- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,956
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This Batman (DC Comics) mini-detective story is inspired by the modernism-nihilism Danny Boyle film The Beach and the networking-cunning David Fincher film The Social Network.
In The Beach, a young American traveller named Richard roams around a paradise-like island off the coast of Thailand and confronts the spectres of isolation and self-indulgence and even meditates on the eeriness of shadows and light.
In The Social Network, young American upstarts tool around with the human urge to use computers to create virtual 'playspaces' and in the process daydream about becoming entrepreneurial 'warlocks.'
I'm using a Richard caricature from the Boyle film to invent a new Bat-villain named Green Imp, and I'm using a hacker-nerd caricature from the Fincher film to invent a new Bat-villain named Yellowbeard. The challenge for Batman is to decode which Bat-villains these two ghouls actually are, parading around under new identities and appearances (hint: it's not Joker or Scarecrow).
Why is criminal psychology so chic lately?
====
Batman sat on a stool in front of the separated cells of Green Imp and Yellowbeard at Arkham Asylum. Around him stood a handful of news reporters, criminal psychologists, and Arkham scientists and the warden. Batman was charged by Gotham City police commissioner Jim Gordon to decode who the Green Imp and Yellowbeard actually were; the two villains claimed to be nemeses Batman knew but demanded they be interrogated in front of the media by Batman to see if their identities could be decoded.
Batman looked over his notes, and cameras flashed. The princely vigilante of Gotham City was excited about this challenge and decided that the best way to approach this detection-problem was to encourage Green Imp and Yellowbeard to start out by providing their own 'crime biographies' and perspectives on urban criminality (and criminal insanity). Batman would then provide his hypotheses, analysis, and conclusion for the press and for the two villains so their treatment at Arkham could continue unfettered.
GREEN IMP: Alright, Batman, I'll start. I started out considering the identity of a ghoul named the Grey Goblin, and I wanted to basically look and feel like a Gotham criminal. I decided to paint my skin green (and not grey) and terrorize the GCPD and kidnap the mayor's daughter and hold her for ransom so as to direct the attention of Gothamites towards the glaring jurisprudence vulnerabilities in the city, vulnerabilities that not even Batman could easily detect. My concern is for the intellectual vitality of morally apathetic Gothamites. Who am I?
YELLOWBEARD: Alright, I go next then. I like Gotham City for its peculiar profiteerism labyrinths, but I detest the managerial weaknesses among Gotham's politicians, and were it not for the diligent work of Commissioner Gordon, Gotham would be little more than a haven for the cowardly and gluttonous. I originally intended to dye my grown beard green and call myself Green Goblin, but instead, I dyed my grown beard yellow (and named my masked self Yellowbeard) and set about robbing Gotham Bank and then placing a potent hallucinogenic gas in the Gotham Supermarket before Batman could arrive to shower the affected Gothamites with the antidote. Who am I?
BATMAN: Firstly, I'd like to thank the press and the psychologists on-hand for their spotlighting of this little 'psychiatric experiment.' What is Gotham City if not a giant cauldron in which psyche experimentation can yield valuable insights about the mental value of shared detective work? The city is the hub of modern commerce and transit, and its building requires the efforts of all the citizenry. I'd also like to thank Green Imp and Yellowbeard for this exciting opportunity to witness their treatment at Arkham.
BATMAN: Secondly, I'd like to offer my analysis of the testimony of Green Imp and Yellowbeard. Green Imp sounds like he is most likely the Riddler-in-disguise. Only Riddler (Edward Nygma) would have the intellectual gumption and brass to use Gothamites as guinea pigs for a prophetic urban experiment involving the kidnapping of the mayor's daughter. The Green Imp appears as the Riddler is --- obsessed with the tomfoolery of the human mind and the confusion created by Gotham's general traffic.
BATMAN: Next, Yellowbeard is most likely the Mad Hatter. Like the Mad Hatter, Yellowbeard is like a 'network-hacker' focused on finding little 'civics loopholes' to make Gothamites mad. Only Mad Hatter would think to create bizarre ruckus at a supermarket only to see me arrive to 'save the way' with a mind-stabilizing antidote. Crime is funny and fun to the Mad Hatter, as it is to Yellowbeard --- a mental opportunity.
Green Imp and Yellowbeard both stood up and applauded Batman, since he had correctly guessed their secret identities. Green Imp (Riddler) explained he kidnapped the mayor's daughter to pronounce the general civics apathy in Gotham City and frustrate their 'analyses' of urban securities. Yellowbeard (Mad Hatter) explained he terrorized the Gotham Supermarket, so people would feel like they were unreasonably tumbling down a consumerism 'rabbit-hole' before Batman arrived to restore sanity.
Batman was assured by the Arkham scientists that the treatment of Riddler and Mad Hatter could now proceed smoothly now that it was discovered that the two Bat-villains were the ones disguised as the new 'criminal celebrities' Green Imp and Yellowbeard. The press recorded the event as an unusual success in the annals of everyday urban detective work, and everyone was pleased the way Gothamites came together to make this procedure 'work for the masses.' No one realized, however, that Ra's al Ghul (another Bat-villain) watched the media coverage and had planned to break Riddler and Mad Hatter out of Arkham to recruit them for his newest eco-terrorism scheme --- an assault on Gotham Aquarium.
