Batman Triumphant

None of us are superheroes. Certainly most of us aren't even heroes. Many of us are ordinary guys, sweating Costanzas amid fields of beautiful women. We don't have any special abilities, and lack the motivation to live up to our undeveloped or restrained potential. There is a hero for guys like us though, and that hero is Batman. He was just an ordinary guy too, granted born into wealth, but otherwise without any superhuman advantages. When young Bruce Wayne's parents were brutally shot down before his eyes, he dedicated his life to fighting injustice through any means necessary, short of using an abhorrent gun himself. Through study, training, and discipline, he attained the peak of human mental and physical perfection. He worked out. He read books. He learned martial arts and escape artistry. Every fat, lonely comic book geek harbors the unrealistic fantasy that he could be the Batman, but simply lacks the motivation.

Batman has been portrayed in mediums other than comics, especially television and film. I actually grew up watching reruns of the campy '60s incarnation, only discovering the Dark Knight aspects of the character years later. A Christmas present from an Aunt and Uncle, the trade paperback of A Death in the Family showed me how dark Batman's world truly could be. His enemies didn't toss off puns, or make speeches about their plans prior to leaving him tied up and unmonitored so he could escape some elaborate device, rather than just shoot him and be done with it. Before reading A Death in the Family, the Joker was a clown, César Romero in white paint that barely covered his thin mustache. After reading A Death in the Family, the Joker was a deadly psychopath who beat Batman's sidekick Robin (Jason Todd) bloody with a crowbar, before leaving him to perish in an explosion. He was deadly but clever, allying with an Arab nation as a UN representative to gain diplomatic immunity. When Tim Burton brought Batman to the big screen, I was ready for a gothic tale with a hero as dark as his arch nemesis. As the Joker Jack Nicholson didn't disappoint, and while his appearance and some of his mannerisms echoed Romero's, the contrast with his murderous actions captured the version of the character from the comics. This Joker's comedy was deadly serious. Michael Keaton, best known to me as a comedic actor, proved he could handle the serious role of Bruce Wayne and the Batman, and would return for one sequel.

Thus came dark ages of the franchise, as Joel Schumacher took the helm for the weaker third Batman Forever and horrendous fourth Batman & Robin, which may in fact be one of the worst films ever made. He had a different vision of the character than Burton, and while Batman went from Val Kilmer to George Clooney, the series went from bad to worse. Schumacher's vision included monotone lighting, codpieces, and rubber nipples built into his heroes costumes. An entire essay could be dedicated to everything that was wrong with the fourth movie. Imagine my surprise then to learn that Schumacher was nearly given a third Batman movie to direct. Batman Triumphant would have debuted in 1999, with Clooney returning joined once more by Chris O'Donell as Robin, or perhaps even Nightwing. Their enemy would have been The Scarecrow, and his hallucinogenic gas would have been the catalyst for a Nicholson cameo, reprising his Joker role in a nightmare sequence. After the nightmare of Batman & Robin however, the project was scrapped.

This would all pave the way for the real triumph in 2005 with Batman Begins. Christopher Nolan would reboot the series with a dream cast, including a brooding and versatile Christian Bale in the title role. There would be no title sequence, and as a young Bruce Wayne studies martial arts on the road to becoming Batman, we wouldn't even see him in costume until halfway through the film. The taint of Schumacher was wiped clean, and a fresh canvas allowed for a masterpiece. The only surviving element of Batman Triumphant would be the inclusion of The Scarecrow, and Ra's al Ghul would provide the greatest and most emotional threat. It was a solid origin story, going back to the roots of the character as an ordinary man who pushes himself to be something more, and triumphs. In the aftermath of victory and a burgeoning career, a new criminal would be hinted at, whose only calling card was a Joker. In 2008, Nolan, Bale and company will return in The Dark Knight, where Batman will face the Joker for the first time in the form of Heath Ledger. I've seen this covered across the blogosphere—Swanshadow, RC, Sean to name a few—and reactions range from disappointment to skepticism. I'm honestly not familiar with the actor's work beyond A Knight's Tale, which was entertaining if mediocre at times. Other stars from that film, such as Alan Tudyk or Paul Bettany seem like better choices, but it's hard to make a judgment this early in the game. Nolan's casting for the first movie was nearly perfect, so we'll have to see if he made the right call or not. Now if the rumor about the Penguin appearing in The Dark Knight, portrayed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman proves true, we'll have even more to discuss.

So far though, I'd say Nolan's Batman has been pretty triumphant.