Censorship in Comics throughout the Ages

Content warning: There are some graphic and disturbing pictures included in this post involving blood, violence, suicide, and sexual content.

Comics have been around in some form since the stone ages when people drew short stories on cave walls. They have progressed from that point to comic strips, and those short strips grew into comic books and graphic novels with full blown stories and sagas. These comic books went through stages usually separated into four ages, each age coming with its own themes, characters, and problems, but each age influenced the others. However, the Comics Code (a code of restrictions that censored what was allowed to appear in comics) had long term repercussions after it was introduced in 1954. Though the Code became less prevalent at the end of the Silver age, it shaped comics in its own age as well as in the Bronze and Modern Ages. With the continued discussions about fake news, alternative facts, internet privacy, and censorship, it is a prime time to renew the discussion of censorship in a seemingly unlikely place: comic books and graphic novels.  People of all ages read comics, and kids and young adults are often labeled as impressionable and vulnerable readers. When discussing censorship, one cannot ignore ideas advocating for controlling content in comics. However, the repercussions of the Comics Code demonstrate that censorship in comics leads to a severe restriction of creativity, variety of topics, and diversity. By examining the damage that restrictions caused in the Silver Age and the continued negative effects of the Code in the Modern Age of comics, this paper illustrates that, however well or ill intended censorship is, censorship is never worth the cost in creativity and expression.

Censorship arguments

            Before I delve into the discussion of censorship in comics, it is important to understand arguments about why people support censorship and why people do not. Comics are a unique topic compared to censoring books or art because they combine written and visual. This combination allows a wider range of possibly disturbing or offensive subjects that people may argue to censor against.

Many who argue for censorship focus on the negative consequences of certain types of media. Meghan Gurdon is one of many concerned citizens who argues in favor of banning certain books. Though she is not specifically addressing comic book censorship, she cites multiple reasons for carefully picking and choosing what young adults are allowed to read. She says that “books focusing on pathologies help normalize them, and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood.” She wants to censor disturbing ideas and actions that may come with mental illness, and her support of censorship is meant to protect those who are not yet exposed or damaged by keeping the pathologies abnormal. She also claims that depictions of things such as self-harm may “trigger a sufferer’s relapse.” By censoring material that may be triggering, she hopes to protect those who have already suffered something, trying to prevent a relapse by seeing or reading disturbing events. Along with her discussion about pathologies and self-harm, she also brings up a few examples of particularly violent and gore filled books, noting that they are ghastly and depraved. She maintains that children and young adults have to be affected by this violence, and her concerns on this matter are not far from the truth.

Violence and the possible imitation of violent acts has long been a major concern for many censors. The Comics Code Authority claimed that violence in comic books encouraged and increased juvenile delinquency, and while this was based on little evidence at the time, children and young adults are more susceptible to learning aggression through what they read and watch. Brushman and Anderson found in a psychological study that violent media has a desensitizing effect. Violent media was linked to a “decreased helping behavior,” essentially correlating violent media such as superhero cartoons and comics with a decrease in empathy in the viewer (277). This danger of desensitization is an important threat to consider. One concern with the focus on violence and violent behavior as a reason for censorship is that the idea of violence causing or encouraging violence is a sort of chicken and the egg argument. Violent people may be drawn to more violent media instead of the media itself making them more violent. However, there is certainly a correlation between the two, and there is a real concern in the prevalence of violence in media. In contemporary times, violent media is easier to access than ever. It is in video games, TV shows, books, movies, but it is also all over the news. When people are exposed to violence this much, they can become used to it. The exposure to violence in the media runs the risk of normalizing violence and other disturbing imagery and ideas.

However, while these concerns are important to acknowledge, censorship is never defensible. Though there are some valid reasons behind the desire to censor, censorship does more harm than good; it distorts and impoverishes artistic representation and presentation. Susan Alston, the Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, defends the free speech in comics because they are “an individual artist’s reaction to his world,” not some attempt to corrupt the youth of America or disturb people. Comics, especially those that may contain disturbing and difficult ideas or imagery, are important because they “keep our society questioning itself.” Censorship is about protecting people, but Alston argues that sometimes we need to be exposed to disturbing, uncomfortable ideas in order to keep our society questioning itself and moving forward. In order to keep from remaining stagnant, the disturbing material, both the good and the bad, has to be allowed in order to keep pushing towards the new.

Mrs. Gurdon has legitimate concerns about the exposure of normalizing pathologies and self-harm, but she ignores a large part of the issue by neglecting to address those who could be helped by normalizing mental illness. Self-harm should of course be discouraged, but mental illnesses in themselves are not something to be shamed and hidden away. Not addressing or discussing the issues does nothing to help it, and ignoring mental illness can often make it worse. Suicide and self-harm, along with many other disturbing issues such as rape and addiction, are unpleasant and should not be normalized. However, as Sherman Alexie points out, they are still real even if they are not discussed and depicted, so they should be addressed in a way that may help people who are experiencing these issues. When discussing his own experience with censors in his childhood, he says that, “they wanted to protect me from sex when I had already been raped. They wanted to protect me from evil though a future serial killer had already abused me.” He illustrates that, however well-meaning a censor may be, they may be trying to protect a child or young adult from something that they have already experienced. The unpleasant in society does not disappear simply because it is not represented in the media, but refusing to discuss it because of concerns about what it could do to harm also ignores the possibility of what it could do to help people.

