Why You Couldn't Be Batman, Part Three: Of Fists and Feet

Part One: Introduction can be viewed here.
Part Two: Those Wonderful Toys can be viewed here.

Bruce Wayne has seemingly endless bankroll and a first-rate mind, but so does Bill Gates. Is Bill Gates Batman? He most certainly is not. Like Bruce Wayne, Gates gives massive amounts of money to charities that attempt to right the structural wrongs of society - poverty, hunger, etc. Unlike Bruce Wayne, Gates is not a well-oiled machine, a human weapon who places his body, his everything, between the victim and the victimizer. I praise a man like Bill Gates, both because he has given away such a substantial portion of his wealth to people in need and because he does so while being non-fictional, but he's no Batman.

In a way, Batman is understood as police officer par excellence. He is the best detective. He is a fantastic fighter who does not need a gun and who does not kill perpetrators. He transcends law when law is not in the service of justice. Just as one might imagine that there must always be a police force, a group of individuals donning the uniforms of the dead or retired generation after generation in order to pledge solidarity against crime, so also there must always be a Batman. This is why an exhausted Batman had to push on in the "A Lonely Place of Dying" and "Knightfall" storylines, why Jean-Paul Valley / Azrael donned the cape and cowl when Bruce Wayne's back was broken and why Dick Grayson / Robin I / Nightwing became Batman after Bruce Wayne's death.

Whereas there is a police academy dedicated to training young people to replace the old guard, there is no Batman academy. (After writing this, however, I was alerted that because of the events of Batman Incorporated, there now appears to be a Batman academy.) If there were, Azrael would not have become a dangerous tyrant of a Batman. In training to become Batman, Bruce Wayne left his home as an angry young adult, traveling throughout the world in order to learn the best of martial arts, of illusion and of striking fear in ones opponents. This is one of the dominant themes in the 2005 film Batman Begins. The idea that I have gotten from the various manifestations of Batman, in comics, on TV, in movies, is that if there is a better fighter than Bruce Wayne then Wayne has either trained with this person or engaged in mortal combat with this person. Batman is a member of the Justice League, a founding member, and he is generally understood as someone you don't want to mess with. Were he simply a brain this would not be so. Even the most powerful heroes must have some resonating fear that Batman can best them physically, and this speaks well of the Batman's physical prowess.

There was an individual a few years back who had made a great deal of money selling rap records. I wish I could remember his name! But this individual realized that he was in a situation where he could become like Batman. As this story was told to me, I crossed my fingers that the next words would describe the rapper's journey to become an accomplished and self-controlled fighter. Instead, I heard the story of how this rapper had bought a Batmobile and Batman outfit.

I think that Batman's endless fight against crime and the sacrifice of his body is especially important when we think of Batman's mere humanity, of his mortality. Bruce Wayne can be injured by a knife or bullet just like any of us. He is no man of steel. And yet, unlike most of us, Bruce Wayne continues to best the most heavily armed enemies in spite of the obvious and real threat to his life. If you cannot do this, then you are not Batman.

Though I've largely made my point regarding Batman's martial arts ability and bodily sacrifice, I would like to discuss, for a moment, Batman and his relationship to violence. The most important truth about Batman is that he abhors violence. If he believed that violence could be stopped without resorting to further violence then he would no longer fight with fists and feet. Born in blood, Bruce Wayne wants nothing but to serve justice by ending corruption and bloodshed. It should be clear in any Batman story that Batman only wishes to disarm and capture adversaries, that killing is never a viable option. And yet that's not always the case. In the original Tim Burton Batman films, Batman straight up kills villains. There is no way many of these thugs could survive what Batman does to them. The video game Batman: Arkham Aslum is incredibly violent, and even beyond the idea of blowing up villains with concrete walls, the placement and force of Batman's punches and kicks could easily paralyze or kill villains.

I wanted to bring this up in order to caution first against striving to be a Batman who kills, but also to question whether training to become a vigilante who could die any day is anything you should aspire to. This series could be critiqued as holding Batman up as an example we ought to follow. Quite frankly, I don't know that people should learn how to meet violence with violence. In fact, I don't know that people should ever strive for Bruce Wayne's wealth. Even his level of intelligence is something I wouldn't be quick to recommend. It's a good way to feel alone. All the time. I do think that the Batman stories help individuals in moral development, but similar to religion, I caution against a monkey-see, monkey-do mentality.

Of the next post on why you couldn't be Batman, all I can say is that there will be blood. As you can probably guess, we will be dealing with Batman's tragic origin and its consequences.

Part Four: Crime Alley can be viewed here.

