The Genius of Patriotism

Out of all of Marvel’s vast array of characters, Captain America is by far most iconic. By that I mean he is not only well-recognized and loved, but that he carries the aura of a legend about him. More than Iron Man or his other comrades of the Avengers, Cap is a symbol in the flesh. Part of this has to do with his generation-spanning heroism. As a soldier in World War II thawed out in modern Marveldom, he is quite literally a living legend – someone that all the modern heroes look up to and aspire to be like. Plus, as far as I know he is the only hero that can brag about punching Adolph Hitler in the face. You simply cannot argue with a man who punched Adolph Hitler in the face.

As a purified representative of the Greatest Generation, Captain America is all you could expect from the best of the cohort who survived the Great Depression and fought the greatest and most noble war the West has ever seen. He is noble, loyal, has an unwavering sense of duty, and sees his mission on this earth as helping his fellow man. As his name suggests, he is the embodiment of all that is best in the American character. A creation of the Golden Age of comics, he is also the quintessential Golden Age hero in all their moral infallibility and overt patriotism.

However, I think what makes the good Captain such a great and honorable character is that he isn’t as flat as a propaganda poster. Sure, he runs around in star-spangled tights and is a bit of a boy scout, but that doesn’t mean he’s a dumb nationalistic supersoldier. You can’t peg him as a pseudo-fascist creation of a nation at war. Throughout his character’s evolution, Captain America has consistently shot down any attempts to turn himself into a mindless pawn of the American government. Though a strong believer in the system, he is not afraid to speak his mind. The most famous example would be his unwavering stance against the Superhero Registration Act in Marvel’s huge Civil War crossover.

His villains too, are often symbols of patriotism run a muck. The Red Skull is the most obvious pick as the face of Nazi evil and tyranny but Cap has also fought lesser known American crazies like Nuke, the Serpent Society, and the Grand Director. (The latter of which served as Captain America while Steve Rogers was frozen in the 1950s but then went insane and accused nearly everyone in power of being closet communist. He’d later be brainwashed into a Klan-like cult which would bring him into confrontation with the original Captain)

Much of Steve Rogers’ struggle in the modern world is discovering that it seems like the America that he fought for no longer exists. I would argue, however, that the Captain’s real virtue stretches beyond the political entity known as the United States. His unwavering morality and charity for his fellow man makes him universal. That’s why he can never be a symbol of American cultural imperialism in the same way McDonald’s or Wal-Mart or Megachurches can be. Captain America doesn’t stand for the America which is rightfully detested as shallow, materialistic, and self-absorbed. In short, he’s not anything like Team America. You’ll smile if you know what I mean. (America, @#&% Yeah!…)

In 1899, Pope Leo XIII condemned what he called “Americanism” as a phantom heresy present in the United States. Though the situation involved a specific case of eclesial politics, in Catholic circles the term has come to mean the disturbing way that the United States sometimes sees itself as a Chosen People, a City on the Hill, a political church with the Constitution as its Bible. The fruits of Americanism are easy enough to see in events like the Trail of Tears and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The real issue of the phantom heresy is placing American values and traditions above the social doctrine of the universal Church. 

However, that doesn’t mean that we, as Americans, shouldn’t be grateful and proud to be an American. Love of one’s country is a natural and even necessary virtue for living in society. A nation gives us a place to live, security, education, and a cultural heritage. This goes for members of all nations. Christians have often had an uneasy relationship with the state – but that shouldn’t keep us from being patriotic. No doubt the martyrs of the patristic age were proud Roman citizens but they, like Cap, had to follow their conscience and disobey the state.

The greatness of Captain America consists in this balancing act. Though he is a living personification of the country he symbolizes, he never tips the balance towards the misguided nationalism that has haunted and continues to haunt our nation today. There’s a reason that the Captain’s weapon of choice is a shield rather than a sword. He fights to defend, rather than attack. He’s no imperialist, no pawn of the government, no reactionary bigot. He is fiercely loyal to the flag and all it stands for, yet operates on a level which puts him in line with values which cross national lines. In that way, he is like Joan of Arc, who Mark Twain christened not only a symbol of “Frenchness” but of the virtue of patriotism in general. In his own words, “she was the Genius of Patriotism-she was Patriotism embodied, concreted, made flesh, and palpable to the touch and visible to the eye.” I can think of no words better to describe one of the most noble characters in comic book fiction.

God bless America.