Censorship, aside from not being a useful way to protect people, can also be damaging and destroy the potential for artistic creations to help. Sherman Alexie states that, instead of a desire to protect the children from disturbing, damaging ideas, censors are really, “trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be,” not actually trying to protect the children and young adults. Censors are not trying to protect people from the dangers of the real world; they are trying to shape the world that these people are seeing by controlling what they see and how they see it. This desire to protect and insulate children is not harmless. It may mean denying children “weapons in the form of words,” as Alexie calls it, to help them fight against the real issues in their own life. Censorship is about people seeking control in order to dictate what they believe is and is not acceptable instead of allowing the plethora of perspectives to speak for themselves. This control over what is and is not acceptable often leads to negative, long-lasting repercussions as it did in the history of comics.

The Golden Age

The Golden Age of comics was a time of diversity and ingenuity before the Comics Code started the Silver age and changed comics forever. Though the age technically began with the birth of Superman in his first appearance in Action Comics no. 1 in 1938, the first official comic book was released in 1933. This book, Famous Funnies, was a reprinting of various comic strips, and it began the popularity of comics. Superman appeared five years later in a time of political turmoil, only a year before World War II began. It was a time when the world needed heroes, and many comic book heroes answered the call after Superman. Batman, and his most famous villain the Joker, were created shortly after Superman. As one of the most famous heroes who began so early in the Ages, Batman is an ideal way to illustrate the changes of the Ages.

Batman, unlike some of the other classic heroes like Wonder Woman and Superman, began as a dark and brooding character. Batman’s territory was that “of the dark unconscious.” In Batman #1, the comic panel showing Batman’s debut as a vigilante crime fighter reads, “And thus it born this weird figure of the dark…this avenger of Evil. The Batman.” Batman began as a character of the night, one who fought in the shadows against any evil that existed in the world. He was not necessarily a protector, but an avenger. He was focused on revenge. When he was a child, a few days after his parents were murdered, a panel shows him praying and saying, “I swear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals” (Ellsworth ). He was born out of a horrible event, and his career as a vigilante was based in the darkness and vengeance, not necessarily justice and goodness. He was also often involved in the strange and disturbing. From the “start of his career, he was drawn into demented episodes of the supernatural, uncanny and inexplicable” as well as moments of “gritty crime violence and backstreet reprisals.” His stories seemed much darker than that of Wonder Woman and Superman, and from the beginning, he dealt with difficult, gritty themes. Batman fought in the shadows and became one with the darker side of crime. His character evoked images of Dracula and vampires, but instead of the evil bloodsucking vampire, it portrayed “the vampire as the hero, preying on the even more unwholesome creatures of the night (Morrison 22). Batman began as a grim and gritty hero, a term that became especially important in the Bronze and Modern age. Though he certainly became darker in the Bronze and Modern Age, he never began as a squeaky clean, morally correct hero. He was only human, mere flesh and blood bent on vengeance.

Batman’s arch nemesis the Joker was the first villain of the first issue of Batman, and he began as a terrifying, gruesome killer and robber. He is described as, “A master criminal… a criminal weaving a web of death about him, leaving stricken victims behind wearing a ghastly clown’s grin, the sign of death from the Joker!” He’s described like a malicious spider, weaving death and creating destruction, but he is also a master criminal, indicating his intelligence. He is “a man with a changeless mask like face but for the eyes, burning hate filled eyes!” and his smile it “without mirth, rather a smile of death!” His mask like face and mirthless smile label the Joker as a unique character, one who is separate from the usual criminals.  

Though his motives appear unclear, his villainous acts include pre-meditated, deliberate murder and theft. When the millionaire dies in the first few pages, readers witness the Joker’s depraved method of murder first hand. “Slowly the facial muscles pull the dead man’s mouth into a repellant, ghastly grin. The sign of death from the Joker!” (Ellsworth ). His crimes are heinous, well-planned, and incredibly disturbing and grotesque. The Joker began as a twisted, demented villain, a “grim jester” that the police were helpless to stop despite his forewarnings of his crimes, and only Batman and Robin could face him and bring him down. He was a symbol of the worst kind of criminals, the rare but terrifying dangers that are seemingly impossible to catch and do a great deal of damage before they are apprehended (if they are caught at all). As a caricature of these types of criminals, Joker acted as an artistic outlet for the concerns of society, and Batman’s apprehension of him acted as a message that while evil and disturbing things exist in the world, good can defeat them.

Batman was of course not alone in his crusade against crime, and many other heroes of the Golden Age demonstrated the freedom of expression in the golden age. The first female super hero was not Wonder Woman but Ma Hunkel. Though largely abandoned after the age, she was the “first ‘real-world’ superhero—with no powers, a DIY outfit, and a strictly local beat,” and she was only one of many of the unique, progressive, and underappreciated creations of the Golden Age. Though there was plenty of sexism and racism in Golden Age comics, sexist comics were alongside comics featuring heroes like Ma Hunkel and the Women Outlaws. These women acted as progressive female heroines, and alongside progressive females, there were stories of minorities as empowered heroes. “During the Golden Age, the same newsstand might be selling comics with ape-like, rubber-lipped caricatures of black people next to the black-owned and created All-Negro Comics,” and Native American heroes like Mantoka showed natives protecting other natives from cruel and racist treatment from whites (Ahmed). Though the Golden age was by no means a perfect place of political correctness, the comics were allowed to be expressive, creative, and free to push political boundaries using their pages. Women and minorities fought alongside white male protagonists like Batman, and everyone was free to create. After the war ended in 1945, heroes fell out of favor and were overshadowed as comics explored other genres like horror and romance (Ayres). However, the heroes were due to come back in the mid-1950s with a great deal of changes to the open-mindedness of the Golden Age.

