Playboy Billionaire, exceptional martial artist, symbol, combat strategist, inexhaustible wealth, unbeatable, brilliant deductive skill, overrated, advanced technology, master tactician, psycho. Yeah I’m sure you’ve got a few to add to that list too…
(clip: 'Who you supposed to be?!...'What are you?!'...'I'm vengeance.'...'I'm Batman'.)
You think you know Batman? Well in part one, it was just heating up when we had to stop, so I’m excited to rejoin my guests as we explore, The Batman.
(intro) Podcast. Presented by Sonic Embassy. Episode 14, Pop Culture Icons, The Batman, Part 2.
Welcome to Podcast. Presented by Sonic Embassy and part 2 of Pop Culture Icons: The Batman. Pop Culture Icons is an ongoing miniseries in which we take a fun look back at various 'nouns' in pop culture, and THIS episode we continue our look at the Batman. Plus, I figure out when I went from seeing Batman as a whatever comic book character, to one of my favorites. Yeah I’m not going to recap part 1, if you haven’t already go listen to part one in episode 13 first, then meet us back here.
So who is the Batman?
GW-'Well uh, Batman, Bruce Wayne is an only child whose parents were Thomas & Martha Wayne. Thomas was a doctor, and uh, his family company was Wayne Enterprises. Of course like I said a very well-to-do family, a leading family in Gotham City. Gotham City is essentially modeled after New York City in the DC universe, and think back to the 1930's, New York and Chicago were the 2 big cities. So Chicago was the newer, cleaner, bright city, so that's supposed to be Metropolis, and then all the people that reside in Gotham, you know, are essentially New Yorkers. So their company and their family are the fore front of Gotham society. Alfred Pennyworth is the family butler, and after the murder of the Wayne's he becomes the caretaker of Bruce Wayne and all of his personal life, kind of like a guiding father figure that's a source of knowledge because in his younger life he was a soldier in the British army and spy specialist, so he would have a unique knowledge that would help Batman on his journey.
NF-' Well once again, like you say, he's a millionaire playboy, but once again, when it gets to the...whenever you talk to yourself, in your head, you know, what do you call yourself in your head? It has so many story arcs where its like, the voice in his head doesn't say 'Bruce', it says 'Batman'. He views himself as Batman, but then, Bruce as the cloak that allows him to function as Batman. So, and that's one of the things I find interesting about the character, of which is the real him, and which is the alter-ego. It's flipped from the way so many have. He thinks of himself as Batman, you know. He has PTSD. He always did, he always will. He's forever broken goods you know he's damaged goods. So, I think he has accepted that, and went to where yeah, he's not Bruce anymore, he's Batman.
GW-' Yes and if you look back to Batmans origins, back in the late '30's and the 1940's he was the second big DC superhero behind Superman, and of course Superman was created to be a person who was a hero seeking social justice for the time. The creators of Superman, Siegal and Schuster, created a whole new genre, um, of the superhero comic and DC immediately knew what they had, so they tasked Batman's creator Bob Kane with coming up with the next hero and that's how Batman began with his earliest roots are fighting against crime and being a detective, um, seeking to right injustice. So this kinda gets back to the core idea of what this characters all about.
BG-'An icon. He's an icon. He is a man who did not get therapy, and now goes out at night, dressed up as a bat, and, fights alongside a little boy, that he replaces every few years...that also didn't get therapy. But let's keep in mind, the little boy is often an orphan who also needs therapy...but I guess beating up criminals is therapy? I don't know.'
Wow, you know, Nick said something about attitudes like yours.
BG-'What did he say?'
You're on a roll! Don't stop now. Listen to the full episode here.