Batman and Dualism

Like all superheroes, Batman has died time and time and time again. There have probably been as many funerals for the Dark Knight as there have been for the Man of Steel. Like all DC Comic’s heroes, however, he is always back and locking baddies in Arkham within the month.

But there is something very unique about Batman’s many funerals: the attendees. The Dark Knight’s entire rouge gallery is nearly always in attendance. Poison Ivy weeping quietly, propping up her head against Harley Quinn. Penguin looks absolutely devastated, and the Joker… the Joker looks the saddest of all… as if his best friend in the entire world has just passed away. What is going on here?

One of the central philosophies surrounding the Batman mythos is that the crime that pervades Gotham created him, and that he in turn is the reason that crime in Gotham continues. Hugo Strange even explicitly states in Arkham City that Batman is the reason that the criminals exist; the corruption in Gotham is his fault. (See footnote 1)

The Joker, however, is the main character to espouse this belief. The Clown Prince of Gotham truly is the antithesis of Batman. He is joyful where Batman is gloomy; he finds immense satisfaction in what he does while Batman is often conflicted and unsure of what he is supposed to do next. Their stories are often like a dark and intricate dance; the Joker initiating an event and daring the Dark Knight to chase him down and solve the mystery, right the wrong, save the citizen. Sometimes the Joker seems to do it simply for the pleasure of the crime, but more often than not, it becomes clear that he simply missed Batman and wanted to “hang out”… even if it is on his own terms and in his own twisted way.

In Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum there is even a sexual undertone to the Joker’s relationship with Batman, even though it is not reciprocated by Batman himself. The Joker wears high heals throughout this book, and occasionally makes quips about the fact that the person closest to Batman is a young boy (Batman’s sidekick Robin). In Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, the Joker even goes so far as to wear makeup.

As I said before, what on earth is going on? Dualism, my friends.

Josiah, what’s dualism? Well, to understand dualism we’re going to have to go back a bit… And by a bit, I mean a lot.

Dualism started with the Greeks, or at least the Greeks gave it its most prevalent form, in that good and evil coexist, always have coexisted and always will. Dualism does not necessitate the belief that good and evil will continue to coexist forever , but the most consistent dualists view both as co-eternal. A more common dualistic view is that of good and evil both existing at the beginning of things and then one triumphing over the other by the end of time. Examples include Norse mythology where chaos will ultimately triumph over good, and Platonism where the opposite is true.

This notion of dualism has even permeated the circles of Christian thought, where it is now incredibly hard to see a world where God existed and evil did not. (See footnote 2) Most Christians readily accept the fact that God and Christ will triumph over Satan and death at the end of time, but for most modern Christians, it is very hard to separate God from the world we live in. But as Christians we must accept that He is completely self-sufficient. He did not need us, but made us solely because He willed it and for His own joy.

The central philosophy of the modern Batman flies in the face of the idea that good can exist without evil. While it would probably be accurate to blame the Dark Knight’s eternal fight against crime on the comic industry’s need for continued sales, since Batman is one of DC Comic’s most popular characters, it does not negate the fact that he never triumphs. Batman is locked in an eternal struggle where he can not defeat his enemies and his enemies cannot defeat him. One or the other may die, but eventually Batman and the Joker will be back at it again with some new quarrel.

Paul Dini’s Arkahm City is the closest I have seen a Batman story come to closure. (WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!) The story chronicles the story of Arkham Asylum after super villain Hugo Strange expands the madhouse to take up the entirety of Gotham’s northern island. Batman, while looking for Strange, and trying to shut down the Asylum expansion (which has become a liability for Gotham itself and its citizens), he is kidnapped by Joker, who infuses Batman with some of his blood. It turns out the Joker is dying of a chronic illness and with the blood transfusion he has given the disease to Batman as will. Batman scrambles to find the cure, running into many of his old enemies along the way. Eventually Batman is able to procure a treatment for the disease and takes it to Joker. The Joker, however, wants the cure all for himself and intends to leave Batman for dead. In the resulting scuffle, Joker destroys the last vial of half-drunk antidote, which would have been used to save his life.

The Joker realizes that he is finally finished, and laughs as Batman tells him that if had he not destroyed the vial, he actually would have healed the Joker. The final scene depicts Batman cradling the dead body of the Joker and carrying out of Arkham into an impending dawn.

While this story will probably not be accepted as the canonical death of the Joker, I like to view it as such, for it ends the dualism of Batman. Evil is finally defeated for good, yet Batman himself never caves to murder, and remains untainted as the compassionate defender of Gotham City.



(1) This was not always the case. The yin-yang relationship between Batman and the villains that he is continually fighting is a modern notion that began in the 70s and 80s when British writers like Grant Morrison and Alan Moore took over writing the adventures of the Dark Knight. They decided to take a rather pessimistic view of Batman as a sort of reaction to the happy-go-lucky tone of Batman comics in the 50s and 60s. I blame this on the pessimism of the period, not on the British, of course.

(2) This is dealt with in Saint Augustine’s theory of sin and evil as the absence of God. However, this is about Batman and dualism, not Augustine, so that will have to wait until another time.