Here's Daniel Gullotta again to challenge your certitudes and thinking. What can we learn from superheroes like Batman and other comic book characters? Daniel argues: "in turning our attention to Batman, or any superhero for that matter, we can draw out our understandings of vocation, purpose, fear, and what makes a true hero".

The Goddamn Batman!

He is a legend. He is a victim of tragedy, a crime fighting vigilante, a masked avenger, but ultimately he is a hero. He is Batman (or the goddamn Batman! – inside joke). The brain child of Bob Kane – while Batman might seem like your normal childish superhero, be assured that he is as complex as he is contradictory. As a long time comic book reader and now budding theologian, in turning our attention to Batman, or any superhero for that matter, we can draw out our understandings of vocation, purpose, fear, and what makes a true hero.

The man behind the mask is Bruce Wayne; a multi-billionaire playboy who, as a child, witnessed the murder of his parents. Witnessing his horrible act of violence, injustice, and crime changes and in a way corrupts Bruce. His mother and father devoted their entire lives to ending street poverty, police corruption, and speaking out against crime and yet, ironically, they are killed by the very thing they sought to defeat. In another sense, by the very people they were trying to help. Bruce blames himself for the death of his parents, because it was his fear during the play that made them leave earlier. While not directly the cause of their deaths, he personalizes the event, and takes full responsibility.

He learns the power and harsh reality of violence, crime, and death.

The Victim's Vocation

The point is that through this event, he dedicate his life to avenging – not revenging – his parents' death. Rather then seeking "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", he wishes to protect those like his child-self, the weak and the innocent. To prevent them becoming what he ultimately is, a victim. He suffers from a hero complex in this way. He is obsessed with helping others and righting wrongs. Batman's origin and mission, as tragic as it is, has always hinged on circumstance: no murder, no Batman. When it comes to the murder of his parent's, the core tenet has been challenged, but never overturned. Batman faces the reality of evil and violence, rather then merely trying to explain it away. The foundation of his morality is that his parent's deaths will not be in vain. While Gotham City and the world are full of criminals, decadence, moral decay, and urban misery, these things can be overcome through the power of choice.

Through the beliefs and ideals of his father, all of the above are simply symptoms of circumstance and choice: nurture, not nature. One must take responsibility for one's circumstance, and not let them affect your choice to do well, to change the world, and save lives. According to the philosophy of Batman, one draws meaning through their circumstances, but ultimately finds it defined by their choices, in spite of their circumstances. He wishes to store what he lost; he wants to restore peace and justice and make sure others don't lose it as well.

While many claim that Batman is on a quest of vengeance, I have never been understood vengeance as a heroic ideal. A hero embodies more then the simple quest to right a wrong. Frank Millar explains: "He's clearly a man with a mission, but it's not one of vengeance. Bruce is not after personal revenge… He's much bigger then that; he's much nobler than that. He wants the world to be a better place, where a young Bruce Wayne would not be a victim… In a way, he out to make himself unnecessary. Batman is a hero who wishes he didn't have to exisit."

The Killing Joke

Yet there is a character that asks, questions, and tests Batman's foundations to their very core. While some of his villains are motivated by lust, greed, or power, most of them have a clear desire and to some extent an understandable motivation. However one villain asks, questions, and tests the foundations of Batman unlike any other: the Joker. Batman and the Joker are reflections of each other, both of them operate outside social normality, they are both intelligent, and they are both very talented at what they do, yet it is what they do — the difference in their choices — that makes them truly opposites.

While most view their battles of one with fists and weapons, it is more so a battle of philosophy. While Batman bases his whole life on the loss of his parents, the Joker laughs (mostly literally but symbolically as well) at this very concept. The Joker's outlook is different and expresses an almost anarchic atheism. The Joker believes that there is no god, no created order, no security and no certainty. Life, and the very notion of existence, is simply "the luck of the cards". Life is meaningless and because life is without purpose – life is a joke. Because life is a joke, there are no consequences to actions and he can do whatever he wants with his life and the lives of those around him. The law is a joke, justice is a joke, money is a joke, life is a joke – the punch line is that existence has no meaning. The Joker in this sense embodies chaos and unleashes death. Why you ask?

The frightening answer is because he simply can.

An Unstoppable Force, A Moveable Objection

The Joker makes us question how we view justice and punishment. Because he won't stop, he can't be cured, he will always escape, and he will always kill the only way to truly stop him is to kill him: execute him as the murdering criminal he is. Yet a fundamental characteristic of Batman is that he refuses to kill his enemies. As soon as Batman kills, he becomes as bad and as low as the man who killed his parents. He refuses to take the life of someone into his own hands. He believes he has no right to choose when life ends for someone.

Yet, the temptation is still there. If he killed the Joker, hundreds, thousands of lives would be saved. And to a deeper question, by sparing the Joker's life time and time again – is Batman just as guilty as the Joker? How much blood is on Batman's hands? Adding all this up, he could bring an end to all his violence and chaos with a single decision but it all comes down to the age old question: does the end justify the means?

As tempted as he is, the answers is always no. As simply as the Joker kills, Batman cannot. He was a victim of violence and death, and he has seen how powerful and lasting they are. Death destroys the lives of not just the dying person, but the people around them. While he works for justice, he still is at the end of the day (or night rather) not the law itself. He has no legal right and, in his understanding, no moral right. The other factor is where would the executing end? If he kills a killer or rapist why not remove, or kill, the corrupt politicians? The double-dealing police officers? Why not implement his ideas for society in all aspects of every day life? He would stop being a hero and become a tyrant. A fantastic scene takes place where Batman and Robin are discussing the issue: Robin says he doesn't do it because it would be too hard. Batman replies that is in fact, "too easy". He also reminds Robin who is behind the line. Ultimately, Batman describes killing as "a slippery slop".

While the Joker is an unstoppable force, Batman is an unmovable object.

The Dark Knight

As a budding theologian, Batman and the Joker often make me think about life and death. As extreme as they are, they live in worlds of black and white, right and wrong. Sometimes we as Christians, as people, we try and evaluate everything to the point where we lose sight of the true nature of the argument. Rather than seeing the gray, we seek it out or even create it so we can find an easier solution to the problem. While Batman might be Gotham's unwanted knight, he is a very uncomfortable morality teacher as well. Perhaps what makes Batman man a superhero is his ability to see, cling, and uphold the right.

Batman reminds us of the fundamental truth that killing is wrong. While we can argue the truth behind this statement in some situations, we should uphold to the belief no one has the right to take another's life into their own hands. We should seek to avenge rather then revenge, we should support justice over condemnation, and mercy over punishment.

Robin: "Self-control is sure tough sometimes, Batman!"
Batman: "All virtues are, old chum. Indeed, that's why they're virtues."

Batman Comics and Graphic Novels Daniel Recommends:
Batman: Year One (1987) Frank Millar & David Mazzucchelli
The Dark Knight Returns (1986) Frank Millar
The Killing Joke (1988) Alan Moore & Brian Bolland
The Long Halloween (1996) Jeph Loep & Tim Sale
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth (1989) Grant Morrison & Dave McKean
The Man Who Laughs (2005) Ed Brubaker & Doug Maknke
Dark Victory (1999) Jeph Loep & Tim Sale

IMAGE CREDITS:
Daniel provided the images used for this commentary and I've not yet had time to identify their sources ...Ed.

©2009 Daniel Gullotta

[Index of Commentaries by Daniel Gullotta]