Stone Washington
Batman's endgame = Obama's end-term, Part 1
By Stone Washington
The Joker, a classic psychopath and narcissist who doesn't work well with others
"In his own twisted way, he sees himself as serving Batman. He thinks he makes Batman stronger by challenging him with is greatest nightmares. He sees himself as Batman's friend."
~Batman describing Joker
"What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further. We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's."
~Barack Obama
Background
This article is a summary of the New York Times bestselling comic book, "Batman Vol. 7: Endgame", part of the "New 52" Batman comic series. This is a continuation of my previous article series analyzing the genius of the writer, Scott Snyder, Professor at Columbia, and gifted artist Gregg Capullo's legendary depiction of the Dark Knight and its significance to modern day America, specifically covering the devastating final months of the Obama Presidency (2009-17).
Prologue
In present day Gotham City (a fictional city modeled after New York), multiple news outlets report a major chemical attack in Gotham midtown, with helicopters swarming over a large smoke cloud in the middle of the city. As police evacuate citizens in the area, shocking reports come by news networks on sight that the gas is apparently harmless in nature. Reporters state that the gas makes a circular arena-like formation and perhaps was meant to clear a certain area of the city. Inside the smoke cloud appears to be Batman encased in a giant mechanized suit daring an unknown invader to challenge him in a sort of gladiatorial battle. "Come on then! It's just you and me now! You think you can take me? Here? In my city?!" Batman declares, "Then step into the ring! Welcome to Gotham!"
This is the beginning of a new Batman Epic.
Endgame – Part 1
The story shifts to the Old Wayne Tower (used as a secret base of operations for Batman), 30 minutes prior, where Bruce Wayne awakes from a horrible nightmare depicting himself in the midst of dying with two of his allies who are all battling against an incoming alien invasion. Bruce's old faithful butler, Alfred injects Wayne with a serum to counteract against a fear toxin he inhaled while battling against the Super Villain Scarecrow, which causes him to hallucinate. The toxin makes Bruce repeatedly believe that he has died in a dream. Bruce and Alfred stroll through the Tower and speak with Julia, Alfred's adult daughter who assists Alfred in maintaining Wayne's computer system and monitors the city for crimes. Alfred and Bruce reminisce about the many accomplishments of Batman in the past, and Alfred acknowledges that Bruce isn't a "god" and should take into consideration his health during his many encounters with crime. Suddenly, the Superhero, Wonder Woman crashes through a nearby window and smashes Bruce into the ground. Using her super strength and flight, she carries Wayne and flies out of the Tower. Baffled by Wonder Woman's random attack against him, Bruce retaliates by attaching a mini-disrupter from his Bat-belt onto her head, which causes her to lose focus and drop Wayne onto a tree, who further falls onto the ground. Bruce asks Wonder Woman why she would attack him in such a barbaric manner, to which she replies that the Justice League (group of Super Heroes she and Batman are a part of) simply seek to kill him. By earpiece, Bruce orders Alfred to activate a failsafe robotic suit made specifically to combat against the Justice League if the situation arose, while releasing a gas cloud to force everyone in the area to evacuate.
Fast-forwarding to the present time, Batman begins battling Wonder Woman in his mechanized Batsuit. Batman punches Wonder Woman into a building, to which she retaliates by charging at Batman with her sword and slicing off his armored fist, while moving to stab him into the chest. Suddenly it is revealed that Wonder Woman's fatal strikes against Batman was in-fact a hallucination caused by Batman binding Wonder Woman with a magical rope-shaped relic known as the "bind of veils." After subduing Wonder Woman, suddenly a violent gust of wind knocks off large pieces of Batman's armor from two different angles. Within a couple of seconds Batman deduces that the wind was caused by the Super Hero, Flash (has the power of super human speed) running past Batman and intentionally dismantling him at a super-fast rate. Within a fraction of a second, Batman activates a special fail-safe device, designed to match Flash's speed, within his suit that shoots a special frictionless beam onto the ground that Flash runs on, causing him to spin uncontrollably fast and crash into a nearby building.
