“The night is darkest just before the dawn.”
Since his first appearance in May 1939 (Detective Comics #27), Batman has been a role model superhero for children of all ages across the globe. His dark and mysterious nature makes him an appealing character – but what, exactly, do we find comforting in this darkness?
The first step is to understand how darkness has been portrayed in literature over time. As Stuart Kelly points out, darkness is used to portray “terror, comfort, wisdom, folly, being lost, being estranged, being sneeky, being smart; it is a representation of the seething, absent force of all that is selfish and wicked and cloaked… or a profound and inexpressible enigmatic presence” (Kelly). Throughout history, dating back to the Bible and William Shakespeare and Milton and Alighieri, darkness has always represented the mysterious and the unknown, deception and evil. So how can Batman be such an inspirational and beloved character if his defining characteristic is darkness?
The trait that Batman possesses that villains do not is that he embraces his darkness and uses its power for good. Ra’s al Ghul, Batman’s mentor in the League of Shadows, uses his darkness and inner hatred for vengeance. Scarecrow uses his darkness to convert other people to darkness, enshrouding the entire city of Gotham in his psychological serum that causes citizens to go insane and commit heinous crimes for no apparent reason (his attempts are unsuccessful in The Dark Knight trilogy movies, and successful in the comic book version). The Joker uses darkness to create chaos for its own sake. Bane uses his darkness similarly to Ra’s al Ghul, yet his actions are more based in brute force than structure and method. Batman, however, harnesses his dark energy, uses it as inspiration, and attempts to fight the darkness in the world so that others may not experience the same tragedies as himself.
Perhaps one of the most interesting villains in the Batman universe is Harvey Dent, or Two-Face. Dent starts out as a heroic character – a perfect image of light. After his encounters with the Joker (which differ between each movie and comic), he has a distorted image of light and justice. As Chris Dierkes says, he “still believes there should be justice… [he] comes to believe that justice can only be served in a cruel world by the impartial cold hand of Fate” (Dierkes). Two-Face has a clear persona of darkness, but is fooled by his own perception that he is acting in the light.
“I took Gotham’s ‘White Knight’ and brought him down to our level.”
The characters in Batman have varying methods of using darkness to their advantage. Darkness itself is neither good nor evil, but has implications on what it can do to someone’s personality. It’s up to the individual characters whether they use their darkness for justice or chaos.
Works Cited
Kelly, Stuart. “Darkness in literature: five great darknesses.” December 2012. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/dec/31/darkness-in-literature
“The Themes And Meanings Of THE DARK KNIGHT Trilogy.” Web. Retrieved from: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/slimybug/news/?a=92912
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