AFTERTHOUGHTS (105)
WELL, IF IT ISN’T OSCAR 2009


For the record, going into the awards night, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire had 10 nominations spread over 9 categories (it had 2 of its songs going up for Best Original Song), and by the time Wolverine brought the show to a close, it had 8 to its name.
Brilliant!
That’s…


Slumdog Millionaire
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Achievement in Directing (Danny Boyle)
Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy)
Achievement in Cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle)
Achievement in Film Editing (Chris Dickens)
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures [Original Score] (A.R. Rahman)
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures [Original Song] (“Jai Ho,” Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar)
Achievement in Sound Mixing (Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty)


And in the one foregone conclusion of the night, Heath Ledger was awarded a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his hypnotic work in The Dark Knight.

In some of the other performance categories, Kate Winslet took home the Best Actress award for Stephen Daldry’s The Reader (it should be noted that Daldry also directed Nicole Kidman to her Oscar for The Hours), while Sean Penn was honoured with Best Actor for his work on Gus Van Sant’s Milk (Van Sant also steered Robin Williams to an Oscar as well).*
Dustin Lance Black’s Original Screenplay award for Milk should also be noted at this point.


On the awards night itself, it certainly had a different feel to it, with its own fair share of priceless Oscar Moments (Boyle’s Tigger bit; Kate Winslet’s da’s whistle).
So, congratulations, not just to everyone involved with Slumdog Millionaire, but also to Hugh Jackman (The Reader bit in the opening musical number was hilarious), Bill Condon, and Michael Giacchino. Good on all of you! (And to Winslet, for giving Peter Jackson that shout-out in her speech.)

* I recommend both Milk and The Reader, making a point to see the latter also doubling as a very nice cinematic way of bidding adieu to Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella.
Additionally, reviews of Slumdog Millionaire and The Dark Knight can be found in the Archive.

Parting shot: Though I’m an avowed David Fincher fan (who’s still greatly miffed about the past Oscar shut-out of Zodiac), I’ve still to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, thus, my non-mention of its specific wins above. (How do I know if I’m happy about the wins if I haven’t seen the movie yet?)

Parting shot 2: It was neat seeing Janusz Kaminski (and his Oscars) in the Pineapple Express comedy short, even if the short itself was pretty uneven.

Parting shot 3: I just have to wonder why the “live” broadcast over ABS-CBN 2 was edited, leaving out (among other things) all 3 shorts categories and the end credits…

(Images courtesy of AMPAS and latimes.com [Oscar statue, photo by Albert Watson], impawards.com [Slumdog Millionaire OS], time.com [the Joker image from The Dark Knight], and ew.com [Oscar night images].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (104)
SCREAM, BABY, SCREAM 2008 (2)

And the noteworthy winners at this year’s Scream Awards are…


The Dark Knight
The Ultimate Scream
Best Sequel
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Director (Christopher Nolan)
Best Screamplay (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, & David S. Goyer)
Best Superhero (Christian Bale as Batman)
Best Villain (Heath Ledger as The Joker)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Heath Ledger)
Best Supporting Performance (Gary Oldman)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Big Rig Flips Over)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.”: The Joker)


Dexter
Best TV Show


Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Best Fantasy Movie


Iron Man
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Robert Downey, Jr.)


The Strangers
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Liv Tyler)


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Horror Movie
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Johnny Depp)


Teeth
Most Memorable Mutilation (Bitten By Vagina With Teeth)


Wanted
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Angelina Jolie)

Rob Zombie’s Halloween was also pronounced Best Remake.
Congratulations, one and all. (All the winners can be accessed from here.)
Reviews of all the above films (as well as episodic recaps of Dexter) can be found in the Archive.

Parting shot: Congratulations must also go out to His Scottish Brilliance, Grant Morrison, for taking home Best Comic Book Writer, and to Gabriel Ba, for scooping up Best Comic Book Artist for his work on The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite.

