PART TWO
LAW, JUSTICE, AND THE SOCIAL ORDER: WHERE DOES BATMAN FIT IN?
4
NO MAN’S LAND: SOCIAL ORDER IN GOTHAM CITY AND NEW ORLEANS
Brett Chandler Patterson
No Man’s Lands: Gotham City and New Orleans
The average American takes social order for granted. We wake up each day assuming that our institutions—educational, medical, political, and so on—will run smoothly, even if not always in our interests. Terrorism has fostered some doubt, but on the whole, most Americans still assume and enjoy a relatively peaceful existence. Even the United States, however, is not exempt from the large-scale destruction of natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina made this point painfully clear. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, mud-slides, and meteor strikes—there are still many forces in this universe that are beyond our control, forces that we fear. When that fear strikes during and after these disasters, what happens to social order? Do human beings resort to a more primal, violent nature in our struggle to survive?
This is the topic of perhaps the most masterful Batman storyline to date, No Man’s Land, which traces the disintegration of social order in an earthquake-ravaged Gotham City.1 Though the fictional story predates the flooding of New Orleans by six years, the eerie resemblance between the fictional story and the days following Katrina’s landfall on August 29, 2005, adds weight to a story that we might otherwise dismiss as exaggerated and melodramatic. No Man’s Land presents a wide array of responses to the loss of social order and reminds us that despite the colorful rogues’ gallery, Batman’s true enemy, and perhaps ours as well, is anarchy. The storyline also calls to mind the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who argued that human beings in their natural state are inclined to war and distrust. When the structures of social order are challenged by large-scale disasters, this “natural state” rears its ugly head again, forcing representatives of that social order to step in and fight to reclaim the social contract.
The Road to No Man’s Land
Gotham crumbled overnight in 1998’s storyline Cataclysm, in which a magnitude 7.6 earthquake devastated the city (which had recently been weakened by a widely dispersed lethal virus in 1996’s Contagion). The only buildings left standing in Gotham after the quake were the ones reinforced by Wayne Enterprises. Wayne Manor, however, was destroyed because that historical structure could not be reinforced (or Bruce Wayne’s secret batcave might have been discovered). In the months that followed, Batman and company struggled first in pulling themselves out of the rubble and then in assessing the full extent of the damage. In Aftershock and Road to No Man’s Land, Gotham’s elite abandon the city since the infrastructure that supported their industries and businesses has been destroyed. They do not have the will or the wealth to attempt to rebuild it. Meanwhile, the crowds of people in the city panic in various ways, contributing to a bridge collapse that kills hundreds. Though Police Commissioner Jim Gordon tries to keep the peace, he also, in what he perceives later as a moment of weakness, seeks in vain to find a job in another city.2
In “Mr. Wayne Goes to Washington,” Bruce attempts to persuade the federal government to assist Gotham, pleading for the lives of the seven million people there, while trying to combat the negative rhetoric of Nicholas Scratch, a mysterious public figure (villain) who has targeted Gotham.3 Yet in a surreal move, the president issues an executive order—followed by congressional approval—that the city must be cut off from the rest of the country, because the damage is too great and too costly. The federal government gives a forty-eight-hour deadline for the people to evacuate the city and then, in a drastic move, blows the other bridges and surrounds the city with blockades and troops. At this point, Gotham officially becomes a “no man’s land.”
In our world, Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge and the subsequent flooding were the undoing of New Orleans in 2005. Around 80 percent of the city flooded (water primarily from Lake Pontchartrain) after the levee system failed. Much of this occurred late at night, surprising those resting in their homes, thinking that the levees had protected them from the worst of Katrina. Although the federal government did not go as far as the one portrayed in the comics, there was a delay of a couple of days before a full-scale rescue effort was put into place, and there were a few politicians who voiced a desire to abandon the city to the swamps surrounding it.4 Since New Orleans—unlike Gotham—had advance warning of the impending disaster, there were some emergency measures already in place, leading thousands to seek shelter at the New Orleans Superdome and the Convention Center. The breakdown of social order was not as severe as in the fictional Gotham, but much chaos did ensue.
Survival over Justice: Villains, Gangs, and Hobbes’s State of Nature
At the time of the declaration of No Man’s Land, a significant number of people were unable to leave, or chose not to leave. They found themselves in an environment without technology—no electricity, no heating or air conditioning, no gasoline, no transportation, and no grocery or retail stores. Gotham City resorted to a primitive state, people scavenging off the remains of what Gotham once was. The “No Law and a New Order” story (in NML 1) introduces us to No Man’s Land, showing a group of children fighting over food dropped into the city by a sensationalist photographer who wants pictures of people fighting. Within a few pages Scarface has shot a young boy over a package of cookies. We soon learn that an elaborate system of barter has developed, as people trade things that are no longer of value (fancy electronics) for basic necessities (flashlights with batteries, fresh produce).
