Caped Crusader,

Hidden Meaning
A Deeper Look at Batman and its
Interpretations
Stewart Wenner
4/8/2009

ETS 142
 It is impossible to pinpoint exactly what makes a person read a text the way

they do. Each interpretation is the result of years of experiences and thoughts

which have gradually been built up and formed in each individual’s mind. As a

result, no person reads a certain text the same way as anyone else – the elements

that each privilege and marginalize vary significantly. These interpretations are by

no means set in stone, however, as numerous events or gains in knowledge can

radically affect one’s interpretation of a text. For years, Batman has been respected

and imitated by kids – and fans of all ages – due to his infallible desire for justice

and seemingly amazing crime-fighting abilities. As the years have gone by,

especially as a result of recent world events, the context in which Batman is

interpreted has changed drastically, certainly at least for me. What I’ve learned

about life and the way justice is enacted in the real world has altered how I see

Batman and his tactics. To me, Batman’s methods have been revealed as morally

dubious and overly violent, changing the way I view heroes and the concept of

justice in our society today.

As a young child, Batman was without a doubt my role model and what I

wanted to be when I grew up. Mesmerized by his undying determination and

relentless motivation, I would sit and watch Batman on TV whenever I could and

surrounded myself with Batman memorabilia, whether it was toys, costumes, books,

or cereal bowls (which I still have). I can remember numerous instances where I

would run around the house in full regalia with my mock “Batarang”, swinging the
sharp object dangerously over my head and attempting to climb the plastic

playhouse outside. Clearly, I had a thing for Batman. Essentially what defined my

view as a child was the idea that “seeing comes before words. The child looks and

recognizes before it can speak”. When I was still young, I placed the Batman series

in a completely different context than I did later in life, resulting in a radically

altered interpretation (Berger 105-6). At that time, I associated the signs of

“Batman” and “hero” with the signified being the idea of someone incredible and

essentially perfect who could only do good. The way I interpreted texts, especially

that of Batman shows and comics, was rather black-and-white, in that I wasn’t able

to really grasp the concept of ambiguity or see the gray area that exists in almost

every single idea or debate. By seeing Batman the way I did, I was in a way

authoring an entirely new text. As Barthes wrote, “As soon as a fact is narrated no

longer with a view to act directly by intransitively…the voice loses its origin, the

author enters into his own death, writing begins” (Barthes 77). As soon as a text

leaves an author and is read by others, its meaning is up for grabs – I simply took

what knowledge I had and applied it to make my own meaning. What I saw when I

read or watched Batman stories was the near-perfect Bruce Wayne, a rich

philanthropist playboy, taking it upon himself to protect Gotham City by dressing up

as Batman and becoming a great superhero. Nothing wrong with that at all, right?

Nothing weird about being incredibly rich and risking your life every day to dress up

in rather uncomfortable-looking tights stop a few robberies. I privileged the

concepts of justice and the importance of heroes, which allowed me to see no faults
at all in Batman’s character. By marginalizing the things which I had little

background knowledge about, including the actual justice system, vigilantism, and

violence, my interpretation of Bruce Wayne and Batman became very straight-

forward and simple. According to Saussure, “there is no necessary or ‘natural’

connection between the signal and the idea (Moody 20). I was unable to see this

connection when I first read through Batman, and my resulting interpretation was

child-like and lacking sophistication. As the years went on, my thoughts began to

change, and I started to make the connection.

Every day, a person learns something new. This is more or less true, and is

also the reason why I no longer see Batman the same way, but instead in a much

darker, sinister outlook. To be completely honest, I’m a little upset that this has

happened to me; I miss the days when Batman was just a nice guy looking to help

out his fellow citizens. Unfortunately, the things I have seen and learned in my

lifetime have changed what I privilege, marginalize, and see in the texts I read

today. I now can grasp the concept of the “author-function” – that Batman has an

author and an original intended meaning, though it may not be clear or we may not

agree with it. Just the fact that there was an author makes a text significant or

meaningful in some way (Nealon and Giroux 16-17). However, removing the author

from the discussion can be a positive step towards developing meaning, because

“to give a text an author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final

