Batman: Through the Years
The Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne, these are all aliases for an enigmatic character in popular culture most commonly known as Batman. While having his humble origins in the pulp magazines of the late 1930’s, over the span of his existence, he has expanded into a full-blown franchise. There have been 3 TV shows on him, 4 movies (1 more still in the making), various videogames, and over 20 comic book series that currently feature his name. Even after 60 years of being in print, it was a Batman issue that was the highest selling comic book of the last week of November, 2004. It is the aim of this project to explore the reasons why this one particular comic book superhero has managed to keep his relevance where so many others have faltered, with a focused look into how Batman artwork has changed over the sixty years of his existence.
Who is Batman to you?
Almost everybody knows something about Batman, from my Sunday school teacher (who confiscated my Batman comic book calling him ‘devilish’ and ‘violent’) to my little cousins who play the new Batman videogame incessantly. What many people fail to realize though is that the character of Batman has always been evolving, always being modified to fit the purposes of both the medium and the audience.
Take for example the Batman television series that lasted from 1966 till 1968. Adam West as Batman, a little lumpy in his Batsuit, would fight crime accompanied by his faithful sidekick, Robin (Burt Ward). They would awkwardly beat up their enemies, (Listen to the classic soundtrack)accompanied by the classic POW! BIFF! WHAM! sound effects and use goofy phrases like, “…if two plus two equals four…Quick Robin, to the Batmobile!” In all t...
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...ewer is interested in; Bruce Wayne is an after thought. But with a movie, the viewer is forced to see the Bruce Wayne character and on a sub-conscious level is forced to connect that character with the traits one already has of the actor from previous experience, which reduces the mystery of the Batman character.
Concluding Thoughts:
While the Batman character grown into an international franchise, many of his fellow superhero peers have fallen by the proverbial road side. Riding on his mysterious and dark persona, he is one of the most famous fictional characters of modern times. It is a unique blend of super-hero fantasy and realism that has allowed him to be accepted by such a wide audience, and it is to the credit of his producers that they have been able to mould the character the character to fit their needs while capitalizing on the character’s essence.
But I do know one thing, Batman was there for us when we needed him the most. He separated us from our darkest nightmares every night. He guarded our houses and protected our families, our friends, and our children. Batman stood up for what he believed, he always had us, the people of Gotham in his best interest. What more could we have asked Batman to do? I could stand up here and say "I never knew the man," but that might not be the truth. During my life, I have known many men, many men who are full of strength, courage, and virtue. Any of these men could have been the Batman and I would have never been aware. However good men still walk among us today, even without Batman. These good men and women are my hope, my consolation for
“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today – and alcohol abuse (primarily by men) was wreaking havoc on the lives of many.” In the 1800s millions of Americans took a pledge to refrain from drinking alcohol. This was known as the Temperance Movement. The temperance movement was a reaction to the increase of alcohol consumption throughout the nation. The opposition to drinking originally stemmed from heath and religious reformers. These groups were crucial to American society for their efforts to tighten social controls. During this era, there were multiple citizens who believed some individuals were living unethically. “These people feared that God would no longer bless the United States and that these ungodly and unscrupulous people posed a threat to America's political system. To survive, the American republic, these people believed, needed virtuous citizens.” Due to these
The Prohibition Era, also known as “The Great Experiment” had the purpose of cleansing the American society of it’s evils by outlawing all alcoholic beverages. From the beginning of colonial times, groups of people in the United States viewed the consumption of alcohol to be sinful and an extreme hazard to one’s health. Due to the fact that alcohol was exceptionally cheap to buy and make, it was accessible to everyone, whether they were rich or poor. As the use of alcohol rose and became a part of the general population’s daily life; crime, violence and death rates grew, too. The high rates gave the people who saw the use of alcohol to be morally wrong, the excuse to blame the public’s problems on li...
After the American Revolution, drinking was on the rise. To combat this, a number of societies were organized as part of a new Temperance movement which attempted to dissuade people from becoming intoxicated. At first, these organizations pushed moderation, but after several decades, the movement's focus changed to complete prohibition of alcohol consumption. (Brayton)
“The film was shot using a wider than usual lens so that it could be shown in I-MAX cinemas nationwide. Today’s audiences want an experience bigger than reality. We have to go that extra mile to give them that something extra.” Chris Nolan also insisted that the film should have a distinctive style which included making the film feel sincerely dark and sinister. Very rarely were the cameras sat still instead the cameras used very technical tricks e.g.: tracking, zoom. This film was originally promoted using a very unique style. Instead of paying for adverts they decided to promote the film using an alternative route. One of the ways this was accomplished was by de facing thousands of fake dollar notes by putting the jokers smile on top of the original face. A sane yet effective way was when many “Batman” recruits placed Joker cads into hundreds of books in libraries to do with death, this had the desired effect as many people became stirred up as to what this meant. The next alternative was to send out spam emails to the site named www.whysoserious.com. But when did Batman evolve as part of our lives. It was in 1939 when the world was introduced to a new hero. Bob Kane’s simple vigilante, Batman. The comics were e-introduced during the 50’s period. Yet due to Comic Book Censorship the violence was forced to gradually become weaker. The well anticipated Batman retuned in the 1970’s. Yet to intrigue a wider variety of audience he appeared more complicated and violent than previous comics. Today’s Batman comics show Batman as a real man with realistic and varied dilemmas. Due to these changes Batman is now one of the most original and adored comic book heroes. Nolan’s interpretation is a variety of the previous comics. It includes the violence of the First Batman mixed with the complexity and realism of today’s modern comics.
