On this, the day of the release of The Dark Knight Rises, the final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman film trilogy, let’s take a unique look back at all seven films in the Batman saga, and how each one reflects a decade in the comic book life of the Caped Crusader they are based on. For reasons that remain a mystery, It seems the Dark Knight’s growth as a character is always the same, regardless of the medium he is portrayed in.
For reasons that had to be a major coincidence, each of the seven Batman films released since 1989 has ended up reflecting a particular decade in the life of the comic book version of the character. There is almost no chance this could have been planned in any way; over the past twenty five years since these movies have started production, a host of different writers, directors and studio heads have been in charge as each Batman film was being made. Even Michael Uslan, producer of every Batman movie since ’89 (and the only consistent thing between all the films) has pointed out in interviews how this ended up being the case, although it was not his or anyone behind the scene’s intention, just strange happenstance. It just so happened that Batman’s “phases” in the movie world (for lack of a better term) matched up almost perfectly with his phases in the comics, although with some some notable cracks in my theory, which I will happily point out. So let’s begin the Bat history lesson, shall we?
Batman (1989) = The Batman of Detective Comics in 1939
Tim Burton’s original 1989 Batman movie came out on the 50th anniversary of the character, and in so many ways reflects that original Batman (or should I say The Bat-Man?) of 1939 more than any other media incarnation to date. Burton’s Bruce Wayne doesn’t hide the fact that’s he’s Batman very well in this movie, constantly becoming distracted or losing his cool in public, and the Bruce of those very early comics didn’t really either. In those earliest Batman stories, Bruce also had a serious relationship, a now forgotten girlfriend named Julie Madison. Much of those early Batman stories delt with Bruce trying to maintain a relationship with the lovely (and relatively normal and dull) socialite Julie, just as Burton’s movie had the love story of Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale at it’s center. By 1941 or so, Julie was a footnote in Batman lore, just as Vicki would be by the next movie in the series. Good riddance, as both characters were as interesting as dry toast. The Art Deco look of Burton’s first film is also very 30’s inspired, another nod to the comic book character’s first year out.
Most importantly, the Batman of ’39 had very little problem using lethal force, and even carried a gun. While Burton’s Batman is never seen packing heat, he does have guns on the Batmobile and lets a whole bunch of the Joker’s henchmen die, and pretty much flat out kills the Joker himself, something the comic book character would never have done from say, 1940 onwards.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks
Batman might be wearing all black in Burton’s movie, more closely resembling the darker color palette of his original look form the comics, but he’s still got the little yellow oval around the Bat symbol on his costume, something that didn’t appear in the comics until the mid 60’s. Also the character of Vicki Vale was predominantly a 1950’s character, created in an attempt to give Batman a Lois Lane type girlfriend, and wasn’t around at all in the 30’s. It should be pointed out though, Vicki bore very little resemblance to her comic book counterpart aside from the name and being a photographer. And if I’m gonna nit-pick here, then neither the Joker nor the Batmobile were around until at least a year later in the comics either.
Batman Returns (1992) = Batman Comics of the 1940’s
Tim Burton’s Batman Returns got both darker and sillier all at the same time. Truth is, the 1940’s Batman comics were also darker and siller than the “year one” Batman that appeared in Detective Comics in 1939. More and more grotesque and outrageous villains were introduced, like The Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Scarecrow and the Riddler, often teaming up together to bring down the Bat. (the first Joker/Penguin team up happened in the 40’s, starting a Batman tradition, one reflected in Batman Returns) Catwoman’s original origin story had her being a stewardess who falls out of an airplane, loses her memory and becomes a “bad girl”; the movie version of Selina Kyle is a secretary who falls out a building and wakes up in a similar state. Still, all silliness aside, there was still an air of gothic, almost classic Universal horror movie weirdness to those Batman stories of the 40’s, something that would totally be gone by the early in the next decade.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks
By far, the biggest component to Batman’s success in the 40’s was the addition of his sidekick Robin to the books, and Batman Returns had no Robin character to speak of (although it was almost Marlon Wayans. Yes, I’m serious) Other than this one rather big omission, Batman Returns plays very much like a Batman comic from the 40’s, somehow both dark and kid friendly at the same time, which has long been Tim Burton’s gift as a filmmaker.
Batman Forever (1995) = Batman Comics of the 1950’s
Even though Batman Returns was a hit, it made a lot less money than Burton’s first Batman movie, and parents groups at the time freaked out at the darkness and sexuality in what was supposed to be a “family movie.” Parents even protested the addition of Batman Returns toys in McDonalds happy meals meant for children. This made parent company Warner Brothers freak out big time, and Tim Burton was let go from his gig at the helm of the Batman series. They hired Joel Schumacher to direct Batman Forever, and he brought a day glo neon color palette to the proceedings that was as garish and un-Batman as anything found in the very worst issues of the 1950’s. The mandate from Warner Brothers was that the Batman series become lighter, more colorful and family friendly.
This totally reflects the attitudes parents had towards the comic books back in the 1950’s, due to the paranoia instilled by the anti comic book rantings of Dr. Frederic Wertham in his book Seduction of the Innocent. As a reaction to freaked out parents, DC was forced to lighten the mood significantly to their Batman comics, or cancel them outright. Everything became more colorful, and Batman lost almost all of his cool villains and saw them replaced by aliens and mad scientists with death rays with names like Dr. Double X. Any cool edginess Batman had once had was thrown out the window. Ironically, one of the chief complaints made by Frederic Wertham is his book was that Batman and Robin were a gay lover’s fantasy come to life, two men living in a fabulous mansion together in sin with no women to be found. By casting 25 year old Chris O’ Donnell as Robin, and having him shack up with a Batman who was only ten years his senior (and looked even younger) in the form of Val Kilmer, the entire Batman and Robin relationship took a far less father/son vibe and just became all the more gayer, 50’s paranoia inadvertently brought to big screen reality. And nipples on the Bat suit? Probably didn’t help.
Also, Nicole Kidman’s character of Chase Meridian looks and acts far more like Batman’s 1950’s love interest Vicki Vale, who in the comics was a sexy red head who was obsessed with uncovering Batman’s secret identity, much like Kidman’s character was in the movie. Kim Basinger’s Vicki was really just Vicki in name only, and was far more like the generic women Bruce Wayne dated in the early comics.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks
Even though Jim Carrey’s Riddler is behaving more like one of the mad scientist characters in any given 1950’s comic book, what with his mind controlling device (or whatever the fuck that was) the actual character of the Riddler never appeared once in any 1950’s Batman comic. Similarly, Two-Face only appeared in one Batman comic of the early 50’s before being banished along with the rest of the Batman rogues for being “too scary” for children. Other than this though, Batman Forever is just about as bad and overly “kiddy” as any issue of Batman or Detective from the 1950’s. It really is that hard to sit through.
Batman & Robin (1997) = Batman of the 60’s, (And The Television Series)
Somehow, despite no one I know actually liking the movie, Batman Forever made more money than Batman Returns, although only slightly. This must have made Warners confident in the decision to go even more lighter and sillier in tone than the previous movie for Batman & Robin. Whether it was intentional or not, the tone of the movie was direct reflection on that of the comics of the 1960’s, and more specifically, the campy tone of the Batman television show. Both Arnold and Uma Thurman’s turns as Mr.Freeze and Poison Ivy were so arch and over the top as to make it seem like they were on the set of the old tv show. Even the addition of Batgirl (even if she wasn’t the Barbara Gordon character from the comics or television series) felt like they were trying to evoke the old show.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks
There is one key difference that keeps the original Batman show and Batman & Robin from being the exact same hot mess; the original show was deliberately campy and tongue in cheek, an outright parody, and a brilliant one at that. But Batman and Robin wanted to lift the aesthetics and tone of the old classic show and remain an actual action/adventure movie with real peril and stakes that the audience could invest in. They failed miserably, as you simply can’t have it both ways, and audiences reacted. Batman & Robin flopped, burying the series for eight long years. And when Warner Brothers decided to resurrect the franchise, they took a cue from DC comics in the wake of the cancellation of the old tv show: Back to Basics.
Batman Begins (2005) = Batman comics of the 1970’s
After the television series was cancelled, sales on the Batman comics dropped like a stone. The campy approach worked for awhile on the books while the show was on the air, and sales soared for a bit, but by 1970 the tone of the show had done what seemed like irreparable damage to the character of Batman. So writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams decided to take drastic measures, and do a total 180 on the comic book character and return him to his darker, 1939 roots. Robin was sent off to college and became an infrequent guest star, and Batman became more of a globe trotting James Bond like character. And those early 70’s comics added one major new villain to the Batman rogues gallery in the form of immortal mastermind Ra’s al Ghul.
Much like the comic series, the Batman movie series was left in dire straits after Batman & Robin tanked. Warner Brothers decided to reboot the franchise and go back to basics, and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was as much a reaction to the colorful excess of Batman & Robin as the stories of O’Neill and Adams were a reaction to the television series. Chris Nolan even used 70’s creation Ra’s al Ghul as his main villain, and Begins had a lot of the globe trotting aspect that was key to Batman’s 1970’s adventures. And once again, Robin was given the boot.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks
While Batman Begins uses a lot of the tropes and characters from the 1970’s run of Batman comics, Christopher Nolan was just as heavily inspired by Frank Miller’s 1980’s classic Batman: Year One, if not more so. Also, the opening sequence, with a young Bruce Wayne falling into the cave and being scared by the bats was lifted from a sequence from 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns. In fact, the Nolan Trilogy really lifts from almost every era of Batman since 1970 or so, just some movies have more overt influences than others.