We also learn that people have started to gather into gangs to protect themselves and to provide some system of distributing goods. Tagging—spray painting a symbol of your gang in a highly visible place—becomes essential for identifying whether you are in a relatively friendly or an overly hostile part of the city. In the early days of Gotham’s crisis, the major Bat-villains—including Two-Face, Penguin, Black Mask, and the Joker—have each carved out territory from the chaos, celebrating in the absence of the social order that had imprisoned them in Arkham Asylum. During this period, Batman, going through his own crisis as Bruce Wayne, is absent from the city, adding to the general despair among the populace.
The situation resembles the “state of nature” that Thomas Hobbes described in his political philosophy. In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes painted a rather dark portrait of the natural state of humanity, claiming that outside society we became brutes at war with one another.5 Yet his theory grew out of his own experience of living in exile in France during the English civil war in the 1640s, watching his nation’s social order break down. Hobbes argued for the value of a centralized authority that would galvanize the rest of the populace. In his opinion, human life is a competition to obtain power; life is a struggle over a limited number of material goods. We are motivated by a fear of death and fear of others’ power, no matter how high-minded we might pretend to be. Fear motivates us to seek peace; we agree to a social contract out of a desire to preserve our own lives in a social order; we agree to a system of justice to preserve that order. A sovereign power—“the Leviathan”—preserves that order and protects those subjects who have willingly submitted to that rule. Fear of falling back into the “state of nature” keeps subjects in line.
Though some philosophers have challenged whether such a “state of nature” ever existed, Hobbes would counter that whenever a country plunges into civil war, it falls back to this condition. Several novels in the twentieth century, from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899/1902) to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) and the current television show Lost, have all suggested that going from “civilization” to extremely isolated natural settings can bring out the “wild” side in human beings.6 Of course, wide-scale natural disasters have the same potential.
In the days immediately following the 2005 flooding of New Orleans, the media reported looting, possible rapes and murders, and conflict among various gangs of people brandishing weapons. Tensions in the city over racism, poverty, and drugs broke out as the populace was in a state of panic, with corpses lying in the city streets. When National Guard troops started evacuating people and restoring order, they discovered that a number of the rumors were unfounded; the media had sensationalized and exaggerated the extent of the criminal activity, particularly at the refuge centers. So New Orleans was not exactly Gotham City, but there were long moments of distrust, and there could easily have been more criminal activity away from these crowds. Some police officers actually abandoned the city and were later disciplined. Twenty-five thousand people waited over five days to be rescued from the Superdome; National Guard troops turned people away from refuges in those later days; hotels turned people out onto the streets; and the sheriff of Jefferson Parish closed the greater New Orleans Bridge to refugees, emphasizing that the suburbs would not fall into the chaos. Many have argued that latent racism affected the handling of the thousands who could not or did not leave the city.7 It is also noteworthy that one of the first institutions to be restored in the first week was a makeshift jail. Hobbes’s “state of nature” seemed to be alive and well.
William Petit versus Jim Gordon: Violence in the Quest for Justice
One of the more thought-provoking threads in the No Man’s Land storyline is the conflict between Jim Gordon and fellow police officer William Petit, revealing two distinct perspectives on how to oppose the reigning anarchy. Gordon and Petit start out on the same side; they are both seeking to reclaim Gotham and rebuild social trust in the police force. But as the plot progresses, we are gradually shown the radical difference between Petit and Gordon. We come to see that they represent different tactics in reestablishing a sovereign power over the chaos. In Leviathan Thomas Hobbes described two different ways that sovereignty can come to power—the people can agree to the rule (a “paternal” power) or the ruler can seize power (a “despotical” power).8 In certain ways, Gordon is the paternal power, seeking to maintain the standards of justice as he moves back into control of the social order, while Petit is the despotic power who seeks to seize power through intimidation and force.
