Batman Totems and Renewal of Community Compared to El Salvador
Batman the Dark Knight is a comic that sets apart from all the others. Instead of your typical hero vs. villain showdown, it’s a comic about the soul of a city. The city of Gotham is one in dire peril, not just of being destroyed by the villain, but of giving in to its own despair, corruption, and selfish nature. Batman strives to bring hope to Gotham, and looks forward to a day when the people will unite, take pride in their community and themselves, and no longer need the symbol he provides. The correlation between Gotham and the city of San Salvador and its death squadron, is inevitable when comparing their intent of renewal and holding on to Totems.
Gotham is a city that lives the resurgence of crime and violence it hadn’t seen in several years. Gibson brings to life in fiction a world gone completely neoliberal, and through it we are able to experience what the consequence of these conditions would look like. San Salvador looks a lot like this fictional world. The city of San Salvador is going through an upraise of violence, corruption and selfish nature is taking over ever since the last Civil War in the 80’s. Today, the once prosper city of San Salvador is one of the world’s top most dangerous cities, and therefore sadly slowly falling into the hands of urban decay. Just like the fictional city of Gotham , there is little credibility in politics, and little
if any chance of economic growth because growth is held by private monopolistic companies often refered to as “the big 14” ( the 14 families that hold the entire countries wealth).
Apart from the despair and violence, just like Batman, The “Escuadron de la Muerte” is a Group formed by individuals (whose identities are unknown) fights the dangerous gangs. It is presumed that this squadron of death was formed by wealthy entrepreneurs among the big 14, and just like Bruce Wayne uses their wealth and benefits to help the struggling...