My friend Rose posted the other day about why LeVar Burton is awesome, and that reminded me I’d been meaning to write this post.

I’m sure this is weird coming from me, since I often don’t like adaptations and usually am not excited about them, but reimaginings, adaptations, remakes, sequels, and reiterations are how new myths are created. That’s how myths matter. They create meanings that speak in many ways to multiple people over time. They can be told again and again, so you can learn new things from the same story. It’s okay for it to mean different things to different people, that gives us examples in common to talk about important things.

Let’s talk about Batman for a minute. If anything is a modern myth, it’s Batman. We all know the general idea — he’s a man dressed as a bat, who beats up criminals in Gotham…