So Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a little divisive and say what you will about our new Batman and his somewhat murderous tendencies (and this being the internet I’m sure you will) I think Ben Affleck is perfectly cast as our new Dark Knight and despite issues behind the scenes and the fact that Affleck is no longer co-writing (that we know) or directing (we definitely know that it's Matt Reeve's) there is still the potential for us to receive our most comic accurate and definitive live-action Batman because despite everything lets face the one thing that Warner Brothers knows how to do it’s make solo Batman movies. Any other character? It can get tricky.
Oh God please let Wonder Woman be good I have such hope for it.
But what do I hope we get in Matt Reeve's
The Batman? Well..
THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE
Batman is the World’s Greatest Detective which you’d be forgiven for not knowing if your only exposure to the Caped Crusader is the films because he doesn’t do much detecting in any of them. In Batman you never see him figure out what chemicals Joker is using, in Batman Returns it takes him and Selina having the exact exchange they had earlier on as Batman and Catwoman for him to realise it’s her and in Batman Forever he doesn’t seem to know he’s in a bad movie.
There is that bit in The Dark Knight with the montage of him shooting a bunch of bricks and then virtually reconstructing a finger print but that’s mostly bollocks I’m sure. What we need is a mystery for him to follow. We need a Batman noir detective story. On the trail of a serial killer like Zsasz or Calendar Man, following and thwarting The Riddler, unraveling an intricate plot by The Ventriloquist or Black Mask or should that be Crazy Quilt… get it? Unraveling.
Unraveling.
Okay never mind.
We’ve spent enough time in the movies having him either just fall into the next situation, sit at the Bat-computer pushing some buttons and then giving us some exposition to move the plot along or punch something. The detective side of Batman’s character is a defining characteristic, he solves crimes as well as fights them, Ra’s Al Ghul calls him Detective instead of Batman and he debuted in Detective Comics, hell DC stands for Detective Comics.
So really when you say DC Comics you’re actually saying Detective Comics Comics but I digress.
GOTHAM CITY AS A CHARACTER
“As if hell had erupted through the sidewalks and kept on growing” as screenwriter Sam Hamm wrote so perfectly about, not Croydon (though you’d be forgiven for thinking that) but Gotham City. Think again about Batman as a Noir Detective and how integral the location is to those stories and the protagonist, so too it should be with Batman, the world that this guy inhabits is as important a character as everyone else and should be treated as such, like the Enterprise in Star Trek, Gotham City is central to the narrative and a main character.
In the New52 run of Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo the mythology and importance of Gotham City was really brought to the forefront with the narration of Batman commenting on the Gotham is… articles and with the introduction of the Court of Owls – who, side note: we’re always told are the mortal enemy of bats but is that true? I’m not sure any of us even know and have just been taking it on faith this whole time.
Anyway, there’s nothing more bad-ass than when Batman refers to Gotham as his city, its his partner and should have a life of it’s own. Burton’s Batman managed it but made it seem like there was about 6 people in the entire city, and the Monarch Theatre was in every shot of that small sound stage, Schumacher made it look like G-A-Y was running a neon Ayn Rand night and with the exception of Batman Begins, Nolan’s just felt like Chicago.
The Batman’s needs to feel like Gotham and there better be a goddamn blimp in the sky.
THE BAT-FAMILY
With a title like The Batman there’s a sense that we’re getting very much a brooding solo Bat, which I am all for, Batman works so well like that but I also love the Bat-Family (not his actual family because, y’know they got killed in an Alley – Spoiler) and we do know that this is a Batman who had a Robin. Past tense because of crowbar related incidents one assumes and I’d like to one day see a live action movie with Robin fighting alongside Batman, where Robin isn’t played by 50 year old Chris O’Donnell.
I’m not sure the time for that is now though and again with this new film apparently being titled simply The Batman I don’t think it will be. What I’d like though is references to and small appearances by some of them. I want a personal conversation between Batman and Nightwing on a rooftop in Gotham where Dick Grayson wants to help but Bruce tells him to go back to Bludhaven, I want Oracle breaking into mainframes for him and being the voice in his ear (though I loved how hands on Alfred was in Batman v Superman and if Barbara is already Oracle that means we may have to see more of Leto’s Joker) and I’d love to see Kate Kane, Batwoman who just got her own solo title again because she is bloody amazing and needs more exposure.
And why not that helpful member of the Bat-Family from the fifth dimension, Bat-Mite.
No?
Probably for the best.
UNIQUE VILLAINS
The Dark Knight has perhaps the best rogues gallery of any comic book character and yet in all the cinematic Batman outings we keep getting the same Batman villains again and again, since the 1966 film we've had 4 Jokers, 3 versions of Catwoman, 2 of Riddler, 2 of Penguin, 2 of Bane, 2 Two-Faces (so Four Face), a Mr Freeze who was barely Mr Freeze, Uma Thurman doing lord knows what as Poison Ivy and Christopher Walken as Max Schreck.
Which I know isn’t an actual comic book character and was made for the film (and named after the Nosferatu actor because it’s Tim Burton so of course he was) I just wanted an excuse to put that picture of Christopher Walken dressed as – whatever he’s supposed to be there.
So gives us some left-field choices in this solo film, some who have never had their due on film before; The Mad Hatter, Prof Pyg and the Circus of Strange and Clayface or reinvent some hokey and cheesy character from the Silver Age and surprise us all or – get Christopher Walken back as Max Schreck because the more I think about him in Batman Returns, the more I think I need more of it in my life.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE INCLUDED IN THE BATMAN. DO YOU AGREE WITH MY POINTS? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE? FEEL FREE TO ADD, COMMENT AND CRITICISE BELOW. OR DON’T. LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE.