To continue the comic books/religion/philosophy theme...
.... as everything is interlinked, you see... it certainly is in my mind!!
Symbolic meaning in native mythology for the Bat
I've just found, quite by random serendipity, by clicking on a "psychic's link" on the Google ads at paranormal.about.com, an interesting interpretation of the "totem animal" of the bat (doubtless useful for dream interpretation), at the following site: http://www.whisperingspirits.co.uk/site/1/totem_animals.html
Taken from Native American mythology!!
Just look at what it has to say about the bat! I daresay Batman would rather like it!
"Death and rebirth on personal, spiritual level". Hmm. I suppose they thought the "death and rebirth" bit because it lives in caves, which is rather like a womb... it goes into the cave during the day and sleeps - comes out again at night! "Dying" and being reborn every day, or rather night, of its life!
(Batman was too, but only on a spiritual level, just as it stipulates here, because his experience with bats changed him, as did his - other - early experience!)
(Oh, and I know that in one of the Central American mythologies, I think it is Aztec, they have a god of the underworld in bat form.)
Well, if one is at ALL interested in symbolism, one has to keep up with these things!
Now me, personally, I'm fascinated by them.