The Silver Age and the Comics Code

      In the conservative atmosphere of the 1950s, the Silver age began as the Comics Code crushed creativity and diversity. The wartime patriotism of the 1940s was over, and as heroes moved on from punching Nazis to punching criminals, America reverted to a conservative stance. Women who had been needed to work during wartime, pushed to action with images like Rosie the Riveter and Wonder Woman, were forced back out of the workplace and into the home. With the threat of fascism and Nazis subsided, the new threat of Communism rose, and fear was on the rise. The list of things to fear kept growing, including a variety of things such as “the Bomb, the Communist, the Homo, the Negro, the Teenager, the Id, the Flying Saucers, the Existential Void” (Morrison). This atmosphere of fear shaped many industries during the period, including the comics industry. In 1954, this fearful ideology lead to the censorship of the free and open industry of comic books, and the resulting Comics Code distorted and crushed the artistic integrity that had been flourishing in the Golden Age. 

The Comics Code began with the intention to curve criminality among America’s youth by restricting media that may have a bad influence. Much of the Silver Age’s censorship can be traced back to Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent, “a book purporting that comic book reading causes juvenile delinquency” (Alston). Because of his connection between comics and juvenile delinquency, “the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency turned an angry eye toward comics” (Morrison). In 1954, Charles Murphy, “a ‘specialist in juvenile delinquency’ (and a strident racist), was chosen to head the Authority and to devise its self-policing ‘code of ethics and standards,’” in order to address the fearful atmosphere of the period, and so the Comics Code Authority was born (Ahmed). The Golden Age went out with its diverse heroes and genres, and the Code ushered in an Age of fear and censorship.

The Code was created to “ensure child-friendly content” and keep comics moral and clean (Morrison 56). This code was a long list including many rules about the dos and don’ts of comics, including: 

“Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with, walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited”

“Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal.”

“Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.”

“Romance stories shall emphasize the value of the home and the sanctity of marriage,” and policemen and parents were also required to be portrayed favorably.

 “Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible” (Ahmed).

Though this last rule may have begun with good intentions, in practice, Murphy used it as a method to force women and minorities completely out of comic books. The Code became a method of enforcing his own racist attitudes upon the entire industry of comics. The flaw in the code demonstrates that individual’s biases will seep in and affect how they choose to censor. Even if it began with the intention to keep children from becoming violent and being exposed to disturbing, bigoted material, the Code allowed individual perspectives to triumph over the larger industry.

Individuals dictated what was acceptable in the Silver Age comics. The Code became law for comic books during the Silver Age, and because of the narrow-minded rules needed to procure the Code’s stamp of approval, comics created by minorities or women were pushed out of business. Comics containing women, minorities, challenges to authority, and so on were banned from most distributors. The exploration into other genres was almost extinguished completely with the Code’s rules due to the extreme restrictions. Comic books became an industry created and dominated by white males, and sexism and racism became almost an element of the Silver Age process of creation with all competing mindsets pushed out (Ahmed). Though the Code largely fell out of favor at the beginning of the Bronze Age around 1970, the Comics Code Authority was only officially disbanded in the early 2000s, meaning that these sexist, racist, and bigoted laws lasted for almost half a century in comic book history. The Comics Code shaped comic history in the Silver age and beyond.

            Many Golden Age heroes never made it to the Silver Age, including Ma Hunkel. It is difficult to tell whether or not it was because of the Code’s bigoted rules pushing them out or because people simply lost interest, but many of the heroes that continued their fame were the white male protagonists like Bruce Wayne and his double life as Batman. However, in the Silver Age, Bruce Wayne and his crime fighting as Batman took on an absurd tone that sapped much of the dark and creative tone that was present in the Golden Age. The TV series Batman ran for three seasons in the 1960s, and the portrayal of the characters Batman and the Joker demonstrate not only how absurd the characters became, but also how much artistic expression was lost in the campy and ridiculous series.

Though it is certainly entertaining in its ridiculousness, the 1960s TV series Batman lacks meaning, depth, and purpose other than a cheap form of entertainment. Batman of the Golden Age was dark, brooding, and faced the underbelly of crime regularly in his early career. His escapades as the Caped Crusader were violent and dealt with the complexities of criminals and Batman’s own persona, yet this complexity and artistic expression of Batman is almost completely lost in the 1960s portrayal. Batman is reduced to a spokesperson for righteousness in a cape and tights. As Robin the Boy Wonder rushes off to catch the criminals, Batman will often stop him, telling him that even when fighting crime, it is important to practice good behavior such as looking both ways before he crosses the street or always buckling your seatbelt. Batman turned into a broken record as he recited the dangers of crime and the importance of public safety. It is impossible to take the crusader seriously, for the Silver Age Batman loses his personality and complexity. The Comics Code reduces him to an absurdly prepared boy scout to act as public spokesperson to preach the good behavior to children. Robin is similarly hard to take seriously, always yelling something in the same pattern of, “Holy blank Batman!” Some of his many exclamations include, “Holy Harem!” and “Holy Holocaust!” Serious situations and events, such as sexuality and genocide are reduced to comedic relief in an already comically absurd show. The characters and situations are perverted into meaningless, if entertaining situations in the 1960s Batman.

