What Does 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' Signify?

Are you counting the days till July 18, 2008, to see The Dark Knight? Or are you counting on this adaptation of a prominent DC Comics property to fail despite the success of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005)? Bryan Singer, after scoring a home run with Superman Returns (2006), is also a good horse to bet on considering his work on the first two X-Men movies which were too good to let the third one lag behind in box-office returns, Brett Ratner or no Brett Ratner.

If you are a hardcore superhero-movie fan, there are some things you need to know but are afraid to ask. The Spider-Man trilogy (?) has ended without losing too much respect. Fantastic Four (2005-07) may have risked far too much by going the sitcom route. There is no sign of Hulk (2003) and the Daredevil-Elektra duology (2003-05) going any further. The Punisher video game (2005) has highlighted the flaws of the 2004 movie. Kirk Jones has replaced Wesley Snipes in the role of Blade in a 2006 television series whose future just might be uncertain. Michael Jai White has certainly moved on from Spawn (1997) because he has been listed as a character in The Dark Knight. Which leaves us with only Batman to look forward to. 

Unlike Superman, whose portrayal by Christopher Reeve has been so iconic that he needed to be replaced by a talented impressionist named Brandon Routh, a definitive characterization of Batman is not possible. Reeve's Superman once had a kindred spirit in Adam West's Batman when it came to sporting bright colors while fighting crime, but with the entry of Michael Keaton, the black-and-white film-noir era was back in vogue. Everything was gray and dark in the Gotham City that Keaton's Batman had inhabited, except the leading lady's apartment and the antagonist's costume. Val Kilmer and George Clooney - two brilliant actors whose unique approaches to the caped crusader have been criticized - were merely guinea pigs in the failed experiments to bring color into Batman's world. Christian Bale is the latest entrant in this 'beauty' contest, and since he did not stink up Batman Begins the way Ben Affleck did with Daredevil, the only variable that can save or sink The Dark Knight is the Joker, played by Heath Ledger. Will he live up to Jack Nicholson's legacy? July 18, 2008. 

Elsewhere, somewhere in India, I have in my hands the graphic novel that had inspired the 1989-97 Batman movie franchise, titled The Dark Knight Returns. I may not be fortunate enough to own copies of Year One, The Killing Joke and The Long Halloween, which form the basis of most of those movies, but The Dark Knight Returns will give me company for now. 

Wow! This book features the Mutant Leader (he looks a lot like Bane...), Two-Face (but what happened to his face?), the Joker (and catatonic?), Catwoman (she could use a diet and some exercise) and Superman (why is the all-powerful Clark Kent taking orders?) !!! Do I dare dream of a team-up between Christian Bale and Brandon Routh in the near future? 

In the time that studio executives make up their minds I might as well conduct a semiotic analysis of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and pen a dissertation. The question is - where do I start? The book is laden with an ocean of symbols that could signify a galaxy of possibilities. 

What sets Batman apart from all the other superhero-movie franchises? And why is The Dark Knight Returns rehashed over and over again for the silver screen? Very simply put, it is not an origin story. 

Superman, X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra, The Punisher, Blade and Spawn rely heavily on their origin stories. As the narrative progresses in a sequel, we relate less to them. There is only so much you can expect from a godlike humanoid, a pantheon of mortal titans, a gifted yet frustrated citizen, a powerful family that stays together, a raging monster, a blind maniac, a weapon-wielding avenger, a psychotic murderer, a bloodthirsty vampire-slayer, and a devilish angel. 

There is a truly Shakespearean quality to Batman / Bruce Wayne when you divide his tragic life into the acts of a play. Young Bruce loses his parents to a mugger's bullets in Act I. By Act II, Wayne is determined to lead a dual life - as a billionaire playboy and a vigilante. Through the course of Act III, he fights criminals of all shapes and sizes while dodging the police. In Act IV, Wayne's cause is put to the ultimate test by a few adversaries who do not play fair. And Act V resolves everything for Batman's tormented soul, one way or another. 

We are okay with letting the other heroes continue their quest indefinitely, but a part of us wants Batman's suffering to end, and on that note, let me start my research into the 1986 comic-book miniseries that will, hopefully, give him closure. 

An Arabian Knight in Shining Satire

You must have sat down to read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia or the more recent Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Guilty pleasure is written all over these pages. Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl have given us an occasional eccentric fantasy character or two to fire our imagination, too. 

Rewind a little further, beyond Robert E. Howard (whose Conan is iconic both in the literary form and the Arnold Schwarzenegger iteration), to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and stop at the folk tales from the Middle East, some of which I had learned at the primary-school level. Perhaps you are familiar with the 1990s Disney movie adaptation titled Aladdin. Over a decade before the titular character had wooed Princess Jasmine, Indian actor Dharmendra had portrayed Ali Baba in a live-action film based on another story in One Thousand and One Nights, otherwise known as Arabian Nights. 

