So, like the Harley Quinn series?
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So, like the Harley Quinn series?
Yeah, I wouldn’t know, I’ve never watched it.
I had planned to, but I just never got around to it… Well, that’s not true, I’ve never really planned all that much on watching it. 
One thing I hope they continue with in the next movie are comic tie-ins.
THE RIDDLER: YEAR ONE looks like it’s going to be nice as hell…
As depicted in Matt Reeves’s hit movie The Batman, the Riddler wasn’t simply an amusing eccentric with an affinity for wordplay and baffling clues, but as terrifying a villain as any in the annals of the Dark Knight. Here you can see Edward Nashton evolve into the menace known as the Riddler. How did an unknown forensic accountant uncover the dark secrets of Gotham’s underworld and come so close to bringing down the entire city? This six-issue miniseries is an immediate prequel to The Batman—the detailed, disturbing, and at times shocking story of a man with nothing to lose.
Artist Stevan Subic makes his American comics debut, including a variant cover that is the first of six interlocking covers. This collaboration with Dano delivers a shadowy and gritty tale of a society’s forgotten man who refuses to go unnoticed any longer. Subic’s recent Conan the Cimmerian for French publisher Glénat has brought him great acclaim in Europe, and he’s about to break out globally with a Batman series unlike any you’ve seen before.
That’s going to be one of the few comics that I buy as it’s released and not wait for it to come here to DC Universe Infinite.
I like movie comic tie-ins when they put this much care into it – that’s how you’re supposed to do it.
Whatever bad guy Matt Reeves goes with in the next movie, do a comic tie-in.
Or that Gotham PD show… if they never do it in live-action, maybe do it as a comic.
It’ll be a Bat-book. You can never have too many of those.
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Try the HQ series
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I loved this guy’s video, for the movie is rather tragic when you think about it. It strays from the kinda cliche’ “oh woe is me, my parents were shot.” No doubt, that alone is tragic but never feels like it, it is either too overstated or understated
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Try the HQ series
It’s really not my kind of thing.
For something in that space, give me The Boondocks…
That’s my kind of thing.
Of course, a The Boondocks reboot was going to happen, but now no longer…
Easy come, easy go.
Anyway, speaking of The Batman…
The huge success and overwhelming popularity of Matt Reeves’ The Batman prove exactly why the DCEU is now doomed to fail, because it does something a shared DC universe simply can’t do. Batman’s cinematic history is far longer and more impressive than most superheroes’, and Matt Reeves’ The Batman is simply the latest in a long line of adaptations of the Caped Crusader’s story. Building upon the success of its predecessors and avoiding the worst issues that arise within Batman movies, The Batman’s positive reviews indicate that Reeves has delivered one of the best-received iterations of the character of all time.
The Batman’s world makes use of gritty and gothic realism, with its version of Gotham a decidedly dark and unforgiving city. With crime and corruption lurking in every shadow, Robert Pattinson’s Batman takes to the streets to strike fear into the city’s criminals, waging a personal war of vengeance upon the city that claimed his parents’ lives. Though it’s yet another spin on Batman’s familiar story, The Batman tells its story in a gritty noir style that resonated with audiences and critics around the world.
The popularity of The Batman is undoubtedly a relief for Warner Bros., but it also proves exactly why the DCEU is doomed. By achieving such success through The Batman’s relatively realism, the movie perpetuates an idea about modern superhero movies and how they should be approached. The Batman’s grounded tone was by far one of its best traits, but that sense of realism isn’t something that most superhero movies can accomplish. As The Batman follows a DC character, it draws inevitable comparisons with the DCEU, which simply can’t replicate its realism - or its success.
The Batman’s realistic take on Gotham City and its heroes and villains was its greatest asset. Gently reworking elements of its characters to make them feel more authentic and believable is something that helped audiences to associate with The Batman’s characters, and therefore lent its story much greater weight. Within The Batman’s grounded tone and persistently gritty realism lies the key to its success, because its protagonist feels far more organic than the average superhero.
The nature of The Batman’s titular vigilante means that gritty realism only works for Batman. Batman doesn’t have magical powers or alien DNA, he wasn’t exposed to radiation or experimental technology - he’s simply a man who uses his considerable assets to do as much good as possible. In that story is the recipe for a perfectly grounded superhero story, and that’s why the Caped Crusader is such an iconic hero: he’s as close to believable as any superhero can ever really come. By thoroughly embracing that idea in The Batman, Matt Reeves found the formula for Batman movie success: tapping into what separates him from other iconic DC heroes.
