Batman as Modern Revenge Tragedy: The Shakespearean Dark Knight

Abstract

Batman as Modern Revenge Tragedy: The Shakespearean Dark Knight Both Bob Kane’s Batman and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, lose parents, dress in black, put on antic dispositions, and go on personally motivated, violent missions for justice and revenge. The characters enter what seems to be an infinite mourning, where their innately flawed visions of obtaining justice are paired with unstoppable determinations. With my presentation, I intend on using video to demonstrate the historical trends of the revenge tragedy genre, and analyze their potential connection to the comic book medium, especially Batman. Using video, I can explore “adaptation” and all its nuances by implementing costume and visuals that mirror both the bard and the bat. Comics like The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and feature films like Batman V Superman, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and other Batman films act, in my view, as modern revenge tragedies; perhaps “Batman” becoming the entity that it is today has something to do with a legendary play, Hamlet, or at the very least, the legendary renaissance drama theatrics that might be hidden within it. Additionally, in light of Coen’s latest film, The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), and Reeves’s The Batman (2022) release around the corner, themes of darkness, “dark knights,” and revenge continue to rivet contemporary consumers of the theatric and the cinematic.