Recently, we saw Black Mask appear in the straight-to-dvd film Batman: Under The Red Hood as the current crime boss of Gotham City. As great as it was to see the character in the film, I felt the character lacked in a few areas compared to the comic book version. The film version of Black Mask lacked the intimidation factor that comic version had. He came off as a little too goofy in the film, and I kept questioning why his thugs put up with it, and because of this, he lost that intimidation factor that a crime boss needs in order to retain control over his empire. He also didn't feel as dark or violent as the comic book version, and again, that leads to losing that intimidation factor the character needs. He needs to be smart, in control, and cunning, three pieces of the puzzle that were missing from the animated feature.
== TEASER ==
Nolan's Batman films aren't necessarily about super-heroes fighting super-villains. They about one man's attempts to return a city to its glory days when the people ruled the streets and not organized crime. While there may be a main villain within each film, Batman is simply trying to dismantle pieces of crime families. At the end of the second film, Batman is no longer seen as a hero by the authorities in Gotham, he is now the enemy. Batman took the blame for all the crimes committed by Harvey Dent, in order to save his image and name, shortly before his death. This is where Batman is for the third film, or at least, where he should be. He's being chased by Gotham authorities and most likely, trying to fight crime at the same time. Without all of his crime-fighting efforts on actual crime-fighting, a new crime boss could easily take the reigns and rise to power: Cue Black Mask. He's ruthless, twisted, but intelligent, and he's the perfect person to lead Gotham into a new era, an era without the Bat on crime's back.
~Mat "Inferiorego" Elfring is a comedian, teacher, comic book writer, and comic store employee.
Log in to comment