Batman (Tupp)

Introduction
There are no heroes in this story. This is the theme that looms over the exciting and thrillingly dark The Dark Knight film trilogy from Christopher Nolan. Over the past eight years, these three movies have transformed the popular comic-book superhero from cheesy cartoon into a thought-provoking and emotional figure with significant social commentary on real-world situations. These three movies have been referred to as possibly the defining movies of our generation, based on their tone and thematic material. Incredible performances from an ensemble of actors add to the overwhelmingly positive criticism of the series and incites fans to participate in online blog communities, as well as to create tangential fan fiction or brilliant fan art. Popular topics for these discussions include the backstories of the villains in the movies (particularly Scarecrow, Bane, and the Joker) and criticism of Nolan (the director) and of actors such as Christian Bale (Batman). For example, Heath Ledger ’s portrayal of the Joker in the second film of the trilogy spun the character into an entirely different direction; a pure evil, psychologically driven masterpiece of a character. Nolan’s other movies such as The Prestige and Inception have been met with equally positive criticism, making him one of the best, most celebrated directors of the modern era.

As was once predicted by people like Steven King in The Word Processor of the Gods, computers have grown incredibly powerful as tools for reading online literature, watching online movies, and discussing these media with other fans whom users would never have met otherwise. Web 2.0 has revolutionized the world in the ways of online sharing and collaboration; it allows readers to interact with each other in a user-generated virtual community. Online reading allows the authors and readers to express themselves in new and different ways. For example, Shelley Jackson’s The Body is an autobiography (which may or may not be real) about a young girl who was more masculine than many of her male classmates and had several other problems. Instead of starting on page one and going forward as in a normal book, this story is told in small sections which had no set order. The reader has the options to read the story in any order he or she wishes, creating a visually interactive experience which could not be achieved in a traditional book. As our class experimented with while reading Frankenstein, many classic books have been typed and put on the internet so people can access them easily and for free. However, this method of reading offers a completely different experience than reading a paper novel. More focus is spent on the constant scrolling downward on the screen and on the screen brightness than on the actual text, yet the reader has easier access to footnotes and outside information about the book. The internet has provided a wealth of new opportunities for authors and readers to express themselves through vastly different and interactive forms of media.



The enormous popularity of the internet has created a society of fan interactions for ordinary people to express their views and opinions about any topic they wish. Websites like Wikia, Reddit, etc. have emerged as some of the most popular fan communities. A wiki is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a Web site that allows visitors to make changes, contributions, or corrections,” and it has emerged as the leading method fans share information with other fans. Ordinary people can add their own information onto sites to share it with the world, making the information accessible by everyone, but not guaranted to be accurate. The most popular wiki site, Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, has spawned many other wikis on more specific topics ranging from sports to music to movies; basically anything that has ever been worth talking about. Reddit, another enormously popular website, is a community in which users post links to news stories, images, or other sites that deal with a certain topic and people comment on them. Users vote on posts based on level of interest, ranking them upward or downward on the site’s front page and other sub-pages. It allows people to engage in a worldwide discussion forum on topics ranging from skateboarding injuries to electronic music to The Dark Knight series.

Knowledge Communities
There are many internet-based knowledge communities built around the Dark Knight series, including Batman - Yesterday, Today, and Beyond, Batman-on-Film, and the Batman Wiki. Knowledge communities are sites where people go to share and discuss information rather than debate or qualify it. They allow fans a collective space to share ideas about a common interest; in this case, about The Dark Knight. Some of these communities are encyclopedias like Wikis while others are forums filled with pages of fan discussions.

Batman - Yesterday, Today, and Beyond
The Batman YTB is the largest fan site I could find, as it covers all imaginable aspects of the Batman franchise, from every incarnation of a film series to action figures to the original comic books. Under the heading of each film in The Dark Knight series, there is a page-long plot summary of the movie (with obvious spoilers), a section about the development process of the movie, and a subheading with links to character bios, crew members, downloads, gadgets used in the movie, critical reviews, movie scripts, and merchandise. I think one of the most captivating sections on the site is the gadgets one in which there is a wealth of pictures and information about the technology Batman uses in the movies. For example, the Batpod from The Dark Knight is described as being “tricked out with grappling hooks, cannons, and machine guns…” and it goes on to illustrate the exact technical specifications of the motorcycle, such as the tires being a monstrous 508 millimeters in diameter. There is a forum section of this website but it is not nearly as big or widely used as some other fan sites which are strictly forum-based, since most of the discussion posts have five or fewer replies to them. But overall, this is a great site for learning anything and everything related to the Batman franchise.

