I think a large part of that is the origin, and the way in which it's simple, yet appeals to a more frightening aspect of what 20th and 21st century life is all about: violence. There has, of course, always been some form of violence present in, but the way in which murder has become so passé that it is put on display for our entertainment, through crime and detective shows. In particular, the “CSI:” series revels in showing gruesome deaths for all of its characters, as well as savage murders, seemingly the more violent and sexually aggressive the better. This gives them a chance to show off the magic machines they have which can match your dandruff to the personalised car licence plate you'll own 25 years in the future.
Furthermore, it fits, generally, into a genre which has been successful for a long time: detective fiction. Batman is a sort of film noir detective whose violent methods and vigilante attitude appeal to the part of us that enjoys that slight bending of the rules. However, his unwavering commitment to not using guns and a moral compass which almost never moves from pointing in the right direction also allow for the character to appeal to the part of us that sees societal order as an imperative to hold on to. So he breaks the law, but he does it to help the law, in a way.
What else appeals to us is his past, his origin story. You can't help but have sympathy for the victim of a childhood tragedy, the driving force behind Batman's/Bruce Wayne's quest for justice is after all the death of his parents, Martha and Thomas Wayne.
Batman first appeared in 1939, in Detective Comics, which is the basis for the name of DC Comics today. His immediate popularity won him a title of his own in 1940, and the Batman mythos began.
In issue #33 of Detective Comics, the back story of Batman was first addressed, introducing Dr. Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne as the parents of Bruce, who were killed in a robbery. The distraught Bruce then vows to fight all criminals, and eventually chooses the symbol of the bat, which flies in his window, as if it were an omen. This scene also makes a reappearance in Frank Millers' seminal Year One.
This story remains the genesis of Batman since it draws on such primary fears of both children and adults: that you should lose your parents, or that you would not be able to see your child grow up. Largely, this story has remained completely unchanged, bar some more detail being fleshed out as authors and filmmakers each impose their own vision of the character on the franchise.
Through each incarnation, something different is brought to the character. The Bill Dozier 1960s camped up tv show brought a comic element to the franchise, as did the filmation cartoon spin off. While these gave it a huge boost in popularity, it also tainted the image to a certain respect for a period of time, both through the ridiculous scripting and hammed up acting of Adam West's overly-ponderous Batman. Still, for many, this was their first introduction to a character who was much darker in the comic books which had spawned him than the show which made him a household name.
With little “cool” left to pull from in the wake of the television series, Batman faced an identity crisis by the mid to late '60s, which is when Julius Shwartz was assigned to try and get the character back from the abyss of a pop culture phenomenon turned bust and to boost the sales of a sadly flagging franchise. With a new look and a return to the detective based stories of the past, Batman survived and increased his popularity once more. The major turn in the Batman story comes with the Frank Miller reboot in Year One, influencing the character all the way through to Christopher Nolan's latest Batman trilogy.
Year One was a Frank Miller story which rebooted the character in a darker, more gritty world which situated the violence of his parents death into a modern setting, when the late twentieth century media was turning to focus on the increase in organised and violent crime. The decay of the fictional city of Gotham from the crime lords and corrupt politicians was also an added realistic feature of Miller's work. The most impacting scene is that in which Batman chooses a fat cats dinner party to introduce himself to the corrupt and the powerful in Gotham: “Ladies. Gentlemen. You have eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over. From this moment on, none of you are safe”. This type of stark, threatening dialogue made the Dark Knight an instant classic character again, and Year One a relevant work addressing some issues at the time in big cities across American and the globe. It shows a man learning his trade, less used to the ways in which to fight, find clues, and deal with situations. A rookie, more or less. It also paints the newer vision of a driven, solitary and disturbed Bruce Wayne, trying, perhaps in vain, to fight corruption in the police, politics and every other walk of life in a seedy city that seems rotten to its core.
One of the most interesting features of Gotham City is the place where Batman ends up sending many of his rogue gallery, Arkham Asylum. Grant Morrison and Dave Mckean's Arkham Asylum: A Serious Place on Serious Earth is a story which encapsulates much of the parts of the asylum which make it hugely fascinating. A dark, disturbing vision of insanity, Arkham Asylum is designed to highlight that these criminals are not only mentally deranged, which allows their exaggerated characters to have a realistic edge, but also to show that an archaic and somewhat backwards asylum is much worse than ending up simply in jail, where they are forced to confront issues and problems which have pushed them towards the edge.
Morrison & McKean's work does exactly that, but to Batman, where he is portrayed however as a “momma's boy” and as an asexual and homophobic character. The addition of the latter addresses the reaction to the television characterisation of Batman earlier in his mythos, as well as the general attitude towards the way in which he surrounds himself only with young men in Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Tim Drake. The portrayal of Batman as having mental health problems himself was also a ground-breaking idea, although through further works and Nolan's recent movies, that obsession which drives Batman has been highlighted as having severe effects on his mental health, with visions of him as reclusive, damaged and incapable of interacting with society outside of the guise of Batman. This last point is perhaps the most telling about his character. Really and truly, the costume he puts on is that of Bruce Wayne, as he fake smiles and phony small talks his way through Gotham city's elite, all the time looking for connections to the underworld and waiting for something bad to happen. This possibly explains also why the few villains and characters who do know Batman's true identity keep it to themselves or wilfully ignore it, since they realise it's all for show. It is quite a stretch for readers to imagine, for example, that Jim Gordon, the best detective and police officer in Gotham has no idea who the man behind the mask is.
Overall, my return to Batman comics has been a fairly interesting one, and the stories, while sometimes difficult to follow, do portray to me now a much more deep and interesting character than I ever saw while reading as a child. Obviously, something has always drawn me to the Batman story and background much more so than any other comic. Maybe it's that we're supposed to believe he's just one man, incredibly driven and inspired by excellence in himself, on a campaign to make sure that no one has to experience the loss he did, or maybe it's something else that I can't put my finger on. I imagine that I'm not alone in that.
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