DC vs. Marvel: the film series

In Washington DC, a clever spin on the superhero film festival:

Oddly, however, no Superman? Or Spider-Man, for that matter.

The “Dark Knight” Edits

To my recollection, I’ve made only a small handful of edits to Wikipedia—a couple at least five years ago, two the summer of 2012, and one or two more recently. Not surprisingly, most (if not all) were related to Bill Finger.

The summer 2012 edits were to the entries for The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, the second and final films in Christopher Nolan’s groundbreaking Batman trilogy.

I added that the first Batman story to include the phrase “the Dark Knight” was one written by Bill Finger (in Batman #1, 1940). The fact that neither film needed the word “Batman” in the title shows how iconic not only the character but this nickname are.

Note that I did not write “Bill Finger was the first to call Batman ‘the Dark Knight’” nor did I claim that Finger coined the phrase.” I think both were the case, but we may never know for sure. Therefore, to defend my objectivity, I inserted the info in a way that is indisputable.

I feel it is a travesty that Bill’s name is not in the credits of those (or any) Batman movies, but am somehow comforted by the fact that at least Wikipedia has the truth. More people have access to Wikipedia than to the movie…

Batman in the wake of tragedy

Though the movie the Aurora, Colorado, shooter chose for his rampage was clearly deliberate, this unthinkable incident is not about Batman, or even movies in general.

The priorities are honoring the dead and figuring out what we can do to better protect the living. Like the rest of the conscious world, I express the deepest of sympathy to those suffering.

Still, as the author of a new book about Batman, I can’t begin to post in the wake of Aurora without acknowledging the tragedy. I don’t claim to have anything profound to add to the chorus of eloquently worded offers of condolences, shoulders, blood, and other forms of support. I simply want to say I am so, so, so sorry for your loss.

The day we woke up to the heartbreaking (and enraging) news, I had three items on my agenda, and all were Batman-related: morning phone interview about Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman with the New Haven Register, the newspaper of my hometown metropolitan area; afternoon book signing/meet and greet at a Virginia Barnes & Noble; evening screening of The Dark Knight Rises. (I didn’t have advanced tickets; arriving only 30 minutes before start time, I suspected it would be sold out. It was not.)

At first I wondered if I should go through with any of my 7/20/12 agenda, especially the second two items; if my book was not about Batman, I don’t think this would have been as strong an internal debate.

But I am not the type for symbolic grandstanding. If you are not directly affected by such an incident, I do not feel going on with life is disrespectful, nor do I feel a one- or two-day moratorium on Batman “work” will send a message of consequence to anyone, including myself. I believe in doing what I can, privately, to help the victims and meanwhile, carrying on.

To be clear, I am also not one who says “I will go ahead with my Batman commitments because if I don’t, the terrorists win.” That brand of statement is too glib, too self-important, for me. I believe in going ahead with my commitments because they are just that, commitments. I can take other specific action to do my small part to try to prevent terrorism.

Here are glimpses of my low-key afternoon:

The table as it was set up.

The table as I rearranged it. I don’t like giving out candy and I don’t like Butterfingers
in particular, but I’m sure you get why I made exceptions. Oddly, one man took a candy bar
(but not a book) and dropped some coins into the candy fishbowl as a (his word) “donation.”

Thank you to Scott Grove, Jill Etesse, Andrea Kramer, Steven Solomon, and Matt Blum—and, of course, all those I didn’t already know—for stopping by.

Just as Batman rises in the film, so shall the people senselessly scarred in the Aurora tragedy. Like Batman, their struggle will not be easy, and certainly not quick, but I am confident they have the strength. For what it is worth, a nation of Batmanians are behind them.

I have to wrap up. I have a Batman book signing at Hooray for Books in a little bit.

The Dark Knight Creator Rises

Bill Finger main-created Batman and nicknamed him the Dark Knight. Today (perhaps you heard) The Dark Knight Rises opens, but Bill’s name will not be in the credits.

On 12/10/07, a bit more than six months before The Dark Knight opened, I e-mailed DC Comics; after introducing myself as the author of books including Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (which also wasn’t out yet), I asked the following:

Could Bill’s name be included in the credits for The Dark Knight? Please don’t automatically delete! I know contractually DC can’t call him “co-creator” so I rather mean something along the lines of “Batman was first called ‘the Dark Knight’ in Batman #1, in 1940, in a story written by Bill Finger.” DC publications already regularly credit Bill for that story, so I see this as completely compatible, legally safe, and of course morally fair. After all, the movie’s title doesn’t even include the word “Batman”—it is wholly a phrase coined by Bill Finger. I look forward to your response.

