At the end of it all, there is the Bat.
Most are familiar with one of the major archetypes of modern mythology. A fictional young rich boy loses his parents, becomes lost, finds light in vengeance, and becomes the greatest comic book superhero to ever grace the pages of print of the 20th/21st century. A mythic symbol of the best humanity has to offer; intelligence, peak physical discipline, and the aptitude to defeat aliens, gods, super villains, and even fellow super heroes. He is the ultimate symbol of humanity transcending its boundaries.
My love affair for Batman began like most adult my age with the 1989 Tim Burton blockbuster film Batman. My brother and I were obsessed with Batman that summer. We found old toys at rummage sales, new toys at K-Mart and Shopko, scoured comic books stores for old issues that weren't expensive (anything above $5 an issue was insane and out of our reach), and even bought Prince cassettes to listen to the soundtrack at home. It was an amazing time to be alive.
Of course, as time moved on, we wanted to see all the Adam West episodes on WGN, and thanks to our parent's VHS recorder, we did. We even recorded the old classic Adam West movie and watched tens of times. We then drifted into comic dictionaries of Batman's villains, his equipment, the Batcave, and his greatest cases. As time moved onward, we got a copy at the local library of Frank Miller's dark take on the Dark Knight, and our minds were blown away.
Of course, high school fell upon me that following year, and I was too cool to be buying comic books. So I kept my addiction to Batman on the low, dabbling here and there when I could and no one was really watching me. When I got through high school and was ready to begin college, I remember going to the local comic book store and spending over $100 of my hard earned summer job money on the Knightfall series, and again being blown away. The girl who sold it to me later came up to me and asked me out on date. I remember being not sure what was more surprising: Batman being felled by Bane, or a girl actually liking Batman too.
Later, my comic book purchases dwindled to very little while I continued college. I still loved Batman; I still would buy on Ebay complete sets of the The Long Halloween and Year One when I had extra cash, but I wasn't keeping up with the monthly issues whatsoever. I would occasionally catch reruns of Burton's Batman series on television, but George Clooney and Val Kilmer? Give me a break, Hollywood. No thanks! Then came along Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale's Batman Begins, and all bets were off.
What a film! I remember going on a date to the movie with a girl I'd seen a few times. I don't remember anything about that date except the movie, and how blown away I was by it. I remember even slightly crying a bit at the scene where the soundtrack was blasting, and Batman was standing atop a gargoyle, high above Gotham City; the Batman had finally returned to the big screen.
Then he left once again. After the Joker, Two-Face, Catwoman, Bane, and some weird nuclear bomb ending, Nolan managed to leave the franchise in ruin. To be honest, I gave up; I picked up a few issues of Scott Snyder's Owl Court series in DC's New 52, but couldn't really bite. I think I was out of it and had a Batman film hangover. Don't get me wrong; I still loved Batman, but Nolan left me with a bad feeling.
Yet Batman found me again. My brother talked me into the XBox Arkham video game series, and I loved it. I went to Ben Affleck's take on Batman in Batman vs Superman, and again, I loved it. I bought a couple of coffee mugs and even built up my Batman character on my phone's video game DC Legends. Justice League? Don't ask, yes I loved it. And yes, I still loved Batman. Yet the comics continued to allude me, until this past summer I found this :
I'm not going to lie, I loved this Snyder series. My wife and I took our one year old daughter to the Wisconsin northwoods for a week long vacation, and I spent the entire time downloading and reading the complete Dark Metal series. This story was epic; the idea of multiverse versions of Bruce Wayne as the Green Lantern, the Flash, Doomsday, and of course, the Joker, was mind boggling to me. The idea of Batmans existing in dying Universes, getting the chance to survive by uniting against our beloved heroes in an effort to sink our Earth in space time, yet ultimately being defeated by the Batman (with some surprise assistance) took my mind to places it hadn't been since I was a kid. I had no idea the state of comic books was where it was. A Batman gunning down Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and the Red Hood? Where was I? What world did I just enter?
That leads me to today: where am I now with Batman? The Metal Knights series has me buying print comic books again. I'm reading King's work, Detective Comics, (which is quite good), and Snyder's Justice League. I'm even getting my little girl into comics with this quartet of wonderful books:
My wife complains a lot about it, but I don't care. It's Batman after all. So a very, very happy Batman Day from one fan to many others around the world today. Happy Batman Day indeed!
