Caped Crusader’s Korean Theology

Gotham is a city of darkness, trapped in han.

Injustice always leaves victims with a residue of darkness. They carry unresolved resentments, feelings difficult to name, and pains hard to locate on their bodies. This . . . wound, whatever it is, lives in them, marking their identity. In English, there really is no good word to describe this byproduct born from the experience of being wronged. But in Korean, there is a word specifically for this concept. The word is han, and Prime Videos’ new animated series, Batman: Caped Crusader, explores how han can ensnare a person, their friends, neighbors, and a whole city.

While drawn from the specific histories and folklore of Korea, han describes an experience that is present in all situations of injustice and sorrow. It is often a communal feeling. Korean theologians have helped us see how han operates in individuals, communities, and larger social systems. According to Andrew Sung Park in The Wounded Heart of God, “Han can be defined as the critical wound of the heart generated by unjust psychosomatic repression, as well as by social, political, economic, and cultural oppression. It is entrenched in the hearts of the victims of sin and violence, and is expressed through such diverse reactions as sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, resentment, hatred, and the will to revenge.”

Developed by Bruce Timm, who also produced Batman: The Animated Series from 1992 to 1995, Caped Crusader is a study of han in that it explores how this “critical wound” manifests in the hero and his villains. The show returns to the 1940s Art Deco world of the earlier series, but the lettering, geometric architecture, and subdued score by Frederik Wiedmann do more than feed the audience’s nostalgia. The desaturated opening credits hint that these elements serve the story by driving it toward darker, more mature themes.

The main villain and foil for the first season is Harvey Dent, aka Two Face (voiced by Diedrich Bader, returning from the ’90s series). In this version, Dent comes from wealth and is a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne. The violence that leaves him visibly deformed and causes his villainous mental break also forces Bruce to wrestle with his own victimization (his han) and the way he has ignored the residue of han in those close to him.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, which highlights “the distinct short gloves, tall boots, and heightened ears of ’40s comics” that inspired the Batsuit in this series, Timm says this about Batman’s characterization: “He's a really weird human being. He's not obsessed with his parents' murder, but it changed him in a way where he’s still not adjusted to being a human being. He's literally Batman; inside, that's who he is. Whenever he's Bruce Wayne, that's not just him with a mask off, that's him wearing a person suit. He's trying to pretend to be something that he's not.”

During a series of flashbacks to Bruce’s childhood, we see his dehumanizing turn. The violence that took his parents leaves him a sleepless and, frankly, creepy child. With eyes drawn wide and distressed, in a stormy night scene that is tonally closer to horror, young Bruce wakes his butler Alfred from his sleep, silhouetted and standing in the doorway, saying, “They will all pay.” The moment is chilling, but it highlights the way this child carries han.

The voice acting furthers the darkness and han. Hamish Linklater, star of Midnight Mass, dramatically switches between a ditzy, higher-pitched voice for Bruce and a darker intonation for Batman. The heavier voice punctuates the distanced relationship between Alfred and Bruce, as the latter refers to the former simply as “Pennyworth” through most of the series.

Caped Crusader begins to reveal its lesson when Alfred (Jason Watkins) challenges Bruce for ignoring Dent's fragile mental state in the name of justice. When questioning Dent about who attacked him, Bruce pushed Dent too far, ultimately catalyzing his psychotic break. Bruce failing his friend is evidence that han is never innocent; all are implicated. Alfred reminds Bruce to “spare a thought for the man.”

The lesson is crystalized in the season’s climatic end, when Batman collaborates with Detective Montoya (Michelle Bonilla), Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart), and Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown) to “spare” Harvey Dent, inviting him toward justice. Dent, feeling the full weight of han as hopelessness, remarks to the group, “This is a losing battle. The four of you can’t hold back the tide.” Whether they succeed in the moment is not the point. In the final minutes of the season, Alfred returns to extend the lesson: “Harvey Dent was twisted by ambition. He lost sight of his own humanity. That isn’t you. You’re still inside there Master Bruce. . . . You’ve even made friends, in your own way.”

This final proverb points to another important Korean word: jeong. According to Wonhee Anne Joh’s Heart of the Cross, “Jeong is a Korean way of conceiving an often complex constellation of [relationships] . . . that is deeply associated with compassion, love, vulnerability, and acceptance . . . Jeong is the power embodied in redemptive relationships.” Batman and his new friends are examples of jeong, bonded in solidarity to pursue mercy and justice.

If han is a residue that begets further violence, a cycle that incriminates everyone, then jeong is the bond-making reversal. Jeong names the cycle of reconciliation. In Caped Crusader, jeong began with four righteous people refusing hopelessness. These remind us of Paul’s assertion that the message of reconciliation begins with Christ’s ambassadors who, seeing han in each other, still choose the bond of love instead.

The argument Paul makes in 2 Corinthians about our ambassadorship is rooted in the bond-making work of Christ. Jesus drew to himself a “complex constellation” of followers that included tax collectors and revolutionary zealots, Pharisees and women judged as sinners. The disciples would grow in number, developing jeong across greater conflicts and contradictions: Jew and Gentile, master and servant, women and men. Jesus entered Gotham, a world of darkness, marked by han, and bonded people back to one another, bodies made one.

Author's Note

All peoples have cultural treasures that uniquely bind them together and are difficult to translate. Words like shalom for the Hebrew people, saudade in Portuguese, and bregar for Puerto Ricans all represent complex, robust ideas that shape the histories and communal identities of those that use them. Han and jeong are two such words; for Koreans, the former often points to the pain of Japanese occupation, while the latter speaks to the hopeful struggle that has bonded them as they navigate their unique history of colonization. In an article of this size, only certain aspects of the fullness of each concept can be highlighted, so I encourage readers to explore them further. Theologians like Wonhee Anne Joh and Soon-Chan Rah have written Christian theologies drawing significantly from these concepts. I would also like to thank pastoral theologian Michael Lee for his help with this piece.

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