Episode 103: Batman

I don't know if he's just socially distant, he is emotionally unavailable yea. And to talk with us about that. He has been on our podcast and many of times he's been a host at Nerdice and for d C Daily. It is Hector Nabarrow. Thank you guys so much for having me. I'm also at home social distance seeing with my setup. Apologies if it doesn't sound as crispies as if dogs or Danny's, but I'm trying my best and I'm so excited to talk about the thing we're about

to talk about. Also, y'all should know, um, I think I said last time that my friends are like have been treating veggies like drug deals and being like, yo, I got you some spinach. Um today Hector dropped off like a pound of spinach on my front doorstep. You know, it's been fun, uh seeing all the different ways friends

are helping each other. Like I, uh my buddy Grant from college humor was saying that, you know, he's running for exercise, but his shoes, you know, have been hurting his heel because none of the stores are open to buy proper running shoes. And I was like, what size do you wear? And he's like thirteen, And I was like, oh, I have a thirteen, and lo and behold, I had like some running shoes I bought because I thought they

looked cool. And the thing about like wearing like sinkers just to wear them, like shoes that are meant for things like running don't actually like like they're comfy, but like they don't make it in the rotation off. So I was able to hook him up with some running shoes.

Well you know who also wears running shoes. We're talking about the Cape Crusader, the Dark Knight, Batman, the Man of the Man made of bats and you know what to cut you off, Danny, but I wanna, you know, we obviously there isn't much to geek out about right now because the world. But I think what would be fun to say is, what are you binging right now? You know, inside, I'm curious, because I'm curious. I'm curious in my head. Danny's just watching more Twilight Zone. Not entirely.

I feel like that'd be a little too bleak for these times. Almost Uh, yeah, are you looking at something? Yeah you are, Danny. Are you finding some other means of escapism? It's not the like, you know, the the maybe two real firelight, so well, this is this is wild. But I actually find this. I watched television and small amounts because I find it really triggering and so um, because I also work in television and so it's like you can't get away from it. And I'm still writing

on a on a Netflix show right now. So we have to meet for hours on end, like in a Zoom conference call, which is great a lot my coworkers, but also like it's the not what I want to do when I get off that call. So um, However, I will say the thing that I'm geeking out about, so I like takes I watch like one thing a day, and I like watch one episode of something or one movie. And last night I watched Uncorked, which is on Netflix. Prentice Penny, who's a showrunner for Insecure um row and

directed it. It's amazing. It's about a son whose dad wants him to take over his barbecue business, but he wants to be like a want a wine? Uh so what is it called? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, And so it's really awesome. And my favorite thing is like they have not only do they have like a dope soundtrack, but they also have like French rap French rap music in it, and Apprentice is just really dope and I like him a lot. And I love this movie. I actually like truly.

I was thinking about it today, like a day after I watched it, So it's great. That's great. I bought the first season because it's not available on DVD. Even though I love my physical media, I had to resort to buying digitally the first season of a cartoon show I loved, Growing Up That Abby my girlfriend has never seen, so I bought the first season of Jackie Chan Adventures on Amazon. That was It is so good, dude. It still holds up, surprisingly well, so that's that's what we've

been kind of binging right now. It's real fun because again, if you if you've never seen the show, it's so delightful because at the end of each episode of an animated Adventure where Jackie Chan is kind of like a like a pseudo archaeologist, but he's also like a martial arts but not really. He's just kind of a like a like a befuddled like you know, he doesn't want

any trouble type of a guy. Um. At the end of each episode, live action footage cuts to Jackie Chan like training in his dojo, and there's a little kid voice over like hey Jackie, and then asks him a question like do you like dessert, and then at Jackie chant answering like yes, ice cream, tiermisoo, tiermisoo, And it's so adorable and it makes us feel real good. Yeah, that's that's some good stuff. You will you'll be happy to now since you love physical media that I went

and got. Uh. I actually bought a few anime, but the main ones that I was super hyped about is and I had to go on and this is kind of what led me down the path of getting so many blu rays now is. I was trying to watch Big, which was one of my favorite like anime, which is it was just I'm glad I'm talking about now because

it's literally just MEC Batman. Like you can really looking at it, you can tell that they were definitely probably inspired by like Batman, the animated series, and if not, it's the wildest coincidence because it all it has that kind of like that kind of gap gets be that like neo Gatsby esque kind of vibe to it um and and so I was trying to stream it, it was nowhere, absolutely nowhere you could not stream it. I

was like, well then it's time. So I was able to find the twenty the twentieth Anniversary Blu Ray Complete Series steel book on eBay in pristine condition. Shout out to that seller. Uh, and it has like an art book that went with it. And then on top of it, I got my favorite anime of all time, which you know, I get, I I get lots of flak because DBZ

is my second favorite, DVC is my second favorite. My first favorite animal of all time is Gorn log On and I have the They came out with this super dope multidisc set and I've just been watching through it all weekend and it's just as gorgeous, just as beautiful

as as as I remember. I thought, I was like, maybe this isn't gonna be as tight to me because it's been a while, but no, it's so good and it's it's great and it's so funny because like now that I've kind of been watching a lot of anime and see why I love DBZ and all these anime because the through line and a lot of my favorites is the idea of hope and holding inside of it, which makes it a good watch for times like now because it really is like especially like tingin Top and

Goring and log On, where it's like it really is like, you know, just believing in yourself and making the impossible happen, and it's yeah, it's solid. I'm about to be I'll be finished with it by today and then I'm just gonna watch the two movies with it and just probably like go through my favorite moments again and then finally knock out Big Oh if you're such a good ide Danny's um dnnon in in in and in It, jingle Bells, rules,

Am I right? Friends, Everyone It's Danny Fernandez here with Nerdyface talking about Batman because you know, we've actually been doing NERD Deficent for two years their two year anniversary. Yeah, kind of crazy. We've never talked about Papan yeah. Um, you know, we try to talk about things like The Flash or Shazam or like, you know, characters that don't have decades worth of television and movies. Yeah, I can almost.

I can like see where like why it took us so long to get to Batman because it's what what's interesting about NERD Defficent and what I love about it is how it evolved because I feel like before it was like more of a like introspect the deep divy maybe fine, its something that you didn't know type, and that as we've grown, we've realized that one deep diving like everyone has that. That's like there's there's a whole website,

there's wicky as all that. What's fun is seeing the relationship to the characters and kind of like going beat for beat with people who were passionate about it of like the you know, how it came to be and then really waxing poetic on how we feel about these characters. So I can see why we wouldn't want to deep dive one of the most visited characters in all of media. Totally. No.