During the Silver Age, the Joker similarly lost the depth that was present in his Golden Age character. His Golden Age persona demonstrated the complexity of criminality and criminal minds. Though he may have been an exaggerated portrayal of real life thieves and serial killers, he served as a terrifying reminder of the real dangers of the world. When Batman defeated him, it was a demonstration that good can overcome the evil in the world. However, the Joker of the 1960s Batman, though hilarious at points, completely loses the dark, horrifying themes that brought about some of the exaggerated realism present in the Golden Age Joker. 1960s Joker is reduced to a criminal full of cheap tricks and gags. The clown prince of crime is reduced to fighting his nemesis in ridiculous fashions such as a surfing contest in the episode “Surf’s Up! Joker’s Under.” His criminal action is reduced to absurd situations such as cheating in a surfing contest, and his villainy loses all true meaning.

Another example of his Silver Age character is his constant reliance of tricks and jokes. For example, in the episode “The Joker is Wild,” Joker literally escapes from prison on a giant spring, the commissioner exclaiming, “He sprung himself!” These types of ridiculous jokes and word play are common in this series, and while it may show cleverness on the part of the writer, there was never anything new. It was the same old gags and robberies over and over with new pranks to entertain the viewer. Joker’s portrayal never truly addressed the darkness that is often present in the criminal world, and his character is never expanded as it was in the Golden Age and later in the Modern Age. He is portrayed as nothing more than a clown themed criminal who gets a laugh out of crime, any possible discussion about mental illness or dangerous criminal behavior reduced to a silly joke that Batman and Robin easily defeat. However, because of the reduction of Joker and other villains’ characters to bumbling idiots with themed schemes, there was no true danger or evil for the heroes to defeat. When the Joker loses his danger and complexity, Batman, an avenger and an enforcer of justice, loses some of his purpose and meaning as well.

Even the violence of the fight scenes is reduced to a ridiculous, comical scene as comic book like words such as “Whack!” and “Bam!” flash across the screen. The violence is marginalized, and Batman often ended the fight by telling the main villain something like, “Crime is a bad habit.” Violent actions are distorted as a way to give the villains what they deserve, and the violence against the heroes is never a real threat. Most of the two part episodes ended with Batman and Robin in potentially lethal danger, pathetically struggling against their bonds or the goons holding them. However, the audience quickly learns that they are never in real danger, for the beginning of the second part of the episode consistently showed Batman escaping in some absurd, unbelievable fashion. The villain is foiled again in his or her ridiculous plan. It was the “same bat time, same bat channel,” and true to this saying, the episodes always followed the same pattern. There was little new or innovative in the series, instead causing Batman and his villains to become stagnant and largely uncreative.

However, though this campy and ridiculous show perverted the nature of Batman, it also had a dark side hidden under the jokes and gags. As Jackson Ayres points out in his essay “When Were Superheroes Grim and Gritty,” the term grim and gritty (usually used to describe dark, disturbing, and edgy ideas in comics) actually originated in the campy 1960s Batman. The episode “A Riddling Controversy” opens with the heroes in mortal danger, trapped in quicksand. The narrator says, “A grim and gritty end awaits them unless something awfully good happens awfully fast!” Ayres states that, “This amusing wordplay captures an important but frequently overlooked point: the aesthetics and legacy of grim and gritty are perhaps more accurately understood as the other face of camp and irony.” In other words, the grim and gritty which often contains dark themes and unpleasant subjects is actually another part of the campy and ridiculous, not its complete opposite. Even in the ridiculous, perverted images of Batman, the dark ideas present in comics could not be erased. The heroes still faced deadly circumstances, even if they always survived them. The criminals still committed crimes, even if they were exaggerated and were never too horrible or serious. Even in the most distorted images of heroes like Batman, the Code was unable to truly censor and enforce their version of what was appropriate. The dark ideas of the Golden Age were never destroyed or corrected in the Silver Age; they were hidden under the layers of rules and regulations, always waiting to re-emerge when the Code went out of style.

            Despite the best efforts of the Comics Code to reduce possible negative influences and portrayals within the comics universe, dark themes prevailed. The characters of the Batman universe were reduced to mere entertainment and catch phrases in 1960s Batman, but not all comic books allowed the Code to distort their artistic creativity.  Underground comics were often called comix with the x “to set them apart from main stream comics and to emphasize the ‘x’ for X-rated,” and they became a way for artists to protest censorship in comics and publish material that dealt with more difficult or taboo subjects like sex, drugs, mental illness, and violence to name a few (“Underground Comix and the Underground press). Underground comics expressed many ideas that were banned in mainstream comics because of the Code. They were not only a form of expression, but a way of fighting back against the censorship of the Code’s rules. Often times, when something is censored or banned, it actually increases the desire for people to view the banned material. In a sense, censorship can have the opposite affect intended. By creating rules for comics to follow, many creators specifically worked against these rules, and some readers may have been specifically drawn to comics that subverted the Code’s strict rules. These comixs demonstrated that no matter the efforts that people made to censor and clean up comics, there would always be people working explicitly against the rules. The resistance against the Code’s rules during the Silver Age was a powerful force not to be underestimated among the time of censorship and narrow-minded views.

