It’s been an eventful week for my favorite Caped Crusader.
First, in commemoration of its 10th anniversary, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight will return to some select IMAX theaters for a weeklong engagement beginning Aug. 24. (Get your tickets now! I will be!)
Second, and more importantly, the latest issue of the new Batman comic series–No. 53, written by Tom King—purportedly reveals that Batman’s an atheist.
For a guy who wrote a whole book on the spirituality of Batman (and the spiritual lessons we can learn from him), this news was of some interest to me—even if it wasn’t exactly news.
Batman’s expressed some doubts in the Almighty before, even though (as others have noted) he has lots of associates who seem to prove that there’s a God who’s pretty interested in how we’re all getting along down here.
King himself pushed back a bit on the media takeaway.
“Lot of people saying Batman 53 (which I wrote) shows Batman is an atheist,” he tweeted. “That’s not how I read that comic. But I don’t think my reading of it is the most important one. Anyway, I hope you read the whole thing for yourself and decide for yourself.”
So I did. And for me, the headline “Batman is an atheist” doesn’t do the comic near enough justice. King’s exploring something far more profound in terms of faith and doubt, and one that jibes well with my understanding of the character.
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