Abstract
Of all the facets of the Dark Knight’s life and career as the protector of Gotham City, none is more interesting than his relationship with the police department and how he conducts himself alongside and in contrast to his official counterparts. In his more rational moments, Batman’s description of his role resembles police officers or detectives, limiting himself to solving crimes and apprehending suspects. He explained to a young Dick Grayson that “the people we’re after have broken the law. It’s our job to find them, stop them, and arrest them. Do your job well, and you make that arrest stick. Do your job badly… and you might not get a second chance.” Even the classic images of Batman thwarting a mugging or robbery, and then leaving the assailant tied up and hanging from a lamp pole with a note attached to the police with a bat-symbol on it, symbolize this aspect of his behavior—as does his reputation as the World’s Greatest Detective, solving crimes already committed and helping the police find the suspect.
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- 1.
Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick, Batman #438 (September 1989). All comics referenced in this chapter were published by DC Comics, which was located at the time in New York. The listed creators include writers and pencillers only, and story titles are provided only when there are multiple stories in an issue. If no volume number is given, the comic is from the first volume of the title.
- 2.
Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, Detective Comics #608 (November 1989).
- 3.
Andrew Kreisberg and Scott McDaniel, Batman Confidential #25 (March 2009). Although Alfred seems rather harsh in this passage, it can also apply to Batman’s desire not only to stop crime but also to reform criminals; as he wrote in a journal, he wishes he could do more about “the lack of emphasis on reparation or rehabilitation. The revolving doors of the penal system” (Devin Grayson and Paul Ryan, “Locked,” in Batman: Gotham Knights #5, July 2000).
- 4.
This chapter is based on material I discuss in a different fashion in my book Batman and Ethics (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2019). Here (as well as in the book), I focus on Batman’s portrayal in the mainstream comics from the early 1970s to 2011 (when the entire DC Universe was rebooted during the “New 52” initiative). This is not to discount other versions of Batman, but merely to focus on a lengthy period of fairly consistent and mainstream characterization during which, among other things, his conflicts with the law and the police are well displayed.
- 5.
On this point, see Leslie Green’s entry on “Legal Obligation and Authority” at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/legal-obligation/, and Christopher Heath Wellman and A. John Simmons, Is There a Duty to Obey the Law? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). For a profound argument for civil disobedience in the case of unjust laws, see Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” available at http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
- 6.
Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. James W. Ellington (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1785/1993), p. 421.
- 7.
Larry Hama and Scott McDaniel, Batman #575 (March 2000). Batman’s answer—“if every citizen felt that much responsibility for law and order there wouldn’t be any need for either of us”—is well taken but misses the point of the question.
- 8.
Alan Grant, John Wagner, and Norm Breyfogle, Detective Comics #594 (December 1988).
- 9.
Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #12 (November 1990).
- 10.
Jim Starlin and Mark Bright, Batman #422 (August 1988).
- 11.
Alan Grant and Bret Blevins, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #28 (June 1994).
- 12.
Bill Willingham and Kinsun, Batman #632 (November 2004).
- 13.
Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle, Batman #467 (Late August 1991).
- 14.
John Wagner and Chris Brunner, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #175 (March 2004).
- 15.
John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Norm Breyfogle, Detective Comics #583 (February 1988).
- 16.
John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Norm Breyfogle, Detective Comics #584 (March 1988).
- 17.
Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, Batman #460 (March 1991).
- 18.
Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, Batman #251 (September 1973).
- 19.
Andrew Donkin, Graham Brand, and John Higgins, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #58 (March 1994).
- 20.
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, Batman #406 (April 1987).
- 21.
Len Wein and John Calnan, Batman #308 (February 1979).
- 22.
Bob Gale and Alex Maleev, Batman: No Man’s Land #1 (March 1999).
- 23.
Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #125 (January 2000).
- 24.
Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, “Officer Down, Part Seven: The End,” in Batman: Gotham Knights #13 (March 2001).
- 25.
Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough, “Unknowing, Part One,” in Detective Comics #758 (July 2001).
- 26.
Denny O’Neil and Michael Golden, “I Now Pronounce You Batman and Wife!” in DC Special Series #15 (June 1978).
- 27.
Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, and Michael Lark, Gotham Central #2 (February 2003). After the police manage to capture one of Batman’s costumed villains by themselves, Driver gloated to Batman, saying, “we did it alone, without your help.” Batman simply responded, “Good. Thank you” (Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, Gotham Central #5, May 2003).
- 28.
Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan, Detective Comics #651 (Early October 1992).
- 29.
Doug Moench and Don Newton, “Boxing,” in Detective Comics #539 (June 1984).
- 30.
Gale and Maleev, Batman: No Man’s Land #1.
- 31.
Christopher Priest and Michael Bair, “Faces,” in Batman Annual #13 (1989).
- 32.
Doug Moench and Gene Colan, “Hill’s Descent,” in Detective Comics #546 (January 1985).
- 33.
Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle, Detective Comics #647 (Early August 1992).
- 34.
Russell Lissau and Brad Walker, “A Friend in Need,” in Batman Allies Secret Files and Origins 2005 (August 2005).
- 35.
Andrew Helfer and Chris Sprouse, Batman Annual #14 (March 1990).
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Batman: Dark Victory #8 (July 2000).
- 38.
Marv Wolfman and Jim Aparo, Detective Comics #625 (January 1991). Never mind the fact that the suspect invoked his right to a lawyer; I don’t have room to go into that!
- 39.
Nunzio DeFilippis and Mike Collins, “Monster in a Box,” in Detective Comics #754 (March 2001). This sentiment was on display regularly in the series Gotham Central, in which resentment of their resident vigilante was a central theme; see, for instance, issue #36 (December 2005), by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, and Kano.
- 40.
For more on this story, see Michael Herz, “‘Do Justice!’ Variations on a Thrice-Told Tale,” Cardozo Law Review, 82(1996): 111–161, available at http://www.uniset.ca/terr/art/82VaLRev111.pdf
- 41.
Len Wein and John Byrne, The Untold Legend of the Batman #1 (July 1980).
- 42.
Len Wein and Jim Aparo, The Untold Legend of the Batman #3 (September 1980).
- 43.
Andersen Gabrych and Pete Woods, “Alone at Night,” in Detective Comics #800 (January 2005).
- 44.
Doug Moench and Gene Colan, Detective Comics #559 (February 1986).
- 45.
Howard Chaykin, Batman/Catwoman: Follow the Money #1 (January 2011).
- 46.
James Owsley and Jim Aparo, Batman #431 (March 1989).
- 47.
Dennis O’Neil and Sergio Cariello, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #129 (May 2000).
- 48.
Alan Grant and Eduardo Barreto, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #72 (March 1998).
- 49.
Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, Batman and the Outsiders #1 (August 1983), emphasis added.
- 50.
Doug Moench and Kelley Jones, Batman #525 (December 1995).
- 51.
Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, Batman: 10-Cent Adventure (March 2002).
- 52.
For more on Batman’s use of extreme violence and torture, see chapter 7 in my Batman and Ethics.
- 53.
John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake, Batman #659 (January 2007).
- 54.
Max Allan Collins and Dave Cockrum, Batman #411 (September 1987).
- 55.
For a survey of philosophies of punishment, see Thom Brooks, Punishment (London: Routledge, 2012). On the difference between retributivism and vengeance, see Robert Nozick, Philosophical Explanations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 366–68.
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White, M.D. (2019). Criminal Justice in Gotham: The Role of the Dark Knight. In: Picariello, D. (eds) Politics in Gotham. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05776-3_9
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