Batman Comic Book

Since the 1940s, comic book readers have been entertained by stories of a mysterious caped crusader. Batman, the symbol of justice on the streets, prowls rooftops and alleys both thwarting common street thugs' petty misconduct and sinister schemes of criminal masterminds with the same self-righteous zeal. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is an epic, three-act saga that presents the rise and fall of this famous antihero. Archetypes, recurring symbolism found so often throughout literature that they have turned into tropes, are liberally scattered through Batman comics and movies.

Symbolism is taken to its natural extreme in Nolan's works of art. The movies of the Batman trilogy contain many archetypes in the form of characters such as Batman, The Joker, Scarecrow, and Bane.

Symbolism is an ingrained part of the world's storytelling toolbox. The way our world views both narrative works and everyday events is in terms of these literary tropes. Batman is a hero operating outside the constraints of the law. A classic antihero, this ruthless vigilante does his best to protect innocent people by using methods such as lurking in the shadows and terrifying criminals. He saves people's lives, but often comes into direct conflict with law enforcement. The Batman Trilogy portrays many symbolic and archetypical characters throughout its three movies.

It takes a certain kind of special person to run across rooftops and lurk in alleyways while dressed as a flying rodent. Batman seems to toe the line between eccentricity and outright insanity. He seems to believe that his nightly bouts of perceived tomfoolery in the shadows could make the world a better place (Dargis). Batman has a mission that does not seem to be either logical or healthy. His intention should not place him in an asylum. It is not a psychosis, but rather a calling. His single-minded quest represents our own desire to change our current situation to our favor.

Batman has many gadgets and toys, yet his main piece of equipment is his zealotry. We all seek to make the world better, even if we are the only ones to enjoy the changes. Batman takes the natural, human desire for change to the next level (Asay). He devotes his entire life to the sole purpose of making the depths of Gotham City's alleys into a brighter place for the innocent. Our yearning for the transformation of our surroundings is perfectly human. Batman is not supernatural. He is just a human as the rest of us, with one key difference. Batman is just a human utterly devoted to a cause.

Bruce Wayne, Batman's secret identity, is at the pinnacle of social achievement. He owns a multibillion dollar tech corporation, lives in a mansion, and hosts events that the true socialite wouldn't miss for the world. Beneath the playboy lifestyle that serves as a masquerade to fool outsiders lies a powerful force for good. Batman uses many tools to crush crime in the dark alleys. Batman, first and foremost, uses darkness to assist him in his quest. The darkness in which Batman shrouds himself symbolizes utter terror. All people have a primeval fear of the dark. Shadows themselves do not terrify us. Rather, it is what dwells beyond the light, under the bed, and in the closet that scares us senseless. We do not fear the dark, but the unknown monsters lurking just outside our vision. As they grow up, most people get less and less afraid of the dark, as we are constantly assured that it is safe, and that the monster under the bed was just our imagination. Batman places the monster back into the shadows for the criminals in Gotham City. His use of terror to deter crime is one of the aspects that make him an antihero. A true hero would not lurk in shadows or strike down a foe from behind. Batman does not restrict himself to the moral codes of medieval knights. This is one of the things that make him such a compelling character to modern audiences. He goes beyond the law to wage war on crime.

What would a hero be without villains? Batman's war on crime puts him in direct conflict with many evil villains. One of the most iconic of these vile characters is the mysterious madman known as the Joker. The Joker symbolizes pure and utter anarchy. Other evildoers seek to impose order on society, with themselves at the top of the heap. The Joker just strives for chaos. Where others create, the Joker destroys. He speaks to our infernal impulses to wipe away everything (Dargis). These impulses are within each of the human race. Batman's most famous adversary feels to us like Faust's clever Mephistopheles. The Joker spins lie after lie about his background, yet he is also an expert at making deals. He twirls the criminals of Gotham City around his little finger with the promise of Batman's head. The Joker in Nolan's Batman movies is, above all, one thing: a master tempter. He has an eerie charisma that seems to attract as much as it repels. Most important, though is the fact that he is constantly trying to corrupt people, especially Batman. He attempts to get a ferry-load of innocents to sink a boat laden with criminals to save their own lives. He seems to say that chaos is the only truth in life, and destruction the universe 's only reality. The Joker's game is lies and chaos, and time and time again he comes up with all four aces. His silver-tongued, tempting whisper of chaos is the nemesis to Batman's single-minded quest to make the world an orderly, safe place.

Unlike the Joker, a villain from the start, Two-Face is a hero who crashed and burned. Harvey Dent was Gotham City's anointed champion. Lieutenant Gordon called him Gotham's White Knight (The Dark Knight). Batman looked up to Harvey Dent as the hero who would clean Gotham by using the system (Dargis). The entire city's faith in Dent is lost when he had half of his face and all of his sanity neatly burned away. Two-Face is Gotham's most tragic figure, as his fall from grace undermined the confidence of an entire city. Two-Face represents despair. Two-Face has lost everything. His sanity, looks, and love were all snatched away from him. He falls into a deep state of despair when he comes to the conclusion that the universe is cold and dead, and that his pain is meaningless. His deranged way of coping with this newfound reality is to determine everything randomly, with a coin flip. He believes that the world is cruel and that the only morality in a cruel world is pure and utter chance (Asay). Even though Two-Face has lost all hope, Batman hasn't. Batman tries to turn Harvey Dent back to the side of the angels until the very end. Batman has also lost everything: his parents, his childhood, and his lover. This loss inspires Batman to be a hero. In many ways, Batman and Two-Face are two halves of the same coin.

In conclusion, many examples of symbolism exist in the Dark Knight movies. This symbolism meets a subconscious longing for archetypical elements in stories. The tropes of Good vs. Evil and Hope vs. Despair are found in almost every single story in human literature. The twist of shadows, usually used to represent evil, into a force for good is a subversion designed to enhance this archetypical plot. Batman, The Joker, and Two-Face are all examples of the symbolism that makes Nolan's Batman movies fulfilling films.

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