'Batman Begins' Again (and Again, and Again…)


Slightly longer "Director's Cut" of a story in today's Oregonian BooksWeek:




One of the fascinating things about comic-book superheroes is that generations of editors and writers have tailored them to the decades -- to changing tastes, to the political climate, even to personal whims.

Take, for example, "Batman Begins."

It's billed as a "reboot" of the Caped Crusader's film franchise -- a franchise that lay dormant for eight years after "Batman & Robin" stank up cineplexes with a nipple-suited lurch into low camp.

As he told the story of how Bruce Wayne becomes the Dark Knight, "Begins" co-writer/director Christopher Nolan enjoyed that rarest of filmmaker luxuries: He got to start over. Cherry-picking from the entire 66-year history of "Batman" comics, Nolan and co-scenarist David Goyer selectively tweaked the "continuity" of the books and films -- grounding the World's Greatest Detective in a more realistic Gotham City than the previous films.

Of course, there's nothing new about monkeying with Batman's vibe.

The basic origin story of "The Bat-Man" -- as he was dubbed when writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane introduced him in the May 1939 issue of Detective Comics -- is essentially unchanged over nearly seven decades. During a holdup, wealthy Thomas Wayne and his wife are gunned down in front of their son Bruce. Vowing to "avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals," Finger writes that Wayne "trains his body to physical perfection until he is able to perform amazing athletic feats," adopting a bat disguise to "strike terror into [criminal] hearts."

Beyond that? You'd be surprised how many bets are off.

Here are a few of the characters and elements from "Batman Begins" -- along with a partial cataloguing of their original (and evolving) histories in print:
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Bruce Wayne/Batman

In "Batman Begins": Wayne is a driven, intelligent vigilante who pretends to be a vapid playboy to throw police off his scent.

In the original comics: Nolan's Batman is, in many ways, a return to the spirit of The Bat-Man's '39 debut. Both versions take on mobsters instead of superpowered foes; both are cool-headed; and both have skillsets more or less within the realm of human possibility.

However, there's one crucial difference: Kane and Finger's original Batman was a stone killer -- dropping his foes off rooftops and into acid baths and even brandishing a pistol on occasion.

(Well, there are two crucial differences: the '30s Wayne also has quite possibly the most clueless fiancé in comic-book history.)

Frederic Wertham's 1950s crusade to censor comics shaved off most of these rougher edges -- leading in part to the campy Adam West "Batman" of '60s TV fame.

And then, in 1987, Frank Miller brought Batman back down to earth as part of a larger effort by DC Comics to consolidate and re-launch its superhero franchises.

Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli's "Batman: Year One" is one of the finest mainstream cape-and-cowl comics ever written -- an attempt to place Batman in a gritty, '70s cop-film milieu as Bruce Wayne first ventures out to fight crime.

"Year One" is also the most blatant influence on Nolan's movie -- right down to the film's images of bats flying against a blood-red sky, plus one directly-lifted scene where Wayne uses a swarm of bats to distract a SWAT team.

Relevant reading: "The Batman Chronicles: Volume 1"; "The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told"; and especially "Batman: Year One."
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Ra's al Ghul

In "Batman Begins": He's the leader of the "League of Shadows" -- a group of ninjas who've secretly influenced history for centuries. He also mentors Wayne in the arts of fighting, deception and survivor-guilt management.

In the original comics: On the page, Ra's is even more outlandish -- a centuries-old eco-terrorist obsessed with thinning out the human race. (He's blessed with eternal life thanks to regular dips in something called a "Lazarus Pool.")

In the graphic novel "Son of the Demon," Batman marries al Ghul's daughter (and, it should be noted, never takes his mask off, which looks incredibly silly when he's shirtless).

UPDATE: Reader T Campbell offers the following corrective: "Almost perfect -- but one detail's off: it's Batman's first encounter with Ra's that ends with the mask and no shirt. 'Son of the Demon' contains a memorable disrobing that begins with the mask." Russell to Campbell: See, now, I vividly recall a panel in "Son of the Demon" where Batman is shirtless on a bed with Ra's's daughter -- the caption saying something about him "learning to be a husband." Is this a total false memory or just a too-glib joke?

Relevant reading: "Batman: Son of the Demon" and "The Saga of Ra's Al Ghul"
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The Scarecrow

In "Batman Begins": He's Dr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt, quietly insane psychologist who wears a burlap mask while testing psychedelic "fear gas" on his Arkham Asylum patients.

In the original comics: Crane, who first appeared in World's Finest Comics #3 in 1941, is a considerably gawkier character on the page -- nicknamed "Scarecrow" for his gangly frame, he's driven to terrify and kill after years of childhood bullying.

Relevant reading: "Batman: Scarecrow Tales," collecting eight stories starring Crane.
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James Gordon

In "Batman Begins": He's a geeky cop who attends to young Bruce after his parents are killed; later, he's the only uncorrupted Gotham lieutenant Batman can trust.

In the original comics: Before "Batman: Year One," Gordon was a peevish bureaucrat who officially deputized Batman. Miller re-invented him as a flawed, adulterous but striving-to-be-honorable detective in a graft-riddled cop shop. (He's also the adoptive father to Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl.)

Relevant reading: "Batman: Year One"
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Joe Chill

In "Batman Begins": He's the mugger who kills Bruce's parents. Later, he scores an early release for informing on mobster Carmine Falcone.

In the original comics: Chill -- first identified by name in Batman #47 in 1948 -- has been killed in print a few times. He was murdered by his own men in '48. He fell to his death in Batman Adventures #17. And he even teamed up with Batman to fight a scythe-wielding killer named "The Reaper" in "Batman: Year Two."

Relevant reading: Batman #47 (1948); "Batman: Year Two -- Fear the Reaper"; Batman Adventures #17
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The Batmobile

In "Batman Begins": It's a rocket-powered military prototype borrowed from the Wayne Enterprises lab.

In the original comics: The Batmobile's look has changed as many times as the ear lengths on Batman's cowl. In fact, the Caped Crusader drove a plain, bright-red sedan in the original '39 comics.

The new movie's Batmobile is clearly inspired by the crowd-control tank Batman drives in Frank Miller's landmark tale of the hero's final years, "The Dark Knight Returns."

Relevant reading: "The Dark Knight Returns"

Batman's twisted past (The Oregonian BooksWeek, June 19, 2005)


Posted: Sun - June 19, 2005 at 12:50 PM        

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