Batman White Knight: The Deconstruction of a Hero
When the IndieGoGo started for Doug TenNapel's BigFoot Bill 2: Finger of Poseidon I was introduced to a new artist I had never heard of before named Sean Gordon Murphy because he drew the cover for the new book. I liked the cover and decided I would go and buy some of Murphy's comics and see more about the artist. So I went to Amazon.com and bought a copy of the trade paperback "Batman: White Knight" hoping I had found another comic book creator that I might like.
Even though TenNapel and Murphy have different religious and political beliefs, they were still friendly and worked together anyway. If you're very young you might not believe this but that was how most people used to be in the United States of America before the rise of corporate cancel culture. But not anymore...
Some faceless, generic SJW journalist became aware of this business agreement and began a zealous, nonsense fueled cancel culture crusade against Murphy by slandering TenNapel by calling him the formless, nonsensical allegation of being "transphobic". Murphy either took such propaganda hook, line and sinker or he is actually dumb enough to believe the same thing. Whatever the reason he bailed out on Doug, taking his cover back, and left TenNapel in the lurch.
I won't bother going into if such a charge makes sense or not to rational people. I also will not waste time by pointing out that what Doug is accused of being guilty of is a stance believed by the vast majority of Americans. I just want to point out that this intolerant proponent of cancel culture proves that very little has changed about how many of the main stream comic book creators and publishers still do business. They still gate-keep certain creators because of religious and political beliefs and they still ignore actual comic book buying fans and are dumb enough to give credence to outrage social justice mobs on Twitter that for the most part don't even read or buy comic books.
The whole controversy is sad and played out to death already at this point and is not worth rehashing so I am just going to talk about how buying Murphy's "Batman: White Knight" and reading it instantly made me remember why I quit buying and reading monthly comic books 15-16 years ago. It is just another example of how the creators and the industry as a whole can't help themselves and just love to deconstruct and destroy the Heroes that they own.
Right now, up in my attic there are over 10,000 comic books bagged and boarded and sitting in long boxes. That number doesn't even count the ones I have here in the study with me as I write this blog post. I bought and still have these comics because I was once the definition of an avid collector. But sometime around 15-16 years ago I stopped going to my local comic book stores and buying monthly comics, even though I loved the hobby with all my heart, and I didn't get into the hobby again until I started to follow and support crowd funded comic books. Would you like to know why?
Like most things the answer is complicated and has many facets but the biggest issue I had with the comic book companies and the new wave of creators that were making the books was that they did not seem to respect the lore or the characters that they had became stewards of. One common theme that ran through almost all of the titles and seemed pushed by the people making them was what I would call the "Deconstruction of the Hero".
The slow destruction of the Super Hero comic book industry began with the direct sales market. Publishers took the quick and secure short term cash of selling their books straight to the local comic book stores to the most hardcore of fans. This allowed them to print less, sell for a larger profit and to no longer have to worry about returns. The long term problem though from this strategy is bearing fruits to this day. The SJW and identity influenced comic book industry we see struggling before us is not the cause of the art form's demise but is a symptom result of its original curse. That curse being the industry's addiction to selling their books mostly in out of the way comic book stores, which kept their wares out of the eyes of children, and resulted in their consumer base becoming older and older.
Over time this ageing audience seemed to feel it was outgrowing the standard fare of Super Hero and started to look for more "mature" content. Unfortunately, these individuals did not do so in the reasonable way, and go out and read literature and history, but decided they would attempt to change the art form they loved as kids and adapt it to their current situation.
Eventually, books like Watchmen (which I hate), Daredevil "Born Again" (one of my all time favorites) and Dark Knight etc started to come out and these readers began to flock to such titles and almost unilaterally sang their praises and slowly but surely the process of the "deconstruction of the Hero" started to become prevalent in almost every comic book title.
By "deconstruction of the hero" I mean the breaking down and removing the traditional aspects of the character's motives and ideals. The tendency to un-hero the hero. Sometimes a writer does this by implying a decent into madness, or by a character suddenly becoming violent and distant, or in any other number of ways that let them show what they feel is a more layered and "adult" character.
The whole controversy is sad and played out to death already at this point and is not worth rehashing so I am just going to talk about how buying Murphy's "Batman: White Knight" and reading it instantly made me remember why I quit buying and reading monthly comic books 15-16 years ago. It is just another example of how the creators and the industry as a whole can't help themselves and just love to deconstruct and destroy the Heroes that they own.