The popularity of The Batman is so tied up in the film’s grounded tone that it’s not something the DCEU will ever be able to replicate. The majority of other DC heroes have powers that stem from fantastical sources: Superman is an alien, Wonder Woman is an Amazonian-Old God hybrid, Aquaman is Atlantean, and Shazam (and Black Adam)'s powers were granted by a reclusive mystical wizard. Within the pantheon of DC heroes, Batman is one of a select number of heroes whose stories can be rooted in reality, and therefore, the DCEU can’t make use of Reeves’ formula for success.
Yep, you don’t really want to “ground” those other kind of characters.
If the DCEU attempted realism, it would need to drastically reinvent its heroes. The very nature of the superhero genre makes realism incredibly difficult to convey, because it juxtaposes the very fabric of its characters’ stories. Put simply, the DCEU can’t emulate The Batman at all, because the gritty and realistic nature of Reeves’ film is thoroughly incompatible with the wider world of superheroes.
One of the most consistent criticisms of the DCEU is its gritty tone, and that just further proves the way The Batman movie highlights the franchise’s problems. Though recent entries in the DCEU have moved away from needless grittiness, it still remains a part of the franchise’s most iconic heroes. The pervasive attempts at making its heroes as gritty as possible were almost the DCEU’s undoing, because it comes across as a fundamental misunderstanding of the characters in question.
The Batman, however, balances its grittiness perfectly with realism to create a noir thriller that just happens to include a superhero. By incorporating a more grounded story into its gritty nature, The Batman does what the DCEU can’t: it makes its grittiness feel like an integral part of its world, rather than something added simply to justify the overuse of washed-out gray tones. The Batman’s Gotham City was crafted to feel as tangible as possible, and that only works because of the unique compatibility between Batman and realism in the superhero genre.
Yep, what works with Batman in The Batman probably really wouldn’t work anywhere else.
The most obvious solution to resolving the tonal issues of the DCEU would be to simply have Robert Pattinson’s Batman join the franchise - except this would actually be a terrible idea. Pattinson’s Batman in the DCEU would be disastrous, because not only would it undermine everything good about the character, but it would also hurt the franchise. Pattinson’s Batman works because he exists in a grounded and gothic world, so taking him out and surrounding him with aliens and gods would only make him seem incredibly ineffective by comparison. In turn, this would hurt the DCEU, because it would suddenly contain a Batman who is ineffective against the majority of the franchise’s villains.
Yes, yes, and yes.
Because it seems like you have to bring everything down to Batman’s level. And in doing so you kind of compromise everyone.
Batman and everyone else.
The Batman’s resounding success is undoubtedly something to celebrate, but it’s bittersweet for the DCEU. Sadly, the overwhelming popularity of Matt Reeves’ film means that The Batman highlights the DCEU’s problem with realism and grittiness, all because it makes it clear that no shared DC universe can replicate its success.The Batman is a truly excellent take on the Caped Crusader’s story, but it ultimately found its success by doing something that the DCEU can never do.
Yep, lock down Matt Reeves and let him do his own Batman world.
Have that be the 10-year plan.
“We’ll do a couple of more The Batman movies and spin-off shows. And maybe bring in a ‘Dick Grayson’ at some point to continue it a bit longer.”
The Batman puts a surprisingly heavy emphasis on the mayor’s son, as Bruce saves him from being hit by a car and the kid is the first one to accept Batman’s help during the third act flooding. Due to Bruce Wayne’s care for the mayor’s son, could he be involved in a future Robin twist? The Batman doesn’t name Don Mitchell’s son and such a twist could be Matt Reeves’ way of giving audiences a fresh take on Robin. The mayor’s son could be named Dick, Jason, Tim, or Damien as a reference to the comics, even if the rest of his story and path to becoming Batman’s sidekick are changed for The Batman 2 's story.
Yep, Mayor Don Mitchell’s son could be named Dick Mitchell – Richard Mitchell.
Or Damien Mitchell, even better.
