Batman Begins

When I was thirteen years old I was already spending a small fortune in comic books shops, picking up the latest comic books and graphic novels and trading cards--entranced in the superhero world, fascinated by the origins and the history of these characters more than the specific stories themselves. When comic book cards became the huge craze in the mid-nineties, I remember spending hours reading the backs of the cards, memorizing the origins and histories of every comic character I could get my hands on.

From the first time I saw the trailer for Batman Begins, up until only a few hours ago when I finally got to see, I've been dizzy with quiet anticipation. I thought the movie was great. There were a few inconsistencies that I noticed, though, like all super hero movies these days: it can't be helped. And I won't spend any time on them. I think the story here--largely based on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and Jeph Loeb's Batman: The Long Halloween--really sticks to the Batman multiverse. I actually have a copy of Batman: Year One somewhere, and when I get back to Texas, I intend to find it. The comic series, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight also deals with Batman in his early stages of crime fighting.

I still haven't seen Sin City (I know, I know), but after seeing this and thinking back to my comic collecting days, I really want to dive right into Frank Miller. He's really responsible for rendering Batman human. Not only does Bruce continually wrestle with his demons, but he even judges himself and challenges his own moral compass. In Miller's famous Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman sort of comes out of retirement and faces his demons as he attempts to protect Gotham City. This really put Frank Miller on the map because he details Bruce's struggle with himself, his past, his darkness and his humanity. Batman Begins heavily enunciates the difference between revenge and justice, and continually presses this issue with Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego.

The problem that this film and the comics both present, is this blurred idea of what is good, not-so-good, rotten and evil. Batman is not a good guy per se, but simply a man torn between his life as a billionaire playboy and his dark past, i.e., his witnessing the death of his parents and subsequently blaming himself for their deaths; and further, what he intends to do about this latter psychosis. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, arguably one of the best of all the Batman films, heavily deals with these issues as well. Phantasm is a spin-off from the heavily acclaimed, Batman: The Animated Series; in my opinion, the greatest animated series based on a comic book ever created. These are all the Batman influenced by Frank Miller.

Marvel Comics always had a way of light-heartedly presenting the various psychology of their characters as well, though D.C. Comics really took the psychology to a new level. Not only does Batman question himself as a good person--a hero; but the reader sees him enact the very viciousness that invokes his selfhood. He is the product of his dead parents, and through his vigilantism, Batman both prevents and encompasses the agony that is his history. Batman Begins shows us that he will continuously confront his fears--and project this same fear unto the enemy. Batman can, and never will, be a superhero as far as classic superheroes go. He is the anti-hero, that character who walks the fine line, beginning with justice and ending with an attempt to save his own sanity.

References:

• Official Site
• Wikipedia reference
• IMdB
  
• My friend David Lowery's review

I am eagerly awaiting the sequel.