As Batman tries to figure out what is causing his super-powered allies to behave in such a vicious manner, the Super Hero Aqua-Man swoops into the city and demands that Batman fight him face to face in an honorable battle. With his back turned, Batman shoots out of the back of his suit a giant wad of gum-like substance that traps Aqua-Man to the ground, and immobilizes him. Batman questions Aqua Man on what is causing them to attack the Dark Knight, to which Aqua Man replies that he merely views Batman as a "dead man." Via ear-piece, Julia warns Batman that an incoming object is flying toward Batman's location. As Batman begins planning multiple safeguards to use against the super-powered intruder, before he can react, he finds himself violently pushed through the air and smashed through a wall at the Gotham Royal theatre. Batman looks up and sees non-other than Super-Man, who begins laughing uncontrollably, indicating to Batman that the Super Villain, known as the Joker, using a special toxin, hypnotized the Super Heroes into attacking Batman.
Batman battling the Justice League
Endgame – Part 2
Super-Man grabs a large concrete cinderblock and begins pummeling Batman into the ground, smashing him down to the basement level of the theatre. Batman goes on the offensive and activates his suit's brass knuckle weapons, containing microscopic red suns (collected from dead solar systems) able to injure Super-Man. Batman turns the tables and unleashes a barrage of powerful punches on the Man of Steel, moving to knock Super-Man through the basement back up to the street level. Pushed into a corner, Super-Man activates his heat vision and blasts Batman, who deflects the rays with his suit's plasma shield. Suddenly Super-Man concentrates his heat vision on three surrounding buildings behind Batman causing them to collapse onto the Dark Knight. From the molten rubble, Super-Man grabs Batman and flies hundreds of feet into the sky while tearing pieces of his suit apart. As Super-Man removes more and more of Batman's armor, Batman yells at him to come to his senses. Super-Man tells him that Joker wants him to beg to be released. Suddenly, from his mouth, Batman spits a concealed piece of kryptonite (an alien metal known to be Superman's singular weakness) into Super-Man's eye, which causes him to go into shock and pass out. Batman grabs onto Super-Man as the two fall into the Gotham river below. Afterwards, Batman contemplates the popular question of whether Batman or Super-Man would win in a fight, "Who wins in a fight? The answer is always the same. Neither of us."
Later, while the members of the Justice League rest in the hospital, in the Batcave (Batman's base of operations), Bruce Wayne, Alfred, and Julia examine how the Joker injected specialized toxins into each of the Justice League's DNA to hypnotize them into attacking Batman. Batman and Julia work to investigate the whereabouts of the Joker, following the trail of his previous encounter and subsequent defeat by Batman in the past. Batman states,
"In his own twisted way, he sees himself as serving Batman. He thinks he makes Batman stronger by challenging him with is greatest nightmares. He sees himself as Batman's friend. He used to, at least. But after the last time we fought... if I can glean any meaning in this first attack, it's friend turned enemy."
Batman then ventures out to the abandoned Arkham Asylum (the main prison for all of Gotham's Super Villains) in search for clues on the Joker. As Batman visits Joker's old cell, suddenly he is confronted by an old acquaintance by the name of Dr. Eric Border, psychiatrist, who asks Batman if he can possibly assist in Batman's search for Joker, believing that he can be cured of his villainous insanity. But Batman orders him to leave the Asylum, telling him that Joker is not crazy but pure evil. Suddenly Dr. Border causes the gate in Joker's cell to close, trapping Batman inside along with a spray of paralytic toxin rising from the floor grates. Border reveals himself to be non-other than the Joker in disguise, who reveals himself to be alive and in perfect health, despite falling off of a large cliff to his presumed demise in his previous encounter with Batman. Joker had also surgically removed his entire face (to prove a demented point to Batman), but now mysteriously has a clean new face and begins taunting Batman with his old rotten face in revenge (see first picture above). As Batman is paralyzed in place, Joker reveals to him his master plot to takeover Gotham city by releasing a viral hypnotic toxin, turning every citizen into a giggling psychopath like himself. Joker then shoots Batman with a pistol, causing him to pass out.
Endgame – Part 3
Later, Bruce Wayne awakens, sill temporarily paralyzed (from Joker's toxin) and strapped to a chair at the Batcave. While staring at the map of Gotham in chaotic turmoil from the outbreak of Joker's toxin, Batman contemplates his predicament, seeking to break free from his paralysis,
"You're bigger than your feelings. Bigger than your body. Your heart, your eyes... you're Batman. And you're going to stop him. Just like you always do. You're going to stop it all... somehow."
