The Mythology of Batman

Dr. Alex Wainer presented the history and mythology of Batman to Palm Beach Atlantic University students. (Photo credit: Laura Carrell)

What gives Batman his staying power? For scholar Alex Wainer, it’s Batman’s mythic qualities.

Nearly 30 students and faculty gathered in the rotunda of Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Warren Library recently to hear about the 75-year history and prominence of Batman.

An Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Wainer recently published, Soul of the Dark Knight: Batman as Mythic Figure in Comics and Film. The book showcases how the comics medium created Batman as a mythic character that has become a powerful symbol for many people today.

“Batman has seeped further and further into our consciousness,” Wainer said. “He has resonated with many readers.”

Dr. Wainer started researching and writing the book in the 90’s while he attended Regent University, Virginia Beach.

During the event, Wainer discussed how the character transformed from 2D to be a realistic medium effectively.

“The character of Batman is mythic,” Wainer said. “He functions as a powerful narrative that has significance to many people.”

Wainer gave a history of Batman starting with the invention of the Batman cartoons in 1939 to The Dark Knight Returns.

Wainer talked about how Batman has a social meaning and how Batman changed during the different eras.

“In the 60s, Batman was cool,” Wainer said. “But during the post-9/11 era, Batman began fighting terror or displacing terror.”

Wainer also discussed the decline and rise of Batman. “In the 1940s, Batman began in movies starring B-actors, and having a bright light on Batman,” Wainer said. “In the 1950s, ABC aired a color television series, which used bright, primary colors, and similar costumes to those in the cartoon.”

In 1989, Tim Burton made a Batman that had ”a certain moodiness” to it. “They used cinematographic aspects along with abstract music to bring mythic.”

In 1997, Joel Schumacher’s “Batman” included Robin, along with a costume change that had “nipples on the Batman suit,” causing a freeze in the Batman franchise.

However, Batman rose again eight years later in 2005 with Christopher Nolan.

“Nolan used the grounded reality relative to earlier films and added a psychological realism to it,” Wainer said. “He was creating a legend by perpetrating it with cool stuff such as technology.”

So what about Superman asked one member of the audience.

“Superman is simple and shows truth and justice in the American way,” Wainer answered. “You can do anything and what challenge is there other than Kryptonite? Batman and Superman are mythic in different ways.”

“I found this event very intriguing,” said senior Kent Berame, of the event. “It’s interesting to see how Batman began and how it changed during the years into what it is today.”

Wainer will be at this weekend’s Comic Con, which will be held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, along with film professor Antonio Zarro, on two panels to discuss Batman’s 75^th anniversary and the exploding DC and Marvel Cinematic and Television universes.

Wainer’s book, Soul of the Dark Knight: Batman as Mythic Figure in Comics and Film and can be at Barnes and Noble and online at Amazon.

Joeckel Pens New Book On C.S. Lewis

“I chose to write this book because I felt that most studies of Lewis missed the point,” Joeckel said. Photo courtesy of Samuel Joeckel

In his newly released book “The C.S. Lewis Phenomenon: Christianity and the Public Sphere,” associate professor of English Samuel Joeckel presents a new take on the life and teachings of Lewis.

“I chose to write this book because I felt that most studies of Lewis missed the point,” Joeckel said of the May release.  “They tended to paraphrase Lewis or praise him as a saint or they tended to reprise the same talking points and recapitulate the same sorts of arguments.”

“The book offers a new way to understand Lewis’s accomplishment as well as the cultural phenomenon he left in his wake,” added Joeckel who describes the book as part literary analysis, part intellectual history, and part meta-criticism, which is criticism of criticism.

Joeckel prompted to write this book because he liked to read Lewis books since he was a child.

“I felt like the time had come for me to try to say something meaningful about him and his popularity,” Joeckel said.  “Beyond that, I suppose I was inspired to write a book because that is what scholars are supposed to do.”

Writing all 444 pages of the book took time away from Joeckel’s everyday activities. He began writing the book in 2010 and said that finding the time to write the book was the most difficult part.

Joeckel, who also teaches in the Supper Honors Program, said that PBA professors have heavy teaching loads, which makes research scholarship a challenge.

“Thankfully, I was awarded a sabbatical and a one course-load reduction to work on the project,” Joeckel said.  “Without those, I probably would still be working on the book.”

The book explores Lewis’s identity as a public intellectual, showing how the conventions of the public sphere shaped not only his own writings, but books and articles about him.

By writing the book, Joeckel wanted to explore different facets of C.S. Lewis’s phenomenon.  One of the tfacets is Lewis’s accomplishments as a public intellectual.

“The result is that Lewis had been deposited in a scholarly cul-de-sac,” Joeckel said. “Devotees praise his every word; detractors pounce mercilessly: There seems to be only one way in and one way out.”

Joeckel attempted to open up the field, to chart a new course in Lewis studies.

“Once I began thinking about Lewis as a public intellectual—what it means to be a public intellectual and how one carries out that work—a new direction revealed itself to me,” he said.

Joeckel’s book (published by Mercer University Press) can be found on Amazon.com as well as other online booksellers.