Category Archives: Batman

What we can expect from Ben Affleck’s Batman

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superman_batman_public_enemies-13

Okay, so Warner Bros. announced on Thursday that Ben Affleck, star of “Daredevil” a decade ago and director of Oscar-worthy “Argo,” would play Batman in the “Man of Steel” sequel for director Zach Snyder and opposite Henry Cavil as Superman.

And yes, there was a lot of online freaking out about Affleck being cast.

I’m old enough to remember the doubters – I was one of them – when Michael Keaton was cast to play Bruce Wayne and Batman for Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.”

He’s a comic actor, they said about Keaton. His chin isn’t superheroic enough. This isn’t even a step up in casting from the campy 1960s TV series.

But Keaton worked, largely because Burton’s Batman was something we hadn’t seen very often: A serious superhero flick. I’d submit Keaton was the best part about that movie, far outshining Jack Nicholson as the Joker.

So what’s the knock on Affleck?

Um .. he’s made some movies that some people didn’t like?

ben affleck daredevil

Okay, Twitter, take a deep breath. Let’s move on to what happens next, namely, what can we expect from “Superman vs. Batman” or whatever the “Man of Steel” sequel will be called, particularly with Affleck’s casting?

Batman is going to take the lead in the sequel. Depending on how long the movie takes place after “Man of Steel,” Superman still might be a green superhero. That means when the two icons meet, it’s likely Batman will have years of experience on Superman. Sure, Superman has super powers. But we’ve seen before that Batman is more than a match for Superman. Kryptonite shard, anyone?

They’ll clash at first. Besides this comic book trope being a standard development – remember the various Avengers fighting before they teamed up on Loki? – I’m betting Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor will be in some kind of deal but Batman will be investigating Luthor. Superman might get involved when he sees Batman hanging around (literally) Metropolis and confronts him. Hey, I’m pretty sure this worked for DC animated universe stories.

They’re definitely building to a “Justice League” movie. I expect Batman to be the experienced leader when they make the “JL” movie and it’s likely Affleck will be in the cowl. Warner Bros. wouldn’t announce a new Batman for just one movie.

There’s a Robin in the future. You don’t have an experienced batman without a sidekick. Maybe Joseph Gordon-Levitt?

Snyder and Warner Bros. are casting older but not too old. Sure, Cavill is several years younger, but Affleck is just 41. Robert Downey Jr. was 43 for the first “Iron Man” movie.

ben affleck as george reeves superman

It’ll be interesting to see how much influence Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight” stories have on the movie, although there have been plenty of good stories of the two iconic heroes and their relationship.

‘Beware the Batman’ beckons

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beware-the-batman-

I’ve only seen a couple of minutes of footage of the new Cartoon Network series “Beware the Batman” and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.

The series could be fun if they get the tone right. Goodness knows there’s plenty of animated takes on “Batman” in the past, from the heights of “Batman The Animated Series” to “Brave and the Bold,” which was good silly fun.

If “Beware the Batman” is as dull-looking and featureless as CN’s recent “Green Lantern” CGI series, however, I’m not sure it’s going to engage me.

And what if it does? Cartoon Network traditionally abuses its series, even the great ones like “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited.” The network moves the shows around from one time slot to another with little or no notice. Seasons begin only to end abruptly a few weeks later. Series disappear for months or a year at a time.

So even if “Beware the Batman” were among the best Batman animated series ever … what are the chances Cartoon Network will give it a chance?

The show starts July 13.

 

TV crush: Yvonne Craig

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batgirl cape

It’s safe to say Yvonne Craig sparked more than a few transitions from boyhood to manhood for male TV viewers in the 1960s

That’s because Craig made a heck of an impression on us as Barbara Gordon, also known as Batgirl, in the “Batman” series.

Craig, born in 1937, was a ballet dancer before appearing in a variety of TV series, including “The Man from UNCLE” and “The Wild, Wild West.”

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Her appearance as a green-skinned seductress in the “Star Trek” episode “Whom Gods Destroy” – the second chartreuse woman in the series – is no doubt responsible for the presence of a green-tinged woman in the 2009 “Star Trek” movie.

But all it took was for Craig to join the “Batman” cast for her to forever be a fanboy favorite.

Craig, as Batgirl, was added to the cast for the final season in 1967.

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The impression her outfit – sparkly purple suit with yellow cape and hip-hugging yellow utility belt – made on a nation of us was truly great.

Here’s to Yvonne Craig.

Hardcover heroes: Comic book novels

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wayne of gotham

There’s a surprisingly long history of comic book superheroes appearing in novels, either hardcover or paperback. Some of us have shelves lined with prose treatments of our favorite heroes.