Bruce uses his immense will power to break free from Joker's paralytic toxin, and meets up with Alfred and Julia examining Gotham. The two tell Wayne how they have tried and failed multiple times to neutralize the harmful effects of Joker's new toxin,
"There's something new in this strain he's created, sir. Something resilient in a way... well, in a way that seems almost unnatural." Alfred explains. "It's virulent, fast acting, and seemingly unkillable. I'm afraid it's his masterpiece, sir."
Wayne refuses to give-up and pin-points the first carrier of the Joker toxin (before it spread) to be at Gotham Presbyterian hospital, seeking to develop and anti-body from the carrier's DNA. Wearing a gas mask, as Batman, he ventures out to the hospital on a glider, swopping over the chaotic city where everyone is under the hypnosis of the Joker's toxin.
The next volume like America's present election will perhaps be its last if Batman doesn't defeat this revitalized Joker and America doesn't vote in our female Joker, Hillary Clinton to finish Obama's legacy to deconstruct and destroy every Judeo-Christian tradition and institution in America.
Joker/Hillary = Death – Batman/Trump = LIFE.
Batman flying over Gotham in turmoil
Batman swoops through the hospital and knocks aside many of the hypnotized citizens and even doctors there. Meanwhile, Batman's ally, police Commissioner Gordon, communicates to Batman via ear-piece and finds that the hospital has a bad history of haunted accidents and tragedies since its' founding in the 19th Century, with certain photos giving the shocking impression that a shadowy figure taking the likeness of the Joker caused them. Suddenly, Gordon hears a noise from his bedroom closet and upon investigating is suddenly knocked down by a random boxing glove toy hidden inside. Elsewhere, Batman finds the patient at the hospital to be non-other than former criminal Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents as a child and set him on the path to becoming Batman. Batman finds that Joker purposefully placed Chill in the hospital (knowing Batman's identity) and set up the room in a staged appearance to mimic the night when Wayne's parents were tragically shot, substituting Wayne and his parents for Duke Thomas, a young boy Batman befriended in the past, and Thomas' parents. Under Joker's hypnosis, Joe Chill then draws his weapon and takes aim at Duke and his frightened family.
Meanwhile, Joker suddenly pops out from underneath Commissioner Gordon's bed and begins to taunt the Commissioner with multiple threats, while lighting his bed on fire to create dramatic effect. Joker pulls out an axe and draws closer to Gordon, who immediately draws his pistol and fatally shoots the Super-Villain, at the same time that Batman intercepts the bullet Chill shot at Duke's family. Batman subdues Chill and rescues Duke just as an army of hypnotized hospital patients swarm the room and take Duke's parents captive. Batman grabs Duke and leaps out of a nearby window, gliding away from the hospital. Elsewhere, Gordon speaks to Batman via ear-piece and tells him how he shot and killed the Joker. But suddenly, Joker secretly rises up behind Gordon and attacks him, leaving Batman to speculate Joker's survival and the safety of his ally the Commissioner.
Significance for Modern Day
The realm of the Batman mythos holds many key correlations to the modern day American political culture, specifically around the destructive legacy of the Obama Presidency. Batman (secretly billionaire Bruce Wayne) represents billionaire Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, who has often been referred to as to a sort of real life Batman, since he was born in New York and is a legendary billionaire with a flair for the dramatic. Like Batman's seemingly impossible and uphill struggle against multiple obstacles and friends turned foes, so has Trump's rocky candidacy (whether you like him or not) been defined as a large series of arduous political disputes and battles against the major obstacles of the mainstream liberal Media, many establishment GOP Republicans, and the Democrat establishment through every liberalized entity in America. It has been made evident through multiple interjections and attacks against Trump by Barack Obama into the 2016 election that Trump isn't merely running against Democrat Nominee Hillary Clinton, but against Obama himself, along with what Trump calls the "rigged system" of establishment politicians in Washington.
