Many supervillains in comics are hell bent on destroying the world or killing as many people as possible. However many of the villains that Batman encounters in Gotham share the common trait that much of their villainy comes from the same thing: Money. Penguin, Two Face, The Joker and many more run crime empires that rob banks, steal and murder to acquire money. In Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy the criminal world of the DC universe is much more grounded in reality and thus money is a more logical motivation for the criminals or at least a catalyst leading to their creation. The Joker for instance knows that attacking someone's money is the most effective way to drive them insane. He gains control over the mob in Gotham by showing them he's capable of robbing their banks and thus leads to him being able to terrorize them and the city. Harvey Dent fought against the criminal underworld of Gotham but eventually was overpowered and betrayed causing him to become Two Face, all because of fear and money. Alternately, Batman is also created by money. As an anti-hero, Batman also fits many of the characteristics of the monster outlined in Cohen's theses. The universe of the films brings a more realistic take on the comic superheroes and supervillains that exist in DC and grounds them in reality along with the very real monster that is money.
I actually just re-watched the trilogy last week and saw many of the points the author made in the movies. I think the final movie, The Dark Knight Rises, really shows the monsters of capitalism more than any of the other movies.
ReplyDeleteIn the third movie, a poor Catwoman tells Bruce Wayne that the rich can't see there's a storm brewing for people like him (the rich), which makes it sound as if the everyday people will be rising up against the rich. This is directly in line with Marx's the Communist Manifesto. The villain who hires Bane in the first place says to Bane "....but I paid you" to which Bane replies: "And this gives you power over me?". This exchange could be seen as a power struggle between classes, where the villain is the Bourgeoisie and Bane is the Proletariat who have finally risen up against them.
As the author also pointed out, Batman is also created by Bruce Wayne's money. Batman uses the same tactics as his enemies to defeat them: fear, intimidation, and violence. So even though Batman uses his money to defeat his enemies, their tactics are still the same, so in either case it could be argued that money does in fact make monsters.
When I was reading this post, one thing that stuck out to me is that the Joker attacks other people's money to drive them insane, and he is considered the "monster" in the film. However, I felt that the argument is actually that money and greed create and promote monsters, in the case of Batman and The Joker, the money wasn't the reason for continued violence or the creation of the monser, The Joker used other means as his influence to keep being the criminal that he is. Like the reply before this one, money was a a huge factor in creating Batman. The tools he has available to him because of his money makes Batman much more lethal than if he was limited to conservative methods. So, in a sense I agree with the Nick, that money created a "monster" or batman. But Bruce Wayne almost wants to be seen as a monster to his enemies, and a hero to the public.
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