Heath Ledger found dead at 28

The actor Heath Ledger was found dead in Mary Kate Olsen’s apartment. He was 28 years old. Foul play is not suspected since pills were found next to his body.
A critically acclaimed actor, he is well known for his work in the film ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and was working on the new Terry Gilliam film, ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus‘ and ofcourse the DC Comics film ‘The Dark Knight.’

I have to say that this news, while obviously sad and troubling is shocking to me for a different set of reasons. This summer, his portrayal as the Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker, will debut in the summer blockbuster Batman film, The Dark Knight. The likeness of Heath Ledger will be plastered all over the place. Kids will be wearing T-Shirts with his ghoulish grin now doubly scary given that he is now dead.

I’m not being cold when I pose the question, how will DC Comics deal with this?

What We Talk About When We Talk About Batman

Self-taught artist and gallery owner Jeffrey Kent has opened his show ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ as a kind of reaction to the demand that men explore their feelings. And ofcourse he’s using comic book characters to do so. He’s also using other archetypes such as cowboys, gangstas and musicians, but as you can imagine, the comic book super hero thing really got to me.

In his paintings, he depicts these strong and silent types as having great difficulty in facing their emotions. Usually artists outside of the comic book field get it all wrong, but in this case I think he’s spot on.

Batman means something to most every man whether he cares about the comics or not. Batman is strong, smart and a self-made super-athlete. He is eternally single and when he is shown as an old man he is a grizzled old man refusing to take anything from anyone.

Batman is the tough guy ideal; scary, strong and silent. Outside of the law, respected by other super heroes and feared by super villains no matter what their power level.

But has he ever told anyone that he loved them?

From the Baltimore Sun article: “When, in one of Kent’s comics-based paintings, Batman reluctantly admits his feelings were hurt when another, more famous superhero dissed him, for an instant you feel sorry for the big lummox. Not so much because he’s been slighted, but because he’s so pathetically unprepared to deal with the fact that he actually has feelings, let alone the mortification that comes from realizing he’s not as tough as he thought.”

It’s a silly thing to do, paint Batman admitting that his feelings were hurt, but it gets the point across. Has Batman ever been this open to anyone? Would we want him to be?

And who could make him cry?

I think I need some time alone with my miniature Batmobiles.