Skip to main content

Batman and mental illness

As we have watched Batman comics progress, we have seen the number of villians that have come out of the wood work. Some of the main villians are The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin, Two Face, Catwoman, ect. These villians all have something in common. They all suffer from some sort of mental illness. it seems that every villian that Batman has faced suffers from that. Lets look a little closer.
The Joker was dropped into a vat of chemicals and permenantley scared. He lost his mind and became Batman's ultimate first villian. He mostlikely suffers from some post partum depression and schizophrenia. he suffered a tramatizing event that has left him both physically and emtionally scared.
The Riddler was a scientist, very intelligent, who was somewhat enamored by Bruce Wayne and enjoyed experiementing and inventing things. We see in the late 90s version that he becomes to obsessed with his inventions that he loses his mind when Bruce Wayne thinks that they are too dangerous. He has sever issues. He cannot handle himself in a critical environment and crumbles under criticism. He begins to use riddles and mind games to stump Batman. After he is foundout he eventually, in the movie, he is placed into an insane asylum.
The Penguin was born deformed. He had no love as a child and has abandonment issues. His parents abandoned him as a baby because he was so deformed, he was found and raised by penguins. He hates mankind and wants to take his feelings of lose, out on everyone eles.
Two Face was a lawyer who was attacked and scared. Half his body was brutally scared by an acid attack. He then developes duel personalities. He too is somwhat schizophrenic. He cant deal with what has happened and loses his mind.
Catwoman has blackouts. She cant remember periods of the day. She suffers from blackouts, during which she committes crimes. She is also schizophrenic. Part of her brain shutsdown and because it cant handle the trama that has occurred therefore she has created an alterego/duel personality which allows her brain to over compensate.
Batman too, is not above these personal flaws. He suffers from emotional problems as well. He has trouble dealing with the lose of his parents. He has dreams about their murder. He seems to suffer from post partum depression and takes it out on bad guys. He, luckly, uses his anger for good. Thankfully he hasnt let his pains consume him. He is a tortured individual, but is able to manage by self medicating with violence against the enemies of Gotham.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mythology and Superheroes in Comics

Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.

#FUTURES: Tomorrow Idris Elba will be the Last Man Standing

There is some bad buzz around Pacific Rim on the web. I suspect the possibility of a giant robot movie being awesome is too much for some people.  The internet is full of dark corners, but until we see the movie we won't know the box office.  What we can tell right now is that Idris Elba is doing his part to make the movie a success. A standout performer, Elba has made a name for himself in countless productions .  He achieve wide recognition for his turn on the big screen in films such as Thor and on the small screen in the BBC's Luther . Of course, the open question about actors of color in any film is whether not they will help or hurt the box office.  Will Smith recent disappointment with After Earth opens the door for this conversation. His lack of success sparks the question who will be the next "bankable" star of color. There can be only one! See what I did there:-)  These sentiments reflect a Hollywood centric approach that ignores Nolly...