The Modern Age

      In the Bronze Age, comics writers were allowed to pursue darker and more difficult real world themes including drug use, poverty, racism, sexual assault, rape, torture, and suicide, but the Modern age of comics, beginning around 1985, was when these themes and ideas really began to break free into the “grim and gritty”, the term often used to refer to the darker and more disturbing themes that encompass violence, chaos, and the increasingly disturbing world of comic books. Two comics in particular are usually credited as what separated the Modern age from the Bronze Age: Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, both released in 1986. Though Watchmen and many other comics illustrate the ideas of the Modern age, I am going to focus specifically on Batman and Deadpool as Modern Age icons. The Batman of the Silver Age departed from the brooding and difficult character created in the Golden Age, but in the Modern Age, Batman returns to his dark and difficult self. In fact, the Modern Age marks a time when Batman, already a dark character compared to the upbeat characters of Superman and other heroes, explores much darker territory.  Deadpool, unlike Batman, was actually created in the Modern age, and his character exemplifies the portrayal of the graphic and gruesome alongside difficult moral and psychological issues. Batman, the Joker, and Deadpool in the Modern Age demonstrate a return to artistic integrity and creation that thrived in the Golden Age before the censorship of the Comics Code.

Batman’s artistic integrity returns in the Modern Age through storylines such as those in The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. His character not only continues the Golden Age’s tradition of a dark, complex character, but it also expands Batman’s character to explore more of the disturbing and complicated aspects of the Caped Crusader.

Batman’s double life and personas as Batman and the philanthropist billionaire Bruce Wayne have been a topic since Batman’s origin, but the Modern age adds another layer of complexity to the picture. Batman’s origin story is clearly laid out in the very first series of Batman: his parents are robbed and murdered in an alley as a young Bruce Wayne watches, and he later swears to avenge them, taking the Bat as his disguise “to strike terror into their [criminals] hearts.” He wanted to be “a creature of the night, black, terrible,” and when a bat flew in the window, he knew that he had his persona as the Batman (Ellsworth). However, in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, his origin story develops another element. There seems to be a presence of two different identities or voices within Bruce. Bruce is shown struggling against his inner demons, a demon that is portrayed to be the identity of Batman in his consciousness trying to take over again after 10 years in retirement. Bruce has a nightmare about how he acquired his fear of bats, and he finds himself in the Batcave. His inner monologue reads, “and he laughs at me, curses me. Calls me a fool. He fills my sleep and tricks me. Brings me here when the night is long and my will is weak. He struggles relentlessly, hatefully, to be free—I will not let him. I gave my word. For Jason. Never. Never again” (Miller 19). Later, as he sits in his armchair, he is forced to relive the night that his parents are shot as the inner voice says, “The time has come…you cannot escape me. You try to drown me out… but your voice is weak” (22-26). The inner monologue acts as another voice, one separate from Bruce’s identity that acts as a malicious presence trying to extort what it wants out of him.

The inner voice that Bruce hears brings into question Batman’s motives, his complexity, and even his sanity. The monologue reads like a literal other voice in his head, laughing at him, calling him names, tricking him, constantly trying to wear down his will so that the voice gets what it wants. This resembles stories of psychosis and schizophrenia, perhaps even a split personality. Though the true cause of the voice is unclear, it is certain that there is something disturbing and damaging about this inner voice of the Batman overwhelming Bruce. His struggle with his own demons bring up the possibility that Bruce himself is mentally ill, perhaps just as dangerous or unsettled as the villains that he fights. This malevolent second personality illustrates that Batman is not as simplistic (or as sane) as he originally appears to be. 

Just as Batman’s origin story becomes more complex, his sanity called into question due to the presence of the inner voice, the line between hero and villain is blurred and complicated. In the Silver Age, heroes were clearly the good guys, and the villains and criminals were unquestionably evil, corrupt, and unredeemable, doomed to commit the same failing crimes over and over. The Modern Age, on the other hand, begins to explore just how much more complicated criminal behavior and insanity is.

The similarities between Batman and his enemies are explored in the Modern Age’s juxtaposition of mental instability between the heroes and villains. Though Batman’s inner voice leads him to protect Gotham and stop criminal behavior, he still seems unable to restrain it forever. Batman’s villains are similarly portrayed as overcome by their mental illnesses. In The Dark Knight Returns, the Joker has been quietly imprisoned in an insane asylum since Batman’s disappearance, but when he sees the news that Batman has returned, his classic, terrifying smile returns as he says, “Batman. Darling” (Miller 41). The Joker’s insanity, so often portrayed through his obsession with Batman, returns when Batman does. Later, as they fight for the last time, Batman breaks the Joker’s neck in a desperate attempt to survive. The Joker, still alive, pants, “I’m really…very disappointed with you, my sweet…the moment was…perfect…and you…didn’t have the nerve” (Miller 150-151).

