Last Post!

#1 & #2: Coming into this course, I thought I knew a lot about my Batman. I grew up with this superhero; dressing up as him for Halloween, playing with my Batman action figures, watching the cartoons, and the movies. This class has shown me the dense Batman universe that I was oblivious to when I was younger. I would have never thought about all the different side stories in comics, especially Arkham Asylum, which now is one of my favorite Batman comics. I did not pay attention to the different versions of Batman either, let alone take their meanings seriously. I always thought that the Adam West Batman tv series was some sort of joke and a comedic take on a comic, but it perfectly resembles the campy and corny period of superheroes in the late 1960s. And of course we have the first wave of Batman films from the 80s and 90s that I remember watching when I was a kid and thought they were the coolest thing in the world! Looking back at them, I can see the awkward masculinity in their costumes and I question myself how I did not notice it before! Of course, now we have the Christian Bale Batman films which really bring back the idea of “The Dark Knight.” But, out of all my favorite Batman shows, I would have to say Batman Beyond was the BEST Batman cartoon ever, because it was a dark, futuristic take on a retired Batman handing down the rains to a younger generation.

#3: After reading the superhero book Hero, I realized that I have a lot of things going for me. All the main characters in that book had some sort of social handicap or, in Scarlett’s case cancer. They lived day by day with the social restraints and abuse from their peers because they were different and stood out in a crowd. The way that people treated some of the characters really made me think that I am truly grateful for what I have today. No matter how stressed or how cheated I may feel, I know that I am still better off than others and I should be happy for that. But, that does not mean I stay out of the fight, because I have plenty of friends and brothers who fall under this category of social handicapping, and I stand by them every step of the way to help show others that just because they are different means you have to treat them as lesser beings. Hero was a great novel, and I would recommend that you continue to use it.

#4: There isn’t a topic I would like to go into more detail about, but rather a group of superheroes. We did not spend much time on the X-men super mutant group. Next to Batman, this comic series is another one of my favorites, and I feel like there are several deeper meanings we could look into by searching through some of the comics. When I wrote my analytical paper on the X-men: Last Stand¸ I could have wrote so much more on various themes that were submerged into the conflict between the mutants and humans. But, just like the Watchman¸ you could spend weeks just on one hero or superhero teams.

#5: I feel I have just solidified my views on life in general because of this course. When we watched the documentary on real life superheroes, I saw people just like me who really cared about the betterment of society. However, I wouldn’t necessarily put a costume on if I was going to go around parts of town handing out care packages to the homeless. That takes courage to do that, and I give them my respect, no matter how crazy some of them may be. And I don’t mean crazy in a bad way, rather, I feel that some of the superheroes in the documentary are on the extreme side of the spectrum, where I find myself more in the middle. As for the hero that best fits in as a good citizen, I would have to pick Thom. He is an average kid with not so average abilities, lives in a real life scenario, plays basketball, has a hard working father, and many other things that tie him in with an average citizen. But, he also has a heart; a very big one in fact. Despite being gay and taking the social criticism from others, Thom gives all his heart to helping others through his actions and his superpowers. He make mistakes, just like all of us do, making him just like you and me.