By investigating purchases of supplies and equipment Batman needs, Ra’s al Ghul has already figured his identity out before they first meet. A voice in the Batcave greets him, “Welcome home, Bruce Wayne—or shall I address you as the Batman?” A mission to find who has abducted al Ghul’s daughter Talia and Batman’s ward Dick Grayson turns out to have been staged by Ra’s to test Batman’s potential as a worthy son-in-law and successor to run al Ghul’s vast organization.19 His subsequent appearances reveal both the depths of his organization’s criminal nature and the heights of Ra’s al Ghul’s drive to save the world from its people. Time and again, Batman rejects him. Time and again, al Ghul insinuates himself into Batman’s life in ways unlike any other foe. When al Ghul plots to kill billions of those darn people who crowd the planet, he digs into the Waynes’ graves and steals their bodies to throw Batman off his game, and when he needs the Justice League out of the way in that same story arc, he steals Batman’s own files on how to neutralize them one by one, thereby alienating Batman from that surrogate family of heroes for some time to come.20 Their relationship grows progressively antagonistic, and yet after al Ghul’s deatha Batman performs what would ordinarily be a filial duty: cremating Ra’s’s remains. A letter scheduled to reach Batman in the event of al Ghul’s death helps Batman fix a dangerous ecological shift. “Batman was the only person he could entrust with this task, which was the legacy to bestow upon his surrogate son.”21
Merging Henri Ducard and Ra’s al Ghul into a single character in the motion picture Batman Begins, instead of being two unrelated characters as they are in the comic books, gave Bruce an amalgamate bad father figure who would teach him skills but dares to challenge Bruce’s loyalty to his birth father. This chapter keeps coming back to Batman Begins, the story that best demonstrates the ongoing father-son issues underlying our hero’s campaign. Hunting for the knowledge and skills that will let him face and use fear, Bruce is also searching for a father’s guidance. Warm Thomas Wayne versus cold Henri Ducard, a.k.a. Ra’s al Ghul, clash across time to teach him different lessons. Ducard’s violent methods, disdain for compassion, and grand plan to hurt the Waynes’ city all drive Bruce back to the values from his true upbringing.
Ducard/al Ghul (Liam Neeson): When I found you in that jail, you were lost, but I believed in you. I took away your fear and I showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side saving the world.
Bruce (Christian Bale): I’ll be standing where I belong, between you and the people of Gotham.
Ducard’s League of Shadows has created the conditions that drove Joe Chill to commit robbery and murder. “Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal.” Topping off this revelation that his manipulations indirectly killed Bruce’s parents, Ducard sets Wayne Manor ablaze and heads out to destroy their city. He leaves Bruce to die, having given up on him.
The Good Fathers
Bruce in Batman Begins must rely on all his good fathers at the film’s climax.
After failed father figure Ducard/al Ghul leaves Bruce to burn to death, Alfred Pennyworth—the man who has helped Bruce raise himself as best he can—rushes into the burning building to save him. Bruce despairs that he has failed to protect “everything my family, my father built,” so Alfred reminds him, “The Wayne legacy is more than bricks and mortar, sir,” then channels wisdom from Thomas Wayne to convince him.
Alfred: Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Bruce: You still haven’t given up on me.
Alfred: Never.
Alfred Pennyworth saves Bruce Wayne; then Lucius Fox and James Gordon each help Batman save Gotham’s people. These three occupy different places in Bruce’s life, filling distinct roles as they father his different personas. The film’s three-scene epilogue gives each good father his own denouement and ends with him preparing for the future. Lucius Fox takes his place as Wayne Enterprises’ CEO, securing the future of the family business. Alfred helps Bruce sift through Wayne Manor’s smoldering remains, where Bruce finds Thomas Wayne’s old stethoscope, and Alfred suggests that as long as they’re rebuilding the manor, they should take this opportunity to improve the Batcave. Gordon shines the Bat-Signal, right where he’ll start and end the next film, as he frets about escalation and reveals the Joker’s calling card. In each of Nolan’s movies, this Jim Gordon sets up the sequel.
