Complexity in the Comic and Graphic Novel Medium: Inquiry Through Bestselling Batman Stories

PA U L A . C R U T C H E R

pictures, TV programs, and video games in just the last ve years are certainly compelling, and include the X-Men, Wolverine, Hulk, Punisher, Iron Man, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Watchmen, 300, 30 Days of Night, Wanted, The Surrogates, Kick-Ass, The Losers, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and more. Nevertheless, how many of the people consuming those products would visit a comic book shop, understand comics and graphic novels as sophisticated, see them as valid and signicant for serious criticism and scholarship, or prefer or appreciate the medium over these lm, TV, and game adaptations? Similarly, in what ways is the medium complex according to its advocates, and in what ways do we see that complexity in Batman graphic novels? Recent and seminal work done to validate the comics and graphic novel medium includes Rocco Versacis This Book Contains Graphic Language, Scott McClouds Understanding Comics, and Douglas Wolks Reading Comics. Arguments from these and other scholars and writers suggest that signicant graphic novels about the Batman, one of the most popular and iconic characters ever producedincluding Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varleys Dark Knight Returns, Grant Morrison and Dave McKeans Arkham Asylum, and Alan Moore and Brian Bollands Killing Jokecan provide unique complexity not found in prose-based novels and traditional lms.
The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2011 r 2011, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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It is not particularly difcult to see Versaci and other writers at the margins of literature (see also Beverly Clark 2003; Lawrence Sipe 2008; Maria Nikolajeva & Carole Scott 2006; Perry Nodelman 2008; Seth Lerer 2008) as on noble adventures, ill equipped, against insurmountable odds. Advocating that the picture book be validated and put alongside Milton, for instance, elicits smirks or stone throwing. The ivory towers housing the literary canon, sculpting pedagogy, and safeguarding all media do not readily see childrens and adolescent literature as complex, sophisticated, or worth critical attention. Versacis Graphic Language deals with the comic books descent into the juvenile, subsequent exclusion from Literature, and immediate exclusion from Art. In describing the reception today, he writes, There are these who look at the medium and scoff at comics obvious inferiority to the novel or lm (6), that many hold an assumption . . . that comic books are a juvenile medium that can only trivialize serious matters (9). His defense of the comic medium relies on proving it not only as equitable to literature, art, and lm, but also, and more importantly, as unique or superior to those media. To that end, Versaci claims that comics are both surprising and subversive, that the medium challenges our way of thinking, and that it does these things in unique ways (12). Comics call attention to their own making, and they have a selfconsciousness not often found in literature or lm (12). The comics medium goes beyond that reectivity by promoting critiques of how the world is represented in texts of all kinds, largely because readers see and read comics in different ways than either literature or lm, and, more generally, in ways differently than we do either words exclusively or pictures exclusively (13 14). More specically, Versaci constructs arguments that comics contain a unique form of narrative, and further allow for additional methods of narrative that are highly sophisticated and unavailable in other media (16). Part of that sophistication comes through multiplicity of perspectives and layering, or smaller narratives within a larger one (23). He further explicates those layers of meaning through comics ability to present more content at any singular moment than either literature, art, or lm (16). Indeed, Versaci notes that comics invite us to think more deeply about how literary merit is accorded and why this is a question worth pursuing, something that goes beyond equality

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and superiority, to a holistic critique (28). Versaci explicitly intends for Graphic Language to frame comics as subversive, as a subversive critique, and through instantiations, like subversive journalism. He writes that comics provide in the latter case a viable vehicle for subversive and even incendiary political messages (27). In one of the case studies provided in Graphic Language, Versaci claims that the political comics of the 1940s and 1950s were more visually and politically sophisticated than war lms of the same era (27). In perhaps more intuitive claims, he states that the very nature of the medium allows comic book memoirists to explore various issues of self-representation in ways not fully available to writers of prose memoirs, something that can be seen quite readily through a graphic novel like Miss Remarkable and Her Career (26). Finally, Versaci juxtaposes Art Speigelmans Pulitzer Prize winning Maus with the literature and photography of the Holocaust: Using the comic book form allows Speigelman to approach this difcult topic in ways unavailable to those recounting their Holocaust experiences in traditional prose, and [. . .] Speigelman uses comic book art to rethink what has become the Holocausts deningand silencingrepresentational feature: its photographic images. (26) McClouds seminal Understanding Comics should be included in any serious discussion of the complexity of the comics medium. McCloud writes, I realized that comic books were usually crude, poorly-drawn, semiliterate, cheap, disposable kiddie farebutThey dont have to be! The problem was that for most people, that was what comic book meant! (3). In his effort to validate the medium, McCloud sees it metaphorically as a vessel which visibly holds more actors and content than would exist in or be necessary to compose literature or art, if not lm (6). He highlights the irony that theres been critical examination of all mediums, including literature, music, theater, art, and lm, but not of comics (6). In a claim not echoed by Versaci, McCloud discusses the ways comics can uniquely engage all ve senses. In probably the most original and oft-cited McCloud point, he argues that no medium can present time in the myriad ways possible through comics. For McCloud, single comic frames may or may not depict singular moments, illustrators can adjust time through spacing and framing and detail, comic pages can exist in multiple temporal places