Obama represents the Joker, who, like the Clown Prince of Crime, is unleashing his devastating waves of endgame policies upon America in his last months in office. Just as the Joker releases his deadly toxins to create the masses of millions of Gothamites into giggling psychopaths controlled by violent hatred, so has Obama stirred up a toxic combustion of mistrust and division in what he and Progressive elitists view the American public as the "useful idiots" or the mob, through promoting various self-destructive Socialist ideas such as: fueling race wars and anti-police sentiment, open-borders while allowing amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, total dependency on "green energy," de-privatizing American internet usage, discriminating against Second amendment gun ownership, allowing tens of thousands of undocumented Syrian refugees into the U.S, etc. Like Joker's transition from "serving" Batman with challenging the Dark Knight with his worst nightmares to seeking to kill him in more direct ways, so have Obama's attacks against American values and tradition, once masqueraded as "hope and change," been more visibly direct and extreme in nature following the close of his second term.
The hypnotized Justice League represents the mesmerized and unfaithful state of the GOP toward their dying support for Trump. Following the paradigm of friend turned foe in the Batman comic where Batman's greatest allies – Super-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc., turn against him by Joker's toxin, so has Trump's once greatest allies in the Republican party, most notably Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, turned against him with toxic animosity largely inspired by the release of a recent sexual based controversial video connected to the Republican Nominee. Alfred, Julia, and Commissioner Gordon all represent the immovable allies Trump still retains within the Republican Party, such as, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, and Newt Gingrich.
It is essential for all American voters to vote for Trump, regardless of the controversy sprung against him by fleeting Republicans and promoted by the liberal mainstream media, whom Trump has been at war with since the start of his candidacy in June 2015. Despite being in a seemingly impossible situation inspired by his foes, like Batman, Trump maintains an unstoppable will to succeed and will continue fighting on to the bitter end with no plans or hesitation to drop out of the race. Trump fights to restore the power of the American people's voices to be heard and represented in Washington and not continually ignored and manipulated for greater power by Progressive elitists governing both sides of the political aisle.
Will the majority of the American electorate come to vote for the country's last-ditch hope for restoring American exceptionalism and the nation's dominant positon in the World, or will Obama's destructive Socialist-Globalist endgame legacy be upheld by a vote for Democrat Nominee Hillary Clinton?
*N.B.: This essay is based in part on The New 52's Batman Vol. 7: Endgame by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, Nos. 35-40.
© Stone Washington
October 20, 2016
The Joker, a classic psychopath and narcissist who doesn't work well with others
"In his own twisted way, he sees himself as serving Batman. He thinks he makes Batman stronger by challenging him with is greatest nightmares. He sees himself as Batman's friend."
~Batman describing Joker
"What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further. We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's."
~Barack Obama
Background
This article is a summary of the New York Times bestselling comic book, "Batman Vol. 7: Endgame", part of the "New 52" Batman comic series. This is a continuation of my previous article series analyzing the genius of the writer, Scott Snyder, Professor at Columbia, and gifted artist Gregg Capullo's legendary depiction of the Dark Knight and its significance to modern day America, specifically covering the devastating final months of the Obama Presidency (2009-17).
Prologue
In present day Gotham City (a fictional city modeled after New York), multiple news outlets report a major chemical attack in Gotham midtown, with helicopters swarming over a large smoke cloud in the middle of the city. As police evacuate citizens in the area, shocking reports come by news networks on sight that the gas is apparently harmless in nature. Reporters state that the gas makes a circular arena-like formation and perhaps was meant to clear a certain area of the city. Inside the smoke cloud appears to be Batman encased in a giant mechanized suit daring an unknown invader to challenge him in a sort of gladiatorial battle. "Come on then! It's just you and me now! You think you can take me? Here? In my city?!" Batman declares, "Then step into the ring! Welcome to Gotham!"
This is the beginning of a new Batman Epic.