In “No Law and a New Order,” Jim Gordon believes that he is sliding into moral ambiguity by setting off a war between two rival gangs in an effort to weaken them, but Petit pushes even further, calling for murder to solidify the war—and he finds his opportunity in rescuing Gordon from an ambush. Another significant conflict arises within the week: when Gordon’s plan works and the GCPD claims the gangs’ territories, the police wonder where they are going to put the prisoners. Gordon decides to release them, but Petit demands that they need to be intimidated so that they will not return later in greater numbers. So he executes a gang member before Gordon can stop him. Gordon immediately seeks to discipline Petit, but in feeling that he too has compromised, he offers no answer to Petit’s verbal challenge: “Tell me I’m wrong.” From this point on, Petit becomes increasingly obsessed with violence, claiming that the only way to deal with Gotham’s criminals is to exterminate them.
Gordon’s main goal, along with keeping his family safe, is to reestablish social law over the city. In “Bread and Circuses” (in NML 2), Gordon expresses the Machiavellian lesson that he must be seen enforcing the law to create social trust again.9 Jim Gordon’s biggest compromise, though, is working with Two-Face in a power play that wins more territory for the GCPD, but which eventually comes back to hurt them.
Gordon and Petit stay together through this, but in “Fruit of the Earth” (in NML 3), the conflict reaches a turning point. While facing a hostage scenario in which a gang threatens an officer, Gordon tries to negotiate, but Petit simply shoots the offender. After Gordon’s reprimand, Petit goes his separate way, claiming that Gordon is not strong enough to face the challenges of No Man’s Land. The Huntress (one of Gotham’s heroines) later faces off against Petit, who argues that their tactics must change because they are soldiers in a war. Petit hovers on the periphery of the plotline, though frequently calling for lethal force against Killer Croc, Two-Face (who happens to be imprisoned), and the Joker. The climactic encounter with Joker in “End Game” (NML 5) shows Petit finally broken and insane; in seeking to murder the Joker, he ends up killing several of his own men (whom the Joker dressed as clowns).
In “Jurisprudence” (NML 4), Gordon literally faces his own trial when Two-Face (former district attorney Harvey Dent) kidnaps him and “prosecutes” him for violating the laws he was sworn to protect. Yet because of his compassion for Harvey Dent, and with help from Officer Renee Montoya, Gordon is able to survive. Then in the last, crucially heart-breaking moment, after Joker has murdered his wife, Gordon faces the maniacal clown, with Batman nearby pleading for Jim not to sacrifice his values (NML 5). Gordon does not kill Joker, but he does shoot him in the knee before Joker is taken into custody—showing that the residual impact of No Man’s Land is still in play. In the days that follow, mourning the loss of his wife, Jim Gordon wonders if their efforts and triumphs were worth the sacrifices.
The Witness of Nonviolent Humanitarians
Thankfully, there are also a few peace-loving humanitarians in the midst of the story. Two prominent examples are Father Christian, a Catholic priest in charge of a mission, and Dr. Leslie Thompkins, a medical doctor trying to hold together a makeshift hospital for the scores of wounded in the city (and one of Bruce Wayne’s oldest friends and confidantes). Their parallel stories are told in “Fear of Faith” (NML 1) and “Spiritual Currency” (NML 4). In the first of these stories, Father Christian has turned the remains of his church into a refugee center, seeking to provide food, water, shelter, and some degree of safety to those staying there. He has refused to ally himself with anyone else, including the GCPD, which is using force in its efforts to reclaim the city. He also extends his charity to one of Gotham’s villains, Scarecrow, despite warnings from the Huntress. Scarecrow sabotages the mission’s food supply, forcing Christian to negotiate with another villain, Penguin, who, as a master tradesman, has thrived in the chaos. Penguin gives Christian the supplies he needs in exchange for allowing him to store guns in the basement of the mission. Feeling backed into a corner, Christian accepts the offer, a decision that precipitates a later power struggle in front of the church, where Father Christian’s group apparently is saved by the intervention of the GCPD, Huntress, and Batman. At the end of the struggle, Father Christian and company dump the guns into Gotham Harbor, stubbornly refusing to let anyone get their hands on the weapons.
In the second story, Dr. Leslie Thompkins sees her clinic as a place of refuge, even for a notorious killer, the gang lord Mr. Zsasz. Huntress, Petit, and Batman all challenge Dr. Thompkins’s decision, but she argues that her commitments are to healing and to pacifism. Huntress tells her that it’s easy to make such a stand as long as Batman is protecting her, and in fact, later in the story, Zsasz awakens and Batman is not there. Dr. Thompkins faces the possibility of her death as she tries to appeal to some compassion in him and announces that she will not resist with violence. Killer Croc, who is seeking Zsasz for killing a friend, grabs Zsasz before he can hurt the doctor, and then Batman finally arrives to scare Croc away and take Zsasz to Blackgate Prison. Since she had earlier reprimanded him for his tactics, Batman now apologizes to her for the violence that he uses. Thompkins makes an agreement with him that if he will work for peace in the city, she will help him work for peace in his heart.
