My favorite comic book character is Batman. Ever since I saw the first movie I was hooked on to this character. To be generic about these comic book characters – One as a child you love those vigilantes who fight injustice, evilness and mobsters with the kind of justice only they can provide. Secondly they have those normal lives like you and me on a daily basis. Some are rich and endowed while others less privileged yet willing to help others in need. Thirdly some of them possess fancy and cool gadgets in their Armory. As normal people we cannot even imagine about them. Fourth they somehow have all the energy and passion to fight the ills plaguing the society at night and still active and sprightly during the day. At least the rich ones can do that….Fifth they also have time to romance beautiful ladies. That’s why we call them heroes and not vigilantes.
Back to Batman…his fiercest and iconic villain is the Joker. It’s primarily to do with the character build up as opposed to others and the stellar performance by both Heath Ledger who won an Oscar posthumously and by Jack Nicholson another Oscar winner. You don’t actually remember anyone else all through the years. Except maybe the other two villains in the Batman trilogy written and directed by Christopher Nolan. One is Ras Al Ghul played coolly by Liam Neeson and other one Bane by Tom Hardy quite menacingly.
If I were to get into the psyche of Batman the following is what comes to my mind. As a child he was terrorized watching his parents shot down and murdered right in front of his eyes. Fear takes hold of the child as it should be for any normal human being. Then the guilt factor seeps in as he feels responsible for his parents death. Eventually when he grows up the guilt converts into a rage and pent up fury to abhor the violence around him. These feelings of angst, remorse, responsibility and bitterness manifest in the form of Bats. It is internalized and suppressed within like the Bats in a Dark Cave. There is a craving to let out that frenzied emotions against the evil mongers in a dark and diabolic manner. Who in this world would love Bats as pets. In addition, these are isolated creatures that live alone amongst themselves in their own dreary world surrounded by murkiness. They live in the shadows. Therefore, he chooses to be that which he actually feared and despised once as a child. From the color to the character it is all black so that no one can see the real persona behind the curtain he has built as a bat. He can easily assimilate and coalesce with the gloomy surroundings that gives rise to heinous deeds. He can fight the malicious an vicious characters in dreary conditions where normal mortals would fear to tread.
The key difference between Batman and his formidable villains is that while both of them loathe corruption and disparity in the society the approach to cleanse them is diametrically opposite. While Batman chooses to weed out the unethical practices and injustices against the poor sections of the society through welfare measures (because he is a rich and endowed businessman), others choose terror confusion, disorder and brutality as the means to an end. While Batman himself has been a subject of misfortune and misery (parents killed right in front of his eyes), he chooses not to perpetrate violence against those who create rampage and destruction in the society. Instead, he prefers the justice system to take over the criminals and provide what is needed for restitution of order, regulation and structure. Batman does not prefer to play the role of Judge, Jury and Executioner. Rather his only role is to help Police catch the criminals and let the Legal system take over the process of providing right justice as per the process. This remains the core theme in the fight against atrocity and barbarity. This puts the human will to severe as we can see in the movie The Dark Knight.
Batman and the Commissioner of Police choose Harvey Dent, the District Attorney as the White Knight to fight the criminals through just means. This is where Joker truly triumphs in his battle against Batman. When he turns Harvey Dent into a Two face murderer to avenge the death of his girl friend and his own disfiguration of his face. On the other hand, as it happens in movies and maybe in the real world too….the people vs the criminals choose to forgive rather than to blast the others to the sky. Here the Joker fails in his mission to incite violence and hatred in the quest for survival. Can people be still merciful and magnanimous even when they are faced with extermination. We choose to believe that the answer is yes. Otherwise, there will be no end to this madness in a crazy and lunatic world. Moral of the story, when you are faced with personal demons, anguish, misery, loss…how you choose to react will determine whether you are truly a compassionate and forgiving human being. It is definitely not easy….as we see from what happened to Harvey Dent in the end. It takes a hero to vanquish the beast brooding inside everyone.
It takes great amount of courage, indomitable spirit and endurance to take the fall for something you have not done in the name of greater good. That is what differentiates Heroes from normal mortals. It does, however, sometimes creates an irreparable damage mentally to languish in a self inflicted grieving mode. It takes again a daunting and dreadful enemy to revitalize those enervated veins and fatigued muscles. When the enemy knows who you are, they are already well prepared and know both your strengths and weaknesses. And if you don’t know your true adversary, you are bound to fail thinking that you can outsmart them. That is exactly what happened when you are all around surrounded by foes and you are already weakened mentally, physically and mortally due to constant confrontations with various opponents all through your life. Heroes fall too…however, they fall only to rise again….that is why they are Heroes in our eyes…
When they see people suffer, they forget their own anguish and ordeal. It is time to overcome the adversity and face the reality. It invokes another important quality of self belief and conviction. If there is self doubt, then it means that you have lost even before you started. You have to let go of apprehension, confusion, hesitation and skepticism. You need to have absolute faith and trust in yourself only then others will follow you as their leader. When this happens, the antagonist is shaken and disturbed, as it is totally unexpected. Heinous crime doers are finally vanquished. Death and Destruction paves way for Hope and Optimism. In the end, the answer is violent means does not lead to lasting solutions….they only perpetuate more calamity and catastrophe. Let there be peace, trust and unity to bind us all together.
Beautiful Life 