Batman aka Bruce Wayne lost his parents when he was a young boy. He and his parents were leaving the theater one night when a classic thug, looking for money and riches, shot his parents dead in an ally. Bruce Wayne set up the Batman character to seek justice throughout the corrupt city of Gotham. To Bruce/Batman a gun symbolizes the difference between being a murderer and a hero as well as the difference between seeking revenge and justice. Therefore, Batman has a no gun policy. But rules were made to be broken, right?
When Batman started in the comics, it took writers a while
to define him with characteristics like his no gun policy. Batman’s background
story about his parents wasn’t mentioned until Detective Comics #33. Until this point, Batman was fully equipped
with a gun and holster on his Bat Belt.
As Batman writers, it is hard not to test the boundaries of
the no gun policy.
Mike Bar wrote a ridiculous comic book, called Year Two that pushed past those
boundaries. In the story Batman faces a character called The Reaper and almost
dies. Batman then uses a gun from Wayne Manor, the same gun that killed his
parents, to rid Gotham of The Reaper. Batman teams up with local criminals,
including the murderer of his parents, to go after The Reaper. Batman also has
this idea to kill his parent’s murderer after taking out The Reaper but The
Reaper gets to him first. After taking out The Reaper, Batman puts the gun in
the foundation of Wayne Manor so that it won’t ever be used again. Ridiculous.
The grey areas revealed by the no gun policy are those
surrounding the Batmobile and Batpod. Both of these vehicles are fully equipped
with, not guns, but canons. This is a grey area because vehicles in a
high-speed chase can’t be taken out with Batarangs, therefore canons seems to
be the most logical. Also, Batman never uses the canons or weapons on his Bat
vehicles to kill anyone, just stop them.
Writer Tim Kroenert wrote an article discussing why Batman should not be blamed for the gun violence in the world. He believes that with his "no gun policy", Batman's behavior should be modeled after, not reprimanded. The Batman character believes that no one is past the point of redemption, not even the mass murdering Joker. Do you agree?
The YouTube video posted below shows The Riddler giving
Batman a riddle that he must solve in order to save Rachel. Though this video
is hysterically funny, it poses the idea that maybe Batman doesn’t know that
the answer to the Riddle is “bullets” because he doesn’t use guns. With a no
gun policy, why know what a bullet is? Viewer
discretion is advised.
Finally there’s the Batman theme song. Back in the Adam West
Batman movies and show, the theme song showed a bunch of criminals with guns
being stopped by Batman and Robin. This presents a serious, “food for thought”,
question. Is Batman the violent one or are the people who surround him the
violent ones?
Posted by: Kevin Onofreo
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic! Interesting to think of Batman as being antigun to the point of ridiculousness. Also interesting because especially in more recent comics he's often portrayed as authoritative and high regulation of the masses (In the Dark Knight Returns comic, he has an army of android Bat tanks patrolling the streets) but attempts to achieve this without guns. And in most instances of authoritarian states, it's done by having the biggest gun.