Batman’s character has changed throughout the 70s, 80s, and 2000s while reflecting the culture of the generations in several different ways. Batman went from a dark and brooding character who transitioned to an even darker and destructive one. These generations of Batman show cast what’s going on in the world, such as political problems, social issues, and terrorism. Batman becomes more ominous as the world changes. His character has not only portrayed society around him but, has also sent different messages which have brought people aware to some of the issues around them that they otherwise would have overlooked.
Carlson, Peter. American History. Des Moines: Cowles Enthusiast Media, 2008. Vol. 43 of “Uneasy about Alcohol” eLibrary. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
In the early 1800s, alcohol consumption in the United States was getting out of control. The average person over age thirteen consumed over 40 gallons of alcoholic drinks each year (book). Alcohol consumption was blamed for society’s health problems, crimes, and poverty. In a response to this overconsumption, many Americans, mostly women, started a social movement which denounced the consumption of alcohol, called the temperance movement. The movements typically promoted complete abstinence or at least abstinence from hard liquor (The Temperance).
Many women during the 20th century were having problems with their husbands because of their regular alcohol consumption. Men became violent with their wife’s and children, they would forget about God, they would lose their jobs for coming into work drunk or late, and they would waste life savings to buy alcohol. These problems continued and worsened, not only were women concerned but also some men, African Americans, and church leaders. As more and more problems started to arise something had to be done, the prohibition movement was on its way to help rid what many defined as the “American Problem”.
Cloud computing can be defined as: “a variety of computing concepts that involve a large number of computers connected through a real-time communication network such as the Internet.” Our understanding of cloud computing is distributed computing over a network with the ability to run a program or application on many connected computers at the same time.
Professor John Cacioppo from the University of Chicago performed a study to determine if “Meeting online lead to happier, more enduring marriages”. Cacioppo conducted a national survey for 19,121 individuals married between 2005 and 2012 based on marital satisfaction, degree of affection, communication, and love for each other. The survey was conducted online and by telephone with the help and funding of eHarmony to find the married demographic. Cacioppo discovered there was a lot of diversity in the cumulated data and that one-third of marriages start with online dating websites. A foundation for communicating came from social networks, email, instant messages, and multi-player video games. Cacioppo concluded 45 percent of married couples met through an online dating site, were between the ages of 30-39, and had higher marital satisfaction and a lower rate of divorce. Results showed there was a higher marital satisfaction because there are more opportunities to find a significant other online, and people that met on dating websites had the chance to screen their potential match. Online studies showed that people were more likely to be honest about themselves except about age and weight. The 65 percent of married couples who met offline met at work, school, bars, clubs, or religious gatherings. Majority of people who met offline at bar or blind dates had a higher divorce rate of 7.6 percent, while majority of people who met online through virtual communities had a lower divorce rate of 5.64 percent.
In 1830, it was estimated that the average American over the age of fifteen consumed more than seven gallons of pure alcohol per year. In comparison, modern Americans consume approximately two gallons per year (PBS, n.d.). This was a great concern to the women of the 1800s, who were almost solely reliant on their husbands for support. This gave birth to the Temperance Movement, The Women’s
For Batman, he is a famous person with high social class. His image is a successful businessman and on the other hand he is a hero to save the city. He is very strong and well body shape. When he catches the thief, he acts independently. He will not ask for help and refuse the others involve although he gets hurt. He is very clever and very calm. He will first plan before he takes action.
With computers and technology rapidly evolving, staying relevant is becoming more and more difficult to companies in the information technology industry. Cloud computing is a rising technology that could possibly be a great help or a burden to the IT infrastructure. With many new technologies, businesses wonder whether it is profitable enough to invest in such a technology and whether the company will benefit greatly from it. Although cloud computing is an emerging technology, it will come with risks such as security vulnerabilities, but could also be a great cost effective measure that will help out an organization’s infrastructure. Although a new technology, cloud computing is very advantageous for organizations and companies.
Any fan of Batman knows that “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” are two of the best Batman films made in the seventy-eight years that Batman has been around. The plots really make you look deep in yourself and show the true and more real sides of the characters of the Batman world. Each movie shows the evolution of Batman and shows only a few of the many crazy and intense adventures of this mysterious hero. These two movies are the first two in the dark knight trilogy, created by the amazing Christopher Nolan. These movies were heavily praised for their astounding realism to the real world, and its pros and cons. But they were also extremely liked for their possibility for