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This is a collage series deep dive I made exploring the long history of moral panics against Batman. Long before the '80s Dungeons & Dragons Satanic panic to the Barbie (2023) movie moral panic, there was moral panics over Batman in comics, that extended to Batman on TV and Batman movies.

The tenth Batman moral panic continues from Lou Cedrone's The Northwest Herald [June 25th 1989] newspaper article called "Joker grounds this Batman," against the Joker, the violent crimes and the flashback to the killing of Bruce Wayne's parents in the Batman (1989) movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, with Lou Cedrone complaining, "These crimes are too close to what is going on in the streets of our real cities. It isn't that easy to laugh at them, and you wonder why director Tim Burton ('Beetlejuice') has chosen to include a flashback in which a young Bruce Wayne watches as his parents are shot to death by a younger Joker. This is comic book? No. This is closer to 'Friday the 13th.' It is a little like doing a musical comedy with Richard Speck [a real life serial killer] as the leading character."

www.newspapers.com/image/19222…

Lou Cedrone thought comic book movies must be comedy movies for kids and Batman (1989) broke all the rules set by Batman (1966) and Superman (1978) superhero movies. Batman (1989) was heavily influenced by horror films [The Shining (1980), The Man Who Laughs (1928), Dracula (1931), The Bat (1926), The Phantom of the Opera (1925)] and really crossed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable. The Joker Jack was meant to have a sick sense of humor about how delightful it was to him to kill people. The Joker purposely messed with your head before he kills you because it's all fun for him. He's screwing with you before the kill. He could kill you right away but that's not the point, the fun for the Joker is to prolong it. Vigilante justice is the only answer to the Joker, especially with Tim Burton's genius of making the Joker the killer of even Batman's parents in the alley way. The Joker Jack had a dark macabre sense of humor, like Jack Torrance and the Crypt-Keeper and Freddy Krueger in horror films and Tim Burton's own Beetlejuice was heavily influenced by horror films, too. The Joker's one-liners and Jack's delivery of them made the film more popular. Adding the Joker element of dark humor and wit helped balance out the dark imagery. There is a great combination of horror and humor in Batman (1989).

Lou Cedrone was a World War II veteran drafted into the 88th Infantry Division of the United States Army with which Cedrone fought the Nazis in Italy during the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944 where Cedrone was wounded and received a Purple Heart. Cedrone was film critic, television critic and theater critic for The Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper, The Northwest Herald newspaper and Variety magazine. Cedrone retired in 1992 and died of a massive stroke in 2015 and The Lou Cedrone Memorial Fund was established in 2015.
www.baltimoresun.com/obituarie…
www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/b…

Description

This is a collage series deep dive I made exploring the long history of moral panics against Batman. Long before the '80s Dungeons & Dragons Satanic panic to the Barbie (2023) movie moral panic, there was moral panics over Batman in comics, that extended to Batman on TV and Batman movies.

The tenth Batman moral panic continues from Lou Cedrone's The Northwest Herald [June 25th 1989] newspaper article called "Joker grounds this Batman," against the Joker, the violent crimes and the flashback to the killing of Bruce Wayne's parents in the Batman (1989) movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, with Lou Cedrone complaining, "These crimes are too close to what is going on in the streets of our real cities. It isn't that easy to laugh at them, and you wonder why director Tim Burton ('Beetlejuice') has chosen to include a flashback in which a young Bruce Wayne watches as his parents are shot to death by a younger Joker. This is comic book? No. This is closer to 'Friday the 13th.' It is a little like doing a musical comedy with Richard Speck [a real life serial killer] as the leading character."

www.newspapers.com/image/19222…

Lou Cedrone thought comic book movies must be comedy movies for kids and Batman (1989) broke all the rules set by Batman (1966) and Superman (1978) superhero movies. Batman (1989) was heavily influenced by horror films [The Shining (1980), The Man Who Laughs (1928), Dracula (1931), The Bat (1926), The Phantom of the Opera (1925)] and really crossed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable. The Joker Jack was meant to have a sick sense of humor about how delightful it was to him to kill people. The Joker purposely messed with your head before he kills you because it's all fun for him. He's screwing with you before the kill. He could kill you right away but that's not the point, the fun for the Joker is to prolong it. Vigilante justice is the only answer to the Joker, especially with Tim Burton's genius of making the Joker the killer of even Batman's parents in the alley way. The Joker Jack had a dark macabre sense of humor, like Jack Torrance and the Crypt-Keeper and Freddy Krueger in horror films and Tim Burton's own Beetlejuice was heavily influenced by horror films, too. The Joker's one-liners and Jack's delivery of them made the film more popular. Adding the Joker element of dark humor and wit helped balance out the dark imagery. There is a great combination of horror and humor in Batman (1989).

Lou Cedrone was a World War II veteran drafted into the 88th Infantry Division of the United States Army with which Cedrone fought the Nazis in Italy during the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944 where Cedrone was wounded and received a Purple Heart. Cedrone was film critic, television critic and theater critic for The Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper, The Northwest Herald newspaper and Variety magazine. Cedrone retired in 1992 and died of a massive stroke in 2015 and The Lou Cedrone Memorial Fund was established in 2015.
www.baltimoresun.com/obituarie…
www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/b…