Batman Begins Synopsis by Chinese Dollar Store

Special thanks to my friend Chad who found the article "Spiderman Stroke All Criminal Activates" on Bleeding Cool, which is actually a re-post of "A Rather Loose Interpretation of the Batman Origin" found on A Pocketful of Geek! In order to further complicate things, I am re-posting it here.

Christian Bale

Actor Christian Bale. Christian Bale and I have a long history. I hope it is OK if I give you the Cliff's Notes version. I first encountered Bale as Patrick Bateman in a movie called American Psycho (2000), a film that I originally thought to be a disgusting horror movie but have since come to know it as a dark comedy. Wearing a suit and committed to covering over his dark side by trying to fit in I felt certain that Bale would be the best possible Bruce Wayne should the Batman franchise reboot. Sure enough, Batman Begins was released in 2005 with Bale starring as Bruce Wayne / Batman. Bale's performances in these two movies together with 2004's The Machinist were all Academy Award quality, and working my way through his filmography I found that 1987's Empire of the Sun and 2007's 3:10 to Yuma both also featured Academy Award worthy performances by Bale. My dreams finally came true this year, because Bale is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Fighter, and a lot of critics are saying he's a shoe in (though Geoffrey Rush will probably give him a run for his money). My hypothetical money is on Christian Bale.

Batman: Year One

Batman: Year One gained a great deal of acclaim a couple of years ago when Christopher Nolan noted it as one of the main influences on his film Batman Begins. When it comes to comic book story arcs, however, Year One stands on its own two feet, especially considering that its success convinced DC comics to continue the Year One line for a couple of decades. (I saw a reference to Green Arrow: Year One in an issue of Countdown that I recently read.) Of Frank Miller's Dark Knight stories, it is the most widely accepted for its depiction of Batman and it is the only story that is canon in both the mainline DC universe (Earth 1) and Miller's Dark Knight universe.

Curiously, this beloved Batman storyline is not about Batman so much as it is about Commissioner Gordon. The story begins and ends with Gordon and Gordon is the clear protagonist. Batman's coming of age as a hero is a foil to ally Jim Gordon's rise in influence as a good cop in the den of thieves that is the Gotham City Police Department.

Batman: Year One introduces readers not just to Jim Gordon and Batman, but also to District Attorney Harvey Dent (who will one day become Two-Face) and prostitute Selina Kyle (who will one day become Catwoman). He also plays out the interesting relationships between Batman, Gordon and Dent, possibly the only three people in Gotham with both the desire and the power to fight against the city's corruption. Year One sets up for many of the greatest Batman stories ever told, worth reading both because of its solo story and the influence this story has had on everything since.

And with the hype surrounding Nolan's third Batman flick The Dark Knight Rises, it can't hurt to get caught up on your Batman stories. Batman: Year One is a superb place to start!

Top 3 Batman Villains For The Dark Knight Rises

3. Catwoman

Last year there was an internet hoax in which Megan Fox was supposedly confirmed for the role of Catwoman in the third Dark Knight Christopher Nolan Batman film (which we now know by the name The Dark Knight Rises). I was furious. Megan Fox can't act and I've never found her attractive (with the exception of a couple brief moments in the film Jennifer's Body). Megan Fox as Catwoman was, to me, like feeling the need to throw up, feeling that poison welling up in your abdomen and your entire body preparing to forcefully remove it. Likewise, the clarification that this was a vicious rumor and that no casting choices had been made for the upcoming Bat-film felt much like that moment of happiness once a poison has been purged.

The fact, however, is that the conclusion of The Dark Knight sets the stage perfectly for a Catwoman storyline. (I would argue that a Batman/Superman story would actually fit better, but Nolan said he didn't want to introduce Superman in Batman's story. I also think that there is a significant setup for a Batgirl storyline.) Batman is a criminal. His existence is against the law. He belongs, like those he has brought to justice, in Arkham Asylum. He is forced into the dark underside of justice, and who better to accompany him than everyone's favorite cat burglar with a conscience.