The Immensity of Evil

 

There are few Marvel villains who match the enormous presence of Wilson Fisk. A massive block of muscle in a white tuxedo, Fisk is a criminal mastermind and mob boss known as the Kingpin of crime . According to Frank Miller, that means he is “the boss of everything bad that makes money in what must be most of the free world.” Sure, he isn’t a Nazi super-soldier like Red Skull or a costumed madman like Green Goblin; he has no powers, no costume, no army of robots or aliens at his disposal. But that makes him all the more terrifying. He operates “on the ground”, so to speak, or perhaps under it. He doesn’t dream up plans to conquer the world but rather runs it from behind the scenes. He’s not just another criminal. He is the criminal. The Kingpin of crime.

Though a long-running adversary of both Spiderman and the Punisher, Kingpin is best known as the arch-nemesis of Matt Murdock – aka Daredevil. It is here his evil genius is most on display – matched against a single enemy who proves his opposite in almost everyway. Take one of the best story arcs to come out of Marvel comics, Daredevil: Born Again. In this run, Kingpin finally learns the true identity of the man who has been giving his operations so much trouble. He uses this information to systematically and sadistically dismantle Murdock peace by peace. He freezes his assets, strips him of his law practice, destroys his home and threatens all those close to him. Ultimately, this leads him to a confrontation with Murdock, who he beats into a pulp and sends careening of a peer in a damaged vehicle, making it look like a drunken accident. This is why the Kingpin is such a sinister character. He doesn’t merely want to kill the hero – he wants to annihilate him, to devour him, to destroy him and corrupt his reputation. He enjoys the torture, the sadism, the feeling of being in control of a whole city and the one man that will fight for it.

Kingpin’s overbearing presence haunts the entire run. Everybody seems to be in his pocket- hitmen, assassins, corporations, and even government agents all run to his aid as an endless arsenal of assets to use against Daredevil and his allies.

This is what makes Kingpin a unique and memorable villain. He seems to have his fingers in everything – the police, hospitals, the press. His power is frighteningly close to our everyday lives – of the real evil that grows just beneath the surface of human society. Fisk’s enormous facade is that of a legitimate businessman – civilized, dignified, and attached to the finer things in life. This is all to hide the sadistic interior, the lust for power, and the animal-like fury and rage which is captured by his brutal physical presence. This strength of body is bested only by his horrifying omnipresence in the city – the way he fills up space with all the men and women and institutions who he has paid off.

We often feel this way about evil. Like the Kingpin, it appears to lurk everywhere we look – overlaying all reality like a fog. Human trafficking thrives even in the smallest of cities. Heroin and meth claim lives in our backyards. Cops gun down innocent youths in the streets. Priests molest children and bishops cover it up. The list goes on and the bodies pile up. The fight continues but evil still sits behind the scenes, fat and bloated with the blood of countless victims.Christ’s passion alone gives us comfort in this time. As Christians, we believe that God’s answer to the problem of evil was answered in the sorrowful passion of Christ. In that act upon the cross, he let all the toxins and corruption of the world cling to him. He bore our sins and suffered through mockery and blasphemy. The cross is the answer to evil, but even there the elusiveness remains. Even Jesus felt betrayed and alone as the sky grew dark: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” We can only take comfort in this cry for help. Even God knows what it feels like when all hope is lost. He knows what it feels like to think that evil has won. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, God had been forsaken of God. The devil had won the day.

Daredevil: Born Again presents Kingpin in this way. Like the devil, he thought he had finally got the best of his enemy. After all, the hero had come to his doorstep and invited his own destruction. He had dug his own grave. All the devil had to do was give him a tiny push.

But like the devil, he was wrong.

For Matthew Murdock had his own resurrection. He escaped from the drowning vehicle like someone emerging from baptism. It is here where the title of the overall work hits home. The symbolism is less than subtle. In historic Christian belief, to be born again is to be baptized – to be born of water and spirit. As St. Paul proclaims: “Do you not know that all we who have been baptized into his death? For we were buried in him by means of Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ has arisen from the dead through glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.” (Romans 4:3-4) The Catholic Church teaches us in baptism we undergo “regeneration”. That is, we are given the divine life capable of blotting out original sin, though a tendency to sin remains to be battled throughout life. There is a reason that we as Catholics each year at Easter we recommit ourselves to our baptismal vows and reject the devil and all his empty show. In the time between, we cross ourselves with Holy Water, reminding ourselves of our sacramental defense against the darkness which hangs overhead.