1939 comic book readers first met Bruce Wayne through Commissioner Gordon. Bruce appears to be nothing but Gordon’s rich friend, a literary foil, a sounding board for Gordon’s exposition about that mystery man in the bat costume. The final panel, after Gordon’s last exit, reveals Bruce in the vigilante’s costume. In the comics, Gordon works with Batman, Alfred helps out in the Batcave and maintains the Wayne Manor household, and Fox ties Bruce to his parents’ charities and business. Lucius Fox’s role as gadget guru, the Batman Begins version of James Bond’s Q, suited the film’s story and made so much sense that comic book Batman seems incomplete without a Q of his own, although that’s not Fox’s role in the comics. He runs the Wayne family business. In his bow tie leading a Wayne Enterprises business meeting at the end of Batman Begins, that’s the comic book Lucius Fox. Trusting him lets Bruce focus on his real work just like his father, wealthy beyond belief, finds greater meaning in his own life by working as a physician.
Bruce: Is that where you work?
Thomas: No, I work at the hospital. I leave the running of our company to much better men.
Bruce: Better?
Thomas: Well, more interested men.
When cool, imperturbable Lucius Fox enters the comics to save Wayne Enterprises from financial ruin, consequence of Bruce’s neglect, he adds a new dimension to Bruce Wayne’s world and character.22 By making Bruce conscious of their business and the business world despite the Wayne heir’s efforts to ignore the whole shebang, Fox forces Bruce as Bruce Wayne to become a bit more of a real human being within their fictional universe. Fox guards the Waynes’ finances, not Batman’s secrets. In most accounts, he’s not privy to Bruce’s dual identity. Visiting the offices of the Daily Planet in Metropolis one time, Bruce watches Perry White. Seeing that smart, no-nonsense man who supervises Clark Kent’s reporting, a man surely smart enough to realize Superman is Kent and trustworthy enough to keep it to himself, leads Bruce to think similarly about Fox. Bruce wonders if he and Clark might enjoy fuller lives if they were to confide in these great men. It’s a tough call. Yes, Bruce might become a better-rounded human being if he could be more open with someone else who knows him first as Bruce instead of Batman. On the other hand, though, he could start feeling more like he’s really Batman around Fox, in which case there’d be even less Bruce than before. To some degree, this happens in the film The Dark Knight. By not admitting the secret, comic book Bruce has to listen to Fox’s business concerns instead of saying, “I don’t care, I’m Batman. Pretend I’m still here and cover for me.” Distractedly hearing Fox while waiting for the sun to set so Batman can come to life, Bruce will accidentally learn some things, much like Alfred hopes that if Bruce pretends to have fun long enough, he might wind up having some. Compliance breeds acceptance; role-playing recasts reality—another by-product of cognitive dissonance.23
Alfred: When you told me your grand plan for saving Gotham, the only thing that stopped me from calling the men in white coats is when you said that it wasn’t about thrill-seeking.24
When and how does Bruce tell Alfred, “I want to sneak around in a mask—lend me a hand?” There’s no definitive account of this because it probably happens by degrees. A mourning boy says he wants to go into law enforcement. Nobody’s going to put down that dream. By most accounts, Bruce is college age before he concludes that dispensing justice in Gotham’s corrupt climate means he must operate outside the law. His interactions with Alfred show mutual support. Alfred freely chastises him and gives unsolicited advice few servants would dare utter, expressing disagreement and worry through gentle rebukes an
d soft sarcasm, and Bruce doesn’t view him as the hired help. Bruce sees himself as the man in charge, but he’s like that with everybody.
