The Dark Knight Rises: Is Batman Broken?
COMIC-CON PANEL
THURSDAY, July 12 2:30-3:30
Room 26AB
He’s strong, smart, and heroic. He’s the Dark Knight we want on our side, but is Batman also out of his mind? Caught between Catwoman and Bane as Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie trilogy comes to its end, will Batman break? Psychologists Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight) and Robin Rosenberg (The Psychology of Superheroes) discuss Bruce Wayne’s relationships, strengths, weaknesses, and potential diagnoses, and ask executive producer Michael Uslan (The Dark Knight Rises); comic book writers Len Wein (creator of Wolverine, Swamp Thing, Lucius Fox) and Steve Englehart (Detective Comics); and Catwoman herself, actress Lee Meriwether (Batman: The Movie), exactly how healthy it is for an orphaned billionaire to spend his nights fighting crime while dressed like a bat. Does the Dark Knight have bats in his belfry?
BATMAN AND PSYCHOLOGY: A DARK AND STORMY KNIGHT
(Wiley & Sons Publishing, Summer, 2012)
“It is a terrific book.” - Dennis O’Neil, comic book writer/editor/legend
Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante, including: Does Batman have PTSD? Why does he fight crime? Why as a vigilante? Why the mask, the bat, and the underage partner? Why are his most intimate relationships with “bad girls” he ought to lock up? And why won’t he kill that homicidal, green-haired clown?
