In July of 2012, the Huffington Post reported that Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) responded to the Aurora movie theater shootings by stating that “the shootings […] were a result of ‘ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs.'” These comments from The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” radio show have some ugly implications to them: not only do Batman movies attract primarily Judeo-Christian audiences (hmm, ok…) but that the victims of the shooting were paying the price for attacks on specifically this theology. Link this to the relatively Orientalist nature of the first and third films’ villains (i.e. Ra’s al Ghul), and there’s a growing strain (see previous “By Rao!” posts) of either Islamophobic or non-ecumenical taint artificially attaching itself to Batman’s mythos.

Rao wants to know: Is Batman becoming associated with a particular faith?