Alfred’s parenting style (his general approach to child rearing) is mostly authoritative (not authoritarian), encouraging his surrogate son’s independence with warmth, nurturance, and verbal give-and-take, while also exerting authority, enforcing rules, and making maturity demands (expectations for age-appropriate conduct). Difficult as it may be to imagine Alfred telling Bruce at 10 or 11, “No, you may not,” Bruce’s social competence and self-control suggest that Alfred found ways to place limits and exert discipline, nothing corporal to be sure. The authoritative parent communicates well, listens receptively to the child’s questions and requests, and teaches through explanation. The authoritative parent teaches the child more than what to do or not do; this parent teaches the child to think about why. The fact that Bruce is so accustomed to getting his own way might suggest that Alfred and Bruce’s birth parents before him preferred to risk erring a little on the side of permissiveness. A permissive parent sets no limits, fails to guide and discipline, and rarely controls, restricts, or punishes the child. Some permissive parents are warm and responsive, available to help the child without seeing themselves as responsible for shaping who that child will become (democratic-indulgent permissiveness), while others are distant, uninvolved, even ignorant about what the child does (rejecting-neglecting permissiveness).25 Bruce’s responsive, supportive father and more nurturing mother set limits, maybe not enough. Sam Hamm (screenwriter for Batman and Batman Returns) concluded that “Bruce had become Batman as a result of being spoiled. He had grown up with sufficient money and leisure to luxuriate in his own tragedy, to wallow in the false sense that it made him somehow unique. In other words, Bruce had never learned to cut his losses.”26 Bruce shows too much self-discipline to have been completely spoiled. Alfred likely applied authoritative guidance based on logic, ethics, and Bruce’s inherent guilt.
“And then, when they were under the ground, he became my guardian and friend, nagging constantly and sometimes caustically, never letting me neglect my schoolwork, always keeping my obsession in check…. With him, I remained driven but disciplined, anchored to vital reality through his sternness and arch humor, my soul tempered by his firm kindness and steadfast humanity.”
—Bruce Wayne in The Forensic Files of Batman27
Except for communicating and explaining lessons to Bruce, Ducard in Batman Begins otherwise shows an unforgiving, authori-tarian style: His word is law and his demands are high. Authoritarian parents are aloof, not affectionate or nurturing. Ducard scorns compassion. Authoritarians punish misconduct sternly, perhaps abusively, without adequately discussing logical and moral reasoning for right and wrong behavior much better than “because I said so” and without adequately rewarding approved conduct. The child has insufficient reason to internalize authoritarian lessons and may be ready to rebel. Domineering fathers tend to produce sons who passively acquiesce to the fathers and later may acquiesce to others, mimic the domineering styles, or overcome that domination, either by removing those fathers from their lives or by successfully standing up to them so they can redefine the relationship and move forward. Beneath Ducard’s communicative veneer, he’s still authoritarian. Beneath Bruce’s receptiveness to instruction, he’s ready to rebel for a higher cause. As soon as Bruce rejects Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Shadows and leaves Ducard behind on the icy mountain, there’s Alfred at the airstrip ready to take him home.
“He’s the good father that Bruce comes to depend on. Bruce’s real father died before they could establish an adult relationship, and Liam Neeson’s Ducard is stern and demanding, didactic and challenging, but not a father figure with any sympathy. If Bruce Wayne is anyone’s son, it is Alfred’s.”28
—Danny Fingeroth, author of Superman on the Couch
The Mothers
Martha Wayne gets short shrift in Batman Begins. In several scenes, Bruce and Dad do all the talking while she blinks and looks pretty. In that movie as in Detective Comics #33’s origin story, Thomas gets shot for moving to shield her and she gets shot for screaming over his fate, two fearful reactions, different facets of the fight-or-flight response—those are their roles. They die for each other. Batman Begins, like Star Wars and so many other tales of young men becoming heroes, is a father-and-son story. Reconciliation with the father is integral to the classic monomyth, the Hero’s Journey (chapter 9), as the hero loses his father and must move away from his father’s teachings before reuniting with his father’s spirit and, now with his own self-defined perspective, making peace. Heroes need mothers too! Harry Potter offers an outstanding example of the orphan hero who idealizes both of his lost parents and must come to understand they were human beings with human foibles before he can relate to their ghosts from a more mature point of view.29 Only then can he appreciate the magnitude of what they did for him. If Harry Potter can do it, why can’t Bruce Wayne? Because Harry doesn’t snarl and bust teeth.
