Becoming Batman, Argument About DNA

 Becoming Batman is a 2008 book released about the training regime needed to morph your body into that of the hero Batman. 

Of course, it is interesting to go over exactly how Batman's body works, and the amount of training he would need to morph oneself into the seemingly superhuman strength of the superhero known for just being a regular human. However, when looking at this book, a strange connection popped into my mind. Something from a distant comic book, far in the past. 

These Charles Atlas ads were frequent in the 1940's within the pages of comic books. It promised any skinny or out-of-shape comic reader a path to becoming immensely buff, able to fight of any bullies or adversaries and attract beautiful women. The ads were quite bombastic, so they stuck in my mind. 

Do these two pieces of comic paraphernalia not seem similar? Of course, comics are the epitome of escapist fiction, where readers often wish they were as strong, pure, and beloved as DC or Marvel's suite of heroes. But both of these pieces point towards something more specific than that. The standard perception of a consumer of comic book media is not exactly the well muscled and trained man in the above images. It aligns more with the below image, from the excellent Eltingville Club. 

This speaks to a sort of strain in the culture, a group consisting of mainly young men who read comic books vociferously, and perhaps are not so socially accepted, who nonetheless have a desire to embody the heroes they spend ample amounts of time with. This strain of former nerds who try to self-improve and therefore become something in society has quite obviously always existed, to the point where Charles Atlas and E. Paul Zehr (author of Becoming Batman) created specific material to sell to this audience. Of course, this specific strain has come under extreme scrutiny recently for mainly political reasons. Due to the rise of social media and the internet, a substrand of this strain of suspiring self-improvers arose, usually described as "gym bros" or "alpha males" although there is not one specific name for them, who usually attach themselves to the cult of personality of a certain set of influencers, including Andrew Tate or Jake Paul. Although not all of their followers are these nerds, and there is no study to cite involving this, from personal experience there is a big overlap between Star Wars fans and young reactionary men. It is interesting how this demographic has seemingly always existed, and perpetuated throughout the pages and culture of comics, and are now reaching a sort of spotlight moment. Their DNA is within many things.