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at once, motion can be represented in comics as vividly as in lm, and more. Ultimately, in a claim that neatly summarizes Versaci and other scholars, McCloud argues that the medium offers range and versatility with all the potential imagery of lm and painting plus the intimacy of the written word (212). David Peterson, creator of Mouse Guard, worked to validate comics through ties to various mythologies, and, like McCloud, to early civilizations and the earliest mediums for communication. In addition to the nonlinear narratives and the profound malleability of time, Peterson forwards the idea that comics are unique to literature and lm in the use of texts, fonts, sound elements, images, and more, all to create a unique and sophisticated balance. He argues that comics are in pitch format (the movie storyboard format expected when pitching an idea to a studio, precisely how Berger saw Morrisons script for Arkham Asylum 2004). Following implications from others (including Versaci), Peterson also posits that comics are more direct than literature and lm, the latter almost always needing to go through multiple layers of revision before consumption (lms, e.g., suffer through translation from prose to screenplay, screenplay to a comics-like storyboard, and on, including actors interpretations of scripts and characters). Petersons most striking point came through his experiences with comics in education, in situations where teachers have looked beyond stigma to use comics to connect with reluctant readers, for instance, or to develop the storytelling and predicting literacy abilities of developing readers. While lmmakers and novelists may evoke essence from a xed and denite moment captured on lm or in prose (i.e., Photographer Captures), Versaci, McCloud, and Peterson argue that comics ultimately do more and evoke more. Wolk joins them, and adds new perspectives to this discussion of the complexity of comics:

The most signicant fact about comics is so obvious its easy to overlook: they are drawn. That means that what they show are things and people, real or imagined, moving in space and changing over time, as transformed through somebodys eye and hand. [. . .] Film and photography intrinsically claim to be accurate documents, even when theyre not: they always have the pretense that they are showing you something you would have seen exactly the same way if youd been present at the right time and place. (118, emphasis in original)

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Many scholars and writers also discuss the communities of comic scholars, creators, and fans. Wolk and Peterson explicitly discuss what might be termed the fourth dimensionthe social spaces that add an additional point in the argument about the complexity of the comic. Both Wolk and Peterson introduced this dimension through The Simpsons Comic Book Guy, a character Matt Groening has purportedly identied as every comic-bookstore guy in America (Comic Book Guy n. pag., emphasis in original). Versaci details the rise of the independent and dedicated comic book shop and the view that comic book readers are juvenile, immature, socially or psychologically maladjusted, but he does not experience how those two phenomena intersect, because his comics arrive on his doorstep via Amazon, and he consequently does not meet Comic Book Guy. Independent comic book stores may be frequented by communities that typify the appearance and attitudes of Groenings iconic stereotype, but these stores are complimented by broad pop culture conventions (e.g., Comic-Con). Further, neither the stores nor the conventions are limited to singular stereotypes, but support diverse interests and communities. For instance, in what analogous medium-based social space, like a movie theater, do manga cosplayers, Spiderman illustrators, political writers, and tenured professors coexist around the medium? Thus, this fourth dimension also reasonably distinguishes the comic from literature, lm, and art in terms of complexity. Those communities come together in more than just social ways. Ryan Claytor, an artist, argued that there is a constant need to defend comics and work with comics, particularly as something as compelling or more compelling than more traditionally respected visual mediums. Peterson made a similar claim, and Gary Hoppenstand, a scholar, built on that claim by suggesting that the academy is slowly coming to understand the medium and that this current and increasingly receptive environment needs additional scholarship on comics. That is not to say that scholarship does not exist, but it certainly is limited.

