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Waving and high-fiving through the glass, Captain America, Batman and Spider-Man take children's attention off their medical troubles.

The nurses on the 20th floor were the first to see them. "Oh my goodness," declared Colleen Forrester, 29, a nurse dressed in green scrubs, who pointed to the windows. Other nurses came to look and laughed. Were the children strong enough to come see?

Soon, parents and nurses were leading kids out of their rooms. The children were small and frail-looking. Most were undergoing treatment for cancer and other serious disorders.

But on this cold April morning, they had a precious moment of distraction.

The window washers at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago were dressed as superheroes. All morning, Captain America, Batman and Spider-Man swung on ropes outside the windows - waving to the children, posing for pictures - in what is fast becoming a semiannual tradition.

"Wow. They are so high up," said a wide-eyed Mason Turngren, 8, whose colon is failing and who has been in and out of the hospital the last four years. On Tuesday, he was exhausted from the most recent battery of tests and had to be coaxed to the window. Once there, he was transfixed. Mason waved to the heroes and put his hand on the glass to exchange a high-five with Captain America.

That moment meant a lot to Mason's mom, Dusty Turngren, 42. "Just to see a smile on his face," she said. The hospital had offered other events in recent days, including a visit from a therapy dog, but none had aroused Mason's interest. Then he heard that Spider-Man was outside.

"Superheroes are his favorite," said his mother, "especially Spider-Man." Mason spent a half an hour at the windows.

The superhero window washers made their first appearance at Lurie last year after Phil Kujawa, 46, the foreman of the crew, saw a news report about a similar event in another city. He mentioned the idea to his bosses at Chicago-based Corporate Cleaning and quickly got the green light.

Then Kujawa had the little issue of getting his crew to don the capes and tights. "At first, they were like, 'I am not wearing that,'" Kujawa recalled.

He emphasized how much it would mean to the kids, and eventually won over his crew.

Each window washer, Kujawa said, was carefully selected for his experience and skill. (Because of the architectural details on the building, Lurie Children's is not an easy building to clean, he said.) What's more, each man had to look like a hero.

Roberto Duran, 32, with a chiseled jaw and clean-cut good looks, would make a perfect Captain America, his bosses thought. Gerardo Vaca, 36, with a short, athletic build, seemed more a Spider-Man type.

And Pedro Castro, 45, with a bushy mustache, was chosen to become Batman "as a little bit of a joke," Kujawa said with a laugh. "We wanted to see what he would look like in a costume."

Now, he said, his team revels in the chance to assume the super identities.

"They smile and wave their hands," Vaca said of the kids. "They are so happy. I like [dressing up] because I like to see their happy faces."

Evelina London Children's Hospital in England might have been the first to ask its window washers to don tights and capes, according to news reports. After photos of the superhero window washers hit the Internet a few years ago, the idea spread to children's hospitals around the world.

Doctors at Lurie believe - even if they can't cite scientific studies to prove it - the happiness that is generated by "Superhero Day" can help children heal. "There is power in laughter and joy and excitement," said Dr. Stewart Goldman, a neuro-oncologist at Lurie. "I can't quote you a trial, but I know in my heart that it helps."

The heroes swung back and forth in front of patients' windows, lingering outside each floor, before lowering themselves again. Everywhere they went, they created a stir of excitement.

Ricky Canas, 27, stood away from the crowd with his 10-year-old sister, Angelina, a tiny girl with a tall IV pole. She got sick in February; doctors found a tumor in her liver. The days since have been long and terrifying. But Angelina has been a trouper, through the biopsy and surgery and now in the run-up to chemotherapy.

"I always liked superheroes," Canas said. He looked down at his sister, and gently touched her delicate chin. It was clear that Canas thought his sister was the real hero of the day. "Someone told me once, 'We don't have to find heroes. We can be our own.'"

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Superhero window washers lift spirits of young hospital patients

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Waving and high-fiving through the glass, Captain America, Batman and Spider-Man take children's attention off their medical troubles. The nurses on the 20th floor were the first to see them. "Oh my goodness," declared Colleen Forrester, 29, a nurse dressed in green scrubs, who pointed to the windows.

