- I have one rule.
- Oh, then that's the rule you'll have to break
to know the truth.
- Which is?
- The only sensible way to live
in this world is without rules,
and tonight, you're gonna break your one rule.
- I'm considering it.
- Batman is always going on and on about his one rule,
which can be confusing since he has a couple of rules.
Don't kill, don't use guns, make sure to wear
a different colored costume every night and so on.
Though, as is the way with comics, which rules apply
depends entirely on the ever-shifting continuity.
Movies have shown him strapping large guns
to his fleet of bat-themed vehicles
or even just blatantly shooting people,
but at least he's more consistent in the comics, right?
Just a man in a bat costume fighting crime
as peacefully as possible.
What a saint.
Unless, of course, you consider the Golden Age comics,
which were being written as the character
of Batman was still developing.
The Dark Knight didn't initially have any rules
against using guns or killing people in general.
He was brutal and merciless,
killing vampires with silver bullets,
shooting down criminals from his Batplane,
and let's not forget about this striking image
from Detective Comics number 35.
So what happened, exactly?
What caused Batman's writers to change him
from gun-slinging murder machine
to rule-abiding Dark Knight?
Well, for starters, an infamous massacre
and presidential assassination attempt.
That'll do it.
(rock music)
As with most things that we talk about,
there won't just be one answer to why Batman changed.
Instead, the explanation can be found
in the culmination of a lot of little things,
things that nudged Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger
into developing the modern direction for our crusader.
For starters, I'm sure many of you know
that one of the major influences
which inspired the creation of Batman
was the pulp hero, The Shadow.
He was an incredibly popular character
who shared many traits with the caped crusader.
Always shrouded in darkness, this master of stealth was
an expert in hand-to-hand combat and a skilled detective,
attributes that should sound pretty familiar.
Plus, forgot to mention,
both The Shadow and Batman wielded a handgun.
Probably thinking that Bats shared one too many similarities
with the Shadow, Kane and Finger figured they needed
to differentiate the two just a little bit more.
So what if we just take away his gun?
Of course, even if that story were true,
as many people believe it to be,
it still wouldn't be the main reason
why Kane and Finger would make the switch,
though it is fun to see this panel,
where Batman actually refuses to take a gun from The Shadow,
implying that the Dark Knight has risen above his roots
and has cemented himself as a distinct character
in the world of heroes.
Plus, it's also just really funny
to imagine Batman saying uh-uh.
No, the predominant reason why Batman swore off firearms
was the real life gun legislation
that was being passed at the time.
The early 1900s saw the rise of organized crime in America.
As gang warfare ruled the streets of Chicago,
chief gangster Al Capone sought to seize control
by eliminating his competition in what became known
as the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre from 1929.
Not long after, in 1933, there was an attempted
assassination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
and all of this and more led to a public outcry
for better gun control, which set the stage
for the National Firearms Act of 1934.
The NFA, put simply, called for firearms to be registered
and taxed as an attempt to end
the rampant and abundant crime.
Without going into too much detail,
the famed Supreme Court ruling
of United States v. Miller in 1939
upheld that the NFA was not unconstitutional.
It did not violate the Second Amendment right
of the people to keep and bear arms,
and coincidentally, guess what else was happening
during this same time, possibly even the same month.
That's right, Batman made his big debut
in Detective Comics number 27,
and a few short months later,
he was out there just shooting up bad guys,
a vigilante with a presumably unregistered firearm
which doesn't seem like a great idea
for a hero in this particular era.
However, Bob Kane didn't really care.
He kept writing up stories where Batman used guns
to kill his enemies and save the day.
Turns out, critics were not too happy about this,
calling comic books a, quote, national menace.
And this would be before Fredric Wertham stepped
into the picture with his book, Seduction of The Innocent,
which would just add more fuel to the anti-comic book fire,
even literally, crusading against what he considered to be
a medium that was toxic for the morals of the youth.
Before long, DC Comics hired on a new editorial director
by the name of Whitney Ellsworth
along with an entire editorial advisory board reportedly
consisting of psychologists and English professors
in what I imagine was an attempt
to legitimize the comic book industry.
When Batman number one hit shelves in 1940,
it featured a story in which Kane once again wrote
the world's greatest detective firing away at criminals.
This issue was cited as being
the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
Ellsworth demanded that Batman have all of his shoot-y toys
taken away from him and that was that.
In Batman number four, it was explained
in an editor's note, of all things,
that Batman never carries or kills with a gun,
which became the standard for the Dark Knight.
