Thursday, February 11, 2016

And Speaking of Batman


It's been said that: "You should always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Then you should always be Batman."

Anyway, since I can't be the Batman ....

After the discussion in my last post about the Lincoln Futura with its logo arms, and the Batmobile, my wife pointed me to a year-old post about a coat of arms in the original 1989 movie Batman.


Now, looking at the still from the movie, I don't think this is really supposed to be a coat of arms. (And contrary to the blog author's contention that these shields have a silver bordure and a silver sun in the middle, I'm pretty sure that those features are simply reinforcement around the edges of the shields and the bosses which allow it to be held by the warrior it is protecting. And the "several circles" are the fittings holding the straps which go around the arm and over the neck, allowing the shield to be carried and used in several different ways.)

These two shields are, however, strongly reminiscent of some of the pre- or proto-heraldic shields portrayed on the Bayeux Tapestry (for example, the shields on the sterns of the left-hand and center ships, and carried by the warrior on the right):



So what do you think? Coat of arms, or Norman (pre-heraldic) shields?

You can see the full, though short, article over on the blog The Voice of Vexillology, Flags & Heraldry at http://zebratigerfish.blogspot.com/2015/02/coat-of-arms-in-batman-1989-bruce.html

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