Geek Tee Friday - Batman/Cthulhu

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Here is a crossover shirt featuring two of my favourite things, Batman, the dark knight of justice, the vigilante guardian of Gotham City in the DC Comics Universe and Cthulhu, dread Cthulhu, he who darkens the sun, the ancient, the anti-god, lord of the unholy ones!!! I was quoting some song lyrics there about Cthulhu by Ripping Corpse but they do sum him (it) up quite nicely.

Cthulhu is I suppose the chief diety of the pantheon of Great Old Ones, an ancient race of powerful alien dieties who ruled the Earth when it was still young before entering into death-like slumber. Deranged human & inhuman Cultists pray to Cthulhu, awaiting the time when "the stars are right" and he will arise again from his sunken underwater city R'lyeh. When cultists gather the chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming") is invoked.

Cthulhu is described as looking like a mix of an octopus and a dragon and was created by American author H. P. Lovecraft, 1st appearing in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928.

Batman 1st appeared 11 years later, 1939 in Detective Comics #27. Created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. When young Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents he vows to fight crime and protect the innocent. He dedicates his life to training himself to the pinnacle of physical and intellectual ability and takes on the mantle of the bat, as "criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible..."

The main connection I can think of between the works of Lovecraft and that of Batman is Arkham Asylum. In Lovecraft's literature Arkham is a town in Massachusetts where many of his stories are set. His story characters often end up in the town sanitarium as looking into the cosmic terrors of the Cthulhu mythos can be too much for the fragile human mind, realisation of our place within the cosmic pecking order can snap the psyches of men. Arkham was 1st mentioned in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House" (1920) with the sanitarium appearing 1st in "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933). In Batman Arkham Asylum is also a well known place, many of Batman's unhinged foes end up there. Arkham Asylum first appeared in Batman #258 (Oct. 1974), written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Irv Novick.

Batman has also had some more direct contact with the Cthulhu Mythos with "The Doom that Came to Gotham" a 3 part Elseworlds tale set in the 1920's that has Bruce Wayne and companions encounter with things that should not be. Written and drawn by Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame the books were released from late 2000 - early 2001.
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