Heroes of Film, Comics, and American Culture - Essays on Real and Fictional Defenders of Home

This book edited by Lisa M. DeTora is a collection of essays about superheroes and popular culture. There is an essay about Batman entitled: "Terrorist, Technocrat, and Feudal Lord: Batman in Comic Book and Film Adaptations" written by Marc Edward DiPaolo. This essay is a typical Batman essay in the fact that it analyzes primarily Batman movies and really is not organized under a centralized theme. However, below is the most interesting passage from the article found at the conclusion:

"Admittedly, there are many problematic elements to the Batman story featured in films, comic books, and cartoons. The story is consistently sexist in its thinking and has an almost uniformly male cast of characters. It is in love with technology and weaponry - a narrative about boys with toys. It is, therefore, obviously the product of adolescent male power fantasies and wish fulfillment. It is also, in this day and age, a potentially dangerous narrative that can be easily explored as propaganda that supports the excesses of American imperialism and global capitalism.

However, at its best, the Batman story is about justice, restraint, and the desire to take a stand against evil - to make society as a whole the better for the effort. It is about a man who has the power, the money, and the influence to behave self-indulgently, but who, instead, uses moderation and behaves selflessly. It is possible for a fan to embrace Batman's more problematic character traits - his flirtation with fascism, his sexism, his single-mindedness - and that is, of course, not desirable. But it is also possible for someone to enjoy the heroism that Batman represents and to strive to find a real-world way to emulate it while being critical of the Batman universe and aware of the limitations of Batman's philosophy. It is in Batman's nobility - his desire to protect and improve his home city - that he has a renewed appeal for modern audiences. He is especially appealing to the modern day New Yorker, who fears that the city might be too far gone to save, or that it might be attacked by a real-life Ra's al Ghul. He is an exhortation not to give up, but to remain hopeful and to keep striving for a better future."

Citation: DeTora, Lisa. Heroes of film, comics and American culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009. 194-217. Print.