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THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE Trailer 1 - 3 (2017)

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The Dark Knight (2008) Official Trailer #1 - Christopher Nolan Movie HD

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It's Batman's 75 Anniversary, and between his upcoming adventures on the big screen (in the now filming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), small screen (as a young boy in this fall's Gotham), video game consoles (in Batman: Arkham Knight and LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham), animation ( Batman: Assault on Arkham) and multiple ongoing comic books (including his very first weekly, Batman Eternal), it's going to be a big couple of years for the Dark Knight. But that's okay, he's used to it. In fact, his entire history has been full of big moments!

In honor of this year's milestone anniversary, as well as this week's upcoming "Batman Day," join us as we journey through generations, with a look at a few highlights from a truly remarkable life.
1939
In 1939, National Comics (later to become DC Comics), was looking for a new super hero-a character who could build on the success of Superman. Editor Vin Sullivan turned to what appeared to be an unlikely creative source, gag cartoonist Bob Kane, and asked him to design a new hero. Kane conceived one of the most popular and enduring characters of the twentieth century-The Batman. The first Batman story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," was written by Bill Finger and drawn by Kane. It was published in Detective Comics #27, which hit newsstands on March 30, 1939 (cover date: May 1939).

In his first story, Batman was introduced as bored socialite Bruce Wayne. Donning his iconic costume, he became a ruthless crime-fighter who dispatched thugs with grim satisfaction. "A fitting end for his kind," Batman announced, after knocking a criminal into a vat of acid.

Batman utilized his Utility Belt for the first time to remove a glass pellet filled with deadly gas in Detective Comics #29 (July 1939). The first boomerang-like Batarang and the first bat-themed vehicle, the Batplane, made their debuts in Detective Comics #31 (September 1939).

Batman's tragic origin story, in which a mugger guns down Bruce Wayne's parents as the family walks home from a movie, was introduced six months after his debut, in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939).
1940s
The Dynamic Duo was born in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) with the introduction of Batman's trusty sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder. Dick Grayson was a circus performer who was orphaned when a gangster murdered his parents. After Batman teamed up with Robin, the tone of the stories changed. No longer a grim avenger who talked to himself, Batman evolved into a lighthearted father-figure trading wisecracks with his young partner.

Originally, Bob Kane agreed to try out Robin for just one issue, as DC's publisher Jack Liebowitz was against the idea of having a youngster fighting gangsters. After sales doubled on the first issue to feature the Boy Wonder, Liebowitz sheepishly agreed to keep Robin in future stories.

Batman earned his own self-titled comic book in 1940, while continuing to be featured in Detective Comics. Batman #1 (Spring 1940) was notable not only for introducing two of his most formidable antagonists, the Joker and Catwoman (here referred to as "The Cat"), but for a story in which Batman used a machine gun to shoot monsters. That story prompted editor Whitney Ellsworth to decree that Batman would no longer kill or use a gun.

Many other key pieces of Batman's world were introduced in the 1940s. Batman's home of Gotham City was first named in Detective Comics #48 in 1940, and the Batcave was introduced in Batman #12 in 1942. Batman's first car was an ordinary red sedan, but in Batman #5 (Spring 1941) the new Batmobile roared into action sporting its own bat-headed battering ram.

Batman and Robin declared that they didn't need a butler, but when Alfred Beagle (later changed to Pennyworth) discovered their secret identities and thwarted a gang of international crooks in 1943, he became one of their most loyal allies.

During the 1940s, the tone of the Batman stories grew more fanciful. The Joker became less of a sinister killer and more of a dangerous prankster. Batman and Robin journeyed to ancient Rome in their first time-travel adventure in 1944. Batman even found an enduring love interest when photo-journalist Vicki Vale was introduced in 1948.
1950s
Batman stories became somewhat bizarre during the 1950s. Batman became an unlikely science-fiction star, regularly battling space-aliens and robots. In one unusual transformation, he even became "Zebra Batman," a radioactive, black-and-white-striped menace to Gotham City. An entire Bat-Family of characters was added to the comics, including Batwoman, Bat-Girl, a magical imp named Bat-Mite, and even Ace the Bat-Hound, a crime-fighting dog that wore a mask.

