The Prince of Gotham: Prince's Multifaceted Batman Project

Asked by Warner Bros. to contribute supporting songs for the Tim Burton–directed film Batman (1989), Prince responded with his own Batman universe in the form of a nine-track album (Batman: Motion Picture Soundtrack), five singles (with remixes and b-sides), three music videos, and a loosely related comic book. Though the album was a popular success, many critics and media scholars denigrate the work as emblematic of 1980s media synergy run amok, while Prince scholars have largely neglected it altogether. Prince's Batman project is not merely work "inspired by" a film but a complex multimedia work that critically interfaces with the Batman myth as well as Prince's other audiovisual work. This article offers a close analysis of the materials that comprise Prince's Batman project and explores the ways the artist intervenes in the Batman discourse while revealing his ongoing concerns with the fluidity of race and gender. Prince inhabits the perspectives of several of the film's famous comic book characters: Batman, Bruce Wayne, Joker, and Vicki Vale. He also creates a new character, "Gemini," who appears on the album, in two music videos, and in the Alter Ego comic book. Through these works, Prince demonstrates his multimedia acumen by transforming an existing commercial property while remaining true to his larger oeuvre.