“You Complete Me”: Batman, Joker, and the Countersubversive Politics of American Law and Order
Studies in Law, Politics, and Society
ISBN: 978-1-80071-221-8, eISBN: 978-1-80071-220-1
Publication date: 18 January 2021
Abstract
It is widely recognized by scholars that superhero stories tend to glorify vigilante justice; after all, these stories often maintain that extralegal acts of violence are necessary for combatting existential threats to personal and public safety. This scholarly common sense fosters a widespread dismissal of superhero stories as uncomplicated apologia for an authoritarian politics of law and order that is animated by hatred of unpopular people and ideas. However, some prominent contemporary Batman stories, including those told in the graphic novels of Grant Morrison and in the blockbuster movies of Christopher Nolan, are ambivalent: in their portraits of Batman and Joker as dark twins and secret colleagues, these stories both legitimize and challenge the countersubversive politics of American law and order.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the participants of the American Studies Writing Group at the University of Connecticut, who offered helpful comments on an earlier draft. I am also grateful to my UConn Political Science colleagues Stephen Dyson and Fred Lee, each of whom engaged me in multiple conversations about both this specific work and the intersections of law, politics, and popular culture writ large. Anna Kirkland generously provided a close reading of an earlier draft; she productively pushed me to consider an alternative reading of America’s contemporary obsession with law and order. I am thankful for the example and support of many law and society scholars (including but not limited to Susan Burgess, Renée Cramer, Austin Sarat, Michael McCann, and William Haltom) who believe, as do I, that the common meanings that circulate in our popular culture are of the utmost importance for understanding the relations between American law, politics, and society. Closer to home, I am grateful to my eldest son Connor, who unwittingly got me interested in the ambivalent meanings of superhero stories when he discovered (and I re-discovered) the Super Friends television cartoon when he was 4 years old. My youngest son Andrew, conversely, has enthusiastically attended with me each new blockbuster superhero movie over the preceding years, thus encouraging and contributing to my understanding of the genre. Finally, I am grateful to my spouse Mary, who, in addition to the innumerable ways that she has contributed to the development of my intellectual and scholarly sense over the previous 20 or so years, has kindly refused to ridicule me for the amount of time and energy that I have spent over the last decade thinking about superheroes, and about Batman in particular. Thank you all.
Citation
Dudas, J.R. (2021), "“You Complete Me”: Batman, Joker, and the Countersubversive Politics of American Law and Order", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Studies in Law, Politics, and Society (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 85), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 49-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720210000085004
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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