Summer of Superheroes: The experts explain our fixation on fictional characters
August 1, 2012 by Michael Hill
Filed under Special Features
If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely. A legend, Mr. Wayne. – Ra’s al Ghul, Batman Begins, 2005.
This line, so eloquently delivered by Liam Neeson in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, the 2005 reboot of the Batman film franchise, is the existential nudge directing a once lost and disillusioned Bruce Wayne down the path towards dark knighthood — a storyline that wrapped up this July in the highly anticipated blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises.
It was the simple yet powerful push Wayne needed. Like a forest being born again in the aftermath of wildfire, this counsel guided his gaze to the set of ideals that could, if embraced, grow from tragedy. Principles that are put to the test when al Ghul places a blade in the young billionaire’s hand, ordering him to execute an alleged murder. Read more