Joker’s crazy obsession with Batman is apparent in this scene; he so desperately wants to corrupt Batman that he honestly hoped that Batman would snap and finally kill him. To finish off his picture of extreme mental instability, he breaks his own neck and dies. Batman continues to hear roaring and voices during this scene, presumably some aspects of his own insanity manifesting during the desperate fight for survival. Though this is a problematic and simplified version of mental illness, the portrayal of both character’s insanity in these moments nevertheless illustrates how disturbingly similar Batman is to the villains that he fights. The insanity drives them to fight for different reasons and with different purposes, but they are both still unstable and disturbing.

Another scene that illustrates this similarity between Modern Age heroes and villains is in Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, released two years after The Dark Knight Returns in 1988. The book alternates between showing the Joker’s current criminal behavior (shooting Barbara Gordon and kidnapping her father to try to drive him insane) and showing what may be Joker’s origin story as a broken man driven to madness by the death of his family and a robbery gone wrong. At the end, Batman once again defeats the Joker’s villainous, unsettling scheme. As he sits dejected and defeated on the ground, the Joker tells Batman, “Why don’t you kick the hell out of me and get a standing ovation from the public gallery?” This reveals a pitiable, pathetic aspect of his character in a way that is difficult to appreciate during his murders and twisted plans. The Joker becomes a character who understands his own place in the cycle of good and evil, clearly identifying as the evil yet unable to pull himself out of the cycle.

Batman and Joker are, in many ways, one and the same character on different sides of the battle. Batman’s reply demonstrates that Batman too understands the complexity of their fight. He says, “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want either of us to end up killing the other…. But we’re both running out of alternatives….it doesn’t have to end like that. I don’t know what it was that bent your life out of shape, but who knows? Maybe I’ve been there too. Maybe I can help.” Batman acknowledges that Joker is more than just a simple, villainous character bent on destruction. Though the Joker’s horrible behavior is inexcusable, Batman notes that something bent his life out of shape just as his own parents’ murder bent his own life out of shape. When Joker replies, “It’s too late for that. Far too late,” he demonstrates that there was a time when perhaps he could have been helped. His path as a villain was not inevitable, but instead a result of horrible circumstances and help that arrived too late. Joker is portrayed as a complex, tragic character who has gone through so much that he was driven insane, yet Batman’s character is not so different from this portrayal. Similarly changed by a really bad day in his own life, Batman is also complex and tragic. According to Frank Miller’s portrayal of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns, he may also be insane, just manifesting insanity in different ways than his villains.

The Killing Joke ends with Batman and Joker laughing at the Joker’s grim joke, a scene that further blurs the line between hero and villain. It is chilling in itself to see the Dark Knight who is usually a solemn, grim character laughing, but this scene also demonstrates the similarity between the two characters. As the two clutch each other in the strange fit of laughter, they both appear as disturbed, lost, and even insane people desperately searching for answers that they cannot find. The boundaries between the two dissolve as they become shadowy figures laughing together in the rain.  Blurring the boundaries between criminals and heroes demonstrates that this issue is far more complex that a purely good and honest billionaire wearing tights to protect the city. Batman’s character has sinister qualities, and even the character of the most despicable and disturbed villain has pitiable, very raw elements that demonstrate a sense of humanity even in a monstrous character. As Modern Age comics explore the complexities of good and evil through Batman and the Joker, writers and artists are left free to demonstrate that good and evil are not clear cut issues. Good people can do bad things, and bad people are far more complex than pure villainy. Without the Code’s restrictions, Batman and Joker are free to explore the complex issues without being reduced to cheap caricatures of simplistic ideas of good and evil.

Despite the improvements and added complexity in both Batman and Joker’s characters in the Modern Age, remnants of the Silver Age and the Code’s influence still remain. In The Dark Knight Returns, even as the Joker continues on his murderous rampage through the carnival, Batman tries to teach a kid his manners. A young child tells Batman, “You got to kick his—” presumably about to say “ass,” Batman interjects with “Watch your language, son” (Miller 146). This harkens back to the 1960s Batman where Adam West’s Batman would constantly lecture Robin about proper behavior even in the direst circumstances. After being shot in the side in pursuit of a dangerous, psychotic murderer through an area crowded with people, it is hardly believable that he would care about a child swearing. Frank Miller’s Batman is disturbed, possibly even mentally unstable, and though he is still portrayed as a hero with good intentions, this lesson on swearing is an out of character moment that demonstrates the lingering consequences of the Modern Age and the Comic Code of rules.

