DC Films

There's a strong argument to be made, though, that the character with the purple gloves and the gun on his belt wasn't "Batman" as we know him. He was a Shadow rip-off/homage for the first couple of issues before morphing into more of a Superman analogue. 


I mean, Robin has been a much, much more constant part of Batman than brooding darkness, excessive violence, killing bad guys, etc, yet a lot of people seem reluctant to see that character on screen.


Now it obviously takes all sorts and with Elseworlds and the multiverse and all that I'm happy for any type of Batman to exist, but I still feel very strongly that every film incarnation (maybe excpet Schumacher) draws from the same well, and it's not really a well that is the most common comics interpretation of the character, where for most of his history he's been presented as a very driven, often very grumpy, detective/adventurer who isn't insane or haunted by his past, and who has a large circle of close friends and allies he works with. 

There's over 80 years worth of comics, of course you can dig deep enough and find something that contradicts the establish characteristics of a superhero. It doesn't change the fact that a major aspect of Batman is that he doesn't kill. If you read the comics, you'll have seen that this sentiment has been the central basis of so many stories and Batman's relationship with both Damian Wayne and Redhood hinge on the fact that Batman doesn't kill. There's a famous Frank Miller panel where Batman is shown smashing a shotgun in half saying "This is the weapon of our enemy. We do not need it. We will not use it".

Joker snaps his own neck in The Dark Knight Returns.

Yes, he finishes the job even though most of the work had been done by Batman. I mean batman was happily using space guns in JL, at the end of the day it's the writer's interpretation of what they want the character to be other than his parents being murdered and him being ridiculously wealthy.

The same Frank Miller who tried to have Batman face off against and kill Al-Qaida before he was told to fuck off, lest we forget.

Injustice is getting an animated film. The DC animated stuff is surprisingly great, even if they do tend to be a little watered down.

Lets not talk about The Killing Joke or Hush though.

Godfather Part 2
Seven Samurai
Green Mile
Once Upon a Time in America
Lawrence of Arabia
Deer Hunter
JFK
Ben Hur
Dances With Wolves
Ghandi
Spartacus
Wolf of Wall Street

I tend to mentally carve Batman into his own world away from the rest in the same way I do with X-Men over at Marvel. The lore of their own series doesn’t seem to fit very well with the idea of a wider beloved superhero community.

Are you sure he wasn't just small? 

I like to see a Batverse on screen over a series of films. Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl into Oracle, and wrapped up with Batman Beyond.

Yeah, this is exactly my point. I love Miller's (early) Batman work, and especially love the O'Neill/Adams stuff, but over 80 years we've seen tons of weird and different interpretations of Batman, but the films always go to the same bunch of comics.

I'm constantly amazed that out of all the characters who could have had a multiverse-hopping movie featuring multiple incarnations of the central hero, it wasn't Batman who did that first. Hell, you could even have done that JUST with the movie/TV versions of the character and still made a fun, crazy film.

I’d love a live action Batman Beyond movie.

Can we all just agree that actually Robert Pattinson would have been better served doing a Batman Beyond movie instead? With Michael Keaton as old Bruce? Beyond doesn't get enough love imo.