In times when fear reigns, superheroes are popular. On the first of May 1939, during the Big Depression and with a war just around the corner, the first Batman comic was published. Since that moment the dark savior has always been there when we need him.
Batman’s creator was Robert Kahn, aka Bob Kane. This New Yorker, born in 1915, was fascinated by cartoons. During his internships in 1934 he participated in the production of various cartoons and after that he went to work as a cartoonist. Soon Kane noticed the rising demand for superheroes, to distract the people from the misery of the age they were living in.
Batman’s debute in Detective Comics #27.
Batman is born
Cartoon character Superman was a big hit in 1937 when he was first introduced to the public, and Kane created his own hero: the batman. He was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s design of the ornithopter: an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Gotham City, hometown of the new Caped Crusader was a gloomier version of New York City. Kane and his copywriter Bill Finger had decided early on that their cartoon had to be darker than the colorful Superman series. Batman’s first appearance was in part 27 of the Detective Comics comic. |
The most famous Batman storyline shows rich Bruce Wayne getting acquainted with violence at a young age. He witnesses his parents being murdered. Growing up, Wayne decides that something like that may never happen again: Gotham City should be crime free. His massive inheritance allows him to get the best education, martial arts training and technology a person could have. So, Batman does not have any superpowers, but he does have a lot of gadgets, like the Batmobile, to help him get the job done. By day he is a playboy and philanthropist but by night he puts on his terrifying Batsuit to fight the city’s criminals. His faithful helpers are his butler Alfred, a retired security agent, and orphan boy Robin.
Too cruel for sensitive souls
The Batman cartoon was an instant and huge success and in 1940 the hero was awarded his own comic. Throughout the years the writers made up a number of enemies and villains; the Joker, Two-Face and Penguin being the most famous ones. The changing times and the political climate forced the comic to change a lot though. One of the low points was in the fifties. The publication of Dr. Frederick Wertham’s book The Seduction of the Innocent caused a big stir. To ease the minds of worried parents and politicians the publishing houses developed a guideline for themselves to reduce the amount of violence in comics: The Comics Code Authority.
Plots became more superficial and consequently sales dropped massively. Even biggest rival Marvel, publisher of Spiderman, nearly went bankrupt. Batman’s savior was the television series of the same name, released in the sixties. Although Kane did not want to collaborate because of the design (he thought the show was too cheery and Batman too dorky in his pajama like outfit) the series was created anyhow. Batman became a huge small screen hit and found its way to other countries and to the big screen, with the same silly design as the TV series. In the Netherlands, broadcaster KRO aired the show from 1966 to 1967, which stimulated the translation and sales of (old) comics by Dutch publishing houses.
Eighties revival
Batman owns his fame amongst the big audience to his performance in the TV series and the movies. He laid low for a while but in 1989 a new movie was released, simply called Batman. This film was more obscure, like the early days of the comic. Michael Keaton impersonated Batman and Jack Nicholson was an impressive Joker. The film won various awards including an Oscar for Best Art Direction. Batman-mania was back.
This resulted in the exploitation of its popularity, including a couple of bad sequels to the movie. It wasn’t until 2005 that the tables turned, when Christian Bale played the part of Batman. The audience was very content with his interpretation of the Dark Knight and sequels soon followed. On 20 July 2012 the last part of the Batman trilogy was released. For those who want more, the museum has a number of Batman chess games on display.
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