Endgame – Part 1
The story shifts to the Old Wayne Tower (used as a secret base of operations for Batman), 30 minutes prior, where Bruce Wayne awakes from a horrible nightmare depicting himself in the midst of dying with two of his allies who are all battling against an incoming alien invasion. Bruce's old faithful butler, Alfred injects Wayne with a serum to counteract against a fear toxin he inhaled while battling against the Super Villain Scarecrow, which causes him to hallucinate. The toxin makes Bruce repeatedly believe that he has died in a dream. Bruce and Alfred stroll through the Tower and speak with Julia, Alfred's adult daughter who assists Alfred in maintaining Wayne's computer system and monitors the city for crimes. Alfred and Bruce reminisce about the many accomplishments of Batman in the past, and Alfred acknowledges that Bruce isn't a "god" and should take into consideration his health during his many encounters with crime. Suddenly, the Superhero, Wonder Woman crashes through a nearby window and smashes Bruce into the ground. Using her super strength and flight, she carries Wayne and flies out of the Tower. Baffled by Wonder Woman's random attack against him, Bruce retaliates by attaching a mini-disrupter from his Bat-belt onto her head, which causes her to lose focus and drop Wayne onto a tree, who further falls onto the ground. Bruce asks Wonder Woman why she would attack him in such a barbaric manner, to which she replies that the Justice League (group of Super Heroes she and Batman are a part of) simply seek to kill him. By earpiece, Bruce orders Alfred to activate a failsafe robotic suit made specifically to combat against the Justice League if the situation arose, while releasing a gas cloud to force everyone in the area to evacuate.
Fast-forwarding to the present time, Batman begins battling Wonder Woman in his mechanized Batsuit. Batman punches Wonder Woman into a building, to which she retaliates by charging at Batman with her sword and slicing off his armored fist, while moving to stab him into the chest. Suddenly it is revealed that Wonder Woman's fatal strikes against Batman was in-fact a hallucination caused by Batman binding Wonder Woman with a magical rope-shaped relic known as the "bind of veils." After subduing Wonder Woman, suddenly a violent gust of wind knocks off large pieces of Batman's armor from two different angles. Within a couple of seconds Batman deduces that the wind was caused by the Super Hero, Flash (has the power of super human speed) running past Batman and intentionally dismantling him at a super-fast rate. Within a fraction of a second, Batman activates a special fail-safe device, designed to match Flash's speed, within his suit that shoots a special frictionless beam onto the ground that Flash runs on, causing him to spin uncontrollably fast and crash into a nearby building.
As Batman tries to figure out what is causing his super-powered allies to behave in such a vicious manner, the Super Hero Aqua-Man swoops into the city and demands that Batman fight him face to face in an honorable battle. With his back turned, Batman shoots out of the back of his suit a giant wad of gum-like substance that traps Aqua-Man to the ground, and immobilizes him. Batman questions Aqua Man on what is causing them to attack the Dark Knight, to which Aqua Man replies that he merely views Batman as a "dead man." Via ear-piece, Julia warns Batman that an incoming object is flying toward Batman's location. As Batman begins planning multiple safeguards to use against the super-powered intruder, before he can react, he finds himself violently pushed through the air and smashed through a wall at the Gotham Royal theatre. Batman looks up and sees non-other than Super-Man, who begins laughing uncontrollably, indicating to Batman that the Super Villain, known as the Joker, using a special toxin, hypnotized the Super Heroes into attacking Batman.
Batman battling the Justice League
Endgame – Part 2
Super-Man grabs a large concrete cinderblock and begins pummeling Batman into the ground, smashing him down to the basement level of the theatre. Batman goes on the offensive and activates his suit's brass knuckle weapons, containing microscopic red suns (collected from dead solar systems) able to injure Super-Man. Batman turns the tables and unleashes a barrage of powerful punches on the Man of Steel, moving to knock Super-Man through the basement back up to the street level. Pushed into a corner, Super-Man activates his heat vision and blasts Batman, who deflects the rays with his suit's plasma shield. Suddenly Super-Man concentrates his heat vision on three surrounding buildings behind Batman causing them to collapse onto the Dark Knight. From the molten rubble, Super-Man grabs Batman and flies hundreds of feet into the sky while tearing pieces of his suit apart. As Super-Man removes more and more of Batman's armor, Batman yells at him to come to his senses. Super-Man tells him that Joker wants him to beg to be released. Suddenly, from his mouth, Batman spits a concealed piece of kryptonite (an alien metal known to be Superman's singular weakness) into Super-Man's eye, which causes him to go into shock and pass out. Batman grabs onto Super-Man as the two fall into the Gotham river below. Afterwards, Batman contemplates the popular question of whether Batman or Super-Man would win in a fight, "Who wins in a fight? The answer is always the same. Neither of us."
