I asked a friend of mine who rarely showers after boxing practice why he likes to walk around smelling bad and looking all bruised up --- why didn't he clean up after practice? He replied, "When you look battle-worn, people respect you more."
This unusual comment made me think of the violence-inquisitive David Fincher film "Fight Club" [1999] and inspired me to write something about Batman (DC Comics), the brooding masked urban vigilante who tackles criminally insane super-villains such as the scarred and merciless Two-Face, and Jason Voorhees, the iconic hockey-mask wearing murderous zombie from the popular Friday the 13th horror film franchise.
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"Bruce Wayne decided to be cheeky and dress up like a bloodied and beaten-up Batman at the Gotham City Halloween Party sponsored by the mayor. He thought that if anyone asked him, 'Why are you dressed up as a battle-weary Batman?,' he could reply, 'Maybe Batman has received bad press.'
When he got to the party dressed up, people were indeed curious, and he entertained their curiosities with his peculiar pre-prepared answer.
At the party, he noticed a person wearing a hockey mask and carrying what seemed to be a rather realistic-looking machete. He asked around who this person was and people told him, 'Oh, that weird fellow is dressed up as Jason Voorhees, the zombie serial killer from the Friday the 13th horror film series.'
This Jason look-alike was walking around strangely and seemed to be aloof from the guests, but no one seemed to notice. Bruce decided to covertly follow him around and followed him when this Jason fellow walked outside to the parking lot.
The Jason fellow seemed to be following a female guest who was walking to her car. Bruce hurried his pace to catch up to them. The Jason fellow walked right up to her, and she turned around and screamed, frightened at his odd demeanor and asked him, 'Who are you supposed to be?' Bruce ran up quickly (in his costume) to them, and she asked Bruce, 'Batman, is that you? Please tell this gentleman to leave me alone!'
Bruce happily said, 'Don't worry, it's me, Batman.' Then, he turned to the Jason fellow and said, 'Listen, fellow. I don't know what your deal is, but just leave the lady alone and go home. You're scaring her...and me.'
The Jason fellow turned around and swung his machete at Bruce, and Bruce dodged it and wrestled him to the ground. The police arrived soon and Bruce escorted the zombie-costumed stranger to the police station.
During the car ride to the police station, the Jason fellow was dead silent. Bruce asked him, 'Why are you dressed as a zombie?' but the fellow said nothing. Bruce calmly said, 'Well, maybe you'll talk to your lawyer when you're charged with harassment and disturbing the police and attempted assault.'
The Jason fellow suddenly broke out of the car, having pried the lock open and threw himself out and rolled away from the moving vehicle. No one heard from him again.
Some months later, a man wrote a piece in the Gotham Gazette about how he experimented with witchcraft and tried to resurrect a dead body from the Gotham cemetery and fears he might have succeeded. Bruce wondered in semi-disbelief if this resurrected zombie could have been that strange Jason-costumed guest at the Gotham Halloween party.
Later in his batcave, Bruce/Batman considered the wisdom of preparing himself for the possibility that a hockey-mask wearing zombie-like maniac could be prowling around Gotham City. He thought to himself, half-amused, 'I rather enjoy the idea of appearing to be battered and bruised, since people are so anxious about violence, but I wonder if that zombie-costumed fellow actually meant something worse about looking wrecked.'
Bruce realized that Gotham City was perhaps stranger than people realized."
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