The Dark Night

[original post: Sept.17.2006]

I've been sort of emo-nerdy the last few days and have been watching a lot of Batman: The Animated Series on DVD. Most of my friends don't know that I'm a mild comic book geek at heart, or maybe it's that I just love all things noir. I don't know.

So I've been wondering what it is about Batman that is so appealing to me. I've decided that it must be the various psychopathologies that are manifest in the many 'supervillains' that inhabit Gotham City.

Let's see,

The Joker is a deranged, murderous psychopathic clown;

Two-Face is a former district attorney-turned-crime boss obsessed with duality as a result of the two hemispheres of his brain constantly fighting;

The Penguin is an upscale 'gentleman' criminal, devoid of mental illness, trying to steal a happy adult life after an unhappy childhood;

Poison Ivy is a former biologist turned eco-terrorist who went off the deep-end;

Catwoman is an anti-hero who grays the distinction between right and wrong with slippery ethics;

and my favorite.. Harley Quinn, The Joker's court-appointed psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum-turned-lover and parner in crime.

There are others, but they're not quite as cool.

What I've decided is that the reasons for the continued success of Batman as a franchise are the well-developed characters and their intricate backgrounds and beginnings. What also helps the franchise are the connections between the various villains and Batman (Harvey Dent (Two-Face) was Bruce Wayne's friend in the past, Catwoman and Batman have always had a tortured attraction and distance between them, The Joker has been responsible for Robin's death, Batman and The Joker may be archenemies, but they almost need each other in their roles as protagonist and antagonist (The Joker is notably upset when Batman is supposedly killed in one episode), etc.).

The world of Gotham City mirrors life in reality as friends and foes often cross paths and possess many intricate relationships interlinking them within the community in which they live.

The success of any work of fiction is always dependent on the characters. If the characters are shallow and the plot is one-dimensional, the work goes nowhere. I absolutely hate it when books/movies/television shows do not pump life into their characters. Why am I watching/reading it? For the scenery?

Plus, add in classic noir elements: hard-boiled detectives, femme fatales, tommy guns, dated roadsters, low-key lighting, and roarin' '20s avant-garde jazz, and I'm sold.

In summary, the characters complement each other, and create the stylized world in which they inhabit. What causes brilliant people to stumble into the abyss of madness, severing their ties to their friends and the outside world? Where is the line where ethics become twisted into selfish depravity? What influences people to become what they are? Those are questions of character, fictional, myself, you.