Angel (No Relation)

Why So Serious?

How a Turn Towards the Dark and an Alternate Reality Changed the Batman Brand

(Spring 2008 // Sophomore Undergrad: 1,647 words)

Batman is a franchise that will probably never die.  Television series come and go, books end, and movies are finite, but as long as there is anyone around to remember it, Batman’s name has become an immortal one.  Still, the association audiences have with the name differs at any given time.  The Warner Bros film franchise begat by Tim Burton in 1989 with his succinctly-titled Batman and carried on by Joel Schumacher in the ‘90s brings to mind various different adjectives—dark, campy, comic book-like, campy, unrealistic, campy, and additionally, campy; a series “best remembered for George Clooney’s nipple suit.”[i] But when Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise in 2005 with Batman Begins, he kicked into motion an idea of a new and darker tortured-millionaire-turned-vigilante that would soon provide a different face for Batman; that is to say, Batman in a “realistic and believable light.”[ii] It is therefore unsurprising that Nolan and Warner Bros would hope to continue in much the same fashion a franchise begun with what was “widely considered one of the greatest comic films of all time almost immediately upon release.”[iii] And so, with its upcoming sequel The Dark Knight, it did the only thing it could deign to do to up the ante: started what is possibly the most elaborate alternate reality game ever created, “advertainment” that, in this case (according to the founder of the Alternate Reality Gaming Network), “transcends marketing to exist as a standalone cultural event.”[iv] In its turn this game does what a film alone cannot:  It turns the fictional universe of Batman’s Gotham City into a reality for anyone willing to play, in an experiential multi-platform extravaganza which solidifies the single trait which ultimately defines the re-invigorated Batman: realism.

A desperate and complete reversal from the ridiculous to the serious was in order for Batman after Warner Bros found itself picking up the pieces of the desecrated remains of what had once been a respectable enterprise after Schumacher’s 1997 travesty Batman & Robin.  Fans who loved Batman something dear felt alienated from a franchise that had made a laughingstock of itself; said Nolan of Batman & Robin, “If the people who make the film aren’t taking it seriously, why should we?”[v] And so Nolan, at the time celebrated for his acclaimed indie films but with zero blockbuster experience, pitched to Warner Bros a new vision of Batman unlike any before it, one not dedicated to vigilante justice simply to facilitate a bumbling local police department, but one who is the way he is because of his complex past—a past which, up until Batman Begins, was virtually cinematically ignored.  This Batman is the one we see in the comics, the “Dark Knight” in shades of gray with no supernatural powers who realizes that he can beat the all-American boy Superman simply because Superman’s great weakness is that “deep down, [Superman]’s essentially a good person…and deep down, I’m not.”[vi] A far cry from the former Batman whose main source of inner turmoil appeared to be a crippling social ineptitude caused by prolonged exposure to supervillains who all turned spontaneously evil after being doused with chemicals, the Batman created by Nolan and portrayed by Christian Bale is a conflicted one of darkness and of, according to Nolan, “vengeful desire.”[vii] Although only a modest box office success ($205 million domestically)[viii], in Batman Begins, Nolan and Warner Bros managed to completely re-invent and un-sully the name of Batman.

Sequels, however, prove to be much more difficult endeavors than the originals.  Yes, Nolan and Warner Bros succeeded and on the seventh day they rested and it was good, but afterwards they had to face the matter of trying to reach and pass the bar they themselves had set with Batman Begins.  It would take more than one villain (the Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger)—more than two, even (Harvey Dent, who becomes Two-Face)—perhaps even more than three (Scarecrow)—to make something that could exceed the expectations set by Begins.  The natural step forward would be something that could enhance the dark and realistic attitude of the first, focused less on raking in endless profit and more on enriching the universe of the film, which lend to it a new longevity that would presumably allow Warner Bros to benefit past the weekend box office.  A new dark ride based on the film at one of Time Warner’s former subsidiaries, Six Flags, was ideal; a Pandemic-designed video game (an adjacent video game studio) was typical and would help; an HBO special (fellow Time Warner subsidiary) might draw in audiences, but while it all may have been enough years ago before the advent of the internet, it was no longer.[ix]

