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petrorabbit · 1 year

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Let's Watch Batman Movies #1: The 1943 Serial

The first thing that needs to be said about the Batman 1943 serial is that it was anti-Japanese propaganda created during WWII. The stated and overt purpose of these films is to rally white Americans against Japanese-Americans and citizens of Japan. For some reason, I went in like, oh, I’ve seen racist propaganda before, this won’t be so bad. I was quite wrong! Early on, the action moves to Little Tokyo and the narrator informs us that it is vacant ever since “a wise government rounded up the shifty eyed Japs.” Extremely bad! And it’s like that the whole way through!

The villain is an original character named Dr. Daka who uses advanced technology to turn people into zombies that he can control, which is textually linked to the stereotype of Japanese people being subservient and willing to die for their leader. There are multiple scenes where Daka is about to use his brainwashing machine on someone, and they announce that he will never break their spirit of American independence and capitalist ambition! Although bizarrely no one ever breaks out of the brainwashing on their own, so I guess the American spirit isn’t that strong?

Daka’s lair is in this… okay, wait, let me try and explain this. So no one lives in Little Tokyo anymore and the only thing still there is this dark ride that shows scenes of anti-Japanese propaganda. The way to get into the villains’ lair is to ride the ride for a while, then get out at a certain point and buzz in on a patch of wall that opens into the hideout. But it does seem that Daka is owning and operating this dark ride, which is already a baffling thing to do, I mean I guess it has “the last place they’d think to look” energy? But people are also, you know, riding this ride, all day every day. Seems like a pretty big security risk, I don’t know. I feel like this is a pretty good encapsulation of the mood of the whole thing - villain’s lair is in a dark ride feels like a normal fun Batman thing, and then also, abject racism.

The version of this that I watched was edited to be one single movie, so the cliffhangers and previously ons were edited out. Every twenty minutes or so, Batman would just get into a life-threatening scenario and then almost immediately Robin would save him. It was always Batman almost dying too - I guess maybe they thought that audiences would not be sufficiently worried about Robin? This doesn’t do much for Batman’s competence, though. He definitely comes off as less than able.

Part of this is also that this Bruce is real young. I’m used to thinking of Bruce as a long-suffering father, but here he and Dick are presented as basically peers. They are collectively referred to as the “American youth” defending their country. Bruce apparently just takes Dick along on dates with him? At one point, when Bruce misses a date because he’s on an undercover operation, his excuse is that he took Dick to the amusement park and they were having so much fun, they lost track of time. The Brucie act is out in full force, but it also doesn’t seem to be much of an act. Like, this Bruce just isn’t actually very pressed about anything. He kind of does seem like he’s dressing up like a bat and punching people because it’s fun and gives him a thrill. Plus, since he doesn’t really do anything as Batman that he couldn’t do as Bruce most of the time, it kinda just feels like he’s wasting time by leaving to get into costume. There’s one scene where his girlfriend, Linda Page, is being attacked in a room he just left, but instead of walking back in and punching the guys, he has to leave, dress as Batman, climb through the window, and then punch some guys. Really feels like he’s playing kind of fast and loose with Linda’s life.

The inciting incident is also very funny. Linda wants Bruce to come with her to pick up her uncle, who is getting out of prison, but Bruce is purposely late to, I guess, make him seem like not a masked vigilante. As a direct result of this, the villains are able to pick up Uncle Martin first and brainwash him. Classic stuff.

There is a pretty cool effect during the car chase that follows, where the kidnappers release a gas that changes the color of the car and hit a button that turns the license plate around. A lot of the effects, sets, etc, actually look pretty good, which might just be me coming in with low expectations. The Batcave - called the Bat’s Cave here, which implies to me that Bruce is just renting it from the bats - looks decent but is very empty, and the shadows of bats flying around are pretty comical.