This change led to Batman stories being more censor-friendly
and therefore more kid-friendly.
He became more of a true hero
and less of a gritty, morally questionable vigilante.
As Jill Lepore pointed out in a fantastic New Yorker piece
that's linked in the description below, quote,
"The disarming of the Dark Knight reads likes a concern
"about the commonweal, a deferral to an accepted
"and important idea about the division
"between civilian and military life.
"Superheroes weren't soldiers or policemen.
"They were private citizens.
"They shouldn't carry concealed weapons.
"Villains carried guns," end quote.
So if Batman needed to have an aversion to guns
because the editorial board
and society at the time called for it,
there would have to be a reason for the change
in the continuity of the comics,
and luckily, Kane and Finger had previously written up
Batman's origin a few months prior,
which featured an iconic sequence
that we have seen repeated in comics, movies,
TV shows, video games, everywhere.
Guys, it's everywhere, you've definitely seen it.
It made sense though.
As a child, Bruce Wayne saw
his parents gunned down in front of him.
It was probably the first gun he ever saw,
and it was used to scar him for life.
It follows then that Bruce wouldn't want to become
the very criminal that murdered his mother and father.
He wouldn't want to succumb to the tactics of cowards.
Bruce would make a vow to never kill with guns,
Batman's one rule, which honestly might be
a huge misconception in and of itself.
Most people probably believe that Batman's one rule
is simply no killing, but we've seen him kill
plenty of people throughout comics,
whether it's hanging people from the Batplane,
crushing people under junkyard cars,
punching people into statues that fall over
and strangle them to death,
not to mention the countless times
he's blown vehicles with people inside of them
or simply thrown people from deadly heights.
There are infinite examples that come
from every era of Batman, not just the Golden Age.
If he does have a no killing rule, it's more of a guideline.
Of course, the other rule he's said to have is no guns,
which again, doesn't make a lot of sense in and of itself,
as we've seen Batman use guns attached
to almost every vehicle he's owned,
not to mention his classic grapple gun,
which, yes, admittedly, is a stretch
but still has the word gun in the name.
I'd say that counts.
Plus, Batman has not been too afraid to use guns
throughout his career, like disarming thugs
or summoning the police, making sure Joker doesn't get away
or even as a threatening scare tactic.
Again, these examples are present
throughout every Batman era.
Sources, if you don't believe me, are in the description.
But you may have noticed that all of those examples
are instances where Batman used a gun non-lethally,
and I think that's the key here.
His one rule isn't no killing or no guns,
but rather, no killing with guns.
Think about it, that editor's note
that first introduced Batman's aversion to firearms
doesn't say that Batman never kills.
It doesn't say that Batman never uses guns, period.
It states very specifically
that Batman doesn't kill with guns.
Killing on its own, not the best option,
but if there's absolutely no way around it, then I guess.
How about guns on their own?
Well, obviously, don't carry one around
looking for a chance to use it,
but again, if there's no other option, then go ahead.
But killing with guns, no, absolutely not allowed.
That's where we draw the line.
That's how his parents died and he has no interest
becoming that same person, unless...
When Batman picks up a gun in Final Crisis,
intent on killing Darkseid, the god of evil
who has threatened the entire multiverse,
Bruce calls it a once-in-a-lifetime exception to his vow.
Now, as we've seen, that line wouldn't make a lot of sense
if his rule was simply no killing or no guns separately,
but together, it adds a much needed weight
to this climactic scene.
Batman fires the bullet,
killing or at least intending to kill
the villainous Darkseid right before he himself dies.
Bruce Wayne's story has come full circle,
a lethal gun shot starting his journey to become
one of the greatest heroes the world has ever known
and a lethal gun shot ending it once and for all.
You know, until all of that was undone
in later stories, so yay, comics.
What do you think?
What exactly is Batman's one rule?
Are there multiple one rules?
And how important is Batman's policy against guns to you?
Maybe you'd prefer the Golden Age Batman.
Let's talk about it all in the comments below.
This brings Batober, the long Halloween, to a close.
I hope you guys enjoyed our month of Batman videos.
Please do let us know if you did because we may or may not
bring it back next year, depending on the response.
To make it easier for your viewing pleasure,
you can click right here to watch
the entire Batober playlist in order.
We've got great videos ranging
from the fairness of Two-Face's coin tosses
to the correct way to pronounce Ra's Al Ghul
and even the age-old question, is Batman a superhero?
Until next time, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics, see you.