News Variety Reports Robert Pattinson is the new Batman

The Laughing Fish was partially based Steve Englehart's Joker two parter from his Detective run. Especially the fish part,

 

Batman has been shaped and consistently presented as the darkest superhero in the DC roster (meaning Spectre and Phantom Stranger are not technically seen as superheroes despite their published involvement in DC titles) for more than 50 years, dating back to the Robbins/Novick era of the comics. Aside from the abysmal adaptations during the Schumacher movie era, the live-action films have taken their inspiration and tone from the various comics, and it is indeed what people expect out of Batman, most certainly not the 1966 Dozier TV series, any version of The Super Friends, Filmation's Bat-cartoons or Batman: Brave and the Bold. There is no way a live action production is going to draw much of anything from those aforementioned productions, Its not what the average person is thinking of when someone says "Batman."

 

I don't have an issue with Batman being dark ,- my comment was that we've reached a point of diminishing returns on the dark & grittiness. Each iteration has to be "Darker and grittier than the one before" and, to me, I've been passed by. I loved Burton's movies. I loved/liked Nolans. I didn't like Snyder's, for a lot of reasons, including Affleck's Batman. This just looks too far, but all I've seen are two trailers, so

 

Yes, I know, with the shark-themed ending of "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" grafted on. Both from the '70s, as I said.

 

Different writers, close to a half a decade apart with different feels to their approach.

 

Of course I'm aware of that too, but it's irrelevant to the point, which is about B:TAS's stylistic influences. B:TAS drew on comics stories ranging from the 1970s to the very early '90s, so there's a lot of different stuff in the mix, but it's weighted more heavily toward the tone of the Bronze Age stuff than the post-Crisis stuff.

 

Same here. DC can't figure out what to do with Batman? Just hire a good cast and do a shot by shot remake of MotP

 

Can't think of something new? Do something old!

Reminds me of Ratatouille.

 

Too dark.

 

I have admit, Bruce's whole schtick can be a little irritating after a bit. Like in "Mask of the Phantasm" where he says "I never planned on being happy!"

Really, there are other superheroes out there who have been through just as much stuff as Bruce and they didn't let their traumas turn them into "I must always brood and be dark, I can never be happy and satisfied!" obsessives.

Heck, even in TAS we see plenty of moments where he's genuinely amused, happy and altogether more human.

 

Wayne's trauma will naturally have an impact unique to himself, which justifies his costumed side. He does not need to be like other superheroes at all.

 

It also gets awfully close to self-pity a lot of the time too. Look at Spider-Man, their traumas are just as bad as Batman's and that didn't turn them into grim bitter antisocial loners.

 

"Self pity" is probably Batman's most normal response to trauma.

 

One would hope so.

 

Batman doesn't feel self-pity. He turns his grief outward into protecting others. He may be driven by grief, but in a remarkably selfless way.

 

Batman should be serious and dark, but not grim. Ironically, he is one of the characters best suited to a television series. He doesn't need his over the top rogues to make a great story. He doesn't need over the top special effects. A television series with a similar tone to the Netflix Daredevil series that focuses on the Detective aspects of the character would work very well. I am finding myself less and less interested in this new film--but that may change when I see the reviews after it's released.

 

Batman is a product of violent trauma--murder. Few who witnessed murder up close (especially as a child) will see the world through grim lenses, as its the effect of a brutal culture/energy which encourages / conditions one to be grim, not only as an acknowledgement of reality, but as a natural coping mechanism (for that category of people who try to cope). That's who Batman/Wayne is (certainly in the best Batman stories ever published and adapted productions), not some guy who is always sitting on what would be a psychological fence of grim and hopefully optimistic behavior. There are other superheroes who are less traumatized (and/or not the product of murder, so they can find their way into lighter behavior, but that's not Batman--certainly not the character at his best.

 

Dark and grim can be good if they use it to make some kind of meaningful statement. But doing it for its own sake doesn't add much except making it exhausting to watch.