DragonCon Parade III: Batman's Identity Crisis

Bruce Wayne has always had problems with his identity, and it was apparent at DragonCon that his assorted personalities are having an effect on him. That's why organizers couldn't take the risk of putting him on the parade security team.

"Robin? Where the hell ARE you? The parade starts in ten minutes and you're nowhere to be found! People are depending on us. I expect you to be in the Batmobile when I get to it. It's double-parked out front and fanboyz and girlz are picking it apart! Yes, I know I dropped you like a rock when the whole Dark Knight reinterpretation came about, but I have to face it, there's been a big hole in my life ever since! You know I invited you here to DragonCon to get us back on track. Batgirl? No, no, it was just a fling. I swear, and that thing with The Penguin was just a rumor. Okay. I'm heading for the car now while there are still wheels on it. You'll be there? Great! But Robin-- no touching me in public, okay? Not like last time."


Let's do our due diligence and trace Batman's history.

At age 8, Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents by a criminal; he is left a orphan, heir to a vast estate.

As he approaches manhood, Bruce subjects himself to rigorous physical and mental training in forensics. By the time he is in his twenties he is living the dissolute life of a playboy by day and fighting crime as a nameless vigilante at night-- until a bat (no doubt living in the caverns beneath Wayne Manor, where there would soon be a secret headquarters) flies through the window, providing inspiration and a name.

National Periodical Publications (D.C. Comics) introduced The Bat-Man in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. The character was developed by artist Gil Kane and writer Bill Finger, who were responding to a request for more superheroes by D.C., which had introduced Super-Man in 1933 (D.C. was big on hyphens in the '30s).

With the Boy Wonder Robin by his side, Batman fought a string of memorable villains using only his physical prowess and a belt full of gadgets.

And then came the 1960s TV show.

Camp and colorful, and starring Burt Ward and Adam West (who were guests at DragonCon this year), Batman turned Batman on his head. Although the show was a "straight up spoof of the comics," it reinforced the idea that comic books were childish and unimportant-- a notion that persists with many people even today.

It didn't help that the show influenced the way Batman appeared in his own D.C. Batman and Detective comics.

On the other hand, it made Batman an icon, elevating him to a prominence even above Superman, to whom he had traditionally played second fiddle.

By the 1980s Batman had grown long in the tooth-- and his relationship with Robin was looking a lot like pedophilia. Consequently, D.C. spun off Robin, giving him his very own title. Dick Grayson became the superhero Nightwing. Batman was now a solo act.

But not for long.

Soon there was a second Robin, Jason Todd, who debuted in 1983 in Batman #357. Alas, the alliance was to be short-lived. Robin V. 2 was killed in 1989 by Batman's arch-nemesis, The Joker.

Damn that Joker!

There were later Robins-- Tim Drake and then Damien Wayne-- but for all practical purposes Batman's sidekick disappeared in 1986, with the publication of Frank Miller's four-part The Dark Knight Returns (in Batman).

Miller introduced a more somber, more hard-edged Batman with all traces of camp obliterated.

This new Batman has been the basis for the series of Batman movies.

So there you have it: traumatized child, anger issues in adolescence, schizophrenic existence as a playboy by day and a vigilante by night, twin obsessions with Criroptera and crimefighting, a strange relationship with a succession of costumed minor sidekicks, a television show that parodied him, and then a revisioning that forces him to be a grown-up.

No wonder he's messed up!

In the next post you'll see some of the manifestations of Batman at Dragoncon 2012.