A popular 1954 book called Seduction of the Innocent linked comic books and juvenile delinquency, leading to calls for censorship. DC's comics were far tamer than the gory horror comics from other publishers, but there was a clean-up campaign at DC for some of the characters. Catwoman, whose dress had been slit up to her thigh, stopped appearing in Batman stories in 1954 and didn't return in a new story until 1966.

Batman and Superman had been honorary members of the Justice Society of America in the 1940s, but it wasn't until the 1952 story "The Mightiest Team in the World" that they joined together in an unofficial partnership to fight crime. In that first story, Batman and Superman fought for the attention of Lois Lane-a competition won by Robin, to the surprise of both heroes.
1960s
To defeat the alien starfish Starro the Conquerer, Batman joined the Justice League of America in The Brave and the Bold #28 (February 1960), fighting alongside team members Wonder Woman, Flash, Superman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern.

By 1964, sales of Batman and Detective Comics were sinking, and they were in danger of being canceled. To stem the slide in sales, the books were assigned to editor Julie Schwartz, who ushered in a "New Look" for Batman. Changes included a yellow oval around the bat on the hero's chest, a new Batmobile, and a hotline to police headquarters. Batwoman, Ace, and Bat-Mite were retired, and the focus turned to detective stories. Faithful butler Alfred was killed off, and Dick Grayson's Aunt Harriet came to live with Bruce and Dick.

The campy, colorful Batman television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward made its debut on January 12, 1966. A huge ratings success that aired with two new episodes every week, the show spawned an unprecedented number of tie-in toys and merchandise, and it also inspired a new generation of Batman fans. Sales of the Batman comics soared.

Created at the request of the Batman TV show producers, a new Batgirl made her debut in Detective Comics #359 in 1967. She was revealed as the teenage daughter of Gotham City's police commissioner James Gordon, who never knew that Barbara snuck out every night to fight crime. Luckily, she always made it home in time to pursue her studies in forensic psychology.

After the Batman TV series was canceled in 1968, sales of the comics fell again. In Batman #217 in 1969, Dick Grayson left for college, and Bruce Wayne closed Wayne Manor in favor of a penthouse apartment, the first step in a move to reestablish a "back-to-basics" atmosphere for the character.
1970s
In the early 1970s, the Joker and the rest of the Rogues Gallery were out of the picture, at least for a while. Batman operated alone and relied on his wits, solving mysteries and fighting street thugs in back alleys. He had returned to his original incarnation: a shadowy figure haunting Gotham by night and striking fear into the hearts of criminals.

1971 saw the arrival of the mysterious and all-knowing villain Ra's al Ghul in Batman #232, written by Dennis O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams. Over the next years, Ra's al Ghul would develop into a world-class threat.

Batman returned to television when The New Adventures of Batman animated series premiered on February 10, 1971, featuring the voices of Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo. The series continued airing under different names until 1981.
1980s
Detective Comics #526 in 1981 saw the introduction of an orphan named Jason Todd. One year later, in Batman #368, Dick Grayson retired as Robin, and Jason Todd adopted the name.

In 1986, the four-issue series Batman: The Dark Knight, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, redefined the hero as an older, tougher warrior coming out of retirement to reclaim Gotham City from criminals who had overtaken it. It also introduced the first female Robin. As Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, it became the first DC story arc to be collected in book form and has remained continuously in print.

Also in 1986, Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli collaborated to update Batman's origin story in Batman #404-407. The book collecting those stories, Batman: Year One, was another best-selling title.

Tragedy and death touched Batman in 1988. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke was a nightmarish story about the Joker shooting Barbara Gordon and leaving her for dead. That same year, DC allowed readers to vote on the fate of Jason Todd, the second Robin. The readers voted "thumbs-down," and as a result Todd lost his life in an explosion caused by the Joker.

Batmania hit the public again when Tim Burton's Batman movie premiered in 1989 with Michael Keaton in the title role and Jack Nicholson as the Joker.

