When I was growing up, there was one thing I could never get enough of: Batman and his many sidekicks. My dad was a comic book fan, and my brother and I were quickly infected with the superhero bug. My uncle dressed up in a tacky 1960s-esque purple Batman suit for my brother’s 4th birthday. We owned a miniature model of every Batmobile. I loved reading about Robin, and watching his exploits through cartoons. It was not until I was older that I realized that death and existentialism permeated the stories of the heroes I admired, and that every member of the so-called “Batfamily” was closely acquainted with mortality.
Most obviously, Batman’s origin story begins with the murder of 8 year old Bruce Wayne’s mother and father, with the boy witnessing them being shot and killed. From there, Bruce found his purpose in life through fighting crime, to give hope to the people of Gotham and give terror to criminals. The death of his parents was his main motivation, where his purpose stemmed from. He decided that he would never kill, because he refused to become a monster like many of his enemies. Although there have been countless different takes on Batman throughout the 80 years he has existed, this origin, and the story of good versus evil, has been consistent.
While Bruce had found the meaning of his life within being Batman, he had noticeably low self-esteem. Although many other heroes within the DC Universe saw him as a good man throughout the popular and unproblematic stories about him, he could not. To some degree, I would argue that Bruce Wayne experienced some measure of existential isolation, that is, he felt that he was alone in a subjective experience that no one could even try to understand. After all, one of Batman’s most famous lines is “I work alone”.
The popular narrative of Batman isolating himself and working alone starts to fall apart when Robin comes in the picture. The first Robin, Dick Grayson, has a similar experience to Batman. As a child, he witnesses his family fall to their death while performing on a trapeze, only to find out later that the line was cut. Bruce Wayne took him in and started caring for him because he didn’t want Dick to end up like him. Dick Grayson then became Robin, and gained some measure of requite for his family’s death. One thing I find interesting about the relationship between Bruce and Dick is that Dick Grayson made peace with his parents death, but throughout different narratives, Bruce did not. Their deaths are what kept him motivated, his reason to fight in the first place.
Batman has countless other partners and sidekicks besides Dick Grayson – Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Duke Thomas, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, just to name a few. But the one I really want to focus on is Jason Todd. Jason was not a fan favorite character at first, and his death was decided through a democratic vote of comic book fans, which I might add, is a very morbid way to kill off a 16 year old character. The validity of the telephone poll they utilized is unclear. However, Jason Todd was literally resurrected, in a comic book series where he crawled out of his own grave. Jason then went on to turn away from Batman’s values, and decided killed people who he perceived as unreachable criminals who would never be productive to society. He became an anti-hero known as the Red Hood. Number one on his hit list was the Joker, who killed him. Jason was upset that Batman allowed the Joker to live after he killed him, and refused to reconcile with Batman because of it. In this, perhaps Jason was experiencing existential isolation. He didn’t think Bruce could understand or even cared about his death and his experience afterwards, even though the man who considered him a son mourned him for years. I don’t know why I find his story so compelling – I don’t agree with Jason’s values and methods, but I suppose all humans find some interest in the macabre.
Now, reflecting on a media and a man I admired as a child, I wonder: why was I drawn to Batman in the first place? Perhaps it was the compelling stories, the beautiful pictures, the narrative of how anyone could be a hero. Perhaps Batman reminded my subconscious about my own mortality, so I turned to something that I found meaning within: his values and beliefs. Maybe that is one of the appeals of Batman, how he has become popular: his backstory provides some measure of death salience, and then some morals and beliefs people can align themselves with. There is no Batman without loss and death. However, there is also no Batman without finding light and hope within darkness.
Lydia Manson, Research Assistant
Spring 2021