Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
MERRY CHRISTMAS<br />
1
2<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Modern Heroism<br />
By Mark Carrigan<br />
In 1986, DC Comics published<br />
a four issue mini-series called<br />
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.<br />
While few would have<br />
predicted it prior to its publication,<br />
this work of Frank Miller was soon<br />
regarded as one of the touchstones<br />
for the medium and, through commercial<br />
success and critical controversy,<br />
almost single-handedly<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS<br />
reinvigorated a moribund character.<br />
Time magazine suggested the<br />
portrayal of a ‘semiretired Batman<br />
[who] drinks too much and is unsure<br />
about his crime-fighting abilities’<br />
was an ex<strong>amp</strong>le of trying to appeal<br />
to ‘today’s sceptical readers’.<br />
Regardless of the criticism which<br />
the series received in some quarters,<br />
it undoubtedly did appeal to<br />
readers and the manner in which its<br />
‘dark’ and ‘adult’ approach were progressively<br />
taken up by other comics<br />
points to the ‘scepticism’ of those<br />
readers being a widespread condition<br />
rather than the aberrant property<br />
of a cynical minority. The same<br />
dark approach lay behind the critical<br />
and commercial success which<br />
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark<br />
Knight enjoyed at the box office in<br />
the summer of 2008. Why is this<br />
kind of approach so popular? What<br />
explains its manifest resonance<br />
amongst vast swathes of the cinema-going<br />
and comic-buying public?<br />
Perhaps the answers lies towards the<br />
end of the film when Batman and<br />
Jim Gordon attempt to make sense<br />
of Harvey Dent’s actions, as the<br />
brave and virtuous district attorney<br />
was driven to attempted murder by<br />
the cruel machinations of the joker.<br />
The public regards Bent as a hero,<br />
but the public face of heroism becomes<br />
a fiction, crafted by powerful<br />
men in midnight schemes, because<br />
the masses could not countenance<br />
that the grim truth and social order<br />
necessitates the illusion. The heroism<br />
of Harvey Bent becomes a cruel<br />
joke, which Batman, alter ego of the<br />
billionaire Bruce Wayne, attempts to<br />
hide in the best interests of the public.<br />
If it was not for his own personal<br />
biography, as a man forever damaged<br />
by the murder of his parents<br />
as a child, he might have channelled<br />
this patrician impulse into philanthropy.<br />
As it is stands, he rushes<br />
off into the night, chased by police<br />
and dogs, taking the blame for the<br />
crimes that Bent committed. His<br />
parting words sum up the ethos of<br />
the exchange: ‘You either die a hero<br />
or live long enough to see yourself<br />
become the villain’. This is the bitter<br />
truth which the public must be protected<br />
from at all costs. The closest<br />
thing to heroism which The Dark<br />
Knight portrays is the attempted<br />
deception of the public towards this<br />
end.<br />
Compare this critically-lauded portrayal<br />
of heroism within that of another<br />
popular film series. While The<br />
Dark Knight was an enormous critical<br />
success, the Rocky films were,<br />
with the partial exceptions of the<br />
first and the sixth, critically panned.<br />
Yet both, in a sense, portray heroism.<br />
Once you look beyond the<br />
crass jingoism that frames large aspects<br />
of the Rocky series, a rather<br />
earnest narrative about heroism and<br />
virtue soon comes into focus. Each<br />
of the films follows the same format,<br />
as constancy and courage enable<br />
Rocky Balboa to triumph over adversity.<br />
The virtues the films portray<br />
have a long moral history in western<br />
culture and yet for most of us, the<br />
narrative that portrays them is one<br />
we struggle to take seriously. While<br />
the moralisation of professional<br />
boxing probably takes some blame<br />
for this, it is by no means the whole<br />
story.<br />
3
4<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS
BABAYLAN, CHARLENE D.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
BAIÑO, JULIUS F.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
BANDIBAS, JO-ANN C.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
CADUYAG, JECKEY<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
CALIBUGAR, SHERYL B.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
DAL, AIZA F.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
ENDIG, AILYN R.<br />
ENOPEÑA, CHOYIN LINRYX B.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS<br />
5
ESMA, SANDY M.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
GALVADORES, ALLENE F.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
GUIBONE, PAMELA B.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
GULLE, LOUIEVY JOY B.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
GUZMANA, DARLENE A.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
MACABAYAO, NORIMA D.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
6<br />
MONTIL, DONNA JAY S.<br />
NISPEROS, JAY R.<br />
MAED-Educational Management MAED-Educational Management<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS
PEDROSA, HAROLD C.<br />
MAED-English<br />
PLAZA, MATEL D.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
PONTIMAR, ROSELLE MAE M.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
RODRIGUEZ, DOBBIE LOVE A.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
SANO, CRISTINE MAE M.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
TAGAB, VANESSA MAE P.<br />
MAED-Educational Management<br />
TRINQUITE, JANECIE R.<br />
VICENTE, LILIBETH JOY M.<br />
MAED-Educational Management MAED-Educational Management<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS<br />
7
8<br />
MERRY CHRISTMAS