Amanda Medek, sister of Micayla Medek, is escorted from where the family of Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting victim Micayla Medek had gathered before her funeral Thursday in Denver. Micayla Medek was one of 12 people were killed and over 50 wounded in the shooting attack early Friday at a packed movie theater during a showing of the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Police have identified the suspected shooter as James Holmes, 24.By DERRIK J. LANG
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES – Bat-fan and comic-book historian Arlen Schumer is worried. He fears the mass shooting at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo., will forever be associated with the legend of Batman.
“After mourning and feeling sympathy for the families, taking a step back as a Batman fan and historian, I’m concerned that this will taint what I consider to be an American treasure of not only popular culture but of mythology,” he says. “I don’t want it to be the second line of the Wikipedia entry, like Watergate is to Nixon.”
The role that Batman fiction might have played in motivating alleged attacker James Holmes in the theater shooting remains unclear nearly a week after the massacre that killed 12 and injured 58. Although investigators reportedly found a Batman mask inside Holmes’ booby-trapped apartment, any connection to the storied comic character could be simple coincidence.