Here is the video for this analysis essay:
Joseph Campbell’s ‘monomyth’ is embedded in Bruce Wayne’s story in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Henry Cavill recently commented that BvS is “very much a Batman movie.” Henry added that BvS’s dark, ominous tone is appropriate for a movie that centers upon Batman.
That is a very astute observation. As Deborah Snyder (BvS executive producer and wife of Zack Snyder) has said,
I think that MoS and Batman v Superman were kind of origin stories. You kind of saw them really at points in their life that they were challenged.
Deborah of course means that each film, MoS and BvS, independently showcases a respective origin. Superman is introduced in Man of Steel. BvS introduces Batman.
So BvS is our introduction to Batman. And I think it’s fair to say that BvS is very much organized around Bruce’s point of view. Some additional points that support that assertion:
First, it is noteworthy that the film begins with Bruce’s voiced-over narration and concludes with his summarizing reflections. This establishes Bruce as a story teller.
Second, Bruce’s book-ending monologues are both poem-like. It is poetry’s nature to invite deeper reflection about meaning. As such, perhaps we are implicitly asked to meditate upon the meaning of Batman’s journey in BvS.
Third, at least for the first two acts the film seems to utilize Superman primarily as an ‘idea’, or an archetype, i.e., serving a symbolic function within the deconstruction, more than as a person in his own right. But we will discuss such finer details in the conclusion section.
In any case, the heart of my thesis is this: The hero’s journey is embedded within BvS, and it is the story of Bruce Wayne coming to terms with lifelong, destructive unresolved psychological dysfunction that stems from the trauma of witnessing his parents’ murder as a child.
Joseph Campbell identified seventeen distinct stages to what he termed ‘the hero’s journey’ or ‘monomyth’, a psychological process through which the immature and developing self undergoes a transformation into a state of greater integration and wholeness. The self thereby becomes capable of living more authentically and effectively in a state of greater self-awareness. The self ‘levels up’ through the process, if you will. The transformation is achieved through facing tests and trials which include finally slaying one’s inner dragon, i.e., overcoming a crucial inner psychological obstacle to personal growth.
Deborah Snyder has mentioned the importance of Joseph Campbell’s thought to Zack Snyder, stating,
It’s about these journeys. I mean, Zack really loves Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey. And these characters are just so mythic, and their journeys–-I always say their journeys are what we can relate to.
Another indication of the importance of Joseph Campbell’s thinking to Zack Snyder appears iconographically in the film. BvS costume designer Michael Wilkinson shared that Zack Snyder had a quote by Joseph Campbell inscribed into Superman’s costume in Kryptonian script:
Zack wanted to include a Joseph Campbell quote in the suit, so there’s a quote from Joseph Campbell: ‘Where we thought to stand alone, we will be with all the world‘ and we decided to translate that into Kryptonian and we put it through the ‘S’ on his chest, through his cuffs, his belt, through his bicep, just to give a little extra something for the fan with very sharp vision to appreciate.
For reference sake, here is the full quote from Joseph Campbell:
Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.
It seems a safe assumption that Zack Snyder’s approach to superhero mythology is at least heavily informed by the monomyth concept. I’m not going to attempt to educate the reader in any great depth on the topic of Campbell’s monomyth. You can check out a video overview about the subject here in order to gain a general idea. The graphic below also provides a quick overview. And the header for each section below links to a brief description of the seventeen stages that I detail for Batman’s psychological journey.
I decided to apply each of the 17 steps in Campbell’s monomyth to Batman’s scenes in BvS, more or less sequentially (in fact with only one slight deviation in terms of order). I feel that the results are intriguing. Given Zack Snyder’s penchant for using Easter eggs, it is no great stretch to infer that the monomyth is indeed intentionally encoded in Batman’s personal growth experience in BvS. The reader must of course decide for him or herself.
