Jeffries, Dru H. "Convergence culture and the Caped Crusader: Batman and the environment of new
media." CineAction, no. 77, 2009, p. 42+. Gale OneFile: Pop Culture Studies, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A200253751/PPOP?u=mlin_n_danvers&sid=PPOP&xid=0e7d560c. Accessed 22 Jan. 2020.
Finding this academic journal on Batman took a little bit of time. I had to search through several different databases in order to find an academic journal for the character alone as most of the written material for Batman was magazine interviews and opinion columns on the films and comics. I did however end up finding this academic journal on Gale. The most challenging part in the search process was trying to weave out other source materials other than academic journals. The easy part was finding articles on Batman and his franchise as he is one of the most notable and iconic superhero/comic book characters as well as the popularity of his films and video games within the last fifteen years.
The article tries to explain that Batman should not be anywhere near as popular as he is because of the several different identities the character has. In the original comics in the late 1930's to early 1940's Batman was a gritty mysterious vigilante who fought from the shadows to fight all crime. Then with the creation of the 1960's television series that saw Adam West be Batman for the first time on screen saw a much sillier comic relief type of character that was almost the polar opposite of the original comics. Then when it came time to make the Michael Keaton Batman movies in the late 1980's Warner Brothers didn't know which way to go with the character as they didn't want to get away from the characters roots and the way that the creators of the character intended him to be, but they didn't want to upset the generation of people that grew up watching the sillier Adam west batman television series. They elected to take their own spin on the character and give him a brand new identity and turned what should have been a marketing nightmare into a worldwide phenomenon that saw batman almost over night become the most notable brand in the world. This lead to a much darker and grittier batman in the comics as fans wanted the Dark knight to be just that. This led to some of the most iconic batman comics such as Batman: The Dark Knight and Batman: The Killing Joke. Riding on this high Warner Brothers in the 90's made films that were closer to the Adam west batman that almost completely killed the franchise. It then shot back into the forefront with Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale's Dark Knight trilogy which is the darkest that batman has appeared on screen.
From this article I learned that Batman is a character that can be molded to fit for people of all ages to enjoy. Just look recently with the Darker grittier batman and his popularity in both Batman v. Superman and Justice League as well as in the Batman: Arkham video games, compared to the lighter kid friendly LEGO Batman movie. The caped crusader can take many forms and has had many different personalities throughout his history. But to have the ability to have a different Batman for everyone to attach to was/is a genius move by Warner Brothers and even though many people expected the franchise to fail, having him be fluid and diverse was only going to revive the franchise and make it prominent in our culture.
Awesome post Colin!
ReplyDeleteEver since I was a child Batman has been my favorite hero. However, I never really thought about WHY throughout all my life changes and experiences he remains my favorite. After reading your thoughts I then thought a bit deeper myself. We will always love Batman because he changes along with us! For every age there is a different Batman, as you state in your last paragraph. There's something there for everyone, and before your blog post I had never really thought that deeply about how different generations react and enjoy Batman.
P.S Batman:The Killing Joke is my favorite graphic novel of all time!