In the comics, Batman began exhibiting an excessive, reckless approach fighting crime, a result of the pain of losing Jason Todd. Batman worked solo until the decade's close, when Tim Drake became the third Robin.
1990s
In 1992, Batman Returns featured the return of Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight, facing off against Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer as the Penguin and Catwoman. That same year, Batman: The Animated Series made it debut on TV. A critical and popular success, the series continued under a variety of names for most of the decade.

In 1993, DC published the "Knightfall" storyline, which culminated when the ruthless villain Bane broke Batman's back. An anti-hero named Azrael became the new Batman, and Catwoman and Robin got ongoing comic book series of their own.

Batman and Gotham City faced catastrophe in the decade's closing crossover arcs. In the "Cataclysm" storyline, Gotham City was devastated by an earthquake and cut off from the United States Government. Deprived of many of his technological resources, Batman fought to reclaim the city from gangs of criminals during the 1999 "No Man's Land" storyline.
2000s
The 12-part "Hush" story in 2003 by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Jim Lee brought new energy and a huge audience to the Batman title. The story featured an array of the Dark Knight's worst foes and introduced the bandaged Hush, revealed to be a figure from Bruce Wayne's childhood.

In 2005, Christian Bale starred in Batman Begins, a film directed by Christopher Nolan. The film explored the origins of the Dark Knight and his emergence as a force for good in Gotham City. The 2008 follow-up, The Dark Knight, featured an Oscar-winning performance by Heath Ledger and became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

From the 1980s onward, DC published special crossover events that often had "crisis" in the title. The 2008-2009 crossover Final Crisis shocked readers by offering up what appeared to be the death of Batman after he fought the godlike villain Darkseid. With Bruce Wayne presumed dead, Dick Grayson became the new Batman.

In 2009, the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game became one of the best-selling and best-reviewed console games of all time.

In 2010, it was revealed that Darkseid had not killed Batman; instead, Bruce Wayne had become lost in time. Although Wayne eventually returned to the present day and reclaimed the mantle of Batman, he also allowed Dick Grayson to continue being Batman as well.

DC Comics hit the "reset" button in 2011 on Batman, Detective Comics and all the super-hero titles, starting them over as #1 issues in the company's "New 52" relaunch.

In 2014, writer Scott Synder and artist Greg Capullo updated Batman's origin story for the first time in 25 years in the new Batman: Zero Year storyline.

Oh, and remember that comic, Detective Comics #27? The one that introduced Batman to the world and kickstarted 75 years of amazing comic book, movie, TV and video game adventures? A copy of it sold for $1.07 million in 2012.

Then if you're going to Comic-Con, you can look forward to not one, not two, but three special Batman 75th Anniversary panels. Join Frank Miller, Jim Lee, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Denny O'Neill and Neal Adams in an in-depth discussion of the Dark Knight's life on the comic page in Batman 75: Legends of the Dark Knight, taking place on Thursday, July 24 from 3:30-4:30 pm in Room 6BCF. Saturday morning, your Bat-knowledge will get put to the test in the ultimate Batman trivia contest: Batman 75: Riddle Me This!, taking place on July 26 from 10-11 am in Room 6DE. Oh, and did we mention prizes are on the line? Finally, don't miss the once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, Ralph Garman, Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini and Senior Vice President, Creative Affairs, Warner Bros Animation Peter Girardi all together on stage to discuss the Dark Knight's legacy in pop culture in Batman 75th Anniversary, happening on Saturday, July 26 from 4-5 pm in Room 6BCF. And that's just the start! for even more Batman events taking place at Comic-Con. If you're a Batman fan, you're in for a good week. This week, hundreds of comic shops, bookstores and libraries will celebrate "Batman Day," a celebration of all things Dark Knight.

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Batman at 75: Highlights in the Life of the Caped Crusader

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It's Batman's 75 Anniversary, and between his upcoming adventures on the big screen (in the now filming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), small screen (as a young boy in this fall's Gotham), video game consoles (in Batman: Arkham Knight and LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham), animation ( Batman: Assault on Arkham) and multiple ongoing comic books (including his very first weekly, Batman Eternal), it's going to be a big couple of years for the Dark Knight.

