Inside the Mind of Batman

What's Superman doing inside the mind of Batman?

Seeing what makes him tick.

This is just one of the two images recently released by the production team of Batman v Superman.  It shows Big Blue as he stands amidst the stark remains of Wayne Manor.

We don't know exactly what brings Superman to Wayne Manor but it no doubt has something to do with what's going on in the mind of Bruce Wayne. This, of course,  assumes Superman knows Batman's secret identity.  (That would be revealing in and of itself.)

Why else would Superman be standing in the gutted and broken remains of the once stately Wayne Manor unless he wanted to learn something about his most implacable foe.

The manor seems to be the personification of the Bruce Wayne/Batman character as portrayed in Batman v Superman.  (What little has been teased out.) Aged, broken, perhaps something that has outlived its usefulness and it might be said, haunted.

A look of consternation is etched across Superman's face.  It's like he is asking himself, "How could a man of such means come to this? To distance ones self from his past.  To leave memories in piles of rubble.  To allow decay and rot creep into what was once vibrant and proud?"


You can almost hear the voice of Jeremy Iron's Alfred echo in these desolate chambers, "The fever and the rage that turns good men cruel."

Superman must be asking himself, "Is this the man that seeks my undoing?"

Is Batman as damaged and fragmented as Wayne Manor suggests?  In this second image we find the Caped Crusader as many of us hold him dear, as the world's foremost detective.

We find him on bended knee, a forensic specialist seeking to divine the most obscure clue.   Here, Batman is truly in his element.  A seeker of truths unfettered by his tragic past.

The twisted remains of a victim lie next to him.  Broken shards of wooden boards lay about suggesting the victim may have fallen through the ceiling above.   Like a true detective no fancy devices are employed here.  Batman gets close to the crime and seeks to comprehend its mysteries through his keen senses and force of intellect.

Does that smack of a man whose time has come and passed him by?  A man whose passion for justice has waned?  Someone who is bereft will and a sense of duty?

I say no.

Despite where we find him in Batman v Superman, the Dark Knight still has the discipline to search out the most esoteric of clues no matter how infinitesimal.

But there is something about being the Batman also and it is directly related to wearing the suit.

In the stills above the Ben Affleck Bruce Wayne stares at the empty suit.  Which is the darker being, the man outside the suit or the one within?  The suit allows Wayne to carry out his mission and project the persona of the angry broken man that Wayne suppresses. 

Does Wayne act to protect the weak and seek justice during the day or does the suit allow him to release his inner demons and summon the will to exploit his subconscious?

Frank Miller seems to be asking the same question in the frame from the upcoming "Dark Knight III: The Master Race."  How much of Batman is the suit and how much is the man within?

This is what makes the mind of Batman so intriguing.   And it may be a question that can never be answered.  As long as there is a suit and the man that walks within it, that struggle will continue to play without end.

Perhaps that is our answer.  The never ending fight to define Batman comes from inside the man.  As long as he struggles with the two creatures that represent a different face, the mind of Batman may never be known. 

And our world is a better place for it.