May 1, 1939, was the cover date of issue #27 of Detective Comics, in which Batman made his debut. Batman was one of the earliest comic book superheroes and has become one of the most enduring characters in American literature.

The ideas that went into the creation of the first superheroes had been percolating in popular culture at least since the turn of the century. The Baroness Orczy had created The Scarlet Pimpernel (e-book | e-audio | print | audio) in 1903. The character appeared to be a mild-mannered aristocrat but was secretly a gifted swordsman who wore a disguise and rescued nobles from the guillotine during the French Revolution. A few years later, Johnston McCulley created Zorro (e-book | e-audio | print), a masked vigilante who defended the common people against corrupt officials and landowners in Spanish California.

Comic books began creating their own costumed vigilantes in the early 1930s, and the arrival of Superman in 1938 kicked the craze into high gear. National Comics, which would later change its name to DC Comics, was delighted by their success with Superman and asked their writers to create more superheroes. Artist and writer Bob Kane, with significant assistance from Bill Finger, came up with Batman.

Batman was solidly in the tradition of The Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro; he was a wealthy man—businessman and philanthropist Bruce Wayne—who put on a disguise in order to fight evil and injustice. Unlike Superman, he had no superhuman powers or abilities; Wayne had great intelligence and great wealth, and worked to develop his strength and agility. E. Paul Zehr examines what it would take to develop such skills in Becoming Batman (e-book | print).

The early Batman stories were dark in tone, influenced by the film noir of the era. It didn't take long, though, before DC began softening that tone. One important step was the introduction of Batman's sidekick, Robin, in 1940. Those early stories placed great emphasis on Batman's detective skills, and the writers thought that if Batman was going to be a detective at the level of Sherlock Holmes, then he needed Robin to serve as his Watson.

The introduction of Robin began a cycle that has often repeated itself. Batman begins as a dark, brooding loner; sidekicks are introduced, usually beginning with the return of Robin, or the introduction of a new incarnation of Robin; the tone softens as Batman worries about protecting his new "family"; a traumatic event leads him to realize that the only way to truly protect them is to cut them out of his life; Batman returns to being a dark, brooding loner. Glen Weldon's The Caped Crusade (e-book | e-audio | print) is a history of Batman that traces the many variations on this cycle, and looks at how fan culture has responded to each new version of the character.

Batman was at the center of controversy in 1954, when psychologist Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent was published. Wertham charged comic books with corrupting the minds of America's youth, leading to juvenile delinquency. He argued that Batman and Robin were depicted, at least subtextually, as lovers. Wertham's book was a bestseller and helped lead to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body formed by the comic book industry (the CCA began to lose its influence in the early 2000s, and died entirely in 2011).

Wertham's specific problems with Batman led to one of the character's lighter cycles in the late 1950s. Stories took on more of a science-fiction spin, and female characters were introduced to help combat the fears of homosexuality. This new emphasis on SF stories wasn't popular, and sales fell so dramatically that DC considered discontinuing the character.

He was saved by television. The Batman TV series premiered in 1966, and it introduced Batman to people who had never read a comic book. This Batman, played by Adam West, was sillier and campier than the comic books had ever been. The acting style was broad; a different hammy actor popped up each week to play the villain; and the screen was filled with "POW" and "BAM" graphics. Neal Hefti's "na na na na BATMAN!"  theme became a pop hit, and the show was so popular that it aired two nights a week.

But when Batman ended its TV run after three seasons, the writers at DC found that the show's goofy tone had damaged the character's reputation with those who had been fans of the comic. They spent years struggling to rebuild the character, and to push him back towards the dark side. The breakthrough came in 1986, with Frank Miller's limited series The Dark Knight Returns (e-book | print), in which an aging Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement and finds the police less tolerant of vigilante justice than they once were.

Batman continues as a comic book character, and continues to go through his loner to "family" guy to loner cycles. In the last quarter century, he's also become a popular movie character, played (in movies with just as much tonal diversity as the comic has had) by Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck. A new series of Batman movies has been announced, with the first scheduled for summer 2021; it's still unknown who will be playing the role.

Many volumes of Batman comics are available in e-format at Hoopla. Mark White and Robert Arp are the editors of Batman and Philosophy (e-book | print), a collection of essays on the moral and ethical questions raised by the character. Alan Kistler offers The Unofficial Batman Trivia Challenge (e-book), and Wayne Wheelwright tests your knowledge of the supporting players with quiz books focused on the villains (e-book) and the allies (e-book).

Also This Week

May 2, 1611

The King James Version of the Bible was published. Under the sponsorship of King James, a team of 54 translators spent five years preparing a new English translation. They wrote in a language that was already slightly archaic; "thee," "thou," and verbs ending in "-eth" were old-fashioned even in 1611. Today, the King James Version is the most commonly used English translation, and the most widely printed book in history. Melvyn Bragg's The Book of Books (e-book) explores the impact of the King James Version.

April 29, 1929

Peter Sculthorpe was born. Sculthorpe was an Australian composer who said that his goal in composing was to make people happy. He largely avoided the atonality and experimental styles that were popular when he began composing. His early music is influenced by Asian music; in the second half of his career, he became more interested in the sounds and instruments of Australian Aboriginal music. Several albums of Sculthorpe's music are available for streaming at Hoopla.

May 4, 1929

Audrey Hepburn was born. Hepburn was a film icon of the 1950s and 1960s. She had starring roles in fewer than two dozen films in her relatively short career, but many of them are considered classics today. Hepburn went into semi-retirement in the late 1960s, and made only four films in the last quarter-century of her life, devoting much of her time to working for UNICEF and other humanitarian causes. Two of Hepburn's films are available for streaming at Hoopla, the romantic caper Charade with Cary Grant, and the adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour with Shirley MacLaine and James Garner.

May 1, 1959

Yasmina Reza was born. Reza is a French playwright whose work often focuses on the artistic and cultural pretension of the upper middle class. LA Theatre Works has recorded audio productions of three of Reza's most popular plays. In Art, three friends argue about the value of an all-white painting; The Unexpected Man finds a woman seated on a train across from her favorite author; and God of Carnage tells the story of parents trying to resolve a fight between their young children. The latter was filmed as Carnage, with Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet.