After reading the article about the history of Batman, I was interested by the cultural twists and turns that the Batman series has taken. It is interesting to see how the Batman appears in the beginning of his career and how he looks now and to note all the little detours that have occurred in between. The amalgamation of figures used to conceptualize the first Batman, for instance, harkens to a time where crime fighters were about . . . well, fighting crime and crafting secret identities. Not much time seemed to be spent on the ethics of beating villains senselessly, it all seemed simple and tame (except for the BLAMS! to villain skulls).
Then there is the era of war propaganda, wherein Batman and Robin fight the forces of evil . . . who happen to be Japanese. It is hard to imagine a time when it was so easy to be so blatantly racist without adding that “just kidding” element.
And how can we forget the campiness of the Batman live-action TV series with Adam West, complete with trippy transitions and even trippier Robin catchphrases.
And now today’s Batman (meaning within the last few decades) is the opposite: less dancing, more stabbing. We go from a Batman who has to save Robin on a regular basis and to one who has to watch out for the cops because of child endangerment charges, among other things.
It would be hard to image a publication not change with the times, so it is interesting to see the implications of fashion, pop culture, and current events on the comic, shows, and movies. And yet one would have to wonder whether these changes make Batman who he is, a product of cultural change, or if it detracts from his origins and turns him into something other than Batman.