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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mhacdebhandia" data-source="post: 2936079" data-attributes="member: 18832">Comparisons to the Batman make me think about the way Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan presented the character in their films.In the Burton films, Michael Keaton's Batman is an outsider. Much has been said about the relationship between the heroes of Burton's films and the oddball Burton himself, but it's interesting to note that for all of this, Burton's Batman still communicates with the people he's helping a lot more than the Donner/Singer Superman.In point of fact, he announces himself in exactly the way Superman doesn't, for instance, during the spaceplane rescue in Superman Returns - crashing in through the roof, roaring up in the Batmobile with flaming exhaust pipes. Even in Batman Returns, in which the Batman (almost awkwardly) retreats from Selina Kyle's attempt at conversation, there's more communication with both villains and regular folks - smirking as he waits for the big clown to notice the bomb stuffed in his waistband, reaching out verbally to Catwoman, confronting the Penguin and Max Schreck.Part of it has to be the suite of fear and intimidation tactics the Batman relies upon to get the job done, but it's intriguing that the psychologically and emotionally isolated Batman seems to have a lot more to say to the people he meets than noble and self-sacrificing Superman. I guess it's part of their complexity as characters - the scary Batman paradoxically reaches out to others while the infinitely compassionate Superman sets himself apart.The Nolan version of the Batman as played by Christian Bale isn't so different. He reaches out to people he needs as allies throughout the film, both before and after his transformation into the Batman. He even feels to need to reveal his plans to Rachel Dawes despite (presumably) predicting her disgusted reaction. He even takes the time to treat the kid from the Narrows with kindness, even if he doesn't say anything.I think that's pretty cogent. In the comics, it hasn't been true for quite a while that Superman is psychologically alien, and Clark Kent is the mask he wears to move in human society; this was an element of his pre-Crisis characterisation, and eloquently summarised by Bill in Kill Bill, Volume II, but since the Crisis On Infinite Earths and the John Byrne revamp of Superman in The Man of Steel Clark Kent is not a cover identity, it's the fundamental truth of who Superman is. He's more a child of the warm, loving Kents who raised him than of the cold, emotionally sterile world of Krypton, and he was even "born" on Earth since he gestated during the flight from Krypton in a "birthing matrix".I think it's certainly true that Singer's take on Superman makes the hero and the reporter basically the same person. I think it's interesting the way that Clark takes advantage of his appeal as Superman to play "come hither" with Lois Lane; by contrast, in Lois and Clark my memories suggest that Clark played it "strictly business" when he wore the tights and only pursued Lois as Clark Kent. Perhaps this simply reflects a differing take on Clark Kent's attitude to letting Lois in on his secret: in Lois and Clark he only revealed his powers to Lois once they were already together (or nearly so), while in the Donner/Singer version he appears happy to romance Lois as Superman and presumably let her in on the secret once they were together in that context.It's a complicating element of the Singer film that we don't know the circumstances in which "Jason-El" was conceived, because whether or not the memory-erasing kiss is canon for Superman Returns is important to the question of who, exactly, Lois believed she was sleeping with when she got pregnant: "I Spent The Night With Superman" indeed. Her lack of surprise and willingness to ask Jason to help them get out of the galley after the piano incident suggests that she was at least half-expecting Jason to be capable of such a thing; it's also fairly clear that Richard doesn't know and genuinely thinks he's the father. Hell, no wonder she resents Superman for leaving, and was happy to settle down (to a certain extent) with Richard.It's very interesting that the most probable explanation is that Clark romanced her and slept with her as Superman. For argument's sake, compare with Clark Kent in Smallville: he's still psychologically as human as the Donner/Singer Superman or the comics Superman, but at least in the first three seasons it seems that his fear of the grey areas of the relationship between "Clark Kent" and "Kal-El" overrides his romantic interests, especially with Lana Lang. He can't be with her as Clark and reveal his secret, and he certainly doesn't have the option to do it the other way. In some ways, it suggests that the creation of the Superman identity for the Smallville Clark Kent will be a way of interacting with society without anyone ever forcing him to deal with the issue, but for this Clark it will be explicitly as a coping mechanism as opposed to the Donner/Singer practicality.Another interpretation of the Batman is that Bruce Wayne wears two different costumes to deal with the world. He becomes the Batman to accomplish his mission, striking fear into the hearts of the criminal element and destroying evil. He becomes "Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy" to deflect suspicion as to his nocturnal activities. Batman Begins, I think, takes this attitude, and actually shows you the genesis of the Batman and of "Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy".Christian Bale's performance outside of the costume is different when he is the real Bruce Wayne, discussing his plans with Alfred, and when he is the billionaire playboy, buying hotels and persuading Lucius Fox to give him surplus experimental devices for extreme sports purposes. One of the more subtle elements of the film is the way in which he gradually reveals at least part of the real Bruce Wayne to Fox and drops the playboy charade, in contrast to the way Rachel Dawes gets to know the real Bruce Wayne through her dealings with the Batman.Of course, it's also true that Ra's al Ghul knows the real Bruce Wayne, which is why it's never a question that he recognises the Batman for who he is. In a way it's what makes him a supremely dangerous villain for Nolan's version of the character: there's no sense that Jonathan Crane or Carmine Falcone have the capacity to figure out who the Batman really is, but Ra's is an enemy who knows Bruce Wayne as intimately as Bruce knows himself.Thanks for saying so. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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