Right now, up in my attic there are over 10,000 comic books bagged and boarded and sitting in long boxes. That number doesn't even count the ones I have here in the study with me as I write this blog post. I bought and still have these comics because I was once the definition of an avid collector. But sometime around 15-16 years ago I stopped going to my local comic book stores and buying monthly comics, even though I loved the hobby with all my heart, and I didn't get into the hobby again until I started to follow and support crowd funded comic books. Would you like to know why?
Like most things the answer is complicated and has many facets but the biggest issue I had with the comic book companies and the new wave of creators that were making the books was that they did not seem to respect the lore or the characters that they had became stewards of. One common theme that ran through almost all of the titles and seemed pushed by the people making them was what I would call the "Deconstruction of the Hero".
The slow destruction of the Super Hero comic book industry began with the direct sales market. Publishers took the quick and secure short term cash of selling their books straight to the local comic book stores to the most hardcore of fans. This allowed them to print less, sell for a larger profit and to no longer have to worry about returns. The long term problem though from this strategy is bearing fruits to this day. The SJW and identity influenced comic book industry we see struggling before us is not the cause of the art form's demise but is a symptom result of its original curse. That curse being the industry's addiction to selling their books mostly in out of the way comic book stores, which kept their wares out of the eyes of children, and resulted in their consumer base becoming older and older.
Over time this ageing audience seemed to feel it was outgrowing the standard fare of Super Hero and started to look for more "mature" content. Unfortunately, these individuals did not do so in the reasonable way, and go out and read literature and history, but decided they would attempt to change the art form they loved as kids and adapt it to their current situation.
Eventually, books like Watchmen (which I hate), Daredevil "Born Again" (one of my all time favorites) and Dark Knight etc started to come out and these readers began to flock to such titles and almost unilaterally sang their praises and slowly but surely the process of the "deconstruction of the Hero" started to become prevalent in almost every comic book title.
By "deconstruction of the hero" I mean the breaking down and removing the traditional aspects of the character's motives and ideals. The tendency to un-hero the hero. Sometimes a writer does this by implying a decent into madness, or by a character suddenly becoming violent and distant, or in any other number of ways that let them show what they feel is a more layered and "adult" character.
The writing style and process became so common place and cliche that eventually you began to see it in almost every title and with every property the big two publishers had. Soon you had a super hero who had been a paragon of heroism and decency for decades become a lunatic that murders galaxies. Or you had one who was a role model of intelligence and innovation become an alcoholic. Those are just a couple of examples but the instances of this method became legion.
Soon enough it wasn't enough for them to just destroy the Heroes. Eventually, they couldn't help themselves but blur the lines with the villains as well. It became common place to think that the bad guys had to be layered to be interesting. This method over time made the readers feel emotion and sympathy for the villains, graying the distinction between good and evil, and eventually even turning the bad guys into heroes or anti-heroes which resulted in the heroes and the villains both never being the same again.
All of these thoughts come to my mind because of one simple thing. When Murphy's "Batman: White Knight" arrived from Amazon and I opened it up and looked at the cover there was an article quote from something or someone called "Nerdist" on the cover that read: "Unlike anything we've seen before!" and my mind couldn't help but come back to that quote after reading the story and think to it's self: "No, we have seen that trope over and over and over and it has KILLED traditional super hero comics.".
"Batman: White Knight" is filled to the gills with such cliche and predictable story-telling.
The author barely even features the hero Batman throughout the story and instead focuses on the villain The Joker and the Joker is told in a tragic and sympathetic light.
While the Batman is distant and emotionally autistic to those around him and society the Joker finds a batch of Drugs that reveal that his evil and madness was just a result of his genetics and environment. But now, while under the influence of these drugs of mysterious origin, he is revealed to be an intelligent and misunderstood "white knight" defender of the under privileged. While Batman is portrayed to be single minded and out of touch. The Hero is the villain and the villain is the hero which is so typical of America in 2020 it is nauseating.
The story elements that are used to deconstruct the heroism of The Batman and to elevate feelings of sympathy for The Joker create an environment where neither character will ever be the same again. The disdain showed to the history and the mythos of the characters and the creators that have come before Murphy is typical and disappointing in modern era comic books. Especially with The Joker...
