(Sometimes) Racist Batman & Thanksgiving Through the Years

Strangely, Batman and Thanksgiving have a long history together. It’s true. Throughout the 75 years The Caped Crusader has patrolled the streets of Gotham, he’s been known to recognize the 3rd Thursday in November, or at least been recognized by writers and artists during the holiday. Here are some of the most interesting incidents depicting Batman and Thanksgiving through the years.

In Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: Long Halloween issue 2, Batman investigates a bombing that supposedly kills Harvey Dent. He goes through Solomon Grundy and eventually traces the incident to to Carmine Falcone, who is celebrating Thanksgiving. The issue jumps around to different characters in Gotham and the different, often unfortunate ways they spend their holiday.

In one of the most glaringly racist and uncomfortable Batman adventures (Detective Comics #205), Bill Finger tells us the origin of the Batcave. In it, Batman and Robin travel back 300 years to 1654, beat up some American Indians to keep them from ‘scalping white people’ and hole up in what would become the Batcave. Bruce Wayne dons Redface to ‘mingle’ with the native peoples and fight ‘crime’.

Wait, it gets better. While trying to rescue a white man from ‘savages’, he enters camp in his clever guise, but gets outed during a rainstorm. He proceeds to dazzle the simple native folk by showing them tricks with his batarang he calls ‘magic’. This version of Batman later makes a far less racist appearance in Grant Morrison’s Batman Incorporated as ‘Lakota Batman’.

In 2013 Jason Fabok created a teaser picture for Batman Eternal during Thanksgiving. Here’s the DC All Access episode about it.

Finally, here’s a great moment from 1989. Tim Burton’s Batman had taken over American pop culture. So much so that The Joker crashed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Check out the video: