"A town gets in trouble," said Mechling, author of "On My Honor: Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth" (2001) and "American Wildlife in Symbol and Story" (1987). "They can't solve the problem; an outsider comes in with special skills - usually those skills are violence. The outsider solves the problem. But because of that violence, he can't stay in the society. He can't have a love interest or a family and has to exit the society. That's Shane, that's Superman, that's Rambo, that's Buffy - it doesn't have to be a man. But Batman is part of this amazing formula that keeps repeating itself in popular culture."