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Christopher Nolan’s Batman series is over with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. For the first time in a long time, we won’t be expecting Batman movie for a while. Now WB’s is making Man of Steel and has plans for a Justice League movie to be made. WB’s also has plans to reboot the Batman series within the next 5-8 years. The only question is how? Nolan brought Batman to new heights. So instead of doing a similar movie using similar characters why not use something newer? Why not use Batman: Earth One for the origin story in the reboot? It shows familiar characters in a new light. It shows a new Batman. I strongly feel that Batman: Earth One is the best choice for a origin story in the Batman reboot and here are 21 reasons why.
1. Batman: Year One Has Basically Been Done
In Christopher Nolan's
Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight we see a lot of elements of Year One. From Batman strapping down Falcone to a signal like a Bat to the Joker card at the end to in the final moments in
The Dark Knight where Jim Gordon's family is being harmed by a madman and saved by Batman. We have seen moments from this novel and no one wants to see the same thing twice.
2. It's Set Up In A Modern Setting
The main point of DC's Earth One stories were to tell origin stories of their heroes in today's world. Since it’s already set up for today's world why not use it?
3. Batman Has Different Motives
Bruce Wayne didn't make Batman in Earth One to be Gotham's savior in the beginning. He made it to see if the death of his parents was a conspiracy. When we first see Batman he sees a robbery that he very well could have stopped but as the story progresses he learns to become a hero and stops a robbery at the end.
4. Batman Makes Mistakes
The one thing I like about Earth One over Year 1 is we see Batman make mistakes. From the grapple gun being backfired to not minding his surrounding, we see Batman making mistakes which shows us a more human element to Batman. It also shows us Batman learning from his mistakes later on. This is a younger Batman.
5. Harvey Bullock
One of my favorite characters in Batman's universe is Harvey Bullock and he is a big part of this story. He needs to be in a Batman movie. There have been traits in Tim Burton's
Batman with Lt. Maxwell Eckhardt and in
Batman Begins with Flass. I don't want Harvey Bullock look-a-likes I want the real thing and it's time he gets his big screen debut. Instead of creating another look-a-like, bring in the real thing.
6. Barbara Gordon
When it comes to the big screen Barbara Gordon is one of the most poorly portrayed characters in comic book movies. In Joel Schumacher’s flop
Batman & Robin she was completely different from her comic book counterpart. Instead of her being related to Jim Gordon she was related to Alfred, instead of red hair she was blonde. Everything went wrong. In Nolan's Batman series we see Jim Gordon have a daughter but it most likely isn't Barbara Gordon because his wife is named Barbara. Barbara is one of the easiest comic book characters to do and yet it seems everyone is putting too much work in improve the character when the character is already great. In Earth One we see her as Jim Gordon's Daughter.
7. Jim Gordon Like We've Never Seen Him Before
In all the Batman movies we see Jim Gordon always standing up to criminals and never backing down but in Earth One we see a different side of Gordon. Gordon is a cop who turns his back to crimes. He doesn't stop it. We find out later on his wife was killed in a car crash that may have been planned by the mayor so to protect his daughter Barbara he lets criminals run free and he return no one goes after his daughter.
8. New Look Lucius Fox
Okay let's get one thing straight: nothing can top Morgan Freeman's Lucius. He was perfect so instead of trying to top it why not approach it a different way. In Earth One we see Fox as a young bright scientist working for Wayne. He is trying to figure out a way to give people artificial limbs. His main source of inspiration for it is his 5 year old niece who lost her arm. Bruce promises Lucius if he helps Bruce then Bruce will get Lucius Fox's project back on and his niece will be the first one to receive an artificial arm. We see Fox fix the grapple gun and in the end we see him making Batarangs. It's a fresh new take on Fox that I enjoyed.
9. Alfred’s Background
In the Batman movies we never hear about Alfred's background. Sometimes we would get so stories by him but nothing of his life before being a butler. In Earth One we find out that Alfred and Thomas Wayne are old war buddies. After the Wayne's die we find out that Alfred is the legal guardian if anything happened to Thomas and Martha Wayne. We all learn that Alfred saved Thomas Wayne and later on we see Alfred lost his leg which is likely connected. At the end of the book we see a father and son type moment between Alfred and Bruce which Bruce said he will always been alone and Alfred gives him a hug saying you will never be alone.
10. The Main Villain: Mayor Oswald Cobblepot
In the beginning we find out Thomas Wayne is running for mayor but we don't know against whom. We find out later on Thomas Wayne was running against Cobblepot. Cobblepot is a crooked and corrupt mayor. He makes sure the police can't do anything and anyone snooping around his office will pay. Bruce always believed Cobblepot had his parents killed because his father was going to win the election and we later find out he did plan to kill his parents that night but Joe Chill got to them first. We all know Cobblepot as Penguin and there are references here and there about that. Its time Penguin gets the spotlight in a movie. I enjoyed Tim Burton's take and Danny Devito's performance as Penguin but I want to see a second take. Ever since Nolan, Penguin has been high on the list of characters we've wanted to see in his series. In September 8, 2008 while promoting a movie Michael Caine said Philip Seymour Hoffman will be Penguin in the Batman 3. This however is false since Bane was the villain.
11. The Batsuit
Even though I would prefer to see the New 52 Batsuit I really like the suit in this story. There are a lot of elements of the Batsuit from previous Batsuit’s. The body of the suit reminds me of the body suit in
Batman Begins and from the video games
Batman: Arkham Asylum and
Batman: Arkham City. How the cape and cowl and Batsymbol are connected reminds me of the Tim Burton Batsuit. The mask also reminds me of
Batman: The Animated Series because it has short ears. I am a big fan of seeing Batman’s eyes. In the book we see a lot of his emotions coming from his eyes.
12. A New Villain: Birthday Boy
This is the first story for a new villain called Birthday Boy who is a big ass guy who is serial killer who goes after young girls. After Harvey Bullock wrote Jim Gordon's name in the file department, the clerk called Cobblepot and told him Gordon took files leaving them to kidnap Barbara and giving her to Birthday Boy. Back when
Batman Begins came out we had Victor Zsasz which most mainsteam Batman fans didn’t know but comic book fans did. It was a nice add to the story and nod tto the character. Birthday Boy can be the same affect.
13. References Towards The Future
There are so many references in this story. We hear about the Arkhams, as a kid Bruce is friends Jessica Dent who is the twin sister to Harvey Dent and in the end is the new mayor of Gotham. We see Harvey Dent as a bully to Bruce and in one scene Bruce punches Dent straight in the jaw (foreshadowing). We see Barbara drawing up a Batgirl suit and writing up karate and detective books. After Alfred tells Bruce you are never alone we see a conversion and there shadows are a figure older version of Batman and Alfred. We also see a name reference to Crane.
14. World’s Greatest Detective
The one thing we need in a Batman movie is Batman being a detective. We see some moments of a detective. When Bruce discovers a crime member of Cobblepot's group has a lighter he notices the lighter has in writing "#1 Dad" which Bruce states to Alfred he gave his dad for Christmas one year and his father lost it. When Batman goes to a crime scene we notice shoe prints that has a red substance that Batman says is rust and he know to go to Arkham because his mother told him about the Arkham house because she grew up there.
15. It's A Dark Story...
This is a dark Batman story. Not the darkest but it has a
Batman: The Animated Series feel to it which I don't mind.
16. ...But Also Kids Can See It
As I said before it has a
Batman: The Animated Series feel to it. If you know me I would like the next Batman series to be less dark so kids can see it but at the same time adults can enjoy it. The Nolan series was too dark for kids. I'm not saying bring Schumacher back but in every other superhero movie that is not Batman, both kids and adults and watch it.
Batman: The Animated Series is the one Batman media where both kids and adults can enjoy while at moments it's dark but not to dark.
17. Character Growth
Character growth is essential to every movie. In the beginning we see Bruce using Batman just to find out who killed his parents to him wanting to make Batman something more, a savior for Gotham. In the beginning we see Alfred as a tough guy who is completely against the idea of Batman to him helping Bruce. We see Jim Gordon not turning in criminals because he wanted to protect his daughter to him growing a pair and putting his foot down to criminals. In the beginning we see Harvey Bullock as a decent, yet arrogant police detective to him realizing that being a cop isn't a game after the sight he sees in Arkham and in his last panels we see him becoming more of the Harvey we know with the large trench coat, loosen tie, starting to grow a beard.
18. No Joker
I love the Joker. He is my favorite comic book villain. Also everyone whether your a Marvel fan, a DC fan or even a Dark Horse fan you love the Joker. He is the ultimate villain. He wants to just cause chaos. A lot of people would view this as a negative in a Batman movie, I view as a positive. I want Joker in the reboot, just not yet. Batman has one of the greatest rouge galleries in comics, to only want to see one villain in a movie is repetitive. In many superhero movies we don't see the hero fight his archenemy in the first movie. We don't see Iron Man fight the Mandarin until the 3rd movie. Lex Luther hasn't been confirmed in the
Man of Steel. In
Batman Begins we see 2 not well known villains (outside of comic book fans) star. I wouldn't mind an Easter egg including Joker. Since we know Joker has 3 origins: depressed comedian, Red Hood, & Jack Napier, why not combine Jack and the Red Hood and make Joker a gang member/hit man called Jack "Red Hood" Napier and say his name in a conversion or his name on a police file. Just a thought.
19. Batgirl Begins
After being saved by Batman, Barbara is inspired by Batman. We see Barbara drawing a sketch of a Batgirl suit and reading up karate and detective books. With the reboots most comic fans want to see Batman's allies done right, primary Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. I felt that Dick was okay in
Batman Forever but both Dick and Barbara were done horribly in
Batman & Robin. It's a chance to at least fix one great Batman character and make her something great like what Nolan did with Jim Gordon in his Dark Knight Trilogy.
20. The Reviews For This Book Are Outstanding
The reviews for this book are outstanding. IGN called
Batman: Earth One “The best take on Batman's origin since
Batman: Year One.” Other sites have raved about the book including this site.
21. The Next Villain Is Awesome
In the last pages of the book we see a familiar villain who will most likely be the next villain in
Batman Earth One: Vol 2 and that is the Riddler. This Riddler reminds me of early stages of the Riddler we see in the video game
Batman: Arkham City. We see Riddler with newspapers and computers obsessing over who Batman is. If they could use this and take the Riddler in Arkham City we could see a great Batman cinema villain. Jim Carry was good as Riddler but he really never tested or put Batman to the edge. Most of the time it was Batman vs. Two-Face and the only time we see Batman & Riddler meet is in the end. They say everyone deserves second chances. Look at the second versions on screen appearances of Joker, Two-Face, Bane, and Catwoman. All of their second versions are either better or just as good as their first version appearances. It's time that Riddler gets his second appearance.
In conclusion this is the best choice of inspiration to start a new Batman series. Earth One delivers a new fresh take on Batman. Most fans thought that
Amazing Spider-Man was too much like
Spider-Man. If you use Year One as the next source of inspiration it may get a similar feeling that
Amazing Spider-Man got because
Batman Begins used it. Voice your opinions. Do you love the idea or hate it. Thank you for your time. Peace.