Okay so I know that we're all excited about Ben Affleck's portrayal of Batman in Dawn of Justice, with Snyder in the helm (the man who gave us Rorschach) and all the allusions to DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and the recent poster of Supes in Gotham City, I'm thinking that it'll be one of the best portrayals of the Dark Knight to date: it could start off with the first meeting between the titans as we've seen in John Byrne's Batman/Superman origin story in MoS, and could very well be a culture-piece showcasing how the two biggest superheroes in the world, who also happen to be polar-opposites, come together in a time when superheroes are culturally controversial (like they are in Kingdom Come or in Dark Knight Returns), with Supes being a pro-govt agent and Bats being the rebel and hopefully one epic fight scene in Crime Alley. This is, after all, Snyder's Batman, and if nothing else we know that Snyder's a stickler for comic-book precision (down to the point where he adapts Superman killing Zod straight out of John Byrne's books). I'm excited. Yes. I get it. But you know what was also the best Batman adaptation ever? Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy.
This was a trilogy that was truly on a GRAND scale. Sure it was limited to just Batman, but the world it created around the Batman was NOT limited to just 6 or 7 major characters, there's an entire world in the Dark Knight universe that is living, that offers arguments and counter-arguments, that exists and is effected by the presence of Batman. And more importantly, it is very "real" in a very "neo-noir" sense. I don't think that Snyder, who's point of departure are the comics themselves, can ever look past the iconography of these characters, he doesn't look beyond the larger-than-life essence of these characters and allow us to glimpse into the ordinary, the real. That's something Nolan has done. Were this an academic post, I'd call Nolan's Gotham City a polyphonic or dialogic movie with a heteroglossia of voices -- there are multiple voices within the narrative which allows it to question itself, heck all of his villains are ideological opposites, to me the Dark Knight Trilogy is like a Leo Tolstoy novel, and I'm not exaggerating. It's there. Had this not been on film it should've been a novel.
But there are these characters.... yes it's all populated with real-life people who are exist and who all have their own political and philosophical opinions, and it seems that in order to make that world more real and mature Nolan and Goyer deliberately used "character types" from the comics. So you have Det. Ramirez, who could have easily been Det. Rene Montoya, or Stephens who could have easily been Harvey Bullock, they refused to use the comic-characters because ultimately those characters deserve more than just a cameo. In the spirit of being a stand-alone piece, they refrained from making intertextual references like "This is why Superman works alone" (WHICH SUPERMAN DAMN IT?!!)
However, as Super Fans we have this entire culture to ourselves (I myself was banned from Superherohype forums because of reasons undisclosed to me -- and I assume that it's because I was being too vocal on the forums about how awesome Nolan's films are, the admins there didn't take well to "Nolanites" but I don't know, that's another issue entirely) that Bat-culture, amogst fans, loves to go and make convulated arguments and connections from the films and I don't know about you guys but I still love over-analyzing The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Which brings me to these characters who serve as comic-equivalents. For example, Ramirez is montoya; Stephens is Bullock; that fat asian guy in the prison camp at the beginning of Batman Begins was eerily like Ubu; Robin Blake is friggin Dick Grayson and all the other Robins combined; there was speculation amongst fans whether Mr. Reese was the Riddler himself, or if the Tattooed Prisoner at the end of TDK was Killer Croc since he visually resembles Croc from Azzarello's THE JOKER ogn (a book where you pretty much Heath Ledger's Joker, with the Glasgow smile, although Azzarello refuted such claims, saying he developed the idea independently). Nevertheless as fans we always make those connections and for a small aspect of us, it's actually a fun game.
Well, it's been 6 years since TDK came out, and it's been 2 since I've been on a superhero comic-book forum, but I was going through older TV shows and I found out that one of the actresses from a now-almost cult-favourite British Soap called HOLLYOAKS featured a young actress who also starred in The Dark Knight. Her name is Sarah Jayne Dunn. And it's alright if you don't recognize her from the title-cards... it's because she played a relatively non-role. She is billed as "Maroni's Mistress" in the alleged "Iceberg Lounge" scene (the scene when Batman rips through Maroni's guards at the club, some crazy Bat-fans have suggested that that's the Iceberg Lounge even though there's no substantial proof of it). Maroni dismisses his date, before being pulled by Batman outside and interrogated.
Now, correct me if I'm mistaken but... wasn't "Maroni's mistress" in The Long Halloween none other than SOFIA GIGANTE, aka Carmine Falcone's daughter? What do you guys think? Is this the hidden Sofia Gigante in Nolan's superhero crime saga? She's a soap star and I wouldn't really mind her being in that role, seeing as how Falcone is portrayed by the brilliant Tom Wilkinson, who is also an English actor.
What do you think? Also, what other "hidden" Batman characters do you see in Nolan's trilogy? Are all Bat-Fans meant to be committed to Arkham Asylum? Thanks for reading guys. Cheers.
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