Dark Knight, Detective, Guardian, ominous, forbidding, and forboding yet not. A man lost combatting evil and his own inner demons. A millionaire playboy. A dream of a father figure, the ultimate hero. Every boys dream, to know him, be taught by him, to be him. To be both feared and loved, hated and admired. Batman is every male wrapped up in one. He is human, frail, has faults and can be hurt. Yet, he always survives.

 I try to analyze my love for one most long lived series in exsistence and why, at thirty-six with three kids, do I still crave reading and seeing the art of batman. Sure there have been some cheesy books and storylines, but it is always a mortal, human male, without super-powers combatting the evil in the universe. I konw that I will probably never own them all, and that my kids and wife could probably care less, but along with the dream of being him and the escapism of another life and reality, I will continue to read him as long as they keep publishing. If not, I'll just keep buying all the back issues as I get the money to do so.