A Thinking Reed

Is Batman right-wing?

Written by

Lee M.

in

This article says that Frank Miller – author of Sin City, but also perhaps better known for rejuvenating the Batman franchise with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One in the late 80s – is working on a new graphic novel in which Batman takes on al-Qaeda:

“Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s a piece of propaganda,” he said.

“Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That’s one of the things they’re there for.

“These are our folk heroes. I just think it’s silly to have Batman out chasing the Riddler when you’ve got al-Qaida out there.”

Comparing Batman to Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character – a lone urban hero fighting a crime wave – Miller said: “Batman kicks al-Qaida’s ass … I wish the entertainers of our time had the spine and the focus of the ones who faced down Hitler.”

In the book, Holy Terror, Batman is “a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we’re up against”, the author said.

The Dark Knight Returns is interesting politically. The premise is that Batman has long since retired, but is forced back into action by both the increasing chaos of Gotham City and by his own inner demons. On the one hand, Batman is denounced as a dangerous right-wing vigilante by the liberal media and a permissive therapist who argues that Batman creates villians like the Joker and Two-Face by drawing weak personalities into his own psychosis. The therapist actually claims to have cured the Joker (but, of course, he’s wrong and gets offed by the Joker). Batman is sort of like Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry – the only one who’s willing to dispense justice and is constantly being hamstrung by bleeding-heart ACLU-type lawyers and the law enforcement bureaucracy.

On the other hand, TDKR is very cynical and scornful of the government and its propaganda. In this rather dystopian future Ronald Reagan is still president and Superman is a lackey of the U.S. government who’s sent to bring Batman down before he stirs up too much trouble. So it’s rather interesting that Miller would write a new Batman story that is, by his own reckoning, a piece of pro-government propaganda.

Comments

10 responses to “Is Batman right-wing?”

  1. Caiwyn

    Miller didn’t say anything about it being “pro-government.” That’s your own addition. Propaganda comes in many forms, and the descriptor is defined by the work. More likely, it’s not pro-government, but anti-terrorism/Muslim extremism. There’s a subtle difference there.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    It’s pretty sad if anti-al-Qaida propaganda is automatically considered pro-government…

    Reply
  3. Lee

    Fair enough, but I take it that it’s “pro-war on terror” propaganda just as the earlier WWII efforts he compares it to were certainly pro-war effort (ant thus pro-government) propaganda.

    One can certainly imagine anti-al-Qaeda propaganda that isn’t pro-war/gov’t, but that doesn’t seem to be what Miller intends here. (Though of course one should wait til seeing the final product before making any judgments!)

    Thanks for the comments.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I don’t see Miller as a conservative or right-wing, although the ideological tension in DKR is part of what makes it so fascainting. Reading about this new graphic novel reminded me of a strip Miller drew shortly after 9/11, anthologized in the multi-volume 9/11 collection which many comic book artists contributed pieces to. Miller’s piece was very simple and straightforward, as I recall – almost totally black, with violent slashes of white showing the ruins at ground zero, an American flag, and a cross (if I’m remembering right). The text was similarly minimalist: “I’m sick of flags. I’m sick of God. I’ve seen the power of faith.”

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  5. Anonymous

    It’s ridiculous to conflate opposing al-Qaeda with supporting the Bush administration. One can oppose both.

    I used to think Miller was pretty right-wing, but then there’s work like his Marsha Washington/Give Me Liberty series – a dystopian future tale where a young black woman soldier fights against a fascist president and the corporations who really run the country.

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  6. awack

    Also remember that in Dark Knight Returns, the president isn’t exactly Reagan: he’s a hologram of Reagan that shadowy elites (including Lex Luthor!) are using as their front to the populace. Hardly pro-government.

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  7. Lee

    I take it that was revealed in the sequel to DKR? (The Dark Knight Strikes Back, I believe it was called – I never read it).

    It will be interesting to see what role, if any, the government plays in Holy Terror. Or if Miller address the complex causes of terrorism (“blowback,” etc.) – that’s really my point about it not being so easy to separate an anti-al-Qaeda storyline from a pro-government storyline. Obviously al-Qaeda is bad and needs to be stopped, but that doesn’t mean the gov’t line about al-Qaeda (“they hate us for our freedoms”, etc.) is the whole story. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, Miller does with that.

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  8. Joshie

    Funny how people get so defensive of a comic book when so much more is going on in the world. Not that the Dark Knight series isn’t interesting, but it just strikes me as funny that this is the most rancorous series of comments in months.

    Not the NSA spying thing, not the earthquake in Pakistan where 10s of thousands of people died, not the destruction of the northwestern Gulf coast, but the Dark Knight.

    Reply
  9. Lee

    One amusing thing that I’ve learned is that there is essentially no relation between the amount of time and effort you put into a post and the number of comments it’ll generate (if any). You think you’ve written a long, thoughtful essay about the nature of salvation, or political theory or what have you and it’s like crickets chirping. By contrast, a dashed off post about Batman, or a silly internet quiz gets people talking!

    Reply
  10. david

    It’s alright…
    Batman’s been taken care of.
    There’s video evidence published online by the Irony Party of Australia at
    http://ironyparty.org/ipa24thmar06.php
    in the article
    Batman Sniped While Fighting Al Qa’eda in Iraq

    Reply

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