ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors focus on the Batman franchise and trace the development of the Batman character from Bob Kane’s early vision, through the creation of his “trauma” story and up to the present day. By initially comparing early Batman stories and the 60’s television “camping” of the caped crusader and the 90s Tim Burton Batman movie franchise with the much darker post 9/11 Christopher Nolan trilogy. The fact that superheroes were born in eras of crises of American identity and have traditionally been drawn and written by disenfranchised groups of young men and women ensures that, at their heart, they have always contained a somewhat radical, counter-culture appeal. The Dark Knight opened the flood gates for a genre that had existed at the margins, been mainstreamed in camp and comic ways in movies to radically alter its course within that medium, and return to the more counter culture tone of the comics.