(Images courtesy of aintitcool.com, empireonline.com, impawards.com, and rickbrotherton.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (103)
SCREAM, BABY, SCREAM 2008

The nominees for this year’s Scream Awards have just been announced, and those that have got me jazzed are:


30 Days of Night
Best Horror Movie
Best Comic Book Movie


Battlestar Galactica
Best TV Show
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Edward James Olmos)
Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Tricia Helfer)
Best Scream To Comic Adaptation


Cloverfield
The Ultimate Scream
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Screamplay (Drew Goddard)
Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Odette Yustman)
Breakout Performance (Jessica Lucas)
Breakout Performance (T.J. Miller)
Breakout Performance (Odette Yustman)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Statue of Liberty/Empire State Building Attack)
Best F/X


The Dark Knight
The Ultimate Scream
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Sequel
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Director (Christopher Nolan)
Best Screamplay (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, & David S. Goyer)
Best Superhero (Christian Bale as Batman)
Best Villain (Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face)
Best Villain (Heath Ledger as The Joker)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Christian Bale)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Heath Ledger)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Best Supporting Performance (Michael Caine)
Best Supporting Performance (Gary Oldman)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Batmobile/Batpod Chase)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Big Rig Flips Over)
Most Memorable Mutilation (The Pencil Trick)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.”: The Joker)
Best Line (“I will now make this pencil disappear.”: The Joker)
Best Line (“Why so serious?”: The Joker)


Dexter
Best TV Show
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Michael C. Hall)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Julie Benz)


Funny Games US
Best Remake
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Naomi Watts)


Hancock
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Superhero (Will Smith as John Hancock)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Charlize Theron)
Best Supporting Performance (Jason Bateman)


Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Ultimate Scream
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Sequel
Best Director (Guillermo del Toro)
Best Superhero (Ron Perlman as Hellboy)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Ron Perlman)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Selma Blair)
Best Supporting Performance (Doug Jones)
Breakout Performance (Anna Walton)
Most Memorable Mutilation (Attacked By The Flesh-Eating Tooth Fairies)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I’m not a baby… I’m a tumor.”: The Tumor)


Heroes
Best TV Show
Best Superhero (Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura)
Best Villain (Zachary Quinto as Sylar)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Hayden Panettiere)


Iron Man
The Ultimate Scream
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Director (Jon Favreau)
Best Screamplay (Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Arthur Marcum, & Matthew Hollaway)
Best Superhero (Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man)
Best Villain (Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane)
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Robert Downey, Jr.)
Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Gwyneth Paltrow)
Best Supporting Performance (Terrence Howard)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (Escape From Ten Rings Hideout)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (Iron Man’s First Flight)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I am Iron Man!”: Tony Stark)


Lost
The Ultimate Scream
Best TV Show
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Terry O’Quinn)


The Mist
The Ultimate Scream
Best Horror Movie
Best Director (Frank Darabont)
Best Screamplay (Frank Darabont)
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Thomas Jane)


El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
Best Horror Movie
Best Screamplay (Sergio G. Sanchez)
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Fernando Cayo)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Belen Rueda)


Pushing Daisies
Breakout Performance (Anna Friel)


The Ruins
Best Horror Movie
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Jonathan Tucker)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Jena Malone)
Most Memorable Mutilation (The Leg Amputation)


Saw IV
Best Sequel
Best Villain (Tobin Bell as Jigsaw)
Most Memorable Mutilation (The Autopsy)


Southland Tales
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Dwayne Johnson)


The Strangers
Best Horror Movie
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Liv Tyler)


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Horror Movie
Best Director (Tim Burton)
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Johnny Depp)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Helena Bonham Carter)
Best Villain (Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin)


Teeth
Most Memorable Mutilation (Bitten By Vagina With Teeth)


Wanted
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (James McAvoy)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Angelina Jolie)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Reverse Kill Shot)
Best F/X

Congratulations, one and all.
Reviews of all the above films and television shows can be found in the Archive.

Other nominated films also reviewed here at the Iguana are:
Beowulf (Best Fantasy Movie; Best F/X);
The Eye (Best Remake);
Halloween (Best Remake; Best Director [Rob Zombie]);
I Am Legend (Best Science Fiction Movie; Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show [Will Smith]; Most Memorable Mutilation [Attacked By The Infected]);
The Incredible Hulk (Best Fantasy Movie; Best Comic Book Movie; Best Remake; Best Superhero [Edward Norton as The Hulk]; Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show [Edward Norton]; Best Line [“Hulk Smash!”: The Hulk]); and
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Best Science Fiction Movie; Best Sequel; Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show [Harrison Ford]; Best Supporting Performance [Shia LaBeouf]).

Among this year’s board (who advised on categories and determined nominees in each category) are: Wes Craven, Neil Gaiman, Tim Kring, Eli Roth, Guillermo del Toro, Kevin Smith, and Stephen King.
Beginning September 12 (Friday) through October 17, voting will be open at scream.spike.com.
The awards will take place on October 18, Saturday, at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles, CA, and will premiere on Spike TV on October 21, Tuesday (9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT).

(Images courtesy of aintitcool.com, bloody-disgusting.com, empireonline.com, impawards.com, rickbrotherton.com, scifi.com, shocktillyoudrop.com, spike.com, and yahoo.com.)

