Batman: The Libertarian Caped Crusader

There is something inherently libertarian about most comic-book superheroes.

They are vigilantes. They wouldn't have to do what they do if the government were at all successful in protecting the innocent from the bad guys.

And more than a few of them are wealthy entrepreneurs. You have to be a billionaire industrialist like Tony Stark if you are going to create the high-tech arsenal necessary to be Iron Man. And it takes the wealth of Bruce Wayne to keep the Batcave properly equipped.

But some of them are more explicitly libertarian.

Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, dreamed up the first explicitly libertarian hero, The Question, during his stint at Charlton Comics in the '60s.

In the '80s, DC Comics purchased the rights to Ditko's Charlton characters, but subsequent writers have purged them of any hint of Ditko's philosophy, which was basically Ayn Rand's Objectivism minus the sexual hang-ups.

In fact, some superhero comics have become decidedly Left Wing during the past decade, thanks largely to an influx of British writers, who happily cash their American paychecks while complaining that the United States needs to be more like pre-Thatcher England.

One comic book, "The Authority," features a team of Left Wing superheroes who, in authoritarian fashion, force their vision of a "better world" upon everyone else. (Exactly how ironic this is, and how like the manner in which real Leftists behave, seems lost on the book's current writer.)

But one hero seems to stand against the tide of Left Wing fascism.

In the '80s, writer/artist Frank Miller satirized the feel-good militarism of Reagan's America in his mini-series "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns." Now, Miller is back. And he is taking aim at the feel-good fascism of the Clinton/Bush years with a three-issue series, "The Dark Knight Strikes Again," commonly referred to as DK2.

In interviews, Miller describes his Batman as an “idealistic anarchist.” And certainly the world order Miller's Batman inhabits is in desperate need of being overthrown.

It is a world where no one cares about trifling things like civil liberties and individual rights, as long as the Dow Jones continues onward and upward.

Sound familiar?

To drive his point home, Miller resurrects The Question, who is back to his old Randian self.

The Question keeps tabs on the government and writes down what he sees:

"The world spins mad. The people are so intoxicated by luxury they forget everything that makes us more than house pets. Reason. Truth. Justice. Freedom. The human spirit is a shattered pane of glass – wrapped in soft velvet and soaked in sugary poison. Evil has seduced mankind. And mankind has shown all the chastity of a three-dollar whore."

But, like Rand, The Question is in no position to act. He can only write. Miller leaves the action to Batman, who must start by taking down the symbol of the political establishment, Superman.

It seems strange to think of Superman as the bad guy, but the Man of Steel has always been a tool of the powers that be.

In the 1940s, he was a New Deal propagandist. He is always the superhero the president calls in times of need.

So, naturally, when the government is corrupted, Superman is corrupted along with it, no matter how much lip service he may give to defending "truth, justice and the American way."

At the end of "The Dark Knight Returns," Batman uses his wits and some teamwork to defeat Superman. By the end of only the first issue of DK2, Batman does so again.

In the two issues yet to come, perhaps Miller will give Superman a way to redeem himself – a way which will almost certainly involve taking down the status quo.

If only things in the real world were as easy as they are in the comics.

January 21, 2002