My Personal Batman

Dammit, forgot on Thursday again. Which is weird, because I had almost nothing to do on Thursday. Practically no homework to use as an excuse. I did, however, get to use my extra time to watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a movie based on the Animated Series. I had... mixed feelings.

I feel like it needed to be darker, but it was really as dark as it needed to be. So it was strange. Batman is really important to me, but I just feel like I prefer to see the series in a more realistic light. The fact that it was a cartoon in the first place hurt that, as the animation felt somewhat stilted, but most of the Batman I consume is in comic book form, so that isn't the issue (no pun intended?).

I guess I just feel like it needed to be more... real. I wanted the characters to make expressions that felt like real expressions. I wanted Batman to act like I felt Batman should act; I don't know what that is, but it wan't what I saw in Mask of the Phantasm, because he felt to animated and not real enough. I want the Joker to act like a real insane man and be able to kill people and do things with consequence - as much as I LOVE Mark Hamill's voice for him, the character as a whole just didn't do it for me.

By no means does that mean they have to be like Christopher Nolan's interpretation of the series, which is the only means by which the majority of the population sees Batman nowadays. His movies are about as grounded in reality as Batman could possibly be. But in a way, that damages what makes Batman special. After seeing Scarecrow's fantastic rendition in Batman: Arkham Asylum, Liam Neeson's version completely paled in comparison. Because in Arkham Asylum, even without the fear toxin, Scarecrow is a scary fucking dude, which is exactly what Scarecrow needs to be. By making him just a guy in a sack, he was more realistic, but less of what the character needed to be.

And more importantly, Heath Ledger's Joker. Heath Ledger did one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in any movie. But he did not play the Joker. He played a completely different character than you can see in any other Batman piece - unless you count the graphic novel Joker, which followed the movie, and was probably the greatest piece of disrespect I've ever seen to everything the Joker is. Heath Ledger was immensely entertaining, but he simply didn't pull off the wacky (murderous) clown nature of the Joker that I know and love.

So those are my thoughts on the Batman I don't like. In other news, you should all read The Killing Joke, because it's goddamn legendary. And Year One, which, in a series with at least a dozen different origin stories, is probably the definitive one. And Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, for some of the best art you will ever see in a comic. And the entire 5-graphic-novel-long No Man's Land series, because it's just fantastic. I can lend all 5 to you if you want them.

Have your own favorite Batman piece? Disagree about Ledger (I wouldn't be surprised) or The Animated Series (yes, Robert, I know)? Read the article at all? Comment away.