Without further ado, here is my breakdown of how I see Bruce undertake his journey of self-discovery in BvS:
The call to confront Bruce’s inner obstacles to growth is sounded when Bruce witnesses the Black Zero event. The scene is preceded by and coupled with the prologue’s flashback to his parent’s murder as a child. During the cataclysmic Black Zero disaster Bruce’s inner psychological ‘dragon’ is awakened.
That dragon is Bruce’s unwillingness to consciously face his unresolved, festering anger that throughout his life he has unconsciously directed at himself for being helpless and powerless to save his parents when they were murdered.
That unconscious anger has taken the shape of cruelty that Bruce projects outward onto criminals which he now hunts as a predator. (There are several references to Batman as a hunter in the film.) Bruce tortures and Bat-brands criminals resulting in a death sentence in prison, etc.
Because Bruce’s anger at himself remains unconscious he projects it outward onto others through punishment.
Bruce has morally lost his way. And with that loss of his moral compass he has (especially given his identity as a crime-fighter) also lost his own existential sense of meaning and purpose.
Bruce is shown initially ignoring the psyche’s call to confront his inner dragon. He refuses to heed it. This is poetically expressed through Alfred’s “That’s how it starts” speech.
Might we also see that stubborn refusal to acknowledge his anger at himself when Bruce is shown glowering at his Batsuit? The Batsuit of course represents Bruce’s persona as Batman. The scene therefore seems to symbolize Bruce’s anger at himself.
And when moments later Bruce stops to stare at the charred uniform of his fallen comrade Robin, is that too another loss for which Bruce harbors anger at himself for his failure to prevent?
In any event, clearly Bruce appears unable to heal from deeply buried psychological injuries in his past. He continues to convert the rage he feels at himself into externalized anger and cynicism.
According to the hero’s journey model, it would seem that Bruce’s ‘mentor’ stage is represented through a direct intervention by his own psyche! In effect Bruce’s psyche speaks directly to him through a dream of visiting his mother’s crypt, with a terrifying Bat-monster (a form of his personal dragon or demon) ‘breaking through’ to accost him.
This dream at least points Bruce in the direction of a need to confront his unresolved issues.
Upon waking Bruce is shown continuing to avoid the call at this stage, however. He does so by distracting himself with sex and numbing with alcohol and pills, as Zack Snyder has himself commented.
The film begins with a dream sequence that contains the psychological truth that Bruce must eventually deal with consciously in order to make himself whole again. The narration of that dream scene represents the voice of Bruce’s own psyche, his own unconscious mind. And the Knightmare vision that Barry Allen apparently makes possible via his time travel (i.e., by warping spacetime) has a dreamlike quality as well.
4. Crossing the First Threshold
At this stage of the journey the hero takes his very first step into the arena in which he will face his heroic tests. In so doing he will leave behind the familiar ‘business as usual’ world in which his personal development has remained stunted. He is essentially leaving behind his attachments to the things that are keeping him stuck. He enters the realm of the unknown.
Apparently crossing of the first threshold is signified by the relatively unremarkable act of Bruce, as spy, successfully hacking Anatoli Knyazev’s phone. This may not appear to be particularly significant. Bruce seems to be just gathering another puzzle piece. But in so doing he actually opens a Pandora’s Box.
But Knyazev is a henchman of Lex Luthor. By investigating LexCorp Bruce is taking on what may be the ultimate level of corruption within society: the military industrial complex.
Knyazev is Bruce’s next lead in his investigation of the ‘White Portuguese’, the code name in chatter Bruce has picked up through his surveillance capabilities (as shown in the Batcave during Bruce’s conversation with Alfred). Initially Bruce suspects that the White Portuguese may be a terrorist plot to bring a dirty bomb into Gotham. However Bruce will later learn that it is actually Luthor’s plan to conduct research and development on Kryptonian technology. Luthor seeks to acquire the large chunk of Kryptonite obtained from the World Engine crash site at the Indian Ocean and Kryptonian DNA from Zod’s corpse.
It’s subtle but it truly is a big step. Bruce is jaded and burnt out from twenty years of hunting down and meting out ‘justice’ to Gotham’s criminals. Crime-fighting has come to feel empty and meaningless to Bruce. It’s like ‘pulling weeds’, he says. As Alfred comments to Bruce, thwarting a terrorist plot is “high stakes.” The implication is that Bruce is seeking a greater challenge in his life.
