Batman on Trial

'One Day the Batman will have to answer for his crimes...but to us, not this madman'- Harvey Dent The Dark Knight 

So I watched 'The Dark Knight Rises' (TDKR) last weekend.
People have got allot of strong feelings about it as it is A BIG DEAL, well I liked it, it was alight but it did not take the Batman story where I wanted it to go, a awesome idea that no writer (and bigger comic book geeks will correct me if I'm wrong) has ever attempted- They didn't put batman on trial.
So quick recap for people living under a rock- After Dark Knight (DK) there is peace in Gotham thanks to the Dent Act (named after the sainted DA Harvey Dent who thanks to a cover up know one no one knows went over to the dark side as Two Face), which gives the police the power to jail people without trial (bye bye Habeas Corpus hello police state!). Social discontent is brewing class rage is building and mastermind muscle boy Bane leads a revolution #SPOILER# breaks the bat and takes over the city....
Bane decides to punish Batman is dropped into a hole/jail in the ground and left to suffer in agony watching Bane turn Gothem upside down (No police, houses of the rich looted, peoples courts established), its like the Paris the Paris Comune but with a Nuke to keep the government forces out.
Here's where I think the film missed a trick, instead of whisking Batman away to India, or whatever, Bane should have put him on trial in Gothem.
Think about it, after defeating Batman in the sewers Bane drags him out with him when he makes his appearance at the stadium and announces that B mans going to face a jury of his peers! We see latter in the film that Bane's set up Peoples Courts, what better use for this concept than to try Batman?

This would be a great move for Bane because it would be a terrific propaganda coup and I think he'd find allot of ordinary citizens (not criminals) willing to testify against the Dark Knight.

Here's how it could play out:

Judge (The Scarecrow): Batman you stand accused of, property damage, reckless endagerment, Assault and battery, GBH, ABH etc etc. How do you plead?
Batman: I'm Batman
Judge (The Scarecrow): Council for the Prosecution
Bane: For years these corrupt dictatorship has been able to exist because of The Batman a masked vigilante, who has defended the privileged by brutalising poor people....

What do you think guys? Lets have some ideas and write this sucker...

I wanna hold you hand!

I saw something today and it just struck me, a small thing that seemed to speak of a bigger conversation.

When do you hold hands with a partner? Is it something that instinctively just happens or does it require negotiation. Is there actually a meeting that couples have to have, a sit down affair with coffee and biscuits that requires the TV to be switched of? Do couples actually discuss when and where they can hold hands? What if you’re a same sex couple?

Let me explain I was on my lunch break in Hyde Park and I walked through the shade under some trees. There I saw two girls walking holding hands, relaxed and casual they were chatting away. I watched as they stopped and shared a kiss before carrying on walking.

Care-free gay intimacy something that is supposedly rare or even invisible but here it is. Yet as they leave the shade and approach the entrance of the park they break apart. They walk out to any observer no longer lovers but friends.  

Is this just modesty or fear? Not expecting something bad to happen per-say but always better to be safe than sorry, right? In any case its a way to minimise stares, but beautiful as these girls were that must just be a daily reality for them.

My personal experience: when I came out I had no problem with holding a guys hand if he was up for it, but let me tell you there's nothing more publicly awkward than trying to grab and hand that doesn't want to be grabbed! 


I was eager to try everything, and consciously not to be fearful. So I'd go for the hand (and often some other things!) of anyone I was 'seeing' not really thinking about it but just to do it, to make a point of it. 


Then again this was in Soho and Soho is not the world. Also I was drunk alot. Later on after my first real relationship I started to be more discerning.    

I think it depends on the couple really, how secure they feel about ‘them’ and the statement they want to make about there relationship. Well why should they have to make a statement you may ask, aren’t relationships personal private?

Well like it or not humans are social creatures we are apart of a society and a relationship of whatever kind can never be completely private (anyway why should it), in less you want to go and live in cave or something! We are engaged everyday in social negotiation, be it queuing (or not queuing for a bus) or deciding whether to return someone’s smile on the street or to ignore them.  

Holding someone's hand is a public statement of intimacy, it raises the personal between two people to the level of wider social engagment. it says we are apart, not separate.  

I think that social engagement is a living process and we can change all these ‘unwritten laws’ about what a couple is, by what we do.

Every time I see a gay couple holding hands it makes me smile (and sometimes a little jealous!). Corny as it may sound it reminds me I’m not alone and that I have as much right to seek out happiness as anyone else.

It may sound like a grandiose statements about combating homophobia with visibility, but on a personal level life got to be easier if you dont let fear knock back everything you do, right? I'm not saying set your self up to be a martyr or anything but maybe a little push out of you comfort zone, it's healthy.  

But let me be clear that is not an endorsement for everyone to log of and go and eat face on the back of a bus OK! Gay or straight there’s no need to be a cannibal. But holding hands why not? That’s nice. Goofy, romantic, whatever- nice.