DC, to their credit, wrote me back:

Thanks for your passion for our creators and characters, but there are no plans to credit Bill on The Dark Knight.

MTN:

To be clear, I am asking if Bill can be credited only for the coining of a phrase, in unambiguous language. … Isn’t that just as permissible (it seems even more so) as your regular practice of crediting him in reprints for entire stories he wrote?

DC:

With all due respect, I’m not having this discussion.

However, I was not the first to attempt this. That distinction goes to Lyn Simmons, Bill’s second wife; they married in the late 1960s.

Her determination to get credit for Bill were bold, selfless—and, it seems, nearly successful. I will let her words—and press about her efforts—speak for themselves (some are undated so I have put them in chronological order as best I can):

This is the jaw-dropper:
“Warner Bros….appear willing to give Bill credit on the film.”
How I wish I knew more about the conversations that led to this.

Her proposed language: “In memoriam to William Finger, who helped create Batman.”

Alas, as you likely know if you’ve read this far, Bill was not credited in that (or any other Batman) film. What torpedoed this possibility?

Lyn said that Warner backed out when they learned that she was not his widow but rather his ex-wife.

In any case, this is an astonishing glimpse at what could have been.

Had it been, perhaps there would be no need for Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman today…

"The Dark Knight Rises" and "Bill the Boy Wonder"

Batman is one of our greatest fictional champions of justice, so it is cruelly ironic that the story of where he came from hides a gross injustice: the man largely responsible for him receives no official credit.

What’s more, co-creator and original writer Bill Finger is the one who first called Batman “the Dark Knight,” yet Bill’s name will not appear in the credits of The Dark Knight Rises (nor did it in The Dark Knight). The nickname “Dark Knight” is so iconic that the word “Batman” doesn’t even need to appear with it; meanwhile, the mind behind it is left in the dark.

Yet I came up with one way to link Bill with the movie and hopefully do some good for my book in the process.

I individually e-mailed the following flyer to hundreds of independent bookstores across the country:

 
Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman publishes July 1.

The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20.

My proposed course of action for the bookstores is simple:

1. Ask the nearest cinemas if they will hand out the flyer to people who buy tickets to TDKR.

That’s it.

If even the smallest fraction of moviegoers goes for the same-day incentive, I’d consider this effort a success. In part that is because the smallest fraction of the projected audience of the movie—1.939 zajillion—is several nations unto themselves.

As it stands, I couldn’t figure how to extra-sweeten the deal for the cinemas…but they have nothing to lose, either.

Perhaps they’ll view this as value-added, serving their customers some historical perspective with their blockbuster. Perhaps they’ll feel a moral obligation to do their part for Finger when so many (but not Finger) will be making so much on his genius. Perhaps they just like Batman.

Bookstores, if you set the discount, and cinemas, if we provide the flyers, who’s in?

Google doodle: Bill Finger

As anyone with a computer knows, Google is one of those rare brands willing to vary its logo. They have tweaked it to pay tribute to everyone and everything from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to Pac-Man.


 
So on 3/27/12, I pitched them (proposals@google.com) this:

You'd be lavished with undying praise by legions of geeks everywhere if you did a doodle in honor of writer Bill Finger (2/8/14 - 1/18/74), the uncredited co-creator (and, objectively, dominant creative force) behind Batman, even though cartoonist Bob Kane unconscionably took all the credit. Bill is widely considered to be the greatest comics writer of his generation (the Golden Age)...and the biggest martyr in comics history.

Bill died alone, poor, and unrecognized (no obituary, no funeral). I wrote a book on him to help preserve his culturally significant legacy.

While we are too late for this year's birth and death anniversaries, I think a date that would make an even bigger statement would be July 20—the date The Dark Knight Rises, the next Batman movie, comes out. It would be poignantly appropriate since it was Bill who first called Batman the "Dark Knight" back in Batman #1 in 1940...yet Bill’s name will not be in the film credits...

To be continued…I hope.

I'm feeling lucky.

12/9/13 addendum: I have since proposed this again, now emphasizing that 2014 is a triple Batman anniversary:

• 75th anniversary of Batman
• 100th anniversary of birth of Bill Finger
• 40th anniversary of death of Bill Finger

Please show your support for this idea by emailing proposals@google.com.