By investigating the U.S. military industrial complex, as represented by LexCorp, Bruce is increasing the stakes. And from a psychological maturity standpoint that is perhaps a real world external dragon Bruce in fact should be concerned with, compared with Gotham’s city level criminals.
The movie shows us how twisted and corrupt both LexCorp and the U.S. government are. We aren’t shown it directly, but logically speaking wouldn’t the World’s Greatest Detective extrapolate development of advanced alien bio-tech to include Luthor using Kryptonian DNA to clone a super powered being?
As we know, Luthor in fact does so with Zod’s corpse in his first such experiment. The DNA is harvested from a corpse, and the software program that Luthor uses is to create a monster. In addition it is compromised by mixing in Luthor’s blood. Apparently Luthor does this to add in a DNA signature of hatred toward Superman in the creature Doomsday.
But surely Bruce must realize as clearly as Luthor does: in Superman there is a living, healthy Kryptonian with fresh DNA. Therefore a clear and present danger exists that an army of Supermen could be cloned from Superman’s DNA using Kryptonian bio-tech.
Batman may be able to stop Luthor individually. But it is unlikely he can stop something as powerful as the military industrial complex itself.
May we therefore deduce that in Bruce’s mind this defines Superman as a grave potential threat to human civilization? (Notwithstanding the Knightmare vision Bruce also receives of an evil Superman.) As will be discussed in the final section of this (very long) page, it may be that the film asks us to ‘connect the dots’ in this way and others.
In all events, by following clues regarding the ‘White Portuguese’ to LexCorp it seems Bruce has stepped into the ‘arena of battle’, where his heroic quest will take place. And sure enough, this has much broader implications than just fighting crime in Gotham. It is the realm of the unknown, and the extraordinary. As differentiated from the routine, mundane, comfortable, and familiar.
As Bruce will comment later in the film, “I’m older now than my father ever was. This may be the only thing I do that matters.” That statement is directly in reference to his efforts to ensure that Superman can never pose a global level threat. But there is a deeper context to that problem, which is the role of the military industrial complex; which, sanctioned by our elected government historically has acted above the law and beyond accountability.
And finally, taking on this global level threat will force Bruce to confront his mid-life existential crisis as well.
This is the point at which the hero arrives at a crucial ‘point of no return’ in the transition process within the psyche. The hero has left behind the comparatively safe world of the familiar and ordinary (akin to the womb) for an extraordinary world in which transformation can take place through violent tests and trials (akin to birth into the external world). And now there is no way back, only forward.
When Bruce attends Lex Luthor’s charity ball he first meets his identified nemesis Superman, albeit in his benign ‘alter ego’ as Clark Kent.
Bruce perceives Superman to be his enemy. Superman is the dragon that Bruce begins to consciously believe he must slay. However Bruce’s psychological defenses have caused him to misdirect his anger and blame. Here that displacement process finds a new easy target.
The powerful undercurrents of ‘meta’ communication in Bruce’s and Clark’s conversation invite the question: Does the notion then first occur to Bruce that not only can he take on a veritable god… might he be capable of actually defeating him as well? (Note: the subtle nonverbal communication, i.e., facial expression, tone of voice, eye contact, body posture, etc., between Affleck and Cavill in this scene is just phenomenal!)
Bruce felt Superman was responsible to a substantial degree for the Black Zero event. That is clear from Bruce’s emotional response during that terrible disaster.
Like Ahab in Moby Dick, Bruce evidently identifies his ‘great white whale’. It is Superman.
This stage of the hero’s journey is named “The Belly of the Whale.” The choice of a spear–which is perhaps not so dissimilar from a harpoon(?)–as weapon with which to slay Superman… allusion to the White Portuguese initially as a merchant ship… during the Batmobile chase scene Batman destroys a sailing vessel which is pale white… these possible symbols all might support Batman resembling Ahab. You be the judge.