Our share in the resurrection of Christ through baptism gives us an experience not unlike that of Matthew Murdock. With the image of Christ imprinted on our soul, we have the power of resurrection, even when we seem most destroyed and broken. We can surprise the Devil by leaping from the grave again and again. We drive him mad as he repeats the threefold despair of Kingpin in Born Again: “There is no corpse, there is no corpse, there is no corpse.” That dauntingly massive and smug figure of evil can be defeated, even when death and despair appear to rule supreme. With a drop of holy water and a simple sign of the cross, we acknowledge the power of the resurrection even when pitted against the foreboding shadow that is the immensity of evil.

 

“The stronghold of evil men will be demolished, but the root of the just is enduring.”

– Proverbs 12:12

A Brief Apologia for Superman

Like many people, I didn’t used to like Superman. Constantly comparing him to Batman, I found him to be overpowered, too brightly colored, too much of a Boy Scout, too “capes and tights”. In short, he was too much of a superhero for me. I believe many people have similar feelings. After all, our recent philosophical trends bid us more towards rationalism, to materialism, to “realism”. In particular, movie adaptations tend to “flatten out” the more particular features of superhero tradition. Costumes, code names, powers, and themed villains are all laughed at or explained away. A rather absurd example would be dropping the trunks off the DC heroes in accordance with the New 52. In addition to our dislike of these visuals, we detest anything that seems like moral purity thanks to our relativistic attitude. Superman is the opposite of all that. He’s fantastical and mythic, he’s truth, justice and the American way. We moderns, especially we millenials, scoff at such ideals.

However, I came to realize that’s the whole point of Superman. After all, he is the original. His debut in Action Comics was the single thing that combined all the right stuff at the right time to make the superhero an enduring icon in American culture. Neil Gaiman describes it thus:

“It all kicks off with Superman! I find that sort of awesome. It was honestly as if Siegel and Shuster had happened onto some hitherto undiscovered elements. It was pure, this thing was pure teenage wish fulfillment… wrapped up in a weird kind of shape that kids related to in one way and adults related to in another… this wonderful sort of strange recipe that’s a jigger of myth, a dash of costume, a dash of magic…”

And so the superhero was born. It all starts with Supes. Now, the character has certainly evolved since this point. Like all characters – particularly the giants of DC – he has many different interpretations and incarnations. Obviously the Golden Age Superman who could sneeze galaxies out of existence deserves a little satire. (No, really. That was a thing.) Not too mention the old Christopher Reeves flick where he reverses Lois Lane’s death by just flying around the earth really fast. (Because apparently that is how time works. It doesn’t get more ridiculously  OP than that). Moreover, one of the more famous negative portrayals of Superman comes from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns where he is merely the pawn of an nationalist Reagen-esque government. However, I don’t think these are the heart of the character. They can’t be, if you realize the place that Superman has in the comic book universe. Superman is meant to be a symbol of the impossible, into simply the absurd. He fights for the American way, but he’s also alien in origin and has gone underground while being hunted by the government.

The point is this, if you don’t like Superman, it becomes a lot harder to get into the “supermen” that followed in his wake. The fact that he is overpowered simply means he is the archetype for the power which all superheroes struggle to use for good. Like it or not, without the Son of Krypton, it is unlikely there would be any superheroes at all – DC or Marvel. Pulling Superman out from the whole fabric of comic book mythos topples the whole pyramid. He is very much like Atlas, holding up the multiverse in his mighty hands. He is the rock upon which the church of heroes is built and the gates of cynicism will not prevail against him.

 

Devil’s Horns, Angel’s Heart

“There is a general impression that American Catholics have horns.” – G.K. Chesterton

There is little surprising for Christians in the idea that that which is most sacred should be seen by the world as demonic. After all, Our Lord was accused of driving out demons “by the prince of demons.” He was crucified on the cross as a lunatic and liar, which is what he is if his claims to be the Son of God are indeed false. The same goes for the Christian Church. The pope has been called the anti-Christ, the Mass a blasphemy, and the Eucharist itself a source of idolatry. Again, these are all true if the Catholic Church’s claims to be the one true church are false. The Son of God is seen as the Servant of Beelzebub and the Church of Christ is seen as the Whore of Babylon.