I like that. I like that approach of trying to uh talk about a personal connection because if you guys had like you're saying, if he and Danny like almost

avoided talking about this subject up to this point. It is because there are so many people who know so much about Batman, and even outside of movies, which there are millions and millions and millions of movie fans and pop culture fans, I find that the people who like these kinds of characters and superhero characters at that surface level of well, I've seen all the movies or I've seen the cartoon show, and there's usually a deeper level than that of like, well, have you read comic books

of these characters. That I found that most people who love Batman at that surface level, out of all the people who love superheroes at the surface level, Batman is the one that gets people to go, well, I'll read their comic too, I'll pick up a comic book. So it's like, really, it really is surprising and not surprising sometimes, but to to run into people and go yeah, I love the Christopher Nolan movies, No, my Batman is Michael Keaton and then they in that same breath they go yeah.

And I love the Neil Adams run a Batman in the seventies and oh Man like Death in the Family

in the eighties was awesome. And I love the stuff that you know that Scott Snyder and Gregor Pula were doing recently in the common Like they go so deep with it that it is difficult to like educate people about this character because I feel like if a person likes even likes Batman, they have almost already done that homework on their own, and everybody has a like a like a like a base knowledge of what this character

and world is. Yeah. Well, here I was wondering if you wanted to walk people through, because we're going to get to your intro of him, which I could guess what it is, but did you want to walk all through? Um not like you don't have a bunch of it at your apartment or anything, but did you want to walk people through his creation and how he got started

nine after the Great Depression? Wait, I don't know, yes, yes, but but before the onset of World War Two, Superman appears on the scene and Action Comics number one and changes the industry as we know it. And from the creation of Superman and his popularity in comic books, which I think it's difficult to describe to people how popular this character was, you know, for modern day people today to to to try to explain to them, No, he

was just appearing in comic books and was insanely popular. Um. The company that eventually became known as d C Comics was like, well, we need another character, and it was Bob Kane who came up with the name Batman and even came up with some preliminary sketches that were like he had a character who had like red boots and more of a bright, colorful costume. He him collaborating with

artists and writer Bill Finger. Bill Finger was the one to go, well, why don't we make them darker, but why don't we put him in gray and black and blue and try to contrast him with Superman? And I feel that it's really really interesting to know that there is a little bit more of the let's let's add this stuff to the character to make them different from

Superman than I think people. No, Um, that they that they were really kind of And then and then of course everything that that Batman did in comic books and beyond influenced how Superman was written and the stories were created with Superman. So both of these characters have been like not tugging and pulling on each other, but like

making each other kind of better. And and and when you put those two characters together, they have like shaped each other's ideologies so strongly that people understand Batman better when Superman is a round and vice versa. So that's the origin is that, like, Batman is a character who when he was the first appearing in comic books Detective Comics number twenty seven, nineteen thirty nine, I want to say, um, a little bit after Superman appeared in thirty eight, but

before Robin appeared in ninety we'll get to that. He uh, he was a character who was clearly influenced by all of the pop culture that was happening up to that point, things like the Shadow, who was like a pulp comics character and things like um, uh you know Dracula and uh, Leonardo da Vinci's designs inspired Bob Kane, and now he was like, well, this is what the cape should look like?

And those kinds of like you know, like like Mobster, Dick Tracy, types of disfigured villains and everything, and especially the comic strip the Phantom, who was another kind of pulp character, pulpy character with his like blank white eyes, which is another idea that Bill Finger contributed to the creation of Batman. All of these things culminated in this character,

who was almost like a picture. It like this, if you took everything that that uh sort of comic book writers and artists who were probably nerds back in the day. These guys it were just cranking out these stories to make a buck, to try to pay the bills. If you took everything that they were influenced by and put it in a meat grinder and out came the other side, it would probably be Batman because it was just so

clearly influenced by other things. But when it was all smashed together, it did end up becoming such a unique and as the decades went on and more people contributed to the concept like such a unique and strong concept. And it's so surprising this to know how much of it came from even those early early comics, just like Superman. Just like if you go to Marvel and read spider Man in the early sixties twenty years later, so much of what Spiderman is today still can be pulled from

those first kind of stories and origins and everything. So so Batman's a character in comic books, they are teaming him up with you know, Superman and eventually Robin and eventually Wonder Woman in the Justice Society. And then you cut too when superheroes became less and less popular after the fifties and people were coming back from the war and McCarthy ism and all these things that were happening the sixties changed the character with a couple of different ways.

The main thing is, and before the sixties as well, in the forties, there were still some movie cereals that featured Batman, so he was like a film character. Well actor, I wanted to say, why so he was? He was? You know, I always see them as like Gokun Vegeta,

They're like, you know, of the Mother. But why then the detective aspect of him, like it's such different than just the straight Superman peop were here again, It's because Superman was such a like brain melting lye new idea, and yet Superman was still drawing upon influences like Edgar Rice Burrows, you know, a Princess of Mars, the John Carter of Mars series, where that's a guy who is from Earth goes to Mars. There's less gravity, so he

can jump around and he has like super strength. It's just an inverse of that where somebody from an even denser planet than ours, Crypton comes here and it's classic sci fi Buck Rogers style, Flash Gordon style influences Batman. Again, it's just a reflection of what was happening at the time.

Sherlock Holmes, you know, they're like huge sellers, these characters who we kind of take for granted today and think that they that they unless something like a Benedict Cumberbach Batch Sherlock comes along and everybody gets excited about these characters again, But these characters have been around for like over a century, were like hot stuff back then and ended up influencing the kinds of stories that they wanted

to tell with this character. And I think again a lot of that initial collaboration between Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and there's been some controversy with like how much credit does Bill Finger get with because for decades it was Batman created by Bob Kane. Batman created by Bob Kane, and Bob Cane was almost like a Stan Lee. He was such a good salesman and such a good pitch guy in hype Man that he sold himself as almost

like the sole creator of Batman. People have yeah, people have gone back and they're like, actually, no, dude, you're the one who came to him with an idea of like he should have red boots like super and Bill Finger with the one that was going, how about we do this? How about we do that? And Bill Finger did so much of the art as well. Uh and that's the writing. So yeah, yeah, sorry to cut you

