I liked Battinson more than I thought I would.

I have fatigue when it comes to the Batman. So, I really didn't want to go and see another iteration of The Batman. But I have a friend whom I greatly respect when it comes to these things, and he said he loved it. In his words, "I loved seeing The Batman as a detective and not as someone who just punches people and then has fancy toys." So...having absorbed this thought, I decided to go out and watch it. Folks, it was worth the money.

Matt Reeves's iteration of The Batman (Reeves is the director) has DC and Warner Brothers doubling down on the dark and gritty atmosphere of their movies probably because they don't want to be Marvel. With The Batman...it works. This character was always a very moody, brooding figure in the comic books. I can't tell you how many comic book covers feature the Batman walking in the rain, or crouching in the rain, or doing something in the rain. Rain is ubiquitous to the atmosphere of the Batman...a rain-soaked dreary Gotham where everything is bad and no one is there to save you from the darkness is what many of us comic book readers come to expect from this particular brand of superhero. Did it ever stop raining in The Batman? If it did, I didn't notice, and that's good.

In some ways, the Batman is a figure that would transfer pretty effortlessly to the Cthulhu mythos stories, where ordinary people with perhaps extraordinary grit are faced off against the cosmic horrors of the universe and are somehow expected to survive. The fact that the Batman does manage to do this time and time again is why he is a superhero. Ordinary people would never survive the kinds of things that the Batman experiences on a daily basis.

I think that this is also the reason why the Batman isn't a good character for the broader DCU. I know he's a very popular character, which is why they need him in the Justice League of America. But he doesn't fit well with those characters, because what he is just gets lost, and he gets boiled down to a person that provides insights and money and technology to other super heroes who are really good at punching cosmic horrors in the face.

This is exactly why "Cosmic Horror" storylines do not translate well to Dungeons & Dragons. In D&D, you have a game system that makes characters into super-powered versions of Doctor Strange (more or less) or into figures like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings or Aragorn for that matter. There's very little that these people need to fear because they have such a tremendous amount of resources. So the writers end up making cheesy powers that "nullify this and that" in order to allow an invincible character to experience fear and danger. But if you just take a moment to realize what's going on, you see behind the curtain and the whole "suspension of disbelief" comes crashing down. This is also Superman's problem. It must be hell coming up with stories for this guy to do because you always have to nullify his powers or else he just stomps everything. And then when you make something more powerful than Superman, well the whole planet is in danger and the thing isn't so much horrifying as it is absurd. So you lose the scare factor if that's what you were going for in the first place.

Anyway, this new movie called The Batman and starring Robert Pattinson is good. I want more. I want a spinoff of Colin Farrell's Penguin, and I liked Paul Dano's take on The Riddler (for what its worth). It reminded me a lot more of Seven than it ever did to anything in the DC Universe. Additionally, the chemistry between Kravitz (Catwoman) and Pattinson (the Batman) was palpable. I liked it, and Pattinson looks good in the suit.

Anyone else go and see this movie? If so, did you like it?

These Dark Knight prints by artist Mark Chilcott capture the essence of their subjects rather well.

I subscribe to Bottleneck Gallery's newsletter, and I've bought some art prints from them in the past. The prints are usually numbered, which makes them somewhat collectible, and they usually come in a 10" x 14" size, which makes them great for framing. They are also done in giclée, which is a format for fine art digital prints that's made on inkjet printers that have more than just the CMYK color palette (think CcMmYK and you've got the picture). And yeah, it's easy to burn through ink on printers like this. They really aren't affordable to use unless you've got a ton of money to be out buying ink. It's further aggravated by the fact that you need to print pretty regularly on your inkjet printer or your nozzles will plug up/dry out, so they really are only useful for businesses that do a lot of printing because they can charge enough money for the prints to easily replace the ink on an as needed basis.