Dening and Validating the Medium Through the Batman Inquiry Through the Batman
Beyond McCloud, Versaci, Wolk, and the others noted above, for the more specic inquiry into how those theories and arguments play out

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in Batman narratives, there seem to be only two scholarly sources: Roberta Pearson and William Uricchios Many Lives of the Batman and Will Brookers Batman Unmasked. Both works are very much invested in three areas: popular culture studies, popular culture as it relates to marketing and consumerism, and the nature of the comic publishing industry. With Batman Unmasked arriving at the millennium mark, though, scholars and advocates are left with a wide-open space for work. Additionally, the space between Brooker and today also includes the controversial Batman and Philosophy and many reprints and compilations by DC. The existence of Batman and Philosophy suggests weight and complexity, especially when lled with PhDs discussing Kant, Aristotle, and Nietzsche; and the detractions support the argument that more directed, purposeful scholarship is needed. McCloud acknowledges that some may dene comics as the Batman (9). His point is clearly critical of narrowly dening the medium through superheroes, but the Batman remains one of the most popular and iconic products of the medium. Dark Knight Returns, Arkham Asylum, Killing Joke, Hush, and others comprise some of the bestselling and most revered story arcs. Two major areas of complexity emerge from reading and analyzing the Batman and his world. Medium is the form of these graphic novels and embodies much of the theory and scholarship. Stories are the narratives presented in these graphic novels, partly at least through the layering described by McCloud.

Medium
Brooker argues that the comic and graphic novel writer has a role perhaps equivalent to lm scriptwriter, director and editorat once the author of dialogue and voiceover, the architect of the plot, the supervisor of action and the organiser of shot sequence (270). He nevertheless also underscores the many authors in this medium. Batman: Knightfall is a clear example of this point. While no authors are listed anywhere on the covers or spine, 16 people are given some authorship on the main title page. An additional 25 names make the copyright page, and that number would surely balloon if graphic novels went into the amount of detail that lm credits do. These people collaborate in a complex medium, and these collaborations are signicant enough to deserve attention. The mediums complexity can be seen through control, layering, atmosphere, and craft, implicitly and

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explicitly intersecting with arguments made in the existing theory and scholarship. Versaci, McCloud, Peterson, and Wolk all discuss the ways that the comic medium allows creators (and readers) control, particularly of pacing, not afforded to literature or lm. Brooker argues, for instance, that Moores characteristic use of a strict grid system in The Killing Joke, dividing the page into regularly sized panels, lends the story a sense of order and measured pace which matches this conception of the Batman and echoes Moores controlled, structured approach to writing. The layout and page design is neutral, designed not to be noticed; our eye icks easily from frame to frame, taking in the panels content rather than its form. (270) Moore notably manipulates that pacing in the scenes in Killing Joke where the Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon mad. More than the panels moving beyond the six- or nine-grid system that seems to typify Killing Joke, in these scenes, The Joker, photos of Gordons brutalized daughter, and Gordons screams break panel borders and therefore disrupt the pacing (see Figure 1). Brooker remarks that an analogous technique happens in Dark Knight Returns when Miller transitions from varying grids, panel shapes, and discourses to splash panels, full-page images that depict the Batman in mythic proportions (270). Further, McKeans style in Arkham Asylum suggests anarchy rather than control (272). In Hush, this control seems to occur in the panels themselves: while most are neat, occasionally Jim Lee pulls the pacing taut with frenetic and bold panels that do not hold straight edges. Mike Barr and Alan Davis exhibit this type of control in Batman: Full Circle by transitioning to interlocking, overlapping, and otherwise hurried visuals. Throughout Dark Knight Returns, Miller and Varley manage to keep a host of monologues and voices sorted. These are distinct in a number of ways, including the shape or style of the dialogue or thought boxes, the colors inside the boxes and the colors of the text, and the styles of the text fonts, to say nothing of the character styles and nuances that should naturally distinguish one characters dialogue from another characters (see Figure 1). Beyond being able to easily distinguish between Superman, Gordon, a priest, and a businessman on a single page in Dark Knight Returns, Miller and Varley construct the pages so that the reader can do so without requiring a corresponding visual of the

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THOUGHT 2 Thought 1
Panel 1

Voice 1

VOICE 2

Thought 1
Panel 2

Voice 3

VOICE 2!
Panel 3

FIGURE 1. An example of an excerpt of a comic page showing how authors, illustrators, and letterers can impact pacing while maintaining multiple narrators and voices (omitting the additional factor of action). In panel 1, Characters 1 and 2 are narrating and speaking; in panel 2, Character 1 is narrating and Character 3 is speaking; and in panel 3, Character 2 has broken the panel borders.

speaker or narrator. Similarly, Brooker argues that in Arkham Asylum, the Batmans voice becomes unmistakable, a dark imprint across all the scenes he walks through (275). McKean provides dramatic voices

