For my first discussion I will be taking a look at Bruce Wayne and Batman and their struggle for control. The specific texts I will be looking at in this post are Matt Wagner's Batman/Grendel crossovers, Devil's Riddle, Devils' Masque, Devil's Bones, and Devil's Dance.
Beginning with Bruce Wayne in the Devil's Riddle, right away we see a character that is very out of touch with emotions and thoughts. This is going on the assumption that Bruce Wayne is the human and Batman is the "other," non-human or animal. The text bubbles of Bruce Wayne's thoughts are much like that of a computer as if to say Bruce's mind is robotic in nature, not very human. The sentences are very short, two to three words on average. In stark contrast are the thought patterns of Hunter Rose, the alter ego of Grendel. His thoughts are written in a script font and are long and flowing. They are clearly the thoughts of a human.
Visually, (for a perfect example of this see page 2) we cannot view Bruce Wayne as whole person. His images are distorted or are in pieces which is to suggest that he is not a whole person. On the off chance that his entire body is in the frame, he is presented in shadow (like on page 3).
Two very interesting moments occur in Devil's Masque. On pages 26-27 Batman is forced to fight Grendel in a gallery exhibiting animals. In the closeup Batman is framed by birds, suggesting that he is an animal as he is part of the exhibit. Later he fights Grendel in a different setting only to be injured by his foe's blade. In the two panels (pages 41-42) that show Batman with his injury the bat symbol on his chest is obscured. That is to say that the bat/animal side is unable to be harmed while the non-bat or human side is mortal.
In Devil's Bones Batman faces a new version of Grendel, Grendel Prime. Grendel Prime is bigger and badder and manages to shoot a hole in Batman's costume which obliterates the bat symbol for roughly half of this entire book. What does it mean that when Batman gets shot, it is only his bat symbol that receives the damage? Is it like a bullet proof vest, or is it a target?
Finally, in Devil's Dance, Bruce Wayne only appears twice throughout the entire book. First he appears in four panels on page 6, only to be masked by another apparatus while he angrily tries to find a way to beat Grendel Prime. His humanity is still hidden from us. Then he appears on page 27. The text reads, "In his roost. The uncloaked bat sleeps through the day." Even though Bruce is not in his bat costume, the text refers to him as a bat.
So far we have seen the inhuman side, or the bat side, dominate. In the next post I would like to continue this discussion focusing on the imprisonment of the man within the bat as evidenced by Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum.
Beginning with Bruce Wayne in the Devil's Riddle, right away we see a character that is very out of touch with emotions and thoughts. This is going on the assumption that Bruce Wayne is the human and Batman is the "other," non-human or animal. The text bubbles of Bruce Wayne's thoughts are much like that of a computer as if to say Bruce's mind is robotic in nature, not very human. The sentences are very short, two to three words on average. In stark contrast are the thought patterns of Hunter Rose, the alter ego of Grendel. His thoughts are written in a script font and are long and flowing. They are clearly the thoughts of a human.
Visually, (for a perfect example of this see page 2) we cannot view Bruce Wayne as whole person. His images are distorted or are in pieces which is to suggest that he is not a whole person. On the off chance that his entire body is in the frame, he is presented in shadow (like on page 3).
Two very interesting moments occur in Devil's Masque. On pages 26-27 Batman is forced to fight Grendel in a gallery exhibiting animals. In the closeup Batman is framed by birds, suggesting that he is an animal as he is part of the exhibit. Later he fights Grendel in a different setting only to be injured by his foe's blade. In the two panels (pages 41-42) that show Batman with his injury the bat symbol on his chest is obscured. That is to say that the bat/animal side is unable to be harmed while the non-bat or human side is mortal.
In Devil's Bones Batman faces a new version of Grendel, Grendel Prime. Grendel Prime is bigger and badder and manages to shoot a hole in Batman's costume which obliterates the bat symbol for roughly half of this entire book. What does it mean that when Batman gets shot, it is only his bat symbol that receives the damage? Is it like a bullet proof vest, or is it a target?
Finally, in Devil's Dance, Bruce Wayne only appears twice throughout the entire book. First he appears in four panels on page 6, only to be masked by another apparatus while he angrily tries to find a way to beat Grendel Prime. His humanity is still hidden from us. Then he appears on page 27. The text reads, "In his roost. The uncloaked bat sleeps through the day." Even though Bruce is not in his bat costume, the text refers to him as a bat.
So far we have seen the inhuman side, or the bat side, dominate. In the next post I would like to continue this discussion focusing on the imprisonment of the man within the bat as evidenced by Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum.