Batman-on-Film


Batman on Film describes itself as the net's“longest-running site for news and opinion on the Batman film franchise. [Their] goal is to lobby Warner Bros. for the longterm continuation of the Batman film franchise with quality Batman movies." BOF is another fansite with sections dealing with the movies as well as comic books, but this site has a very strong focus on the film versions, especially the Nolan series. This site has links to Batman movie news, other superhero movie sites such as Man of Steel (the new Superman movie), and even a Batman podcast . Other features of the site include interviews with some of the cast and crew members as well as opinion sections where the writers for the site express themselves. Some of the more fascinating editorials on the site are “Spoiler Alert!,” a huge rant against spoiler culture and “Why Catwoman is Needed,” an explanation why the Selina Kyle character is absolutely necessary to the Nolan films. BOF does not have a forum section so it is not a group collaboration, but instead an information service provided by the site authors, who are avid Batman fans and mostly work day jobs as Hollywood screenwriters.

Batman Wiki
The Batman wiki is a collaborative encyclopedia that covers everything related to the Batman franchise, including the Nolan trilogy. Since a wiki is a gathering place for information and not an argument between fans, there are no comments sections or forums, but anyone (not just the site creators) can edit the site. The problem with the wiki format is that not everything has been confirmed by the right sources so it is not valid or reliable information. The site touches on all aspects of the movies, from plotlines (major and minor), to promotional data for the movie, to behind-the-scenes, deleted scenes, quotes, filmmaking gaffes, and more. The Batman wiki deals with every character in the movies in addition to most of the technology, weapons, locations, events, etc. in the films. The wiki is a great source for facts about the movies and is presented in a nice, easy-to-look-at format.

Remediation
Remediation is the act of presenting one medium in the form of another medium. It can be the creation of a new form of technology making another technology obsolete, such as the invention of the DVD to eliminate the VHS tape. It can be watching a recording of a live concert performance, taking the concert out of its original context. It can be a reference to an older type of medium, for example a character saying, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” in any movie that came after Jaws. I am going to focus on two specific forms of remediation with a Batman element, fan fiction and fan art.

Fan Fiction Fanfic.jpg
Fanfiction.net is a collection for regular and blog fiction written by amateur authors about a certain topic. There are sections for every conceivable movie or television show which have characters drawing any level of interest. The Batman/Dark Knight page includes over 3,800 stories about various characters or tangential plot lines from the films. Many popular ones deal with the backstory of the films’ villains such as Scarecrow, Bane , Two-Face , Catwoman , and The Joker. Others speculate about the childhood and adolescence of Bruce Wayne, the alter-ego of Batman. Some of the more interesting stories for a film fan include the exact plot line from the movie, yet told from a different characters perspective. For example, “It Had To Be Done” is a single-paragraph story about the last scene in The Dark Knight Rises, told from Selina Kyle’s (Catwoman) point of view. Stories such as this one offer more for the casual fan who is interested in understanding the more complex scenes Nolan presents on the screen. Some of my other favorite stories on the site include “The Way Things Used to Be”, an account of Bruce Wayne after returning to Gotham from the League of Shadows told from the perspective of Diana Atkins, one of Wayne’s best friends from childhood. “It’s Just a Game” is a tale not on the same plotlines of the movies but fascinating nonetheless as it details Rachel Dawes, the love of Bruce Wayne’s life, falling in love with the Joker, Batman’s sworn arch enemy. And my favorite story I've read so far is “Sorrowing Man," a romantic catalogue of the loving relationship between **SPOILER ALERT** Bane and Ras Al Ghoul’s daughter, Talia . The title includes a reference to one of my favorite songs by the same name written by City and Colour, and the chorus is written as a poem at the beginning of the story.

