Batman is a comics superhero of the DC Universe, who is also called dark knight or vigilante. Cinema comics are at the forefront of the spheres of mass culture, and we can say that the superheroes represented in them fulfill a certain cultural task – satisfy the need of a modern person to identify with a personified sample. Batman is an outlaw advocate, and at the moment, the emphasis is on the maximum humanization of the character of Batman, in contrast to his previous images on the screen.
It is known that in childhood, Bruce Wayne, the son of a billionaire, lost his parents in an instant, accidentally killed by a street thief. It was at this moment that he realized the inevitability of death and fear of it. Fear of death has become a key factor in the future appearance of Bruce-Batman’s alter ego. Wearing a mask and costume, the hero emphasizes that death will never catch him by surprise and will never be able to win. We can say that the confrontation of Bruce Wayne with an almost existential fear of death is the main leitmotif.
However, the viewer is also interested in the nature of his powers and what made him a superhero. Batman does not have any superpowers because he is a person who uses advanced technologies and his developed intellect to turn into a superhero. This makes him even closer to the viewer than many other superheroes like superman for instance. He creates a sense of his reality and the potential for anyone to become a hero.
There is a certain similarity with the ancient story of Gilgamesh, a king with superhuman power, courage, and strength who seeks to become immortal (Degnin 1). Similarly, to Batman, he wants to defeat death metaphorically, but the difference is the fact that Gilgamesh has natural superhuman qualities.
Work Cited
Degnin, Francis Dominic. “Minority Report: Re-Reading Gilgamesh After Levinas.” SAGE Open, vol. 6, no. 3, 2016, pp. 1-8.