This year's Batman Day has been and gone in a flash! See what I did there fellow Batfans?
However, Nick Smith, our US-based stellar scribe, donned the famous cowl in celebration of Gotham's darkest knight after I reminded him about a fabled undergraduate screening of Tim Burton's Batman.
Guest post by Nick Smith
Batman Day has been cheering up broody Bruce Wayne fans for seven years now since its launch to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his first appearance. Now the annual celebration takes place on the third Saturday of September, with special events like live appearances, new graphic novels and apps.
Before Superman: The Movie captured my imagination in the late 70s, the live-action Batman TV show was my introduction to superheroes. It was gaudy and silly and full of dastardly villains. As well as bringing the comics to life, the show took its cue from adventure serials of the 30s and 40s – hence cliffhangers where the hero was tied up and left to die by the villains. Every week I tuned in at the same bat-time on the same bat-channel to watch the bad guys get defeated by Batman and his sidekick Robin.
Now life is more complicated but Batman remains as driven as ever, swearing to his dead parents that he will bring justice to Gotham City. When I think of the character, I’m more likely to recall Tim Burton’s gothic take on the character or Frank Miller’s cynical Dark Knight rather than the 60s version. It’s been a joy to see the character mature over the years, striving to grow out of his campy reputation while acknowledging his roots as a post-depression crimefighter.
While a vigilante beating the pulp out of people seems an unlikely subject for a National Day, Batman is one of DC Comics' most recognizable superheroes. This year, an attempt has been made to appeal to kids and adults with a variety of releases, including a downloadable activity kit and a free sampler for The World, an anthology in the same vein as Europa. A new The Batman movie trailer dropped over a year after the first one was screened as part of DC FanDome; this one appears to use a lot of the same footage with added dialogue, teasing that the movie is scheduled for release in ‘?0??.’ I have faith in director Matt Reeves (Felicity), who seems to genuinely care about the world of Gotham and its terse protector.
It doesn’t take a dark detective to celebrate Batman Day with a binge on HBO Max, since the streaming service has collated all its content into lists like ‘Big-Screen Gotham’ and ‘Batmanimation.’ I plump for Death in the Family, a happy little cartoon that starts with the Joker brutally bashing Robin with a crowbar. I’m enticed by the promise that this is a ‘choose your own ending’ story with seven different outcomes, harking back to the phone-in vote that sentenced Jason Todd to death in 1988.
Unfortunately, the only interactivity with HBO Max’s version is pressing play, and rather than adapting the classic comic, this short film is mostly made up of clips from 2010’s Under the Red Hood with narration from Bruce Wayne - less Batday, more hashday. There’s only one ending with no surprises. My advice: watch the Red Hood movie instead.
2019’s Hush animated movie is a much better, and more faithful, adaption of a fan-fave narrative and perfect to celebrate Batman Day. Like an anniversary celebration, it features most of Batman’s bad guys in an epic tale of cat-and-mouse with a romance between Bruce and Selina Kyle at its core. As a Brucey bonus, there are just enough changes made from the source material to keep this film fresh.
To wrap up the day, I dip into Three Jokers Book One, with Brian Bolland-style art by Jason Fabok and an intriguing, if unlikely, premise by writer Geoff Johns. It provides another look back not just at the history of the Joker but also Batman, Jason Todd and Barbara Gordon, whose lives have all been horribly affected by the clown prince of crime.
Like Hush, Three Jokers is violent, mature and meaty. I hope that the current interest in Marvel Studios' What If...? on Disney+ leads to more fare of a similar ilk from both Marvel Comics as well as DC Comics.
As night falls, I feel like I’ve done justice to this contemporary comic book legend. But with two more books in the Three Jokers series to read and the high-quality Hush making me want to watch more animated movies, I guess my Batman Day might just become a Batweek.
How did you celebrate Batman Day? Let me know in the comments below.
