Editor/Contributor/Co-Essayist: Imelda Wei Ding Lo
The Terror of Broken Composure: A comparative essay of Pattinson's Bruce Wayne and FG's Joel Farber
“Hey! Gentlemen! Amateurs of sacrilege, crime, and carnage, have you seen the terror of terrors my face when I am absolutely calm?”
- Vladimir Mayakovsky, A Cloud In Trousers.
Batman. The Caped Crusader. Gotham’s son. The Dark Knight. The World’s Greatest Detective.
(It’s all right, Holmes- you need competition.)
Since his conception in May 1939 from creators Kane and Finger, Bruce Wayne has remained DC’s flagship hero, a standard for the darker, edgier heroes.
The Mythos is well-known.
An orphaned boy witnesses the murder of his parents and becomes vigilante of justice against the looming criminal underworld of his beloved city.
Bruce’s characterization, for the past 80 years, has remained consistent. (Unlike his Metropolis and Thermiscyian peers, Superman and Wonder Woman.)
Bruce’s motivations and personality are relatable for many, as fans will point out.
And it’s true- there’s something undeniably attractive and resonant about the Dark Knight’s struggle with his own darkness when pitted against the pervasive darkness of Gotham’s underworld.
The main conceit of Bruce’s characterization, much like the Man of Steel’s conceit, lies in the double identity.
On the surface, Bruce is constantly depicted as the partying playboy, often chasing the skirts of many a high society dame or scandalous femme fatale. This man goes through woman after woman like a revolving door.
Booze-binging, late nights, questionable pill-popping, all top off the complete playboy image Bruce carefully curated as, he hopes, is an impregnable facade to throw off suspicion of his true identity.
In reality, Bruce is a teetotaler, adhering to various disciplines that demand he remain alcohol and drug-free. Also, probably not a wise idea to take on crime bosses while sloshed or high…
But this facade, the double life often conflicts with the reality of what a person, having experienced what Bruce Wayne has, would actually be.
Would a survivor of violent trauma recover into such audacious social abilities?
And what about who Bruce really is? Would a sheltered child grow into a worldly, confident man? A decadent playboy? An assured and determined vigilante by night?
With all of societal expectations heaped on him, would he, with the heavier expectations thrusted on men of a male-dominated system, actually be so self-assured? And mentally resilient?
Matt Reeve’s recent reimagining not answers these burning questions, but also presents a striking departure from the usual characterization of The Dark Knight.
Unlike the driven, almost laser-like focus of Nolan’s take on the Caped Crusader, with Bale’s performance delivering a searing if too hard-handed tone on the vigilante, Reeve’s take focuses on the broken vulnerability of a traumatized Bruce.
Surprisingly, Pattinson’s softer, nuanced portrayal, marked by alarming bouts of raging intensity, have formed a human, but perhaps the darkest take on Batman’s character, outside the comics.
Essentially, Pattinson’s spite and self-hate, combined with the double-whammy of socialization challenges and introversion, are the human embodiment of Depeche Mode songs.
(and I mean that with the highest praise!)
There is the most palpable sense of rage that emanates from glances and glares in this depiction- this a truly dark Bruce, tormented by his own demons. This is a Bruce who hates the world around him as much as he hates himself.
His drive for revenge is tangible. If Snyder’s vision for Superman drew from classical myth and Renaissance paintings, then Reeve’s version for this darker Batman found its emotional core from the terrifying “black” paintings of Lucifer and demons as tormented human men.
The physical strains are evident on Bruce.
From a tense anatomy straddling between excessive discipline and starvation marked with the ghostly pallor of a man who thrives in the dark cloister of manor and underground, it’s quite unsettling for fans accustomed to the robust, macho designs in the past. (The scars are nothing new- it’s just the emaciation and pallor that heighten their mark.)
(I, for one, welcome this. Honestly, so many designs for Bruce in comic and animation have him looking identical to Clark Kent, with Clark being the “cuter” and “beefier” of the two.)
But there’s a surprisingly softer side to Pattinson’s demonic, rage-filled silent character, too.