Since the restarted franchise was conceptually built on re-inviting marginalized fans back into the game, the logical next move was to literally invite those fans into a game, and so Warner Bros commissioned the small independent company 42 Entertainment to design what may be the most ambitious alternate reality game (ARG) ever created.  To say that 42 Entertainment specializes in the ARG is an understatement—the company is largely credited with the creation of the first advanced ARG, 2001’s “The Beast,” an ARG promoting Spielberg’s A.I.; the first of a new kind of interactive game that “[takes] place in real time, across different media, using different interaction methods, with real world events.”[x] Something like this could indeed be what Warner Bros needed to take the franchise to the next level.  Where before the emphasis on realism could be found within the text itself, an ARG could bring the fictional world, prior to it a world left well alone in its various linear media of comic books and films and television, into the real world.  It could transform any willing participant into a Gothamite.  Where before Batman fans had to live vicariously through their heroes’ (and villains’) adventures, now they, too, could participate.

It began with a billboard.  In May 2007, billboards went up in L.A. sporting a picture of The Dark Knight’s Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) and the slogan, “I Believe in Harvey Dent.”  Here the willing could find a website dedicated to the Gotham political campaign of Harvey Dent, with no mention of Batman anywhere in sight (www.ibelieveinharveydent.com).[xi] But within days these billboards had been vandalized, with faces drawn on Dent and the addition, “I Believe in Harvey Dent TOO,” and this time, the willing found the website www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com,[xii] a “Jokerized” version of Harvey Dent’s website.  E-mailing the address on the page provided secret codes; inputting the codes at the specified URL unveiled one pixel of a photograph at a time, ultimately, as more and more people joined, revealing the first photo of the Joker, and kicking the game into gear.

Since May 2007, something like 35 Dark Knight-related websites have appeared, most of them boasting little or no direct mention of Batman (a bold move akin to the decision to make this the first Batman flick ever to actually lack the word “Batman” in the title), and all of them providing some insight into life in Gotham, with its heroes, its villains, its corrupt cops, its crime, its political circus—in all, creating a virtual Gotham City that mirrored any city in peril.  Over the last year newfound Gothamites have been on a chase that “so far has involved clues spelled out in skywriting, secret meeting points, cellphones embedded inside cakes, Internet red herrings, DIY fan contests and even fake political rallies.”[xiii] Events have included 2007’s San Diego Comic-Con that not only recommended two players using a variety of media but necessitated it; it was impossible to complete the scavenger hunt without one player to gather clues provided from the Joker’s website www.whysoserious.com[xiv] while the other used the clues to dash back and forth between locations to do the Joker’s bidding, feeding new leads to the first player.  The Joker instructed them to paint their faces and terrorize passersby, to steal cookies from a Girl Guide (the Gotham version of Girl Scouts), and in the end, to sacrifice one of their own to be carted off and murdered in the Joker’s stead, all of these things the Joker’s elaborate trials to weed out new goons for future missions.  Throughout the course of the game, people have picked up unnamed objects from secret locations under fake names, discovered cell phones (for direct contact with the Joker) in cakes and bowling bags, and been sold out to the Gotham Police Department.  They have come together in various cities for Harvey Dent political rallies.  Some have even been nearly arrested (and not by the Gotham Police).[xv] Essentially, the game has brought together thousands of Gothamites on every platform, in every country, real and virtual, working together to solve riddles, create chaos, unmask treachery and count themselves either among Gotham’s do-gooders or miscreants, or sometimes both, combining their collective encyclopedic knowledge to make Gotham either a better or a worse place and to transform it from the Gotham of Batman Begins into the Gotham they will find in The Dark Knight.  It has connected a complex web of fans for whom Gotham City has jumped off of the screen and onto the streets, onto their telephones, onto their computers, and into their lives.

In the midst of the months leading up to The Dark Knight’s release, it is impossible to say whether its pioneering venture into new media and the real world will noticeably impact the movie’s revenue.  Only time will tell whether the film will live up to its hype.  One thing, however, seems certain: Batman has now breached the gap into the real world, and there is no going back.