The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1923: Batman #403, January 1987

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 We'll jump back a few decades now. I think it's really important that we recognize that the contribution of POC to our culture isn't a new thing. It's not just since we've entered ostensibly more "politically-correct" times that people other than white people have had a hand in our entertainment media. If one considers that to be the case, one misses out on some truly excellent pieces of art.


The weird thing about this one, given that Denys Cowan is one of the most renowned Black creators working in comics, is that there isn't a single person of colour in the whole story. This is something that needs to be thought about when we're on the subject of creators who are POC. Representation is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but as I begin to see more bisexual characters introduced into media, I come to have a much better understanding of why it's important. For Denys Cowan to work on this comic that doesn't feature a single representative character that resembles him, at least physically, is pretty messed up. This is not to say that the motivation for this was a racial one - at least, not an overtly racial one. It's simply another symptom of the systemic racism that permeates our culture. White = default, and it has for so many years. I suppose the question I'm left with is whether or not this absence was noted by Mr. Cowan at the time. What I think is of great concern is when these situations do not raise red flags because all of us, POC or not, have internalized the idea that white = default. And that's a dangerous place to be.


Storywise, I quite enjoyed this one. A crazed cop takes on Batman's identity and starts killing people, and Batman, in the end, defeats him and tries to get him help. There's some interesting stuff going on in the comic with regard to whether or not Batman actually helps those he apprehends, and, honestly, if the comic was going to hit on some of the more salient cultural problems surrounding its publication, making the incarcerated cop Black could have opened up some even more uncomfortable conversations for the Bat.


Hope that makes sense.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Posts

Here's a few other mentions of Denys Cowan in the project - he's instrumental in establishing Milestone Comics, and is an intensely important creator in comics.