Having just read “Wayne of Gotham,” a recent novel by Tracy Hickman, I thought I’d make mention of a couple of notable ones.

First, “Wayne of Gotham.” Hickman’s story alternates between two time periods, the present day, as Batman tries to unravel a decades-old mystery, and the late 1950s, when his father, Gotham physician Thomas Wayne, dealt with a threat to his beloved city.

The 1950s storyline, of course, takes place several years before the events of the Batman comics that created the Dark Knight: Thomas and Martha Wayne are gunned down in an alley, while their young son watches, by a deadly criminal. Young Bruce Wayne devotes his life to fighting crime, as we all know, as Batman.

In Hickman’s book, chapters alternate between the present and the past, recounting a mystery that confronted both generations of Waynes.

In some ways, it feels like Hickman’s most daring decision is to depict an aging Batman who fights crime now with the help of high-tech devices. Sure, Batman still enjoys a good scrap. But he’s middle-aged and all those midnight battles have taken a toll on his body.

superman george lowther

The granddaddy of all superhero books is George Lowther’s 1942 novel “The Adventures of Superman.” The character of Superman had been around for a few years by the time this hardback book was published, but the impetus for the book was no doubt the very popular “The Adventures of Superman” radio series. Lowther was a writer on the show as well as many others.

(Fun fact about Lowther, who died in 1975: He also wrote more than 40 episodes of “CBS Radio Mystery Theater,” the last of the widely heard radio dramas, in 1974 and 1975.)

Lowther’s Superman novel, which was reprinted in 1995, was the first novelization of a comic book superhero, of course, but also contributed to the mythology of the character, naming Superman’s parents on Krypton Jor-El and Lara, varying from the earlier Jor-L and Lora from the comics.

(Another fun fact: The radio series introduced several of the core Superman mythos concepts, including Kryptonite, that elemental remnant of Superman’s home planet that can be dangerous to him. Although the radio show is largely unheard these days – I have an audio cassette boxed set from 20 years ago – it contributed a lot to the character.)

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Probably my favorite modern-day superhero novelization is “Enemies & Allies,” a 2009 novel by Kevin J. Anderson.

Set at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, the novel recounts the early, uneasy meeting between Superman and Batman as they team up to battle Lex Luthor, who is stoking 1950s-era fears of nuclear war and alien invasion.

Anderson’s book is terrific. It’s a good treatment of vintage superheroics and is quite faithful to the feeling of mutual suspicion replaced by growing trust between Superman and Batman. I wish he’d come back to the characters.

My favorite movies of 2012

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Here’s another “let’s pretend it’s the end of the year instead of a couple of days into the new year” recap of what I enjoyed in pop culture in 2012.

This time, movies.

For more than a decade, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, I reviewed movies as part of my job. I saw a movie or two or three every week. Considering I was a lifelong movie fan, it was cool to be paid (even minimally) to review them.

Reviewing movies for a living meant going to see movies even if you didn’t feel like it and – goes without saying – movies that you had no interest in seeing. I still haven’t fully recovered from “My Dinner with Andre.”

All this is by way of saying that I don’t see nearly as many movies in theaters nowadays. When I do see a movie, I’m pretty likely to really want to see it and have a good idea of how much I’ll like it.

So here’s a look at a few favorite movies – and why they were favorites – for 2012.

For me, no pop culture movie of 2012 topped “The Avengers.” Joss Whedon’s very-nearly-perfect big-screen version of Marvel’s ultimate superhero team was the culmination of four years of Marvel solo superhero movies that kicked off with “Iron Man.”

I don’t have to tell you that Whedon’s “Avengers” worked and worked beyond the expectations of most fans, expectations that have been building since the early 1960s but seemed pretty unlikely during the dark days of lame “Captain America” TV movies with Cap sporting a motorcycle helmet. And now, on to Marvel’s big-screen phase two!

“Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” were, in ways different than “The Avengers,” good treatments of their durable comic book characters. “Dark Knight” had a fairly lame villain but still thrilled with its dark vision. “Spider-Man” promised something it didn’t deliver – a mysterious reworking of Peter Parker’s origin – but it didn’t matter. The characters and performances really swung.

“Chronicle” was a dark and unsettling take on the kind of superhero/super villain fodder that sprang from “The X-Men” stories. Bonus: The director is remaking “Fantastic Four.”

Outside the realm of superhero stories, another movie with Whedon’s imprint, “Cabin in the Woods,” was very nearly as good as “The Avengers.” “Cabin” was a first-rate thriller with a great, twisty plot.

Backlash to the absurd title or not, “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter” was a competent version of a really very good fantasy novel.

