, he has no motive, no orders, and no desires but to cause havoc

and “watch the world burn”. To add insult to injury, in The Dark Knight

the Joker says that Batman is too much fun and completes him: “I

don’t want to kill you. What would I do without you? Go back to

ripping off mob dealers, no, no! You complete me!” 7 In the comic

books the criminal mastermind Bane too is motivated by Batman; in the

graphic novel Knightfall, Bane unleashes all the criminals in Arkham

7 The battle of the two centres on the idea that they are two sides of the same coin, embroiled in a battle [between order and chaos] that will only end when one of them dies (Smith 2012).

35

Asylum so that Batman is worn out by re-capturing them and in this

weakened state Bane defeats him. Bane states his motives:

I’ve known you since I lived in the hell of a dark hole thousands of milesfrom here. I’ve known you in my dreams. And I escaped from that hell… escapedfrom my dreams…for one reason only…to find you and to break you. […] Gothamis the ultimate prize. You have it. I want it. (Dixon & Moench 1993:249-250)

In conclusion, these masterminds are motivated by the dark

knight, this resonates with Klein’s example; Gap used guerrilla

warfare styling and culture jamming tactics to create a successful

and “complete” market strategy, just as the Joker is motivated by

Batman to take his own crimes to new heights and Bane is motivated by

Batman to “take over” Gotham, thus Batman is inadvertently

responsible for criminal escalation. Consequently Batman is forced to

change his ethical code in order to continue his crusade. In The Man

Who Laughs in a utilitarian move in order to stop the Joker from

releasing poisoned water from Gotham’s reserve, Batman blows up the

viaduct, he cripples Gotham’s citizens for weeks but ultimately he

saves their lives. In The Dark Knight, through Wayne Enterprises Batman

wiretaps cellphones so that he can use them as sonar emitting radars,

the process involved is form a of espionage as the technology allows

access to 30 million people. This is a process similar to the

controversial domestic wiretapping program that was uncovered during

the Bush Administration, to track any communication between United

States and Al-Qaeda (The Washington Post 2008). However, the

technology, with the assistance of Lucius Fox, enables Batman to

track and find the Joker, who up to this point has been a few moves

ahead of everyone. In The Dark Knight Rises Bane’s motives are to fulfil

Ra’s Al Ghul’s mission to destroy Gotham City, and Batman is forced

36

to change his tactics in order to stop Bane. Theatricality and

deception tactics work on petty superstitious criminals, they do not

on Bane because like Batman he is initiated by the League of Shadows,

so Bane easily defeats Batman on their first meeting. To save

Gotham, Batman recruits the Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon, Detective

John Blake and the whole of Gotham police department. Noteworthy is;

as Batman’s recruits reclaim various territories of Gotham held under

Bane’s Marshall Law, they make chalk markings8 of the Bat-signal, the

markings serve to motivate and to assure the people that the

territory is protected by the Batman. If we were to look at Batman

not only as a symbol against criminal injustice but also as a symbol

for the anti-neo-liberalism resistance, then his forceful change in

tactics indicate new possibilities for the struggle. Had Batman

operated alone and retained his ethical code, he would not have saved

the day. For Batman to find the Joker, he had to be “connected” to

everyone in Gotham, likewise in order to stop Bane and the League of

Shadows he had to recruit a force and capitalize on his symbolism for

support. As Klein notes (2002:244-245) the movement has generally

been a series of isolated contestations, as a result the adapting

neo-liberal system successfully dismisses these contestations. Often

the connection between global and local issues is not made, so

important issues lose ground. In order for the anti-neo-liberal

movement to work local movements fighting privatization and

deregulation on the ground need to link their campaigns to the large8 Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises was influenced by the 1999 comic book crossover storyline No Man’s Land. In the lead up story Cataclysm, a major earthquake hits Gotham City, resulting in the U.S government officially evacuating Gotham and then abandoning and isolating those who remained in the city. Human dignity degenerates as Gotham turns into a dog-eat-dog land. Various gangs take over territories and mark them by symbolic graffiti to ward off rival gangs (Brooker, 2012).

37

global movement, one capable of showing where their particular issues

fit into an international economic agenda being enforced around the

world. What is needed is a political framework that can both take on

corporate power and control internationally, and empower local

organizing and self-determination. Klein recalls the 1999 Seattle

protests (2002:236); the most influential movement to date that used

a merging tactic. At the end of 1999 the World Trade Organization

gathered in Seattle to launch a new round of trade talks. Greedy

multinational corporations and investment banks were present with an

agenda. High on the agenda was the liberalization of trade in

services, to the end of making more millions. Some 50 000 plus

demonstrators appeared uninvited, its constituents were from diverse

backgrounds; from sections of American organised labour to a plethora

of activist coalitions and NGOs. Many issues were campaigned for

including: fair trade, environmental preservation and addressing the

problem of Third World debt. The WTO talks collapsed. This disruption

took western governments aback and it was not an isolated incidence.

Protests directed at summits of the G8, IMF, EU, APEC and other

intergovernmental organisations took place throughout the world. With

regard to symbolism, in the Dark Knight Rises and in No Man’s Land the

dominant symbol used by Batman, his allies and supporters is the bat-

signal - this gels with Klein’s conclusion that in the contemporary

culture struggle the relevant symbols; the culture jammed logos,

guerrilla-warfare stylings and anti-corporate signs have to merge and

be used by everyone within the wider anti-globalisation movement,

because if the movement is everywhere it cannot be dismissed

(2002:245).

38

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