Source: @NetEase Game Column

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the iconic Batman character, and many people may not know that the superhero is actually a detective representative of American comics.

The first time I came into contact with the Batman game was FC's "Batman" corresponding to the 1989 movie version. Although the author has not broken through the strange difficulty of this game, other Batman games have been played a lot one after another. Most games focus on his superhero side, and only a few games, such as the Arkham series, will show his side as a detective - although the detective system of the Arkham series, rather a forensic system, has a lot of parts to guide the player to find clues, but there is basically no reasoning. Of course, you can't blame the game for that. The manga itself often ignores his detective skills and treats him as an ordinary action hero.

But what makes Batman different is that in addition to his lack of superpowers, there is another important factor: as DC's main intelligent player, he is known as the "darknight detective" (detective in the night). While he's often as busy saving the world (or Gotham City) as any other superhero, it's his job to investigate what has happened, not to stop the destruction that is going on. And if there are any suspicious cases within the heroes, they will often ask him to investigate. In fact, DC has other more professional detective characters, and even Sherlock Holmes himself has a place in DC, but only Batman has become DC's "World's Greatest Detective" (World's Greatest Detective) with his high popularity.

He first came from Reasoning magazines

In 1939, Batman's first comic appeared in the 27th issue of "Detective Comics" - as the name suggests, this is a publication with a detective theme, and Batman's positioning is also a detective story. In the beginning, it was a comprehensive comic book containing multiple serials such as spy, detective, adventure, etc., and later became a major serial due to the popularity of Batman. Later, as the cost rose, the publisher began to cut the number of pages of the comic, and other serials were cut one after another, and eventually became a Batman-exclusive comic.

The story of Batman's first appearance, "The Case of Chemical Syndicate" (Thecaseofchemical Syndicate), is only 6 pages long, the plot is not complicated, and according to later research, some of the episodes are suspected of copying the popular novel "The Shadow" of the year, but it sets the tone for decades of Batman saga - he is first and foremost a detective, not a superhero.

The comic begins with a typical detective story scene: young celebrity Bruce Wayne is chatting at the home of Police Chief Gordon when Chief Gordon receives a call that chemical magnate Lambert has been murdered. So the director went to the scene to investigate, and brought Bruce with him by the way - of course the police will not let unrelated people enter the scene now, but there were still many such cases in detective novels at the time.

As the plot progresses, Lambert's son first ruled out the suspicion, and then the scope of the suspect was also determined, which was nothing more than Lambert's three partners. Up to this point, it's all a typical "Whodunnit" (who's the real murderer) story. However, this story is not pure reasoning, but a thrilling action system. So Bruce quit the director and started an investigation as Batman, one of the suspects was killed, Batman followed the clues to find the other two, rescued the innocent one of them, and the murderer was killed by Batman in a pool of chemicals (at that time, Batman did not have a setting not to kill). In fact, it seems that many crime-solving American dramas are also in this process.

At the beginning of the story, the director and Bruce are deliberately arranged to chat, as if to create the image of an "easy chair detective", but in fact, this beginning is purely to lead to the case, and Bruce himself does not play a role in the investigation, and does not even express any opinions. So Bruce can't exactly be called an easy chair detective. This pattern carried over to later TV series, but was gradually abandoned in the comics.

Batman's early dark mystery style didn't last long. In 1940, in order to attract young readers, the assistant Robin appeared on the scene. His appearance changes Batman, making him more of a kind parent than a cold detective. The interaction between the two also adds a lot of fun to the comics. Although Batman sometimes explains the case simply, as Sherlock Holmes and Watson did, the plot gradually leans towards action scenes, and the two are also known as the "dynamic duo". In addition, in the 50s, American comics were besieged by public opinion that "comics are based on crime and horror stories, which will promote juvenile crime", and in order to protect themselves, it is difficult to continue to depict real crimes, and the Batman story has moved towards fantasy and has become a slightly absurd comedy story.

Batman's transformation and transformation

In 1966, the Batman TV series was launched. It's a comedy-style TV series, so the bridges are all exaggerated, with several super criminals such as clowns, penguins, riddlers and catwomen as the main opponents, and the part of the case investigation is often brought over with magical props such as "bat computer" and "bat camera", and various "divine logic" and various text puns emerge in endlessly. Like what:

Batman: What can you write with a yellow skin?

Robin: Banana ballpoint pen.

Batman: Who is always in a hurry?

Robin: Someone who is Rushing? Russian!

Batman: That's right! What do you mean by that?

Robin: Banana, Russian...... I see! There is a Russian who will step on a banana peel and break himself!

Batman: Exactly, that's the only possible meaning!

……………… This thinking is too out-of-the-box!

Although it is a bit nonsensical, after the TV broadcast, Batman instantly became a national hit drama, leaving a deep memory on many viewers. So much so that for a long time, Batman was relatively funny in the minds of ordinary audiences, until the movie version in 1989 popularized the image of the dark hero to the general public. Therefore, despite the popularity of the TV series, the sales of the Batman comics soared, the comic book writers and editors at the time did not like this direction of the TV series. They worked hard to give Batman a new image in the comics, to bring his story back to life, and to re-establish him as a "detective in the night".

Feng Shui takes turns, and in recent years, people have begun to re-examine the 66 version of Batman, feeling that although this kind of plot is more embarrassing, it still has some feelings under the original setting, forming a unique style. "Batman '66" has also become a cultural phenomenon, and even relaunched a new serialization under this worldview.

