Blog 9

Summary

The Batman adaptation I have chosen to watch is “The Dark Knight”. This adaptation is based on the character Batman who has a desire to fight crime in his home city of Gotham as a coping mechanism for his parents being killed by a robber when he was younger. In the Dark Knight, there is a mysterious new villain in Gotham called the joker. He wears clown makeup, acts insane, and commits terrifying and violent crimes for no reason. Throughout the movie Batman and the Joker are locked in a back and forth battle that causes Batman to lose many innocent loved ones, but ultimately he defeats the joker and proves that there is hope for Gotham to become a less violent city because people are naturally good in their hearts. For visual elements, the movie uses dark and dull colors to paint the picture of Gotham as a dying, scary place.
Ego is much more gothic than the dark knight. The Dark Knight has many gothic elements, such as the Jokers disturbing makeup, mysterious background and motivations, and senseless acts of brutal violence. Even Batman himself, who is supposed to be the hero, the good guy, is a dark figure that uses brutal violence and fear to defeat his enemies, although it is for a good purpose. However, the characters in Batman Ego are much more negative mentally. In the Dark Knight, Batman always has hope that things can be better and seems to be invincible despite being human. in Batman Ego, Batman is a broken man, barely holding on physically and mentally, nearly committing suicide.
The concept of a superhero can be considered gothic, because it implies that it takes a being with inhumane powers to face humanity’s challenges. However, superheroes themselves are not necessarily gothic, when considering heroes like spider man, who has a very positive attitude and image with the public. Batman himself is a gothic hero because he deliberately tries to strike fear into his enemies hearts and brutally beats them, and has a very dark past and mental trauma that motivates him.