All of this playing with the sacred and demonic seems to be on full display in the paradox that is Daredevil. One of Marvel’s most unappreciated characters, Daredevil is also one of the most famous overtly Catholic characters in comics. Much of this has to do with writer Frank Miller’s take on the character in story lines like Daredevil: Born Again. Another striking fact that makes him unique is that he is one of the only blind superheroes – making him a powerful symbol for people with disabilities. Daredevil has recently undergone a recent surge in interest and popularity from the spectacular Netflix series now in it’s second season. (A much needed cure to the disappointing 2003 flick)

Though his superhero name originates with a sarcastic nickname given to him in school for being a blind bookworm, his costume (especially the later, more popular red version) is certainly devilish in imagery. Of course, this shouldn’t scandalize us. As mentioned above, goodness often adopts the guise of the devil in the eyes of the world. Like Christ, Daredevil is in all reality a powerful force against evil in his neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, New York (Well, Christ wasn’t a New Yorker, but you get the idea). In fact, his comics, especially when Frank Miller is at the helm, often have him deal with the type criminals and themes that would be simply too dark for the pages of Captain America or Iron Man. It seems that sometimes dwelling in Hell makes even the noblest men look like devils.

Interestingly enough, Marvel seems to like to play around with this juxtaposition.  One need only look at another Catholic character like the X-Men’s Nightcrawler (who at one point becomes a priest) to see how these sort of images are used. Nightcrawler too has a demonic appearance but is one of the most moral (not to mention light-hearted) members of the famous mutant team. One might wonder how much of this is merely making an amusing paradox and how much is drawing attention to the rather dismaying legacy of anti-Catholicism in America. After all, Daredevil and Nightcrawler are Irish and German in ethnicity – two often Catholic immigrant groups who were seen as insidious invaders on American soil. Look up the cartoons of Thomas Nast to get an idea what I mean)

Hardly “the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” Matt Murdock is the closest thing to a Guardian Angel that his city has. They’ll be more coming on him – as he is quickly becoming one of my favorite Marvel characters thanks to the show and the great story arcs I have recently read. Though still an underrated character, the Man Without Fear is certainly here to stay.

Both Human and Divine

Secret identities are a common theme among superheroes. It basically involves the hero donning both a mask and the guise of a “normal person” to help cover their tracks and protect the ones they care about. Much drama unfolds from this dual lifestyle, as the heroes struggle to balance their “normal lives” with beating up bloodthirsty criminals or saving the planet from alien invasion. After all, it’s easy to forget your mom’s birthday when you’ve spent the afternoon facing down Galactus and sometimes saving people from a burning building takes precedence over your kid’s soccer game. Keeping a secret identity also invites controversy, as your villains and government organizations are very interested in the man (or woman) behind the mask for their own interests. This is essentially the theme of Marvel’s Civil War storyline, where superheroes are being forced to unmask by the government. One of the most dramatic scene in that arc is where Spiderman – who has one of the most famous secret identities – reveals himself as Peter Parker on live television.

That being said, the most famous example of this theme peculiar to superhero comics is none other than Superman – the original superhero. We’ve all heard the gags about Clark Kent being a stupid disguise. After all, he’s just Kal El in glasses. Why doesn’t anyone recognize him? 

In the Superman: Birthright storyline, Superman trains intensely as an actor to create Clark Kent as a character who no one would expect to be Superman. Christopher Reeves does a great job of portraying this dual character in the original Superman flicks (campy as they are). An even more poignant representation of Superman’s skills as an actor would be from Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman. The artist of the comic Frank Quietly brilliantly shows how when Superman “becomes” Clark Kent he changes everything. His posture, his speech, his mannerisms, and of course his bumbling and oafish demeanor all make it such a convincing disguise that when Clark really does reveal himself as Superman to Lois Lane she simply doesn’t believe him. (For more on Superman’s disguise and why it works, I’d suggest the Comic Misconceptions YouTube video on said topic.)

All well and good, but why do I bring this up? It’s not merely to discuss Superman apologetics (I’ll save that for a later post). This notion of a secret identity and a dual nature in our heroes deeply appeals to us. We like the veil of secrecy that allows for the hero in disguise – the idea that these powerful and godlike beings dwell among us as everyday people that you could bump into on the street. It’s not unlike the picture of Christ we have in the Gospels. One of the most pressing doctrines that the Early Church had to iron out was the balancing of Christ’s humanity and divinity. The whole Arian controversy revolved around this, until St. Athanasius proclaimed his creed and solidified the tradition that Jesus Christ is both true God and true man.

