Cat-Sitting Batman..

While the new cat (commonly referred to as 'Little Cat') was recovering from his bout of cat-flu, and before he could be introduced to Pud, we were spending lots of time in the spare room with him trying to get him used to human company. A lot of the time he spends cowering under the sofa, so it's only natural for ones eyes to shift to the walls of books.

While struggling to read anything novel sized at the moment I have managed to get through a number of the Batman graphic novels which have been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years, following a particularly virulent eBay epidemic a while back.

Quality is variable, but the best of them are actually intelligently put together and genuinely explore the psychology of the misunderstood outsider, and the inner struggles between dark and light. What keeps you ploughing through even the dodgy ones are the recurrent mythological events and characters, that are always recycled in slightly different ways. There is a definite warmth of recognition as all of the pieces gradually fall into place - boy's wealthy parents killed in front of him/confused search for revenge/apocalyptic bat-shaped enlightenment /arrival of nemesis/final conflict and catharsis/recurring sense of doubt and doom.

If only there was an OU course available on this stuff I may be able to kick my endless gap year.