Golden Age of Batman
(1939-1956):
A Reflection of American Society
Victoria M.
Horace Greeley High School
What does the evolution of “golden
age Batman” reveal about American
society?
Batman Begins
Batman first appeared
on the pages of a comic
book in Detective
Comics #27 “The Case
of the Chemical
Syndicate”
It was released May,
1939
Co-created by artist
Bob Kane and writer Bill
Finger
Only Kane recieves
official credit
Inspirations for Batman
Scarlet Pimpernel – one of the
first masked vigilantes
The Scarlet Pimpernel was an
anonymous hero who rescued
aristocrats from the guillotine
during the French revolution
The Mask of Zorro (1920)
Fairbanks played wealthy
Diego and his masked alter
ego, Zorro
Zorro had a secret cave
behind a grandfather clock in
Diego’s living room
Douglas Fairbanks in the Mask of Zorro (1920)
Leonardo da Vinci
Kane claims to have developed
aspects of Batman’s costume
from da Vinci’s sketches of a
flying machine
Leonardo da Vinci's Flying Machine- ca. 1485
The Great Depression
The depression, which caused feelings of
hopelessness and despair, lead many
American to turn to fictional super heroes
as a sign of hope
Batman’s dark persona is a reflection of
the gloomy outlook of American society at
this time
During the Depression most people didn’t
have money to spare on entertainment
However, at just 10 cents an issue, comic books
were an affordable medium of entertainment
Gotham
The name “Gotham City” was first used in
Detective Comics #48 in February, 1941
It is the universal city, it represents all
modern cities
It is modeled after such cities as Chicago, New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg
Batman editor Danny O’Neil describes
Gotham as “New York below Fourteenth
Street after eleven o’clock at night”
A reflection of the crime and grittiness of the
Depression Era
Batman: The Ultimate
Example of Good Work Ethics
Batman is a super hero without any super
powers
He relies upon intense training, discipline, his
arsenal of “toys”, and intellect to fight crime
Batman represents the perfectibility of man
and the great American work ethic
Theoretically any individual has the ability to
become like Batman through hard work and
dedication
The belief, embodied by Batman, that hard work
brings about success and greatness gave many
Americans hope during a time when unemployment
levels reached about 25%
Gangsters and Villains
“Baby Face” Nelson
John Dillinger
Batman originated at the end of the “Gangster Era”, a
period form the late 1920s to the early 1930s in which
the United States experienced a period of widespread
lawlessness
This period saw the rise of such notorious mobsters as: Al
Capone, “Baby Face” Nelson, George "Machine Gun" Kelly,
John Dillinger, and "Pretty Boy" Floyd
Due to the influence of the “Gangster Era”, many of
Batman’s earliest enemies to be more realistic
criminals, such as petty thieves and mobsters
Batman’s parents were murdered Joe Chill, a thief under
the direction of mafia boss Joe Moxon
Original Moral Code
“Batman was written originally in
the style of the pulps”
When first introduced, Batman
wore a holster and gun under his
cape and didn’t show any remorse
for causing death
When the criminal falls into an acid
tank at the end Detective Comics
#27 Batman declares it “A fitting
end for his kind.”
In Detective Comics #29, Batman
threatens some criminals “Tell me!
Or I’ll kill You”
In Batman #1, Batman exclaims,
“Much as I hate to take human life,
I’m afraid this time it’s necessary!”
before using the Batplane’s machine
gun to kill the criminals
Changing Moral Code
By the end of 1941, Batman moral credence had
gone through a drastic transformation
In Batman #4 Batman tells Robin, “we never kill with
weapons of any kind!” and there’s a caption which
states “The Batman never carries or kills with a gun.
These changes in Batman were due to audience
response and the changing political climate in
the world
Letters were written by concerned
mothers who were afraid that having
their children exposed to such gory
material would have a negative impact
on them.
There were also fears that Batman
would be seen as a violent,
authoritarian figure like Hitler
Batman & Robin
Robin was introduced in
Detective Comics #38 in
April, 1940
His name was based on
Robin Hood
He was introduced to
humanize Batman and to
lighten the mood of the
comic
His debut coincided with
the changes to Batman’s
“moral code”
He signaled the end of
the depression
He relieved the gloom and
isolation of Batman
Children could relate to
him
Batman: A Vehicle for WWII Propaganda….
During the war cartoons
and comics, including
Batman, were used as a
source of propaganda in
domestic advertisements,
leaflets, recruitment
posters, etc.
In World’s Finest #8,
Batman, Robin, and Superman
sell war bonds from a stall
Batman #17 shows Batman
and Robin atop an American
Eagle promoting war bonds
In World’s Finest #9 Batman
hurls tennis bal at
caricatures of Axis leaders
Or Was He?
During the war, Batman was able to largely
maintain his own style and image and generally
remained isolated from war issues
Batman only came into contact with Hitler once on
the cover of World’s Finest #9
Much of the creative staff was exempt from
the draft and therefore had little interest to
depict a war in which they had no experience
in and were never going to participate
Bill Finger was excluded from the draft on health
grounds, due to a history of scarlet fever
Writer Alvin Schwartz had chronic asthma
Artist Stan Kaye had scar tissue on his lungs from
TB
The consistency of the Batman comic with
little reference, if any, to the war may have
been comforting to the private serving aboard
WWII Comic Book Stats
In 1940 the estimated monthly circulation
of all comic books was 3.7 million
By 1944 the monthly circulation shot up
to 28.7 million
In 1943 the 3 titles in which Batman
appeared (Detective, Batman, and World’s
Finest) released 3 million issues monthly
It is estimated that they were read by eight
times that number
Early Backlash To Comics
“Badly drawn, badly written, badly printed- a
strain on the young nervous systems-the
effects of these pulp-paper nightmares is
that of a violent stimulant…Unless we want a
coming generation even more ferocious than
the present one, parents and teachers
throughout America must band together to
break the ‘comic’ magazine.”
