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Tembo, Kwasu. "72 Votes: Theorizing the Scapegoat Sidekick in Batman: A Death in the Family." The Detective’s Companion in Crime Fiction. A Study in Sidekicks. Eds. Lucy Andrew and Samuel Saunders. Crime Files. New York [etc.]: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. 189–213. Added by: joachim (2/20/22, 2:49 PM) Last edited by: joachim (2/20/22, 4:13 PM) |
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| Resource type: Book Chapter Language: en: English DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-74989-7_10 BibTeX citation key: Tembo2021 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Batman", Death, Fandom, Girard. René, Superhero, USA Creators: Andrew, Saunders, Tembo Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (New York [etc.]) Collection: The Detective’s Companion in Crime Fiction. A Study in Sidekicks |
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Tembo examines the 1988–1989 ‘A Death in the Family’ Batman story arc where Jason Todd, then Robin, is captured by the Joker, near-fatally bludgeoned with a crowbar and left in a warehouse rigged to explode with a time bomb. The chapter explores how Todd’s fate was placed in the hands of readers through a controversial device developed by DC Comics and Batman editor Dennis O’Neil, who set up two 1–900 number 50 cent hotlines which gave callers the ability to vote in favour or against Todd's death. The final results of the vote were 5343 for and 5271 against—a margin of 72 votes. Referring primarily to Rene Girard’s mimetic theory, which offers novel approaches to the relationship between desire, violence, scapegoating, sacrifice and the mediation and control of violence, this chapter seeks to theorize these 72 votes and conceptualize the ‘murder’ of a child sidekick in which readers are complicit.
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