Batman: Horror Comics

[Abishai100]

Batman (DC Comics) is a modern comic book superhero, a complex masked urban vigilante who tackles the criminally-insane in a fictional placed called Gotham City. Batman's nemeses are perfect social symbols of anti-social terror --- Scarecrow (a masked maniac wielding fear-toxins and sometimes weapons), Penguin (an underworld ghoul), Poison Ivy (a dangerous eco-terrorist), and Mad Hatter (a logic-gamester who blends terrorism with insanity).

Batman comics have been adapted into cartoons, television programs (including the famous 1960s series starring Adam West), toys and action figures and of course Halloween costumes, video games, and full-length Hollywood (USA) films such as Batman Forever starring Jim Carrey and Batman Begins starring Liam Neeson.

Batman storyboards are rich in terror-imagery and pedestrian panic and arguably reflective of modern age urbanization-related calamity (e.g., 9/11, Los Angeles Race Riots of 1992).

Comic book art has exploded since the 1960s, and today, there are countless movies and video games featuring vibrant/graphic comic book characters such as Daredevil, Wonder Woman, and Captain America.

To honor this new 'trend' in media/entertainment, I've re-spun Batman (aka, 'the Dark Knight') as a modern-day Robin Hood oriented capital crusader who deals not only with terror and criminal insanity but also anti-social malice, pop-psychology zest, and even...horror.


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The Hindu deity Kali (goddess of feminine potency and rage) was observing the trends in modern consumerism which still placed women in kitchen-environments advertising new age products such as the Ninja Blender and the Keurig Coffee-Maker. Kali thought about earlier times such as the era of Ancient Sparta, when men whore leather skirts and helmets and wielded shields and swords while women cared for their estates and supported them religiously in territorial crusades. Kali realized that modern man was more hypnotized by commerce and 'style' than lifestyle-politics. Kali thought about the Indian boti (a rustic and basic board-and-blade kitchen-tool used for cutting foods on the floor with hand-and-foot), used by many women in India in even recent times reflective of a 'labor domestication.' Kali wondered if the boti was like her own 'weapon,' the scimitar (a curved blade symbolizing female prowess for her). Kali decided that Gotham City needed a 'consumerism overhaul.'



Unfortunately for Kali, Gotham was plagued by its own problems which Batman (its cherished vigilante and defender) was dealing with on a day-to-day basis. The ominous eco-terrorist Ra's al Ghul (an Arab who wielded a scimitar-like weapon for grandstanding!) was initiating an anti-police 'campaign,' intending to behead cops and then dump the heads into the Gotham River as a gesture of 'anti-urbanization rebellion.' Batman had no time to deal with Kali and her pleas about the cries of women in the kitchen worried about overlooked labors in this age of convenience, consumerism, and domesticated merchandising (e.g., Wal-Mart). However, Kali insisted Batman listen to her suggestion that the Indian boti was like her scimitar and could be 'referenced' in modern Gotham socialization 'problems' regarding anti-commerce angst (the kind Ra's al Ghul was exploiting with his own curved-blade!).



Batman met with GCPD officer Bullock who by no surprise was busy guzzling down coffee and glazed jelly-doughnuts at the local Dunkin Doughnuts. Bullock believed Ra's was a nut and did not want to give him any undue attention, but Batman insisted Ra's was working on some kind of 'mega-scheme' and may have some 'secret ally.' Bullock would not hear it and continued his lazy investigation of Poison Ivy (Gotham's more 'attractive' eco-terrorist) who sent a warning-letter to the Gotham mayor, suggesting she might take the Gotham Aquarium as hostage for ransom on Earth Day. Batman realized he would not receive any civics-support from Officer Bullock, so he continued his tracking of Ra's al Ghul on his own, but Kali watched over all this and decided to shadow Batman and follow the 'Dark Knight' while he tracked Ra's. Kali knew that Ra's did indeed have a 'secret ally' --- a masked maniac named Scarecrow who wielded fear-toxins and intended to use kitchen tools and hardware as commerce paranoia fear-propaganda 'items.'



Finally, Kali was able to convince Batman that Ra's was allied to Scarecrow. Scarecrow was planning to lace the Gotham Reservoir with a deadly hallucinogen and then broadcast a pirate-TV transmission on which he would declare that various household items and hardware tools were now in the province of anti-urbanization terrorism. Batman realized Scarecrow's hallucinogen-plan was intended to frighten Gothamites into fearing their own household items and tools such as their toaster-ovens. Kali insisted that Scarecrow would wield the Indian boti somehow to create general panic about global/cultural 'development' of kitchen goods. Batman started to believe her and decided to stake out the Gotham Kitchen and Tools Store (on Main Street). Sure enough, Scarecrow was there, and Batman arrested him (at midnight) trying to loot the store of various kitchen-hardware. Scarecrow led Batman to the Gotham River where Batman discovered numerous dismembered fingers (of Gotham police officers!) which Ra's al Ghul placed there after chopping them off with Indian botis! Kali remarked, "Modern crime has become a 'Satanic horror-show'!"

