The world is already a dark place. Have you watched the news lately? There was yet another school shooting yesterday… dark!! In light of the upcoming Batman v. Superman movie, there has been much debate about the 2 superheroes. And for some reason Batman seems to be winning the popularity contest.

He has never been my favorite superhero. Call me the eternal optimist, but I’ve always been a Supes girl myself! He’s the superhero we need. He’s the best of us. The one who makes the right decisions in the most impossible situations. The one who sees the best in humanity even when it makes no sense at all!

Artwork on Etsy by RetroInc

Batman on the other hand is the physical representation of who we currently are, not who we could be. I like the Bat! He’s gritty and real and bad ass! But as cool as he often is, he isn’t the best of us. And we as a culture want to be told that it’s ok to be that way. It’s ok to not be the best version of yourself because it’s your choice and your life and somehow that makes it ok.

Artwork available on Society 6 by Pandreaa

Superman is the challenge. The ideal. The seemingly alien goodness that shines in the darkened world. We need that. We need the ideal. The hope. Because a world without hope is like a Gotham without Batman. And that’s not somewhere I ever want to live.