They access the Bat’s Cave through a grandfather clock, which I think might be the first time that idea showed up? It’s also, if not the first appearance of Alfred, a very early appearance, and rather than the highly competent backbone of the family, he is a comical boob who’s afraid of everything. He’s also directly involved in their operation - like, he fully goes undercover more than once. He also gets to kill Daka at the end, by hitting the button that opens the trap door to Daka’s alligators that he has for some reason. And then Commissioner Not-Gordon, who didn’t see that happen, yells, “And let that be a lesson - The Batman never needs any help from the likes of you!” Whomp whomp.

I quite liked Douglas Croft as Robin, he had a Jack Dylan Grazer vibe that I really enjoyed. Batman and Robin are also explicitly working for the American government here, which is strange. What else? Oh yeah, there are TONS of costume changes, I guess they wanted to have Bruce and Dick & Batman and Robin in each segment? So they’re always running off to change clothes. They also go undercover a lot, Bruce constructs a criminal alter ego named Chuck White who “accidentally” lets the location of the Bat’s Cave slip. His description of it, btw, is “a big cave full of bats… and there, in the center, sitting at a desk… one giant bat, the size of a man.” Incredible.

A few last details: when Batman and Robin leave criminals tied up for the police, they put little bat stickers on their heads, which is cute and whimsical. Also, there’s this x-ray device? I guess? That identifies the criminals before they are let into the lair, and somehow this device positively identifies Batman. Like he puts his hand on it and the Batman logo shows up on the x-ray, as if it was printed on his bones. Anyway, at my count Batman and Robin broke 5 windows by leaping through them, including one skylight.

There is another serial but I’m not gonna watch it bc these are like 4-5 hours long and I just can’t. Tune in next time for Batman: The Movie (1966)!

#batramble #batman 1943

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daydreamerwonderkid · 9 months

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Me, after doing 15 minutes of excessive googling on every Batfam member's birthday only to then realize I've accidentally missed the majority of them this year, and then also finding out that people are still aggressively debating over whether Bruce's birthday is April 7 or February 19, Dick's birthday happens 3-6x throughout the year, and Stephanie might have just popped into existence for all that DC cares:

Batfam birthday dates btw for anyone who needs them are listed beneath the cut:

DISCLAIMER: DC is notorious for being super inconsistent with everything and I am a mere tadpole caught in the tidal wave of DC's ocean. This post will be regularly updated with edits and corrections so please do not use it as word of law, I am begging you.

Update (8/24/23): To keep things more simple and easier for everyone I am going to start categorizing the birth dates I've collected into 3 categories.

-Most popular: Self-explanatory. These are the birth dates that have been canonized and confirmed by DC and are also more wildly celebrated by the fandom. Typically, this should be the first result you see when you google the character's birthday. But not always because DC sucks ass.

-Other date(s): These are the additional birth dates I come across that have been canonized in some form with multiple sources, but are not as wildly celebrated or popularized by DC and/or the fandom. Why am I including them here? Mostly because I don't want people coming in saying I forgot a date. But also because if I have to see this mess, then y'all have too as well.

-Potential but unconfirmed date(s): This is where I will put all the other additional dates I find, but specifically those that are lacking in complete sources or seem to be highly debated and scrutinized.

Also fun emoji ranking guide for me and me alone:

👑👑: Queen Shit. Characters with a consistent and simple birth date(s). Can absolutely do no wrong.

👑😮‍💨: In the Running. Characters who don't have a set birth date, but the mess is minor and completely DC's fault. They shouldn't have to be punished for DC's crimes.

🤡🤡: Gtfo. Shit is so inconsistent and stupidly messy that it's making me lose my shit. I'm putting DC and the characters on trial for this bullshit.

👑Alfred Pennyworth👑

Most popular: March 21

Other date(s): January 26

(So ... where to start to with this one?

Well the official DC canon birth date for Kate Kane is listed as March 21. That being said, if you were to google Kate's birthday right now, you might be confused because that's not the first result that comes up.

Instead, you'll be greeted with January 26, 1990.

So what gives? If there's already an official DC approved birth date, then why the fuck is January 26 coming up all of a sudden?

Well, folks, you have the CW's Batwoman to thank.