off saying. Qote that we had was Bill saying why not make him look more like a bat put a hood on because before you just had like a Robin mask, a Domino mask. And then he was like take the eyeballs out and just put slits for the eyes to make him look more mysterious. And that's like probably the staples of a Batman, like he just like that is the blueprint. Every everything beyond that, you know is cool,

but it's it's looking like a bat white eyes. Everyone goes like That's the biggest thing people were freaking out about was when the potential for this new movie to have just wide eyed Batman. We also did the cow the most famous how um, so this is a finger also devised the name Bruce Wayne. Yeah, so you said this is a quote. Bruce Wayne's first name came from Robert Bruce, the Scottish, the Scottish patriot. Wayne, being a playboy, was a man of gentry. I searched for a name

that would suggest colonialism. I tried to Adam Hancock. Then I thought of mad Anthony Wayne. He later said his suggestion was influenced by leaf Folks Popular the Phantom, a syndicated newspaper comic strip character with which Kane was also familiar. Yeah. That doesn't surprise me either, because, in the same way that Superman Clark, Kent is supposed to be the ideals of America in the sense of like, he's a good person raised by good people with good morals and and

and good uh lessons, and he is an immigrant. It's an immigrant story. Batman is another part of the American dream that is essentially a false American dream, but it's still one that like people in the United States have bought into since the beginning of the United States, which is, if you work hard, you can become a billionaire, you can become a self made man. And that is not true. Um and Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne is this great fantasy

of like being a responsible and cool billionaire. I and uh, and so that is just as much of a part of his appeal, I think, and like his popularity is that people, whether knowingly or not, they subconsciously see that and they go it's just like it's escapism. It's just like James Bond, sure, but especially the fact that he is a superhero character, and superheroes are an American unique creation.

Our popular culture was the one to create these these modern superhero characters and put them in cities, and you know, and then the rest of the world did their own takes and and they're all valid. But to have a story where it's like, here's a guy who who has billions of dollars loses his parents. So only with an with a tragedy will he decided to actually do something

about social ills. Only after it happens to him. Otherwise he would not have cared because he's a billionaire and his life was set and afterwards he goes around the world and trains and becomes someone who has a physically perfect body. He was already a genius to begin with, because you know, most billionaires are, and their families, you know, have given them genes of like his father was a doctor and his mother was brilliant, and so he's a

super genius. Then he goes around the world and becomes the world's greatest detective, studying with people like at one point even Sherlock Holmes himself has been sort of written into the story and he's gone to Scotland Yard and he studied, you know, how to do C. S I type technology and everything. And then on top of that, he's one of the world's greatest mechanics and he builds a super souped up unique car and then his own

plane and all this other stuff. So for decades and decades and decades, Batman has been a character who is fun to imagine this type of person with wealth, you know, giving back to the world in the city he grows up in because he loves the city and he's trying to make better. And I found that really only in the past, I would say twenty years have there been stories that have attempted to be like, well, let's talk

about him being a billionaire for a second. Let's talk about how else he uses his money instead of just gadgets. Here he is giving to orphanages. Here, he is, you know, trying to build the city in different ways. And why doesn't he share more of his money? Why does he feel so um focused and driven that he believes he's the only man capable of doing this mission he's doing.

He does not even have superpowers. And I feel like sometimes those stories are strong, They're stronger for that exploration, the fact that it goes inward to Bruce Wayne and go he's honestly flawed, and that he is so arrogant, for better or worse, that he thinks he's the only man who can do this stuff, which explains why he, you know, he is personality wise, the way that he is, where he's so shut off from people and and at the same time he is also kind of full of

crap because he has this extended family Robin and back Girl and Batwoman and Alfred and another Robin and another Robin and all these different characters, and it becomes just as important to the whole Batman World. But anyway, but that's kind of talking about his inception, the fact that he is billionaire, and I feel like it's just again it's another great contrast between him and Superman. Right, Superman is an immigrant who comes from He's the assault of

the Earth. You know. Uh, he comes from nothing and only wants enough to be able to have an apartment in Metropolis and you know, maybe someday get married to

the lowest. But like, he cares about helping people selflessly, and Batman helps people selfishly because he you know, he always has the plan and he always But again to Batman's credit, to this character and the story idea from the beginning is well, the police is corrupt in Gotham City, and that's a really uh poignant and interesting, you know story as to how eventually Batman came to deal with

them with like authority and with police and everything. So so going back to sort of the history, He's a character in comic books for decades and decades, and then in the sixties he gets that big TV show, Adam West.

That's sixties and nineteen sixty six is when that show premiers, and a lot of hardcore Batman comic book fans it would see the show was kids or the the show when it was coming out at first didn't like it because it was very camp and this is a character who who was born in a much darker and more

serious tone. And eventually the comic books sort of reflected a lighter tone and the show picked up on that, and then after the show came out, the comics continued to sort of do that to reflect what the very popular TV show was doing. And so Batman has had these little mini revolutions in his comic book world where it's almost like a pushback to what's happening on. A writer and artist will come along ago, we're going back

to basics. He's darker, he's doing detective work. It's not about hey ho chum and and you know, Jimminy Jilliper has to be like that because it seems like those are aside from Adam West, who seems like one of the only people that can pull that off, right, it seems like it's not possible to do Batman like campy or lighthearted like now with like like, So if the next Batman movie came out, do you think that they could do that and not have it be as dark. Um I will I will say this. I think you

need to have There's two components, right. There is the character himself Batman Bruce Wayne, and then there's the world that he operates in. And I think one of the two needs to be serious and the other one can be more lighthearted or heroic or um cheesy or corny or childish as long as the other one is still. And let me try to explain that if on the one instance you have a cheesy, corny Batman, to my mind, the world should be a little bit darker than Superman's world.

And for me, a cheesy, corny Batman is somebody who he's kind of like Iffy. He's this big, buff dude who you think is just a total badass. He could

probably take on a guerrilla strength to strength. But the important thing is is that Batman has a heart of goal, like he's a he's almost a liar, and that he lies to the people around him and he lies to himself, almost like the first few seasons of the show Dexter, where he was a serial killer who's like, I can't have a family, I kind of emotional attachments, and then he has that and you're like, what are you thinking, dude?

You you have the stuff that you say you're not capable of because you think you're a monster when you're not. To me, those are some of the most inspirational, beautiful stories of Batman where he can come through and he decides, I'm not gonna succumb to the depths of this city. I'm not going to murder somebody. I'm not going to is exactly my personal revenge or vengeance. I'm not going to I'm going to continue to believe that people are good.

