Batman
Seminar - UHON 301
Instructor(s): Jonatha Kottler
Course Description
In 1939 Bob Kane and Bill Finger created an adventurous super-sleuth comic book character to capitalize on the popularity of the newly-created Superman. Bruce Wayne, a rich, handsome, philanthropist had a dark secret: he took to the night to avenge crimes in his home city of Gotham as a reaction to his own trauma of seeing his parents killed in front of him as a child. Batman reflects American ideals of justice, personal responsibility, relationship to violence, and many other facets of our experience, and the character has evolved in his eighty-five year evolution to mirror the way society has changed. In this class we will explore the origins of the masked hero in literature, and see how the character of Batman tells the story of our American lives.Texts
Graphic Novels/Comics/Texts:
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy
“Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Poe
Selections from Sherlock Holmes
The Mark of Zorro, Johnston McCulley
Detective Comics #27
Batman: Year One
Zero Year
The Dark Knight Returns
Hush
The Long Halloween
Trinity
Gotham by Gaslight
Film/TV/Video Games
Disney’s Zorro
Zorro (1998) (2024)
Batman (TV, 1960s)
Batman (1989)
The Dark Knight
The Batman
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Arkham Asylum
Telltale Batman
Requirements
Attendance and Participation
Discussion Co-Leading
Weekly Reading and Five Discussion Responses
Research Paper
Final Portfolio/Reflection
Social Media
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