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throughout Arkham Asylum: Joker, Maxie Zeus, Mad Hatter, Clayface, and Professor Milo all have unique voices. Indeed, famed comics writer Denny ONeil explains that the lettering is now contributing to the sophistication of the medium and that it can be powerful enough, as in the cases of Dark Knight Returns and Arkham Asylum, to be part of the story (qtd. in Brooker 275). Beyond being capable of maintaining multiple narrators in this complex way, comics also manage layering. This layering certainly happens in Dark Knight Returns, but a strong example comes also in Frank Miller and David Mazzucchellis Year One. A tale of Gordon and Bruce Wayne dueling in the Batmans formative encounters, Year One manages these intersecting stories with singlepanel dual narration, including contrasting fonts, narrative boxes, colors, and more (including the actual dialogue in the same panels). Control and layered voices are functions also of the visual characters themselves, and that these characters may produce as much atmosphere in the comic as anything else. For instance, Kelley Jones always draws Batman as a demonic creature with a cloak made up of jagged shadows and ears like scimitars extending some four feet from the top of the cowl; whatever measured, rational tones an Alan Moore put in this Batmans mouth, he would still look like a crazed vampire (Brooker 273). In fact, this visual atmosphere created through the character is very much what makes Red Rain, Bloodstorm, and Crimson Mist reasonable. The same phenomenon makes Jim Aparos Batman the unimposing, defeatable foe he is in Knightfall. In Dark Knight Returns, the coloring and shaping add to the atmosphere. Notably, the bold blue that distinguishes Supermans narration uctuates with his relative strength, the Batmans narration comes to mirror the Jokers dialogue as the latter is dying, and the Batmans narration similarly moves from neatly boxed to jagged frames. Miller and Varley do more: as Brooker describes, the colors in Dark Knight Returns undeniably contribute to the books feel of gritty realism ; the color suggests a psychological and physical state, as when sick and staggering Batman sees his world in shades of muddy grey and dull crimson (274). Something dramatically different occurs for the Batman in Arkham Asylum, yet it is something produced by the same complex atmospheric compositions. In one of the novels most striking scenes, as the Batman attempts to negotiate the unclear split between past psychological horrors and present circumstances, the rich red in the blood-only panels

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contrasting the indenite and dully colored panels. The Batman has driven a large shard of broken glass through his left palm, and his bright, clenched teeth are the most decisive human feature on the page. Indeed, in Arkham Asylum, Morrison writes, I wanted to approach Batman from the point of view of the dreamlike, emotional and irrational hemisphere, as a response to the very literal, realistic left brain treatment of superheroes which was in vogue at the time, in the wake of The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and others (n.p.). Brooker reasonably captures this visual dynamic: McKeans Batman is a devil-eared shadow rather than a concrete human gure, while his Joker, all swirling orescent hair and gleaming white face, remains a blur who refuses to be pinned down (272). Nevertheless, McKean does far more than create wraiths. The psychological warfare occurring in Arkham Asylum (between and within the characters) draws the reader into a rather inverted space, one McKean constructs partly by contrasting the world outside the asylum in rough and uncolored pencils and inks, while the world inside is rich and textured (making the pseudo-reality or hyper-psychology of the asylum more real than the stark reality of the world outside it). McKean certainly creates a complex space in Arkham Asylum, but effective versions of creating atmosphere can be found in other graphic novels. Lee and Williams manage to shift settings, times, and attitudes in Hush, for instance, as does Bolland in Killing Joke. While some might argue that distinguishing a ashback without a jarring textual reference is often accomplished in lm, McCloud, Peterson, and others remind us that a key to this complexity argument is that the comics medium allows multiple atmospheres, multiple times, even multiple versions of characters and narrators simultaneously. For several pages in Hush, for example, the sophistication and uniqueness is not found in the bottom panels coloring shift to ashback but in the fact that at any given moment the reader is simultaneously in three different places, in three different atmospheressomething inordinately difcult, if not impossible, in lm, and certainly impossible in literature. The unique complexity of the comics medium is found not only through control, layering, and atmosphere, but also through craftbased factors. Versaci, Wolk, and others argue that one of the craft-based factors comics employ is self-consciousness (Versaci 12). Crimson Mist includes apparently random images that resemble dull red stamps on apparently random pages. Is there some meaning in the

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skeleton and wolf stamps on page 199 or the spider and ea stamps on page 254?almost surely. Were the creators infusing Crimson Mist with mixed media to heighten the novels atmosphere, or were they adding satirical or thematic elements in a way to hit readers with their contributions and the very act of contributing? More directly, using something very much like the self-aware metaction in literature, like Francesca Blocks Dangerous Angels, or in lm like Marc Forsters Stranger Than Fiction, Bolland puts himself directly into the end of Killing Joke and ultimately kills the Batman. Moore and Bolland also have an exhausted and dissatised Joker say to the Batman, clearly identifying the reader within the process, Why dont you kick the hell out of me and get a standing ovation from the public gallery? (2008). Additionally, one of the most compelling reasons to read Understanding Comics or McClouds other work is that they are graphic novels in which McCloud fundamentally narrates directly to the reader how to read and understand comics and graphic novels. Second, this medium easily extends its complexity over literature and lm through its ability to employ mixed media. Beyond arguments that might arise from Moores use of savage and powerful songs (based on Brecht operas) in his upcoming Century 1910 graphic novel (BrophyWarren, W2), McKean and Arkham Asylum provide compelling evidence for this point. In Brookers terms, McKeans paintings [. . .] mix mediapencil sketches, photographs, collages of lace, hessian and nails (272), but Karen Berger captures the sophistication more completely, writing that it was McKeans expert mix of mediapaintings, photography, sculpture, assemblage of odd objectsthat created such a resonant and powerful look to this haunting and horric tale (Morrison and McKean, afterword). Berger goes on to note her awe at McKeans work on Arkham Asylum, which all took place precomputer age (Morrison and McKean, afterword). This media complexity can be seen throughout Arkham Asylum. In fact, Arkham Asylum should itself be evidence enough to validate comics and graphic novels as something at least as worthy of critical attention as literature and lm.

