The individual and specific complexity of the human experience makes the interpretation of straight truth very hard to decipher. The cultural context and metalanguage levels given to each specific scenario make it very hard for anyone to even begin to know the way another person feels or thinks. This is why Jesus spoke in parables. This is my mythology is one of the most powerful forms of passing on historic communication. The truest truths throughout the realm of humanity are almost always shrouded in legend. By amplifying, or making “tall tales” we can see our selves more sincerely.

One of the most powerful mediums of the past hundred years has been the comic book. With their initial boost to help American's deal with the fall out of the depression era and World War II, the hero's are practically infallible, but the emotions are basic. The way we see ourselves as individuals is just as complex as the way these characters present themselves.

Tonight I while I was watching the Dark Knight I kept thinking about a quote from Kevin Smith's ironically philosophical film Mallrats. Stan Lee guests as himself and in a pep talk that he later admits to be bunk he still unwittingly touches on a truth that most people can relate to: "I created some special new superheroes. They were characters that reflected my own heartbreak and my own regrets...Doctor Doom wears body armor to conceal his own mangled form... That was me beneath the armor. [The Hulk,] A normal guy one minute, a rage of emotions the next. Just like me when I thought about what I'd given up."

In the movie the little speech is about a girl, the Achilles heel for most heroes. I think usually the girl is also a metaphor for something bigger. The girl represents normalcy, acceptance, idealism and home. Fundamental human needs in some form or another that lead back to truth. Having the integrity to maintain truth is not an easy thing. We have to mask ourselves and cling to our ideals to follow through at times. Often we die in the name of integrity. “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” Maximus the Gladiator so famously said. (One of my personally favorite modern hero myths.)

I was extremely awed by Heath's performance even more than I expected, which was a lot. His completely fearless abandon was breathtaking. It takes a lot of courage to play a character that unlikably likable. The paradox between the Joker, who was a lover of evil; Harvey Dent, who had never truly dealt with or seen the temptation evil brings; and Batman, who stares in right into the eyes of evil and lets people assume he is this thing he hates in order to keep his integrity brought me to tears. The closing monologue from Gary Oldman's James Gordon has layers of meaning and insight into my personal experiences that I wouldn't dare compare to what Batman represents, and yet it still has the power to show me who I am in the way only a truly fabulous myth can.