What could have been

[seriousfic]

When you think about it, the Tim Burton Batman series almost had a great through-line. Starting off with Batman as a fucked-up loner, then taking him through the process of learning and growing up until he becomes a familial patriarch. That's the character development DC Comics has been trying to do for decades now, only to fearfully reset Batman to a lonesome jerk as always.

You can see Bruce becoming more sympathetic over the course of Batman Returns. And in Batman Forever, there was a deleted subplot about him confronting his guilt over his parents' death. But then in Batman & Robin, they just threw the switch all the way around and turned him into an id-less rich boy who seemed to fight evil as a lark. Crying shame. I gotta believe there was a way to split the difference--to make Batman more 'kid-friendly' without selling out, by turning his 'kinder, gentler' Batman into plot progression.

ETA: In fact, there was a line in the Batman Forever script with Two-Face calling Batman out on killing the Joker. Later, Batman argues with Robin against killing Two-Face, saying it will just lead to him going after more and more criminals... like Batman himself. Of course, that doesn't explain why Batman, who's well into his own crusade against crime, doesn't kill people.

Wouldn't a much better explanation be that, after Batman Returns with its sympathetic Penguin and antiheroic Catwoman, Batman has learned to empathize with villains? You'd think this would especially be the case for a villain like Two-Face. In the movie, not killing Two-Face is all about Dick Grayson and his personal morality. Wouldn't this be better?

Dick: Give me one good reason not to kill Two-Face!

Batman: He wasn't always Two-Face. Harvey Dent is still in there. He deserves help, not death.

Of course, for this to work, Batman couldn't just kill Dent himself at the end. Sorry about that, fans of hypocrisy.

Comments

[whipsy.livejournal.com]

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[mcity.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, both of those Batman Forever things were kept in the novel by Peter David, though I don't remember Harvey mentioning the Joker. Also, Robin just presses his legs against the side of the tube, and Bats lands on a girder after throwing a line to catch the unconscious Chase, attaching her to a beam. Then Harvey shows up with a lamp strapped to his head, blinding the Sonic sensors, and is about to kill Batman when Bats reminds him about the coin flip. Bruce throws a Batarang to knock the coin away while it's still in midair, hoping Harvey won't be able to decide.

Two-Face jumps after the coin, falls two metres, and lands on a lower girder with a bone-jarring impact, somehow managing to keep his grip on the coin. Robin points out that the "gutless wonder" never actually chose to look at the coin for himself. He does.

"There was no sound as he descended. None at all."

Basically, the book's ending is better in every possible way than the film.