GOTHAM KNIGHT
(Review)

So, despite my initial less-than-ecstatic reaction to Gotham Knight, further exacerbated by my full-on amazement with The Dark Knight (see review in Archive), I decided to give the anime anthology film tie-in a second look, and here’s what I discovered.
It really doesn’t get any better the second time around.


Gotham Knight is a straight-to-DVD tie-in to The Dark Knight, which takes a page from The Animatrix and assembles six animated vignettes that have some connective tissue between each other, as well as with The Dark Knight.
Naturally, Batman appears, but we also get glimpses of supporting characters like Alfred, Lt. Gordon, and Lucius Fox, as well as appearances from MCU copper Anna Ramirez and gangster Salvatore Maroni (played by Monique Curnen and Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight).
Given the ostensible continuity amongst the vignettes (running approximately 12 minutes each), all six stories are by Christopher Nolan collaborator Jordan Goldberg, their screenplays written by a handful of comic book scribes and Hollywood screenwriters. (Goldberg wrote the screenplay for one vignette, “Field Test.”)


Sadly, it’s perhaps because all half dozen stories were conceptualized by one individual, that Gotham Knight doesn’t have the same level of blazing imagination so evident in The Animatrix.
While that DVD tie-in put the Matrix sequels to shame with its unbridled and multi-faceted exploration of the Wachowskis’ construct, Gotham Knight comes nowhere near the complex, brooding majesty of The Dark Knight.
It’s also a curious thing that Gotham Knight doesn’t sport the voice talents of The Dark Knight cast. Instead, we have the long-time voice of the animated Batman, Kevin Conroy, and NCIS’ David McCallum as Alfred, among others.
And though Conroy’s vocal interpretation of the Batman arguably displays a much more pleasing aesthetic than Christian Bale’s guttural growl, I’d have still preferred to hear the film’s cast in this particular case.
It is a tie-in, isn’t it?

Thankfully, I can at least say I was impressed by the fifth and sixth vignettes, Toshiyuki Kubooka’s “Working Through Pain” (which gives us a poignant glimpse of the pain that is at the core of Bruce Wayne) and Madhouse’s “Deadshot” (which pits the Bat against crack assassin, Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot).
Aside from this pair of exceptional entries though, the rest of Gotham Knight is a disappointing mish-mash. Admittedly, there is some good animation in there, and the varied character interpretations are interesting, but the majority of Gotham Knight just doesn’t fully engage.
Particularly aggravating is Yasuhiro Aoki’s “In Darkness Dwells,” which is, visually, one of the strongest pieces, though it’s hampered by a negligible story involving the Scarecrow and Killer Croc.

Now, as much as I found 66% of Gotham Knight a frustrating disappointment, you could opt to pick up the 2-disc edition, which includes, amidst a load of extras, four episodes from Batman: The Animated Series.
With a longer total running time than Gotham Knight, these episodes include the excellent “Legends of the Dark Knight,” which uses a similar structure to Gotham Knight’s “Have I Got a Story for You,” to much better and more entertaining effect.
(Wonder Woman fans will also want to check out the 10-minute plus peek at the upcoming animated Wonder Woman, where Keri Russell, Virginia Madsen, and Rosario Dawson all get to do the Amazon thing, with Nathan Fillion and Alfred Molina along for the ride.)


Parting shot: The Gotham Knight vignettes are as follows:

“Have I Got a Story for You”: directed by Shojiro Nishimi, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Josh Olson

“Crossfire”: directed by Futoshi Higashide, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Greg Rucka

“Field Test”: directed by Hiroshi Morioka Tsubasa, story and screenplay by Jordan Goldberg

“In Darkness Dwells”: directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by David Goyer

“Working Through Pain”: directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Brian Azzarello

“Deadshot”: animation produced by Madhouse, story by Jordan Goldberg, screenplay by Alan Burnett

(Gotham Knight 2-disc edition DVD cover art courtesy of aintitcool.com; images courtesy of aintitcool.com, twitchfilm.net, and batmangothamknight.com.)

THE DARK KNIGHT
(Review)

In the months leading up to The Dark Knight, a feeling I’d had at least twice before began to make itself known again: a mixture of apprehension and anticipation for a film shadowed by the sudden and premature death of one of its stars.