And those stories I think work really well. But that means that, yeah, the world can be a little bit darker. In the world has to be a little bit dark. That's to me, to my in my opinion, I think that's why a lot of the Ben Affleck Batman story stuff didn't work for me. Even though Ben Affleck looked so much the part, and he he's an incredible actor, and I think he was very well cast in the role.

That story had a world where it was already dark and cynical, and then this Batman himself is dark and cynical, and I know that the whole purpose of that story is like, well, once Superman died he becomes inspired to and I feel like that's fine. I think it works on paper. It just didn't. It just didn't work for me in that movie, and it kind of made the follow up, which was Justice League the movie a little bit sort of uneven with a bunch of other problems.

But to go back to the other example, if there's a world that is really corny and cheesy, like the nineteen sixties Adam West world, if there is a Batman who is a bit more serious but he still operates in that superhero world, I think it works beautifully. And the example is the cartoon show Batman, The Brave and the Bold. That cartoon show came out after many, many years of Kevin Conroy's Batman, so I think a lot of bat fans didn't really take to it immediately. They

were like, what is this new thing. Actor Diedrich Bader from the Drew Carey Show and a bunch of other stuff. He voiced Batman, and he had a voice like this and it was very cheesy and over the top, but he as a character was very like serious and driven in heroic and the world around him was like every episode he would team up with another DC superhero character, and the DC world is very colorful, it's very hopeful and optimistic. So an episode he's teaming up with Aquaman.

An Aquaman was voiced by John DiMaggio, and he played him like outrageous, like this adventurer come ho ho ho chum. And so it became this like like odd couple of like these heroes showing up and being very cheesy and Batman going, this is why I work alone. And that was fun and that worked. So so I think that if you move too far away from the darkness for Batman, and it's both he himself the character is very light and the world is light, then it's really just sort

of like a Batman dress up for for kids. And that's fine to kind of tell them, like, hey, kids, here's the Penguin, here's the Joker, Here's Batman, here's Robin. How fun is this? But it's not really like a real thing, um. And if you go to light and optimistic with it, I think, you know, you move away

from what makes Batman Batman. But if you again, if you go too dark with it, then Batman becomes a character who doesn't work with the rest of his world, which is the DC universe, and it should be super heroic, and it s to be lighter and and really, the DC universe to me is similar to the Marvel universe. They both are similar in tone. They have differences, clearly, but they still kind of come from a lot of the same stuff and so many of the same creatives

have worked in both. So like if you wanted, if you asked Hector, what do you think of when in terms of tone, when you think about like the DC Universe, I think, honestly, it's it's if I would explain it to regular folks who don't read comics, it is similar to like the m C U. There's a bunch of different characters, there's a bunch of different genres kind of in tone, but ultimately you know what you're getting. It's superheroes being superheroes. So Batman still needs to sort of

fit in that world. And if he goes too dark and too serious or too realistic and you move away from that, then there's something lost for the character. As well. With Christopher Nolan, when he did his movies, he was completely separated from the rest of the d C universe. They were not concerned with that at all. But I think It's still worked because Christopher Nolan and the storytellers made it a point to be like, Batman does not murder people, he doesn't kill this. He still has a code.

He still has you know, a very kind of an unrealistic superhero e. You know, these these kinds of codes real only work in comic book stories because they're supposed to you know, be for us or not. It's not a real it's not a documentary. You know, if Batman were real and criminals were actually afraid of him, he

would have to be a murderer. He would have to be somebody who you know, he would have to be somebody who like who like seriously harmed people and like and just so it's like so that Batman should never be treated as like, well, what if he were real, because he's not that escaped, right. I've definitely gotten people angry on Twitter by by suggesting that, as you've seen sometimes on a troll And I'll just be like, I think I've compared him to the not like compared with

the Punisher, but I was like his body count. Um, people like when you bring up the fact, I'm like, if he punches a guy off a building, that person is dead, like I guess not in cartoon land, but like when he leaves someone face down in a puddle, that person is dead. You know. Nobody likes to hear that, which is fine. I get it. And I just was like, I don't understand why you guys can't come to terms

with this. And I love Batman, you know, I grew up like you on Batman, the animated series, and I'm like, why is it so bad? And then people explain it just that way Hector. They were like, it's so important that he doesn't kill like and they were like, why why does it have to be like the real world? We are saying this is a fantasy world and purposely like it, why are you making us make it real?

And I was like, okay, I get it now, like the real world, our world, our news is like so messed up constantly, and like you're saying, if he were real, he would murder a bunch of people, And so I get what you're saying is there's no reason he's a fake. He's a fictional character, like, just just live in the fantasy. Yeah. Well, uh, I think speaking of fantasy, we touched on the animated series and I want a pivot to talk about it. But let's talk about it right after these messages and

we're back. What's up, y'all. Welcome back to Near Difficent. Got Danny Fernandez, Hector Navarro, and we're talking about the Batman. We were just talking about, you know, the different eras of the Batman's right into the movies, and uh, you know, I just had some knowledge dropped on me that I didn't know that the Batman was wearing some Jordans. I think these are sevens, uh for the boots. Actually you look more like, yeah, those are sixes. He had the

sixes on. Uh for those Yeah, because they're the like puffy part of the six is a little flattered that I'm losing my mind looking at this picture, But I feel like they were pretty popular whenever it um came out. Yeah you're wearing them, um, Hector, do you want to walk people through the Tim Burton Michael Keaton, by the way, is my Batman. I'm the one that I remember the most at being a kid, aside from Batman Animated series was George Clooney. Um, just because he was so hot

in that moment. He was like so big and so was um. The rest of the cast like Arnold and stuff. Everybody was like such a big deal. But and I had those little burger keen glasses. Was that for the other one? Was that for the Val Kilmer one or did they do both? Maybe both? Maybe? Anyways, Um, the George Clooney one was like huge for me when I was little, also had a crush on him. But I believe the first one that I saw was Michael Keaton. Yeah, of course. Well again to to to kind of do

the big picture like zoom out here. The sixties show had gave everybody on the planet uh an idea of what Batman could be, a potential Batman, and for years most people on Earth believed Batman to be that. And it was really those sort of hardcore comic book readers and comic book creators themselves, like the Neil Adams and and Danny O'Neil that would come on and start writing the darker and more interesting, more realistic versions of the character. And that led to in the eighties a bunch of

different things happening. So in eight Superman the movie came out and really sort of changed the game and was the first modern superhero film, and I almost think of it as like the Silver Age of superhero movies, because if the Golden Age is everything that came before, all of the different movie cereals and you know, different TV shows and little movies here and there, Superman was the one that brought us an era up to about the

year two thousand. I feel like it's all the same era of superhero movies, like the seventies, eighties and nineties, you know that kind of thing, and then two thousand with X Men and a little bit before Blade, but X Men and Spiderman changed it to like where we

are today. So Superman the movie came out, and I learned this when I had a chance to talk to one of the producers of the first Batman movie, Um, which was I asked him, did the movie Superman make it easier or harder for you to get your movie made?