This doctrine makes the Gospels seem almost like a story with a secret identity. After all, here we have mild-mannered Jesus of hickville Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Mary and you’re telling me that he’s really Yahweh the Eternal God of the Universe? Get real. There is even scenes where Jesus, after performing grand and life-saving miracles, urges the people not to say anything. He operates for so long in this sort of covert fashion, for fear of the authorities and attracting too much attention to himself. Now we know this dual persona doesn’t keep up for long once his public ministry gets into full swing – his mission is to be accepted by the people as the Son of God. That being said, he hardly ever comes right out and says that he is indeed divine. He is nearly always subtle in asserting his divinity, though still infuriating to his adversaries.

The analogy, of course, can only be stretched so far. I’m not claiming that Christ’s divinity makes him something like a powerful alien from outer space. That would be Arianism. However, I do think that Christ fulfills something of this dual nature present in many of our heroes from mythology both old and new – from demigods like Hercules to resident aliens like Kal El. He’s not just another hybrid from Olympus or Krypton, but that doesn’t mean that our myths don’t touch on the drama, grandeur, and mystery that is the Incarnation of the Son of God.

Batman’s Catholicity

 

There’s an interesting debate floating around the internet for people like me who have little better to talk about. Is Batman a Catholic or an atheist? It’s an interesting topic and one that reminds me of a quote from Bl. Cardinal Newman: “There are but two roads: the road to Rome and the road to atheism.” Not only do I personally find this true, but I think it could be the case of Batman as well. Speculation places Bruce Wayne’s father as an Episcopalian and his mother Catholic – a faith which he would inherit and was most likely raised in. The question is really whether he stuck it out or “lapsed” giving into a sort of atheistic nihilism (or just atheism) that is present in some incarnations of the character. Now, I have little interest in taking up that debate here. Batman, like many comic book characters, is flexible and open to many different interpretations. That’s why there is a multiverse and elseworlds and all that jazz. I don’t much feel like pouring over the hundreds of different writers’ versions of Batman to figure out whether he would still recite the Apostle’s Creed.

However, what is in interest to me is what I would describe as the “catholicity” of Batman’s character – no matter what Bruce Wayne’s personal beliefs are. Even if he were an atheist, there are certain aspects of his character which seem to connect to aspects of the Catholic tradition. This can be seen as merely having literary, rather than theological significance but I would venture to say that Batman, to use an expression of the philosopher Peter Kreeft, simply “smells Catholic.” Let me explain what I mean.

We can start with some of his more famous epithets. Along with being the World’s Greatest Detective, Batman is also known as the Dark Knight (made famous by the Nolan films) and the Caped Crusader. Both conjure up overtly medieval and Catholic images: a “knight” and a “crusader”. This shows us the martial and moral sides of Batman: he is a knight who fights for justice in his crusade against crime. In The Dark Knight Returns, Superman grudgingly says of Bruce, “Nothing matters to you – except your holy war.” Like many of the knights of old, Batman also has a distinctly monastic vibe to him. We can think of the rigorous training and discipline which he undergoes to remain in the peak of physical and mental condition. His training in the East a la Batman Begins is clearly monastic (though the League of Shadows are no Benedictans for sure). In the earlier mentioned Dark Knight Returns book, he describes the first time he saw the Batcave as “huge, empty, silent as a church…” The use of the cave reminds one of the saints that lived as cave dwellers, such as the fiery Church Father St. Jerome.

 

Batman wears black for the same reason a priest does – to symbolize death. The death of his parents, the death of his partners, and the self-death which he must undertake each day to fulfill his role as the Dark Knight of Gotham. As such, he also acts a sort of exorcist. One of the most notable things about Batman is his ability to scare the daylights out of criminals. We can see Jesus displaying this “Batman effect” in the Gospels – the devils scream at the sight of him and beg not to be tortured. This calm, cool hand of the exorcist in the face of evil is one of the defining qualities of a character like Batman who has to face the darkest and most evil grime that the underbelly of Gotham can throw at him. Him facing down the evil of the Joker or Victor Zsasz has all the qualities of the battle between good and evil present in the scriptures. In fact, this symbolism is frankly pointed to in the conclusion of Rocksteady’s Arkham Origins, game where Batman confronts the Joker in a chapel with a stain glass window of St. Michael the Archangel fighting the devil. Batman’s regular confrontation with the sinister smacks of spiritual warfare, and I think that’s why such images are used to help understand his character.