I personally hope that happens – whatever the name is…
I would just like to see Matt Reeves’ take on The Boy Wonder.
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Disappointed on some of these articles, only reason to me that Pattinson’s version would be ineffective is because he was only in his 2nd year as Batman
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Disappointed on some of these articles, only reason to me that Pattinson’s version would be ineffective is because he was only in his 2nd year as Batman
Well, I guess the argument is that you would be putting a rich guy who dresses up like a bat, and goes out in the middle of the night and beats up people…
You would be taking that guy and putting him with an alien from another planet who can fly and has super-strength, and a woman who is a goddess, and who also has super-strength, and can fly too, I guess.
And I guess the argument is saying, “Yeah, that doesn’t really work.”
I guess never mind the fact that the rich guy dressing up like a bat and going out in the middle of the night beating up people doesn’t really work either, yet here we are…
Really, it all falls apart when you look at it, we just go with it though.
Speaking of which, the Robert Pattinson Batman would totally beat up all of the other Batmans.
All of them would beat up the Michael Keaton Batman, that’s a given.
And both the Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson Batman would make short work of the Christian Bale Batman.
The only contest would be between the Ben Affleck and Robert Pattinson Batmans.
And the totally biased fanboy in me says the Robert Pattinson Batman would beat the hell out of the Ben Affleck Batman.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
The Robert Pattinson Batman would “Enter the Dragon” on the Ben Affleck Batman…
…and say, “I’m the godd*mn Batman.”
"You’ve seen my work… "
“I’m vengeance” or whatever.
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Then what’s the point of Batman in the JL comics
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Then what’s the point of Batman in the JL comics
Well, that’s the question I always ask… 
I would assume they put him in there to help increase the sales.
Put Batman in there and it’ll sell better. And having a Justice League comic without him in it probably wouldn’t sell as well.
No, of course, lots of people love seeing Batman in the Justice League. And lots of people love when he and Superman team-up, those comics always sell well.
I’m not one of those people though. I never got the appeal of it. And outside of that Alex Ross JUSTICE series, I’ve never read Justice League comics – I’ve read maybe a handful of issues in my entire life outside of that series. And I’ve never read any of those Superman and Batman team-up books.
But it’s no big deal, people like what they like.
Me: I don’t want to see Superman teamed up with anybody, with maybe the exception of Wonder Woman.
And I don’t want to see Batman teamed up with anyone, with maybe the exception of some members of the Bat family.
And that was the major thing that I didn’t like about BvS: once the fighting started (which I thought was cheesy as hell anyway), but once the fighting started, Superman and Wonder Woman served a purpose, but Ben Affleck’s Batman just seemed like he was just kind of there. He was totally out of his weight class. That was a job for Superman and Wonder Woman, not for him.
But lots of people like him palling around with those guys.
The only thing I can do is like what I like, and ignore the rest.
Speaking of liking what I like…
When asked about returning for The Batman 2, Farrell’s response was overwhelmingly positive, although nothing appears to be confirmed just yet. The rich setup The Batman provides for his character could see him become one of the main villains of the sequel. It could also help tie The Batman 2 into the Penguin show, providing a neat connection between the two properties.
That makes sense.
At the conclusion of The Batman, Carmine Falcone is assassinated by the Riddler, leaving a corrupt city that is completely tied up with its criminal underground. It is certain that there will be a period of mania and confusion as the dust settles and ambitious criminals attempt to fill the now empty position of the ultimate crime boss of Gotham. One such character who will definitely be fighting to gain this control is the Penguin. Penguin is a unique criminal in Batman’s rogues gallery because he is completely sane, and that comes across in The Batman. While criminals like Riddler, Joker, and Two-Face have mental health conditions that impact their behavior, Penguin is simply cruel and willing to do anything to get what he wants, making him uniquely dangerous.
The Batman 2 could easily explore Penguin’s ascension as a mob boss, and with his quick wit and clever mind, he will be sure to put Batman through his paces. As the owner of the Iceberg Lounge, Penguin successfully operates an organized hotbed for crime where high-ranking officials can gather discreetly and carry out their nefarious dealings in private. The primary obstacle he will face is competition. The end credits scene for The Batman introduced the Joker (Barry Keoghan) and heavily implied that he will be appearing in the sequel, but the Joker has never been an advocate of organized anything. Having the Joker go head-to-head with Penguin as they fight one another for how crime should exist in Gotham could create an interesting new problem for Batman to work against.