While interning at a leading newspaper in Bangalore, I had discovered my penchant for satire. Given that I had once tried my hand at illustrations but failed to render even a single funny image, I had focused more on developing the language for humorous situations. I can thank Reader's Digest for inspiration and all the impressionists who had ever appeared on Cinemala, a television program famous for its portrayals of the influential politicians of Kerala. 

You must be wondering what connection there is between fantasy and satire. Aren't the two genres chalk and cheese? Maybe to the casual reader. The answer is simple: fantasy can be used to disguise who you are satirizing, thus giving it a more universal quality. 

Thus was born Arabian Knights, in which Aladdin and Ali Baba struggle to make sense of the scams and scandals in the political arena. There are very limited copies of this forgotten anecdote out there in the world. Chances are you will find them through word-of-mouth, the way you seek out most folk tales. Or ask a genie to bring it to you...

Download the 'Atlas Reborn' Wallpaper Now!

Designed by Masha Shubin

Mirror, Mirror, The Writing's on the Wall

Do you love staring at yourself in the mirror? What do you really see? Just your reflection? To see whether the clothes make the person? Or are you admiring your body? There are things about yourself beyond outward appearances which only you notice, tiny details that the rest of the world will miss without realizing. Only Dr. Jekyll can behold the ugliness of Mr. Hyde when he faces a mirror.

When I am in a reflective mood, I see a boy whose favorite genre has been science fiction ever since he can remember. From the point of view of a child, the subject matter in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) was just as serious as in Small Wonder (1985-89). But no one else knows that about me, so please don't tell anyone.

The themes of space exploration and robotics in those television shows present unknown variables that put the protagonists to the test, which translates into actions that can be considered heroic or diabolical by the rest of the world.

It is, however, another aspect of science fiction which began to emerge in TV shows, or revisited in the case of comic books, around the same time that gives the average protagonist an opportunity to judge himself / herself despite the world's opinions.

Raise your hands if you remember Bizarro. Yes? No?

For those of you who are new to comic books, Bizarro is an imperfect, albino-like replica of Superman. Created in the late 1950s, the antagonist had made a comeback in The Man of Steel (1986) limited series. Another version appeared eight years later.

So from space exploration to robotics, we now reflect on cloning. You will lose count of the number of stories born out of this subspecies of the science fiction genre. Yet in the case of Superman, I can't help but wonder... why was Superman's clone less than perfect?

Comic-book fans know that Superman can see through walls, listen to sounds from great distances, fly around the world faster than a jet, and use his incredible strength to save helpless civilians or battle superhuman combatants. But the icing on the cake is his charisma. Subtract that last element, and you have a powerful being - Bizarro - subjected to worldwide alienation. Add the fact that he was not raised by kindly farmers - you have a creature without a moral backbone. His symptoms get multiplied in the absence of a social circle which can only be created by maintaining a job the way Superman does in the role of Clark Kent. As terrible as Bizarro's actions may seem to the world, it will divide them when it comes to evaluating the more heroic Superman, because what happens on the day their savior loses his sanity? This looks like a question for Superman, too.

Meanwhile, in the real world, we welcomed the arrival of Dolly the cloned sheep. I can never forget the cover on The Week magazine which featured one of the creators (Dr. Ian Wilmut) and his creation (Dolly). Phrases including 'playing God' were being liberally thrown around in those days.

This scientific development coincided with the time I experimented with writing ... so, like many authors of the science fiction genre, I wound up contributing a clone-themed story to Shaktimaan, a popular TV series of the late 1990s. Unlike my predecessors in the West who had crafted scientific approaches for heroes like Superman to combat their doppelgangers with, I explored the possibility of Shaktimaan resorting to both his spiritual guru and a brilliant scientist to help vanquish the malevolent version of himself.

To understand the inner workings of the Indian superhero, Shaktimaan's body is powered by the five elements - Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Sky - which had been activated by the awakening of the kundalini. In contrast, his vicious duplicate draws negative energy from the six passions - Lust, Anger, Greed, Attachments, Pride and Envy. It is anyone's guess which of the two power sources would get depleted in a battle, but why should I have all the fun of narrating how the final confrontation between man and clone went down?

As the years passed, I felt I was not done with my take on cloning. I tried weaving a tale for my own comic-book experiments, but it was not until my last year in high school that I got a chance to truly discover another, more thought-provoking possibility.

The whole story, including the title Jeremiah's Staff, appeared in my dreams. Bearing in mind that surrogacy presents both practicality and social stigma in the Indian context, I penned the fable using cloning as a symbolic device.

So no two tales of cloning can be completely alike. For Superman, the clone had to be robbed of charisma. In Shaktimaan, his duplicate is what a black magician is to a realized yogi. What else was John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) doing other than turning trustworthy colleagues into murderous strangers, all in the name of survival? Jurassic Park's dinosaurs have frog DNA, which lets them find a way to survive in the modern world.

Speaking of Jurassic Park, author Michael Crichton had to publish a clone of his first dino-book, while filmmaker Steven Spielberg and his successor had to clone the original 1994 masterpiece cinematic adaptation a few times. All of those attempts have had mixed results.

