Abstract
This paper focuses on American superhero comics – i.e. superadventures and their likeness to mythology. Our goal is to understand how subtle changes in the characterization of a superhero may make them more congruent with the present day morality and ideals of the society, even if a given character is willing to directly challenge that morality. Through a close reading of Batman #53, in which Bruce Wayne states that Batman is like a god and that he does not believe in him anymore – nor should the people of Gotham – we discuss the symbolic meaning of Bruce Wayne's phrase and the implications for the readers' understanding of who the Batman is and what he stands for. One of the main impacts of this characterization is that Batman ceases to be the “interventionist god” as he was portrayed in many stories in the last decades, and learns to embrace the frailty and limitations of the human condition.
Highlights
In this article, we will analyze Bruce Wayne's statement about his "atheism" in relation to Batman and the acceptance of its fallibility and limitations in Batman #53, with script by Tom King and art by Lee Weeks (2018)
Under a discussion of the mythical aspects of superhero comic books, we make a close reading of that issue, understanding that the “atheism” statement contradicts to the previous characterizations of the character – in which Batman's/Bruce Wayne's view of his role verged on that of an “interventionist” god, which was is so prevalent that the Kingdom Come limited series features his totalitarian control over Gotham City (Waid & Ross, 1997; Klock 2013)
Their narratives evolved to unite entertainment and impact society culturally, through the propagation of political, religious, moral bias, maintenance of institutions or their modeling with the current culture and morality related to their social and market context. Part of this is expressed in Batman # 53 in the words of Tom King, which delve into the mythological nature of superheroes, but with an interesting focus on Christianity
Summary
We will analyze Bruce Wayne's statement about his "atheism" in relation to Batman and the acceptance of its fallibility and limitations in Batman #53, with script by Tom King and art by Lee Weeks (2018). As pointed out by Douglas Wolk (2007), the superadventures by the two main American publishing houses that publish superheroes comics do not, in general, take place in a self-contained and self-referential way Instead, they establish links – no matter how tenuous – with a given series featuring events that occurred in past editions of these series, other series of concomitant publication and even events narrated in stories published years or decades ago. They establish links – no matter how tenuous – with a given series featuring events that occurred in past editions of these series, other series of concomitant publication and even events narrated in stories published years or decades ago This narrative continuum of superadventures would demand the reader to become a super reader (Wolk 2007) capable of identifying the referentialities of the stories and willing to investigate those elements cited that are not in the super reader's repertoire. Even self-contained stories in limited series and graphic novels feature characters who have an extensive background, and even narratives that take place in other continuities – i.e. Else-worlds and What If...? stories – often refer to events of the main continuity, with which they establish a relationship of antithesis or complementation
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