Another negative remnant of the Silver Age is the treatment of minorities and women. Women and minority heroes are becoming more common again, and the portrayal in comics is improving with the growing awareness of the issue. However, there are still moments when aspects of the Silver Age’s Code remain. In The Killing Joke, Barbara Gordon acts as the damsel in distress, an object that is used to further the male characters’ storylines. She is portrayed as a daughter who fusses over her father in her mother’s absence. She makes her father cocoa, and as her father adds a clipping to his scrapbooks, she says, “Urrrgh. Look, you used too much paste! It’s all squidging under the edges of the clipping. You’re going to get it on your pants.” Her behavior seems to relate back to the idea of the Code’s rule to “emphasize the value of the home.” Though this rule was about romance stories, Barbara’s behavior fits within the typical “female sphere” or responsibilities compared to her father’s role as police commissioner. This story line fails to include how complex the character of Barbara Gordon is in the Modern Age. Unknown to her father, she becomes Batgirl, the first female protégé for batman, yet this comic completely ignores this side of Barbara. Instead, she is portrayed as a daughter fussing over her father and trying to organize his life. Barbara ends up overcoming her disability caused by Joker’s assault and becomes Oracle, able to help Batman and his other vigilantes through her expertise with computers, yet this aspect is also ignored in this storyline. The Killing Joke was not about Barbara’s story but instead about Joker’s struggles, yet it serves as one of many examples of when women are downplayed and used as a tool to further male characters’ storylines instead of acknowledging the complexity of their role.

Batman is a classic hero who has been around through all four of the Ages, but Deadpool, created in 1991, is a Modern Age hero that demonstrates the Modern Age ideas about freedom of expression. Whether good or bad content, heroes like Deadpool in the Modern Age are allowed to be disturbing, even encouraged to be disturbing. The Merc with a Mouth, as he is so often called because of his bad, raunchy jokes and tendency to break the fourth wall, is a hero that is built around dirty jokes, blood and gore, and violence. He is a mercenary, immediately setting him apart from so many of the other classic heroes who have restrictions against killing. Because of his status as a mercenary, Deadpool is an anti-hero, willing to kill for the right price but also someone whose conscience has a voice in his actions. His healing ability also allows a great deal of blood and gore to be part of the story while the hero still survives in the end. His character would never have been allowed during the Code’s restrictions, for the very premise of his character (an insane yet still somehow heroic mercenary who deals out justice through murder and sex jokes) goes against the founding principles of the code: to keep comic books child-friendly and encourage good behavior. As an anti-hero, Deadpool is far from good, yet his actions in many issues demonstrate that even among gore and violence, there are good lessons and beautiful moments.

Pick up any Deadpool comic, and there is bound to be a great deal of blood, profanity (even if it is bleeped on the pages), and a generally violent atmosphere. One example out of many is in the issue Deadpool vs Carnage. The plot is relatively simplistic. Deadpool is focused on stopping a deadly symbiote called Carnage from inflicting carnage on the whole world. Whether something mild like someone dripping blood from their nose or something extreme like someone having their body cleaved in two or a spike through their head, nearly every page has something involving blood and gore on it. Some pages are, simply put, disgusting. Whole families are brutally slaughtered (though the literal act is not shown, the resulting bloody scene is clearly shown in the car that the family was driving). After a brutal fight with Carnage, Deadpool’s innards are hanging out of his stomach, his face bloodied and brain hanging out of his head. Even something as simple as a bird hitting a window, something that while often fatal for the bird rarely has visual gore, shows a large splatter of blood on the window. All of this carnage resulting from Carnage’s rampage through the city is disturbing and in some cases, downright disgusting. The fights are extremely violent, and the blood and gore are way over the top. People could easily argue that the gore and violence are senseless and unnecessary, and for many people, the gruesomeness alone would be enough to censor or completely disband Deadpool from comics’ pages. However, the issue is more complex than banning disturbing scenes such as violence.

The violence and gore so often present in Deadpool are the sort of things that the Comics Code would have vehemently fought to censor, but if the violence of Deadpool was censored, a great deal of other important aspects of Deadpool’s character would be lost. In Deadpool vs Carnage, Deadpool initially says, “Carnage is &%#$%#& crazy. I’m delightfully mad. We’re on similar wavelengths. I can figure him out.” There is a great deal of irony that the word “fucking” had to be bleeped out because it is somehow more inappropriate than the vile and nauseating gore, and it demonstrates the remaining hold of censorship in media. However, this quote illustrates Deadpool’s belief that he and carnage are similar characters, both violent and depraved, yet when he finds the car that the family was slaughtered in, he second guesses himself. He states that, “Carnage and me…Not…Not on the same wavelength at all!” Even after all of the violence that Deadpool has experienced and inflicted, there is a point that even an insane, violent mercenary like Deadpool knows is too immoral and violent. While this provides little comfort from the violence of his character, it demonstrates the complexity of heroes and villains. Just as the Modern Age Batman stories blur the boundaries between Batman as the hero and the Joker as the villain, Deadpool’s discovery of his limits demonstrate that there is no clear good and evil; even murderers and criminals have consciences and limits, and they cannot be simply categorized into purely good or evil.

