An Analysis of Autobiographix in Paul Dini’s ‘Dark Night’

The following extracts are from an article titled ‘How does Paul Dini use the values of fictional characters to represent the processing of trauma in Dark Night – A True Batman Story‘?

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Dini’s representation of self shifts rapidly throughout the book. As Dark Night is written more than twenty years after the event initially took place, Dini has had time to analyse his life leading up to the assault, the attack itself and how it affected him afterwards. As such, much of the book leading up to the mugging is spent tearing apart the writer’s childhood fascination with characters, his love life or lack thereof, and isolationist lifestyle. By focusing on the influences of his youth, such as the 1960s Batman television series, Dini explains the existence of these characters in his psyche by showing that they have always been there. In fact, Dini defines these imaginary friends as a “coping mechanism,” that he invents to handle difficult situations, such as bullying and meetings with his psychiatrist. As J. Caleb Mozzocco explains, however, it is not Dini’s imagination that the reader is seeing.

“The major difficulty with the book is a rather existential, fundamental one, which there’s no realistic way around: Dini is not a cartoonist, so he probably couldn’t have drawn this story himself, which means his imagination is filtered through a different person’s vision.” As a piece of autobiography, this does raise a concern about authenticity, especially given the inclusion of fictional characters; an element that arguably disqualifies the book from being autobiographical at all. However, considering that these characters are filtered through the man who re-defined many of their attributes for the modern age, Dini’s creative license is well deserved.

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By allowing the character of Batman to play such a pivotal role in his autobiography,  Dini makes a number of assertions about his psychology, whether he did so intentionally or not. While the book’s connection to the caped crusader is tied to his role as a staff writer on Batman: The Animated Series at the time of the attack, by titling the book Dark Night, Dini is intrinsically linking his narrative to the persona of the Dark Knight. Given that so much of the narrative focuses on Dini’s mental health struggles, it is poignant that his psychological representation of strength and morality is a character who famously inspires fear. Dini does not invoke a symbol of hope, like Superman, he imagines a broken hero, whose search for vengeance comes from traumatic scarring as a child. In Dark Nights and the Call of Conscience, Jason J. Howard discusses how the inherent nature of Batman’s character is problematic, “The central question for me has always been how the Batman, who uses the very fear tactics and subterfuges employed by his enemies, and who himself is damaged goods, can remain the hero without becoming the villain.” Multiple comics have demonstrated how Batman is simply a mirror image of those that he fights, with Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke highlighting that all it took was  “One bad day” to turn a small child into a winged vigilante and a loving husband into a clown-themed serial killer. By knowing this and still creating a connection between his own psyche and that of Batman, Dini suggests that the angel on his shoulder is just as troubled, if not more so, than he is himself.

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For Dini, as powerful as the presence of multiple villains may be, his work and his mind always return to the Joker. While Dark Night is subtitled A True Batman Story, the Joker exerts more influence over Dini than the hero does, a tribute to the writer’s long and complicated relationship with the character.  The Cesar Romero incarnation of the Joker was Dini’s imaginary friend of choice during his childhood, and even as an adult he depicts himself as favouring Joker merchandise. As Carter previously explained, Dini’s Joker is a combination of multiple incarnations of the character from which the writer drew influence. Dini’s Joker holds both the clown like showmanship of the 1960s television series and the psychopathic tendencies of his comics counterpart, bringing a darkness to the animated series that Dini credits Tim Burton’s Batman with making credible “It proved people could take the character seriously again.” It is this character that he brings from his animated adaptations to his autobiography; a manipulator who appeals to Dini’s weaknesses in order to sabotage the very mind he is a part of.

Upon realising that his dinner date will once again end in failure, the Joker stands in for Dini’s sense of embarrassment by throwing a pie into his face and then squirting him with water, highlighting the villain’s circus origins. Even after Dini finishes his presentation to the villains, an act of catharsis that he has used to organise his thoughts and feelings about the trauma, Joker steps in to tear them down, “The part where you survived… Boring!… “Batman writer, fatality of a street crime.” Ha! Now that would have been hysterical!”  This act shows Dini’s, perhaps subconscious, attempts to disrupt his recovery over time, and even paints a picture of his doubts in regards to telling an autobiographical narrative to the reader. The Joker’s constant encouragement for Dini to give in to despair is portrayed as a kind of game that the villain is playing, as if it is part of one of his grander schemes.