Between the rumors that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would play The Riddler and the confirmation that Tom Hardy will be in the film but that he will most certainly not be playing The Riddler, there was a rumor that Inception co-star Marion Cotillard would be joining the cast as Catwoman. Of all the rumors, that is the strongest public casting choice that I have seen so far. At the same time, however, I think Cotillard's talents might be better used elsewhere, but I'll explore this later. For me, the greatest Catwoman was Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns. Pfeiffer's Catwoman, like Nicholson's Joker in Batman, is the standard of comparison, if we deem comparison necessary. Who, like Pfeiffer, can do the role of Catwoman justice? The first thought that came to my mind was Kristen Bell, but maybe that's just because I would love to see her in that costume and I know from Fanboys and Veronica Mars that she's a geek. Naomi Watts would be fantastic, but I fear that she is getting too old for audiences to buy into this casting choice. Scarlett Johansson's already tied to the Marvel films, but would that be a problem? Halle Berry had already played Storm in two X-Men films when she was chosen to play Catwoman in Catwoman. (If you want to know where I think Halle Berry's portrayal of Catwoman fits in the spectrum, you will find it at the exact opposite end from Michelle Pfeiffer.) Kate Beckinsale?

In the end I don't know who the best choice for Catwoman is, but I know Catwoman is one of the best choices for The Dark Knight Rises.

2. Ra's al Ghul

There are a couple of significant difficulties with bringing back Ra's al Ghul for The Dark Knight Rises. The first difficulty is that Ra's al Ghul was killed in a train wreck in Batman Begins. The second difficulty is that resurrection via the Lazarus Pit seems a little too mystical and extraordinary compared to the tone that has been set for the Christopher Nolan Batman films.

I think that if we assume that Ra's al Ghul is simply not a viable candidate for the villain in the next Batman flick then we are underestimating not only our own imaginations, but the imagination of Christopher Nolan. If you remember how Ra's al Ghul was depicted in Batman Begins, you will remember that he was always enshrouded in some sort of mystery. The first person we believe to be Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) turns out to be a decoy and we find out that the real Ra's al Ghul is a man we have come to know as Henri Ducard. At Bruce Wayne's birthday party, Ra's al Ghul suggests that as an idea he is immortal.

So, how does the idea of Ra's al Ghul come back to life? I think it's possible that Ra's al Ghul was suggesting that the concept of Ra's al Ghul is something that any of a number of people could partake in, that it is perhaps more of a role than a particular identity. The decoy Ra's al Ghul may have been just as much Ra's al Ghul as the Henri Ducard Ra's al Ghul. I wouldn't immediately dismiss this idea. First of all, Nolan continues to describe his Batman films as a trilogy, meaning that there's a strong likelihood that issues dealt with in the first movie will resurface in the last creating a greater continuity. The League of Shadows certainly could have been behind some of the events of Dark Knight as well. Second, there may be a precedent for this transformation of the identity of Ra's al Ghul from the personal to the corporate. In Marvel's Iron Man, the character of Mandarin, originally understood as a martial artist who came upon ten rings of power in a crashed alien space ship, is transformed from a single individual enemy into a terrorist group known as Ten Rings. If the Mandarin identity can be understood as belonging to multiple individuals, why not the Ra's al Ghul identity? The mystery and identity confusion of Batman Begins are basically begging for this to be true and it gives us a chance to see a very Nolan understanding of the classic rejuvenation and resurrection themes that accompany any understanding of Ra's al Ghul.

Who should play the next Ra's al Ghul? Why not Tom Hardy? He's already confirmed and he sure isn't playing The Riddler.

1. Talia al Ghul

The solution to all of your Batman casting problems is Talia al Ghul.

Talia al Ghul is the best way to resolve the Ra's al Ghul/League of Shadows storyline from Batman Begins. You don't have to think so hard about identity and illusion. Instead you get to enjoy an incredibly beautiful woman in the interesting and complex role of Ra's al Ghul's daughter.

Talia has the dark side of a Catwoman character without introducing too many extraneous characters to the storyline. She belongs to the storyline as a successor to Ra's al Ghul. Similar to Catwoman, Talia al Ghul fills the necessary lead female role in Bruce Wayne/Batman's life that was emptied when Rachel Dawes was killed in Dark Knight. This provides an extra pay-off for comic book fans who know that she is the mother of Bruce Wayne's son Damian Wayne in the regular DC universe.

As for casting, here's where Marion Cotillard comes in. She's sexy and exotic, which hits the nail on the head for Talia al Ghul. She's got a rapport with Nolan, which seems to have worked for Tom Hardy. Most importantly, she can really act. I say this because Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhaal were the two weakest links in the casting of Batman Begins and Dark Knight. Gyllenhaal was miles ahead of Holmes, but she was also miles behind what I would consider her normal acting capability. With Cotillard we could have an enticing female bat-villain who steals the show from acting titans Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

In the end, I am just happy that Christian Nolan is in charge. For the most part, I trust his decisions and I feel certain that The Dark Knight Rises is going to astound me and be one of the best films of the year.

Now to figure out how I'm going to pass the time until 2012. Any suggestions?