"When Gotham City needs the Dark Knight, the Bat lights will be lit."
A few days ago, DC celebrated the 80th anniversary of the birth of "Batman" in 13 cities around the world including Los Angeles, Melbourne, London, and Rome. The bat lights are lit. Fans of
took to the streets one after another, some cos became the recruited Batman, and some used their mobile phones to record this historical moment. The
event not only received a response from ordinary fans, but game companies also joined the carnival ceremony.
In the Epic store, players can prostitute "Batman" Arkham trilogy, "Lego Batman" trilogy, a total of 6 Batman themed games.
In the past, Epic only gave out 2 games a week. This time, we gave out 6 games at once, which is full of sincerity! I hope Epic bosses will increase their efforts and we will fight to buy you into bankruptcy.
Steam did not show weakness here, "Batman" Arkham spree suffered a fracture.
After the carnival, after all, it is rational. I wonder if you guys have ever thought about a problem that allows DC to spend a lot of money on lights and Epic to pay for the benefits. Why is Batman so famous?
Obviously, Batman has its confidence. Because in the American comics' superhero popularity rankings, Batman is the undisputed number one.
This situation is just the opposite in China. Batman's popularity is even only a fraction of that of Spider-Man Iron Man. This can be seen from the Baidu index.
This is very curious, why is Batman so popular in Europe and America? Since
mentioned Batman, it must start with the bat.
1. Evil, ominous, vampire
When I was in the third year of high school, I remember one time when I was studying at night and a bat flew into our classroom. This caused a small commotion in the class.
The head teacher lurking in the back door thought he had something to gain, so he opened the door and laughed. He said, the bat is here, which means "Fu Dao", and your college entrance examination is stable!
In China, the introduction of bats has a good meaning. In Western culture, the opposite is true.
In the Western concept, the bat is an evil beast, a symbol of darkness and ignorance.
As early as 700 years ago, the European Renaissance magnate Dante connected bats and demons together. He has a paragraph describing Satan in "The Divine Comedy", and it says like this:
"There are two huge wings...there are no feathers on the wings; but the form and texture are similar to bats." Although there is no such thing in the "Divine Comedy",
I wrote "Bat=Demon", but why do demons have wings like bats? The connotation is self-evident.
For a long time, Westerners have no good impressions of bats. In English, the word "bat" for bat even means "woman in a brothel". (Sorry to hit the BAT) Some literary creators of
also created "vampire culture" based on bats. Vampires are a death symbol of darkness and evil, and the most famous among them is a vampire king like Dracula.
Whether in the story or in the movie plot, vampires always have bat-like fangs, and their appearance is always accompanied by a large group of bats.
When Western horror legends spread around the world, they also influenced many works. For example, we watched "Digimon" and "Diga" when we were young. Of course this is something to be said.
This shows that the reputation of bats in the West is not good. Taking the "bat" as the protagonist in the West is like taking the "crow" as the protagonist in China.
2. Being in danger,
dares to take out a "bat" to become a superhero, which is somewhat of a ruin.
In the 1930s, DC became an instant hit with Superman in Action Comics. The setting of superheroes, the theme of punishing evil and promoting good, and the refreshing styling allowed Superman to capture a large number of fans, and DC made a lot of money.
But such a role is too good to "learn". Isn’t it just a story about an open alien helping justice? So many superheroes appeared on the market for a while, and readers turned their backs.
DC can't sit still at this time. They commissioned Bob Kane to create another popular work under their own "Detective Comics"A role that "can support sales". Since
is a detective, it is destined not to be as eye-catching as Superman. After consulting a lot of information, Kane finally got some inspiration from the two films "Zorro's Mask" and "Bat Secret": Zorro, night, mystery, bat, deterrence.
Based on these characteristics, Kane conceived a "Batman" image: blond, wearing a red tights, wearing a Zorro-style blindfold, and a pair of bat-style wings behind him. Probably like this:
Kane’s assistant, Bill Finger, took a look, it was wrong! Are you not Superman with wings?
So Finger made drastic changes, changing the blindfold to a more mysterious hood and adding upright ears; replacing the wings with a black cloak; more importantly, he changed the color of the tights to night The protective color in the-gray black.
The image of Batman we see now is almost fixed by Finger. When shaping the personality of
, Finger used Dr. Visage , the Phantom Wizard and Sherlock Holmes to build Batman into a combination of tough guy, detective and scientist. The plot is the old saying "fighting crime".
During the day, he is the playboy Bruce Wayne in the eyes of others; at night, he is the superhero Batman who frightens criminals. The image of
is created, but the troubles follow. The bats used to be bound to demons and ghosts, now we have launched a superhero with the image of a bat. Can everyone accept it?
On the other hand, this totem-style cultural infiltration will give people the impression that bats are mysterious, powerful and shocking. These are almost all the characteristics of superheroes, but the previous bats were demonized.
With many questions and uncertainties, Kane decided to try the reader's response first.
In May 1939, Batman made his debut in the 27th issue of Detective Comics. It was only two pages long when it debuted. But to their surprise, after Batman appeared, "Detective Comics" sold out.
is a superhero who is accompanied by the night and walks in the simple and honest Gotham City. He is not only a nightmare that scares criminals in the dark, but also a knight who seeks justice in the dark.
In essence, the bat is still a totem of fear. It's just for criminals.
3. The charm of Batman
is actually not all smooth sailing in Batman's 80 years.
In the 1950s, the Batman plot was labelled as "inducing homosexuality" for lack of female characters. After that, the style of painting has changed several times, from humor to entertainment to family fun. Sales are as high and low as riding a roller coaster.
It wasn't until the publication of "The Dark Knight Returns" in 1985 that the style of painting returned to the black suicide, which established Batman's position in the Presidential Hill of the United States. From then on, Batman became an in-depth reader.
Children can watch fights, teenagers can watch plots, and adults can explore the connotation: about human nature, system, and justice. The attribute of
kills young and old, so that Batman has more potential readers and fans.
Of course, Batman can become the most popular in American comics, and potential readers alone are not enough. I think the more important thing is the idea of the story. For example:
Spider-Man tells people that when a kind-hearted person becomes stronger, he should not forget his original intention and continue doing good deeds.
And Batman is to explain that no matter how dark the world is, there must be someone to defend ideals and hopes; don't defend the darkness just because you are used to it. Even if he is just an ordinary person.
If the bug can resonate with young people at most, then the master is the ultimate romance for all men.
From the point of view of the story, Batman has already won. And Europeans and Americans also value these connotations more. In addition to comics, Batman has also created many classic works in other fields.
In the film industry, Nolan's "Dark Knight Trilogy" is known as the benchmark in superhero movies; in the game industry, the "Arkham Series" has become a masterpiece of American action games. The success of the three art forms of
shows on the one hand the plasticity of this ip, on the other hand it seems to say that the master has enough ability to attract excellent people to create.
This is the popularity and the foundation.
When talking about Batman, there is a sentence in Zhihu that says:
You like Spiderman and want to be Spiderman; you envy Superman and want to become Superman; you admire the master, but you definitely don't want to be him.
I think this is probably the most attractive part of this character.
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