And he said harder because everyone expected Superhero to follow that mold of the Christopher Reeve really hopeful, really sweet, you know, heroic, classic character again kind of mirroring the comics, mirroring the comics as to what you know, people may have thought so in the eighties. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, Michael Us Land and other people were trying to make this Batman movie happen, but they were trying to bring it back to that old school, darker, uh

more gothic version of the character. And in the eighties some comic book creators felt the same, and you came out with a couple of like one two hits. You had things like Batman the Killing Joke, which really kind of you know, mess people's brains with like how dark it potentially was. It was Alan Moore writing that Brian Bolland was an artist. Then you had like, uh, Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing and transferring from Robin and they brought in this new character, and then they killed off the

character because nobody liked Jason Todd. A lot of the creators didn't like him, and apparently a lot of the fans didn't like him because he was written to be a really like chip on his shoulder type of character and it didn't quite click with readers. So they did this famous stunt where they in the back pages of one of the comics had a not nine hundred number that fans could call to decide whether this character is

going to live or die. After he was like about to be killed by the Joker or he was caught in an explosion or whatever, and only by like sixty votes out of like like nine votes or something did the character get voted to die. So then the new the news media picked up on that and they're like, wait, DC Comics is killing Robin because people didn't know. It wasn't the original Robin Dick Grace and that character was still alive, and now he was a night Wing and

now he was on the team Titans. This was a new character, but it's still get garnered enough of like media attention that the sales were huge, you know, the comic book publishers, which don't normally get this kind of attention, we're like, whoa this is? This is great and it led to good stories where after this Robin Jason Todd died, Bruce Wayne, the character was really affected heavily and it

sort of changed his stories. And then on top of that, genius comic book classic creator Frank Miller, who was a writer and artist on this piece that he did, was about to turn thirty years old back in the eighties, if you could believe it, he was only a twenty nine year old young man turning thirty, and in his mind, the character of Batman had always only been allowed to be twenty nine years old, right, d C Comics they they've never up to this point, it's kind of unofficially,

they never really wanted Batman to be too old. They wanted to be in the comics. In the comics, I mean Adams Batman. But but even the age of Batman has always been an interesting thing for fans to sort of debate and try to figure out because the comic book publisher, d C Comics and various you know, companies that have Batman, they don't want him to appear too old. But at the same time, he's supposed to have these

years of history and experience underneath his belt. And Robin is supposed to be kind of like a son figure but maybe like a younger brother, because it's like, well, we don't want Robin to be too too young. Maybe he maybe if if Batman's like twenty nine, Robin can be like seventeen, you know. So it's even trying to figure out the ages is always kind of fun and

and and and can lead to some interesting stuff. So when Frank Miller was really sitting down and thinking about this, and he goes, I don't want to be older than Batman. Batman has been older than me my whole life. You know. It's just like when we're kids and we would look up to the Ninja Turtles and then at one point we got older than the Ninja Turtles, and now it's weird. They were also not teenage. Those were like like thirty two year old hurt. So Frank Miller was thinking the

same thing. He was like, I want to do the story of like the last Batman story, or a story where he's like a sixty year old guy. So he he wrote and drew The Dark Night Returns after he had been retired for years in the in the future, you know, in a far future, UM this alternate version of Batman story and he comes back and he's got white hair, and he comes back and he's just big, burly dude, and and so much of that influenced a lot of what UM ended up becoming a staple and

like necessary in the world of Batman. And so these kinds of comics, right, you've got Batman things like Batman You're one, kind of which Frank Miller did a little bit before and after The Dark Knight returns um where when all of DC Comics was kind of revamping their line, They're like, well, let's do a new, more serious origin for Batman. So they so Frank Miller again, he wrote and a different artist drew Batman Year One, which was

a huge inspiration for Batman Begins. In fact, that first script Batman Begins, I think was originally titled Batman Year one. I think so. But back still back in the eighties, Batman Year one, Dark Knight Returns, Batman, the Killing Joke, Death in the Family. These kinds of comics were really changing the game. So when it came time to potentially do a Batman film, they helped. They helped influence the creators.

They helped influence people like Tim Burton, and he was brought on as this young up and coming director, and and Michael Uselin for years had wanted to get Jack Nicholson as the Joker ever since he saw One Fell Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And they did it. And I mean, you can look up the sort of making of the first Batman film and it's really really special and really cool. And I know, Danny, you and I watched it maybe

last year. Did for my movie podcast, and it's like so much of it still holds up, but so much of it is so interesting because I feel like we've moved even so much further in terms of what we expect from like a superhero movie. It still felt like it was early years, like they're figuring stuff out, you know. Not only that, but like the portrayal of women, Yes, it's not great. We couldn't do this anymore. Yeah, just like very much of course the damsel in distress, the

like playboy bunny type of you know. But I will say to give credit to Michael Keaton, I did believe that he was flirtatious and could be in a relationship. Like That's another great thing that Michael Keaton brought to the role. Is it his Bruce Wayne is not? Oh yeah, it's so I mean, And in fact, I would love

it if a comedian could be Bruce Wayne. Like you know, there was so much controversy which we've talked about on this podcast when he was cast because he was Mr Mom and and uh and a comedian, and I think that that works super well. Same with all the comedie like Jack Nicholson being the joker, you know, and Jim Carrey, who I loved as the Riddler, which I guess not everyone has, but like, I really like comedy people playing

these roles because, like you said, it's so dark. I also have this theory, Hector, that there's only one hour of daylight and Gotham just always nighttime. It's just always like that's the difference between the first Batman film and the first you know, the Superman early movie series, those first four movies with Christopher Reeve. It's like so much of Superman is in the daytime, and that's the whole,

the whole purpose of that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking at these pictures of him, like these old pictures of him, and this jawline is not a year old, okay? Um, Like if he hadssted today, he would have a TikTok. Like I'm not okay with this. Yeah, world forty I mean I love a Batman who is or forty five. Like I love that because that just means you can have a night Wing who's like thirty two, in a in a red Hood who's like thirty, and you know Damian Wayne who's like fifteen, and like like I don't

mind all the years. I don't mind, you know, have characters. I don't mind a Superman who looks and acts forty five years old, because I think that the dec universe is so great that there's so many other legacy characters Supergirl and bat Woman and bat Girl, multiple back Girls and all these different characters. Who can who can be like younger versions of the of the template you know?

