The world’s greatest comic book character, Batman, is going through a bit of a reboot. DC claims that the story of Bruce Wayne has reached an end, and now the cape and cowl fall to the original Robin, Dick Grayson.
The new Adventures of Batman and Robin has the punchy-ness of a 1970s cartoon, with all the grit of a post-911 world. Much of the story revolves around the development of Grayson, trying to figure out who he is, and what it means to be Batman. This is the same “Holy Gee, Batman!” Robin, the former circus performer whose big mouth could sometimes be as much trouble as The Penguin.
He struggles to get used to wearing a cape, and can’t make the groveled Batman voice. He’s also charged with taking care of the new Robin, Damian Wayne, the product of a tryst between Bruce Wayne of Talia al’Ghul. Damian was raised without a father by the league of assassins, knows no respect and no mercy.
The story ends with Grayson deciding it’s okay for him to smile under the mask. The only way he can do his job, is to find his own way of being a man.
It’s a story simple enough for a comic book, but so true that everyone must face it. We all grow up with expectations of our parents, heroes we wish to emulate, and social rules we learned as children. While these are all helpful, they can also trap us. We become a hallow imitation of others, or are driven by goals that do not fit our souls. At some point, we all have to decide what kind of Batman we’re going to be.
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