Both of these stories contrast greatly with the excessive violence, competition, and hatred expressed in the activity of the gangs and the power maneuvers of various Arkham escapees. Though others like Batman and Jim Gordon help protect these individuals, Christian and Thompkins are prepared to face the consequences of their humanitarianism and pacifism, even to the point of sacrificing themselves for others. In Leviathan (Book 3), Thomas Hobbes argues that religious organizations should be subservient to the sovereign power to prevent divided loyalties, thus preserving peace. Church authorities should acknowledge the preeminence of the sovereign rule; otherwise, they will undermine the stable social order enforced by the sovereign.
Christian theologians today, following H. Richard Niebuhr, John Howard Yoder, and Stanley Hauerwas, however, would strongly disagree with this subordination. These theologians have argued for the distinctive social character of the Church; the beliefs and practices of the Christian community set it apart from other communities. Commitment to God should be the centering activity that orients the value of all other aspects of one’s life. Christians can serve an earthly sovereign, but their primary loyalty is to God through church communities. These theologians believe that unlike the deist “distant God” perspective of Thomas Hobbes, God is working in the world through the new order presented in the politics of the Church.10
Father Christian has a respectful relationship with Jim Gordon and with Batman, but he refuses to be subservient to the social order they seek to reinstitute in violent ways. Concern for his people leads Father Christian to compromise in negotiating with Penguin, but he reasserts the values of the Church later in the story by dropping the guns in Gotham Bay. Though it’s unclear whether Dr. Thompkins would consider herself a Christian, she, as a pacifist, also resists becoming a part of Jim Gordon’s and Batman’s efforts to reclaim the city through coercive means, reprimanding Batman for his violent tactics. Batman and Gordon (and others) need the examples Father Christian and Dr. Thompkins provide. Without such examples they might cycle into insanity like William Petit.
Likewise, although most of the news coming out of New Orleans seemed to focus on the chaos, there were also stories of heroism and humanitarian aid—ministers trying to provide hope to their congregations and doctors trying to keep patients alive under hostile circumstances. Many of the relief workers were themselves trapped in the city. Ordinary citizens also became heroes as they stepped forward to help, creating makeshift shelters, sharing looted water and food, and offering comfort to the elderly and the sick; their heroism became an inspiration to others.11 Numerous humanitarian organizations made their way into New Orleans following the devastation. Though they worked respectfully with the civil authorities, many of the relief organizations mobilized on their own. New Orleans needed their distinct contributions.
“This Is My Town”: Batman and the Restoration of Order
Finally, in “Shellgame” (NML 5), we witness the events that lead to the end of No Man’s Land, when Lex Luthor enters the city in a shrewd political move, attempting to claim the land of many who died during the earthquake and of those who lack the resources to challenge his claim. To the public, he simply seems to bring the money and national attention needed to pull Gotham out of its decay. Batman faces Luthor twice—once not long after he arrives and again after foiling Luthor’s fraud—both times emphasizing that Gotham is his town, not Luthor’s.
At the start of No Man’s Land, many characters questioned this assertion because, mysteriously, Batman was nowhere to be found. When Batman finally appears, over three months into the city’s isolation, he finds that he must rebuild the mythology that he uses to intimidate criminals and that he must adjust his tactics to the new environment. Eventually he learns to work within the system of gangs, acknowledging that the people feel lost without loyalty to a leader (a sovereign) who can protect them and help distribute goods justly. Batman essentially becomes a gang lord, albeit a benevolent one. He also permits various Arkham residents, like Penguin and Poison Ivy, to maintain roles in the new order similar to the roles they chose for themselves (upon their escape from Arkham), as long as they contribute to the greater good of the city. Gotham is deeply hurt, and Batman invokes a long-range plan (in contrast to Superman’s quick fix, which does not work),12 which eventually incorporates most of his partners and colleagues: Oracle, Huntress, a new Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Robin, Nightwing, Azrael, Alfred, and Dr. Thompkins, as well as Jim Gordon and the GCPD. It is a long road to the city’s healing, to a restoration of the law and order that existed before the earthquake.