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A horror in Bruce Wayne's childhood created the Dark Knight. Did a real-life childhood horror create Bruce Wayne?

DC / Jim Lee

When a really bad thing happens to children unexpectedly, the event can change them forever. As a child psychologist, I see firsthand what that means. Traumatized children often try to avoid thinking about a terrifying ordeal, but the horrible experience nevertheless replays itself in their minds and, as a consequence, in their lives. Sometimes this happens in immediate, obvious, and direct ways: bad dreams at night, phobias during the day. Other times, the traces of trauma can be delayed, subtle, indirect, and symbolic.

An example: One of my patients, Jeff, repeatedly acted out the same scenario with his action figures. A great battle ensued between the evil warriors and the superheroes. The battle reached the top of a castle where eventually the evil warriors were thrown over the parapet and died.

More on Batman

We might dismiss such play as typical for young boys. Except that for this boy the action, especially the tenacious repetitive nature of it, seemed to have special significance. In July 2001 he dined with his family at Windows on the World, the revolving restaurant atop the World Trade Center. He now struggled to integrate this memory with the horrible reality of the collapse of the very structure where he enjoyed himself on vacation. A place of joy transmogrified into a death trap. The same battle scenario went on for months. Jeff's dark demeanor during this play was in stark contrast to his pre-traumatic joyful mood during play. His play embodied the three distinct qualities of a symbolic post-traumatic reenactment: It was long-lasting, repetitive, and grim.

Early psychologists who studied trauma were concerned about its negative effects, and not surprisingly that is what they learned about. But more recent studies have searched for positive outcomes of trauma and have learned what novelists and historians have known for generations: Many people draw strength from adversity. They take inspiration from their suffering. They transcend their traumas and become better people.

Reenactments of childhood traumas can benefit the rest of us when they reverberate in creative pursuits that go beyond children's play, such as in art. Horrors from youth creep into an adult's artwork in the form of recurring themes, literal re-creations of the original terrifying events, and pervasive dark tones. The result sometimes provides entertainment that appeals to a broad audience. But post-traumatic reenactments speak more personally to audience members who also have experienced trauma.

Years ago I became aware that a particular superhero, who has entertained millions of people, had special appeal to the traumatized children who visited my office. I had a hunch that a trauma had inspired the creation of this superhero. See if you think my hunch was correct.

The Dark Night

His pals nicknamed him "Doodler" because he was constantly drawing pictures. His pals had nicknames, too-they were fellow members of a neighborhood club know as "The Zorros," an appellation that a young Robert Kahn had chosen, inspired by the cinematic crusader for justice played by Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. The Zorros' clubhouse was built with wood stolen from the neighborhood lumber yard-a place whose many nooks and crannies made it the location of choice for their games of hide-and-seek.

One night, when he was 15 years old, Kahn-who went by "Robbie" at the time-had a terrifying encounter. Walking home through rough neighborhoods of the Bronx after a music lesson, carrying a violin case, he was followed by "a group of seedy-looking roughnecks from the tough Hunts Point district," as he wrote in his autobiography 57 years later:

They wore the sweatshirts of the Vultures, and they were known to be a treacherous gang. They were whistling at me and making snide remarks that only "goils" played with violins. I stepped up my pace and so did they. Finally, I started running and they did likewise, until I reached my neighborhood. Unfortunately, my buddies were not hanging around the block at the time.

Kahn's memoir goes on to give a very lengthy, melodramatic blow-by-blow account of his dash to the familiar lumberyard, the Vultures's pursuit ("with terrifying menace in their eyes"), and his attempts at self-defense, complete with "Zorro" leaps, grappling hook, and mid-air kicks while swinging on a rope. He fought bravely, he writes, but for naught:

My worst fears came true. Two Vultures pinned both my arms behind my back and held me firm while another beat a staccato rhythm on my belly, knocking the wind out of me. Another bully stepped in and used my face for a punching bag-while he cracked a couple of my front teeth.