Um So anyway, but back to the Tim Burton movie. One, two movies come out, Batman returns, and with these success of these movies, Warner Brothers sort of green lights maybe doing a new animated show. And they so luckily had a bunch of nerds working on animaniacs at the time, animaniacs and tiny tunes. Um actually it was tiny tunes. It was what it was. And some of those folks went to go do Animaniacs, and some of those folks

went to go do Batman. Then maated series. Bruce Tim was sort of creating his own pitch for it with other artists, and and the way I like to sum up Batman the animated series is if you take the eighty years of Batman comic book history, because he premiered in thirty eight, so we're we're coming up on I don't know. We're now two years past his eightieth anniversary.

If you took all of those years of comics and smushed it again through another meat grinder, but it is like a magical meat grinder with a filter that's like only the good stuff will come out on the other end. What would come out of the other end would be Batman the animated series. It is the perfect distillation of all of the best aspects of the character, of his world, of a supporting cast, of the villains, and of the

stories and the potential that they could be. And I feel like outside of comics, and even better than the comics, it is the best entry level for the character and it's the best like summary of like, Okay, this is what Batman is um because there's been so many, so many comics that are great, but there's also years and years people You've gotta remember, they come up with a new comic book of Batman every single month, multiple in fact, he has multiple series Batman Detective Comics, so on and

so forth. So to to meet that demand. It's like, some of the stories are not going to be bangers, they're not going to be iconic, they're not going to be long lasting, But a lot of them are because so many great writers have contributed to the character and because his character and his his creation were so strong, um, so much of of what's added to the character and doesn't like break him, It just kind of adds to him and and so he's become stronger for that still.

But Batman the animated series is like the greatest of all time. Yeah, I mean also just like gorgeous, like just completely beautiful. Have you seen any or Blue Ray or whatever like Green Master did a couple of years ago. It looks great, it looks so good. No, you can let me borrow because I know you own it. I will,

I can, and I will um okay. So so then we're hopping into like kind of all the nineties films, and I personally, I've always gone to bat for these just because I feel as goofy as they are, as much as people have a lot of debate about them, because you know, when when Nolan came along, it was like, oh, this is a Batman movie, this is how Batman should feel,

this is who's done Batman right. But like the goofy ones, you know, Batman and Robin Batman forever, for me, those felt like the comic book like they're colorful, you know, we have um poison ivy, like I said, like just very outland. And also they scound like comic book characters. If you've read comics, they are corny as hell, and

that's how they sounded in these movies to me. And so I really actually enjoyed these a lot, and I wouldn't weigh them against the note, Like, I just think there's so different ways to do a comic book movie, and this is one of those ways. I agree. Yeah, it's interesting you brought up that comparison to because, like I love so many things about the Christopher Nolan movies, and I love things about the old Batman films of

the eighties and nineties as well. But like a lot of the times, you run into dudes who love the Nolan movies and they go, oh, that's Batman, and I go, yeah, But there's also things about those movies that almost feel embarrassed by the comics that they purposefully avoid as opposed to trying to embrace them, you know what I mean. So, so if you love the comics, if you're a comic book lover, I feel like you can love any version

of Batman and any movie. But there is a side of like, well, do you feel like Christopher Nolan was almost insulting us a little bit because it's like he avoided trying to even do Robin the Boy Wonder, you know, And it's a shame because I think Christopher Nolan is so talented as a director and as a storyteller that it's like, if anybody were to try to tackle that and make it cool, it could have been him. But instead he goes, no, that's dumb. I'm never gonna do it. No,

I'm never gonna do Mr Freeze. No, I'm never gonna do you know, Clay Face. No, I'm never gonna do Poison Ivy. Those ideas are dumb. They don't work in my world. And that's valid and that's cool. But again, I'm a comic book lover and I want to see the stuff as well, so so you know, I think that to to be a Batman fan and to go that's the number one top of the mountain, nothing will be better. I feel like, well, you're you're still kind of missing out on what those kinds of stories and

characters and stuff can give you. Um, you know what I can say on Instagram. I follow so many artists highly recommend, like Instagram better, but um, a lot of times they'll do an art challenge where it's like draw this in your own style, and they'll take a character or something and then they'll draw in their art style. And that's what I literally feel like all these films are. It's like, let's just do Batman, but do it in your style or do it in this style, or like, yeah,

that's exactly right. And I feel kind of, uh, I feel like kind of a jerk sometimes too, because because I think that that is accurate Danny. And in that sense, I'm almost mad because I feel like there's never been a true Batman from the comics film in live action yet, you know what I mean, because it has been so

director driven. It's been so like, no, do do whatever you want to, put your own stamp on it, put your own stank on it, whatever you want however you want to, versus like I love these movies very much as well for different reasons. Are like the m CU movies. When I watched Aunt Man, I'm not thinking man Peyton Reid just wanted to do whatever he wanted to do with them. No I'm like, no, this is aunt Man, this is this is the character from the comic books,

or this is Captain America. And they didn't like try to get him to fit in a you know, a square hole or whatever. They were just like, let's just do everything that we can from the from the comic books and for better again or for worse, because a lot of the m c U movies, you can watch

them and you go, Okay, who directed that? I forgot because you don't sometimes feel the artist or the storyteller that's been able to tell the story with those characters, because it is so like, no, we gotta stick to what our story is gonna be. We're building up to Fanos. This is the plan, this is what has to happen in this movie. This is the character we're introducing in this movie. And the m c U movies I think

only really work the best. The best when you have a director or a writer or both who can play ball, who can be like, okay, if this is what you want for thor I'm taiko y t t and this is my idea for what I want to talk about. You know, Okay, cool, We're the Russou brothers and we'll play ball and we're gonna do some like awesome action movies full of all your favorite character Like that's when