It’s fair to say, however, that these images can only be taken so far. I think if Batman was advocated as an ultra-Catholic character, or even as “practicing” as the likes of Daredevil or Nightcrawler, his character wouldn’t quite be the same. His catholicity is more subtle. In fact, an attempt to make an “very Catholic” or triumphalist Batman would merely come out looking like Azrael, a sometimes villain-sometimes ally of the Dark Knight and a member of the fictional Order of St. Dumas – another league of assassins and religious zealots. In some ways one wonders if a character like Azrael was created to show what Batman isn’t. If the Catholic and medieval symbolism are taken too far he becomes a different character.

Nonetheless, it can’t be denied that the images discussed help reinforce Batman’s essential-but-underlying Catholic characteristics. We could also discuss his “Catholic guilt” – which is apparently part of the reason why he is so driven to fight against the forces of evil. In any event, even if Batman is portrayed in some cases as a atheist or a rationalist, I think the Catholic aspects of the character are equally strong. Lapsed or otherwise, Batman’s upbringing in the Faith sticks with the character in a memorable way.

 

World’s Finest – A Tale of Two Cities

It goes without saying that Superman and Batman are DC’s (and perhaps all of comics) most famous, popular and iconic heroes. And if it doesn’t go without saying, well, they are. Given the grandness of their individual characters, I’ll be sure to look at different into different aspects of their respective mythos in different posts. Here though, I want to talk about their specific relationship and how these titans of the comic book world interact.

In many ways, they represent the polar opposites of everything a superhero can be. Superman is godlike in his powers, soaring through the sky and lifting trains overhead and whatnot. In contrast, Batman is a mere human – relying on his intelligence, experience, and physical and mental discipline to fight evil and protect the world. Given how early the two of them appeared on the American comics scene (Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938 while the Caped Crusader would first appear the year after in 1939) it follows that all the superheroes who would come after them would fall somewhere between them on the level of power they would have.

Their polarization doesn’t come just from how powerful they are, however. Even from their origins they seem to inhabit different worlds. Though both a have a very tragic past, the Wayne’s a rich-beyond-belief city-dwellers while Superman’s adopted family are simple farmers from Kansas.  Superman is DC’s most morally pure character, while Batman’s motivations and persona (though in many ways admirable) have always been more ambiguous. As Bruce admits in the Batman: Hush storyline: “Deep down, Clark’s essentially a good person… and deep down, I’m not.” Now, one can argue this is just Batman being humble and reflective, but it is definitely a theme picked up by many comic writers when describing the relationship of the two characters. Take Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns  book, where Batman sets his mind to beating Superman merely because he can. (Not a canon story mind you, but much deserving a review here)

Given these stark contrasts, it seems odd that these two should often be paired together in adventures – even be friends. As the “World’s Finest” superheroes, they often pair up to for similar causes outside the Justice League. I remember first seeing the two of them interact in the old animated Batman/Superman: The Movie where they teamed up to take down Lex Luthor and the Joker. For a great, more mature animated film that showcases their bromance, I would suggest Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. (I would definitely chose that over Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. More on that later perhaps.)

In any event, I think there is essential reason that these two are often paired together. There is something essential in the dichotomy they represent. It’s not just that they are foils to each other, though that is a big part of it too. I think they represent the two sides essential to a universal philosophy or religion. Take their respective cities for example. Metropolis and Gotham. Metropolis is bright, sunny, and booming with activity and technology. In Gotham, however, the sun never shines. It is often pictures as a dark and rainy place run by criminals and corrupt cops where people are scared to walk at night.

These two cities’ stark differences are even more striking than the things that make their resident heroes go about things in the different way. Metropolis in many ways represents human achievement and progress, while Gotham is a cesspool of human depravity. Metropolis is smiling, Gotham is suffering. To put into terms of the liturgical year, Metropolis is an Easter city, Gotham is a Lenten one.

And that’s just it. Both cities represent things essential to the Christian Faith. We, as Catholics, are called to inhabit both Metropolis and Gotham. This Scriptures both to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4) and to “be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow.” (James 4:9) Both celebration and suffering are at the heart of our human lives – and I believe Batman and Superman tap into that desire. In the words of Benedict XVI, “In the Church of God, everyday is both Good Friday and Easter Sunday.” This is the beauty of world’s finest: the dark and the light come together, the human and the divine mingle and cooperate.