I was in a fog, when I felt my right arm crack at the elbow after a gang member deliberately twisted it behind me in order to break it. The pain was excruciating and I screamed in agony.

Before I blacked out and fell to the ground like a limp rag doll, I heard him laugh sardonically, "Just to make sure dat da Fiddler ain't gonna play his fiddle no more!" Little did he know that it wasn't playing the violin again that concerned me, but the fact that he had broken my drawing arm.

Then he stepped on the hand of my broken arm! I don't remember how long I remained in a blanket of darkness before I regained consciousness, but when I came to, I was a beaten, bloody wreck. Somehow I managed to pull myself up and it was then that I noticed my violin on the ground, smashed to pieces. This was the coup de grace!

This whole episode, to this day, remains in my subconscious like a nightmare. I had played Zorro and lost! Had it really been a dream or a movie, I would have emerged victorious. But this real-life drama had almost cost the life of a reckless fifteen-year-old.

Here we have a boy who was attacked by a gang of Vultures in the night. He defended himself by playing Zorro, using a grappling hook to fend off his attackers. He was unsuccessful and was hospitalized, severely injured, with the possibility that he would be unable to pursue his chosen career. In spite of permanent injuries-scars, chipped teeth, and limited mobility in one arm-he went on to become a cartoonist.

Seven years after being brutalized, he created a comic-book superhero that would become a pop-culture legend-and whose appeal may be deeply, subtly connected to what happened that night in the lumber yard.

The Dark Knight

In 1938, the first superhero arrived on the scene-Superman-and the comic book industry leapt from infancy into what is now known as its golden age. The "Man of Steel" not only changed the course of comic books, he set the course for Robert Kahn's entire professional career. Here is how that happened.

Superman was a huge commercial success. So one Friday, a DC Comic's editor asked Kahn, who now used the name Kane and drew slapstick comics, to come up with his own superhero to complement the Man of Steel.

Kane wrote, "Over the weekend I laid out a kind of naked superhero on the page, with a figure that looked like Superman or Flash Gordon. I placed a sheet of tracing paper over him so that I could create new costumes that might strike my fancy. Then, POW! It came to me in a flash-like the old cliché of an electric light bulb lighting up over a cartoon character's head when he has a brainstorm. I remembered Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of a bat-like flying machine."

And that's when Bob Kane created Batman.

The opening lines of the first Batman comic strip set the tone for a contemporary myth that has endured for 75 years: "The 'Bat-Man,' a mysterious and adventurous figure fighting for righteousness and apprehending the wrong doer, in his lone battle against the evil forces of society ... his identity remains unknown." Six issues later we learn what makes the Batman tick: a terrible trauma. In his youth Bruce Wayne witnessed the brutal murder of his father and mother by a street hoodlum. He vows to avenge their deaths by declaring war on all criminals and dons the bat cape and cowl to frighten his enemy. "And thus is born this weird figure of the dark ... This avenger of evil. The Batman."

Kane recognized three separate influences on the creation of Batman. The first was da Vinci's model of a flying machine called the Ornithopter, created about 500 hundred years ago. The second was the movie The Mark of Zorro. "Zorro's use of a mask to conceal his identity," Kane writes, "gave me the idea of giving Batman a secret identity." The third influence on Batman was a movie Kane saw the year before his attack by the Vultures: The Bat Whispers, an adaptation of a novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart. In the movie a detective tries to track down a mysterious killer, the Bat, and at the end of the film the detective is revealed to be the killer himself. His black robe and bat-shaped head made him look "very ominous" to Kane.

Kane also acknowledged the influence of other movies on what he called "the dark, mysterioso atmosphere" he tried to evoke in Batman. "Movies like Dracula," Kane writes, "... left an indelible impression on me. The first year of Batman was heavily influenced by horror films, and emulated a Dracula look."

Kane never acknowledged any link between his attack by the Vultures and his creation of Batman. His conscious purpose in relating the lumberyard nightmare in his autobiography was to show how close he came to losing his career as a cartoonist.

