Batfan Forever : My 17.5 Year Old Journey With The Dark Knight

It all began with that goddamn CBS Batman show, which was being rerun on the Indian ABC channel in the mid-90s.

I was a kid at that time, not at all exposed to the many treasures of pop-culture. I couldn't read or write, and I could barely speak. But I used to watch a shit ton of Television. I don't remember most of the shows I watched from that time, but I goshdarn remember two of them: the first one was Sesame Street and the other was the Adam West starrer Batman.

I used to tune in on the same Bat-time, on the same Bat-channel every day to watch this show. It was Batman, dammit. And since I was a little kid at that time, I didn't snark when I saw Batman taking out shark-repellant from his utility belt or the barrage of POWS! and BAMS! that followed every punch laid or every kick landed.

And then I found out that I didn't have to wait for each episode, I could follow Batman and Robin's exploits in the comicbooks!

The first comicbook I remember reading is Sword of Azrael.

I had no idea what the hell it was about, but the images, the art... It felt like reading a film. And that was that. There was no turning back. I don't expect anyone to leave the Geek zone after witnessing the awesomeness of Sword of Azrael at such a young age. I've still got one of the comics with me, but I haven't read it. I don't give a darn what it was about, because when I read (and I loosely use the term here) it for the first time, it was just magical. See, there are some experiences that you don't want to ruin, and reading Sword of Azrael is one of those experiences for me. It was like Lucy Pevensie wandering into Narnia and meeting Mr. Tumnus... it was just magical.

I started wanting demanding begging for more Batman. The Adam West TV show stopped airing for some reason, and although there was no dearth of comicbooks, I wanted something Live action.

So some moron showed me the Tim Burton Batman films when I was barely five or six. And my reaction to them? I was fucking terrified.

This was Jack Nicholson coming off his amazing turn as Jack Torrance in Shining (which is now my favorite Horror film ever) with Michael Keaton doing a perfect Bruce Wayne and a perfect Batman. It was all so gothic and nightmare-ish... it was Tim Burton at his prime, before he started making Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows. 

It was scary, awesome and weird at the same time. For the kid-me, it was just pleasantly overwhelming. But they didn't get me all tingly like the Adam West show or the comics did. They still don't get me tingly.

I didn't give a darn about the other two. Who am I kidding? I loved the hell out of Batman & Robin. I still do. It's one of the worst films ever made, but I love it. I love how piece of crap the film is. I love its ridiculous  campiness. And most of all, I love Arnie as Mr. Freeze. I love how god awful horrible it is. 

And then, of course, in the late 90s came this gem of a TV show.

Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's Batman The Animated Series was nothing short of phenomenal. It took the best bits of the Tim Burton films and the best bits from the comicbooks, and had the best voice cast in a cartoon show. Period. And Paul Dini is a legend. He's not only responsible for some of the greatest cartoon tv episodes ever, but also for creating one of the greatest Batvillains ever, Harley Quinn.

Bruce Timm was the lead designer and lead director for the show. And his work is so influential, that you can still see cartoons, mainly superhero/fantasy ones, which have similar designs. I'd say Batman TAS is as influential to cartoons as the whole of anime.

I bloody loved that show. And the villains were terrifying. I was scared of Mark Hamill's rendition of Joker, and I used to shit my pants everytime Scarecrow turned up. The villains were terrifying, but at the same time, you could empathize with them. The show did a great job of telling us why villains are villains. You really empathize with characters such as Mr. Freeze and Mad Hatter, but at the same time, you are terrified of them. Sure, they got the villains right, but what about Batman? Batman TAS has the best interpretation of Batman ever. The Tim Burton films, the Schumacher films, or even the Nolan films didn’t get him as right as the show did, thanks in no small part to Kevin Conroy’s absolutely spectacular voice acting. This was Batman and there was no doubt about it.

After the success of Batman TAS, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini went on to make a Superman animated show set in the same universe. Superman The Animated Series boasted of an amazing voice cast, and the people who made Batman TAS made awesome worked on it. I was already a huge fan of Batman, and this show cemented my love for Superman as well. And then they went on to work on the uber awesome Justice League series!

But, back to Batman…

Warner Brothers was looking for a way to reboot the Batman franchise after Batman & Robin had failed critically and commercially. Joel Schumacher’s next film, Batman Triumphant was thankfully shelved; the world couldn’t have handled the awfulness of goddamn Madonna as Harley Quinn.

Plans for a Batman/Superman film were also scrapped and Darren Arronofsky’s Batman plans were deemed too dark and gritty to be made into a film. I’m thankful it wasn’t. I read the script and it was awesome, but it just wasn’t Batman. It was just too different from the Batman of the comics. I’d settle for an animated version of it, but a live action version is just asking for too much.

So plans for a Batman reboot came to a standstill, until…

Christopher Nolan. Three film old director. Too young to handle a franchise. Too early for him to take on a big budget. Too risky for a company of Warner Brothers’ calibre to hire him.

But, by god, he DID IT.

Batman Begins is the best Batman movie ever made (Dark Knight fans may read this). There’s only one little tidbit I don’t like about it, but what the hell, the rest of it is fucking perfect. Well, maybe not Katie Holmes, but her character was perfectly written.

Nearly everything about this film is awesome. The cast, the direction, the script, the cinematography. I was nerdgasming every second when I watched it for the first time.

Seriously, has there ever been a scene as thrilling or exciting as the Tumbler chase in any Batman movie ever?

Has any Comic Book movie been more perfectly paced than this one?

And has any Comic Book Film been more perfectly scored-

Yeah, I’ll give Superman that one, but Batman Begins is the best at everything else. A near perfect film, if I’ve ever seen one.

After watching that film, a lot of people (me included) waded through the vast expanses of the interwebs and searched for the films of this young, brilliant director called Christopher Nolan or as he came to be known by some people, Jesus Christ.

And then he made the Dark Knight. 

People were left groping at theatre floors searching for bits and pieces of their brains, blown apart and sizzled into Bacon by the awesomeness of the film. I remember being in awe. I remember being absolutely numb. It was one of the most sublime nerdgasms I had ever experienced.
But upon scrutinizing it I realized that Batman Begins was the better film, but hey, this one got the people interested. This one got people talking.

The performances, the music and the thrilling direction made this film. And Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker was just... I don’t have words to describe it. Heath Ledger’s Joker is all that we fear and admire. He is fury, chaos, melancholy, malice, demon, prankster, murder all mixed into one… Definitely the best interpretation of Joker I’ve ever seen.  

And that interrogation scene is just pure history.

The Dark Knight became one of the highest grossing films of all time. People actually gave a shit about a smart, well made film. Warner Brothers decided that they’d let Nolan do whatever the fuck he wanted to do.

And now we are here, at the end of this chapter of the journey, with The Dark Knight Rises releasing this Friday.

The end is here. And it’ll be a bittersweet end.

Nolan’s Gotham city is such a magnificent creation that it will be really sad to know that we won’t be returning anymore. And yet… I can’t help but await the inevitable Batman reboot.

Warner Brothers wants a Justice League film. There’s no doubt about it. Unfortunately, the world that Nolan has created in his trilogy just isn’t a world suitable for the Justice League. It would be jarring, no, downright ridiculous to see a Scarlet Speedster or a Green Lantern race through the streets of Gotham battling the likes of Mongul and Darkseid. It simply won’t happen.

A Batman reboot, therefore, will be necessary, and it will happen very soon.

I’m already looking forward to it. Awesome as Nolan’s world was, I’m still a Comic book fan at heart, and I can’t wait for a more Comic Book-y Batman. That may not be the Batman a lot of us want right now, but it’s definitely the one we need.