Yep, they could do something like that.
Of course, Matt Reeves with his first look deal will presumably have an entire Bat-universe to play in…
While The Batman was conceived as a self-contained story and takes place outside Warner Bros.'s DCEU continuity, Reeves has already started dreaming of ways to expand this new world beyond the big screen. As previously announced, the Cloverfield director is executive producing two spin-offs in development at HBO Max: a drama about the Gotham City Police Department, which was announced in July 2020; and a series about the Penguin’s rise to power.
“What I really wanted this movie to do is create a Batverse,” Reeves tells EW in our latest digital cover story. “You don’t do a story and go, ‘This is Chapter 1’ because you might not get to do Chapter 2. So, the story had to stand on its own. But the thing about it is that the Bat world is so rich with character that as you’re starting to come to an end, you can already start thinking about the next thing. Because the idea, of course, is that Gotham’s story never ends.”
According to Reeves, the Penguin show came out of discussions with HBO Max, which not only wanted shows about off-shoot characters but main ones, too, from the movie.
“I was thrilled by that,” says Reeves, who co-created Felicity with J. J. Abrams and created the recent NBC drama Ordinary Joe. “I said [to HBO Max], ‘To be honest with you, the thing that was going to be the seeds of what I thought the next story could be in terms of the Penguin is that I saw there being this kind of ‘American dream in Gotham’ sort of story, almost like Scarface; the rise of this character who we all know will achieve mythic status.’ He is underestimated and he’s like a time bomb… They were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re in!’ And that was really exciting because, by that point, Colin had already given life to this character.”
While Reeves can’t reveal which other characters they’re thinking about doing shows about, he’s looking forward to these projects because they’ll be “more character-focused than you can even do in a feature,” he says.
“I love the idea of doing a story where you’re really telling chapters of a character’s life the way that The Sopranos did, right? There wasn’t any one story that was Tony Sopranos’. It was all one epic novel about his life,” says Reeves. “I think that to me is what’s thrilling about long-form and the idea of being able to have created this version of the world [in The Batman] and then pull pieces off of that to do this kind of expansive storytelling.”
Yep, just have it be a long, sprawling crime drama.
Do the feature films, and do the spin-offs to flesh out the story more.
You could easily do that for like 10-years.
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Honestly, I’d up the fantastical a bit in the Matt Reeves movies
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We need to! I hope we can get fantastical in Batman to a degree. Nolan really solidified the real world for so many audiences, fans, and critics out there. It made sense at the time, for we needed to pull Batman back out from the bizarre. Plus, that’s just the kinda director he is.
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Wish we could have made the brief appearances of Joker closer to the comics
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No more Joker, he’s been way overused.
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Not saying for a sequel, I meant for the brief appearance we had in the first movie
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I wish there was zero appearance. This movie was supposed to be the Riddler’s but no one talks about him after the appearance of this overused villain.
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I agree that Joker is overused but good luck with not having him. The studio is going to want him and what director doesn’t want their own crack at The Joker?
On another topic, I see people all over social media moaning about Batman being a symbol for hope is akin to putting pineapple on pizza.
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Not sure how, though maybe they associate hope more with Superman
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Meanwhile, in Gotham City…
From that Hollywood Reporter article that talks about the goings on at Warner Bros. in regards to DC movies…
Meanwhile, in Gotham City, filmmaker Reeves is quietly making his own expansion plans. Reeves is developing a sequel to his The Batman, which grossed a respectable $770.8 million worldwide when it was released in March. Already, a series spinoff focusing on Colin Farrell’s Penguin is on its way to filming next year. But Reeves is plotting more. The filmmaker is meeting with writers and directors to build out movies — yes movies, not just series — focused on Batman rogue’s gallery, both established and more obscure, with characters ranging from the Scarecrow to Clayface to Professor Pyg. All those projects are in the very early stages of gestation.
I could easily see a Scarecrow movie.
Christopher Nolan already showed us a grounded take on him, so Matt Reeves can easily do another version of that. And I guess the only real out there thing about him in the comics is the costume.
Likewise with Clayface.
I could see a movie about him, provided you do the Basil Karlo Golden Age version from DETECTIVE COMICS #40.
