'The marquis. Well, you know, to be honest, he seems a little bit dodgy to me.'
'Mm,' she agreed. 'He's a little bit dodgy in the same way that rats are a little bit covered in fur."
I always like to think of the comic book Batman (or THE Batman) as natures natural answer to the supernatural. Human kinds (subtle) evolutionary answer to the meta-human, mutant, alien etc. It's the answer to the question 'What would happen to mankind during the dawn of the meta-human/mutant?' I think Bruce Wayne (although still only human by biological/genetic standards) is an anomaly. By comic book standards, he's the most realistic, unachievable fantasy. Because no one will ever be as brilliant, skilled, prepared, driven or rich as Batman. Period. Nolan's Batman is the hyper realistic fantasy of a man taking the most extreme of extreme measures to bring justice to his world... in a world with no super heroes or the supernatural, he has nothing to truly push him to the point where he has to be anything but more brilliant than the most brilliant normal guy on earth (and I don't even know if Nolan's Batman is that brilliant). In a world with no Kryptonian, Thanagarian, Fourth World, Themysciran, technology Bruce Wayne of Nolan's world is stuck with what ever he can come up with (not saying comic Bats never came up with anything on his own). In a League battle that ain't gonna cut it. Bonus points for the comic book Batman having Lazurus Pits and rejuvenation machines to supplement the lack of Super Soldier Serum lying around. A friend of mine once asked me who I think would win in a fight between Batman and Jason Bourne... I told him it would be tough to judge. I leaned more towards Bourne... BUT I also told him that the comic book Batman would mop the floor with Bourne. The comic book Batman was born by design (no pun intended) to overcome humans and stand next to 'gods'. If WB/DC would just realize that this is the Batman we've been waiting for on screen... the anomaly... then Batman in the Justice League is feasible.
Last edited by Mr_Wayne; 05-14-2012 at 09:04 PM.
“I've always wanted to diversify the DCU, but usually when I do it, James Robinson comes along and kills them all.“ -Grant Morrison
Yo dude, did you see Batman Begins? He does that. He uses his grapple gun to get onto a speeding monorail train while being attacked by a horde of mentally deranged pychopaths.
Also, I'll say it again: in a real interdimensional alien invasion, Hawkeye and Black Widow would have died very quickly. That whole sequence is incredibly contrived to show as many "awesome" hero moments as possible.
LOL. I can't believe I'm reading posts where Black Widow would have the upper hand over freakin' Batman. And what you just described is also the first thing I thought of. Thanks to Nolan for using that.
"Ant...boot." The Chitauri have the worst aim of any starfaring race, by far! Good thing the Hulk stood still for them in that one frame.
Well, if you're gonna attempt a large scale invasion of the PLANET and your only way to do it is through a tiny portal, maybe you'd assign some dudes to make sure it says open? It's like the aliens had absolutely zero tactical ideas at all. First you take out the humans. Hawkeye remains stationary for a large part of the battle. See how when he rappels down the building and jumps through the window, he lands on the floor and is all ARGH IN PAIN. Seriously? Glass is more threatening to him than the aliens he's shooting down. And yo, Black Widow has a pistol. That's it.
In my opinion you've been pretty much spot on with everything you've said here. Nolan's films are the most serious of any comic book film to date, which is made possible because Batman as a character is a guy running around in a suit and not someone with super powers like Spider-Man or Thor. It's possible to make a film that has a Michael Mann tone to it because he's a dark and serious character to begin with, plus Nolan tried to ground his trilogy with as much realness as possible (for a superhero movie). Comparing Batman to Iron Man or Hulk is apples and oranges, they're completely different characters that require different approaches for "believability".
I've personally always preferred realistic, grounded approaches for films/comics (which severely limits the comics I read as well as anything with lots of fantastical elements) but to a certain extent. For example Greg Rucka's take on Wonder Woman in "Down to Earth" as an ambassador who had a day to day job doing interviews etc. seemed plausible for her character. Humans and aliens interacting in Mass Effect through the discovery of mass relays and their association with each other through a storied history of wars and disagreements seemed realistic for its universe etc.
To answer OP's question, the Batman universe Nolan has created with his take on the character wouldn't be able to fit in with the JL. Even with the more bizarre villains or scenarios there's still an approach taken of "this could happen" that wouldn't suit characters like Aquaman or the Flash.
Also, I've seen a lot of recent bashing of Nolan's Bat films that seems to be ramping up near the release of the newest one. One guy on the A.V. Club got torn to shreds for saying Heath Ledger was a horrible Joker. Others were laughed at for suggesting Brock Lesnar would be a better Bane. The more universally popular/critically acclaimed something is the more detractors seem to pop up. The arguments in this thread alone were tiring to sift through, they're movies people!
Last edited by Dawson4; 05-15-2012 at 12:19 AM.
Real easy question to answer. Batman is a character that has been serialized throughout countless media since 1939, the Lord of the Rings books are three literary novels that tell one story. Not rocket science here.Why can Harry Potter or the LotR movies combine everything together but Batman cant?
Kevlar and nomex are anything but subtle. Kevlar is to date, the only form of body armor that can protect a man from being fatally stabbed and shot. It has it's limits, but for the most part it does it's job. Yes, I know about chain mail mesh, but even that has limits as well. Kevlar vests cannot be easily concealed. That's why when you see police and FBI footage, they're wearing the armor on the outside. A kevlar cape is also unrealistic because of the design of the material would make it impossible to function like it does in the comics. Even in the comics they have to create pseudo science to justify how it works for the costumes. And nomex has to be thick enough to avoid actual burns. The nomex suit Bruce wore while dealing with Firefly was fifteen layers thick. In "Batman Begins", it was important to make clear that Bruce had this in order to have him be caught on fire twenty minutes later and not be rushed to the emergency room, with third degree burns.
And if you watched both Nolan films, you see how Bruce conducts himself while going into action. He was moving around a lot that first time he went against Falcone's men. Sticking to the shadows and hiding up top. Knocking out lights with the batarangs. And finally he dove in and was fighting quickly and decisively. When you get down to it, the Keysi fighting style works well in armor since Bale and his stunt double are able to bend down, during the fights.
The comics may say it's armor, but they draw it like cloth. And the kind that often tears easily.
I'd like to point out that this "realistic" suit serves an aesthetic purpose more than a realism one. Batman drives a tank and dresses like a riot cop, it's all military chic.
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