I think it really really works the best. Or James Gunn being able to put so much heart into Guardians of the Galaxy that like it's better than any Guardians comics I've ever read, you know, because of all that heart. So so. On the one hand, I love the Tim Burton and Joe Schumacher Batman stuff. It's fun. I love the the Christopher Nolan movies. It's intense and serious and cool. Um. And I love things about the new DC films, especially like Birds of Prey and I really like Shazam, you know,

and like Wonder Woman. But there's still sometimes this feeling of like, man, what are we gonna get? Like the proper like just don't don't bring on a director, don't wait for a director to have their take. Why isn't there somebody over at Warner Brothers is just like, we just gotta do this. We gotta do Batman, we gotta do Superman. We get you know, we're gotta do all

these characters to get this all rolling. Um. But you know that's that's not there there uh, I guess financial concern that's not that's that's not something that they're interested in. And hopefully this upcoming Robert Pattinson Matt Reeves Batman movie is uh is super cool and I'm sure it's going to give me a bunch of stuff that I can't wait to see. Um, while still being like, well, that's

matt Reeves's vision. That's his vision. Again. If I want something that's like, what's just the pure like distillation of the character, I really do go to Batman, the animated series, Superman, Batman Beyond, all the way through Justice League Unlimited. Like that to me is like that's DC Comics pure, that's DC Comics pure. So, um, we're going to get into you kind of touched on the future of Batman, but we're gonna get into that right after these messages and

we are back. So before we hop into the future of Batman, we Lego Batman. I think actor you said as your favorite Batman I probably is my single favorite, like theatrically released Batman film, um, because I think that for just like the first Lego movie, for being something that's so constrained by like having to be a movie about Lego and having to you know, fit into a bunch of different categories of like it's a kid's movie, it's got this has got to be the running length.

This has gotta you know, all the stuff that's gotta hit. We gotta have some pop songs and all this other stuff I think it also has. It's such a wonderful love letter to everything Batman and not just Bruce Wayne Batman. Like Barbara Gordon by Rosaria Dawson voiced by Rosaria Dawson is fantastic, um Robin Dick Grayson voiced by Michael Sarah is like hilarious. But also the relationship between Robin and Batman.

I'm like, that's what I want. Now. This is exaggerated for sure, but that's what I wanted in a Batman movie since Chris O'donnald showed up and I didn't get it. You know, this this great like kind of father son and it's really weird and warped and funny. And and the way that Batman has a relationship with the Joker where he's like, I don't I don't I'd like to say five a fight around. I don't have one villain. I'm seeing multiple bad guys right now, Like, and the

Joker's heartbroken about it because he's obsessed with Batman. That's really what the Joker is. He's obsessed with this guy. Um. And there's so many great like just like, oh my gosh, Ray finds as Alfred, Like there's so many just great callbacks,

and it's this great love letter. It's almost like Spider Verse or Spider Verse is such a great story on its own, but it's also a great summary of what's so good about the character of Spiderman, Like across decades, everything that's good about the concept of Spider Man is in that movie. Anyone can wear the mask and you cut the lego Batman, and I feel the same thing with what is so great about Batman, everything that can

be great about the character. There's little references to it and nods to it, and and and just the moment where he like shuns his new allies because he fears losing another family the way his parents were shot in front of him when he was a little baby. Lego, I'm like, that's what Batman is all about. And it's and I have still wanted to see had in a live action movie, and I still haven't gotten it. Um

that psychology exploration is great. Hector. What I was gonna say is, Um, when you started out at the top of the podcast, you were saying that you really like the stories of self aware Batman that explore like why are you this way when you're a billionaire? And I felt like Lego Batman was really self aware, like it had to make fun of him a ton aside from it being a comedy. But like, I think that that's why it worked in that world. Of course we're going

to be making fun of this billionaire. Yeah, and super fun and like we said, like it kind of feels along the same lines of d C as Shazam. Um, just really playful and so I feel like that. But could you do that you think in a live action Well it depends. It's like I think Shazam is a

good example. She'sam is something that kind of makes fun of itself a little bit, uh, you know, um, while still trying to live in a world that is in the same movie franchises like Batman Versus Superman, Down of Justice and Suicide Squad and and all of these really serious and arc edgy movies. But Shazam makes fun of

its own concept where you know, uh uh. John Mahnsu who's the wizard Shazami, is like, say my name Shazam and the kid laughs, right seriously, Like that's how you have to kind of treat some of these old school comic book concepts. And I think that movie gets away with it because it's from a kid perspective and all

the main sort of characters are children. Um. I don't know if you could do what is done in Lego Batman like to that level in live action without it being really like a speed racer colorful, you know, no holds barred, sixties psychedelia, explosion of of fun in CG and green screen and stuff. But I think that if you chip away all of the surface level stuff for like the Lego Batman movie, and you try to replicate a similar story but with similar character relationships, you could

do that in live action. You could do to Grayson being adopted and this origin of Robin. You could do Barbara Gordon being like we don't need to the police department doesn't have to work with Batman, you know, and then finding her own like vigilante path and how the joker is it like that all of that stuff is not forced on these characters. That stuff comes from the comic book Lord. That stuff comes from those storytellers for Lego Batman knowing the world and knowing how to kind

of play with it. So yeah, before this episode, we asked y'all your favorite memories for Batman, and y'all y'all did. Yeah,

y'all did it. Y'all did it. So I'm gonna go with this one from Kevin Fox here because uh, I actually yeah, this one and we talked about this not too long ago, but the Static shot crossover with Batman Beyond, so that we meet old Head Static, Batman and Selena making out, and Batman returns Bruce and Diana kissing when undercover in an alternate universe in Justice League with the Justice Lord me Batman and Selena Kyle. Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle. It's like that it's them forever. Yeah. Yeah.

The Diana getting in there, well yeah, it was that that always. I mean we talked about this before, but that always just felt like such a weak one to me, because it's like it's like the strength is within, you know, Bruce soups and and and uh Diana being like friends, you know, and like working together, like adding a love triangle just seems like you're just doing it because that's that's that's what you do when there's two guys in

a in a lady. But really I feel like they're both all all of those people are honor students who would totally be like, we've all, you know, sent a colleague or something. Oh, what's good And they're like, well, I don't sleep with anyone or paid anyone in my same scene. And I was like, you know, that's a good,

hard and fast rule. But also, dang uh, I was gonna say, Selena actually matches like they're both a dark and like willing to kind of get dirty, and not that that Wonder Woman isn't, but she's so virtuous and like to be honest above him. Yeah, so she Yeah. I think that I think the only time that the Wonder Woman Batman dynamic works romantically as is as well in the Justice League cartoon, they never really fully embraced it.

