A spoiler alert for those who have yet to see the movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” In it, the villain Bane disables Batman, and he and his henchmen take over Gotham City for a months-long occupation. Our hero recovers, eventually saves the day by sacrificing himself and is presumed dead near the end of the movie. Or is he? The final scene shows Batman’s alter ego Bruce Wayne living a life of leisure abroad, free from the burden of being the Dark Knight.
During the Gotham’s takeover, the bat symbol is used as a mark of defiance by a small group of resistance fighters. The other day I was at Lodi Lake when I noticed this knot in a wooden plank of a picnic table. On either side of the knot, holes spread out like the wings of a bat. It looked like the logo used for the movie (as well as its predecessors “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”). Perhaps Bruce Wayne has found a place to settled down in his retirement or maybe the Batman is ready to fight crime again in the dark metropolis of Livable, Lovable Lodi.