There is a good deal of ‘interstitial’ material in the film (restored by the UE) showing Luthor’s machinations with the U.S. senate and Wallace Keefe. Clark conducts journalistic investigation of ‘the Bat of Gotham’. Lois Lane researches a bullet used by Luthor’s henchmen in Nairomi. And Luthor pits Superman against Batman. By virtue of these plot developments the stage is set for tests that Bruce will soon face. And it is through these trials that Bruce’s inner psychological transformation will ultimately take place.
The trials per se occur throughout the entire second act. Bruce obtains the Kryptonite from LexCorp (i.e, the chase scene using the Batmobile). Bruce first encounters Superman, both of them as suited superheroes. And finally Bruce fights Superman which completes the film’s second act.
I think it likely that when Snyder shot principal photography for BvS in his assembly cut he included Batman’s assault on LexCorp to obtain the Kryptonite. But it was left out due to the already long runtime length. (If I’m right about this, if we’re lucky maybe one day we’ll get to see it in a true director’s cut of BvS.)
Bruce and Diana meet at a museum event, and Diana returns to him the data that Bruce hacked from Lex’s server. This thumb drive will ultimately prove a vital key in facilitating the transformation of his psyche. It represents knowledge, information, insight.
Still during the first conversation with Diana, Bruce flirts with her and realizes that she is at least his equal if not his better as a spy.
It probably becomes clear that Diana is not someone that Bruce can use or manipulate, as he would normally do though his dysfunctional womanizing. Bruce will not be able to continue ‘business as usual’ (i.e., perpetuating his dysfunctions) with this goddess. Symbolically, through this relationship with Diana Bruce is being progressively pushed by his psyche toward taking on his true psychological dragon within.
9. Atonement with the Father/Abyss
At this stage of the hero’s journey the hero is confronted by the forces that are holding him back, often in the form of a controlling father figure. This is the dark nadir of the hero’s journey.
Here we are treated to an utterly astonishing, otherworldly scene. Bruce decrypts the thumb drive from LexCorp. And during that process he vividly experiences the harrowing so-called ‘Knightmare’ vision of the future in which Darkseid has successfully invaded and decimated human civilization–and indeed the entire planet–with Superman an evil general of Darkseid.
Bruce’s worst fear of total helplessness (echoing his experience as a child) is realized. Bound in chains he helplessly witnesses his fellow comrades in earth’s resistance movement killed by an evil Superman.
Through Bruce’s childhood trauma and adult lifetime of crime-fighting in Gotham, he has become deeply cynical about humanity. Bruce seems to have concluded that the bad in humanity outweighs the good. Perhaps this is why he has become morally indifferent to torture and killing of the wicked. And that assumptive reality that the worst will inevitably overtake the best in people he projects onto Superman.
We see it come to a boil in Bruce’s impassioned “one percent chance” speech to Alfred.
This cynicism is what holds Bruce back and prevents him from completing his psychological transformation.
10. Apotheosis
On the hero’s journey “apotheosis” is a point at which the hero makes some sort of key insight or leap in understanding that is vital to completing the transformation or journey. He achieves a realization that will aid him in his biggest test.
As mentioned, much of the second act of the film forms the ‘Road of Trials’ of the hero’s journey for Bruce. Bruce undertakes several preliminary missions geared at doing battle with his identified dragon Superman. He obtains the Kryptonite from Luthor. He fashions dust grenades and a spear from the Kryptonite. He trains his mortal body to fight a god.
The Road of Trials for Bruce will include his very battle with Superman as well.
But in the midst of these trials Bruce also receives knowledge that will help him achieve psychological healing and clarity. Bruce delves deeper into the data he stole from Luthor and discovers the files on the metahumans that will eventually form the Justice League.
This is the major battle in the hero’s quest in which he achieves what he set out to accomplish.
Bruce defeats Superman. But in physically defeating him, Bruce grasps that Superman is not at all the monster he cynically feared. In fact Clark responds to the threat of certain death with genuine selflessness and virtue.
