‘‘YOU WANNA GET NUTS? C’MON! LETS GET NUTS!’’

Despite the Joker’s musings that Batman can be predictable, his fans are given reason to think otherwise, and that’s one of the features of the man and the symbol that makes him so enthralling. This is comprised of a few key facets including: his determination and will, his context, and the psychology behind the man under the cowl.

Take the iconic quote mentioned above by Keaton’s Batman as a prime example of the man’s unpredictable nature. The specific scene shows Bruce Wayne attempting to tell Vicki Vale who he really is before being brashly interrupted by the Joker and his henchmen. Bruce Wayne, in the briefest of moments, lifts his metaphorical mask and shows the Joker who he truly is. The ultimate irony is that he reveals his true self to the wrong person, and it exposes to the audience that this is a man very aware of his own dark side and volatile nature, each revealing themselves underneath the delicate façade of Bruce Wayne. It also tells us he is capable of anything at any given time. His determination and will to succeed in dispensing justice reveal another unpredictable aspect of Batman’s nature, with many confrontations pushing the man into some morally questionable turf. This determination and will to act is an area of great conflict and moral ambiguity, so let’s talk about

Batman’s rules or rather, his one rule and even that rule is fraught with grey areas. Batman’s thou shalt not kill rule has been compromised from the very beginning. Comic fans first learn of the Dark Knight’s rule in 1941’s Batman #4, following an era of guns, public hangings and random stabbings. The rule was introduced by Bill Finger in a time of censorship and a change in the moral climate towards violence in comics during the early part of WW2. Despite this insistence on no killing, Batman has often skirted this rule or flat out ignored it. Key examples of this that leap to mind include the demise of Ra’s Al Ghul in Batman Begins, Penguin’s henchmen in Batman Returns, as well as several criminals at the hands of Batfleck.

The extreme horror of not knowing what fate awaited you at the hands of the dark vigilante was an effective weapon against Gotham’s most notorious criminals and a hefty outcome for criminals relying on the man’s predictability to subvert a death sentence.

Consider the background of Batman: a man who witnessed the brutal execution of his parents as a young child. This was a watershed moment for the Caped Crusader as others would normally elect this personal trauma to force them into a life of reclusiveness or send them down a path of villainy. Bruce Wayne elects to walk the path less travelled and instead use this personal trauma as the catalyst for his lifelong campaign of dispensing justice to

Gotham’s hive of scum and villainy as the city’s dark vigilante. If we think about that for a moment, Bruce Wayne and Batman, by choosing to walk this path, are extremely unpredictable and represent both the conflicted nature of the man and the complexity of the life he lives. Both Bruce Wayne and Batman represent the Jungian philosophy of our darker shadow self- though in the case of Batman, this is brought to extremes.

The last point is Batman’s sheer will and determination to dispense justice at almost any cost. The man puts life and limb on the line, and it is this absolute drive to deliver retribution at any cost that leads him into powerful conflicts and scenarios. A lesser superhero would back down and call it a day, but Batman is like a terrier with a delicious Bat bone and cannot let go. This is exemplified in the final act of The Dark Knight. Ledger’s Joker has Gotham living in a state of terror and chaos, resulting in a final act of morality involving two ferries. Inspired by Alfred’s story of a scorched earth strategy to capture a bandit, Bruce Wayne/ Batman (with the aid of Wayne Industries) creates a supercomputer designed to turn every phone in Gotham into a microphone and create a sonar device Batman taps into to capture the Joker. Like every conflict and scenario, none of this is simple, and means that Batman must compromise the privacy of every citizen in Gotham to achieve his outcome. In addition, he must fight off several of Gotham’s finest in order to rescue the hostages that Joker has cleverly disguised. The entire act is a masterstroke of Batman’s will and determination, along with his unpredictability in order to win. It proves that he is both the Dark Knight that Gotham needs and deserves.