Batman

Obviously my least favourite Alan Moore for a whole host of reasons, when the movie came out I figured I should return to this IMPORTANT classic and apply my 2017 reviewer brain to it.

The first thing that really stood out to me much more this time around was the way in which Brian Bolland really sexualizes the violence against Barbara Gordon. The use of violence against women as a plot device is one thing (that I will be writing about shortly) but the fact that it seemed necessary to go from a point blank shot of the gun barrel to a closeup on Gordon's big pouty lips, to three frames of her being shot where we are dangerously close to seeing up her skirt, to at least one shot (another comes on the next page) where her cleavage is front and centre. On top of that, we also have the creepy peeping tom shots that the Joker shares with Gordon's father in order to push him further along the plot arc.

Otherwise, there are only maybe two other frames that were obviously created to titillate the teenage male brain sexually and those only deal with the penguin's prostitutes. Otherwise fat female bodies and Jim Gordon's own lumpy middle-aged body are only meant to disgust us. Although unlike some other artists prone to overly sexualizing female superheroes Bolland is not so afraid of the male crotch shot.

It, of course, should also be noted that in the service of advancing her father's plot, who in turn seems only really to be serving to advance Batman's plot, Barbara Gordon is shown here in the most cliche of female roles. I mean, WTF past Alan Moore? It's almost as if this rather uncreative little sketch was phoned in by someone who had more creativity in their pinky finger than most people express in a lifetime!

But this book, as well as its prolonged popularity, are also a testament to the fact that people who identify with what we traditionally attribute to the male gender perceive violence against people of the female gender completely differently than those of us who have to live with an identification with femaleness every day. Namely violence against women is not some dramatic shocking thing, it is an everyday thing. By showing it as something unusual or dramatic, creators are actually dismissing the very everyday suffering of women. Ironically enough this actually doesn't seem to result from an author actually hating women, which is why I harp on it so much. The more a person cluelessly loves women the more likely they are to be emotionally manipulated by the over the top dramatic depiction of violence against women.

Philosophical issues aside I do see this otherwise as a fairly average work. I agree with the overall premise that one bad day could change everything for anyone. Very little about who we are on an average day really has to do with us as individuals and we owe most of our success, failure or world view to the parts that come together around us. I don't think that it has aged particularly well, a victim of its own success I suppose. Plus it's not even something that Moore stands behind anymore. I'm certainly annoyed that of all the comics I read on the subway this is the only one that a random stranger has ever recognised and felt the need to strike up a conversation about it. I also expect the animated movie to be worse. We shall see.