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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 second Batman moral panic was from the Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth triggered by Batman #1 (1940). Batman co-creator Bob Kane's autobiography Batman & Me (1990) co-written by Tom Andrae explained, "Batman was a mysterious and menacing vigilante. Batman had killed many villains. In early issues of Detective [Comics] he even carried a gun. We had our first brush with censorship over Batman's use of a gun in BATMAN #1. In one story in that issue ["Professor Hugo Strange and The Monsters"] he had a machine gun mounted on his Batplane and used it to kill more villains. Bill wrote that story; -- it was his idea, not mine. It was inspired by the Shadow pulps in which that hero used two blazing forty-fives. We didn't think anything was wrong with Batman carrying guns because the Shadow used one. But the editor Whitney Ellsworth forbade Batman killing. [In The Steranko History of Comics volume 1 (1970)] Bill Finger recalled, 'I had Batman use a gun to shoot a villain and I was called on to the carpet by Whit Ellsworth. He said 'Never let Batman carry a gun again!'"

It was editorial censorship by Whitney Ellsworth that forced an overgrown boy scout pledge "no-kill rule, no-gun rule" upon Batman reinvented into a duly deputized agent of the law, as Adam West portrayed, instead of the original mysterious and menacing deadly vigilante from Detective Comics #27 (1939) that Michael Keaton portrayed. Batman editor Ellsworth even had the Joker reinvented into a harmless practical joker jewel thief, as Cesar Romero portrayed, instead of the original deadly killer clown from Batman #1 (1940) that Jack Nicholson portrayed who killed remorselessly with a chemical he used to kill his victims that left their corpses smiling -- the sign of death from the Joker. Whitney Ellsworth's widow Jane Ellsworth wrote to George Reeves historian Jim Nolt in a letter from May 23rd 1990 explaining about Whitney Ellsworth, "His philosophy in regard to the comic books was that they were for children; that they should be fun, clean, non-violent, and that the English should be correct (allowing for some slang). This is pretty much what became the 'Comics Code' [in 1954], and it stood DC in good stead when the national investigation into violence in the comic books occurred [in 1954]." Whitney Ellsworth died in 1980.

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 second Batman moral panic was from the Batman editor Whitney Ellsworth triggered by Batman #1 (1940). Batman co-creator Bob Kane's autobiography Batman & Me (1990) co-written by Tom Andrae explained, "Batman was a mysterious and menacing vigilante. Batman had killed many villains. In early issues of Detective [Comics] he even carried a gun. We had our first brush with censorship over Batman's use of a gun in BATMAN #1. In one story in that issue ["Professor Hugo Strange and The Monsters"] he had a machine gun mounted on his Batplane and used it to kill more villains. Bill wrote that story; -- it was his idea, not mine. It was inspired by the Shadow pulps in which that hero used two blazing forty-fives. We didn't think anything was wrong with Batman carrying guns because the Shadow used one. But the editor Whitney Ellsworth forbade Batman killing. [In The Steranko History of Comics volume 1 (1970)] Bill Finger recalled, 'I had Batman use a gun to shoot a villain and I was called on to the carpet by Whit Ellsworth. He said 'Never let Batman carry a gun again!'"

It was editorial censorship by Whitney Ellsworth that forced an overgrown boy scout pledge "no-kill rule, no-gun rule" upon Batman reinvented into a duly deputized agent of the law, as Adam West portrayed, instead of the original mysterious and menacing deadly vigilante from Detective Comics #27 (1939) that Michael Keaton portrayed. Batman editor Ellsworth even had the Joker reinvented into a harmless practical joker jewel thief, as Cesar Romero portrayed, instead of the original deadly killer clown from Batman #1 (1940) that Jack Nicholson portrayed who killed remorselessly with a chemical he used to kill his victims that left their corpses smiling -- the sign of death from the Joker. Whitney Ellsworth's widow Jane Ellsworth wrote to George Reeves historian Jim Nolt in a letter from May 23rd 1990 explaining about Whitney Ellsworth, "His philosophy in regard to the comic books was that they were for children; that they should be fun, clean, non-violent, and that the English should be correct (allowing for some slang). This is pretty much what became the 'Comics Code' [in 1954], and it stood DC in good stead when the national investigation into violence in the comic books occurred [in 1954]." Whitney Ellsworth died in 1980.