Anyway, Bottleneck Gallery's newsletter this last Friday was all about The Batman and some new prints that artist Mark Chilcott licensed for reproduction. I used to love the Batman so much. I still love his stories, but I've gotten to appreciate the Marvel stuff a lot more than I used to thanks to Marvel movies that have made me a huge fan. However, below are some of my favorite prints that they now have for sale. The rain is perfect for the Batman and always has been (to be honest). I don't know how many Detective Comics I've read that had art that took place in the rain. It seems like all the good ones did. The Batman was made for the rain, and lightning. It is a testament of Frank Miller's genius to realize this when he reinvented The Batman decades ago for The Dark Knight Returns, forever putting an end to the silly campiness of the character that extended forward from Adam West's Batman television series.

This is the Batman at his dreariest, staring down at an urban landscape that is devoid of any of the things that indicate wealth or happiness. It is the home of humanity's garbage, where people struggle to squeeze out a living under the dreariness of a sky devoid of color. It also sets the tone and mood of the character, who lost both his parents in an alleyway framed by buildings while it was raining. The fact that evil events and rain seem to go hand in hand is no coincidence in Batman stories.

I love this picture because it's a fun park that isn't quite so fun right now because it's obviously been abandoned. It also may be a place where the Batman comes across his old foe, the Joker. But it just as well could be a funhouse mannequin of some kind. It's difficult to tell, but the art manages to broadcast this sinister feelings from this encounter rather well.

I love the bold use of green and yellow in this Poison Ivy tribute. It seems appropriate to have the Batman villain posing in the woods that (to the naked eye) look very inviting. The fact that she's mostly a silhouette is a hint that not all is as it seems and that what we don't see can actually be deadly.

Penguin is a peculiar villain, and I like that Mark Chilcott drew him in a snowy setting. Penguins are birds that like the cold and the ice, so the symbolism is appropriate. One thing I love about this particular picture is the positioning of the streetlamps in the background. Every single one is lit except for the one directly above the Penguin.

There are other prints that Bottleneck Gallery posted for Mark's offering on the Dark Knight. If you have time, you should head over there and check them out.

Do you have a favorite of the ones I've shown you here today?

The Batman of today is closer to Master Chief than the hero he was fifty years ago

Has anyone else noticed that the Batman's costume is becoming more and more reminiscent of something you'd find in HALO or another first person shooter? Take for example this latest iteration done by Kingdom Hearts creator and Final Fantasy designer Tetsuya Nomura:

What you're seeing is a re-imagined caped crusader for Square Enix's Play Arts Kai line of action figures. And yeah, the Batman looks like he's ready to kick some ass but it also looks like he's just a wee bit evil (which I guess is the point).

Seriously though, with regard to other superheroes I don't think I've noticed costume changes that have slowly morphed from tights in the 1960's into full on body armor like the kind worn by Master Chief in other characters. Superman is pretty much the same as he was. The same goes for Spider-Man and Thor. Iron Man was always in a prototype body armor so that doesn't count. But the Batman? No, he wasn't. In fact, this is what he used to look like (golden-age Batman):

Nowadays, instead of holding a gun, the Batman would have one just pop up off of his armor and shoot some kind of weapon out that blows our minds for its flashy effectiveness.

So my question to you is this: why is this happening? Why is his costume changing so much?

I thought about it last night and the only thing I can come up with is that Batman is a very popular character with boys, and boys play video games. The marketing department at DC Comics knows this, and they've chosen to make the costume more and more sinister with ridges and spikes. It's been a slow process...so slow that I haven't really taken note of it until I saw the picture up top. Note the similarities between what the Batman is wearing and the lean armor worn by this hunter in the video game Crysis (click to EMBIGGEN).

Muscles are well defined, weapon is very spikey, and there's lots of detailing all over the skin-tight bodysuit. Anyway, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this matter. Would you agree that the Batman's uniform is slowly turning into video game military-style combat armor? And if you do agree, do you think it's being driven by first-person shooters like Crysis? I look forward to reading your comments.