Summary
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman: Dark Age #4!TheJoker, and almost every one of Gotham’s greatest villains, have gotten amazing ’70s redesigns.Batman: Dark Agehastaken a different approach to the Dark Knight’s mythology and re-examines it through the lens of American history. By the time Bruce has cemented his legacy in the ’70s, his biggest foes are on the scene and dressed as garishly as one would expect.
InBatman: Dark Age #4by Mark Russell and Mike Allred, the ’70s have come to Gotham just asBruce takes on Dick Graysonas his new partner. The city is still under threat by the False Face Society, but Batman notices new criminals have come to town with names like ‘Riddler’ and ‘Penguin’.
These villains care less about money and more about making thematic statements (not to mention dressing in over-the-top costumes). Around the same time,a local comedian known only as the Joker starts to gain notoriety for his frank statementsand morbid observations about the world.
Joker and Other Gotham Villains Get Very ’70s Makeovers
Batman: Dark Agefollows in the steps of its companion book,Superman: Space Age. This non-canon tale sees Bruce Wayne grow throughout the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s and develop his iconic persona against the backdrop of real American history. Instead of the Waynes dying to random street violence, they’re executed as part of a plan for the False Face Society to take control of Wayne Enterprises. In this world, Bruce hones his skills fighting in Vietnam under the command of Ra’s al Ghul. Throughout the years,Batman looks at the world around him and highlights its beauty and its flaws.
This new look for Batman’s villains might seem strange, even for them. After all, Penguin and Riddler as art snobs or Mad Hatter as a Timothy Leary-like figure is a pretty big departure from their usual gimmicks. But this issue relates the rise of supervillains in Gotham to that of the counterculture movement that positively dominated the American ’70s.Joker, Riddler, Penguin, and Mad Hatter are breaking away from the traditions of old criminalsin the same way that artists and performers shook up the world with subversive approaches to their particular fields (even if the field here is crime).
Gotham’s Most Famous Villains Have Always Changed the World
New eras are always earmarked with a bold, dramatic change. Even in the prime continuity, Batman’s city was once a world fraught with mobsters and crime lords, only to be replaced by colorful criminals with gaudy gimmicks. ThoughBatman: Dark Ageswitches up quite a bit about Bruce Wayne’s world, it makes a solid point about the ways these foes changed the world by bursting onto the scene with new and creative ideas. WhileJokerand these other villains are far from avant garde revolutionaries, their costumes are brilliant and nail the counterculture vibe.
