Chapter Six

Batman and the Joker

While waiting for the Dark Knight at the top of Gotham City Police Department Joel was feeling anxious, he rarely felt that sensation but he was happy to see his project coming together towards creating a journal about what humanity in the 20th Century evolved to.

Batman was quite overwhelming in his appearance, he looked buffed and his costume was close to a light armor rather than a suit made of hard fabric. He had a yellow belt that contained different gadgets and his mask equipped with technology that wasn't available to the public such as facial recognition and communication with his crew at the batcave.

"Greetings Mr. Figueroa" Said Batman while shaking Joel's hand. "Thank you for your time," Joel replied with a big smile. "The interview will last around 15 minutes" Joel explained while setting his voice recorder and pulling out his handheld camera. Joel took some photos of Batman and marked them with the date as soon as the photos were developing.

"What motivated you to become Batman?" Joel asked. "I always been, but the murder of people I loved was the breaking point into wanting to fight crime and help the police department as much as I am able"

Joel was fascinated because of the stoic nature of Batman, he had a mantle of sadness that he couldn't pinpoint, he looked as someone who lost so much and at the same time earned more than what he bargained for.

The interview went OK, he was expecting to have some meaningful conversation but as soon Batman appeared he faded into obscurity and went back to the streets of Gotham.

Vigilantes were on the rise and there were talks in the government to regulate what people called superheroes but the laws of registration were mere talks in the chamber of the senate but nothing concrete coming from the news sources in Washington D.C.

As Batman there were Superman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Aqua Man to name a few. The Justice League as they used to call themselves, The rising point of the Justice League was fairly recent, they also had an association with Wayne Enterprise as Bruce Wayne the recluse billionaire from Gotham City who also had some patronage to Batman.

Bruce Wayne seemed to be the key between the superheroes and the common people. "His wealth seemed to be organized in weaponry, but also he works on branding of several superheroes" Joel thought while writing some notes on his journal. "The marketing aimed to make the superheroes more human is what is probably giving more money than any contract Wayne Enterprises has with their weaponry construction" He was thinking about the media focused and how Wayne Entertainment has shifted the attention to produce feel good journalism, animated shorts inspired by Superman, comic books, it was an empire that even had action figures but with the other side around with property insurance Wayne Enterprises became a behemoth within the different conglomerates such as General Motors to name one of the many that were in the 1940's.

As he was reaching his hotel, he saw a small street vendor that sold magazines and other literary medium, there was one piece of media that got his attention where Batman arch nemesis The Joker was apprehended and sent to Arkham the State penitentiary - mental asylum after he massacred Commissioner Gordon wife and left his daughter Barbara paraplegic.

The Joker was such an enigmatic figure, little was known about him such as his name Jack Oswald White but looking for old records he never existed which led to many journalists to believe he was using an alias and he simply forgot who he was; the only aspect that people could confirm was his freakish accident involving a silo of a chemical compound that turned his skin white as a porcelain doll.

His beef with Batman was kind of confusing where it started, some accounts mentioned that he was going to rob a bank and others mentioned that he was a saboteur and Batman was the reason his skin turned white after being submerged in the chemical compound during the factory incident. During a previous visit to Arkham he gathered notes in his preliminary research about Batman that he was brutal towards the methods he used to keep peace, he didn't hesitate to beat up even the criminals who surrendered before any confrontation.

The Joker was an exception, he was Batman's match; The Joker was equally as brutal as Batman, he didn't hesitate to kill and was overly zealous of his partner Harley Quinn who was a former doctor of Arkham who left everything behind because she fell in love with a sociopath.

"Love is truly a losing game" He thought