What’s Next For Batman? Choosing The New Storylines

Welcome back to THN’s ‘What’s Next For Batman?’ mini-series! Didn’t know it was a mini-series? Where have you been?! Check out the previous articles here and here, discussing future Bruce Waynes and villains respectively.

But, as they always say, there’s no character without a story (though Oren Moverman might beg to differ) – but just which classic Bat-stories could be successfully converted into script gold? We’ve already seen elements of such classics as ‘Knightfall’ and ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ in Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, but what other stories could be successfully adapted from page to screen? Let’s take a look…

(Oh, and beware: if you haven’t seen THE DARK KNIGHT RISES yet, there’s the odd spoiler here and there!)

‘Batman: Year One’

Dealing with Batman’s origins, this is the most likely route for a reboot of the franchise, though elements of the story can already be seen in Nolan’s BATMAN BEGINS (remember when Batman called for ‘backup’?). There’s also an animated film based on this series, released last year, but that surely wouldn’t stop any back-to-the-origins reboot borrowing heavily from ‘Year One’. Of course, a straight reboot may not be completely necessary, but the option is here if need be…

‘The Killing Joke’

Putting the foot on the other shoe (so to speak), this heavily-acclaimed one-off graphic novel deals with Joker’s origins, though is often stated in Batman lore to be one of many possible origins for the villain. Which is fine by me; the very lack of backstory to the character in Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT fared better to me than Tim Burton’s adaption in 1989 (which also drew from ‘The Killing Joke’). But as discussed last week, Joker has to come back, no matter how hard to top Heath Ledger’s performance is – and this could be the perfect way to do it.

‘Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying’

To cap off the origin stories, this tells the tale of how Robin came to be. Well, Robin #3 – but his is something else entirely. Where Dick Grayson and Jason Todd were somewhat thrust into the role, Tim Drake chooses the life of Batman’s sidekick. And not only do we get this interesting, alternative backstory to the character, ‘A Lonely Place of Dying’ also offers a look at why Batman needs Robin at all, and the effect a sidekick can have on a superhero. So here’s a suggestion for a couple of new Bat-films: take ‘Year One’ and ‘The Killing Joke’ and play them out simultaneously in one film, then follow it up with a sequel introducing Robin. Any takers?

‘Batman: Venom’

This is an interesting one: showing a side of Batman heretofore rarely seen, ‘Venom’ exposes the caped crusader’s weaknesses by opening with a drowning girl. Who, it turns out, Batman can’t save. In his despair, he turns to a pill to triple his strength, but predictably things go a bit haywire and he almost ends up assassinating Jim Gordon. It’s not the most lightweight subject matter – drugs; sharks; dying children – especially for a comic book film, but it could expose a darker side to the man behind the cowl, while providing some interesting social commentary. Because as Christopher Nolan showed us, that’s what we all want from a Batman film.

‘Batman: Year 100’

This is perhaps not one we’ll see for a while, especially if Nolan’s universe is continued with Joseph Gordon-Levitt filling the Bat-shoes. But it’s an interesting look at the Batman legacy set out in the DARK KNIGHT trilogy, showing Gotham a century on since Bruce Wayne introduced the caped crusader. Wayne is of course no longer present, having not managed to discover the secret to immortality during his time on earth, but the legacy of Batman lives on – effectively demonstrating exactly what Nolan was trying to show us in the first place. It’s a daring but promising choice of source material for a continuation of the franchise.

‘The Long Halloween’

If done properly, this could prove to be the source to turn the Batman films into a proper mystery. ‘The Long Halloween’ follows a year in Gotham, with a mysterious killer doing the rounds at various holiday occasions – Christmas, Halloween etc. What makes it stand out is the lack of exposition to what’s really going on: it keeps its audience guessing, which the Batman films haven’t been great at so far. Sure, often we don’t know how things are going to end – who can honestly say they saw Talia al Ghul coming in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES? – but we always get plenty of exposure to the villain’s point of view. ‘The Long Halloween’ could change all that…

‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’

Arkham’s succumbed to the will of the inmates, and it’s up to Batman to fix things. Claustrophobic, psychotic and truly insane, the walls of the asylum house Batman’s entire Rogues Gallery (almost). The Dark Knight’s sanity will truly be tested here – but can Batman work as a psychological thriller? In this writer’s opinion: most definitely…

And that’s that. Are there any of your favourites here? Have we missed anything major out? Drop us a comment in the box below, and stay tuned next week for the fourth and final part of ‘What’s Next For Batman?’…