It's a curious, sometimes uncomfortable mix of having been genuinely excited about a film from the very first time news broke of its making, while at the same time being conflicted about the knowledge that eventually, I would be sitting in a darkened theatre, watching the creative swan song of a person who was no longer in the world, the final celluloid legacy left behind for future generations.
It happened with The Twilight Zone. It happened again—more acutely—with Alex Proyas’ The Crow.
Ultimately, the difference with The Dark Knight though, is that Heath Ledger’s performance as the mad, bad, and dangerous to know Arkham escapee, the Joker, is one of those rare cinematic portrayals where the actor is so completely subsumed into the role, that he virtually disappears.*


Watching the disturbing and terrifying antics of the Joker was exactly that: being witness to the confounding actions of a madman. I wasn’t watching the work of an actor cut down in his prime. Within the context of The Dark Knight, there was no Heath Ledger.
There was no actor here, only this anarchic, disfigured bugaboo that seemed to be nothing so much as an avatar of insanity, without even the humanizing characteristics of an identity or a proper history.
And if that was all that The Dark Knight was about, it would already be a film worth watching.
The thing is, it’s so very much more.


Picking up more or less where Batman Begins left us—Wayne Manor is still being rebuilt, the Arkham inmates let loose during Ra’s al Ghul’s climactic attack are still roaming free—we rejoin Bruce Wayne’s crusade to clean up Gotham’s streets, even as he has to contend with the changes—both good and bad—his arrival on the scene has wrought on the city.
As if the Joker wasn’t already more than enough to deal with…


What amazes me most I suppose about The Dark Knight, is that DC and Warner Bros. gave Christopher Nolan the freedom to craft a comic book film as dark and complex as this.
This is clearly not the same PG-13 world where Marvel is apparently taking their heroes. This is also not a carefree, mindless exercise in four-colour fisticuffs.
This is a film that explores the moral and ethical complexities of a vigilante’s life: where are the lines drawn? What happens when you inspire people, but not quite in the way you’d hoped? What is the price to be paid for living outside the law?

The Dark Knight asks these questions—and so many others—in a solid 2 hours and 32 minutes, that, while admittedly getting a slow but steady ramp-up during its opening act, becomes a relentless and riveting experience once the Bat returns from his brief Hong Kong sojourn.
While Batman Begins proved to be thematically cohesive, The Dark Knight not only achieves that—no small feat, considering the surfeit of clumsy and blatantly manipulative scripts which inform many a superhero film—but also ups the ante considerably by posing the difficult questions, by exploring the tangled intricacies of morality behind a mask.


And not only do we see Bruce Wayne’s increasingly tortured and fractured existence unwind before our eyes, we are also privy to the other people in his life and how the sea change in the city impacts on them.
There’s Gary Oldman's Lt. Gordon, there’s Michael Caine's Alfred, there's Morgan Freeman's Lucius, and there’s Rachel (a role now taken over by the amazing Maggie Gyllenhaal).
More pointedly though, we see the entire character arc of new District Attorney Harvey Dent (the equally amazing Aaron Eckhart), taking him from the valiant White Knight of Gotham—attempting to do, within the strictures of the law, the same thing Batman is doing—to the inevitable and cruel turn that will transform him into Two-Face, arguably the most tragic supervillain ever to grace the silver screen. (His only real competition is Spider-Man 2’s Doc Ock, and the Doc has the misfortune of appearing in a film I have some major issues with.)

It’s one of the many delights of The Dark Knight that just as we’re privy to the exact series of events that turn Harvey into Two-Face, the Joker is presented as a psychopathic cipher, without even an origin to ground him, elevating the character into an agent of anarchy, a catalyst, to draw out the worst in people.
And just as the film gives us a sometimes raw and unsettling look at the deviant criminal’s psyche, in it, we’re also shown a city and its people literally under siege, brought to the teetering edge where one can either rise above, or tear one’s neighbour—and ultimately, one’s self—to shreds.
Here, not only is the eternal struggle of light and dark waged in the characters’ souls, it’s also fought in the film’s setting, on Gotham’s streets, as well as within the very fabric of the city’s society, where the everyman is also given the choice, of which side of the coin he chooses to fall, in light of the alternatives presented to him.


While I sometimes thought that in Batman Begins, we were merely told—and through the film’s visuals, shown—how Gotham was corrupt and unhealthy, without actually feeling it, in The Dark Knight, the sense of a city and populace riddled with crime and strife, is horrifyingly palpable, tied into the narrative as it is.
Nolan effectively paints the portrait of a society so dark and compromised, its hero turns out to be one of shadows and childhood traumas, whose main weapons are fear and a billionaire’s bank account.
And terribly, it all makes sense.