The Dark Knight (2008) = 1980’s Batman
Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke is seen as the definitive Joker tale; It’s a story that’s really all about how the Joker sees the world, and he presents his origin for the first time in these pages. Although, as he says in the story, he’s not sure if his memories are correct, and if he’s going to have a past of any sort, he would prefer it to be “multiple choice”. This is much like Heath Ledger’s Joker gives various different versions of his own origin in the movie. The Killing Joke version of Joker also spends the story trying to drive a good man insane, in this case James Gordon, by crippling and raping his daughter and making him witness it, trying to prove that all a good man needs to lose his mind is “one bad day”. He doesn’t break Gordon in The Dark Knight, but he does do it to Harvey Dent, and unlike The Killing Joke with Gordon, in the movie version he succeeds.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Cracks
With Dark Knight, things start to get trickier comparing it to any one decade of Batman comics, and I can readily admit this. TDK is very similar to some 80’s classics like Killing Joke, but also owes just as much a debt to stories from the 70’s, and even the 90’s and 2000’s. I couldn’t help but think, as Batman was gliding over Hong Kong, of those old globetrotting Denny O’Neill/Neal Adams stories of the 70’s. Also in the 70’s, Bruce Wayne was living away from Wayne Manor for the very first time, in a swanky playboy’s penthouse, which is also reflected in the movie as well.
Another huge influence on TDK is 90’s classic The Long Halloween. The “A Plot” in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s 1997 graphic novel is about the serial killer Holiday, who kills someone once a month on that month’s most prominant Holiday. But the “B Plot” is about how the the freaks begin to take over from the Mafia in Gotham, a theme thut runs heavy in the Dark Knight. The other major element in The Long Halloween is how the trinity of Lt. Gordon, Batman and Harvey Dent form to try to save Gotham, and the eventual transformation of Dent into Two Face. I’d say this one might have been a more prominent influence on The Dark Knight than maybe even The Killing Joke does.
Even aspects of comics as recent as 2005’s The OMAC Project were reflected in TDK; a very recent addition to the Batman mythos is Batman’s creation of OMAC, and orbiting satellite system created to watch and observe *cough*spy*cough* on every metahuman on the planet. Although not quite as Sci -fi as what was used in the movie, he creates a similar invasive monitoring system on the people of Gotham in the Dark Knight, much to the disgust of Wayne CEO Lucius Fox. In many ways, the succesful combination of so many elements from over thirty years of Batman comics helps makes The Dark Knight the ultimate Batman movie.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) = The 90’s Comics
Ok, so I haven’t seen TDKR yet, but lets just say I know enough, based on trailers and reviews, to know that the 90’s comic books were a huge influence on this particular Batman story. First off, the inclusion of Bane as the main antagonist speaks volumes, as Bane wasn’t created until 1993. In fact, Bane is one of the only Batman villains to reach iconic status that was created during this decade, mostly due to his breaking Batman’s back in 1993’s Knightfall saga, a storyline sure to be referred to in TDKR. Another 90’s story seemingly reflected (at least based on the trailers) is No Man’s Land, a story from the late 90’s where all the bridges to Gotham are destroyed, and the city becomes cut off from the rest of the United States and ultimately run by criminals.
Nitpicking: So Here Is Where My Theory Has Some Cracks
The main premise of The Dark Knight Rises has Bruce Wayne living in seclusion for the eight years after retiring Batman and taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s murder. This reflects were we find Bruce Wayne in the start of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, where he has been living in seclusion for ten years after retiring the Batman persona. Also, Anne Hathaway’s version of Selina Kyle seems very influenced by Miller’s take on the character in Batman: Year One. Even Holly, Selina’s sidekick from Year One, makes an appearance in the TDKR , played by Juno Temple. I should also note that Catwoman’s look in the movie seems very inspired by Julie Newmar in the 60’s television show, maybe the only place in Nolan’s entire trilogy that acknowledges the campy old show. It is a reference I doubt any fanboy will mind though.
So what’s next for the Batman movies? Start at 1939 all over again for a reboot? Go to the future for Batman Beyond maybe? It’ll be interesting to see where the future takes us for Batman in cinema, but one thing is for sure, he’ll be on the big screen again in some form or another. It is only a matter of time.