'Strange' Things A-Foot

I’ve been struggling for a week or so to find something worth writing a new post about and I think I’ve found a good one. Quite simply, I’m going to nerd out at you all with regards to the speculation and rumours surrounding the next in the Batman series: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

When Batman Begins was first announced there was a lot of concern that the rebooted franchise would be just as bad a Joel Schumacher’s previous atrocities. One of the most significant downfalls in the fore-mentioned series was the introduction of Robin – Batman’s ‘boy wonder’ side-kick, and so when Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale were asked to sign on to the new project as director and lead role respectively, they both had it written into their contracts that they would not partake in any film which featured Robin. As the most recent series was aimed at a more mature audience, making it far grittier and more realistic than previous depictions, fans saw this character exclusion as a big positive. However, there is now a large amount of hubbub with regards to Nolan announcing that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has signed on as a currently unannounced character. People immediately jumped to the conclusion that he would either be playing The Riddler or Robin The Boy Wonder. Critics then expressed concern that the latter seemed far liklier as Nolan was already tackling 2 new villains: Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. On top of this, there are now rumours going around of Robin Williams playing Hugo Strange [even though he had been considered for the role of The Riddler twice before].

I, however, think there could easily be a much more interesting explanation for this [and you probably already know that when I say ‘interesting’ I mean ‘diving to whole new realms of nerdiness’].

Tim Drake as Red Robin

Dick Grayson as Nightwing

I should begin with a bit of background on some of the characters in question. We’ll start with Robin. Robin is most commonly thought of as being Dick Grayson – the acrobatic son of circus trapeze artists who are killed by gangsters attempting to extort the circus owner. But what a lot of people don’t know is that there were actually 5 different Robins over the years, the fourth of whom was even a girl! Grayson was merely the first. Grayson eventually grew up [as you would expect someone to do] and became a superhero in his own right: Nightwing. Nightwing is, in essence, Batman with a cape-less costume. The third Robin [Tim Drake] followed a very similar path – having grown up and been trained by Batman to the peak of physical and mental ability, he became a new superhero called Red Robin, whose costume and crime-fighting style was even closer to that of Batman than Nightwing. Either of these could be possibilities for Gordon-Levitt’s currently undisclosed character. Another possibility [which I personally think would make for a much better film] is the second incarnation of Robin – Jason Todd. Todd, as Robin, was thought to have met an untimely end at the hands of The Joker in an explosion. However, later in the series an anti-hero turns up in black clothing with a plain red mask, killing any criminal to cross his path, and proving a notable match/equal to Batman in hand-to-hand combat, acrobatics and free-running, before questioning The Dark Knight’s morals concerning criminals and his refusal to kill anyone. It is later exposed that this new anti-hero is, in fact, Jason Todd under the guise of his new alter-ego ‘The Red Hood’ having just barely escaping the explosion that was meant to kill him. Hell-bent on revenge against The Joker for trying to kill him, he also comes baring a mild vendetta against Batman for not killing The Joker himself, having witnessed what he assumed to be his close friend and mentee killed by the villain.

Jason Todd as The Red Hood

I think considering the amount of distruction The Joker causes in ‘The Dark Knight’, The Red Hood could well be a potential new character and could add some quite interesting depth to this more emotionally-charged series.

With regards to Robin Williams, I think Hugo Strange would be a solid piece of casting should they choose to include the character. I do, however think that they may be trying to juggle too many new characters at once. I thnk if they do decide to include Strange, they will need to either make Gordon-Levitt a less violent Red Hood, or Nightwing/Red Robin. Another possibility for Williams would be the villain Hush. Hush was originally Thomas Elliot - a close friend of Bruce Wayne as they were growing up. Wayne and Elliot would play board games together, where Elliot would teach Wayne how to think like his opponent and use their abilities agianst them – a trait which Wayne would later use as a notable characteristic to his vigilante alias. However, although Elliot also came from a financially privilaged background, he despised his parents. His father was an abusive drunk and his mother was frail and accepting of her husband’s behaviour. Elliot hated his parents so intensely that he cut the brakes on their car, causing it to crash. Although his father died, his mother was saved in an emergency operation by Dr Thomas Wayne [Bruce’s father]. This led him to hate Bruce as much as his mother and he relished the irony following the murder of the Waynes. After attacking another child while he was at a summer camp, Elliot was committed to a psychiatric ward, from which he was released by Jonathan Crane [who later became Scarecrow]. Elliot later killed his mother in order to inherit the family fortune and went on to become a successful surgeon. As well as this, he became a successful mob boss [under the mantle of Hush]. Early on in his criminal career, Hush is approached by The Riddler, claiming to know Batman’s true identity. At this point Hush and The Riddler joined forces. He also later joined forces with Jason Todd. Hush is renowned as being ruthless to the extent that he even managed to drive The Joker out of Gotham in fear. The possibility of a Hush-Red Hood collaboration is [in my opinion] a solid idea, if not a bit lengthy to include history and motive for each character, but not impossible to pull off.

Thomas Elliot as Hush

Catwoman’s appearance, for me, would be best-served as a love interest, far less aggressive villain and/or an ally to Batman.

The concept of including Bane in a series of what are supposed to be the most down-to-earth superhero films to date baffles me, to be honest. On top of including a 7ft, mexican, super-intelligent, chemically-fuled muscular brute, they’ve decided to cast Tom Hardy as said monster. And yes, Bane was originally super-intellignet. In fact he was actually depicted as being smarter than Batman in almost every way, however somewhere along the line his characterisation as a genius has been twisted to better suit the stereotype of huge muscley people as being brainless. Don’t get me wrong, I think Hardy is a quality actor, having seen him in Bronson, Inception and Layer Cake…but the fact of the matter is that he’s only 5ft9, compared to Christian Bale’s 6ft2. The only way I can see them making good use of him is to have him as his super-intelligent self and just be extremely muscular for his size.

Bane is infamous as being ‘The Man Who Broke The Bat’ – a title given to him after one of his earliest appearances where he famously breaks Batman’s back. This could be a strong plot point and could validate their choice for Bane’s inclusion. An out-of-action Batman for a small segment of the film could also make way for Nightwing/Red Robin to make a first appearance, taking up Wayne’s mantle while he recovers.

I feel that after 1,308 words and 2 ½ pages of a word document that I should probably wrap this up. If you’ve managed to make it all the way through my nerdy ramblings in one sitting, then congratulations. If you’ve had to tackle it in more than one sitting, then I still appreciate the commitment. I hope that some/any of what I’ve just blabbed about actually happens and if they do, you can be sure that I will publicly cream my pants. In conclusion, I definitely see this as a film to keep an eye on for developments, but being such a big fan of the previous films I must say I’m woried.

Peace out, and until next time be excellent to each other.