Batman, Legally created by Bob Kane

This article is the result of a recent news item that Bob Kane is getting a square on the walk of fame.  If you’re curious about the procedure for this, a person is nominated and if accepted, a sponsor coughs up 30K for the actual square.  DC’s press release was precious.

Fire up the Batsignal – a celebration is in order! This morning, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that Batman creator Bob Kane has been selected as a 2015 Walk of Fame honoree. Kane will be joined by fellow 2015 honorees that include director Peter Jackson, television producer James L. Brooks, and actors Will Ferrell, Daniel Radcliffe and Chris O’Donnell, who of course played Robin in two Batman films in the 1990s.

Since his first appearance in the May 1939 issue of Detective Comics #27 – conceived of and drawn by a 22-year-old Kane with his frequent collaborator, Bill Finger, scripting the story – Kane’s Batman has gone on to become the star of comic books, Saturday afternoon cartoons, newspaper comic strips, radio shows, a live-action TV series, animated films, video games and several of the largest-grossing theatrical releases of all time. In short, Kane’s Batman is the most popular single superhero ever created.

Notice that name in there not getting a square.  That’s a name fanboys celebrate while griping about Bob Kane, the official creator of one of the most popular comic figures of all time.  If you don’t know why we do it here’s a cartoon by Ty Templeton breaking down how most of us view Bob Kane’s contribution to Batman’s universe.

Yup, that’s it.  You want further proof how little Bob Kane contributed to Batman, he doesn’t even have a writing credit on Detective Comics 33, the first issue to give Bruce Wayne’s tragic origin story or Batman 47 when the origin was further expanded on.  These books were written by Bill Finger, and notice DC’s official statement above: Finger scripted the story in Detective Comics 27. Batman’s enduring legacy is based on his origin, a man who forsakes the lavish life available to him to suffer endlessly for a cause.  A traumatized boy who never outgrows his outrage of injustice and fights an eternally losing war because he doesn’t know how not to.  The disgust Bruce Wayne feels for his enemies is summed up in one of comics’ all time greatest lines:  “Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot.”  It’s from this Batman becomes a symbol to be feared.

So, Kane didn’t write Batman’s first appearance.  Kane was also not part of the creation of the greatest rogue’s gallery of all time.  Finger created such villains as Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, Scarecrow and many others.  Bob Kane had great legal sense and signed an amazing contract, securing himself a safe financial future. Fine, but Kane also continually minimized Finger’s contributions and trashed him publicly.  He lived a lie that was immortalized on his pompous tombstone.  I get pretty uncomfortable with people who claim divine inspiration.  I’m a huge Batman fan, but I don’t believe any God was a co-author.

I’m a Batman fan because of two people: Bill Finger and Dennis O’Neil.  Bill Finger sheparded  the character creating all the staples of the Bat world be all know and cherish.  After camp and the book Seduction of the Innocent laid to waste the dark world of Batman it was Dennis O’Neil who brought back Finger’s vision of a dark detective living in a world populated by some of the greatest antagonists to ever appear.

Kane didn’t write Batman.  Kane didn’t create the look of Batman.  Kane didn’t create the villains.  Bob Kane did almost nothing aside from having a great legal sense.  And I can look past all of this if he was willing to acknowledge he didn’t do it on his own, and while Bill Finger was alive he never did so.  Only after Finger’s death did Kane acknowledge, “He was an unsung hero… I often tell my wife, if I could go back fifteen years, before he died, I would like to say ‘I’ll put your name on it now. You deserve it.’”

Before Finger’s death, Kane had this to say in response to Finger’s contribution.  “I, Bob Kane, am the sole creator of Batman.”  This is despite Finger getting a writing credit. Sole my ass.

I can’t stand dishonesty, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. Bob Kane was an amazingly dishonest man.

“To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.” – Voltaire

Kane never respected Bill Finger publicly before his death, and only after his death acknowledged his contribution to an icon of American culture.  If the person who is sponsoring Kane’s star on the walk of fame reads this please withdraw the funds for Kane’s square.  The truth is more important than the ego and financial status of a deceased man.

Bill Finger, 1914-1974