Gotham – Preliminaries

Before I get into any of the good stuff, I’m going to go ahead and say something potentially controversial:

Batman is the most fascinating of the superheroes. I’m assuming a lot of you are thinking:

Let me explain. Unfortunately, too many conversations surrounding the superhero genre quickly devolve into a DC vs. Marvel debate. I’m not attempting to enter that debate, and there are plenty of characters and stories within the Marvel Universe I thoroughly enjoy and find interesting enough. But Batman has enjoyed such a rich and varied history, the mythology has had the luxury of being fleshed out through various perspectives – some horrible missteps, and some truly effective and triumphant.

What makes Batman fascinating? Sure, he doesn’t have any actual superpowers. Yes, the Rogues Gallery features some of the greatest villains ever imagined. My fascination with Batman, and arguably his continued popularity amongst audiences, is he truly represents the “tragic hero.” The word “tragedy” has been watered down through its numerous iterations throughout the years, but Batman adheres to those classical principles set forth by the Greeks thousands of years ago. It’s this impressive adherence to the tragic genre while simultaneously paying attention to the culture that consistently gives audiences new ways of identifying with the story. Batman is a product of the times, for better or for worse. Of course, though, Batman will be 100% absent, and a young Bruce Wayne will be a supporting character at best.

So what am I looking forward to?

• Cast! There are some impressive names attached to Gotham. Although I do not endorse the hair Ben McKenzie had to sport during the O.C. days, but his casting as Jim Gordon works. He already possesses the look of naiveté to convey Gordon’s idealistic worldview, but McKenzie’s work on Southland also shows he is capable of convincing grittiness demanded by Gotham. I am also particularly excited about Donal Logue as Gordon’s partner, Harvey Bullock. He was quite possibly the most despicable part of Sons of Anarchy’s 6th season, and based on my Gotham research, Bullock also possesses some questionable ethics. Also – Jada Freaking Pinkett Smith. Although I will forever think her best work was as Peaches for A Low Down Dirty Shame, she is also a great addition to the cast. Although her character, Fish Mooney, is not an original Batman character, the trailer shows she has brought enough camp to her role, while still being a convincing villain.
• Villains! Mentioned above, the Rogues Gallery boasts some of the most compelling villains in the genre. As far as the on-screen iterations are concerned, the villains have always competed with Batman for screen-time because they are enthralling on their own. Batman Returns will always have a special place in my heart because they nailed the villains, even Max Schreck (also not originally part of the Rogues). With Gotham’s non-focus on Batman, there will be plenty of screen time dedicated to developing villains, both the well- and lesser-known kind.

Perhaps what I’m most interested in is the City of Gotham as a character. Sure, Gordan and co. are going to be front and center but Gotham City is always going to be in the background. Moreover, none of the Batman iterations of the past have titled themselves after the city. It’s possible this was just a move based on creativity, but it indicates Gotham City will make an aggressive appearance.

To explore the idea of Gotham City as another character, let’s take a brief (and I mean brief) look at it’s origin. It is Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murders jumpstarting the Gotham story and it is, arguably, their murders sending Gotham’s downward criminal spiral into hyperdrive. It could even be said the emerging criminal-driven Gotham City – one that gave way to the Joker, Oswald Cobblepot, and Edward Nyma – is type of memorial given to the Waynes. Richard Morris wrote a phenomenal article, “Death on Display” where he studies public displays of death and how those displays shape and create the culture surrounding them. However, one point of contention I have with Morris’ article is the implication a death display, or gravescape, creates a necessarily positive message for witnesses. For example, Morris states gravescapes placed front and center in a community or culture sends a message to the living that this world is not their own, but importantly, also reminds us “heave is a reality.” I doubt anyone is Gotham would be immediately reminded of heaven while reflecting on their city.

Instead, Gotham City is a gravescape, a memorial, created by those who murdered the Waynes (who, if we take previous Batman material into consideration, stood for hope, charity, and overall good). Gotham City, then, serves as a reminder that, yes, this world is not [your] own, but also hell, rather than heaven, is a reality. There is a valid argument it was Batman who gave rise to Gotham’s criminality, as it was so eloquently articulated by the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, but this is Gotham; while still retaining threads of the mythos, the show can work with this existing material to serve itself.

What’s more, though, as Morris writes, “[C]onfrontations with death bodies forth concentrations of the culture(s) we are.” According to Morris, these concentrations he mentions usually takes the form of a physical, material memorial, and these memorials serve to give us a better understanding of our past, present, and future selves. If we see degenerative Gotham as the physical memorial for the Waynes, it gives citizens the idea of “what we are becoming” – Gotham City becomes a hellscape for criminals, depravity, and, ultimately, DC’s Rogue Gallery of Villains. But just wait, it gets better.

S. Michael Halloran has dedicated a substantial amount of research to landscapes, spectacles, and other rhetorical displays. In an article with Gregory Clark, they say,

“People tend to encounter and examine landscapes aesthetically, but that aesthetic experience has the rhetorical function of prompting them to imagine alternative identities for themselves. As [Kenneth] Burke would put it, scene invites transformation of one’s sense of self.”

Gotham has already boasted it will depict and focus on the origin stories for villains, an approach rarely seen (unless you count Malificent, in which case I’m uninterested). We assume origin stories, even those of villains, start with an external event: witnessing the murder of a parent or falling into a vat of acid, as examples. But what about the place and landscape in which these stories take place? If, as discussed above, Gotham has truly descended into a hellscape, engendering criminals and their new identities is likely.

Therefore, I’m specifically interested to see how Gotham City emerges as a “character”; of course there is the possibility it won’t emerge as one at all.  Also, as I mentioned above, I’m also interested to see if James Gordan (can we just call him Jim, already?) will take over the tragic hero role Batman encapsulated so well in previous iterations. Inherent to the tragic hero is, according to Aristotle, “… a [great] man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake.” Based on the available information, Gordan comes to Gotham as an idealist, and it could be this idealism responsible for his reversal of fortune (another necessary component to tragedy).

There are so many directions Gotham can go – and it is seriously a gold-mine in terms of workable material. I’ll be watching and live-tweeting the show tomorrow night.

Works Cited:

Halloran, S.M., & Clark, G. (2006). National park landscapes and the rhetorical display of civic religion. In L.J. Prelli (Ed.), Rhetorics of display (141-156). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

Morris, R. (2006). Death on display. In L.J. (Ed.), Rhetorics of display (204-226). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.