The news media has recently reported that DC Comics will be killing Batman in a coming issue. This might not seem like a big deal to you. After all, while Batman has become an icon in the American Media Culture, our children no longer read comic books. Only a handful of adults continue to care about this medium, with its mixture of the visual and textual, of archetype and narrative. This has resulted in books with an adult aesthetic, with gritty, violent and profane stories, which in turn makes the books less accessible to children. An excellent and recent children’s novel, Mascot to the Rescue, bemoans the state of comics while still showing how the books create meaning in the life of one little boy.I should be upfront and say that I am part of that small group of adults who still cares about comics. To be fair, I stopped collecting when I entered Divinity School, but my collection covers three of decades and thousands of issues, the majority of which feature Batman.
Today’s Batman is as gritty and complicated as its adult readers, but the heart of the story is still simple. Batman is dedicated to making justice when the standard systems of the world cannot do so. He sweeps in from above, mysterious and outside of the law, and he makes things right. One moment the bad guys are terrorizing the public, and two pages and a few “ka-pows†later, they’re hogtied, turned over to authorities, and Batman is back in the manor.
We all want justice to sweep in and make things right. Sometimes we allow our frustration, individual and collective, get the best of us. That was certainly the case in the painful weeks after 9/11. We want justice, whether it comes through the Divine or through a missile. And we make up stories to justify our execution of justice.
This is a pretty tough problem, faith-wise. We are expected to turn the other cheek. God moves to us with irresistible grace. The thief is forgiven and the table fellowship is open to all, even the sinner. The landlord pays all the workers the same wage, and it doesn’t seem fair. Our stomachs hurt when we see the guilty go free, when we see the innocent perish. We want a God like Batman who protects the innocent and punishes the wicked. And we want it now.
During the month of January I will be teaching a Christian formation class on our own version of Batman, the tradition of apocalyptic in our scripture and tradition. There won’t be pretty pictures, and the readings are a bit more complicated than the comics, but it will be just as exciting. I invite you to join us in wrestling with this topic, and I promise that we will make it relevant to how you live today.
As for the Death of Batman, well you can never trust comics’ writers. The dead just won’t stay dead. Sounds like another story I know…
Blessings,
Gary