Later, while the members of the Justice League rest in the hospital, in the Batcave (Batman's base of operations), Bruce Wayne, Alfred, and Julia examine how the Joker injected specialized toxins into each of the Justice League's DNA to hypnotize them into attacking Batman. Batman and Julia work to investigate the whereabouts of the Joker, following the trail of his previous encounter and subsequent defeat by Batman in the past. Batman states,
"In his own twisted way, he sees himself as serving Batman. He thinks he makes Batman stronger by challenging him with is greatest nightmares. He sees himself as Batman's friend. He used to, at least. But after the last time we fought... if I can glean any meaning in this first attack, it's friend turned enemy."
Batman then ventures out to the abandoned Arkham Asylum (the main prison for all of Gotham's Super Villains) in search for clues on the Joker. As Batman visits Joker's old cell, suddenly he is confronted by an old acquaintance by the name of Dr. Eric Border, psychiatrist, who asks Batman if he can possibly assist in Batman's search for Joker, believing that he can be cured of his villainous insanity. But Batman orders him to leave the Asylum, telling him that Joker is not crazy but pure evil. Suddenly Dr. Border causes the gate in Joker's cell to close, trapping Batman inside along with a spray of paralytic toxin rising from the floor grates. Border reveals himself to be non-other than the Joker in disguise, who reveals himself to be alive and in perfect health, despite falling off of a large cliff to his presumed demise in his previous encounter with Batman. Joker had also surgically removed his entire face (to prove a demented point to Batman), but now mysteriously has a clean new face and begins taunting Batman with his old rotten face in revenge (see first picture above). As Batman is paralyzed in place, Joker reveals to him his master plot to takeover Gotham city by releasing a viral hypnotic toxin, turning every citizen into a giggling psychopath like himself. Joker then shoots Batman with a pistol, causing him to pass out.
Endgame – Part 3
Later, Bruce Wayne awakens, sill temporarily paralyzed (from Joker's toxin) and strapped to a chair at the Batcave. While staring at the map of Gotham in chaotic turmoil from the outbreak of Joker's toxin, Batman contemplates his predicament, seeking to break free from his paralysis,
"You're bigger than your feelings. Bigger than your body. Your heart, your eyes... you're Batman. And you're going to stop him. Just like you always do. You're going to stop it all... somehow."
Bruce uses his immense will power to break free from Joker's paralytic toxin, and meets up with Alfred and Julia examining Gotham. The two tell Wayne how they have tried and failed multiple times to neutralize the harmful effects of Joker's new toxin,
"There's something new in this strain he's created, sir. Something resilient in a way... well, in a way that seems almost unnatural." Alfred explains. "It's virulent, fast acting, and seemingly unkillable. I'm afraid it's his masterpiece, sir."
Wayne refuses to give-up and pin-points the first carrier of the Joker toxin (before it spread) to be at Gotham Presbyterian hospital, seeking to develop and anti-body from the carrier's DNA. Wearing a gas mask, as Batman, he ventures out to the hospital on a glider, swopping over the chaotic city where everyone is under the hypnosis of the Joker's toxin.
The next volume like America's present election will perhaps be its last if Batman doesn't defeat this revitalized Joker and America doesn't vote in our female Joker, Hillary Clinton to finish Obama's legacy to deconstruct and destroy every Judeo-Christian tradition and institution in America.
Joker/Hillary = Death – Batman/Trump = LIFE.
Batman flying over Gotham in turmoil
Batman swoops through the hospital and knocks aside many of the hypnotized citizens and even doctors there. Meanwhile, Batman's ally, police Commissioner Gordon, communicates to Batman via ear-piece and finds that the hospital has a bad history of haunted accidents and tragedies since its' founding in the 19th Century, with certain photos giving the shocking impression that a shadowy figure taking the likeness of the Joker caused them. Suddenly, Gordon hears a noise from his bedroom closet and upon investigating is suddenly knocked down by a random boxing glove toy hidden inside. Elsewhere, Batman finds the patient at the hospital to be non-other than former criminal Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents as a child and set him on the path to becoming Batman. Batman finds that Joker purposefully placed Chill in the hospital (knowing Batman's identity) and set up the room in a staged appearance to mimic the night when Wayne's parents were tragically shot, substituting Wayne and his parents for Duke Thomas, a young boy Batman befriended in the past, and Thomas' parents. Under Joker's hypnosis, Joe Chill then draws his weapon and takes aim at Duke and his frightened family.