Stories
There is something truly ironic in the fact that the comics medium underwent the massive censorship of the 1950s and 1960s for including

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content inappropriate for children, yet the medium remains understood as something juvenile. When a graphic novel becomes graphic, does it not at a minimum suggest that the perceptions of the medium as crude and childish be revised? DC has stamped Suggested for mature readers in bold caps just above the ISBN on Killing Joke. The graphic nature of Killing Joke, though, certainly exceeds that of BatmanVampire, even though the latter contains hundreds of pages of rampant and indiscriminate throat-tearing and decapitation. Killing Joke is more psychologically intense, and it employs ethics, humor, and duality in ways that far exceed many of the mediocre products in the medium. More than blood-spattered panels, the content of comics and graphic novelsthe storiesare not juvenile, but deeply complex. Arkham Asylum creates the wicked and surreal, but, as Brooker rightly notes, it also manages to involve psychology, literature and mythology, drawing parallels with Psycho, Alice In Wonderland, the Bible and the Tarot (272). The convoluted plot in Hush constructs a legitimate mystery. Interestingly, Miller satirizes the Batmans inordinately xed moral compass, one seen in BatmanVampire when even as a vampire he manages to kill only the villainous undead or the living on behalf of moral justice; when in Dark Knight Returns the Batman drives a specialized dagger into the Jokers right eye and breaks his neck, the Joker mocks the Batman for being incapable before he manages to twist his neck further and kill himself. One could reasonably argue that the most complex topic a writer or artist might engage is the human social condition. Part of the discontent that fans of the Batman felt derived from the camp, but also from the linear, crime villain battle win storylines. The fan-voted death of Jason Todd, the second Robin, for instance, is indicative not only of the fan interest in darker and more complex stories, but also of the serious friction that plays out between the Batman and his confederates. Todds death certainly torments the Batman, as evidenced in Hush, and any companions are viewed with suspicion or subject to extreme danger (such instances can be seen in Alfreds beating in Knightfall 2000, Alfreds death in Vampire, Robins position in Dark Knight Returns, Superman in either Hush or Dark Knight Returns, Gordons and Gordons daughters brutalization in Killing Joke, the madness inicted on Ruth Adams or Harvey Dent in Arkham Asylum, etc.). Comics and graphic novels also sustain the Wayne/Batman character, engaging the deeply problematic experiences of autonomy and

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identity, longing, trust. In Year Two, for instance, Waynes romantic expectations are largely ruined by actions he takes as the Batman through an ideological stance that is essentially asocial, secretive, cynical, and ercely dogmatic. The conicts in Hush are more striking and include the radical struggles Wayne/Batman endures, particularly when longing for the love and companionship of Catwoman. Near the graphic novels conclusion, he explains, Having friends. Partners. It all ends in betrayal and death (Loeb et al.). Putting aside witnessing his parents murder, friends murders and brutalization, being a billionaire, and working as a dramatic vigilante, Wayne sees the world in very human ways that resound through dramatic human media. Notably, Alice, Natalie Portmans character in the award-winning and acclaimed lm Closer, faces a similar situation at the close of that lm, one where she seemingly comes to understand her role as an autonomous and lonely object, an idea. In the National Book Award Finalist and New York Times Notable Book Feast of Love, the implicit message is precisely that the human social condition is fraught with suffering, that while cynicism is in ways brutal, it could also be seen as prudent. Ultimately, the fact that the Batman is not leading an arch villain to a police car at the end of Hush, that instead he is trying to negotiate a deeply human but astoundingly complex task with a woman he likely loves, exemplies the sophistication of graphic novel content, of its stories. Versaci, Peterson, and others posited a subversive potential in comics and graphic novels, and Dark Knight Returns fullled that potential by challenging norms in the comics industry and tropes in the Batman universe. More politically savvy writers have analyzed the subversiveness and impact of Dark Knight Returns on cultural consciousness, politics, and more, but Moore and Varley may also be understood as producing the Batman as a densely muscled gray-and-navy 60-year-old as blatantly obvious subversion (to expectations for the Batman). Nevertheless, in Dark Knight Returns, politics runs rst. Moore and Varley create a Superman who has become a government assassin of sorts and a Wonder Woman who is not only elderly, but vulnerable enough to be brutalized and hogtied with her famous lasso. For anyone who knows Watchmen, this should sound familiar, because beyond using original superhero characters, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons do some strikingly similar things in that iconic graphic novel, as does Mark Millar in Wanted. Even the most subdued tales of the Batman position him as

