The Psychology of the Superhero

The works we have read by Alan Moore and Frank Miller are often discussed in the same breath with regards to their profound influence on the comics medium. It's a cliché to say that these introduced 'grittiness,' but it's a cliché built in what appears to be truth. Today's monochrome and consciously-serious superhero cinema is a direct descendant of both.  Miller's grotesquely muscled figures also appear to have influenced the style of artists like Chris Claremont in the 90s.  I know that crotch-shot is associated with 90s comics; some of Miller's splash-pages feature posture that resembles Claremont's X-Men crotch-shots.  To me, Moore and Miller's most important contribution to the form appears to be their probing of the super-heroic psyche.  In the early comics, neither Wonder Woman nor Superman ever had a care in the world save for their covert romantic efforts.  Even Batman only voices distress when the issue of his engagement causes his conscience to question the ethics of flirting. Throughout The Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne describes himself as two distinct people, Batman and Bruce Wayne.  "Born here," (13) he says, while standing at the site of his parent's murder.  The voice of Batman laments Wayne's sedentary and unfulfilling lifestyle.  His constant input seems to inspire Bruce Wayne's actions as much as the escalation of gang violence in Gotham.  This feeling of being incomplete out of costume is potently echoed in Moore's characters Rorschach and Nite Owl.   In this respect, the two graphic novels are eerily similar. Rorschach in particular reads like an embodiment of Batman's worst qualities.  Like Miller's Dark Knight, he relishes every opportunity to inflict pain and seems disgusted by the majority of humanity.  Refusing to answer to 'Walter,' he refers to his mask as his 'face.'  Nite Owl, too, is only whole in costume.  Retirement leaves him overweight and impotent.  This second issue proves most important to Moore's exploration and, unfortunately, to Snyder's cinematic adaptation.  Like Bruce Wayne, Dan is born again after walking naked into his lair.  I expect that Miller would resent the depiction of a 'Batman' stand-in as impotent.  For all of his mental foibles, Miller's Batman is nothing if not oppressively virile.