Likewise, “The Hunger Games” was a good approximation of a really good book. I’m looking forward to the sequels.

And I guess we’re back in the realm of superheroes for “Skyfall,” but the latest James Bond action picture was one of the best in the series. It felt like a reboot, in some ways, and has me looking forward to the next adventure of 007.

 

 

 

‘Birds of Prey’ a model for an ‘Avengers’ TV show?

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While the geek universe is speculating about just what a TV series set in the “Avengers” movie universe might look like, I realized that we’ve already seen an example in the “Birds of Prey” series.

Airing on the WB network in 2002, the series was a small-screen take on DC’s “Birds of Prey” comic book series. The show featured Barbara Gordon in her Oracle incarnation (in other words, after the Joker’s brutal attack on Batgirl in “The Killing Joke” that left her paralyzed) leading a small group of crimefighters including Huntress (daughter of Batman and Catwoman in this scenario) and Dinah, the daughter of the original Black Canary.

“Birds of Prey,” which lasted only a handful of episodes, was a fairly standard police procedural dressed up with rooftop chase scenes and “Buffy” style fighting. Ten years on, some elements of the series look cheesy (the dialogue is particularly rough). But the series was overseen by Laeta Kalogridis, who went on to write and produce “Avatar” and “Shutter Island” and had a properly comic-booky feel.

Although only a few episodes aired, all 13 are available on disc.

How can the producers of an “Avengers” TV spin-off learn from “Birds of Prey?”

The “stars” of the story were off-screen. Nobody expects Iron Man or Thor to show up on a weekly TV series. Not while there are big-ticket movies to be made. “Birds of Prey” dealt with the absence of Batman and Catwoman by deciding the former had stopped patrolling the alleys of Gotham (sound familiar, “Dark Knight Rises” fans?) after the death of his beloved (in this case, Catwoman). Bruce Wayne was never more than a silent presence on the other end of a telephone line during conversations with Alfred.

The show was made on a TV budget, not a movie budget. It helped, probably, that no one flew in “Birds of Prey,” although Huntress did a lot of diving off rooftops. Dark Gotham City streets, a couple of oddball metahuman characters and some futuristic weaponry helped achieve a comic-book feel on a budget.

The show didn’t make major changes in its universe. A TV series set in the “Avengers” movie universe isn’t going to make major changes to storylines or characters, that’s for sure. We won’t see Loki killed off or Iron Man retire. “Birds of Prey” had the same restrictions, of course, beyond the initial killing of Catwoman. With Batman out of town, the most dramatic event the series could give viewers was a climactic battle, in the final episode, between Huntress and Harley Quinn, the Joker’s looney moll. But it made for a nice little payoff for the series. What about how they killed off the original Black Canary in the “Birds of Prey?” Well, did you see a body?

The show didn’t betray familiar characters. It’s safe to say that SHIELD isn’t suddenly going to become a terrorist organization, nor will we hear that Black Widow or Hawkeye have gone back to their previous careers. “Birds of Prey” had to dance around major changes to the core Gotham City characters. One episode featured the return of a Batman protege and apparently the character was originally going to have been Robin/Nightwing. But because the guy goes astray, so a change of secret identities was called for.

Although it didn’t make much of an impression on TV audiences or the DC comics universe in general, “Birds of Prey” did show it was possible to mount a weekly TV series in a thickly populated comics universe without interfering with a big-screen movie franchise.

 

‘Dark Knight Rises’ spoilers? We’ll know soon

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I haven’t yet seen “The Dark Knight Rises” and I won’t even see it when it opens Friday because of a prior commitment. So almost everyone reading this will know before I do if there’s any truth to the spoilers circulating in the last couple of days.

In other words, keep in mind I have no idea if these spoilers are true. But based on what I’m reading, at least some of them are pretty accurate.

Oh yeah – SPOILERS!

The movie’s ending indicates more adventures of the Dark Knight are going to happen. We already know Warner Bros. wants to reboot the character after Christopher Nolan finishes his trilogy. The studio would love to build to a billion-dollar Justice League movie.

So after months of speculation that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would inherit the Batmantle in this movie … early indications sure make it sound like that happens, at least in some respects. Some reviews have outright said the ending sets up an “offshoot” movie, which certainly makes it sound like a continuation that isn’t another movie about Bruce Wayne.

A villain returns … but not the one you might think. Although the Joker survived “The Dark Knight,” Heath Ledger’s untimely death made it impossible for him to make even a small appearance in the movie. Rumors persisted that Nolan would include Ledger nonetheless, perhaps through unused footage or CGI.