Batman's Battles: Post-Traumatic Play

From the beginning, horror was an important element of Batman. Kane envisioned the character as "a lone, mysterious, grim vigilante who operated outside the law." He succeeded in actualizing this vision. According to The World Encyclopedia of Comics:

The Batman was portrayed as a relentless manhunter dedicated to the eradication of crime. He would play on criminals' fear of the night and exploit his bat-like appearance. He could be vicious-he shot more than one man-and his amazing abilities overwhelmed the common hoodlum. In short, The Batman was an avenging vigilante. He was never depicted as the bon vivant, talk-of-the-party crimefighter; rather, the early Batman strips presented him as a slightly unsavory character. This dark, mysterious mood was greatly cultivated and well-portrayed in the 1940s and early 1950s.

After discussing how the mood of the comic strip lightened up in the second year of publication, Kane wrote, "I prefer the first year of Batman when he operated solo and was a more sombre [sic] character." He also refers to this Batman as looking "vampirish" and "ominous-looking," the same adjective he used to describe that dark night in the lumberyard.

Post-Traumatic Resonance: The Dark Knight Returns

Of course, we can only speculate about whether Kane's life-threatening encounter with the Vultures on a dark night in a Bronx lumberyard inspired his creation of Batman. But regardless, the Batman myth, as originally conceived and as elaborated in contemporary interpretations, leaves no doubt that Bruce Wayne's trauma is the raison d'être and driving force behind his life's drama-or the reason why he endures.

As of this month, Batman has entertained fans for the past 75 years. He is now the only comic book superhero who has remained continuously in print since the Golden Age of comics, outlasting even his most famous colleague, Superman, who disappeared in 1992 but was then resurrected.

There are many reasons for Batman's popularity. Here I want to focus only on the role of trauma in his enduring appeal. I am particularly interested in the talented children who were so drawn to Batman that they grew up to become the writers and illustrators who inherited the character and now perpetuate the legend. Which aspects of Batman lore do they perpetuate? Often, it's the dark effects of his traumatic origins.

After a period of encounters with spacemen and silly characters, culminating in the camp comic Batman many still remember from the '60s TV show, the early 1970s saw the lifting of rigid restrictions on comic-book content. Liberated from those restraints, the Batman legend was free to evolve in whichever direction best expressed what psychoanalyst Jacob Arlow called "the communal myth." What has evolved-and what we can take as the essential myth of Batman-is true to Kane's original conception: Batman as a dark, foreboding, brooding, obsessed victim.

Batman's return to his Dark Knight roots was led by writer and editor Dennis O'Neil. He envisioned Batman as a Darknight Detective "whose parents were killed by a thief in the night in front of his eyes, and who grew up with a kind of schizoid paranoia that made him believe it was his role in life to track down-at times even maim-the villains of the world." Batman editor Robert Greenberger noted: "Superman has always been a light, positive hero, Batman has been grim and possessed."

Batman's world matches his mood. "Not the sunny place most superheroes are accustomed to," observed Vaz. "Batman's world is a place where capricious fate can deal out sudden death to innocents." It is, according to Vaz, a world that emulates a particular genre in literature and film:

The word noir ... has come to stand for a dark, fatal vision ... . Even when the hero of a noir piece emerges triumphant, some price, usually the early loss of a loved one, has been paid. The Batman mythos has been steeped in such noir traditions from the very beginning. ... This noir menace is the glue that holds the whole of the Batman oeuvre together. ... Despite the risks and the air of menace (perhaps because of them), fans for fifty years have been plunging into the darkness with the Batman.

Vaz's parenthetical guess is right on the mark: It is precisely the air of menace that draws readers to Batman.

In his essay, "Why I Chose Batman," Stephen King elaborated the theme of Batman as a scary figure. After discussing how Superman's superpowers, including the ability to fly, made it difficult to identify with him, the author wrote:

Maybe the real reason that Batman appealed to me more than the other guy.

There was something sinister about him.

That's right. You heard me.

Sinister.

... Batman was a creature of the night. ...

