18 jul 06
"If Batman's costume is designed to instill fear, what is up with Robin's get-up and what emotion does it evoke from Gotham City's most hardened criminals?"
haha, hardened criminals. this is worth checking out (warning: graphic, horrible, child-damaging, and yet extremely relevant).
robin's costume was designed by comic writers and artists who wanted to 1) show off his athletic build, and 2) appeal to kids with bright colors and weird costumes. the first part is in accordance with the principles of "chimp pornograph". let me explain.
in an experiment, scientists distributed tokens to chimps, which the chimps had to trade in for food. the scientists also set up a video player to show images of both alpha-male and female chimps in sexual display. chimps in the experiment could activate videos by dropping a precious food token into the specialy-rigged player.
experimentors found that the chimps were just as willing to "pay" for the alpha-male porn as they were for the female porn (i can't find a reference, but i clearly remember reading this).
think of all those calvin klein underwear ads, and of professional male athletes revered as heros and visual icons. you, too, are paying for your alpha-male porn, and the writers of marvel comics understand this, or at least they felt the same way and the artist's pen followed. the simplest explanation for heterosexual men wanting to look at other heterosexual men in tights is that those images represent something to strive for, and something to admire. maybe the chimps had this in mind, too.
i don't know many (purportedly) heterosexual men who'd be willing to admit that they "appreciate the male body" (especially when its phrased that way), but it's obvious that most everyone does.
as far as the oddball costumes go, consider wolverine: why does he have those little tufts of hair on the top of his head? i realize it's to make him look more like a wolverine, but they wouldn't be there if it weren't for an extensive morning toilette that's not detailed in any of the comics or movies. maybe they're simply part of his mutation, along with his super-healing (and now, it's been decided, his claws, which were originally said to be grafted to his bones as part of an experiment), but they're still quite silly-looking, if you think about it, and especially so if you note the mousse in hugh jackman's hair and think of the make-up artist making the tufts stand up better before a big fight scene. all of the comic characters have props to make them look interesting and attractive, and part of this is almost always a skin-tight uniform.
briefly thumb through this, and you'll get an idea. i started you off on wolverine, but browsing is easy under "individuals" in the left-hand navigation column. but do you see what i mean? imagine if wolverine were really running around in public like that, let alone "fighting crime".
i can't find a simliar directory for DC comics, so i'll juts rip a photo off from the web. i'm sure this is the costume you're thinking of, even though some later ones were somewhat less flamboyant.
a few comic writers caught on to the fact that some savvy readers were wondering why all of their favorite heroes were tricking out for a gay pride parade, and, for example, began to dress the x-men in tough-guy black leather jackets. but, for the most part, spandex still suggestively clings to the super-body.
and then we have robin: not only does he sport the revealing, colorful costume with cape and mask, but he's a young boy sidekick; it's implied that batman would carry a NAMBLA card in his wallet, had he anywhere in his leotard to tuck it.
NAMBLA, for all of you normal non-internet people, is the North American Man-Boy Love Association, which has become a running joke on the internet. however, they take themselves quite seriously, which is disturbing, even though it's no more disturbing than similar practices of the ancient greeks, or more distubing than batman and robin, for that matter.
batman's costume might instill fear as in "this is a lunatic, who knows where he might drool?", but not in the way a fanboy might fantasize. robin's is actually a little less weird -- at least he doesn't have little rubber ears; he might pass for an off-duty trapeeze artist.
but the comic book universe is gaudy, caricatured, and fantastic, and so superheroes who run around in tights can be taken seriously. in this fantasy world, robin's costume probably doesn't instill dreadful fear quite like batman's does, but only perhaps in that he can probably beat a given criminal up (or at least yell for batman).
gotham's criminals might think, upon spotting robin, "uh-oh, it's robin...better get out of here before batman shows up!". robin long appeared to be a pointless creature, maybe just someone to dance for batman while batman drank his evening martini, and not capable of crime-fighting like his paternal. i think one or more of the movies tried to rectify this somewhat, by giving us a few scenes in which robin beat up some criminals, thereby emphasizing the "wild street punk" element rather than the "gee wilickers, batman!" element.
did you know: in the DC comics universe, one of many in the series of robins was a girl? batman must have been dissappointed during that stretch.
if a crackhead robbing a 7-11 in real life saw someone dressed like robin attempting to stop him, then he might be so shocked that he'd run off.
there are homoerotic refereces to batman and robin all over the web. do not go here. it's absolutey not safe for any workplace, or for those of you with any vestigial sensibilities, leftover from days of less-explicit media. comedy central played "eddie murphy: raw" the other night, and didn't cut a single sound-bite. albeit the movie aired at 1am, but still -- i'm not used to hearing "motherf*cker" on tv.