The Batmanic Covenant

All the talk in class this Friday in regards to covenants got me thinking: How can I relate covenants to comic books?

My conclusion is that I can do it quite well...

We defined covenants as an agreement that is eternal, one with God as the witness. I feel that this definition applies very well to the foundation that most superheroes operate from. In this post I will be looking at how this relates to the Batman universe, specifically to the character of Robin.

Batman, as was discussed in class, operates outside of the law. He is a vigilante, and often breaks the law in order to enforce his vision of justice so that the greater good is achieved. While there are many rules he will break, Batman has one law that he will never break: the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. No matter what the situation, even if following this law may lead to more deaths, Batman refuses to resort to killing. This one golden rule is the one that every hero related to Batman (Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, etc.) is sworn to uphold.

This binding rule in many ways exemplifies a covenant. Batman and his allies are sworn to never take a life, upholding one of God's law and in return they maintain a degree of sanity and credibility. These characters journey after justice through the night in a world that is full of 'gray' areas, and they are constantly in moral battles. In such a situation it would be a simple matter for one to make the shift from hero to villain. However, by keeping their covenant and not killing, they are able to continue in their quest for justice while having an uncrossable line that prevents them from becoming that which they seek to destroy. As the Batman family does not work with the law, there is no one to enforce this covenant, God is the only witness that it exists, and God is the only one who is powerful enough to bring retribution of the heroes cross the line.

The character of Robin, Batman's sidekick and a hero in his own right, is one that has always kept this covenant. At one point, believing that he had killed (even though it was in order to save a life), Robin hung up his cape and chose to return to a normal life as Tim Drake. Only when it was proved that the villain had indeed survived did Robin choose to return to crime-fighting. He was perhaps the character who took this covenant most seriously, never even threatening people with death. However, this covenant has begun to be threatened in light of Batman's recent supposed death. Tim Drake refuses to believe that Batman is dead and goes on a quest to find his mentor. In doing so he dons a new costume, that of Red Robin. Please turn your attention to the following panels...read the text.

As seen in the panels above Robin becomes Red Robin because the new costume is one that exists outside of the covenant. It is interesting reading the current adventures of Tim Drake because he is constantly having to compromise, working with one of his worst enemies in hopes of saving the adopted father he has in Batman. While Red Robin has not yet crossed the ultimate line and killed anyone, readers can already see the torment that walking on the edge of his covenant has caused him.

This seems to imply that if one is to enter into a covenant, they should keep with it entirely. The closer one walks towards the edge of a covenant, the closer they walk to very undesirable results.

'Nuff Said?
-Cable