Polarizing the characters in the fictional universe, or readers in the real world, seems to be the primary purpose of cloning in storytelling. And if a consensus is never reached thereafter, there is no outcome other than extinction.

On this note, I'd like to present yet another question. What was so vile about Frankenstein's monster? The movies suggest that the creator had raised a dead man to life, but the book does not indicate as such. Was the creature an imperfect clone, too? Whatever the secret may have been, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley has taken it to her grave.

Dead or Alive: A Lesson for Benjamin Johnson

March 1999

I don't believe in ghosts, unless they are created by you and stay in your heart as demons tearing you apart from time to time.

But everyone else I went to school with did. I still remember the time our English teacher had taken a lesson about a young businessman who had struggled throughout his childhood to earn a livelihood but managed to strike deals that made him a millionaire. The tragedy was that when it was time for him to live in the lap of luxury after all that effort, he died in an accident. At the end of the story, his loved ones - including his wife - started spotting him in various locations, hinting that his soul was roaming about to reap the benefits of his hard work.

We were given an assignment to continue and conclude the story. While my other classmates penned imaginative ghost stories, I offered a simpler explanation.

The young businessman had never died to begin with. He had suspicions of unethical practices being followed in his company, which led to him having to go incognito for an investigation. He had appointed a man who looked like him to occupy the office, but things got worse when his stand-in died in an accident which made it difficult for his family to identify the body. Everyone assumed it was the company boss because of the clothes the victim was wearing at the time of his death.

I pictured myself as a private detective getting to the bottom of this mystery, and learned that the entrepreneur was alive all along and that his lookalike was murdered by his business partner who was behind the malpractices in the company.

My teacher told me that I had a bright future as a policeman or private detective. The question is: will my nation encourage me to go on that path, or will I lose my way because of detours laid out by those in power?

The Haunted Mansion: A Benjamin Johnson Nightmare

March 1998

My dream is to become a private detective. Speaking of which, I had this nightmare while on vacation in Hyderabad.

The police had ruled out a human hand behind the deaths of random pedestrians. I set out to bust the myth that supernatural snakes are working in packs to prey on those who walk the streets.

All I remember is a scientist who had genetically engineered cobras, or were they pythons? Boy, I had a fertile imagination. But I can never forget how he had burned his lab to the ground, and the secrets died with him.

I woke up the next morning and understood why I needed to become a private detective. There are a few individuals who use their power of knowledge to con ignorant people, which makes it my responsibility to share that power with those who live in the darkness of superstition.

Reality Bites - An Investigative Documentary Film

We fear snakes, and we are in awe of them, but have we understood them? They may not get our love, but do they really deserve to be feared? These pressing questions drove us, as undergraduates, to film Reality Bites, an investigative documentary into the way snakes get treated in the city.

"The fear of snakes is known as ophidiophobia," says Professor Swarnalatha Iyer of Christ College, Bangalore. "It is only a very few people who have an abnormal fear of snakes."

She adds that the fear of such reptiles is instinctual and inborn. It has two effects - in the positive way, people avoid going to areas where there are snakes, and in the negative way, people spot the snakes in a residential neighbourhood and kill them.

"I used to see lots of snakes getting mercilessly killed, particularly the big, non-venomous creatures like the rat snakes, and then the keelback snakes," says Rahmath Ataaz, a professor of zoology from Al-Ameen College, Bangalore. When the subject of snake charmers was addressed, Ataaz explains that they trap snakes, and sometimes defang them, which can lead to oral infections.

We had earlier visited a colony in Bangalore, where poverty-stricken settlers earn their livelihood as street performers. Some of them are snake charmers, and one of the performers admitted that the fangs of snakes are extracted.

Professor Ataaz understands a snake's role in the ecosystem. "30 per cent of the food grains of India," says Ataaz, while quoting Salim Ali the ornithologist, "are being consumed by rodents." Ataaz adds, "[A snake's] body is so beautifully designed that the body can easily get into burrows, track down the rats, and eat them."

It takes experience to handle snakes, and Janaki Iyengar, chairperson of Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Trust, tackles one with utmost ease. Her son is Dr. M.K. Srinath, who had once served as a Director of the World Wildlife Fund in India. Once he explained how to handle a snake, it became clear that just like how a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our fear of it.

Kudos to my fellow writers, presenters, and interviewers, whose inputs form the backbone of this student documentary film:

Poornima R. Chandran

Patsy R. Paul

Arpita Misra

Trini Thomas

Donna Joy

Sanghamitra Mitra

Peter Rajesh Joachim

And without the support of the crew, this documentary film would not have seen the light of day:

Jinesh Mathew

Anish Mathew

Solvin Mathew

First Look: Atlas Reborn Cover Art

Cover by Masha Shubin

When one man's world is endangered, the only way he can save it is to evolve into an unstoppable force of nature without creating more unnatural disasters.