Deadpool demonstrates the complexity of villainy and criminality, but he also addresses very real and serious topics that many classic heroes barely touch, if they even discuss them at all. As a hero who already deals in the grotesque, disgusting matters of violence due to his extreme healing ability, Deadpool seems the perfect candidate to deal with issues that the media often finds even more censorable. Despite the exaggerated violence in Deadpool, some of the most real discussions about important issues take place with his character. These real discussion can be simple matters such as healthy relationships or much more delicate and serious matters such as suicide. The movie Deadpool, appropriately released on Valentine’s Day in 2016, had one of the most heart wrenching love stories of the year even as a rated R movie for nudity, profanity, and violence. Wade Wilson, Deadpool’s human identity, was in a relationship with a wonderful, loving girl, Vanessa. She was a prostitute, but Wade’s character made no remarks about her profession belittling her as a person. Their sex life was shown, yet they clearly loved one another as well. When Wade discovers that he has cancer, they have a very meaningful heart to heart conversation. Wade says, “I want you to remember me, not the ghost of Christmas me,” as he worries what he will become as the cancer weakens and degrades his body, but Vanessa replies, “Well I wanna remember us… We can fight this.” She cares about more than sex, and she wants to stay with him through the difficult times. Later, when Wade leaves her in an attempt to find a cure for his cancer, he tells her sleeping form, “If I never see you again, know that I love you.” Their relationship is not all about the physical, sexual relationship. It is a complex, wonderful relationship that also happens to have an active, open sex life. Deadpool, among his crude jokes and violent scenes, depicts a healthy, happy, complicated relationship. The movie is rated R, meaning it does have restrictions for certain ages, but if censors focused only on the violence and profanity and banned this sort of media, this example of a healthy relationship would have been lost.

As well as showing a healthy, happy love story in the movie, Deadpool’s comics often address issues such as suicide in a way that properly acknowledges the complexity instead of writing it off as an easily fixable problem. Issue 20 of Deadpool shows Deadpool saving a suicidal character. At the beginning of the issues, the author Gerry Duggan has a message to the readers. He says that, “we don’t need to have the answers. We just need to help make the circuit between the people that need help and the professionals.” He provides the number for Suicide Prevention as a source for those who need it. Duggan wants this story shows that words can fail and that sometimes words aren’t enough to prevent something, but people who care and want to help can make a difference.  Right away, the writer for Deadpool has acknowledged that this is a complicated, messy issue, and we often do not have all the answers.

Deadpool does not act the hero who knows all the answer; instead, he acknowledges that he wants to help, but does not necessarily have to tools to do so. During Deadpool’s confrontation with the suicidal character, he begins with what many would call a tasteless joke in a very serious situation. He says, “Don’t jump. Please. Not here. Parker industries is just a few blocks down. That’s the sort of address you fling yourself to death at.” Many people who are worried about how sensitive the issue is may immediately write this off as an inappropriate way to deal with the issue, but Deadpool approaches this as an awkward hero, realistically showing that even in life or death situations, people cannot be completely serious and sophisticated. He also acknowledges that he doesn’t know what to say. “A real hero would have something profound to say to you to make you feel better instantly, but… I’m all you got.” At the end of the comic, he drives her to the emergency room. He says that he can’t help, saying “I’m smart enough to know I’m dumb enough that I can’t help you. But they,” the people in the hospital, “can.” Many people feel helpless when talking about suicide, and Deadpool reveals that sometimes it’s okay not to know exactly what to say or do to help. What does help is addressing the problem with the person in danger by treating them like a real, complex human being.

Deadpool is famous for violence and bad jokes, but when it comes down to it, he saves a life and provides a valuable way to look at suicide prevention. Deadpool’s twisted humor and realistic look at suicide make this message for more truthful and relatable than some perfect, propaganda like message that would have been likely during the Silver Age. Brushman and Anderson’s correlated violence with a decrease in helping behavior. In other words, the more violence, the less people helped one another, and visa versa, so it is important for Deadpool, a character so focused on violence to have the helping behavior clearly displayed in his escapades. Though his violence acts may be a model for violence behavior, he also models helping people. The lack of censorship allows for violence and serious discussions to work side by side.

The Modern Age shows a return to the dark and complex ideas of the Golden Age, and the characters demonstrate a continued expansion of difficult, often unpleasant issues. Though there are still remnants of the negative repercussions of the Code, the Modern age as a whole is mostly a safe place for free expression. Whatever the content being depicted and discussed, artists/writers are free to create without the restricting rules of the code. Classic characters like Batman and the Joker emerged from the shallow shell created by 1960s censorship and became even more complex, difficult, controversial characters than before, and new heroes like Deadpool emerged in the freer atmosphere. Though some aspects of the new depictions are problematic, these heroes demonstrate improvement and growth that was impossible for them during the Code’s censorship.

Conclusion

Censorship in comics seems to be a thing of the past during a time filled with Cold War induced paranoia and propaganda, yet it was only a little over 15 years ago that the Code was officially rejected. Though the Code’s rules are out of use, the mentality of benevolent censorship (as well as malevolent, selfish censorship) is still a fact of life in today’s society. Donald Trump’s presidency has brought the issue of freedom of speech, censorship, and the search for the truth back into the public eye. People worry about President Trump’s exclusion and destruction of free speech as he blocks reporters, accuses news organizations of spreading fake news, and calls his own blatant lies “alternative facts.” While it seems unrelated, the discussion of comic book censorship is crucial to these issues of free speech and news stories. The restrictions in the Silver Age damaged not only that age of comics, but continued to spread narrow-minded ideas in the years to follow. Similar concerns follow the Trump presidency’s claims about fake news and censorship; this could be damaging in the present day, but it could have negative consequences years down the road. Because of the complexity present within the real world, one cannot ban the negative, unpleasant parts of something without compromising the possibility for meaningful creations and realizations. However well-meaning censorship and restrictions begin, censorship inevitably leads to the disruption of creativity and expression. Whatever the intentions of the speaker or creator, the disruption of diversity and creativity is not a cost worth paying.

Originally written Spring 2017

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