The history of Batman is one of the stories that, throughout his numerous publications, has remained constant. An evil force rises in the city of Gotham; be it the Joker, the Riddler, the Scarecrow or even a mafia run by Carmine Falcone; However, Batman has always been there to save the day; it can be illustrated that Batman has done more harm than good to the city of Gotham. By looking at Batman's history through the canon of his legend and the scholarly essays of renowned Batman historians, we will discuss both whether Batman is a hero and whether Batman is a villain. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay We travel back in time to the spring of 1940, when the very first Batman comics were published. The spring of 1940 through the fall of 1969 is commonly referred to as the “golden age” of Batman comics. Batman was more of a detective back then than he is now. He helped the Gotham City Police Department solve cases, or even took them on himself as a sort of bounty hunter. In this original series, Batman fought villains such as the Joker, Catwoman, Dr. Death, Dr. Doom, Hugo Strange, the Penguin, Two-Face, Scarecrow, and even fought random gangs terrorizing the streets of Gotham. All these villains had something in common though, they had every reason why they wanted something from Gotham. For example, the Joker was a crazed madman who wanted to kill because he found it funny, (Starlin, Jim. Batman #1) Catwoman was a thief on the loose, (Starlin, Jim. Batman #12) and Hugo Strange wanted to genetically modify people . (Starlin, Jim. Batman #26) These villains and the way they acted created Batman as a hero when he stopped them, and he did. He saved the people of Gotham from what in today's society would be called "terrorists". Fast forward to 2005. In 2005, director Christopher Nolan launched a film by the name Batman Begins, and simultaneously followed up with the films The Dark Knight in 2008 and The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. This trilogy of films chronicled the history of Batman and introduced the dark character that exists in today's vision of the character. The main villain of Batman Begins is a villain known as The Scarecrow. The Scarecrow, after escaping from Arkham Asylum, planned to contaminate the city's water with a toxin that would induce fear in the people of Gotham and drive them mad. Batman, with the help of Lucius Fox, defeats the Scarecrow and saves the people of Gotham City from his fear-inducing toxin. In the film's sequel, The Dark Knight, the series reintroduces the Joker and later Two-Face into the Batman narrative. In the film, the Joker was a crazed madman who wants nothing more than to strike fear into the hearts of the people of Gotham; just because he found it fun and entertaining. Later, when confronted by Batman, he threatened to continue killing people unless Batman revealed his identity as Bruce Wayne. The Joker eventually takes Harvey Dent and Rachel hostage; two of Batman's friends. (Unknowingly to the Joker.) The Joker in turn only gives Batman the chance to save one of the hostages. Batman acts on his feelings for Rachel and, nevertheless, goes to save her; it turns out that the Joker tricked Batman into going after Harvey Dent, and not Rachel. Later, Rachel is blown up by bombs and half of Harvey Dent's face is disfigured. While in the hospital, Harvey Dent is visited by the Joker and is convinced to take revenge on Batman for the death of Rachel, his girlfriend. Harvey Dent is then transformed into thevillain Two-Face and begins a killing spree, justifying it with his revenge on Batman for Rachel's death. As these murders continue, Batman manages to arrest the Joker and delivers him into police custody. Batman ultimately defeats Two-Face by tackling him from a building, leading to his death. In the Dark Knight Rises, the main character is that of Bane and Talia al Ghul. In the film, Bane and Talia are part of the League of Shadows and their goal is to destroy Gotham to prove that they are much more powerful than Batman. Yes, in short; Batman defeats them, but it raises an interesting question. If Batman hadn't existed, would the League of Shadows have descended on Gotham, killing thousands? Now let's take a look at a Batman villain who has remained the same throughout the Batman canon: The Riddler. The Riddler always came to Gotham after Batman had defeated many villains and made Batman undergo a series of tests and riddles to prove his worth, terrorizing Gotham in the process. The Riddler had only one motive: to prove that he was smarter, more cunning and sharper than Batman. The Riddler dovetails with the point that Batman is more of a burden on Gotham City. Riddler didn't care if he killed someone (which he did) or destroyed the city (which he did). The Riddler just wanted to defeat Batman and didn't care about the collateral damage. If Batman hadn't existed, would the Riddler have terrorized the city of Gotham? Editor Terrance R. Wandtke collected a series of essays discussing superheroes in the modern age. Published under the title The Amazing Transforming Superhero!: Essays on the Revision of Characters in Comic Books, Wandtke brought superheroes into a new light, one of them being Batman. In Wandtke's essay on Batman, he discussed the fact that he was known as a hero, but he also discussed the disadvantages he brought to Gotham. In his work he talked about all of Batman's exploits over the years, defeating evil forces such as the Joker, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Killer Croc and Penguin. Wandtke then explained how Batman in turn burdened the people of Gotham City and caused more crime to appear in the city due to people having the intent of trying to defeat Batman. (Pages 12-21.) Now let's look at the most recent Batman comics; The New 52 Series. In the series, Batman fights against well-known adversaries such as Talon, White Rabbit, Mr. Bloom, Mr. Bygone, Merrymaker, Eli Strange, Dollmaker, Talia al Ghul, and Heretic. Most of the villains mentioned above were simply a resurrection of the ideals of the old Batman series villains. Talon was part of the Court of Owls, White Rabbit and Mr. Bloom were forms of a Scarecrow-style villain - who used chemicals to instill hysteria in the people of Gotham. Merrymaker led a gang. Eli Strange is the son of Doctor Strange; a defeated former Batman villain, Talia al Ghul is Batman's former lover, and Heretic kills Batman's son Damian (who is also his sidekick Robin in the series). Save for Talia and Heretic; the villains of the series largely harm Gotham and their only reasoning is their own. They didn't exact revenge or target Batman, but they actually targeted the people of Gotham. Talia may have been a Batman villain, but she didn't harm the people of Gotham; and with the exception of Batman's son, Heretic has not killed or harmed the people of Gotham. (Parsons, J. The New 52 Anthology: Batman. Pages 1-29, 40-42, 56-71.) As I conducted my research; I gave my interpretation of Batman. What if Batman was neither a hero nor a villain? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word vigilante as “a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and summarily punish crime (as when.