The Batman Filmography by Mark S. Reinhart

Author:Mark S. Reinhart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2013-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

14

Between Schumacher’s Batman Films, 1996–1997

Only two years passed between the release of Joel Schumacher’s Batman films Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997), but that was still enough time to allow several important events in Batman history to occur. The most notable of these was the release of DC’s four-part Elseworlds graphic novel entitled Kingdom Come in 1996. Kingdom Come would set the comics industry abuzz much like the first graphic novels such as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns had a decade earlier.

Written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Alex Ross, Kingdom Come set all of DC’s major heroes in a world far more closely tied to reality than had ever been attempted in a comic work. In Kingdom Come, DC’s aging heroes are struggling to come to terms with their place in society in a not-too-distant future. Their powers and talents obviously set them apart from “normal” people, but how do they best use these gifts to better humankind? If they interfere with the workings of “normal” society too much, they run the risk of becoming nothing more than super-powered dictators. If they interfere too little, they run the risk of being perceived as being unresponsive to the needs of that society.

The series opens on a pessimistic note: DC’s legendary heroes have not been able to find this balance that allows them to both consistently help and harmoniously co-exist with “normal” people, so they have largely removed themselves from everyday society. A new breed of super beings, “metahumans,” have taken over for titans such as Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, and these metahumans care nothing for the concerns of everyday society. They roam the earth fighting among themselves like super-powered street gangs, terrorizing anyone who gets in their way.

This situation finally reaches a breaking point when some of these metahumans incite a confrontation that unleashes a nuclear bomb–like blast in Kansas, killing millions of innocent people. The Kansas tragedy spurs Superman, Wonder, Woman, Green Lantern, Robin and a number of other heroes back into action. They return from their self-imposed exile to bring these metahumans under control and to finally find that elusive balance that will allow super beings and ordinary people to peacefully co-exist.

Of course, one hero is conspicuously absent from this reformed Justice League—Batman. Bruce Wayne does not believe that a bunch of old heroes simply swooping down from out of the sky is going to suddenly put an end to the tensions that have arisen between super beings and ordinary people, so he refuses Superman’s offer to join the League. Besides, Bruce has his own loose crimefighting organization with a number of heroes such as Green Arrow and Black Canary.

The League has even bigger problems than Bruce’s opposition: Sinister forces led by Lex Luthor plan on undermining their efforts, because they want to see an all-out war erupt between super beings and ordinary people. Luthor’s organization believes that humans need to reclaim their planet by forcefully ridding it of super beings, no matter what the cost of waging such a war might be terms of human life.

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