After the end of the TV series, Batman finally turned completely to the dark and strict route. In line with this principle, in the late '60s and early '70s, the story of Batman underwent several major changes: Robin left home because he went to college, and Batman returned to his solitary action and returned to his original detective roots. In terms of reasoning, it no longer relies on the black technology in the bat cave, but needs to collect clues and peel off the cocoon, and some scientific search knowledge will be introduced in the story, such as trace comparison, etc., and the reasoning process will also be explained.

Moreover, the image of Bruce Wayne has also changed. He did not need to continue to play the role of a father, nor did he deliberately play dumb as he later did, but appeared as a shrewd president and philanthropist, and even actively participated in politics. With the help of the Wayne Foundation, he started a "victim group program" to help victims of cases, so he participated in many investigations. In addition to this, he usually encounters some cases, which is more like a common series of detective stories - the protagonist encounters cases wherever he goes. Bruce's role and importance have been greatly improved, and even formed the form of "Bruce investigates and reasons, and Batman is responsible for catching people". For example, the "Poison Pen Mystery Case" in the 398th issue of "Detective Comics" is investigated with Bruce as the protagonist, and Batman only appears in the second half when it is necessary to fight.

Generally speaking, a universe like American comics with superpowers, magic, and science fiction can be said to be a nightmare of ontological reasoning - if the murderer has superpowers such as teleportation, brain control, perspective, etc., or props with leading technology, then what is the point of a classic trick like murder in a closed room? But the Batman comics of this period are self-contained and relatively close to reality, with no intervention from other heroes and not many superpowered criminals. Even the original supervillains have been temporarily hidden, replaced by criminal cases in general society, such as homicide, theft, etc. On this basis, many Batman comics at this time were quite close to Benge's reasoning, especially during the period when Frank Robbins was the screenwriter, and there were quite a few typical "Whodunnit" stories. He gives clues during the narrative, is one of the few authors who gives the reader a fair chance, and sometimes even challenges the reader to guess the real culprit, and usually ends with a commentary similar to that of a "puzzle solving".

But since the mid-70s, Batman comics have gradually leaned towards adventure themes, and writers such as screenwriter Danny O'Neal have focused on Batman's adventures around the world, wanting to make him a 007-style hero. Classical reasoning once again fades from the reader's view.

The detective who is least like a detective

In the 80s, Batman's popularity and status rose dramatically, not only in the number of publications he leads, but also in his interactions with other DC characters. Comic fans are no longer satisfied with the story of a certain character, but have begun to pursue the consistency of the entire worldview and the unity of the timeline. This makes ontological reasoning even more difficult to continue - this form of strict zhòng relying on ideas is not for everyone to play with in the first place, and if it is limited to "the average criminal in Gotham City", it is even more troublesome in the context of the DC universe.

So Batman became more of an action hero. However, DC can't fail to mention his detective attributes when it comes to emphasizing that Batman is different from other heroes. So how do you get him to investigate the case? Well, the authors portrayed Batman as a tough guy with high-tech assistance - the clues were handed over to the supercomputer in the Batcave, or they could directly ask the computer genius "Oracle" to help them check, and if they couldn't find the information, they would go to a ** person to torture them. Sometimes the comics also have a certain description of the process of solving the case, but they don't put more ink on "reasoning", anyway, he doesn't need hard evidence as an outlaw.

Another method is to deify Batman, ignore the investigation process, and jump directly to the results, so that Batman suddenly descends from the sky, indicating that he already knows the truth of Yiqiē - as for why? "Because he's Batman".

Still, there are authors who have the courage to try their hand at ontological reasoning!

Jeff Loeb's The Long Halloween and its sequel, The Triumph of Darkness, are detective stories in the black style. Although the plot itself has certain loopholes, and it is anti-genre - the detective (Batman) actually misjudged in the end...... And the story "Spook" in the 102-104 episodes of the "Legend of the Dark Knight" series is literally "Blizzard Hills" - Bruce and several business partners are trapped in the villa, and one after another people are killed, and the murderer is among them. However, this is not the essence in the strict sense, because it contains certain supernatural elements (by the way, the Blizzard Mountain Villa in the local tyrant world is trouble, and the author has to kill the six or seven servants in the villa first for the plot of "the murderer is among us", which is also quite hard). And Grant Morrison's "Black Glove" combines an island and a secret room, and the plot is very similar to Agatha Christie's "No One Left Alive".

Is it possible to combine superheroes and reasoning? In "Identity Crisis", Batman is tasked with investigating the murder of the telescopic man's wife as a detective. He found miniature footprints left in the victim's brain and actually identified the killer, but before that, the real murderer had already been exposed. There are also some holes in this storyline. But its purpose is not to reason, but to reveal the dark history of superheroes many years ago, so it's not easy to be demanding.

In addition to the comics, many Batman spin-off novels are full of attention to his detective identity. Probably because these novels don't have to consider the DC Universe worldview, the author is easier to play. It is worth mentioning two special books: "The Batman Forensic Archive" is a collection of short stories, interspersed with simple forensic primers in the story; There is also an "interactive novel" called "Murder at Wayne Manor", which contains a variety of physical evidence and clues, such as photographs, notes, newspapers, etc., all made into physical objects and sandwiched separately in the book, and readers can study these physical evidence on their own.

Batman, as the most detective-like detective, has gone through 75 years. In fact, Batman's detective story still has a lot of room to play, which is also his charm. Maybe in the future, there will be writers who are better at mystery stories to explore his detective side, after all, the story of Batman is far from finished.