In those Batman-busts-in panels, you almost always saw a horrid species of fear on the faces of the hoods he was about to flush down the toilet ... Yeah, I thought ... that's right, they should look scared, I'd sure be scared if something like that busted in on me. I'd be scared even if I wasn't doing something wrong.

Another reader who thought the illustrations looked scary was an eight-year-old boy named Frank, who was destined to play a major role in shaping the Batman myth. Frank Miller's 1986 graphic novella, The Dark Knight Returns, is generally credited with creating a resurgence of interest in Batman; newspapers and magazines heralded its release as the coming of age for comic books.

Here is Miller's vision of Batman: "Do you know who I am, punk? I'm the worst nightmare you ever had. Kind that made you wake up screaming for your mother." This is the sort of terror that occupies the world of Stephen King, who praised Frank Miller's vision as "the finest piece of comic art ever to be published in a popular edition."

Contemporary interpretations of Batman repeatedly emphasize Bruce Wayne's trauma. Vaz believes, "This hero called the Dark Knight would probably have a very different place in comics history if not for that brutal origin, the memories of which are always lurking in the shadows of his mind and in the background of the mythos. ... It's what haunts him, drives him, makes him the hero he is."

In Batman: Year One, another Frank Miller story, Bruce Wayne describes the trauma as the night "all sense left my life." This is the changed attitude about life that is a hallmark of traumatized children. That attitude is evident whenever Batman's thoughts turn to the tragic event that occurred in what has become known as "Crime Alley."

Batman has other symptoms of psychic trauma. A 1989 story, "Blind Justice," written by Sam Hamm, depicts Batman as being plagued by anguish, nightmares, and wracking guilt. Hamm, who also wrote the screenplay to the 1989 Batman film, recalled Batman as being "very dark and ominous and quirky. That really makes the strongest impression on you when you're a kid. ... Batman is a mysterious guy; he's essentially a vigilante, and he's a fairly disturbed character. His whole gimmick is, he wants to be menacing, he wants to be frightening, he wants to be shadowy."

Roger Ebert had trouble with this "gimmick" as portrayed in the 1989 movie Batman: "There was something off-putting about the anger beneath the movie's violence," he wrote. "This is a hostile, mean-spirited movie about ugly, evil people, and it doesn't generate the liberating euphoria of the 'Superman' or 'Indiana Jones' pictures. It's rated PG-13, but it's not for kids." Recall that post-traumatic play is grim. Ebert recognized this quality and for him it was the obvious drawback of the movie-a movie that Bob Kane said kept him "spellbound." In a critique that strikes at the heart of the film's resonance with Kane's traumatic vision, Ebert complained: "The movie's problem is that no one seemed to have any fun watching it. It's a depressing experience. Is the opposite of comic book 'tragic book'?"

Let me offer one final example of post-traumatic resonance. The essence of psychic trauma is the experience of a sudden, unexpected turn of events-the rug being pulled out from under, plunging the victim into a nightmare that remains etched in memory.

A 1989 elaboration of the origin of Batman captures this aspect of trauma with a simple metaphor. At some unspecified time before the murder of his parents, young Bruce fell into a hole, an old cave, filled with bats. The experienced was terrifying. Reminiscing about this earlier trauma Batman thinks, "You're walking along and you fall through a hole. You never stop falling." This, of course, is exactly what it means to be traumatized.

Thus the stage is set for Bruce Wayne's identification with the bat as his means of mastering trauma. Approximately 20 years later, when the re-traumatized orphan Wayne ponders the choice of his secret identity, he sees the bat and the curtain rises on his transformation to a "weird figure of the night."

This story closes as it opened, with Batman perched, above the city, atop a stone sculpture protruding from the ridge of a skyscraper-a sculpture of a vulture.

The final caption reads, "He breathes deeply, filling himself with the night-and steps forward and falls-as he fell when he was a child-as he will fall for the rest of his life."

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Batman's Secret Origin Story: How a Traumatic, Real Event Created the Dark Knight

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A horror in Bruce Wayne's childhood created the Dark Knight. Did a real-life childhood horror create Bruce Wayne? When a really bad thing happens to children unexpectedly, the event can change them forever. As a child psychologist, I see firsthand what that means.