5 comments inspired by Batman Comics

1. I read comic books and see superheroes wasting their time too often. For example, Batman or Superman going after nonviolent jewel or car thieves or basically any petty crime. Those are the types of things that people without the resources or abilities of those superheroes (like the police or less gifted superheroes) should be able to handle. It could be much better spent going after bigger game such as drug cartels and the banks that fund them. Here in the real world a lot of the crooks make the laws. I really would like to see Batman go after a major bank to get them for the money laundering that they do/allow or a crooked politician. A lot of banks do it here in the real world such as Wachovia who was found to have a few months ago laundered drug cartel money (the banks punishment was a fine for 160 million dollars).

2. It is stated in a few of the Batman comics that Bruce Wayne decided to take the form of Batman to cause fear in criminals who are supposedly superstitious and cowardly. Fear is a fairly good tactic to use which can give you a pretty good advantage but it has some pretty big negatives as well. Fear can cause madness, recklessness, and cruelty. People who are afraid are far more likely and be willing to go to irrational lengths to get rid of that which they fear or cause pain and terror in others to feel powerful so as to compensate for the fear. Abused people tend to abuse people. People who fear a monster all too often become monsters themselves.

3. While I usually can make sense of comic book logic sometimes no matter how I think about it it makes no sense to me.

4. Batman's cape length is very variable. Sometimes it is reasonably sized other times it is multiple times longer than he is. Sometimes it can do things besides hang there and look cool. I really want to see him trip over his cape of completely impracticable length sometime. By happenstance I happen to have just finished reading a book (The Best American Comics 2008) that had a comic by Matt Groening (best known as the creator of the Simpsons) that mentioned that superheroes should be tripping over their capes. It is strange how often serendipity works like that. I happen to just read something or write something and then encounter it in other works after not having seen it mentioned before or recently. I realize that this is in part because having recently encountered it I'm more likely to notice it when I encounter it again but I still find it amazing how often this type of thing happens.

5. How many times has Batman/Bruce Wayne fallen in love and then lost it for one reason or another? Batman finding love only to lose it or they can't be together for some reason happens quite often (because she is a cat burglar -Catwoman, because her father is a few century old international terrorist and assassin - Talia al Ghul, because she is a vigilante that rips criminals hearts out of their chest - Midnight, etc.). People must really like the drama added by romance. While I generally don't dislike it I occasionally find it distracting and often find it unnecessary believing that the story on its own without the added romance is sufficient. I wonder if anyone has made a list of all the people he fell in love with throughout the comic books?