Batman’s ultimate goal is this reestablishment of order; thus, it is extremely important that he reconcile with Jim Gordon, who previously distanced himself from Batman, feeling betrayed by the Batman’s absence those first months. Batman’s ongoing relationship with Jim Gordon emphasizes that he is not an isolated vigilante, a law unto himself. He seeks to uphold social justice, and to that end he works closely with Jim Gordon and is also more in tune with the GCPD than at odds with it. He also has a code against killing, and his reprimanding Huntress for her more violent methods parallels Jim Gordon’s disciplining Petit. (Huntress, though, redeems herself in the end and witnesses Petit’s descent into insanity.)
As a detective, Batman uncovers crimes that run counter to social order; and as a gang lord, he walks the streets during the day and demands tribute to provide rules and structure to those citizens lost in this hostile environment. Batman helps people pull together to share resources in a more just way, as opposed to the exploitative ways of Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, and others. Batman must first dismantle their systems of oppression to establish a new order, which will eventually coincide with the work of Jim Gordon and the GCPD. It is a long process, involving the work of the Bat-family in the streets during the long months of No Man’s Land, and the money and willpower of Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne during the turning point, when the executive order is revoked. The rebuilding of Gotham is a long, tortuous road, with many sacrifices along the way.
Years later, in the real world, New Orleans is still rebuilding. Many people still live in temporary housing, and large sections of the poorer neighborhoods are filled with abandoned homes. Each anniversary brings national attention back to the devastation, but then the story fades away in the midst of other news. The people of New Orleans know that the process of rebuilding continues; there is much still left to do. They did not have a Batman with a masterful plan to pull the city back from the brink, but they have had government aid, National Guard troops, police officers, and volunteers of all types coming to their rescue. A hot debate continues as to whether there has been enough follow-up; the devastation was great, and many still suffer.
The Thin Veil
The stories of a ravaged Gotham and a flooded New Orleans leave us with a mixed message. We wonder how close we, in our different communities, might be to anarchy—what would it take to rip that thin veil of order? But on the other hand, we see stories of heroism as people pull together in the face of extreme challenges. Batman’s ultimate enemy is chaos: Arkham’s criminally insane celebrated in crippled Gotham, a city ruled by anarchy. Batman’s crusade is not only against them, but, more important, against what they represent. Though we often take social order for granted, we may also have a deep-seated fear about whether we could survive if that order were ever to crumble. Batman rises as a defender of social order, even as he operates in a questionable world of vigilantism. This image has resonated with readers, whether or not they could voice it, since 1939, and it is one that can still encourage those who listen today to fight to hold back chaos, as we continue to face disasters the size of Katrina. Hopefully we will have our own heroes in these moments of trial, common people who will rise to the challenges.
NOTES
1 Most of this storyline was collected in five trade paperbacks, No Man’s Land, Vols. 1-5 (1999-2001), and these will be cited in the text as NML 1, NML 2, etc. Some parts of the story were not reprinted in these volumes, and can be found in the various Batman-related titles from 1999 to 2000.
2 These storylines encompass a number of issues from 1998 and 1999. Aftershock includes Batman #555-559, Detective Comics #722-726, Shadow of the Bat #75-79, and Batman Chronicles #14. Road to No Man’s Land includes Batman #560-562, Detective Comics #727-729, and Shadow of the Bat #80-82.
3 Batman #560-562 (December 1998-February 1999).
4 Allen Breed, “New Orleans in the Throes of Katrina, and Apocalypse,” WWLTV .com, September 2, 2005.
5 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Norton Critical Edition) (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), Book 1, chapters 10-18.
6 See Brett Chandler Patterson, “Of Moths and Men: Paths of Redemption on the Island of Second Chances,” in Lost and Philosophy: The Island Has Its Reasons, ed. Sharon Kaye (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007).
7 See Sarah Kaufman, “The Criminalization of New Orleanians in Katrina’s Wake.” June 11, 2006, http://www.understandingkatrina.ssrc.org.
8 Hobbes, Leviathan, Book 2, chapter 20.
9 Niccolo Machiavelli,. The Prince (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005 [1532]). One of the main arguments of this work is that a ruler must be aware of his social reputation. It is not enough to be virtuous; your subjects must also see you being virtuous.
10 See Stanley Hauerwas, Peaceable Kingdom (Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1983); H. Richard Niebuhr, Meaning of Revelation (New York: Collier Books, 1960 [1941]); and John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1992 [1972]). Hobbes’s political philosophy so removes God from earthly politics that it is easy to see why a number of proponents of his thought have seen an atheistic bent to it, even though Hobbes himself denied such a connection.
11 Chris Carroll, “Hope in Hell: From the Gulf Coast to Uganda—The Reach of Humanitarian Aid,” National Geographic, December 2005, http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0512/feature1/index.html.
12 See “Visitor,” in NML 3.