Anonymous Student
Molly Tenenbaum
English 101
00/00/20xx
The Hero We Deserve
Saturday mornings were always my favorite growing up. My little brother and I would
wake up extra early, before anyone else in the house, and sneak quietly downstairs to watch
cartoons. Lying just inches from the TV, flat on our bellies, chins in our hands, we would stare
wide-eyed in awe as all of our favorite superheroes zoomed around the screen fighting evil and
solving crime. When the shows were over we’d done our capes – his a towel tied around the
neck and mine a coat with the hood draped over my head, the rest dangling behind me – and
run around the living room acting out all of our favorite scenes. With every BOOM! and POW!
we would fight our invisible enemies to save the day yet again. My brother was always
Superman. I was always Batman. Although Batman is far from the normal ideal comic book
superhero, his unconventionally dark and gloomy character make him the most intriguing, the
most complex and definitely the coolest superhero.
Our love for the cape crusaders didn’t stop once Saturday was over. Much of our
childhood was spent reading the comic books, watching the movies and trading the playing
cards. Immersed in this world, we could forget about all the stresses of school, the bullies on
the playground or the unreturned love interests and escape into a sensationalized fantasy of
chaos and crime. A world where the bad guys were usually caught and good always triumphed
over evil. In this world only one kind of man could come to the rescue to save mankind; that
man would have to be a superhero. He would need an arsenal of super powers at his disposal, a
cool and intimidating costume as well as a super secret identity to face the most evil of villains
threatening his city. But most of all, he would need a strong moral code to guide him in his
fight for justice and good.
Super powers are what separate super heroes from just your daily hero. They have
abilities that are uncommon to the average human. They can be mental, physical or mystical.
They can be acquired or innate. Ideally they should make your superhero nearly invincible,
enable him to travel at an ultrasonic rate and equip him with some kind of lethal weaponry.
They may be able to fly, teleport, have laser beam eyes, super human strength, rapid healing
abilities and so on. Batman’s super powers aren’t innate nor are they mystical or fantastical in
any sense. Batman’s super powers were acquired, developed, honed and sculpted through
many years of dedication in which he traveled the world to learn from the top masters in all
disciplines. He is considered a genius engineer and tactition, a brilliant detective and one of the
greatest martial artists of all time. He is a master of disguise, can speak any language,
withstand mind control and escape from any situation. While it is true that Batman, at his core,
is just a human, he represents the peak mental and physical condition that any man can reach.
It is because of this that he possesses the greatest super power of any superhero: the untapped
and limitless potential of the human mind. There is nothing Batman cannot achieve once he
sets his mind to it.
And once Batman had his mind set on ridding Gotham City of crime he would need a
costume. One that would make him recognizable as a hero on the streets, while simultaneously
protecting his secret identity and providing a symbol of his promise to protect the citizens from
evil. And when Batman chose his suit he didn’t go with the usual bright colors of justice worn by
so many other superheroes. Nor did he choose a derived symbol for hope. He chose to be
intimidating. To be feared. He chose head-to-toe black. He chose to be a dark creature lurking
in the night. He chose the Bat. And he did so for one purpose – to strike terror into the hearts of
the cowardly criminals he hunted. And it does; a masked, shadowy figure with sharp pointed
ears and nose looming dangerously over its prey. Psychological warfare was not all the Batsuit
provided; it also aids the Dark Knight in combat. Made up entirely of impenetrable Kevlar
armor, it comes equipped with a utility belt full of the most technologically advanced gadgets
and weaponry, all bat-themed – much more impressive than a pair of blue spandex tights and
useless red cape. And the cape wasn’t just a cape. The floor-length, black-hooded cowl
increased his stealth-like abilities and enabled him to glide through the city all while increasing
his dramatic effect and intrigue. The consistent use of the bat throughout his costume, his
weapons and even his vehicles makes him the most recognizable hero to both citizens and
criminals alike. There was no wondering if it was a bird, or a plane. Everyone knew it was the
big, black Bat making it the most intimidating, tactically useful and down-right coolest
superhero costume there is.
And not only is the costume cool, but Batman’s secret identity oozes pure coolness as
well. By night he is the Dark Knight, by day he is the smooth, billionaire playboy and
philanthropist, Bruce Wayne, who is always up for a party and some fun. Most super heroes
have secret identities. It protects their self, protects their loved ones and allows them to live a
normal life when off duty. They generally need to be fairly different from the superheroes
persona to avoid recognition and avert suspicion. Their alter egos need an occupation that
both facilitates their mission against evil and allows them the freedom to get away when
emergencies arise. For example Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, is a “mild-mannered” news
reporter which allows him to learn of criminal activities sooner and puts him in the area where
they are occurring. All-in-all pretty boring compared to that of Bruce Wayne, a powerful
business mogul who runs Wayne Enterprises; a multi-billion dollar corporation that allows him
the money and cover to engineer all of the cool gadgets, weapons and vehicles that Batman
uses to locate criminals and solve crimes. Bruce Wayne is often pictured smiling as he escorts
multiple women to huge social gatherings, a stark contrast to the overly serious, stoic loner that
Batman is. Nobody could ever suspect that they could be the same person. While Bruce
Wayne is definitely effective as an alter ego, he is not your typical one. In most storylines the
secret identity is generally assumed to be who the superhero really is, their true persona, and
the superhero is what they do. In this case it is a little more complex and intriguing in that the
roles are reversed from the norm. Bruce Wayne is actually considered to be the “mask” that
Batman wears.
