Batman's Journal: Perspectives on Normality/Christianity

Abishai100

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Sep 22, 2013
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I've always been a big fan of Batman (DC Comics) stories and films. Batman is a very unusual comic book superhero, since he tackles the nefarious problem of criminal-insanity which is never simple to prosecute. Batman tackles all kinds of strange crimes in a fictional placed called Gotham City. Batman's nemeses include the frightening Scarecrow (a masked maniac wielding deadly fear-toxins), Poison Ivy (a seductive female eco-terrorist), Penguin (an underworld ghoulish crime-master), and Black Mask (a crime-syndicate boss and hellraiser).

What's so intriguing about Batman is that he himself is not really superhuman but rather a masked, geared, costumed, and wondrous weapon-armed vigilante/crime-fighter who deals with villains who are not superhuman either but rather...disturbing. This is what makes Batman equally accessible and eccentric. He's the most 'realistic' and most 'unusual' superhero in American comics.

Since Batman is an urban vigilante, he obviously symbolizes modern-day urbanization-related fears/concerns. We might therefore wonder what 'kinds' of adversaries Batman must confront to keep the American city safe.

Many have theorized that Gotham City represents either NYC or Boston, but it's not quite clear. What we do know is that Gotham symbolizes certain general paranoia regarding the dangers of urban mismanagement, an important subject in this new age of high commerce, confluence, traffic, and customs.

That's why I've composed this 'Batman-journal' in which the urban vigilante (sometimes referred to as the 'Dark Knight') reviews three iconic nemeses (Brainiac, Deformer, and the Babadook) and why they typify modern urbanization-related fears/concerns.

How is Batman a 'good psychiatrist' for our traffic-conscious TrumpUSA?

What do you think?

This is a crime-psychology 'vignette' with sociocultural overtones which is why I didn't feel comfy posting it in the Writing section as a straightforward 'creativity-exposition.'




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"I am Batman. I was born Bruce Wayne, inheritor of a fortune known as the Wayne Estate. My parents were murdered in an alley after leaving from an opera. I was raised by the family butler Alfred Pennyworth who instilled in me values regarding democratic-patriotism and Christian virtue. When I became a man, I decided to go on a sabbatical to Nepal where I studied martial-arts and vigilantism with a ninja-guru named Ken in the Himalayas. When I returned to Wayne Mansion right outside Gotham City, I donned a mask and cape and became the vigilante known by Gothamites as 'Batman.' The press sometimes refers to me as the 'Dark Knight' perhaps because I've dealt with an array of criminally-insane adversaries who undermine basic urban traffic securities the way a warlock or terrorists might do. Many of these Gotham nemeses are now locked up in Arkham Asylum (center for the incarceration/treatment of the criminally-insane in Gotham City). This journal is really about the symbolic 'weight' of three Arkham inmates I incarcerated personally --- Brainiac and Deformer and Babadook. Some anthropologist in the future will determine why/how these Gotham 'crazies' typified my 'vigilante-crusade' to keep the American city safe...and sane.

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Brainiac is a man who suffered a terrible medial accident resulting from mishandled chemotherapy. His body is now covered with radioactive sores, so he stays 'healthy' by attaching oxygen tubes into his head and body while 'gestating' in a special organic-chair. Brainiac was responsible for transporting chemical weapons into the hands of Black Mask, a crime-syndicate leader in Gotham to start an urban terrorism-campaign. Brainiac was also responsible for an Internet super-virus which crippled Wall Street's ties to Gotham. Brainiac obviously represents traffic-subversion, and I had to deal with him by 'convincing' him that his personal 'psycho-somatic paranoia' arising from his strange malady made him 'vengeful' towards normal urban civics and infrastructures. To this day, I wonder if Brainiac was the Devil himself. He remains extremely 'sensitive' but is in Arkham fortunately.

Deformer is a humanoid alien from Venus who landed in Washington and was moved to Gotham to serve as a scientific advisor to Wayne Industries in a new project involving cybernetics. However, it soon became known that Deformer's intention was to use Wayne tech to create terrorism-oriented schemes designed to frighten consumers. Deformer is basically a madman (or 'mad-alien') whose purpose is to 'eschew' social imaginations regarding clear/normal lines of intelligence and science. I had to deal with Deformer by 'convincing' him that urban traffic is a thing of beauty and spirituality and not a thing of corruptible labyrinths. Deformer simply believed that the 'lines' of the American city (e.g., Gotham) were 'toys' that required 'anarchic manipulation' by Satanic hands. Thank goodness he too is now in Arkham.

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Finally, we arrive at the third nemesis, the Babadook. Babadook was once a children's book writer who penned stories about wondrous spectres taking shape from simple/harmless games involving spirit-incantations and normalized Ouija-board gameplay. However, one day, something in him just snapped. Babadook went on a terrible campaign, donning an eerie hat and painting his face with glowing white paint so he'd look like a 'spook' at night. Babadook was responsible for expunging the graves of Gotham cops and demolishing the corpses with a hammer and sending photos of his 'deed' to the Gotham Gazette, claiming that the destruction of organic 'memories' signified the reality of true evil --- the presence of morality-disintegration. It became clear to me that the Babadook was a ghoul who represented all the anti-social madness of the modern city and why a sentient-mind would want to create social panic. I dealt with Babadook (somehow) by 'convincing' him that Gotham's respect for Christian values 'redeemed' the city from the unsightly egregious punishments administered by an 'unrighteous hand.'

So, that's it. I believe Brainiac, Deformer, and the Babadook clearly represent the modern urbanization-oriented insanity that turns the American city (i.e., Gotham) into a hopeless bottomless-pit of confusion, vertigo, and ugliness. It's so challenging 'prosecuting' criminal-insanity, since you sincerely 'empathize' with the fractured minds of these criminally-insane evil-doers. However, Arkham Asylum remains a center for welfare and sanctity, since it reinforces our modern urban faith in the infrastructures that promote treatment and care more than punishment or the death-penalty. I believe Arkham Asylum is to modern-day Gotham what NASA was to the JFK-era of 'pluralism-idealistic America.' My continuing hope is that...someday...America will no longer have a need for a 'leviathan-fixer' such as myself ('the Batman'). 'Leviathan,' incidentally, is a metaphysics term referring to a mystical sea-beast signifying pure chaos/uncertainty. How can we Americans avoid the 'leviathan' of urban disarray? How can we better coordinate capitalism with democracy to ward off the human-unforgiving wrath of anti-traffic criminally-insane terrorists?"


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