Nolan is saying this week that Ledger is not in the new movie in any form. But early indications are that Cillian Murphy returns as the Scarecrow for at least one scene.

Batman bites the dust? Considering that in the comics Bane breaks Batman’s back and puts him out of commission for a while, everybody expected something dire to happen in this movie.

But I’m thinking David Letterman was kidding when, in a recent interview with Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle in the movie), he says that Batman gets killed. Anyone who watches Letterman – who, during his days as a weatherman in Indianapolis forecast “hail the size of canned hams” – knows that’s typical of his humor.

I do believe that “The Dark Knight Rises” brings Bruce Wayne’s story to an end. I just don’t think the movie kills him off.

We’ll see this Friday. Well, at least some of us will.

 

 

You shoulda been a superhero: Some inspired ‘Batman’ casting choices

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It’s a guessing game – a match game of sorts – that comic book fans have been playing for decades. Who should play their favorite superheroes and villains in a movie?

With Marvel Comics movies, the casting game is going on, officially and unofficially, in Hollywood and in Everytown, all the time these days. With a couple of Marvel movies in the works, including “Iron Man 3” and “The Wolverine,” and a couple more in the offing – “Guardians of the Galaxy,” maybe? – somebody’s being cast as a Marvel character every few days.

With “The Dark Knight Rises” coming out soon and Warners and DC Comics planning a reboot for the Batman character, I got to thinking about ideal or almost-happened casting for Batman movies in the past. Only one of these falls into that “almost happened” category, though. The rest are just random thoughts that popped into my head over the past couple of decades.

Michael J. Fox as Robin. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. Remember the controversy when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman” in Tim Burton’s 1989 movie? Keaton was primarily a comic actor with a receding hairline and not enough chin. But he did a great job.

I know from reading an early draft of the script – more about that another day – that Robin was originally meant to be a character in the movie. So, given the late-1980s period, why not cast 80s star Michael J. Fox as Dick Grayson/Robin? Fox had the right stature, both physically and Hollywood-wise, for the part. He’s quite capable of pulling off a dramatic scene and he might have brought a Burt Ward-style energy to the movie.

Marlon Wayans as Robin. Early in the history of the Tim Burton “Batman” movies, there was talk of a street-wise, “urban” actor being cast as Dick Grayson. There’s a Dick Grayson character in that early script and Wayans, who was 17 when Burton’s movie was released, was set to play the part. Wayans even said in 2009 that he got paid for the role but Burton didn’t include the character. As we all know, Dick Grayson didn’t show up until the third “Batman” movie and by that point was played by future “NCIS” TV star Chris O’Donnell. I wish we’d gotten the chance to see Wayans in the role.

Ray Liotta as the Joker. Liotta is familiar to most of us from “Goodfellas” and other films, but take a look at him above from the 1986 Jonathan Demme movie “Something Wild.” Jeff Daniels plays a mild-mannered guy who falls in with a wild woman played by Melanie Griffith. It’s all fun and games until the woman’s homicidal ex-boyfriend shows up, played by guess who? I remember sitting in the theater in 1986 seeing Liotta’s crazy and scary expressions and thinking, “Damn, this guy would make a good Joker.” He sure would have been more physically intimidating than Jack Nicholson.

Willem DaFoe as the Joker. I liked DaFoe as Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” movie. I wasn’t crazy about the Goblin outfit, but that’s another story. Anyway. Osborn wasn’t DaFoe’s first opportunity to play a bad guy. Here’s how he looked in Walter Hill’s 1984 action musical “Streets of Fire” as the murderous leader of a biker gang. Look at that face and tell me he wouldn’t be ideal as the Joker.

Armie Hammer as Batman. Or Superman. Everyone knows that DC and Warner Bros. are struggling to get their superhero film franchises off the ground – other than the very standoffish “Dark Knight” movies. They’re planning to reboot the Batman character almost immediately and want to jump-start a “Justice League” movie. (Of course, they’re only about $1.5 billion behind the box office take for “The Avengers.”)

But as fans know, Warners almost got a “Justice League” movie off the ground in 2008. A script was completed, casting had begun and apparently some costume tests were done. I’d like to pause right now to wonder how it’s possible that none of those costume photos have ever been leaked to the web. Anyway. Armie Hammer, later known for “The Social Network,” was cast at Batman before the movie got derailed. Hammer, who’s like seven feet tall, would have worked very well as a young Bruce Wayne. Or a young Clark Kent, for that matter. With Henry Cavill coming next year in “Man of Steel,” it’ll be interesting to see if he figures into future “Justice League” movie plans, if Hollywood will circle back to Hammer or find some virtual unknown for the role. That tactic worked very well with Christopher Reeve.