Marval Movie

We all know it, we all recognize it, it's Batman's logo. Easily one of, if not the most, iconic image in the modern world today (It's definitely in the top three). But the meaning seems to slip people up, or they don't think about it. However as a huge Batman fan I cant help but think about the world of the Bat and through all that obsessive thinking I have come to a conclusion of how the greatest partnership of all time can revel itself through their logos.

In one of the most legendary comics of all time, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Miller gives his own interpretation to the yellow ellipse for the bat logo. In a scene where Batman is charging head first into a group with guns he takes a gun shot to the chest and and while falling narrates to himself "Why do you think I wear this sasaran on my chest--cant armor my head--". So that means Miller's explanation for the yellow in the Bat-logo is that he deliberately is drawing attention to himself, or at least his chest, so that bad guys will sasaran his chest, which he can fortify. But not his head which he cannot.

This has been the standard explanation for the yellow ellipse around the Bat. That's fine enough with me, its easy as well as logical so people can get it. However I have my own interpretation for the yellow around the Bat. To me the yellow is directly related to Batman's sidekick, The Boy Wonder, Robin.

First of all, look at the Robin logo. It has the reverse colors of Batman's logo (yellow in black). But honestly I see it more than that. The way I look at it Robin is the light that illuminates Batman's world and Robin is the light that has been put in the center of Batman's darkness.

When Robin first appeared, in Detective Comics 38, Batman had been the gritty, urban crime fighter. Then, for the simple reason of giving him someone to bounce obrolan off of, they gave him a kid sidekick. Yes that's true, reason for Robins creation, it was because for the issues until his appearance Batman would just narrate to himself and Bob Kane and Bill Finger had trouble writing him like that. It didn't come off natural so they gave him someone that he could talk to, simple as that. Also one of the misconceptions about Robin is that he's named after the bird, fair enough but its wrong, Robin was named so after Robin Hood. Part of Batman's genesis was that he was created from the great serial heroes, i.e. Zorro, so its natural that Bob Kane would have also like Robin Hood

This theory first took shape for me while watching Batman: Under The Red Hood. In the beginning of the movie Batman looks like he does from Batman: The Animated Series, with the cape behind his shoulders, his cape and cowl is light blue and the yellow ellipse is around the bat on his chest. The Robin (Jason Todd) tragically meats his end, then the movie cuts to five years later. Batman's cape now covers his shoulders, the blue is now black and the yellow ellipse is gone. Once again Batman is back where he started, with just the pitch black bat and no glowing light around it. While Batman is with Robin he is lighter and happier, when Robin exists, so does the light fun joy that Robin injects to the reading and to Batman's life.

The theory was absolutely supplanted when I read the paperback of 'A Death in the Family'. Where (again) the second Robin (Jason Todd) is killed by the Joker and the fallout of that is Batman becomes a hard-edged, nearly suicidal crime-fighter. But what happens after that story is that Tim Drake (so named after director Tim Burton) comes in. He's a smart kid who has figured out that Bruce Wayne is Batman (was it really that hard?) and has realized that Batman has grown more and more violent and depressed and says "Batman needs Robin". This is true, Batman for his entire existence has been hanging onto the edges of sanity by his fingernails and if he were to be deprived of a source of guiding light, then he would sink further and further into the darkness.

But back to the yellow. Well we could apply it to The Dark Knight Returns, over the course of the story Batman gets darker and darker before by the end of the book he's dressed in full-black metal armor. When we first see him his cape and cowl is blue and he has the yellow on his logo, so he looks like he simply slipped on the Adam West suit again after his retirement. My theory doesn't really work for this story because while there is a Robin in it the logo method is not put into play, in fact its the opposite. Batman starts with the yellow, but after him and Robin team up it's the all black Bat again.

There is also the Flashpoint Batman to consider. In that storyline Batman is not the Batman we know, he's not even Bruce Wayne. In that story we have a much more mean, brutal, sadistic Batman than we've ever seen before. He uses a gun, he kills and drinks! Along with all these changes to his character so have his colors. His eyes and ellipse are red, for the red around the bat logo I see it as it meaning that this Batman is a character fueled by rage and blood-lust. This is not a character that is surrounded by light but of  blood and vengeance.

The way I see it is this. If you see a Batman with a yellow logo then you can expect a lighter more fun Batman, if not then expect the dark mooding loner that stared into the darkness until it stared back.