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a lawbreaking vigilante. This antihero construction sparks centuriesold dialogues on ethics, the kind of business that comprises the bulk of Batman and Philosophy. But readers of the Batman also have Cult. This graphic novel works in the same politically subversive manner, but toward different ends. Jim Starlin entitles his foreword Burn This Book, for instance, and the foreword explains his position on and the ways Cult works against the censorship of free speech. He also engages religious zealotry and the potential fac ade of religion. In Cult, he positions Deacon Blackre masquerading as a religious leader, hiding behind moral self-righteousness while he furthers his own private agenda (Starlin). The Batman struggles in Cult in ways similar to how he struggles with psychology in Arkham Asylum and with companionship in Hush, perhaps also in ways analogous to Starlins own activist and political struggles. The suggestion that Wayne is psychologically unhinged is not new, but these graphic novels engage psychology in complex ways that are at least equitable to the methods used in literature and lm. For instance, Dark Knight Returns, Arkham Asylum, and Killing Joke are all rather sinister and work with deep-seated psychological issues in compelling ways. In Killing Joke, for example, the Joker and Batman end the novel laughing at a (funny) joke, this after the Joker has shot and presumably raped Commissioner Gordons daughter, violated him, and killed a number of people, all in an attempt to prove that someone can be driven crazy through one bad day. But that shared laughter explores the connection between these two archenemies, one that is most profound in Arkham Asylum, in which Morrison and McKean (and the Joker) compel readers to see how very similar Batman is to the deranged psychopaths he ghts; while charging through the asylum on a psychotic trip, Batman rages and battles and is ultimately released only through the unrequited benevolence of Harvey Dent. Notably, Arkham Asylum also shows that Harvey is constantly returned to his criminality by the existence and pressure of Batman. Beyond phobias and fears, these graphic novels create complexity through the cumulative psychology in the Wayne/Batman binary and the Batmans duality with his villains. The rst challengesuccessfully maintaining multiple personaswas partly problematized by DC writers with the introduction of Tim Drake, the third Robin and a kid who deduced the Batmans day role (when hosts of villains and police ofcers could not). The second duality, though, is potentially more compelling.

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The Jokers voice and the Batmans monologue become essentially identical in Dark Knight Returns. The Batman in Full Circle decides not only to spare the Reapers life but also to leave him with his son. This Reaper is revealed to be the son of Waynes parents murderer, seeking revenge for the death of his father, despite the fact that the original Reaper killed his father (in Year Two), all against the backdrop of murdered parents and orphaned childrencreating the complicated circular metaphor of the title. Add the multifaceted nature of Batmans love interests with the daughters of Gordon, the original Reaper, and Ras al Gul, and the Batman duality becomes increasingly intriguing. In Year Two, the Batman offers Gordon a new pipe, saying that it should help with Gordons efforts to quit smoking (Barr et al. 23) paralleling the suggestion in Hush that Batman created and perpetuates the Joker, in Arkham Asylum that the Batman perpetuates at least Dent/ Two-Face. The Batmans link with the Joker is exampled in Dark Knight Returns when the Batman cannot actually kill the Joker. This Joker dynamic is the most storied and frames Killing Joke. In it, the Batman bookmarks the novel with appeals to the Joker to understand that their relationship will be fatal to one or both of them and to resolve their differences. But the joke about two guys in an asylum also bookmarks the novel, and contributes to an understanding that the Batman and the Joker are a singular psychological and character spectrum divided in two (something seen in Arkham Aslyum when Wayne/ Batman engages Dent/Two-Face). That is not to say that the Batman does not try or even succeed in killing the Joker. In Hush, Catwoman tries forcibly to stop him from killing the Joker (the Batman ghts Catwoman and knocks her unconscious). He is only stopped when Gordon shoots the Batman twice (in the forearm and in one of the cowl ears, ripping it off ) and warns of vital shots if the Batman does not release the Joker. Perhaps most ttingly, in Cult, the Batman imagines hacking the Joker to bits with an axe, and says, Too bad its just . . . a dream (Starlin). Prominent writers and creators for DC spoke of this complex duality in Gotham Knight. They argued that villains are part of the character of the superhero, that villains are mirrors for the character the villains help dene who the hero is that this dynamic creates textured, layered characters and that the complexity and depth of each individual villain shows even the multiple complexities and depths of our lead hero. They argue that the Batman and his villains represent two parts

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of the same brain. Thus, these graphic novel stories not only present complex narratives of social characters and their psychological challenges, but also a running metanarrative in which the character collective explores the human condition.