Dr. Leslie Thompkins, the first person to notice Bruce and first to comfort him at the crime scene where his parents just died, stays involved in his life as a maternal figure, helping Alfred oversee the boy’s upbringing, but without living at Wayne Manor, she doesn’t take on an adoptive or foster role. Bruce does not readily include her in his secrets, and when she finds out he’s Batman, she disapproves. For wearing his costume into her home, she admonishes him, and yet he does it unapologetically.30 Leslie provides medical and emotional aid to many of his costumed colleagues, in hopes that she might help them stay safe and on an even keel until one day when they might discard those bothersome costumes. A staunch pacifist, she’s the mother who worries about the child’s well-being so much that she gets in the way of his fun.
Stereotypically, the father occupies a place in the child’s life as disciplinarian, playmate, and provider, a stereotype borne out by research. Grown sons want their fathers’ acknowledgment and their mothers’ nurturance. Even if some specific issue gives a son reason to reconcile with his mother, that reconciliation with her won’t characterize him as a man, not unless he’d lived henpecked by an overbearing mother, but heroes are supposed to come from stronger stock. That’s how people often see these situations, so these are the themes we find woven into the stories. Sons don’t as universally need to stand up to their mothers to establish who they are and redefine their relationships. Sons’ self-concepts have more to do with their dads, even absent dads, than with their moms.31 The father, whether hero or villain himself, provides the hero with a reference for how to become a man, the mother does not, and Bruce Wayne is all man.
Batman and Sons: The Legacy
Bruce doesn’t know what to do with grown sons. His parents’ example teaches him how to deal with children. For many reasons, he learns less about parenting from Alfred than from Thomas and Martha:
The Waynes’ early lessons lay his basic psychosocial foundations.
Bruce grows distant from others during the years after the murders, hence the more dismissing-avoidant of his traits.
Driven by his parents’ demise, Bruce fixates on them.
Alfred, whose approach seems more permissive than the Waynes’, goes along with Bruce’s intentions of raising himself.
With Martha and Thomas gone, Alfred in his domestic role becomes Bruce’s mother figure as Bruce endeavors to father himself through his adolescence.
The Waynes aren’t around when he gets old enough for any adolescent rebellion to kick in.
Bruce leaves home at 14, after only six years in Alfred’s care.
Why try to parent the Robins the same way Alfred parented him when Alfred’s right there to do that himself?
Batman relates better to the Robins when they’re children. Because he doesn’t grow into relating to his mother and father as fellow adults, he doesn’t know how to relate to his sons as adults either. Letting those relationships mature poses problems for him. When he thinks he needs to giv
e them their own space and let them become their own men, they feel like he’s rejecting them—“they” meaning Dick Grayson and Tim Drake. Jason Todd has just gotten his adolescent rebellion rolling strong when he gets himself killed. During Jason’s time dead underground, comatose post-resurrection, and then in antihero training, he becomes a young man, so he and Bruce skip that process of relationship growth and Jason carries adolescent rebellion on into a whole other set of problems. Dick and Tim have trouble getting Bruce to see what’s wrong. Reconciling with this father isn’t easy for them because Batman’s hardheaded, he doesn’t get what he’s doing wrong, and the standard need to say, “I’m my own man now, give me space,” gets thwarted by the fact that how clumsily and bossily he gives them that space has created this friction.
Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight (Wiley Psychology & Pop Culture) Page 31