This puts Bruce directly in touch with his unresolved childhood trauma that has been driving him psychologically for so long. Bruce realizes that it is his anger at his own childhood helplessness to prevent his parents death, rage that Bruce he has been unconsciously directing inwardly towards himself as well as outwardly, that is his actual dragon to slay.
In effect Superman, while facing the severe malice and cruelty from Bruce, gives Bruce the greatest gift he could ever receive. And that is why Bruce says with deep gratitude to Superman after the fight “I’ll make you a promise. Martha won’t die tonight.”
The hero may resist applying the insight and integration he has achieved into the everyday world upon return from the epic journey. He may want to stay on the high he has achieved.
In the warehouse scene, Batman cathartically unleashes superhuman, savage fury at Martha Kent’s captors–and implicitly symbolically at the murderer of his own mother during childhood, as well. But in so doing Bruce reverts to his former brutal self! It seems obvious that Batman kills a good number of those henchmen.
The trip home from the epic journey can sometimes be as perilous as the quest itself was. Now that Batman has gotten back in touch with formerly buried childhood emotional injuries, and made that conscious so that it can no longer control him unconsciously, he finds himself in an even worse predicament than before! For Lex Luthor unleashes his backup plan by birthing the Kryptonian monster Doomsday.
Batman just successfully defeated a human demigod in Superman. Now with his new ally Superman he must fight an evil titan.
Joseph Campbell notes that “if the hero’s wish to return to the world has been resented by the gods or demons, then the last stage of the mythological round becomes a lively, often comical, pursuit. This flight may be complicated by marvels of magical obstruction and evasion.”
And here Lex Luthor fulfills the role of such a resentful god/demon.
Sometimes a rescuer appears to aid the hero in making the return home.
Here that is the appearance of Wonder Woman.
The greater self-awareness and integration of the self that the hero acquires through the journey have to be brought back into the mundane, everyday world.
In this case Bruce has finally come to terms with the deep sense of pain, loss, and grief at the senseless death of his parents as a child. He is at least no longer a slave to it. Bruce’s inner demon at least has far less power over him now that it is conscious.
Also, Bruce as a dedicated champion against the forces of evil has gained a close ally in Superman. Clark is someone capable perhaps of strongly relating to Bruce as a peer and a friend. Maybe now Bruce’s emotional life can be richer and little less bitter and lonely.
But that is not to be. Instead that friend tragically dies! Once again Bruce experiences the loss of someone that came to mean a lot to him. Thus Bruce crosses the threshold back to the normal everyday world in which the unfairness of life, loss, and emotional pain is frequent and inevitable for everyone.
Here the hero achieves a harmony and integration of extraordinary gifts of psychological insight and wisdom from his journey, on the one hand, and life in the everyday, ordinary world, on the other. This is encapsulated by Bruce’s inspiring ‘men are still good’ soliloquy.
Bruce gains his new sense of purpose. Having glimpsed the horrors of Darkseid’s impending invasion through his vision, aware of the existence of metahumans and having formed a friendship with Diana, he realizes his new purpose to round up the Justice League and protect and defend all of humankind.
And evidently he has achieved the existential freedom to continue striking fear into the hearts of the wicked without compunction. As evidenced by his visit with Luthor in the jail cell. Bruce he has integrated the Jungian Shadow and is more at home with it than ever. Except now he can use it as just another a tool in his arsenal without concern of it overtaking him.
Conclusions and Further Reflections
Hopefully the reader is satisfied that the monomyth indeed can be applied to Bruce Wayne in BvS. It fits well enough to infer that it is intentionally embedded in my opinion. It is at least a distinct possibility that it was.
Ordering of the Monomyth Stages and Prominence of Refusal of the Call
I mentioned that in this analysis I examine Bruce’s scenes in sequential order–but with one slight exception. In the order that the scenes occur in the film monomyth step four, The Crossing of the First Threshold, occurs before monomyth step three, Meeting With the Mentor. If my thesis holds water–that is, Bruce’s story is structured around Campbell’s monomyth–then presumably this ordering of the scenes was done to make the story flow better. But otherwise, each monomyth stage occurs in the order that I discuss them.