Conclusion
This comics medium managed to create and sustain an iconic character across temporal, visual, and setting spectrums (Book of the Dead; Brooker 318; Gotham by Gaslight; Holy Terror; I, Joker; Reign of Terror; Scar of the Bat; Thrillkiller; Two Faces; Year 100; Versaci 32; and many more)something that should speak to its comparable if not unique level of complexity when compared to literature and lm. While many prefer the visuals in the Watchmen lm to Bollands artwork in the Watchmen graphic novel and prefer the visuals in the 300 lm to Millers graphic novel, ones personal preference for the radical visuals in the 300 or Watchmen lms does nothing more than attest to the complexities in the original graphic novels. Imagine what 300 would be like without the innovative artwork in the graphic novel that framed much of the lm, and consider what was lost in the same conversion for Wanted. While lm director Zack Snyder and even Watchmen illustrator Gibbons have purported that much of that graphic novels content is included coherently in the lms almost three hour running time (WatchmenCreators), it is notable that Warner Brothers has released two of Watchmens subplots (Tales of the Black Freighter Getting DVD Release; Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood) not included in the lm and a motion comic that takes the graphic novel, animates the stills, and adds voices and other sound effects (Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic). Warner Brothers also plans to subsequently splice those two subplots in a future DVD (Watchmen Movie vs. Graphic Novel). The running total, then, is a complete and complex graphic novel that through at least four motion pictures and DVD hybrids (and video game) cannot even be spliced together to match the single graphic novel. And just as importantly it is difcult to fathom how the sophistication in Miss Remarkable, Dark Knight Returns, or Arkham Asylum (or any number of the Batman graphic novels) could possibly be captured by either traditional literature or lm.

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In more formulaic terms, comics and graphic novels can provide unique complexity not found in prose-based novels or traditional lms, and they therefore deserve critical and scholarly attention. That complexity came through the (a) medium: the way writers, inkers, colorists, and other involved in the production of a graphic novel impose control, create layering, build atmosphere, and highlight artistic craft; (b) stories: how graphic novels work well beyond the supercial, delving into the human condition, political and cultural subversion, psychology, and the duality of persona; and (c) character: creating and sustaining icons that cross myriad temporal, visual, and setting ranges while paradoxically remaining coherent. While an inquiry into this complexity may have focused on a more diverse spectrum of graphic novels, the one seminal Watchmen, or various other graphic novels in the Batman universe, fans and scholars should appreciate working with an iconic character and some of his bestselling and most acclaimed stories. Moreover, fans and scholars should see how such an inquiry lls the gap left after Brookers Batman Unmasked, while in concert with theoretical arguments from Wolk, McCloud, Versaci, Peterson, and others.

Works Cited
300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Warner, 2006. Abnett, Dan, and Andy Lanning. Two Faces. New York: DC, 1998. Augustyn, Brian. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. New York: DC, 1989. Barr, Mike, Alan Davis, and Mark Farmer. Batman: Full Circle. New York: DC, 1991. Barr, Mike, et al. Batman: Year Two. New York: DC, 1990. . Reign of Terror. New York: DC, 1999. Barreto, Eduardo, and Max Allen Collins. Scar of the Bat. New York: DC, 2000. Batman: Gotham Knight. Dir. Yasuhiro Aoki, and Shojiro Nishimi. Warner, 2008. Baxter, Charles. The Feast of Love. New York: Vintage, 2001. Block, Francesca. Dangerous Angels. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Brennert, Alan, and Norm Breyfogle. Holy Terror. New York: DC, 1991. Brooker, Will. Batman Unmasked: Analysing a Cultural Icon. London: Continuum, 2000.

