Up until this point, most fans have assumed that The Batman will take inspiration from comic books like "Year One" and "The Long Halloween," and while that's certainly still possible, co-writer and director Matt Reeves actually singled out a very different title during the movie's DC FanDome panel.
Asked specifically which comic books have influenced The Batman, Reeves indicated that Darwyn Cooke's Batman: Ego inspired much of what will end up on screen.
"I wanted to get into the mindset of the character, and I wanted to think of the psychology," he explained. "For me, I think one of the cool deep dive ones was Ego. He's confronting the beast that is Batman and it's that kind of duality. There's a lot in what it's trying to do in the story about him confronting the shadow side of himself and the degree to which you have self knowledge."
"You're able to understand his motivations, but Batman [is broken] and why he's doing all of these things for the reasons that he thinks is right and that have a heroic sort of grounding in them," Reeves continued. "There's also many things that are driven by the parts of himself he doesn't yet know, and so I would say that that kind of sort of psychological union, that sort of version is very much connected to the vision from Darwyn Cooke's Ego."
We're clearly going to explore Batman's damaged psyche in this movie, and what's interesting about Ego is that it sees Bruce Wayne and Batman come head to head over their past. Based on the way the Dark Knight acted in that trailer for The Batman, he's a man on the edge and definitely has some anger issues.
Are you excited for Reeves' take on the Caped Crusader?