Deranged Musings

Have you noticed the Batman movies tend to suck?

I think part of this is the fundamental misunderstanding of the character of Batman that many directors, producers, and other schmucks have. When you think of the notion of a masked hero and the stories about them you think of the person behind the mask as the person and the mask as some facade. To paraphrase a line from Lois&Clark, "Superman is what I can do. Clark is who I am." This is the common understanding of a "masked hero". Batman, however, is different. Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy, is a facade put on by Batman. The child Bruce Wayne grew up into Batman, not the adult Bruce Wayne. When wearing the mask the man becomes what he truly is. Batman is the anger, the drive of the man. In a way the mask liberates the "true" Bruce Wayne, the wounded and angry chgild who saw his parents murdered in front of him.

Movies about Batman try to focus on the man Bruce Wayne and not the Batman persona. In Hollywood fashion they insert a love interest because it is required in the Hollywood formula. But it always falls flat because the man Bruce Wayne is really an empty persona taken on by the Batman. The latest movie, I would guess, would have the most success. (I haven't seen it.) This is because it focuses on the young man Bruce Wayne becoming Batman. When we see Bruce Wayne we see the formation of Batman and not the billionaire playboy.

Spiderman is the opposite. Spiderman is a mask worn by Peter Parker. When created Spiderman was specifically someone who had real problems as well as superhero problems. He had issues with family and relationships. These were the things the truly concerned and involved him. Often he would wisecrack through his Spiderman existence and only reveal depth of emotion when settling back in to being Peter Parker.

# posted by Will @ 3:19 PM