Fan Art
Fan Art is a major form of remediation surrounding all fantasy genres, including Batman. Artists who make fan art “paint, draw, or use other graphic forms to copy, represent, explore or extend the life of a created character or world.” It is a tool used by people of all ages, from young children who draw their version of their favorite cartoon character to professional artists who wish to offer their take on a certain character. Batman fan art touches on every aspect of the franchise, partly because a big part of its success and popularity is the vivid costumes the heroes and villains wear, a factor which lends itself to artwork magnificently. Two of the most active centers for fan art which I have found are deviantART and the Batman page on Reddit. These sites boast enormous collections of fan art; for instance, a deviantART search for "the Dark Knight" returns 124,102 results. Here are a few of my favorite pieces of Batman fan art:





These pieces of artwork are fantastic creations that show time and dedication by the artists. They use many different forms of art such as paint on canvas, computer graphics, and even string art to create a Bat-signal. Fan's desire to create art like this strengthens the bond between fans and creates a stronger interest and following in their topic of choice.

Interpretive Disputes
Die-hard f ans of a movie love nothing more than to talk about their favorite parts, favorite quotes, deeper meanings suggested by the director, questions about certain scenes, etc. The internet offers an innumerable amount of space for fans to do this in from the comfort of their own homes. Forums allow fans to have conversations with each other in the form of posted messages. Fans debate and collaborate with each other to further understand the issues they are concerned with or interested in. There is normally a main page which lists all the different topics being discusses at the time which users can then access to learn or contribute to the discussion. There are hundreds of different websites which host forums on comic book characters, including the Batman series, but I will focus on a site dealing with discussion of all Christopher Nolan movies as well as the Batman sub-Reddit.

Nolan Fan Forum
The Nolan Fan Forum, as one could guess from the title, deals exclusively with the Christopher Nolan movie saga. Over the past decade, Nolan has released title after title and returned box-office hit after hit. In addition to The Dark Knight series, other Nolan films such as Memento, The Prestige , and Inception have been met with enormous praise from fans and critics alike. Some of the topics dealing with his Batman series include personal reaction after just seeing the movie, plot holes and gaffes in the movie, and countless others.

One of the most interesting topics being discussed is suggestions for a recasting of the Nolan films, guesses of the cast of the next Batman film series, and requests for the next Nolan project. The most prevalent topic in the Dark Knight Rises category is a listing of plot holes, which is understandable since the movie was just released and is still in theaters.

Reddit
The Batman sub-Reddit, in addition to hosting fan art, also acts as a message board for both diehard and casual fans. The tag “self.Reddit” on the main page indicates that the writer of the post is asking a question or posing a topic for argument. Some of the ones that stood out to me included “What the Dark Knight Rises Got Wrong,” a discussion of the major plot holes in the latest film. This thread includes a lot of the same information as the Nolan Fan Forum, but it goes into more depth because the posts are all longer than the other site, indicating a greater level of involvement from the users. A user code-named MogoOwnsAll wrote a 1600-word Batman/Robin Thesis, a “long winded list of my opinion on why the Dark Knight needs the Boy Wonder,” and the only comment so far is from a different user named kingmaven who refers MogoOwnsAll to read The Psychology of Batman because it contains multiple chapters on the same topic. This is a great example of a learning community coming together to share information and ideas.

A user named Deggit writes an essay psychoanalyzing the Joker’s character from the Dark Knight film. He analyzes the reasons behind the Joker telling two different stories about the origin of his scars at different points in the movie. The first interpretation could be that the Joker is insane, meaning he literally cannot remember how he got his scars. Another interpretation could be he is a pathological liar, because he manipulates his enemies throughout the entire movie and this additional lie could be seen as a “continuation of the Joker's pattern of terrifying deceit and unpredictability.” But the author arrives at the third conclusion that the Joker is in complete control of himself at all times where he is not simply a laughing madman, because everything he does is a performance, from his clown makeup to his fake laughs in the face of impending danger. A commenter code-named ChrisNolanEnthusiast states that Christopher Nolan’s Joker character is defined by one line he speaks near the end of the movie: “No one is civilized, everyone just pretends to be.”

The community created by the Reddit forums is incredible in its scale and reach to hardcore and casual fans all over the world. It boasts significantly more users than other forums, so more people interact regularly, the user interface is better, and viewers can “upvote” or “downvote” comments just like they could with main stories or pictures; that way, the highest rated stories and comments are at the top of the list, so more people are exposed to them.

Links and Resources
Batman - Yesterday, Today, and Beyond

Batman on Film

The Batman Wiki

Batman sub-Reddit

Christopher Nolan (wikipedia)