-- Chicago Daily News book reviewer
Sterling North, May 8th, 1940
Early Backlash To Comics
During WWII there were complaints made
to publishers of comic books about some of
the content and the apparent bad influence
it had on children
Most of these complaints were aimed at the
excessively violent content of some comics
These early complaints brought about the early
changes to Batman’s moral code
At the time, however, these complaints did
not have a severe impact because people
were still too concerned with the war
abroad to focus on comic book regulation
and comics continued to grow in popularity
Post War Comic Crackdown
The same times which created McCarthy
created a bad time for comics
Some comic book publishers came together in
1948 and formed the Association of Comic
Magazine Publishers (ACMP), whose goal was to
set guidelines for comic books
In 1949 Gershon Legman wrote Love and Death
in which he claimed that comic books trained
kids like animals, by breaking their spirits
In 1950 a US Senate special committee
investigating organized crime looked into the
effects that crime comics had on it
In December, 1948 residents of Binghamton,
NY conducted a house to house collection of
comic books and burned them
Dr. Fredric Wertham: The Most Influential Comic Book
Villain
Fredric Wertham was born on
March 20, 1895, in Nuremberg,
Germany
He moved to the US in 1922 and
went on to become a highly
distinguished psychologist
During his career he began his campaign
against the “bad influence” of comic books
His “crusade” included testifying in front of the
New York State Legislature about the psychiatric
aspects of criminal behavior, and mentioned the
negative impact which comics can have on individuals
He wrote many books including Seduction of
the Innocent , his most famous attack on
comics
Seduction of the Innocent
“All parents should be grateful to Dr.
Fredrick Wertham for having written
‘Seduction of the Innocent’… He holds that
they stimulate racial prejudice and various
sadistic and unhealthy attitudes; that their
emphasis upon all sorts of crime, violence,
drug addiction and cruelty stimulates
children to various forms of juvenile
delinquency .”
-- New York Times article ”Nothing
To Laugh At” by C. Wright Mills
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent
was published in 1954
At the same time, a U.S.
Congressional inquiry was
launched into the comic book
industry
The book warned that comic
books were a bad form of
popular literature and a
major cause of juvenile
delinquency
Wertham cites the depiction
of violence, sex, drug use, and
other adult material within
"crime comics”
Wertham’s most famous accusation
“At home they lead an idyllic life. They are
Bruce Wayne and ‘Dick’ Grayson. Bruce Wayne is
described as a ‘socialite’ and the official
relationship is that Dick is Bruce’s ward. They
live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful
flowers in large vases, and have a butler, Alfred.
Bruce is sometimes shown in a dressing gown. As
they sit by the fireplace the young boy
sometimes worries about his partner…It is like a
wish dream of two homosexuals living together.”
-- Seduction on the Innocent by
Dr. Fredrick Wertham
Wertham makes his case
Though Wertham’s accusations sound
prejudice and homophobic, his beliefs were
widely accepted in his time
Wertham was concerned that if young children
read about a gay Batman it could cause an
internal conflict
In Wertham’s own words
Many adolescents go through periods of vague
fears that the might be homosexual. Such fears
may become a source of great mental anguish…
during and after comic-book reading they indulge in
fantasies which became seriously repressed.
One young homosexual during psychotherapy
brought us a copy of Detective Comics, with a
Batman story…When he was eight this boy had
realized that from fantasies about comic books
that he was aroused by men…‘I did want to have
relations with Batman.’
Holy Homophobia!: American Attitudes Towards
Homosexuality in the 1950s
During the 1950s the American Medical
Association considered homosexuality a
disorder suitable for psychiatric treatment
Senator McCarthy pledged to purge the
government of Communists and “queers”
In the military “homosexual acts and
tendencies” were cause for a dishonorable
discharge
Almost all employment agencies refused to
hire “effeminate” men
In many areas, homosexuality itself was a sex
crime
Batman Fights to Reclaim Its Image
As a way to reclaim the
image of Batman and Robin
as respectable cultural
icons, heterosexual love
interest were introduced
The cover of Batman #87
reads “Batman Falls in Love”
Batgirl was introduced as a
love interest for Robin
Batwoman was also introduced
a little later as another
possible love interest for
Batman
Even Alfred, the butler, was
killed off and replace by
Aunt Harriet, to include
more women
The Comics Code Authority
Due to the Senate Committee
investigations being held to
determine the correlation
between comic books and
juvenile delinquency, various
comic book companies created
the Comics Code authority
(CCA) in October, 1954
The CCA guidelines contained
rules pertaining to violence,
obscenities, religion, costume,
marriage and sex, and advertising
Every comic approved by the
CCA had a CCA seal on its
cover
Examples of Some C.C.A. Guidelines
Crime
In every instance good shall triumph over evil and
the criminal punished for his misdeeds
Costume
All characters shall be depicted in dress reasonably
acceptable to society
Dialogue
Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or
symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings
are forbidden
Sex and Marriage
The treatment of love-romance stories shall
emphasize the value of the home and the sanctity of
marriage
Advertising
Liquor and tobacco advertising is not acceptable
Batman Goes to Camp
The post-war crackdown on
comics brought an end to the
Golden Age of Batman in
1956
In order to follow the
guidelines of the CCA, the plot
lines got sillier and sillier
In 1964 Batman was given a
new look, which included the
yellow ellipse behind the
costume’s bat symbol
The Batman TV series
debuted in 1966 and had a
very campy nature
This campy nature found its
way into the comic books
THE
END
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