There is also supporting material for some stages sprinkled elsewhere through the film, such as Bruce glowering at his Bat-suit, using pills, wine, and sex to distract from emotional pain, and midlife crisis existential themes, all linking to Refusal of the Call. Because remember: in this tale the Hero’s Journey is an inner psychological one of making conscious and integrating the lifelong impact of Bruce’s childhood trauma. And through that finding a renewed sense of meaning, purpose, and connection.
But in all events, Refusal of the Call is central to the journey.
Some Further Thoughts on Crossing the First Threshold and the Road of Trials
Initially I considered that the weakest links in this thesis may be Crossing the First Threshold and the Road of Trials. But upon further reflection I have concluded that they are sound. For Crossing the First Threshold the initial investigation of a global level threat to all of human civilization does meet the basic criteria. And for the Road of Trials, the epic battle of Batman taking on Superman is about as great a trial as there could be!
The Significance of Superman Existing as a ‘Big idea’
I mentioned that in BvS Superman is utilized more as a big idea, a symbol, than as a person–at least for the first two acts. But I do not see that as a failing as critics of the film do. This is how Superman exists for Bruce. And it is Bruce’s hero’s journey that is the focal point of the movie.
It is ultimately an idea, a perception, a belief, a mental construct that in fact Bruce must overcome. It is noteworthy that Superman becomes progressively more human and relatable as Bruce conquers his inner dragon. Part of the great prize or elixir in this hero’s journey is the new potential for Bruce to begin having meaningful relationships as he moves forward. Note that in Zack Snyder’s Justice League Batman, the ultimate loner, will actually begin to form bonds with other superheroes.
Further Thoughts on the Belly of the Whale
It has occurred to me that perhaps the correspondence of the meaning of the Belly of the Whale with Bruce and Clark’s first meeting might be fairly weak. The scene falls in sequential order for the analysis. So I inspected the scene as possibly containing that particular encoded monomyth stage.
Does this scene of Lex Luthor’s gala truly reflect Bruce’s full commitment to the quest in the sense of arriving at a point of there being no possible return to the mundane, ordinary world? Of being symbolically swallowed up, undergoing a metamorphosis, and then rebirth into the world of the unknown, the extraordinary?
We must remember that the real quest is for Bruce to come to terms with his trauma from childhood. It would seem that in this scene at least Bruce cements Superman as a consciously identified enemy. As his ‘monster’ or ‘dragon’ to take on. Psychologically speaking, Bruce is utterly ‘consumed’, if you will, by his ‘dragon’ of anger and cynicism, which seem to be at full force during this encounter.
Although admittedly, interpreting Bruce as like Captain Ahab, and Superman then his ‘Great White Whale’ may be nothing more than my projection of a pun on “Belly of the Whale.”
However also note that Bruce descends in Luthor’s basement where computer servers are located. There information is hacked that provides access to the magical, extraordinary new realm of metahumans. Once Bruce eventually processes this information can he ever again really look at reality in a ‘business as usual’ way?
Symbolism Speaks Directly to the Unconscious
I will offer as a final thought perhaps one reason that Batman v Superman continues to captivate so many viewers is that its deeper content registers within the psyche at an instinctual level. At least for some viewers, the psyche recognizes that what Joseph Campbell dubbed “the hero’s journey” is in fact encrypted in Bruce Wayne’s story in BvS–even when it is not perceived by our linear conscious mind.
For those viewers that find themselves strangely drawn to the film, who have watched it many times, and continue to watch it regularly, maybe their unconscious mind can sense that there is something very meaningful and powerful going on psychologically within the experience of the film.
Zack Snyder tells stories in a very unique way. Chiefly with mythic symbolism, painterly visuals, and music. BvS does not use straightforward exposition. Rather, Zack Snyder’s storytelling speaks directly to the unconscious mind.
The Snyderverse 