Do you remember how last week I joked about how Forbes.com suggested you have a batwarehouse since a batcave was a bit unreasonable and costs too much? Imagine my chagrin when The Dark Knight has Batman in a batwarehouse since Wayne Manor was destroyed at the end of Batman Begins, complete with gaudy fluorescent lighting.
When we were watching The Dark Knight yesterday, I wondered if anyone else caught the sly bit of casting humor Nolan threw into an otherwise dark picture. The Mayor is played by Nestor Carbonell, currently known as "the member of the Others who never ages" on Lost, but always and forever Batmanuel on the live version of The Tick. In the comic, Batmanuel was known as Die Fleidermaus, but the producers must have thought the connection between the character and Batman wasn't obvious enough and so changed the name. Still, I found it hilarious that the man who played a slimy version of Batman on TV for 9 episodes was the mayor of Gotham City in the movie.
Oh, and if you're curious, all 9 episodes of The Tick can be seen here.
When I through out a title like "The Cost of Batman" on opening day of the new Batman movie, you might think I'm referring to that's movie's cost (which the New York Times puts "north of $100 million"). But no, I'm actually speaking of how much it would cost in raw dollars to be Batman.
One of Batman's primary allures is that anyone can be him. With enough money, training, and psychological scarring from a traumatic childhood event, any person could potentially fight crime. And run around in tights and a cape. You don't have to be an alien from the planet Krypton or be struck by gamma radiation or be bitten by a radioactive/genetically altered spider. No, you can be a superhero through sheer tenacity.
Well, tenacity and a $6.3 billion fortune that puts you at #28 on Forbes's list.
I've been reading through some of the early Batman comics from the early 1940s and have been struck that, though wealthy, Bruce Wayne was not a millionaire at first. But as costs have gone up over the past sixty years, so has his fortune, first to millionaire, then to multi-millionaire, and now to billionaire. But does he need all that money to be Batman? Surely a millionaire could do it.
Fortunately Forbes not only figured out where Bruce Wayne would be on the scale of wealthiest people, but also how much it would cost to be Batman per year. Their estimated cost? $3,365,449. But their list cheats. Batman Begins tells us that the batsuit costs $300,000. Forbes wants you to be realistic and so recommends a lightweight ProMAX OTV bulletproof jacket for $1,085 and a Kevlar helmet for $500. What about the legs? Every bad guy would know that a penknife to the legs would incapacitate you so you'd get a rouges gallery including the Fearsome Letter Opener. Obviously not acceptable.
What is worse about the list is that it only calls for $24,000 for the Batcave, which it recommends you put in a warehouse as there are no naturally occurring caves large enough in New York. The Batwarehouse? Really? No, you need to do as they've done in Kansas City and find an abandoned mine to convert. Will that cost you $24,000? No indeed.
But all in all, it's nice to see that for the cost of making the movie, you could probably fund a Batman for a year. So it's possible for any respectable millionaire to be Batman.
With the stunning success of Iron Man over the weekend, Marvel comics decided to let the world know what other superheroes you've never heard of will be making their way to the screen. Now, I was a fan of Iron Man as a kid, so his story being made into a movie didn't surprise me. And making a movie of Captain America seems like a no-brainer - who can argue with a superhero who embodies all that is good about the United States except large parts of the non-Western world. And I'll even buy a movie about Thor, a regular guy whose alter ego just happens to be the Norse god of thunder since it's directed by the same guy who brought us Stardust.
But Ant-Man? That's right, Marvel announced that in addition to those above projects, they also have Edgar Wright, director of Hott Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, making a movie about a scientist who can shrink down to small sizes and control insects with his helmet. I'm not making this up, he really does control ants with his helmet. Does this strike anyone else as a strange choice? What's next, a movie about one of their earliest comics, Kathy, the teen-age tornado?
Perhaps you have heard of this: That's right, Lego Star Wars has been such a huge hit as a video game, that Lego is branching out to make a Lego Batman game. In theory, I'm fairly excited about this development. After all, Batman still ranks as one of my favorite iconic American characters, the Lego Star Wars game has addictive game play and is fun to watch, and I have visions of long conversations about Batman with my nephew similar to the ones we already have about Star Wars.
My one hesitation is that I'm not sure which Batman the video game will go for. There are as many versions of Batman out there in popular culture as there are years he's been an icon. Will Lego Batman go for the original Bob Kane Batman? You can see his version there on the left in the premiere of Batman in Detective Comics in 1939. That Batman was literally like a giant bat, all in black and gray, and existed to scare criminals, mainly because he didn't have any fun toys. That's right, early Batman relied on ropes to tie up criminals, not super fast drying polymers to freeze criminals in their tracks. It could be interesting, but most people would grow tired of that Batman.
To inject a completely different spirit, but one that is certainly in the public's memory, they could go for Adam West's Batman of the 1960s TV series. You can tell he isn't as dark and foreboding as the original Batman because he's in dark blue, an oh-so-pleasant light purple, and is sucking in his gut to look lean and mean. This is the Batman that would provide plenty of "BIFFS!!" and "POWS!!!!" in colorful pop-up balloons for the game, which would be a nice visual. There are also plenty of fun toys and even the possibility of Batman going surfing!
