As a longtime
Batman fan, what DC Comics did in the latest issue honestly blew me away. Gotham, Batman's New York City-esque hometown, has always been plagued by corrupt cops. It's a theme in the comics, in the movies, and in the cartoons, and it's an inescapable reality for the city. Many times Batman has faced police corruption and violence head on,
but what DC depicts in the latest issue, which is on newsstands and in comic book stores now, is a brave new world for the caped crusader.
In ways we've never seen before in the Batman ecosystem, systemic racial injustice within the police force is tackled head on.
The story begins with the Dark Knight investigating the murder of a 15-year-old black boy by a white police officer. The crimes takes place when the boy exits his father’s bodega in Gotham City after fighting with a local gang. He then encounters the officer, and before he can oblige his demand to lie down, the officer fatally shoots him in the stomach.
The image of the dead, unarmed black teen will likely remind readers of the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The fictional character’s body is left on the street “for the crows,” reminding readers of how Brown’s body was reportedly left on the street for four hours after he was killed. The boy is also portrayed wearing a hoodie, an apparent direct nod to the appearance of Martin on the night he was killed.
Keep reading for more.
Speaking to The Guardian, author Scott Snyder said:
“Batman is learning he can’t solve problems in the ways he thought he could,” Snyder said. “It’s much more about understanding what people face in their everyday lives: knowing their fears, knowing their anger, and trying to show them, in a way, that they can and we together can fix, or hopefully make baby steps in fixing these problems that seem intractable, entrenched and impossible to overcome.”
This is a sign of the times that we're living in. Kids are being killed by police in our comic books because they are being killed by police in our neighborhoods. It's simultaneously tragic and timely to see the depiction. I'm picking up a copy for myself and one of my kids today.