And since I guess The Phantom of the Opera was inspiration for the original Clayface, maybe Matt Reeves can set his version in the theater district in Gotham City or something.
Or the Preston Payne Clayface I suppose could work in Matt Reeves’ Batman world…
Basil Karlo would probably work better though. And not that the Preston Payne Clayface is too far out there and can’t be toned down a little bit, but I dunno…
Matt Reeves made the Riddler fit, so… I guess anything if it’s not too crazy can be made to fit.
Professor Pyg I kind of scratch my head a little bit on, because Grant Morrison…
But yeah, you can of course just have a guy in a pig mask that kills people.
That would easily fit in Matt Reeves’ Batman world too.
And honestly I’m not familiar with the character at all, but I assume he would easily fit without too much change. And even if he has to be changed a little or a lot, it’s not like it matters, movies can do whatever they please.
Anyway, of the three, I lean towards a Basil Karlo Clayface as to who I would want to see most.
Of course, any of these kinds of movies, if they get made, would no doubt be small movies similar to the Joker. They would not be spending $175 million dollars on them. No, more like $75 million.
So I couldn’t imagine there would be much of any pressure on them to make any kind of serious bank. No, just supportive films that add to The Batman features. And something that they may have just put on HBO Max, but if they’re well made (like the Joker) then you can put them in the theater.
And I’d imagine these would be like any other crime movie that you would put in the theater. The only difference being they would be connected to The Batman movies; and I suppose rated PG-13 instead of rated R like how crime movies tend to be.
Yep, that sounds like a plan if that is in fact the plan. Do the “bigger” The Batman movies, and do smaller The Batman movies featuring his rogues gallery. And I guess do a few streaming series as well.
So Batman all the time. And Bat-time is all the time.
EDIT:
Just to add, Matt Reeves’ idea of doing a grounded Mr. Freeze is a curiosity too.
“In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that such a great story, right? I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great. So, I love the fantastical side of Batman, but this iteration, obviously, while being, to me, I think it is very comics faithful, but I don’t think that this one is necessarily, it doesn’t lean as hard into the fantastical, I guess. But I think to me what would be interesting would be to try and unwind the fantastical and see, well, how could that make sense here? And so that’s kind of my view, how I see it.”
Yeah, that’s one of those kind of things where it’s kind of… “Let me see what you’re talking about here. Because I have a picture in my head how I think it would look, but let me see what you’re thinking.”
Overall though, keep everything grounded, I say; keep all of The Batman stuff grounded. Leave the fantastical to other characters and properties.
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Bat-news…
“The Batman” spinoff series about Arkham Asylum at HBO Max has brought on Antonio Campos as its new writer, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.
Sources also say that Campos will direct and serve as showrunner/executive producer on the series, should his version of the show ultimately go forward.
However, Campos is now the third writer brought onto the DC project since it was originally announced in July 2020 with a series commitment. At that time, the show was meant to be about the inner workings of the Gotham PD and set within the same world as Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” with Terence Winter writing and executive producing. But news broke in November of that year that Winter had left the series over creative differences. “Giri/Haji” creator Joe Barton was then brought onboard, but when the project shifted away from the police department to focus instead on the infamous asylum, Warner Bros. parted ways with Barton as well.
Reps for Campos, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. declined to comment.
Reeves is executive producing the Arkham Asylum show under his 6th & Idaho banner along with the company’s Daniel Pipski and Adam Kassan. Dylan Clark will also executive produce with 6th & Idaho’s Rafi Crohn co-executive producing. Warner Bros. Television is the studio. Reeves is currently under an overall deal at WBTV.
The Arkham Asylum show does not have an official logline at this time, but Reeves previously described it as “like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.” It is the second known “The Batman” spinoff series, with Colin Farrell set to reprise the role of The Penguin in his own standalone show.
Campos is no stranger to HBO Max, as he previously worked with the streaming service on the critically-acclaimed true crime limited series “The Staircase.” Campos was the writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner on that project, which starred Colin Firth and Toni Collette as Michael and Kathleen Peterson respectively. It debuted on HBO Max in May 2022.
I’d still rather have the Gotham City Police Department show, but let’s see what this Arkham show has to offer.
Provided it happens. And it seems as though they are trying to make it happen.
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Agreed
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