But the 1960s Batman is distant enough in memory that I figure the powers that be Lego will go for one of the more recent incarnations. Batman from the 1989 movie or the 2005 one - a Batman that works in shadows but still has fun toys.
And yet, there is always Frank Miller's most recent version of the Batman. The man who put the dark back in Dark Knight has been plugging away at All-Star Batman and Robin, pouring all the over-the-top excess you've seen in Sin City and 300 into a redefining of Batman's team-up with young Robin. But even with the success of those movies, I really can't see Lego getting into Miller's version of the Batman - it isn't quite suitable for those under the age of Frank Miller.
Overall, I'm sure Lego Batman will go for a mash-up, bringing together styles from throughout Batman's changing nature (though they will have to make a call on short ears or long). But as they are making that call, I'd like to submit one treasure out of Batman's past they shouldn't overlook:A video game featuring Superman and Batman playing H-O-R-S-E? That's a game I'd buy.
This past year, no show has caught our fancy like Heroes. The show follows the exploits of ordinary people who wake up one day to discover they have extraordinary powers. The show plays to that desire we all have to be something, or do something, beyond our everyday existence. I mean, who wouldn't want to be able to stop time and teleport like Hiro or fly like Nathan? (Ok, maybe not fly exactly like Nathan...)
But I've discovered that people in my family have superpowers as well. Like Joy, for instance. She has the amazing ability to sense when dairy products are about to go bad. You think I'm kidding, but she can tell with uncanny accuracy three days before milk goes bad. This afternoon at lunch, she stopped eating her quesadillas, looked at them quizically, and declared that the cheese was close to going bad. She could make a killing in the dairy industry but hides her talents and dedicates her life to protecting her family from bad dairy.
Or even Sam. He has the amazing ability of supersonic selective hearing. We'll be walking outside and suddenly he'll stop, cock his head, and cry "beep, beep!" He can hear a car going beep from three miles away. But come dinner when we ask him to put his toys away, he doesn't hear a thing. A truly amazing power.
What's my power, you might ask? I'm the Dr. Suresh in this Heroes equation. I find out about their powers, keep them safe, clean up after them. Not glamorous, but certainly necessary.
So what about you? Any superpowers lurking out there?
P.S. Hey Stephen, I've figured out why Peter doesn't fly at the end. He either has enough problems controlling one power that using two at a time is beyond him or he simply can't use two at a time. He never does during the 1st season.
P.P.S. Yes, this is what watching this show reduces you to. Don't you want to start watching too?
Did you hear the news? Kryptonite was discovered recently in a Serbian mine. When the mining company couldn't match the mineral to any other known substance, they contacted Dr. Chris Stanley, a mineralogist working at London's Natural History Museum, and asked him to analyze it.
Of course they couldn't match it to any other known substance! It's the remains of a distant planet that fell to the earth with the Last Son of Krypton!
But I digress. Turns out that after ascertaining the mineral's chemical formula (which is sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide), Dr. Stanley did what any scientist and every student would do - he googled it. To his shock and amazement, he discovered that the grainy, white substance he was examining had the same chemical formula as the rock-hard, green kryptonite in last summer's Superman Returns.
No word yet on when Dr. Luther, I mean, Dr. Stanley will be using it to take over the world.
With the stunning success of Iron Man over the weekend, Marvel comics decided to let the world know what other superheroes you've never heard of will be making their way to the screen. Now, I was a fan of Iron Man as a kid, so his story being made into a movie didn't surprise me. And making a movie of Captain America seems like a no-brainer - who can argue with a superhero who embodies all that is good about the United States except large parts of the non-Western world. And I'll even buy a movie about Thor, a regular guy whose alter ego just happens to be the Norse god of thunder since it's directed by the same guy who brought us Stardust.
To inject a completely different spirit, but one that is certainly in the public's memory, they could go for Adam West's Batman of the 1960s TV series. You can tell he isn't as dark and foreboding as the original Batman because he's in dark blue, an oh-so-pleasant light purple, and is sucking in his gut to look lean and mean. This is the Batman that would provide plenty of "BIFFS!!" and "POWS!!!!" in colorful pop-up balloons for the game, which would be a nice visual. There are also plenty of fun toys and even the possibility of Batman going surfing! 
And yet, there is always Frank Miller's most recent version of the Batman. The man who put the dark back in Dark Knight has been plugging away at All-Star Batman and Robin, pouring all the over-the-top excess you've seen in Sin City and 300 into a redefining of Batman's team-up with young Robin. But even with the success of those movies, I really can't see Lego getting into Miller's version of the Batman - it isn't quite suitable for those under the age of Frank Miller.
A video game featuring Superman and Batman playing H-O-R-S-E? That's a game I'd buy.
This past year, no show has caught our fancy like Heroes. The show follows the exploits of ordinary people who wake up one day to discover they have extraordinary powers. The show plays to that desire we all have to be something, or do something, beyond our everyday existence. I mean, who wouldn't want to be able to stop time and teleport like Hiro or fly like Nathan? (Ok, maybe not fly exactly like Nathan...)
Did you hear the news? Kryptonite was discovered recently in a Serbian mine. When the mining company couldn't match the mineral to any other known substance, they contacted Dr. Chris Stanley, a mineralogist working at London's Natural History Museum, and asked him to analyze it.