In The Dark Knight, we’re given a film that may seem, visually, lighter than its predecessor, but is genuinely darker, befitting the complex psychologies evident in Batman’s comic book incarnation.
It’s a film where choices are constantly being made, pivotal, life-altering choices, that can change the nature of the game on the turn of a dime.
With it, Nolan and his trusted crew which include brother and co-writer Jonathan, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith, and production designer Nathan Crowley, have given us a superhero film uncompromising in its vision and intent.
Like its predecessor—and Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns—it’s also a superhero film clearly aimed at adult sensibilities.


In many ways—perhaps even all—The Dark Knight doesn’t play like your average spandex adaptation. There’s nothing remotely easy about this one, all the victories either hard-won, or outright pyrrhic.
Like Batman Begins, it’s grandiose, and operatic. But here the tragedy is more brutally delineated, the costs of heroism steeper, the sacrifices weightier.
This is The Dark Knight you’ve been waiting for.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.


* I never saw any of Brandon Lee’s work before The Crow, so I couldn’t really judge how much of what I saw on the screen was Lee and how much was Eric Draven…
It was, nonetheless, a very good performance as well.

Parting shot: Reviews of Batman Begins (as well as Nolan’s The Prestige) can be found in the Archive.
I’ve also already seen the anime tie-in, Gotham Knight, though underwhelmed as I was by it, I couldn’t motivate myself enough to sit down and write a review for it. Now, having seen The Dark Knight, I could be even harsher with it than I might have originally been inclined…

(Images courtesy of impawards.com [The Dark Knight OS’s, designs by BLT & Associates and Intralink Film Graphic Design]; ew.com [Heath Ledger as the Joker; Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent]; cinematical.com [Heath Ledger as the Joker and Christian Bale as Batman; Christian Bale as Batman]; nytimes.com [Christopher Nolan on the set of The Dark Knight]; time.com [Christian Bale as Batman; Heath Ledger as the Joker].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (98)
EMPIRE’S! 50! GREATEST! COMIC! BOOK! CHARACTERS! [4 of 5]
THE BATMAN EDITION


With Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight just around the corner, we see the Bat take the #2 spot, and his archnemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime, take #8…


8 Joker (aka Jack Napier)
The greatest comic book villain ever, and as versatile a character as his nemesis, the Batman.
The Joker has been a merry prankster of crime (poisoning all the fish in Gotham Bay so they sport his literally trademarked grin, then suing fishmongers for copyright infringement) and a gleefully sadistic bastard (responsible for permanently crippling Batgirl and temporarily killing at least one Robin), and always done his best to get under the ultra-grim Batman’s skin by taunting him with sick jokes.


There’s a sense that Joker is the only one of the rogues’ gallery Bruce Wayne really hates—many comics (eg: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum, Michael Green and Denys Cowan’s Lovers & Madmen) revolve around Batman and the Joker as opposites or mirror images.
The original look of the character was based on Conrad Veidt’s fixed grin in the silent picture The Man Who Laughs.
FIRST APPEARED IN BATMAN # 1 (1940)
CREATED BY BILL FINGER AND JERRY ROBINSON


2 Batman (aka: Bruce Wayne, The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader)
It’s a fair bet that when Bob Kane came up with the idea for a billionaire playboy who, by night, dressed up like a bat and fought crime, he had no idea where it would lead.
Almost seventy years later, and we’re jumping up and down—with good reason—about another Batman film, while The Caped Crusader (or Dark Knight, whichever you prefer) remains one of the most famous and iconic comic book characters of them all.
What is the appeal of the Batman? Well, he’s undeniably cool, for one thing. Visually striking, for another.
There’s a wish fulfillment thing going on there, too—unlike most heroes, Batman has no powers and relies only on his wits, cunning, and hard work to hone his body and fitness.
He’s got a great rogues’ gallery.

And he’s been exposed more on TV and in film than any other hero, which helps keep him in the public eye.
And, of course, the character has been through so many iterations over the years, from camp crusader to Frank Miller’s very, very dark knight, that there’s a Batman for everyone.
FIRST APPEARED IN DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1939)
CREATED BY BOB KANE AND BILL FINGER

The above write-ups are from Empire’s list.
For more on the above characters, just click on their names; the entire list will be accessible from there.

Wrapping up in Part 5—Afterthoughts (99)—we note some characters from DC’s Superman franchise.

Parting shot: A review of Nolan’s Batman Begins (as well as a review of The Prestige) can be found in the Archive.

(Images courtesy of cinematical.com [Christian Bale and Heath Ledger as Batman and the Joker]; about.com [the Joker]; dccomics.com [Batman, art by Matt Wagner]; and impawards.com [The Dark Knight OS’s, designs by Intralink Film Graphic Design].)