Living in Gotham

As I think about what I'm looking forward to in entertainment for 2008, much of it is about Batman in various media. Bruce Wayne has always been a favorite character of mine in all of fiction, but I can't believe how many different ways you can get your fix this year. At the top of the list (even above almost all the comics themselves) are The Dark Knight film and Batman: Gotham Knight. The latter being a rare mix of a great American property with some of the best studios in anime to create an anthology telling the stories between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The release of Begins on Blu-ray alongside Gotham Knight are how I plan to begin my hi-def collection this summer as I finally pick up a PS3.

Taste for the Theatrical

The Batman property is on its way to potentially having the best-executed super hero adaptation franchise going because of its complete restart with Batman Begins. Gone are the days of making a Bat film seemingly without opening a comic. Pre-Begins, Spider-Man seemed to have the crown with the second film still containing the best fight scene in the genre. However, seeing the pieces of a great adaptation fit together better in Begins changed plenty of minds about who had the best film. Strangely both Spider-Man 2 and Begins had train fights and the somewhat annoying plot device of a villain trying to destroy the city, but the story and casting were stronger for Bats. This combined with odd choices in Spider-Man 3 (excessive crying and dance sequences should set off a spider-sense) to make me go back and realize that the Spider-films have had their solid moments, but there's still so much more to be done and perfected. Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, and company upped the expectations for the entire genre with Begins. Comics are still the place where these characters shine brightest, but filmmakers are understanding more of what's being offered to adapt.

On Leather Wings

The Bat has a history of changing my expectations going back to the start of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series. The series was the first time I was shown as a kid that animation would still be interesting as I got older. Not only was it different than any other U.S. offering, but unknowingly it was a bit of an introduction to anime with Japanese visual elements coming from the overseas animators who worked with Bruce Timm and company. At the time, I only knew it looked cool and wasn't written like a long action figure commercial. Having gone back and picked up all the DVD box sets last year, I can say it still holds up as one of the few American works I enjoy as much as the best anime series I've gone on to watch since. With more mature animated takes on super heroes being doled out as the occasional direct-to-DVD movie these days, Batman: TAS stands as a singular moment and has me hoping for quite a lot from the Gotham Knight anime effort.

Bat Signals

A stack of trade paperbacks and hardcovers bought over the last several months sits on my table (book and DVD storage being at a premium currently), and half of them are Bat books. The stories range from black and white short stories to long, full-color epics with the character of Batman/Bruce Wayne working well in more writing and art styles than possibly any other in the medium. Much is always made of the main books, Batman and Detective Comics, but the project I'm most anticipating is the Joker story by Brian Azzarello and my favorite artist, Lee Bermejo, planned as a graphic novel to be released sometime this year. Bermejo's art and costume designs look better than cinematic, and Azzarello works well with him. Previously, they've been in Gotham for a Batman and Deathblow (Wildstorm character) story, but the pair absolutely nailed their take on Bruce Wayne/Batman in Lex Luthor: Man of Steel #3. That issue showed us Bruce through the eyes of Superman's greatest foe, but now the creative team will finally get a chance to show us their view of Batman's enemies with the Joker tale also featuring plenty of other Dark Knight foes.

Year One - Year ???

Bruce Wayne and his world continue to fascinate with a mix of so many favorite genres that I just never get bored. Creators from all media can switch and combine styles and elements from detective stories, martial arts, noir, super heroes, psychological exploration, horror, and more. Storytellers who normally don't go near mainstream comics characters still seem to have at least one Batman tale in them. Something about the character simply works and has continued to do so since 1939. It's at least one franchise that won't have to be explained to future generations someday. They'll still have him.