When we read Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics #27, he is already operating as a crime fighter. Batman’s origin is first presented in Detective Comics #33 (Nov. 1939), and is later fleshed out in Batman #47.
As these comics state, Bruce Wayne is born to Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha, two very wealthy and charitable Gotham City socialites in 1915. Bruce is brought up in Wayne Manor, with it’s wealthy splendor, and lives a happy and privileged existence until the age of eight, when his parents are killed by a small-timed criminal named Joe Chill while on their way home from a movie theater. Bruce Wayne swears an oath to rid the city of the evil that had taken his parents’ lives….
In early comics, Batman’s career as a vigilante gets cops a angry.
Wayne has a fiancee named Julie Madison.
Wayne takes in an orphaned circus acrobat, Dick Grayson, who becomes his sidekick, Robin. The Boy Wonder.
And since these old days of comics we have been treated to endless more, TV shows.. movies… The 1960s series where Cesar Romero refused to shave his mustache.. the famous 1989 Renaissance.. the the newest incarnations that had Heath Ledger committing suicide after his role as the JOKER and a shooting during the premiere of the Dark Knight Rises….
As the old adage goes, there is nothing new under the sun.
Meet Camazotz.
Camazotz or Camazot is a relatively unknown character from Mayan mythology. The ancient Mayan god is considered as the murderous bat god..
The ancient deity was dubbed as a master of mysteries, life, and death.
Camazotz comes from two ancient Maya (K’iche ) words ‘kame, which means “death”, and sotz’, which is translated as “bat”.
This information made some news recently.
But it is not the first time we have heard about this old god.
Back in 2014, the ESCAPIST reported this,
In honor of the 75th anniversary of Batman, Warner Home Entertainment Mexico cooked up a clever promotion. It worked with the Mexican Museum of Design, and invited a group of artists to rework the Dark Knight however they saw fit (which could have gone horribly wrong). One artist decided to make his design more historic, using ancient Mayan designs taken from a “death bat” cult.
Kimbal based his design off of the old Mayan god Camazotz, which literally translates to “death bat”. The name makes more sense when you realize that Camazotz had the body of a man and the head of a bat, and was generally associated with darkness, night, and the underworld. Mayan mythology doesn’t say anything about crime fighting, but does mention beheading a guy and using his head to play a ballgame. Kimbal might need to retcon that last bit.
So the bat who looks like BATMAN is actually a redesign..
All of these new stories are just a rehashing of the 2014 story.. and the 2014 story featured a rehashing of a redesign that did not look like the original god.
If you wanted to see the original?
It’s a creature for sure.. but not one that will blow your mind nearly as much as the bat-like version created a few years ago.
Here it is:
