EDITORIAL: Khan's Take On BATMAN & How To Reinvent The Character

Batman is arguably one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. You think superheroes, you think of Superman, Batman & Spider-Man. Now with a Superman reboot on the rise, and a Spidey reboot just last year one ponders when will Batman share the same fate, or will he? Now I’m no Batman fan, this may be evident in the following article, but I love superheroes and I love movies. Now like another CBM user, I never read comics growing up, in fact the first time I ever saw Batman was in an episode of Justice League, after that I started watching the Batman The Animated Series and Batman Beyond. So those shows may be evident throughout this entire article/plan. So hold onto your horses cause here we go.

Film One: THE BATMAN

Now, I’ve asked myself many times “will we see a Batman origin story in 2017 (year of planned Batman reboot)” and the simple answer to that is “no”. There is no need for a Batman origin story, we all know the story of Batman but we don’t know the story of Robin. Now I’m a fan of last year’s The Dark Knight Rises and I thought John Blake was really cool, but that being said I think in 2017 WB/DC should be looking to incorporate Robin in to their DC Universe. I’m a huge fan of Dick Grayson, he’s in fact one of my favourite comic book characters ever. I would LOVE a Batman reboot, where instead of focussing of Batman’s origin, why not focus on Robin? I always thought that Bruce & Dick’s relationship is something that is built for the big screen and would translate well from page to screen.

Synopsis:

Bruce Wayne, billionaire, playboy… The Batman. When on a date with the lovely Vicki Vale, Bruce experiences a horrible tragedy that is reminiscent of his childhood. Bruce watches as a young boy’s parents are shot leaving the poor boy alone. Bruce then adopts the child and brings him into the Wayne family. When the Dick Grayson finds out that Bruce Wayne is the Batman, he makes a promise with Bruce to not tell anyone only if he can fight too. On a quest for retribution over the death of his parents, the Dynamic Duo will stop at nothing to find the man responsible for the death of The Graysons.

Film Two: Under The Red Hood Part One

If you know me, you would know how much of a fan I am of the character, Red Hood. I love the character; he is just the perfect villain for The Batman. But he doesn’t appear in this one. In the sequel to The Batman, I would have the film set seven years after the first one, making Dick an adult and leaving the door open for a new Robin, I’ve always wondered how awkward the first confrontation between Dick and Jason Todd (the second Robin) would’ve been. But now every good story needs a good villain. The Joker?

The Joker is my second favourite Batman villain, only to Red Hood. So it only seems natural for him to be the villain of this film. This Joker would not be based on any comic book; this Joker would be based on Mark Hamill’s portrayal of The Joker in TV and Video Games. I love his portrayal of The Joker because he actually makes jokes at the worst of times. There is a scene in Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker when The Joker captures Tim Drake and makes him crazy, there is a scene where The Joker shows Batman a video of how he did it. That scene is so iconic to me and so dramatic that I think it would translate so well to the big screen. Now of course Jason Todd would ‘die’ at the end of the film, and we would have the iconic shot of Batman holding Jason and then the credits would roll.

Scene From Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker



While Batman is trying to save Jason, I would have Dick Grayson (who is now Nightwing) save Barbara Gordon and Commissioner Gordon. Joker hires a bunch of criminals to kill them at their house but Dick saves the day. Unlike the comics and cartoons, Barbara is not the same age as Dick; Barbara is only nine years old at this time. I have done this so that in the third film (more on that in a second) Dick can build a father/daughter relationship with Barbara unlike the comics.

Film Three: Under The Red Hood Part Two

This is the third and final film in my Batman trilogy. This film is set two years after the death of Jason, and Bruce is an emotional wreck. He has been more ruthless with criminals, and has been hunting down The Joker ever since. When a mysterious new criminal arises named The Red Hood, Batman goes one on one with him and loses, confused Batman works out that the Red Hood is no stranger. Meanwhile The Joker is creating a plan of his own. He plans to kill Jim Gordon in order to send a message to Batman. He attempts to kill Gordon, but fails. Gordon is sent to the Hospital, The Joker then kidnaps Gordon and puts him in a glass box. The box then begins to fill with Water. Joker calls Barbara and tells her to listen to her dad while he dies. Furious, Dick then goes to find The Joker but he is gone. A message remains “Don’t look under the hood”.

Dick takes the message to Bruce, turns out Bruce has found the same message. The two, piece to piece the puzzle and find out it is Jason. Bruce gives Dick a four-digit code; Dick says, “What’s this for?” Bruce replies, “I’m not gonna make it home.” We really see the emotion in the scene and we feel for the two characters and we see how this night will change Dick’s life. It turns out that Jason kidnapped The Joker; he leaves him in an abandoned apartment. Jason beats The Joker with a crowbar (as The Joker did years ago). Jason then demands Bruce meet him in Crime Alley, Bruce brings Dick and the three have a huge fistfight, Dick is knocked unconscious and Jason and Bruce end up in the abandoned apartment. Below is a video that basically shows the dialogue for the following scene. Instead of the bomb going off and Bruce making it out alive, the bomb would go off and Bruce would die with Jason and Joker.



There would be a huge 3-minute scene where we see the after maths of these events with a newspaper showing “Bruce Wayne was The Batman”. We then see Dick walking Barbara into Wayne Manor; she now lives with Dick as his ‘daughter’. Dick then goes to the Batcave and opens the computer, he types in the four-digit code. We hear the music begin to rev up, we see Dick’s eyes, and he smiles. The next shot, we see a man on the ledge of a building, the camera zooms in and it is Dick in a new Batman suit (Batman Beyond suit). Dick leaps off the building and flies towards the camera. Fade to black roll credits.



Now I understand if you don’t like what I’ve done, but as I said this is how I would make Batman. Now some of you are like “Keep this [frick]er away from Batman” or some of you might be like “I’d watch that”. So if you don’t like it. Comment below what you didn’t like about it. Don’t just say, “It sucks” tell me what sucks and maybe I can fix it. If you like what you see here then follow me on Twitter and give this article a thumb up! I’m Khan and I’m out for now.

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