SEEKERS OF THE BAT

Above is the seminal scene in the Batman myth. The moment Bruce Wayne finds his life’s direction.  If not for that fateful event, how would our lives have turned out?  Alfred speculates below.

Being thrust into life threatening scenarios on a daily basis can make anyone just a little bit jaded. As a result, Batman can handle situations like being set on fire with complete aplomb. Logically, there’s no reason to panic, it’s probably just a new strain of fear toxin. Ho hum.

Dustin Nguyen gives us this awesome group shot of the major characters in the Bat universe. It must have been a blast to put together. The only character I had trouble identifying was the little girl sitting on Clayface’s shoulder. It turns out she’s Annie, Clayface’s “daughter” from the animated series. For such a loner, Batman sure does have a lot of people in his life :)

In issue 6 of “The Return of Bruce Wayne”, we see the panel above of a bell, which supposedly symbolized “The First Truth of Batman”. Additionally, throughout the miniseries, Bruce Wayne’s timeslips would be preceded by the sound of bells. It is not until later in the book that they would explain the bell’s significance by recreating the scene below from Batman: Year One.

And so in the bell he used to call for Alfred on the day he decided to become Batman, we learn that the First Truth of Batman is that he has never been alone. He has always had a family of friends and allies to turn to in times of need.

After Bruce Wayne’s apparent death in Final Crisis, the rest of the Bat family had an internal struggle as to who should carry on as Batman. In this teaser photo, we have a sampling of the major players.  From left to right, the various Batmen are: Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Two-Face, Jason Todd, with a special mention to Hush (with a bandage around his leg), who surgically altered his appearance to match Bruce Wayne’s.

Dick Grayson eventually reluctantly gave up his Nightwing persona to become the new, kinder Batman taking his adoptive stepbrother Damian on as his Robin.

Batman is often written as the pinnacle of human self actualization.  After all, he exchanged a large portion of his life to become a world class athlete, detective, forensic scientist, criminal psychologist and martial artist.  With all that accomplishment, it is surprising to know that even a perfect man can still fail, and has human doubts and frailties.  As ever, Alfred steps in during his darkest moment to get him back on track and he continues on his crusade.  In the Batman Begins film the lesson is explicitly stated: “Why do we get knocked down?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up again.”

No version of the Batman myth exists that doesn’t also include Alfred Pennyworth. As Bruce Wayne’s de facto father figure since his he was 8 years old, Alfred has more influence over Batman than anyone else. Whether he needs a costume repaired, gash stitched, bullet dug out, or perfect cup of tea, Batman knows Alfred can handle any request with equal aplomb. Batman has explicitly stated that without Alfred, there is no way he would have survived for as long as he has.

Batman is ubiquitous in almost every part of popular culture, and video games are no exception. Here’s a clip of Batman critiquing his own performance in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

Here we see the Batcave, an integral part of the Batman myth, complete with state of the art computer, indefatigable butler, high ceilings and poor lighting.