Meanwhile, Joker suddenly pops out from underneath Commissioner Gordon's bed and begins to taunt the Commissioner with multiple threats, while lighting his bed on fire to create dramatic effect. Joker pulls out an axe and draws closer to Gordon, who immediately draws his pistol and fatally shoots the Super-Villain, at the same time that Batman intercepts the bullet Chill shot at Duke's family. Batman subdues Chill and rescues Duke just as an army of hypnotized hospital patients swarm the room and take Duke's parents captive. Batman grabs Duke and leaps out of a nearby window, gliding away from the hospital. Elsewhere, Gordon speaks to Batman via ear-piece and tells him how he shot and killed the Joker. But suddenly, Joker secretly rises up behind Gordon and attacks him, leaving Batman to speculate Joker's survival and the safety of his ally the Commissioner.
Significance for Modern Day
The realm of the Batman mythos holds many key correlations to the modern day American political culture, specifically around the destructive legacy of the Obama Presidency. Batman (secretly billionaire Bruce Wayne) represents billionaire Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, who has often been referred to as to a sort of real life Batman, since he was born in New York and is a legendary billionaire with a flair for the dramatic. Like Batman's seemingly impossible and uphill struggle against multiple obstacles and friends turned foes, so has Trump's rocky candidacy (whether you like him or not) been defined as a large series of arduous political disputes and battles against the major obstacles of the mainstream liberal Media, many establishment GOP Republicans, and the Democrat establishment through every liberalized entity in America. It has been made evident through multiple interjections and attacks against Trump by Barack Obama into the 2016 election that Trump isn't merely running against Democrat Nominee Hillary Clinton, but against Obama himself, along with what Trump calls the "rigged system" of establishment politicians in Washington.
Obama represents the Joker, who, like the Clown Prince of Crime, is unleashing his devastating waves of endgame policies upon America in his last months in office. Just as the Joker releases his deadly toxins to create the masses of millions of Gothamites into giggling psychopaths controlled by violent hatred, so has Obama stirred up a toxic combustion of mistrust and division in what he and Progressive elitists view the American public as the "useful idiots" or the mob, through promoting various self-destructive Socialist ideas such as: fueling race wars and anti-police sentiment, open-borders while allowing amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, total dependency on "green energy," de-privatizing American internet usage, discriminating against Second amendment gun ownership, allowing tens of thousands of undocumented Syrian refugees into the U.S, etc. Like Joker's transition from "serving" Batman with challenging the Dark Knight with his worst nightmares to seeking to kill him in more direct ways, so have Obama's attacks against American values and tradition, once masqueraded as "hope and change," been more visibly direct and extreme in nature following the close of his second term.
The hypnotized Justice League represents the mesmerized and unfaithful state of the GOP toward their dying support for Trump. Following the paradigm of friend turned foe in the Batman comic where Batman's greatest allies – Super-Man, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc., turn against him by Joker's toxin, so has Trump's once greatest allies in the Republican party, most notably Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, turned against him with toxic animosity largely inspired by the release of a recent sexual based controversial video connected to the Republican Nominee. Alfred, Julia, and Commissioner Gordon all represent the immovable allies Trump still retains within the Republican Party, such as, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, and Newt Gingrich.
It is essential for all American voters to vote for Trump, regardless of the controversy sprung against him by fleeting Republicans and promoted by the liberal mainstream media, whom Trump has been at war with since the start of his candidacy in June 2015. Despite being in a seemingly impossible situation inspired by his foes, like Batman, Trump maintains an unstoppable will to succeed and will continue fighting on to the bitter end with no plans or hesitation to drop out of the race. Trump fights to restore the power of the American people's voices to be heard and represented in Washington and not continually ignored and manipulated for greater power by Progressive elitists governing both sides of the political aisle.
Will the majority of the American electorate come to vote for the country's last-ditch hope for restoring American exceptionalism and the nation's dominant positon in the World, or will Obama's destructive Socialist-Globalist endgame legacy be upheld by a vote for Democrat Nominee Hillary Clinton?
*N.B.: This essay is based in part on The New 52's Batman Vol. 7: Endgame by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, Nos. 35-40.
© Stone Washington
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