Tbh I was very confused as to how I completely missed that there was an entire Batwoman TV show in the first place.

Apparently the show is considered a part of the CW Arrowverse (in reference to the CW show Arrow featuring Oliver Queen, for those of you who need extra info) and ran for 3 whole seasons before being cancelled on April 9, 2022.

And they gave us actual canon lesbian Kate Kane rep. I mean, she is a lesbian. But yeah. CW actually acknowledged her sexual orientation. So kudos for doing the bare minimum?????

Anyway, I guess the showrunners just decided they wanted Kate's birthday to be on January 26 instead of March 21??? Idk if this was supposed to be a reference or an homage to Cassandra Cain's birthday. I doubt it, but who knows?)

🤡Dick Grayson🤡: Greedy bitch who keeps lying about his birthday so he can scam people into giving him more presents jk jk

Most popular: "On the first day of spring" (bruh) or March 20/21

Other date(s): March 6, "April," October 24 (aka "the week before Halloween"), November 11 and December 1

Potential but unconfirmed date(s): June 24

(Dick's canon bday seems to be influx. March 6, March 20, March 21, November 11, June 24, December 1, and so on. I did see multiple sources state Dick was born "on the first day of spring." I'm unclear atm about whether this is a fanon take or if it was actually stated in a particular comic at some point.

As far as I'm concerned, Dick just keeps lying about his birthday for the lols)

(Update ((8/24/23)): Well, guess what I found, folks?

It's a return visit from our favorite friend, the Super DC Calendar of 1976. And according to it, Dick's birthday should be November 11.

You can also thank the Young Justice comic for the confusion surrounding Dick's bday being on December 1.

Also, I found this post by @theflyingwonder that helps clear up a LOT of the mess surrounding Dick's ever changing birth date. Honestly, amazing work and extra kudos to them for putting all the work in and finding all the sources. I just wished I had found their post earlier, holy shit.

And if you have some extra time, please give some love to @inkydandy for their hilarious and very sweet comic about all the confusion that comes with Dick's bday)

(Update ((8/25/23)): Many thanks to @poisoned-ivy for clearing up even more of the mess surrounding Dick's bday. I went ahead and took a screenshot of their response to my old "Which date is Dick's canon bday?" poll.

They also provided a link to the DC Universe Calendar which was lovingly compiled from the original 1976 Super DC Calendar and then put together by the people who run the Five Earths Project .

Also found out from them today that October 24 is one of Dick's bdays ((at least for Post-Crisis Dick Grayson)). So that was a fun new discovery!

They were also very helpful in helping me realize that the original article I had found that stated "sometime in April" was actually in reference to Dick Grayson's first appearance in the comics, which was April 1940.

So, yes, "sometime in April" is technically--again I hate this word so much now--still a valid candidate for Dick's bday. And before you ask: Detective Comics #38 was actually published on March 6, 1940.

Hence why people will cite March 6 as Dick's canon bday instead.

This project got a lot bigger than I ever expected it to ... god)

👑Barbara Gordon👑: September 23

👑Jason Todd👑: August 16

👑Cassandra Cain👑: January 26

👑Tim Drake👑: July 19

👑Stephanie Brown😮‍💨: She emerged from the void with the sole purpose of dragging Bruce's ass to hell and back. Nothing can stop her. We all exist in her world now.

Potential but unconfirmed date(s): June 23, "August," or August 11

(For real, though, some peeps will say June 23 since the month she officially debuted in the comics was June 1992.

But I've also seen August 1992 listed as her bday month as well--lot of August babies in the Batfam, huh--but I haven't found June 23 specifically listed as her canon bday, either. It honestly feels like the fans are putting in more work than DC at this point. Which, like, I'm not surprised. Just disappointed)

(Update ((8/24/23)): Someone mentioned August 11 as a potential birth date, but I have yet to see an actual source that specifically states this. If I do find one, I'll edit this section. Figured I should put it here just in case, though)

👑Duke Thomas👑: August 13

👑Damian Wayne👑: August 9

👑Terry McGinnis😮‍💨