Following Nolan’s completion of the Dark Knight trilogy and Derf Beckderf’s release of his Graphic Novel, My Friend Dahmer, I began nursing a theory about the relationship between these two dark forces. Dahmer, a real-life monster and Batman, a fictional vigilante, are more closely linked than one might imagine. Both are products of their environment and social traumas. I would argue that Batman’s evolving unwillingness to take life is the only thing that separates the two men.
Jeff Dahmer was raised in troubled household. His mother and father separated after which his mother spiraled into bouts of depression and other maladies. Her troubles contributed to her unawareness of his own troubles, which included closeted homosexuality and a proclivity for dead things. This, on the surface, seems to differ dramatically from the image of the Batman, but when you look closer things click into place.
After his arrest Dahmer was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), an affliction he shares with the caped crusader. Dahmer pointed to his traumatic upbringing and lack of supervision as a key enabling factor for his crimes. The same can be said of Bruce Wayne who–for reasons that seem to have never been explained–was left to the care of his butler. While in the care of his butler (who held the precarious role of raising the person who had the power to fire him. Explain what sort of discipline could happen there) Wayne developed a curiosity about crime that was only sated by donning a cape and cowl and stamping out crime all together.
The early Batman was a murderer. He carried a gun and killed bad guys at will. He was Dexter Morgan, living comfortably behind the white sheet of his code and believing that he was doing right because the people that fell to him were doing wrong. As the makers of Batman evolved so did the character. He moved away from killing and developed into the nuanced character that we know and love today. He, unlike Dahmer, became a person who recognized a limitation. Dahmer wanted to posses people. He wanted to be linked to them in such a deep and permanent way that he truly believed that ingesting their flesh made them one with him and, perhaps, honored them in a way. Batman wanted nothing of the flesh but everything of the mind. He wanted people to fear him as they would darkness itself. He beat and abused those he encountered so savagely that his work left an impression on all that witnessed it. He didn’t eat their flesh, he ate their souls.
It sounds thin here, but what doesn’t in 10 minutes of unscripted blathering. Maybe I’ll pen a real essay on this down the road.