Batman Part 1: An Ever Present Evil that Won’t Go Away

Batman is perhaps the greatest Superhero of all time. That’s intriguing since he doesn’t actually have any superpowers. He is a very intelligent and physically strong person but he is just a person. He didn’t get his abilities in any special way other than hard work. He has a tragic origin which led him to become a superhero. His parents were murdered right in front of him when he was a child. That certainly influenced him in many ways as he grew into a crime fighter. One result was that he became dedicated to protecting others. He wants to rescue others from the same kind of tragedy that happened to him.

In order to accomplish his goal, Bruce Wayne set out to train his body and mind so that he could become a force for justice. Depending upon which Batman story you are familiar with, the amount and kinds of training might be slightly different. For these posts I will refer back to the Dark Knight Trilogy. In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham City as a young man to learn how to defeat criminals. At first he is untrained and undisciplined. But then a man named Ra’s al Ghul takes an interest in training Bruce. Bruce studies with the League of Shadows. When Bruce learns that Ra’s al Ghul actually wants to destroy Gotham City, he fights back, escapes, and returns to Gotham.

Bruce is dedicated to saving his city from the criminals that are destroying it. After returning to Gotham he still has to gather the tools that he is going to need for his crusade. He gets equipment from Lucius Fox and he gets help from his trusted family butler Alfred Pennyworth. He realizes that he can become more than just a one man vigilante if he can become a symbol against crime. He needs the criminals to be afraid of him. He becomes the Batman. As the Batman he immediately begins to have an impact against the evil that is pervasive in Gotham City. His dedication to his mission begins to pay off.

Batman has an admirable goal. In his fight against crime he wants to protect the innocent and save his city from evil. One thing that becomes obvious is that his battle is a constant and continual. No matter how hard he fights, criminals keep fighting back. He puts the criminals in jail and then they break out again. A new threat always appears to take the place of the one that Batman has defeated. In Batman Begins, Ra’s al Ghul returns to try to destroy the city. Batman stops him but the movie ends with Lieutenant James Gordon telling Batman about a new criminal. The war goes on.

Batman is very dedicated to the fight but it is a never-ending fight. In all the various Batman stories, the villains keep coming. The movies give a glimpse of the evil that Batman fights – Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Scarecrow, Bane, and on and on it goes. Batman tirelessly works to defeat these criminals and he does succeed in stopping many of their plans. But there is always a new threat. Either there is an entirely new  villain or an old villain escapes from prison. Batman continues to fight.

This makes me think about the constant and continual struggle that we have with sin and evil in our own world and in our own lives. Think about your own struggle. Do you have that specific temptation that keeps on coming after you? Do you think that you will eventually be able to overcome that sin through your own willpower? If you just try hard enough, then you will win and finally defeat the evil that has been dragging you down into sin. But … you couldn’t do it. You fell into temptation again. You weren’t strong enough. Another temptation caught you as you were trying to defeat the first temptation.

The villains keep coming. Just like Batman has a never-ending list of evil villains to fight, we have a never-ending list of temptations and sins that come into our lives. There may be some temptations that aren’t as difficult for us to resist but then other temptations trip us up every time. There are so many villains we face: their names are Greed, Gossip, Lust, Envy, Hate, Disrespect, Pride, Rage, Laziness and the list goes on and on.
This is generic tadalafil why women who ache from HSDD acquisition means to access changeable libido. With the summer season arriving, are the institutes offering a special discount for all those who will be wholesale generic viagra there, freely and readily offer up any details. This requires order generic cialis casting organization improvement in terms of actions. Orthopedic is considered to be a popular addition to your bathrooms, bringing in a valuable extra stream of revenue, which is something every business can get behind in the current economy. midwayfire.com cialis cost low
We are surrounded by the sinful world. Our sinful nature resides inside of us. The devil is working on us every day and using whatever he can to get us to fall. Whether it is that old temptation that we have fought a thousand times before or a new temptation which we are encountering for the first time, evil keeps coming after us.

We can never be good enough to defeat evil. We can never make up for the sins that we have done. No matter how hard we try, we keep on committing sins. We won’t ever get to a point where we will have completely overcome temptation and sin. If we try to look to ourselves we have to throw up our hands in frustration. That’s basically what the Apostle Paul is doing in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Paul says that to make a point. His point is that we can’t save ourselves and we need a Hero from the outside who can deal with villains great and small in a way we never could. We however continue to sin. Paul uses that phrase as a turning point to show that our hope needs to depend on Christ. At the beginning of chapter 8 he says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1, 2). We are free from the burden of trying to save ourselves. We are free to serve our Lord with joyful hearts.

God has dealt with evil. He has won the fight against all the evil villains that are trying to destroy us. God knew that we would never defeat evil on our own so he gave us his Son Jesus to defeat evil in our place. When Jesus faced those temptations that we face, he conquered them. He never fell into sin. He is the only one who had the power to defeat evil and he didn’t do it for his own sake. He did it to save us from all of our sins. If we think our faith is all about how well we can reform our evil ways, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Our faith is about the resurrection. Through Christ, we have been raised to a new life of faith. He has forgiven us and given us everlasting life. The villains are vanquished one and all once and for all.

Batman History

Batman first appeared back in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). As I stated previously, he is perhaps the greatest hero of all time (it just depends on who you ask). In his first issue it didn’t really explain how Bruce Wayne went through the process of becoming Batman. Batman is simply there and carrying out his battle against crime. His back story was fleshed out over time. In 1987, an origin story came out called Batman: Year One. Year One is still considered to be a definitive story in the 75 year history of Batman. Batman has appeared in many cartoons, TV shows, and movies. He was most recently played on film by Christian Bale in the Dark Knight Trilogy. Soon Ben Affleck will take up the cape and cowl in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie. There is also a new Batman TV series coming this fall called “Gotham”. It will center on the Gotham police force before Batman comes to the city.