The main issue with writers taking classic villains like Joker and retconning their origins and motivations with cheap tricks, to make the readers feel sympathetic for them, is that they will never be looked at in the same way again. From now on, instead of having a foe of evil in clean contrast The Batman's heroism, you no longer have The Joker as he historically has always been, but now you will always have to see the tragic Jack Napier underneath the Joker's makeup. Unless, retconned or rebooted again, that fact and those feelings will forever influence the readers mindset and destroy one of the oldest and greatest villains in DC comic's history and has also "helped" in the deconstruction of the Heroic characterizations of The Batman. Neither character will ever be the same again, and I feel that is for worse in the long run.
In super hero comics a hero is often only as good as his villain is evil. A villain only serves his true purpose if he stands in contrast to the hero's heroism. When a writer deconstructs a character's heroism in order to show them in a way the writer thinks is more nuanced or mature, all that writer is really doing is projecting their and society's degradation of morals and principles on to the character and that is the story of "Batman: White Knight" in a nutshell. It is more of a sad sign of the fallen nature of current culture than it is good writing.
While the writer makes a couple of small and quick attempts to walk back a bit of the deconstruction he had been doing to the character of The Batman in a lazy way, near the end of the story, making you think maybe the writer is self aware of what he is doing, but the hope is short lived.
At the very end of the story, Batman decides to remove his cape and cowl and come clean to the people of Gotham and revel his secret identity. Thus the deconstruction of the hero is complete and The Batman and the Joker will never be the same again.
All of these thoughts come to my mind because of one simple thing. When Murphy's "Batman: White Knight" arrived from Amazon and I opened it up and looked at the cover there was an article quote from something or someone called "Nerdist" on the cover that read: "Unlike anything we've seen before!" and my mind couldn't help but come back to that quote after reading the story and think to it's self: "No, we have seen that trope over and over and over and it has KILLED traditional super hero comics.".
"Batman: White Knight" is filled to the gills with such cliche and predictable story-telling.
The author barely even features the hero Batman throughout the story and instead focuses on the villain The Joker and the Joker is told in a tragic and sympathetic light.
While the Batman is distant and emotionally autistic to those around him and society the Joker finds a batch of Drugs that reveal that his evil and madness was just a result of his genetics and environment. But now, while under the influence of these drugs of mysterious origin, he is revealed to be an intelligent and misunderstood "white knight" defender of the under privileged. While Batman is portrayed to be single minded and out of touch. The Hero is the villain and the villain is the hero which is so typical of America in 2020 it is nauseating.
The story elements that are used to deconstruct the heroism of The Batman and to elevate feelings of sympathy for The Joker create an environment where neither character will ever be the same again. The disdain showed to the history and the mythos of the characters and the creators that have come before Murphy is typical and disappointing in modern era comic books. Especially with The Joker...
The main issue with writers taking classic villains like Joker and retconning their origins and motivations with cheap tricks, to make the readers feel sympathetic for them, is that they will never be looked at in the same way again. From now on, instead of having a foe of evil in clean contrast The Batman's heroism, you no longer have The Joker as he historically has always been, but now you will always have to see the tragic Jack Napier underneath the Joker's makeup. Unless, retconned or rebooted again, that fact and those feelings will forever influence the readers mindset and destroy one of the oldest and greatest villains in DC comic's history and has also "helped" in the deconstruction of the Heroic characterizations of The Batman. Neither character will ever be the same again, and I feel that is for worse in the long run.
In super hero comics a hero is often only as good as his villain is evil. A villain only serves his true purpose if he stands in contrast to the hero's heroism. When a writer deconstructs a character's heroism in order to show them in a way the writer thinks is more nuanced or mature, all that writer is really doing is projecting their and society's degradation of morals and principles on to the character and that is the story of "Batman: White Knight" in a nutshell. It is more of a sad sign of the fallen nature of current culture than it is good writing.
While the writer makes a couple of small and quick attempts to walk back a bit of the deconstruction he had been doing to the character of The Batman in a lazy way, near the end of the story, making you think maybe the writer is self aware of what he is doing, but the hope is short lived.
At the very end of the story, Batman decides to remove his cape and cowl and come clean to the people of Gotham and revel his secret identity. Thus the deconstruction of the hero is complete and The Batman and the Joker will never be the same again.
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