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Brophy-Warren, Jamin. A Different League: The Writer of the Comic Watchmen Returns with a New Work. Wall Street Journal. 24 Apr., 2009: W2. Chaykin, Howard, and Daniel Brereton. Thrillkiller. New York: DC, 1997. Clark, Beverly. Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Childrens Literature in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003. Claytor, Ryan. The Comic Book in the (University) Classroom. Michigan State University Comics Forum 2009, East Lansing, MI. March 2009. Closer. Dir. Mike Nichols. Sony, 2004. Comic Book Guy. Wikipedia.org. 23 Apr. 2009. Accessed on 28 Dec. 2010 h http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_guy i. Dranger, Joanna. Miss Remarkable & Her Career. New York: Penguin, 2003. Hall, Bob, and Lee Loughridge. I, Joker. New York: DC, 1998. Hoppenstand, Gary. Scholarly Trends in Comics Studies. Michigan State University Comics Forum 2009, East Lansing, MI. March 2009. Kick-Ass. Dir. Matthew Vaughn. Universal, 2010. Lerer, Seth. Childrens Literature: A Readers History, From Aesop to Harry Potter. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Loeb, Jeph, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams. Batman: Hush. Vol. 1. New York: DC, 2003. . Batman: Hush. Vol. 2. New York: DC, 2003. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper, 1993. Miller, Frank, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. New York: DC, 2002. Miller, Frank, and David Mazzucchelli. Batman: Year One. New York: DC, 1988. Miller, Frank, and Lynn Varley. 300. Milwaukee, OR: Dark Horse, 1999. Millar, Mark, and Jay Jones. Wanted. Los Angeles: Top Cow, 2004. Moench, Doug, et al. Batman: Knightfall Part One: Broken Bat. New York: DC, 2000. . Tales of the Multiverse: BatmanVampire. New York: DC, 2007. Moench, Doug, Kelly Jones, and John Beatty. Bloodstorm. New York: DC, 1995. . Crimson Mist. New York: DC, 2001.

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Moench, Doug, Kelly Jones, and Malcolm Jones III. Red Rain. New York: DC, 1991. Moench, Doug, Barry Kitson, and Ray McCarthy. Book of the Dead. New York: DC, 1999. Moore, Alan, and Brian Bolland. Batman: The Killing Joke: The Deluxe Edition. New York: DC, 2008. Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC, 1986. Moore, Alan, and Kevin ONeill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910. London: Knockabout Comics, 2009. Morrison, Grant, and Dave McKean. Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. New York: DC, 2004. Nikolajeva, Maria, and Carole Scott. How Picturebooks Work. New York: Routledge, 2006. Niles, Steve, and Ben Templesmith. 30 Days of Night. San Diego, CA: IDW, 2003. Nodelman, Perry. The Hidden Adult: Dening Childrens Literature. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2008. Pearson, Roberta, and William Uricchio. The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media. New York: Routledge, 1991. Peterson, David. Keynote. Michigan State University Comics Forum 2009, East Lansing, MI. March 2009. Photographer Captures L.A.s Vintage Homes. NPR Morning Edition. 26 Mar. 2009. 15 Apr. 2009 h http://www.npr.org/templates/story/ story.php?storyId=102344165&live=1 i . Pope, Paul, and Jose Villarrubia. Batman: Year 100. New York: DC, 2007. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Dir. Edgar Wright. Universal, 2010. Sipe, Lawrence. Storytime: Young Childrens Literary Understanding in the Classroom. New York: Teachers College, 2008. Spiegelman, Art. Maus. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Starlin, Jim, Bernie Wrightson, and Bill Wray. Batman: The Cult. New York: DC, 1991. Stranger Than Fiction. Dir. Marc Forster. Columbia, 2006. Tales of the Black Freighter Getting DVD Release. Cinematical.com. 26 May 2008. Accessed on 5 Apr. 2009 h http://www. cinematical.com/2008/05/26/tales-of-the-black-freighter-gettingdvd-release/ i . The Losers. Dir. Sylvain White. Warner Bros., 2010. The Surrogates. Dir. Jonathan Mostow. Touchstone, 2009. Venditti, Robert, and Brett Weldele. The Surrogates. New York: Top Shelf, 2009.

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Versaci, Rocco. This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature. New York: Continuum, 2007. Watchmen. Dir. Zack Snyder. Warner, 2009. Watchmen Movie vs. Graphic Novel: Is There a Third Option? NPR.org. 11 Mar. 2009. 28 Apr. 2009 h http://www.npr.org/blogs/ monkeysee/2009/03/watchmen_movie_vs_graphic_nove.html i . WatchmenCreators. SciFiWire.com. 2009. Hulu.com. Accessed on 5 Apr. 2009 h http://www.hulu.com/watch/59896/sci--wire-watch men-creatorsi . Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood. Dir. Daniel DelPurgatorio and Mike Smith.Warner, 2009. Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic. Dir. Jake Hughes and Brian Stilwell. Warner, 2009. White, Mark, and Robert Arp, eds. Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. Wolk, Douglas. Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2007.
Paul A. Crutcher has degrees in philosophy, composition, and womens and gender studies. Paul has published in a variety of mediums on diverse subjects, and researches in areas of popular culture and transcultural empathy as they interact with socialization and other forms of education. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy at Michigan State University.