In both The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen we are dealing with superheroes grappling with a society that consistently rejects them. Yet despite this, these characters - and most often our narrators - have to continue living in this society. And one aspect of society that both teams of creators similarly critique is the media and its relation to the public. In Dark Knight, the media is ever present, replacing panels and taking over the narrative in some places. In Watchmen, specifically in Chapter 3, the media is portrayed to debase an entire country.
In these works, more than inform the public, the media endangers and misleads. This is something I'm sure we can all see as a facet of real life as well, the work not having to work too hard to exaggerate. But each work seems intent on putting the newscasters and gotcha journalists on trial explicitly, Miller's Dark Knight especially. What this suggests to me is that each author is concerned with the quality of discourse the nation has regarding geopolitical and national issues. Each places their "heroes" in wars, riots, nuclear explosions, utilizing them as allegories for these conflicts. Watchmen does this beautifully with the characters Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian representing to some degree the decisive issues of nuclear power and the Vietnam War. And the media always seems to be there with a misguided word or antagonistic character when people need to understand the issues the most. Take Miller's long-spanning - and often destructive - televised debates on whether Batman is a friend or foe for Gotham. The two "experts" always end up looking like ideological loudmouths.
And I think what's so visceral about these critiques is that they ring true to this day. We can find characters on any number of channels that could fit into these books, still blathering nonsense and inciting millions. Each of these comics seems to focus on how a narrative is told, on how a legacy is left. It seems to me that neither work is confident in the commercialized forms of press to carry a story, so maybe it's up to fiction and the heroes they create.
Colin, I agree with your assessment of the media in both Moore and Miller's work. What I find most interesting is that, in both novels, the media is never shown to question their political leaders. Reagan and Nixon exert unquestioned control. This is perhaps the most potent aspect of the authors' criticism. Despite all of their sound and fury, the talking heads take no time to look at the two maniacs in the White House. Maybe they mean to criticize their readership as well. After all, they too, it seems, spend more time discussing the actions of costumed heroes than the actions of their nominal leaders. Given Moore and Miller's seeming contempt for any sort of 'establishment' I don't think this is too far-fetched.
ReplyDeleteColin, I really appreciate your assessment of media within both comics. At the beginning of The Dark Knight Returns we see a comparison between the media's perception of Batman and Bruce Wayne himself, and as you've said there is a critique of the media's misleading nature within both stories. Perhaps Moore and Miller are making a stronger statement against news broadcasting more generally, and suggesting that one can find greater truth within fictional stories than the skewed information disseminated by news outlets and media conglomerates.
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