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[Abishai100]

Etan and Etyana: Cyril's Dragnet


This one is inspired by the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

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Batman's counter-part Cyril the Knight in London, England was working on a new intriguing case involving a vaudevillian-couple performing duet-stage ventriloquism performances with their 'evil dummy' Damien and then sending a noxious sleep gas and then robbing the patrons and audience members. This ventriloquism 'trio' called itself the Anorak and generations later, there would be a UK website made in their honor with a red 'A' symbol signifying Anarchism Philosophy/School. Cyril believed Anorak would one day knock out patrons and kill them, but Anorak instead drew blood --- enough to fill an ample amount of glass-vials for a nefarious anti-social nihilism propaganda 'crusade.'



The vials of 'vampire-blood' made their way to Scotland Yard, the London Times, and of course Buckingham Palace. It was an odd surprise that Anorak was comprised of a brother-and-sister (named Etan and Etyana) who exhibited surprising amounts of romance and sentiment. Nevertheless, Cyril knew they were absolute vampires. Cyril the Knight tracked Anorak to an abandoned warehouse where the demonic clown Pennywise was hiding out, planning his next hideous move --- perhaps to blow up the World Trade Center in NYC! Cyril arrested Anorak and Pennywise and confiscated Damien-the-Dummy and had the doll stored in an ancient forensics library-museum in a secret deep underground lair in Washington, D.C.



Years later, the doll and the glass-vials of vampire-blood were still around, and they found their way into the hands of a Yale Literature and Archaeology professor named Archibald Sanger. Sanger believed he was transforming into Indiana Jones as he explored the mystical 'reality' of the glass-vials and Damien-the-Dummy. It turned out that Damien seemed to be possessed by a demonic-spirit which hounded his very eyes and resulted in the manifestation of a cold Machiavellian doll who seemed to whisper horrific things like, "Brothers and sisters can slay together...for Jesus!" Cyril thought he was going mad so he retired (now at the age of 70). Cyril would have been proud had he known of the investigation work on Jack the Ripper lore his counterpart Batman performed at Yale University in the great Socioeducation Summer of 2018. It was at once demented and delicious! These were the new hippies...or were they 'charlatan-psychos'?

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[Abishai100]

Bride of the Devil


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Bruce Wayne sanctioned the opening of a new experimental science-research firm called Nygma Science, which was spearheaded by an eccentric genius named Edward (Nygma). Nygma wanted to extract pedestrian psychology for the modern age of media and traffic and mount a portrait of modernism fears that seeped into the human phenotype. Naturally, Nygma Science explored concepts such as media-driven brainwashing, civics unrest catalyzed social depression, copycat killers, and deformations of da Vinci's The Vitruvian Man (a symbol of macro-physique). At first, Nygma Science's primary interest was in the analysis of the psychological impact of dangerous performance-enhancing steroids use by professional American athletes (e.g., Barry Bonds), but soon, Edward ordered a new investigation to begin --- fertility terrors.

Fears regarding macro-fertility naturally arose in the modern age, which was really swamped by mass traffic, urban claustrophobia, and unlimited commerce and data proliferation (e.g., eBay). Humanity was becoming 'robotic,' and Nygma Science wanted to explore the psycho-sociological impact of such 'pseudo-Orwellian realities.' Edward (Dr. Nygma) cited the folkloric relevance of culture-totems which symbolized a civilization appreciation of the harvest (and farming!) and translated these totems for modern mass-marketing convenience (consumerism) culture (e.g., Wal-Mart). Dr. Nygma wondered if mass use of Amazon.com, eBay, eTrade, Facebook (etc.) was 'dehydrating' man's sense of 'organic fertility.' Dr. Nygma had the odd theory that such macro-processes would give rise to real fears regarding the devastation of female fertility. He even postulated that war-toys (e.g., laser-guns) would become more popular than naturalism-toys (e.g., Cabbage Patch Kids).



Dr. Nygma received the Nobel Prize for his work, and Nygma Science became very prominent in America and began to rival Bruce Wayne's own highly-successful company Wayne Industries. Bruce Wayne himself wondered if all this newfound 'intellect-driven celebrity' would drive Dr. Nygma mad or plague his mind with the burdens of vanity and fame. Nevertheless, Bruce was intrigued by this new line of 'Vitruvian-fertility psychology' work Nygma Science was carrying out in the new millennium. Bruce was of course America's favorite (secret) masked vigilante Batman, and what Batman did not realize was that Dr. Edward Nygma despised the 'dark knight.' For the moment though, what was of greater interest was that a young woman named Laura Logan, the niece of a WWII soldier who was the 'product' of a soldier-enhancing genetics experiment involving the insertion of titanium claws in the fists as battlefield-weapons, was also interested in Nygma Science.

Laura believed in Dr. Nygma's work and agreed that this 'Vitruvian-fertility' approach to modernism psychiatry bore much fruit (potentially), however, she wondered if so much 'explicit talk' about terrible societal subconscious fears would prompt some psycho to carry out murders to 'exploit' the symbolic work of Nygma Science. Sure enough, two months later, a deranged killer surfaced (calling himself Night-Slasher) who was targeting Gotham City prostitutes and removing their breasts and genitals (after strangling them to death with a piano-wire, sometimes beheading them completely). The Night-Slasher would deliver the terribly extracted female body parts to the GCPD (on the footsteps of the police station!) with the note, "Let Nygma Science cure this social deformity." Laura Logan decided to don her uncle's titanium-blades into her fists (an inheritance left to her) and begin stalking the Night-Slasher (so Nygma Science would not be vilified). It was time for Batman to intercede and help all parties reach some foundation of sanity (and moral hygiene!). It was a dark time.

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