We meet Selina Kyle, Catwoman.
A woman driven to revenge, like Bruce, she embodies a darkness, similar to Bruce’s.
But unlike Bruce, who struggles with social ease, Selina is supple like the feline persona she takes on.
Possessing a unique resilience, Selina also radiates a hidden sympathy underneath her cool, jaded experience.
As she admits to Bruce, she has, “a thing for strays”- which refers not so much to her feline residents in her apartment, but to Bruce himself, a stray.
For the jaded, almost toxically hateful Bruce, Selina inspires an astonishing sensitivity and curiosity.
Even watching a video of Selina on security footage, a softness overtakes the usual cruel hardness of Bruce’s stony glare.
This shocking transition even alarms the prepared Alfred, who asks, “Who’s that? A friend of yours?”
Bruce, uncertain if Selina and he can be something, and uncertain of himself as a person, answers, “I’m not so sure.”
Curious herself, Selina wants to know Bruce behind his hardened mask as the dark vigilante.
It’s almost poetical, evoking the likes of Lermontov and Milton, or the paintings of Cabanel depicting the fallen angst of both Lucifer and Adam.
Enter Joel:
This felt familiar. Too familiar! Where had I seen this before?
For over a year now, I have loyally followed my friend and creative/collaborative partner, FortunusGames’ opus grand, “The Book of Joel”.
Despite its Biblical-sounding name, the series doesn’t deal with any religious themes, but rather, focuses on the internal struggle of a young, embittered man, Joel Farber.
Born into an equally bitter family wracked with dysfunction, Joel begins life unfairly. Held back by an almost crippling speech impediment, Joel’s boyhood is tormented by social rejection from his peers and crushing expectations from his parents and elders.
Bullying, isolation, verbal abuse are the hallmarks of a tormented childhood and even more painful adolescence for young Joel.
Like Bruce, Joel is driven by his own ambition, and more so from his own spite, to drastically transform himself.
Furiously, Joel transforms himself from a stuttering, meek boy into a confident, ruthless youth of razor-sharp intellect and debating skills.
Life and the world around him, a gray, ugly, dark mess like Bruce’s own trauma and his city of Gotham, have hardened Joel into jaded experience. Joel expects nothing of life. He finds life and its joys pointless.
He derives purpose and satisfaction from his own sense of being “right” and living on his own.
Much like Bruce suffers from in the majority of the film, an addiction to revenge and rage. Bruce feels justified in his ruthless vendetta- he is a demon thriving on the fuel of his own rage.
Both men isolate themselves, both figuratively and physically.
For Bruce, he keeps in the darkened cloister of his manor when not fighting crime bosses.
For Joel, he lacks the means for a spacious manor, but he locks himself away in the barren landscape of his inner mental psyche.
Despite the hardness and emptiness Joel aspires for, the young man is met with striking breaks of tenderness and yearning.
As Bruce finds Selina, Joel has Malka. A childhood friend of his, Malka has always held an effect on the usually jaded Joel.
Like Selina, Malka is driven by a curiosity for life, but more so, curiosity as to who Joel really is. Malka wants to slip her fingers under Joel’s mask and uncover the real person underneath, as Selina seeks to do with Bruce.
For differences, I only saw external factors.
Well, perhaps Joel is more even-keeled than Bruce. Joel hides his complexes well underneath his socially civil mask. Joel is not so much tormented by the outside caving in, but tormented by himself imploding the inside out of himself.
Malka is softer than Selina, but both women are jaded by rough lives wrenched by poverty and exploitation.
However, there’s a brightness piercing through
Malka’s own darkness, and from this light, there is a drive to live a life in the sun with Joel.
Selina, like Bruce, thrives in the night.
And she and Bruce accept this, much like Joel and Malka accept they must take the first steps in their new shared life, together in the sun of day.
This was an amazing essay, Tete! Thank you so much for laying out why you think this new portrayal of Batman and Joel have similarities. You're right, they do have all of those points in common! I really need to watch the movie soon and experience this new Batman's intensity for myself!