CNN: Some at Aurora Prayer Vigil in Batman T-shirts

[cthulu2016]

The reporter explained that folks were wearing Batman tee shirts to show that the shooter cannot take the fun away from Batman... or something.

And God bell 'em. Everyone in grief should express themselves however they want. Nothing against them whatsoever. (And all of the dead must have been Batman fans to be at a sold-out midnight premiere.)

Now, having said that. A question for folks familiar with the original Dark Knight graphic novel... does that give you a somewhat uneasy feeling the way it does me? The problem is that ordinary citizens showing up in Batman tee shirts is exactly the sort of thing that would happen in the Dark Knight world after the Joker committed a mass murder.

This tragedy is already so laden with comic-book vibe. The shooter set out to be a super villain, with weird hair and body armor and everything... and killed real people. And then the good people, the citizenry, respond as in a comic book.

It is surreal.

Again, not criticizing anyone. Just trying to express a weirded-out feeling.

[sadbear]

1. Maybe the diehards saw it as an attack on Batman himself.

Of course I won't pretend to understand the comiccon culture, so it's just conjecture on my part.

[white_wolf]

2. I really don't see the problem with it, honestly. Maybe I'm missing something.

What original graphic novel? The Dark Knight Returns? As to the shirts, well I know it may seem silly, but a lot of people take inspiration from fictional characters. I remember watching a special that came out around the time of the Dark Knight, called Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of Batman. Anyway one of the people on the show, a psephologist who had written a book about superhero comics and psychology, mentioned that he had received a lot of letters of people who told him that after a tragedy in their lives the image of Batman helped motivate them to move on and inspired them. Sure, it seems silly, but if it helps people, I don't mind.

[SoutherDem]

3. Batman didn't kill those people. A deranged man did.

If this happened during Toy Story 23, or whatever number we are up to, would a Mater tee shirt be a problem?