Batman Tries LiberalismI talked about this a little earlier. Back in 1988, the writer for Batman in Detective comics was Alan Grant. I don't pretend to know Mr Grant, but it was not hard to pick up his politics with stories like the one that appeared in Detective #590, "An American Batman in London".
Now remember, this is not current stuff, it was written and published 13 years before 9-11, so it's just garden variety nonsense, not nearly as offensive as it might seem otherwise.
The basic plot is that Arab terrorists shot up a Vietnam Veterans' bar/club, killing seven and wounding another 13 before committing suicide. The government suspects that Hassan, a Syraqi (cute, eh?) diplomat planned the mission, but he has already departed for London for another attack. Bruce Wayne is on the next flight, getting to England on the night of Guy Fawkes' Day. He breaks into the Syraqi Embassy, and confronts Hassan, the diplomat. After a fight sequence, Batman tries to extract from him the details of the London attack, and Hassan channels Ward Churchill:
(Note: you can click on any of the pictures here for a larger version)
Intially Batman comes back strong and righteous, but the liberal proxy quickly begins to convince him with the force of his logic and argument. At least, that's what I imagine Grant thought when he wrote this tripe:
Of course, Hassan is just talking to stall while his guards are creeping up behind Batman, but he really knows his liberal talking points well. All the tropes are there, even the accusation of being a hypocrite.
Eventually Batman figures out that the London attack is to be an assault on Parliament (Guy Fawkes' Day, remember?) and foils the plot. But in the end, he's still musing on Hassan's words:
Now of course, this kind of liberalism makes no sense at all for Batman. He's a vigilante, a guy who beats up crooks. How could he do that if he were overcome with liberal guilt about their depressed childhood?
And this is not even the worst of it; wait till I tell you about Batman's anarchist buddy.
