Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week Bennett looks at the newest incarnation of Batman, and some things you probably didn't know about the Peanuts movie.

Well as per predictable, the contents of Batman #44 (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Things I Should Have Known (But I Didn't)") got about as much media attention as I had expected.  Also as usual when stories like these start to spread across the Internet once you’ve read the first one, in this instance this piece from The Guardian, you have quite literally read them all.  Because most of the subsequent pieces were just re-postings of the original with slightly different headlines and usually with some added editorializing.  If anyone cares to fact check that statement, just plug "Batman" and "Police" into the search engine of your choice and you’ll find that the only major difference in most of the stories you’ll find is whether the comic "tackles," "confronts," and/or "boldly addresses" the issues of racism and police brutality.

When it comes to the editorializing, most places seemed to approve of its approach to the subject, but naturally there were others who accused the comic of having an "anti-police agenda."  A few even slapped the SJW label on The Batman.  For those of you who like me, had to go look it up on Urban Dictionary, "SJW" (Social Justice Warrior) is a "snarl word" (which apparently is now a thing) used to disparage anyone posting online about social justice issues.  An unwelcome message is deflected by challenging the sincerity of the messenger.  When you call someone a SJW you’re basically saying they’re an attention-seeking troublemaker only paying lip service to causes to act superior.

It’s admittedly hard for me to think of the term that way because my superheroes have always been Social Justice Warriors.  Some of the very first comics I read back in the 1960s were issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Justice League of America that dealt with racism.  Understanding and brotherhood were regular themes of the one page PSAs which used to regularly run in DC Comics.  Thanks to them I already knew about National Brotherhood Week when I read Justice League of America #57, which featured the story "Man, Thy Name Is Brother" that had the Justice League looking in on the lives of three non-white characters.

Intended to be a celebration of the spirit of brotherhood, National Brotherhood Week was founded in 1934 by the National Conference for Christians and Jews, and was held during the third week of February.  It ended sometime in the 1980s--if it’s remembered at all, it’s for the satirical song by Tom Lehrer of the same name.  It may very well have been, as one website put it, "a toothless kumbaya to raise awareness of how people are people, we’re all the same, blah, blah, blah."  But I don’t think anyone can argue that it promoted an idea well worth aspiring to.  And given the current state of the country, and the world, it’s the kind of idealism we could use a little more of right now.

But, to go back to that piece from The Guardian by Spencer Ackerman for a moment, there was one paragraph which was of particular interest to me:

"Snyder, Azzarello, and Jock all credited the Time Warner-based DC Comics with being 'extremely supportive' of the story, as Snyder put it.  But the Batman creators don’t intend to drop its themes in a one-off story and leave them alone.  Azzarello says he intends to return to them in the forthcoming Dark Knight III, a highly-anticipated collaboration with comics legend Frank Miller."

It’s good to hear that the writers will be returning to the themes in Batman #44 because we need a new Batman, and I don’t mean the unrecognizable James Gordon who is currently tooling around Gotham in the bunny eared bat-mecha.  Like Superman and Wonder Woman, Batman needs to be periodically updated to keep up with the times, and it’s becoming clear that they’ve gone about as far as they can with the current grim and gritty crazed loner approach.  Hopefully, the pendulum will swing back towards a more humanized character.  I have to admit, I got a glimmer of hope that might actually happen when at the end of Batman #44, Batman was actually trying to talk to some of the people he’s supposed to protect.

Some of you may not believe this but Batman used to not only occasionally speak to law abiding citizens, he actually employed a network of paid homeless informants (of course this was back when they were considered "bums").  He fed the poor, helped ex-cons trying to go straight and delivered bags of toys to orphans at Christmas.  That’s the kind of Batman I’d like to see again.  And soon.

As this DC Comics PSA would indicate the Trick or Treat for UNICEF campaign which provides children around the world with medicine, education and clean water has been going on for decades, but you don’t really hear much about it anymore.  Well, it’s going to receive a lot more attention this year because according to a piece in Variety, "‘Peanuts Movie’ to Trick-or-Treat for Kids Charity," 20th Century Fox’s upcoming The Peanuts Movie will help promote the campaign.

And finally, to help promote The Peanuts Movie they’ve set up a website which allows you to "Get Peanutized," a.k.a. become a Peanuts character.  You can choose your character’s gender, hair, clothes, etc.  I know this sort of thing isn’t new, you can already turn yourself into a Simpsons character (or a Minion, a Minecraft character, a Lego mini figure, etc.), but I never have.  Because while I like The Simpsons just fine, my heart belongs to Peanuts.  So, allow me to introduce you to Peanut Steve.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.