But no powers, no masks and no secret identities would be necessary, if no villains
existed to fight. Our heroes would become obsolete. They would have no challenges to meet,
no obstacles to overcome and no evil to triumph over. There would be no story to tell. Ideally
we want the villains to represent everything our superhero opposes. They need to be deviously
and horrifyingly evil, capable of hatching elaborate plans that our superhero has to attempt to
foil and they have to be at least a comparable match for him. It has to be a good nail-biting
fight after all. Batman fights some of the strongest (Bane), the smartest (Riddler), and most
twisted (the Joker) homicidal maniacs as well as the most connected of crime bosses (the
Penguin) that the comics have ever seen. Most of them have an endless number of henchmen
or goons at their disposal so that Batman usually finds himself as a one-man war against crime.
But there is more to it than that. Like Batman, his struggle against his villains has more depth
and complexity beyond a simple good versus evil fight. They are opposite from him in that they
are colorful where he is dark, playful where he is serious and chaotic where he requires order.
But these are just surface character contrasts. The really interesting part about the Batman’s
villains is the way in which they are similar to him. Most of them started out as good, in fact,
many of them were either friends with (the Riddler) or a love interest of (Catwoman) his at one
point. All of them seem to have experienced some sort of unfair tragedy or circumstance that
derailed them from their normal life, just as Batman did when he witnessed his parent’s murder
as a child. In that moment of tragedy, Bruce Wayne decided to dedicate his life to good. When
faced with similar tragedies, the villains chose to turn to a life of crime. In Batman, people
aren’t born inherently good or evil. The tragedies of life lead them to a moment when they
must choose which side to be on. The outcome of that personal struggle is what defines them
as a hero or a villain.
But what really separates the hero is their strong moral code, their sense of duty to use
their powers for good and their dedication to protecting their city’s citizens. Like most
superheroes, Batman refuses to kill. He believes that is one line that once crossed you can
never come back from and if you do so you are no better than the people you are fighting. But
batman isn’t your typical do-gooder or friendly neighborhood superhero. He isn’t swooping in
from tall skyscrapers or flying half way around the world to save the day. He lurks in the
shadows stalking his prey. Scarred by tragedy, he is constantly teetering the line of obsession
as he lives his life immersed in the criminal mind. Without his code, Batman would essentially
be a villain. And unlike other superheroes, he wasn’t obligated by powers he was born with nor
by ones suddenly given to him by a radioactive spider bite. Batman fights crime because of a
conscious choice to do good and a life-long dedication to achieve the ability to do so. He is not
just simply reacting to attacks on citizens when they occur or when someone screams for help.
He is actively hunting down criminals every minute of his waking life in the hopes of stopping
crime from even happening. This dedication is what separates him from the other superheroes.
Being a hero isn’t something he does, it’s who he is.
The importance of superheroes and their stories, especially to children, is inarguable. In
the scary and challenging world of growing-up, comic books offer a parallel chaotic world in
which they can escape to. One in which they can vicariously play out their struggles and work
out heightened emotions in a safe environment while simultaneously teaching them good
morals and providing them with hope. Every child needs a hero to look up to. Do you remember
how awkward school could be? How isolating? And lonely? A lot of children can feel out-casted
or type-casted as nerds, desperate to feel accepted, to be “cool”. That is why it is so important
for a comic book hero to be perceived as “cool” as well. During this time most children are
rebelling, searching for their own identity and grasping for connections. Parents are no longer
cool. Authority is no longer cool. But superheroes, they can still be cool. A child must first
identify with the hero on some personal level but ultimately, for the hero to be effective, the
child must want to look up to their hero. They must want to be like them. If they do, they will
take measures to act more like them and transform themselves into them. They will learn to try
as hard as they can, to never give up despite the odds and to always take the high road in the
face of adversity. And they will translate these lessons into their daily life.
I know, it may be hard to view such a dark, unapproachable, mere mortal with no
powers as a superhero, even as someone to look up to. You may see him as a nothing but a
vigilante, selfishly seeking revenge for his parent’s death. But I disagree. The flawed character
of Batman is what makes him easier for people to relate to, adults and children alike. He
represents the internal battle we all experience when choosing between right and wrong. In
our lifetimes we will never know what it will be like to fly “faster than a speeding bullet”, we
will never be invincible, and we will most likely never have laser beams shoot out of our eyes.
But we can work hard and strive to attain the pinnacle of our untapped potential. Batman is
more than just a human, like us he is scarred, unconventional and imperfect, he is our antihero.
He is unexpected but he is realistic. To us, he is possible.
Batman will never be the archetypal superhero. He isn’t meant to be. He is dark and
moody, cold and calculating. He is complex, mysterious, intriguing and unwaveringly cool. He
represents the capacity within us all to not succumb to tragedy, to overcome adversity and to
choose a path of goodness. He may not be exactly the hero that we need, nor the hero that we
want. But he is certainly the hero that we all deserve.