Martha Thomases: Batman and Reality
Bob left a message on my phone last Friday. “I’m glad you aren’t DC’s publicity manager today,” he said.
Me, too.
After the Columbine shootings in the 1990s, we got calls at DC because the killers wore trench coats and so did John Constantine. This time, the alleged gunman actually said he was the Joker.
Most likely, if I were still the publicity manager at DC I would have received a zillion phone calls on Friday. And, most likely, I wouldn’t have been allowed to say anything. I would have told the media to call Warner Bros. corporate communications VP and let that person sweat it. Since I’m no longer on the payroll, let me show you what I would say if I got one of those phone calls and could speak freely.
Reporter: Does DC Comics have anything to say about the Batman massacre?
Me: This tragedy has nothing to do with DC Comics or the Batman.
Reporter: The shooter said he was the Joker. He died his hair orange.
Me: The Joker has green hair.
Reporter: Doesn’t the violence in Batman glorify killing and inspire acts such as this?
Me: For more than 50 years and scores of writers and artists, Batman has been an outspoken opponent of guns. Insane people will find inspiration where there is none. Son of Sam took orders from his dog, but no one blames the dog. I think it was Lenny Bruce who said, you can take any page of the Sears catalog, and someone will whack off to it.
Reporter: What’s a Sears catalog?
As usual, the mainstream culture misses the point. Batman isn’t the problem. Batman fans are not the problem. Guns are the problem.
Yes, I know the right to bear arms is guaranteed in the Second Amendment. You know what’s guaranteed in the First Amendment? The right to free expression. In the wake of Friday’s horror, theater chains didn’t ban guns in their places of business but instead banned costumes. Maybe the costumes they should ban include loaded weapons and Kevlar?
(Side note: I cannot imagine getting dressed up in a costume to go to the movies. I don’t even really understand why people get dressed up in costumes to go to go to comics conventions. There’s Halloween, and St. Marks Place, and, for me, that’s enough room for funny outfits. Also, the 1980s.)
It is true that the alleged shooter had unfettered access to comic books, graphic novels, fantasy films, video games and hair dye. He also had unfettered access to weapons and ammunition. Opinions may vary, but I think it’s pretty cut-and-dried about which contributed more directly to the massacre.
If there is a graphic novel that should be attracting media attention, it’s My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf, published by Abrams ComicArts imprint. The author, with a grace and elegance that awed me, shows how easily society ignores and humiliates misfits, some of whom grow up to do horrible rings.
If you don’t have it, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman
“Reporter: What’s a Sears catalog?”
Funny line. And too bad you’re not DC’s publicity manager. I can’t imagine a better response.
Actually, he DIDN’T say he was the Joker – at least, last i heard, the allegation that he did had been pretty well refuted.
I know that (or rather, I know that now, I probably didn’t at the time I wrote the piece). However, I can guarantee that some reporter would have called up and insisted it was true.
Oh, fer shure.
.
I wasn’t aware that the lead time on these was that long.
Batman is NOT an outspoken opponent on GUNS. He himself doesn’t use it. Does Ms. Thomasses understand that whether a gun is made illegal, that a person with a criminal mind can get an illegal gun anyway? Guns don’t kill, people do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
.
People without guns don’t kill people using guns.
.
Guns make it altogether too easy to kill someone you really wouldn’t have killed if you had to beat them to death with a pool cue.
.
Guns are the only manufactured device i know of that’s available to the general population which have killing as their purpose.
.
(Well, bows & arrows, but it’s a lot harder to smuggle a satisfactorily lethal bow and arrows into a movie theatre, and they’re a lot harder to operate effectively.)
Ummm – that should read “people without guns don’t use guns to kill people.”
Uh, yeah, he is. He may not campaign against them, he doesn’t take them away from law-abiding citiizens, but he is most often portrayed as hating them. It is personal, not political for him.
I would argue there is no difference, but that is my opinion, not DC’s.
Let’s be clear and stop this rumor right now…
The perpetrator did not say he was the Joker. I have had discussions with people who would know who have confirmed that he did not say that. But since I can’t name those sources let’s us a little logic:
The perpetrator was arrested outside behind the theatre within 5 minutes after the shooting. An Aurora policeman discovered him and made the arrest along with another officer. He was handcuffed immediately and placed in a police car and taken to the police station for booking. No one else, especially the press, was there during the arrest.
So no one could have heard anything he said except for the police. And they immediately placed a lock on all information about him. The first thing the next morning the police chief held a press conference and said they would not disclose any information since it was an ongoing investigation.
Yet the Joker story broke on the news within hours of the shooting.
During that period there was a lot of speculation on the news. For example, right after the incident CNN was going to great lengths to explain to viewers that Aurora is a city located about 8 miles from Denver. In actual fact, the theatre itself is within 5 miles from my house and I live in Denver. Aurora is a suburb.
I spoke to the the owner of the comic store located within 1 mile of the theatre 2 days ago and learned that at least one of the victims that was shot was a customer of theirs. One can safely assume that all of the people in the theatre that night were Batman fans, either of the comics or the movies if not both. Yet the store owner related to me that he has had calls all week from the media, including national media, trying to document that the perpetrator was a comic fan. He was not. The victims were fans.
Thanks for a great column. Point well made.
On the “eight miles” thing – i’d be willing to bet that they looked Aurora up online or in a gazeteer – and it said “Eight miles”.
.
Such distances are stated center-to-center.
.
For instance: Hapeville Georgia and Atlanta are literally contiguous – in fact, Hapeville is surrounded on three sides by the Atlanta city limits – but Google maps says ten miles.
.
Covington KY is separated from Cincinnati by the width of the Ohio River.
.
Map distance? Two miles.
.
As for Denver and Aurora? Google maps gives distances ranging from nine to eleven miles, depending on what routing you choose.
.
It’s not bad reporting – it’s assumptions built into the available information upstream.
Guess joker was against me because I am the real batman
Mike,
No, it’s lousy reporting. I took journalism in college. Good journalists double check their facts before running a story. CNN talked about this as the news was breaking because they were rushing without verifying information first. Google is a lazy way to do research and the worst part is they had a live feed from Channel 9 in Denver within the first hour and still not ask.