Holy Political Agenda Batman! Comic Books and the Cold War

Here ya go, the rough draft that I turned in cause I procrastinated too long.

Holy Political Agenda Batman! Comic Books and The Cold War

In 1986 two comic book writers tackled the superhero genre from a new angle. Frank Miller attempted to rework the iconic character of Batman into something new. Alan Moore created new characters that parodied the classic archetypes. The Dark Knight Returns and The Watchmen both told stories relevant to the neo-conservative politics instated during the Cold War. Frank Miller transformed Batman from a hard jawed deeply committed law enforcer or campy pop culture icon to a brooding sociopath with no choice left but to circumvent the system (Sabin 87). Alan Moore let readers glimpse a world where the superheroes are not set apart by circumstance and do not have an intrinsic need to fight crime; he gives us characters that are fatally and humanly flawed. The backdrop world of each comic helps to draw parallels. It is also one major difference between each book. In The Dark Knight Returns the static world of Gotham has changed to incorporate bits of the current political world. In The Watchmen, the city of New York graces the pages, changed only by the influence of the superheroes. By inserting elements of the real world and through subtle changes of the iconic cities of comic book Gotham and real world New York city, writers Frank Miller and Alan Moore were able to blend political commentary with comic book entertainment.

Gotham is the dark underbelly of the DC universe. It stands in stark contrast to the brightly lit world of Superman’s Metropolis. However, in The Dark Knight Returns, it becomes even seedier, almost anarchistic. In Miller’s vision, the streets run rampant with crime and Batman had retired. There is a tense atmosphere of fear and inevitability that permeates the dialogue and the strong hardened lines of the art. Miller’s world is broken, limping along like a wounded animal. It is feral and nothing like the Gotham illustrated in the earlier works. “In Miller’s Gotham it is no longer possible to assume the existence of Good”(Fisher 2). Batman changed to adapt. He is larger, a hulking mass that is as gritty and cynical as the city he defends. These changes reflect the political climate and even include Ronald Reagan as the president of this world. Miller took the world the reader was used to and changed it, hardened it. Miller’s Batman “mirrored Reagan’s tendency of hiding his relationship with authority behind a renegade image” (Dubose 917). Miller uses Gotham as a mirror to the world the reader lived in. He attempted to highlight the fears of the day and transform them into a hypothetical. Before this, politics of the reader’s world, never transgressed into the pages of comics. Gotham was separate, it was a safe haven to hide in, to reflect for a while. It allowed escapism, but Miller pulled his ideas from the headlines and showed the readers a world that could be.

Moore was able to use the same devices to illustrate a world that could have been. Unlike Miller who used Gotham where “though populated, it does not change nor does its populace”, Moore places his heroes in the ever dynamic New York City (Rollin 419). This change of setting allows him to more fully explore the ideology and impetus that forced his characters to put on the costume. They are not outside of the world they reside in, but fully a part of it and just as flawed and faceted as the time in which they were created. These heroes “exist at the mercy of contingent factors, which limit their actions. They have become just another facet of society” (Hughes 548). Superheroes and masked vigilantes just by existing changed the face of American history in his book. Instead of losing the Vietnam war, the help of characters like Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian, America dominates. Ronald Reagan is no longer president in his vision, but Nixon, ageing and paranoid. The cold war rages and in fact is the driving force behind the action. Masked vigilantes have been outlawed and only heroes that are willing to work implicitly with the government are allowed to continue fighting. Moore shows us a world where superheroes and political ideology are irrevocably intertwined.

In the end, both books attempt to re-examine the vigilante in light of the Cold War. “A vigilante’s activity becomes labeled as such only in the event of political differences”(DuBose 918). Without the defining bits of real world politics inserted into both books neither Miller or Moore could have created something exciting and new for the comic book world. In a time when readers were looking to comic books as a source of escape both Miller and Moore pulled them back to the reality at hand. When characters are placed outside the spectrum of ideology they do not need to answer to a higher governmental authority. By giving Batman a corrupt government and the tense ideology of neo-conservatism to interact with, Miller broke the character out of a dated and languishing mold. Miller’s Batman may “be authoritarian, violent, and sadistic, but in a world of endemic corruption he is the least worst option”(Fisher 3). By setting The Watchmen in a world “marked by fragmentation of authority and disconnected forces”, Moore lets the reader reassess the current political state from an outside pop culture perspective. By pulling in real world aspects to each book, the authors moved the comic genre from one of the lowest echelons of literary work into a new age.



Works Cited

DuBose, Mike. “Holding Out for a Hero: Reaganism, Comic Book Vigilantes, and Captain America.” Journal of Popular Culture. 40.6 (2007): 915-935.

Fisher, Mark. “Gothic Oedipus: Subjectivity and Capitalism in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.” ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies 2.2 (2006): 1-11.

Hughes, Jamie. “Who Watches the Watchmen: Ideology and Real World Superheroes.” Journal of Popular Culture. 39.4 (2006): 546-557.

Rollin, Roger. “Beowulf to Batman: The Epic Hero and Pop Culture.” College English. 31.5 (1970): 431- 449.

Sabin, Roger. Adult Comics: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 1993.