====
In The Beach, a young American traveller named Richard roams around a paradise-like island off the coast of Thailand and confronts the spectres of isolation and self-indulgence and even meditates on the eeriness of shadows and light.
In The Social Network, young American upstarts tool around with the human urge to use computers to create virtual 'playspaces' and in the process daydream about becoming entrepreneurial 'warlocks.'
I'm using a Richard caricature from the Boyle film to invent a new Bat-villain named Green Imp, and I'm using a hacker-nerd caricature from the Fincher film to invent a new Bat-villain named Yellowbeard. The challenge for Batman is to decode which Bat-villains these two ghouls actually are, parading around under new identities and appearances (hint: it's not Joker or Scarecrow).
Why is criminal psychology so chic lately?
====
Batman sat on a stool in front of the separated cells of Green Imp and Yellowbeard at Arkham Asylum. Around him stood a handful of news reporters, criminal psychologists, and Arkham scientists and the warden. Batman was charged by Gotham City police commissioner Jim Gordon to decode who the Green Imp and Yellowbeard actually were; the two villains claimed to be nemeses Batman knew but demanded they be interrogated in front of the media by Batman to see if their identities could be decoded.
Batman looked over his notes, and cameras flashed. The princely vigilante of Gotham City was excited about this challenge and decided that the best way to approach this detection-problem was to encourage Green Imp and Yellowbeard to start out by providing their own 'crime biographies' and perspectives on urban criminality (and criminal insanity). Batman would then provide his hypotheses, analysis, and conclusion for the press and for the two villains so their treatment at Arkham could continue unfettered.
GREEN IMP: Alright, Batman, I'll start. I started out considering the identity of a ghoul named the Grey Goblin, and I wanted to basically look and feel like a Gotham criminal. I decided to paint my skin green (and not grey) and terrorize the GCPD and kidnap the mayor's daughter and hold her for ransom so as to direct the attention of Gothamites towards the glaring jurisprudence vulnerabilities in the city, vulnerabilities that not even Batman could easily detect. My concern is for the intellectual vitality of morally apathetic Gothamites. Who am I?
YELLOWBEARD: Alright, I go next then. I like Gotham City for its peculiar profiteerism labyrinths, but I detest the managerial weaknesses among Gotham's politicians, and were it not for the diligent work of Commissioner Gordon, Gotham would be little more than a haven for the cowardly and gluttonous. I originally intended to dye my grown beard green and call myself Green Goblin, but instead, I dyed my grown beard yellow (and named my masked self Yellowbeard) and set about robbing Gotham Bank and then placing a potent hallucinogenic gas in the Gotham Supermarket before Batman could arrive to shower the affected Gothamites with the antidote. Who am I?
BATMAN: Firstly, I'd like to thank the press and the psychologists on-hand for their spotlighting of this little 'psychiatric experiment.' What is Gotham City if not a giant cauldron in which psyche experimentation can yield valuable insights about the mental value of shared detective work? The city is the hub of modern commerce and transit, and its building requires the efforts of all the citizenry. I'd also like to thank Green Imp and Yellowbeard for this exciting opportunity to witness their treatment at Arkham.
BATMAN: Secondly, I'd like to offer my analysis of the testimony of Green Imp and Yellowbeard. Green Imp sounds like he is most likely the Riddler-in-disguise. Only Riddler (Edward Nygma) would have the intellectual gumption and brass to use Gothamites as guinea pigs for a prophetic urban experiment involving the kidnapping of the mayor's daughter. The Green Imp appears as the Riddler is --- obsessed with the tomfoolery of the human mind and the confusion created by Gotham's general traffic.
BATMAN: Next, Yellowbeard is most likely the Mad Hatter. Like the Mad Hatter, Yellowbeard is like a 'network-hacker' focused on finding little 'civics loopholes' to make Gothamites mad. Only Mad Hatter would think to create bizarre ruckus at a supermarket only to see me arrive to 'save the way' with a mind-stabilizing antidote. Crime is funny and fun to the Mad Hatter, as it is to Yellowbeard --- a mental opportunity.
Green Imp and Yellowbeard both stood up and applauded Batman, since he had correctly guessed their secret identities. Green Imp (Riddler) explained he kidnapped the mayor's daughter to pronounce the general civics apathy in Gotham City and frustrate their 'analyses' of urban securities. Yellowbeard (Mad Hatter) explained he terrorized the Gotham Supermarket, so people would feel like they were unreasonably tumbling down a consumerism 'rabbit-hole' before Batman arrived to restore sanity.
Batman was assured by the Arkham scientists that the treatment of Riddler and Mad Hatter could now proceed smoothly now that it was discovered that the two Bat-villains were the ones disguised as the new 'criminal celebrities' Green Imp and Yellowbeard. The press recorded the event as an unusual success in the annals of everyday urban detective work, and everyone was pleased the way Gothamites came together to make this procedure 'work for the masses.' No one realized, however, that Ra's al Ghul (another Bat-villain) watched the media coverage and had planned to break Riddler and Mad Hatter out of Arkham to recruit them for his newest eco-terrorism scheme --- an assault on Gotham Aquarium.
====
