The Dark Knight in the Philippine Popular Culture!

Batman art by Mike Maihack

03.032012 – Consider Batman created somewhere outside in the United States and had become a global phenomenon. He would be a man in a cape running around rooftops and stopping crime, but his appearance would be based in one country’s culture shall we say the Philippines.

The country known for white sand beaches and 7107 islands is not only made of mountains. It is a thriving mixed cultures influenced by countries such as Spain, Japan and the United States. So imagine Batman’s call signal looking differently design of a bat.

He would be perching on top of Makati skyline preying those who would break the law.

Whenever a topic about the Bat Signal comes to mind is about a beam hope that someone is out there ready to protect us.

The symbol what makes the character is about vigilance and justice. For almost seven decades that symbol remains unchanged regardless if it had a yellow oval shape or just a simple black bat it is something criminals fear.

There’s nothing to match with Batman’s costume as DC Comics had Robin and Nightwing as his partners patrolling the rooftop. So far there are too many rogues in Batman’s gallery and the most challenging ones came close to breaking Batman like Bane or Hugo Strange. The Joker would be his arch nemesis and the character was played very well by the late Heath Ledger (who won an Academy Award for Besy Supporting Actor) in The Dark Knight film.

In a bit of fantasy to work around our culture Bruce Wayne would have Balut (duck egg with embryo) as his favorite as his protein to be well fit with his regiment fighting crime at night. Thus he prefers having that as part of his meal being prepared before going out in his batsuit. Though I’m sure Batman is not a fan of having baked cakes but for any young girls out there might have an idea or two.

Probably as a citizen of the Philippines he would financed infrastructure and helps the needy. In the realm of Gotham city most of the structures are built and supported by his company Wayne Enterprises and that would work around in our own fiction if he was living in the country. It would be something if there was someone like Bruce Wayne living up to what his character plays in the comics such as The Dark Knight series by David Finch.

Everyone has his/her own wild fantasies what would Batman be if he was for real and mostly the younger audience would put their creative ideas to use for someone iconic that has been around for decades and still popular in the culture scene.