Batman new and old

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Friday, August 2nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Batman

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the Caped Crusader’s first appearance in Detective Comics. He only showed up in six pages in that 64-page issue. No one at the time could have guessed that Batman would become one of the world’s most popular characters.

MAST: Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino to talk about Batman’s development through the years and whether a new animated series lives up to his legacy.

MUSIC: [Theme from Batman: The Animated Series]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Issue 27 of Detective Comics arrived on newsstands in 1939 with a cover promising “amazing and unique adventures of THE BATMAN!” Young socialite Bruce Wayne hears about a murder while visiting his friend Commissioner Gordon. Soon Batman is on the case. Much of Batman’s signature style showed up in that first adventure. We first glimpse him in his costume looming over two criminals with the full moon glowing behind him. The pointy ears, the blue-black cowl and cape, the gray tights, and the yellow utility belt—they’re all there from the beginning.

What might not seem familiar to today’s fans is that this Batman is a remorseless killer.

Gotham City’s defender started as a cheap knockoff of the popular radio vigilante the Shadow. And his crime-fighting stories drew inspiration from the noir fiction of the 1930s. But it wasn’t long before Batman made the transition from loner vigilante to kid-friendly superhero. Batman’s creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger decided the world’s greatest detective needed a sidekick—sort of like Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Thus Robin was born. Dragging a kid around made Batman’s adventures less dark. But they also became less dark because of shifts in American culture.

In the 1950s, the character fell into irrelevance and his comics came close to cancellation. Batman and Robin gave up detective work and found themselves involved in fantastic adventures involving time travel and space exploration, tropes meant to appeal to a new generation of youngsters. Those changes didn’t help because youngsters weren’t reading comics. They were watching TV.

MUSIC: [Theme from 1966 Batman]

In 1966 Adam West donned a gray bodysuit and satin blue trunks to dance the Batusi on the Batman TV series, and overnight the Caped Crusader became a cultural phenomenon. The show was pure camp, but for the first time in the character’s three decades everyone in the country knew who he was. Batman’s true fans hated it.

Both comics readers and creators reacted savagely to the series, finding its lack of seriousness an affront. So DC Comics pushed the character in a darker direction. Over the next 30 years, the Batman of the comics went through multiple phases, but his multiple incarnations tended toward a brooding self-seriousness. None of these versions of Batman appealed to the general public.

It wasn’t until the Dark Knight made his transition from print to silver screen that Batman became one of the world’s most popular and profitable superheroes.

BATMAN: I want you to tell all your friends about me.

CRIMINAL: What are you?!

BATMAN: I’m Batman.

Fifty years after Detective Comics No. 27 debuted, Tim Burton’s Batman starring Michael Keaton arrived in theaters, breaking the record for opening weekend box-office receipts and becoming the fastest movie up to that time to reach $100 million.

The movie spawned a slew of sequels and reboots. After Burton’s version of the franchise fizzled, Christopher Nolan took Batman in a grittier, more brutal direction, gaining acclaim from both critics and fans. Later, Zach Snyder brought a different Batman into his Justice League story, and then recently Matt Reeves rebooted the character, focusing on his detective skills rather than superheroing.

MUSIC: [Theme from The Batman (2022)]

What accounts for Batman’s long standing popularity? Is it that he’s one of the few comic book heroes without superpowers? I think there’s a theological truth embedded in the relatability of Batman. The character is often depicted as the epitome of rationality, something that’s emphasized by the fact that his enemies are usually criminally insane. Many theologians claim it’s our rational faculties that mark humans as bearers of God’s image. But there’s a crack in Batman’ rationality that drives him to adopt a dark persona in his war against the forces of darkness. Batman, like every other human being, is a tragic figure. He’s fundamentally a broken man who can’t save himself or his city. The best he can do is keep total collapse at bay.

This week a new Batman that attempts to pay homage to the past debuted on Amazon’s Prime video.

Batman: The Caped Crusader will pique the interest of adults who grew up watching the animated series from the 1990s because showrunner Bruce Timm is responsible for both. The vibe will be immediately familiar to fans of the older show. We’re dropped into a brooding art deco Gotham city that looks to be set before the second World War. No cell phones and satellites here.

I was immediately impressed that Timm decided to take the character all the way back to its comic book roots. The costume resembles its earliest style with larger flared ears and no trace of yellow on the logo. We also get some tough guy 1930s-style action complete with mobsters and corrupt cops.

BATMAN: It’s Gotham, Pennyworth. Does the corruption really surprise you?

Midway through that first episode, I could sense that something was off. Despite Timm’s faithfulness to Batman’s original look, he updates the story for today’s audience. Freed from the confines of kids network television, he introduces some mild swearing into the series. I found his attempts to pander to left-wing sensibilities even more irritating. He gender swaps the Penguin who’s now a large cabaret singer.

AUDIO: [Penguin singing]

And he race swaps many of the characters. Halfway through the season we get a gay kiss. All the DEI boxes checked. The series also suffers because this version of Batman isn’t actually likable. I’m starting to understand why Warner Bros sold this show to Amazon rather than airing it on its own streaming service.

If you want to watch some Batman this weekend, I recommend skipping this new series and queuing up Batman: The Animated Series from 1992. In my estimation, out of the countless iterations of this relatable psychologically tortured character, it’s the best Batman.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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