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The Batman is an upcoming motion picture based upon the eponymous hero from DC Comics starring Robert Pattinson. Promotional photos promise that the movie will be far different from previous iterations of the hero. A grimy, untalented Batman has graced screens up to this point, and most material has promised an examination of the early days of the character.
The inspirations of this film, released in a box set, have been somewhat easy to guess. Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale deals with a younger Batman with a heavier detective angle, something hinted at in early promotional material. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazucchelli is a critically acclaimed look at Batman’s start at crime-fighting. The surprising addition, though, is a lesser-known, shorter work penned and inked by Darwyn Cooke, Batman: Ego. This text examines Batman’s psyche and how he balances his personas. It speaks to his sanity as relative to the villains he faces and would be difficult to adapt on the screen. What, then, does this tell fans about the upcoming adaptation of The Batman?
Batman: Ego Paints Bruce As More Insane Than Heroic
Batman: Ego begins by painting Bruce as very human. He complains of a bad shoulder, has dizzy spells and fails to keep his quarry alive, which takes place after a particularly horrid sting of murders by the Joker. Bruce speaks to a Batman-shaped fear entity who offers him the choice to split into two separate aspects of his personality so Batman can kill Gotham’s villains and finally rid the world of the murderers. Bruce, however, simply wants to quit and end his own suffering in the name of justice. The two finally agree to fight together as Batman, the hero emerging stronger than before.
Ego covers a lot of ground in its measly 68 pages, so seeing it stacked in with thick tomes like The Long Halloween (353 pages with two sequels) and Year One (127 pages) can seem a bit shocking. It tears down the myth of Batman/Bruce Wayne between its covers. A number of panels split the two sides of Batman up, directly juxtaposing the sources of his trauma and personality.
This duality is especially sharp in the art of the text. Cooke makes the decision to paint almost all negative space in black, meaning that all color pops out sharply. What’s more, antagonism in this book is portrayed not by the green common in the motifs of Bane, The Joker, The Riddler, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow, but in the yellow which is part of some iterations of Batman’s own costume. This book doesn’t have a true villain. The Joker is in the Gotham police station by the time the narrative starts. No, the antagonist is part of Batman which he has tried to keep down.
This fear character even appears as Batman, showing Bruce’s interaction with the Batman character as being full of antagonism. Where Bruce spends the narrative in a grey T-shirt and muted colors, Batman/fear appears amid bright, brilliant colors reminiscent of those of Batman’s villains. A particular yellow/red combination only appears twice, though: when the monster is first seen and when Bruce sees his parents being shot. The creature’s proportions are incorrect, taller than Bruce with long, skinny fingers and irregular, yellowed teeth reminiscent of the Joker. The creature is every bit of the fear that Batman means to instill into villainy.
Batman’s Psyche Is Examined Throughout Cinema
Though Batman’s tenure in American cinema is long and arduous, their status as classic superhero films reign strongly over any iteration. Adam West’s Batman (1966) starred the Dark Knight as a kid-friendly, silly creature operating out of a world full of villains who are all roughly the same amount of crazy and wouldn’t dare kill someone. Tim Burton’s gothic 1989 Gotham shows murderous villains and a Batman who doesn’t seek out murder but certainly doesn’t mind engaging in it. Nolan’s 2005 Bruce Wayne is a hero who truly gives himself to the pursuit of justice until he can give no more. Ben Affleck’s Batman is a borderline sociopath who wouldn’t murder, but would happily do any other crime in the name of justice.
How, then, can The Batman inform in ways that these could not? Nolan used The Long Halloween as a major influence in the Dark Knight trilogy, and some elements of Year One found their way in as well. Even Knightfall had an appearance in the Nolanverse. Bruce’s psyche is examined in the last movie, and his strength of mind proves to be his greater power and Gotham’s salvation. With Batman: Ego‘s influence, the new Batman is likely to delve far deeper into the mind of Batman than even this.
This deep psychological dive seems especially likely given Pattinson’s casting. His previous films, The Lighthouse and High Life, both deal with the psychology of a man who finds himself in nigh-inexplicable situations. Where is this seen more than in a man arguing with his own psyche about whether they should become two separate entities? Pattinson and Batman: Ego both make this deep internal conflict likely.
The Batman May Become Pattinson’s Joker
Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker broke the mold in a similar fashion to that of Batman: Ego. No longer is the character the myth created by a comic book, but a man who reaches his breaking point. Arthur Fleck isn’t a murderer bent on death for fun, but a man who allows for the myth of himself to become his entire personality.
Likewise, the myth of Batman is the only thing that unites Bruce Wayne and Batman/fear at the end of Batman: Ego. The character study takes Batman to task for his somewhat arbitrary rules, his violence and his ignorance of his own humanity. Batman: Ego makes Batman his own villain and has the character end as both more and less than when he began.
Similarly, The Batman‘s Bruce Wayne may break the mold in the model of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker. A different take on a monumental character allowed for fans to truly understand what may have led the villain to his current state. Just as pity made Joker less of a villain, so too may an examination of Batman’s psyche on the big screen, an area where his moral compunctions have been largely glossed over, bring the character into a more antagonistic literary space. Batman may emerge from The Batman as far less a hero than when he entered if Ego is any indication.
Naturally, it is difficult to determine the exact way that Batman: Ego will affect the narrative of Pattinson’s The Batman. A loner Bruce Wayne who is more self-reliant is confirmed and already a curious, welcome change. Fans will finally see for sure how influential comic books have been on The Batman when it releases on 4 March of this year.
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