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Superhero Blog
A superhero is a fictional character who is noted for feats of courage and nobility, who usually has a colorful name and costume and who possesses abilities beyond those of normal human beings. |
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August 20, 2003 | |
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Batman The comic book character Batman (originally referred to as The Batman, and occasionally as The Bat-Man), is a fictional character and superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. Although the character was co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, only Kane receives official credit for the character. Batman was at first just one of several characters featured in Detective Comics, but has since become the lead or co-lead character of a number of comic book series, in addition to a "family" of titles featuring related characters (e.g. Robin, Batgirl). Batman and Superman are DC Comics' two most popular and recognizable characters.In the Batman mythos, Batman is the alter-ego of Bruce Wayne, a billionaire industrialist and philanthropist who was driven to fight crime after his parents were murdered before his eyes at the age of eight. The identity of the mugger traditionally is known as the small-time criminal Joe Chill, though recent comics have been somewhat vague on the identity of the killer of Wayne's parents (the 1989 Tim Burton movie Batman presented the Joker as the killer of Wayne's parents). In the comics and animated series, physician and social worker Leslie Thompkins was there to give loving comfort to the traumatized Bruce. Depending on the adaptation, he was then raised on the Wayne Manor estate by uncle Philip Wayne and/or wise and loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth. To avenge his parents' death, Wayne spent his youth traveling the world, training himself to intellectual and physical perfection and learning a variety of crime-fighting skills, including criminology, forensics, martial arts, gymnastics, and disguise. He had entered such prestigious European universities as the Sorbonne and Oxford by the age of 14, and, in the film Batman Begins, attended Princeton University in New Jersey as a young adult. He studied hunting techniques from Australian Aborigines, subterfuge and shadowy tactics from ninjas, and even ventriloquism from practitioners of the art. After returning to Gotham in his early twenties, Wayne made several harrowing and near-fatal forays into the world of crime-fighting before donning his now familiar costume. The costume may have been inspired by a Halloween "bat-suit" worn by his father before his death, and was also certainly influenced by both Wayne's conviction that criminals are a "superstitious, cowardly lot" and his own fear of bats — at the age of six, he fell down a cavern, located beneath Wayne Manor (later to become the Batcave), that was swarming with the nocturnal creatures, wherein he was forever haunted by the event. An important part of the mythos is that Batman – unlike Superman and most other costumed heroes – is a normal human being who does not possess any superhuman abilities. However, he has elevated himself to near-superhuman status through years of rigorous training. Batman is typically portrayed as a brilliant tactician and peerless martial-artist, possessed with a stoic personality and a strong desire for justice. In recent comics, Batman has often been presented as having an obsessive, humorless personality. Like Superman, the prominent persona of his dual identities has varied with time. Present comics seem to favor portraying the decadent playboy aspect of his character as the facade, while the masked and particularly dark, grim vigilante is marked as the "true" man. Usually, Batman is further separated from Bruce Wayne by the raspy voice he assumes while costumed. |
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| MARVEL, SPIDER-MAN, DOCTOR OCTOPUS and all MARVEL character names and distinctive likenesses thereof: TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. MARVEL and SPIDER-MAN: Trademarks registered in the USA and certain other countries. © 2003 Sony Pictures Digital Inc. All rights reserved. |