As many of you may know, I have an attachment to the character of Batman which, whenever I try to explain it, makes people look at me like I'm insane. Better, I often think, that they see it as a symptom of immaturity than some deeper psychological aberration. Anyway, I like Batman a lot, for whatever reason.
Which is why, this afternoon in London's Horniman Museum (oh, stop that), I was interested when I looked at a Haitian Voudou tableau to see an element which I recognised... just there, to the left of the scary-doll's hand, is what I believe to be the top of a Batman Pez dispenser.
Now, I've long believed there's a case to be made for Batman being a modern night-god character like Puck or Loki (as opposed to Superman, the sun-charged Apollo character), and I know that Batman and other superheroes are often used as sigils or servitors in Chaos Magick, but I think this is the first time I've seen the character used so directly in a religious context.
Unless, of course, the Voudou tableau was intending to invoke not the Bat, but the Pez aspect of things, that one's enemies might find their head hinging back and a rather chalky sweet emerging from the epiglottis. But in comparison with that, my theory suddenly looks rather more plausible, doesn't it ?
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