On a day long-anticipated by everyone in this community, we have instead been greeted by the news of the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado. While the initial reaction to the news should undoubtedly be sympathy for the victims and their families, as a member of the CBM community, I cannot help but question the choice film during which James Holmes unleashed his murderous scheme.
After shooting 70 people, including killing 12, James Holmes was picked up by police while sitting in his van, waiting for police to arrive. He then turned himself in to the police, identifying himself as "the Joker." He had painted his hair in imitation of the villain, and told the police that he had booby trapped his apartment with explosives.
This was a well thought-out plan. Unlike many of the shooters behind massacres in recent years, Holmes made no attempt to resist police, or take his own life. He also had rigged his home with home-made explosives, having had recent access to University of Colorado's science lab materials.
Police and Media sources are focusing on the facts of the case up to this point, which is their job. What they are overlooking, or perhaps simply underestimating, is who they are dealing with.
Since the recent surge in popularity of superhero films, real costumed crime fighters have been taking to the streets in increasing numbers. From Phoenix Jones in Seattle, to Dragonheart in Florida, well-intentioned individuals from coast to coast have drawn inspiration from their favorite heroes and tried to do good in their own communities. James Holmes is the first occurrence of an individual taking the example from a villain and bringing it to life.
But is he finished?
He is highly intelligent. Before dropping out due to lack of career prospects, he was studying to be a neurosurgeon. He may be a med school dropout, but he still has a masters degree and access to the resources to carry out a massacre of this scale. He is highly intelligent, severely unstable, and has no regard for the sanctity of life. If he had wanted to get away with this, he could have done so under cover of the chaos he created in the darkened theater.
If a highly intelligent, unstable, unapologetic mass murderer rigs his apartment with explosives and turns himself in to the police dressed as the Joker, the chances are favorable that he has a grander scheme.
I hope I am wrong about this. I hope I'm overthinking it. I hope that this one event is the most tragic thing to happen at the hands of James Holmes, and he spends the rest of his life being known for this, and only this. But if he is as devoted of an anti-fan as I fear, we may see more tragic headlines in the coming days and weeks.
Worse, even if James Holmes has finished his own handiwork, this may be the first of many supervillain-inspired crimes that will haunt headlines in years to come.