signified, to close the writing” (Barthes 78). The first element of the Batman series

that initially began to change my interpretation is simply the way in which it is

presented in terms of colors and framing. With a few exceptions, Batman comics

are shrouded in darkness and shadow, which immediately gives a sort of sinister

feeling to everything that goes on. In one of the most celebrated Batman comics of

all time, The Killing Joke, Batman himself is almost always covered and disguised by

some sort of shadow, giving him a literal and figurative dark appearance from the

start. The framing is often done so that there are close-ups on Batman’s silhouette

or right up on his emotionless face and specifically eyes. This lack of emotion gives

a different feeling right off the bat, in that it appears that Batman doesn’t much

care for the importance or significance of what he’s doing (Moore). By privileging

these few seemingly unimportant elements, the overall vibe I got from Batman,

without even looking at his actions and thoughts, was changed completely. Even

Gotham City itself, once just a setting for Batman’s life, took on a new meaning.

Closely resembling New York City, Gotham is completely beat-up, scummy, and

falling apart. It essentially represents a total deterioration of society – what would

happen if all hell breaks loose. The world in which Batman lives is by no means a

pleasant one.

Along with the city itself being rather messed up, the villains whom Batman

faces are in general quite insane. Take a look at the Joker, Batman’s arch-nemesis.

After being dunked in a vat of chemical waste, he was transformed into a

completely freak, sporting green hair, pale white skin, and a clown-like appearance.

In his many escapades, he murders people by making them laugh to death, plays

lethal tricks on innocent people, and overall tortures the population of Gotham City
in a very sick kind of way. Other enemies such as Penguin, Two-Face, and the

Riddler are all quite similar; they each have some sort of serious mental issue and

appear to be legitimately crazy or insane. This also supports the concept of

deterioration of society. The enemies that Batman combats aren’t just normal crime

bosses, but instead these huge, crazy criminal masterminds. Everyone in Gotham

City seems to be involved in some sort of illegal activity. One rarely sees innocent

characters in the series – mostly one just sees Batman, the villains, henchmen, or

some petty criminals. My exposure to a variety of different societies as I have grown

up has led me to notice the differences between Gotham City and its inhabitants

and what we come to expect in today’s real world. However, some of the dark

elements of Gotham City are present in America, just hidden beneath a few

disguising layers. Sometimes I question myself when it comes to this new

interpretation, because it seems like I’m stretching it a little too far. The idea that

“acts of recognition, rather than being triggered by formal characteristics, are their

source” significantly comes into play here, as I believe that just by looking for these

small signs and signifiers I end up finding – or creating – them (Fish 225).

As I’ve reread some of my old Batman comics, one thing that becomes

immediately clear is that Batman is not wanted by almost anyone in Gotham City.

He is constantly hunted down, betrayed, and attacked – and not only by criminals.

Even the police department sometimes, especially in the early stories, refuses to

cooperate with Batman and tries to apprehend him on multiple occasions. The

general response to Batman and his actions is not what one might normally expect.
The concept of “superhero philanthropy” is certainly not appreciated in Gotham

City. In my younger years, this would have been very surprising and confusing to

me. Why would anyone not like what Batman was doing? The series essentially calls

the idea of vigilantism into question. Batman acts as if he is above the law,

something which many people don’t like to see in the least. In today’s world, much

attention is focused on obeying the law and making sure people stay in line.

Constant exposure to news stories, including those about people taking the law into

their own hands, has changed the way I look at Batman and what he does. It truly is

the knowledge that I absorb from outside sources over the years that alters my

interpretation. Every day we pick up new information from a variety of different

sources, both formal and informal. Each new piece of information can potentially

have a huge impact on our thought processes and ideas (Nealon and Giroux 9-10).

