Some Batman connections to agriculture for Batman Day
Fans of the Caped Crusader are waking up Sept. 19 to celebrate Batman Day.
Established in 2014 by DC Comics to celebrate Batman’s 75th anniversary, the celebration every September is a salute to all things Batman, Gotham City, and Bruce Wayne (allegedly).
And as it turns out, some of Batman’s enemies have used or targeted agriculture to cause harm to the people of Gotham.
Enoch Brown
One series of Batman cartoons features a character named Enoch Brown, also known as Farmer Brown.
Brown is a microbiologist and an agriculturalist, and a teacher at Gotham Academy who developed a method of creating massive growth in animals to end world hunger.
During an exhibition of a giant sheep, the animal escaped and attacked the crowd.
A following trial found Brown guilty of reckless endangerment, and he was ordered to cease all experiments.
In protest to the court decision, Brown released a mutated bull, cow, and a flock of mutated chickens onto Gotham City. He demanded a ransom of $50 million, or he’d release mutant insects on the public.
When Batman arrived on scene, Brown, with the aid of an electric pitchfork, temporarily got the best of the Dark Knight and loaded him into a rocket carrying unhatched mutated insects.
Ultimately Batman would escape, destroy the rocket, and Farmer Brown would eventually be brought into custody.
Poison Ivy
One of Batman’s most formidable foes, Dr. Pamela Isley is a botanist who uses “The Green” to control plant life, reclaim urban spaces, and cause harm to any who oppose her.
In one case, Ivy merges her husband’s DNA with plant material to create hybrid creatures.
They look like children initially but mature into green monsters with claws that look like cacti.
And in the 1997 Batman movie, Poison Ivy shows off a half-snake, half-plant monster to Mr. Freeze. And she controls vines that captured Batman and nearly drowned Robin.
Scarecrow
Dr. Jonathan Crane, a clinical psychologist and psychology professor, uses a fear toxin, which causes victims to hallucinate their worst fears.
That toxin is made in part from crops.
In Batman Begins, Crane uses Bhutan blue flowers. This is a nod to the Himalayan blue poppies found in areas of Nepal, Tibet, and Myanmar.
The Joker
As Batman’s eternal foe, The Joker has multiple times to created chaos in Gotham via food.
In a 1978 comic storyline, The Joker poisons the water in Gotham Harbor to create a mutated “Joker Fish.”
His plan is to extort a percentage of all fish sales from the city’s seafood sector.
And in The Dark Knight Returns comics, he feeds children at a county fair poisoned cotton candy.
In at least one case, Batman and one of his enemies teamed up to take down another over an ag related incident.
In the No Man’s Land comic book storyline, the U.S. government abandons Gotham City after an earthquake.
Using her botany experience, Poison Ivy takes over Robinson Park and creates an ecosystem to provide fruits and vegetables for citizens.
But another villain, Clayface, enslaves Ivy and orphans into forced labor with plans to sell the ag harvests to the highest bidder.
Batman and Ivy eventually join forces to stop Clayface, and reach a deal where Ivy provides food for people in Gotham in exchange for her freedom.