When I was a kid, I loved reading comics. The superheroes like Phantom, Mandrake, Tarzan shared an equal space with heroes of DC and Marvel Comics. Of these my favourite were Superman, Spiderman and Batman in that order.

As a kid, it felt cool to have the powers of Superman. An all powerful being who could beat everyone of the other heroes with one hand tied behind his back, but chose to be good and pure of heart. Many a afternoons were spent fantasising what I would do with Superman’s power. How I would go around the world helping everyone and punching the shit out of every bad SOB, and then come home to my mothers homecooked meal. Perfection. But as I grew older the charm of Superman wore thin. He was just too perfect, not relatable. As per Oxford dictionary perfection is “the state of being perfect or without fault”. They had to introduce ‘kryptonite’ to make him weak and introduce us to his weakness artificially. And that makes me wince now. Like pleasure, perfection is sold to us as a state that will always elude us. Something to always aspire for but will always elude us, and we will go to great lengths to achieve it but never quite attain it. Why? Because perfection is not human, it never was and never has been realistic, yet it’s one of the biggest drivers of us as a species. Perfection can cast a large and unattainable shadow that can halt any one of us from ever venturing out to be our authentic self because we’ll always fall shy of perfection.

According to Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, even if we as human species successfully managed to evolve enough to get rid of pain and suffering as a society, thus achieving a Utopian reality, a perfect state, it would only be a matter of time before humanity would lash out and deliberately sabotage and destroy the system. It is in our nature, it is what we are as a species. I feel we are not supposed to experience heaven during our lifetime, maybe we need the flaws of life to give happiness its meaning and significance.

In this backdrop both Spiderman and Batman started feeling more appealing. Both were very much human, and we could relate to their problems. Spiderman, whose struggle with daily everyday things like livelihood, time management were especially endearing. But Batman took this to another level. Batman, time and again, rises above his inner demons to conquer evil for the sake of good. Despite the murder that led to his creation, the Dark Knight holds fast to a vow to never take a life, unwilling to continue the violence that destroyed his young innocence. Because of this embrace of one’s inner darkness and inner shadow, Batman becomes a character many relate and look up to.

As Mark Manson puts it in his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***:

“Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience. Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Hiding what is shameful is itself a form of shame. Pain is an inextricable thread in the fabric of life, and to tear it out is not only impossible, but destructive: attempting to tear it out unravels everything else with it. To try to avoid pain is to give too many fucks about pain. In contrast, if you’re able to not give a fuck about the pain, you become unstoppable.”

Batman’s story is one of redemption, from this pain. His story, like all best stories starts off ugly, where they battle their inner demons, are tortured by their own personal hell and are far from perfect but instead of giving up, they turn up again and again, and do what others would not. Those are the real heroes and they have a story worth telling. Yes he suffered from a trauma like many of the villains which he fights against, but he chose the path of light while staying in the darkness. To a greater extent, most of the comic book villains share something in common with the very hero they fight against. Both Batman and his rogues gallery have fundamental trauma that serves as the motivation for their actions. The villains represent those who are unable to get the help they need, or unwilling to change in order to move past their trauma. Bruce Wayne, however, despite the horrific experience of witnessing his parents’ murder, is able to come to terms with his trauma to become a hero. He suffers from OCD and dual personality disorder case and still he is on the side of justice and order.

Each of Batman’s villain test an aspect of his character, which makes for compelling conflicts. Ivey challenges his temptation, Bane his strength, Riddler his brain, Scarecrow his fear and insecurities, And Joker challenges his fundamental value of justice and order because the Joker believes in Anarchy and chaos. This is where he trumps Spiderman whose gallery of villains, do not bring out the same kind of conflict.

Batman is just a man, with no superpowers but he has trained himself to be a superhero. He relies on high tech gadgets, martial arts and intelligence to fight crime. Physically and mentally he is the finest our species has to offer. He is a symbol of justice while Superman is that of hope (Wonder women is that of Truth, but that is a discussion for another time).

Batman is often referred as emotionless and inhuman character, with no real friends or humane relations. His treatment of his partner Robin in all its forms borders on child abuse. How can a person with such rigid moral code treat lost teenagers like he does? This inherent contradiction in his character make him more relatable not less. We see such people all around us. Brilliant in some aspects but utter failures in others. Tortured by the consequences of their actions but too stubborn to change.

To conclude I would go on out a limb to say that when push comes to shove I would like to have Batman in my corner rather than Superman, because I know that by hook or by crook he will win. He will not allow questions about morality and ethics, to come between him and his goals. The real trick would be to get him in our corner, and prove that our cause is just and right.

Like in real life results matter more than efforts and intention.