Though for the most part, Batman only works for “good” and “justice”,

sometimes he comes very close to crossing the line. In fact, many of the methods

which Batman uses to either get information out of people or accomplish other

tasks are incredibly violent and in most cases uncalled for. The morality of many of

his decisions and actions certainly can be questioned. Recent discussions in the

news about torture and the rights of criminals or prisoners have definitely changed

how I see some of what Batman does. I have seen numerous instances of Batman

essentially flipping out and getting extremely violent with criminals when he doesn’t

get the information he wants or needs. In one specific example, there is an inmate

posing as Joker in jail in order to cover up the fact that Joker has escaped. When
Batman, after talking with him, discovers that he isn’t actually the Joker, he leaps

across the table and grabs the man by his collar, demanding that he be told where

the Joker is. Though it isn’t shown, it is implied that the criminal is beaten as

Batman continues to ask where the Joker went, before police finally rush in to stop it

(Moore 5). In this same comic, Batman is later shown breaking a few peoples’ arms

as he works his way closer to Joker simply trying to get information. These

examples clearly seem to be forms of torture, and the news about Gitmo and the

huge controversy over torture today have changed Batman’s entire meaning to me.

Without a doubt, Batman is not nearly as perfect as I once thought he was. In other

comics, Batman takes it upon himself to use means of surveillance such as hidden

cameras, wiretaps, and microphones to obtain the information he needs. After the

passage of the Patriot Act a few years ago, discussion over the importance of the

right to privacy and objection to the intrusiveness of law enforcement has risen

dramatically. Batman’s actions now appear to be very questionable and very illegal.

Influenced by world events around me, my views have been significantly altered

and transformed, changing my authorship and interpretation. His concept of justice

and fairness now seems like a joke (a killing joke?), as his methods reflect a much

more barbaric outlook on the justice system. The overall pessimistic outlook

displayed by the Batman series is disheartening as well, showing society as an

unfortunate happening. This has caused me to reevaluate my ideas of heroes in

general, as things are clearly not as clear-cut as I thought they were. The Killing

Joke is recognized by many as the definitive Batman comic or the best of all-time. Is
it a coincidence that it is also one of the darkest, most violent portrayals of the

character?

“Authors, readers, and subjects always ‘happen’ in a cultural context”

(Nealon and Giroux 51). While once simply an amusing and engrossing story about

a man trying to make a difference and fight for justice, the cultural context in which

I view Batman has changed. Simply living in the world that we do has presented me

with tons and tons of new information and knowledge which I’ve been forced to take

in whether I want to or not. The fact is, I “know” much more than I used to as a

child. I’ve seen new things, heard of new ideas, been exposed to new experiences.

Signs, signifiers, and signified are starting to be tied together. The result of all this is

that I have become a different reader. Any text I read before has a changed

meaning now, due to a variety of factors, and Batman is no different. My original,

innocent interpretation has been thrown out the window, replaced with a new, more

researched and knowledgeable one. Backed by the information I’ve gained over the

years, the way I read Batman is much different and darker. I’ve realized that

Batman – or Bruce Wayne, however you want to see him – is far from perfect, and

no matter what Alan Moore’s original intention was, he comes across as much

different and darker than he appears at first glance.

 Bibliography
Barthes, Roland. “Death of the Author.” Author/ity. Course Reader, ETS 142

Syracuse University @

Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 2009.

Berger, John. “Ways of Seeing.” (Dis)orientation. Course Reader, ETS 142 Syracuse

University @

Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 2009.

Fish, Stanley. “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One.” Author/ity. Course

Reader, ETS 142

Syracuse University @ Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 2009.

Foucault, Michael. “What is an Author?” Author/ity. Course Reader, ETS 142

Syracuse University @

Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 2009.

“Intertextuality.” Author/ity. Course Reader, ETS 142 Syracuse University @

Fayetteville-Manlius High

School, 2009.

Moody, Patricia. “Brief Introduction to Saussure and Semiotics.” (Dis)orientation.

Course Reader, ETS

142 Syracuse University @ Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 2009.

Moore, Alan. The Killing Joke. New York: DC Comics, 2008.

Nealon, Jeffrey, and Susan Searls Giroux. The Theory Toolbox. New York: Rowman &

Littlefield

Publishers, Inc., 2003.

Saussure, Ferdinand de. “Course in General Linguistics.” (Dis)orientation. Course

Reader, ETS 142

Syracuse University @ Fayetteville-Manlius High School, 2009.