It was always sort of flirted with. It was flirtation. Um, but I think that if you were to explore it's, like the only way it works is if you try really really hard to make sure to let us know Wonder Woman is out of his league, wonder Woman is too good for him, and that Bruce Wayne becomes Wonder Woman's boyfriend, not that Wonder Woman becomes Batman's girlfriend, because that's the tricky thing when you pair those those singular characters together, or even when in the comic books Superman

and wonder Woman dated, it's like, well, does that diminish anything from wonder Woman? If you become Superman's girlfriend, doesn't take anything away from Superman. And I know the same sort of nerd combo was happening with Hulk and Black Widow in the m c U movies, and people are like, it sucks that Black Widow has to become like the

Hulk's girlfriend. And it was actor Mark Ruffalo who said his own opinion, and he's like, I've always felt like it was Bruce Bruce Banner becoming Black Widow's boyfriend, Like he you know, he's the one that sort of um knows that he is not good enough for her, um and uh, And that's how the dynamic is play. Now, could those movies have hitted harder? Absolutely? Could any cartoon show about Batman and Wonder Woman, you know, do a better job, Sure, for sure, But I think that you're right, Danny.

I think that in in the O T P conversation, Batman and Catwoman are the ones who should be kind of meant to be together. And that's why I really I like that little alternate ending, or at least alternate from the comics for the Dark Knight Rises, where Christian Bale ends up with Anna Hathaway, like they get to they get to be together and kind of retire. And because normally Batman does not get that happy ending, you know, normally, at least in my brain and heart, Batman Bruce Wayne

ends up alone, an old man ninety years old. And then that's where Terry McGinnis Batman Beyond comes into the picture. And that's how that story is sort of yeah, the whole thing with that story, right, He's just a lonely boy, absolulutely That's that would be like his uh, that's like his law again name lonely boy, one lonely boy. Yea um okay. So I have this next tweet. It's from

Alex Kane. It says Snyder's um zero year storyline. I got to experience one of the all time great Batman stories, as it was happening month by month print issues from my favorite comic shop, which is no longer there. Um Capulo's art was never better. Those colors were the stuff of dreams. Do you remember those? I recently read that for the first time and I'm actually in the middle of it because it was kind of like a two

part story. Zero Year is this new take on the origin, that is it was happening in comics a couple of years ago now, and it takes everything across Batman lore, even from like the sixty show and you know, the comics and the movies and different things, and tried to put it in this new, cool, updated, sleek origin for Bruce Wayne and it was dope. Man, it was super

super cool. So that's really special that that that that listener has has that memory of that comic, because Yeah, I just read it for the first time and it's really good. I need to I need to definitely read that. But I think while we're on it, uh and running out of time, Uh, maybe we can talk about you know, what are what are some what are some Batman reads that you recommend that you think, uh, people should definitely check out if they want to learn more about the

doc k not. Well, there's there's a couple, you know, just like everything, there's like tears, there's tier levels of what's good and you know, you know, and and some Batman fans and I don't disagree with this, will say any Batman comic is good if you like Batman, you're just happy to spend some time with the guy, and

you know, start anywhere and it's fine. But like, there's a lot of great comics that are entry level, um, that have been kind of called maybe his first Batman comic, which is still fine, things like Batman Hush, Batman Year one, The Dark Knight Returns, of course, but The Dark Knight Returns I think works even better when you've spent a little bit of time with like regular Batman and then you get the one where it's like, oh, he's old and grizzled and has to come back and it's so cool. Um,

what else I really like? Honestly, Zero Year, the one we just talked about, was very good. To highly recommend parts one and two for Zero Year, And in fact, some imagery from that were like Batman's on a motorcycle, um, and he's got cool little you know, gloves and gauntlets, and stuff like some people were saying, that's that could

be in the new movie. If this new movie, this Robert Pattinson movie, is going to be a younger Batman or early in his career, maybe a year or two into him being Batman, it could pull from a bunch of different inspirations, of course, a bunch of different sources. And and zero year could be a good one for sure. Oh, I like that. I have another tweet I wanted to read from a former guest, Tony Sanchez. She was on

our Our America Chavas episode. She said, when I learned that Batman sixty six Joker was a Spanish Cuban actor named Caesar Romero, blew my mind. Yep, he didn't want to shave his mustache. That guy, which is great, the strength, the strimp, the power. Um. Yeah. So so we promised that we would talk a tiny bit before we head out about the future. So what do we know about this Robert Pattinson movie. Well, we we know that Matt

Reeves has written and directed it. We know that I think originally it was supposed to take place in the same continuity as the Ben Affleck Batman, and Affleck was going to play him, and then people were like, oh, well, if he's not gonna do it anymore, if Ben Affleck has moved away from because Affleck was going to be directing it originally, um and uh and and he even had a script that he wrote and and I think it was even recently in one of Ben Affleck's like

interviews that he did with Variety or one of the big you know, uh, like entertainment news sites or whatever, where one of his friends was like, hey, man, it's a great script, but if you do this, it will kill you, because the last couple of ones were brutal on you, dude, you gotta take care of yourself. Was kind of the reason why he walked away from the role. Um. So, I don't know how much of that sort of stayed with Matt Reeves in his new version of the movie.

But what we know is this, it's Robert Pattinson. He's a young man, a younger version of the character is not old and grizzled. I don't know if it's going to be set in the past or if it's set present day. We know that Paul Dano is playing Edward Enigma, not revealed as the Riddler, so he might not be the Riddler, but just like the proto version of the Riddler, which again he that character. Proto version of the Riddler shows up in that comic Zero Year. We know that

Zoe Kravitz is playing Selina Kyle. Will she dress up as catwoman? Who knows? We know that uh Andy Serkis is playing Alfred Pennyworth, which is really exciting, which is really cool. Jeffrey Wright, who is awesome and y'all shall followed him on Twitter. He's righteously angry all the time. Jeffrey Wright is playing uh Jim Gordon. And so that right there tells you this is not the same continuity as the as the previous DC movies because in the

movie Justice League, j K. Simmons showed up as Jim Gordon. Um, he showed up as as the Gordon that was working with that Ben Affleck Batman. So this is not the same universe. It's a completely new thing. And Michael is doing the score. And we got a little teaser that with that little like test footage of the costume that they revealed it was all red and Robert Pattinson's big eyes opened and we're like, WHOA, So that's basically all

we know about the movie. And they've also postponed or posit their production obviously because of coronavirus, and uh don't know when they'll pick it up again, so maybe the release date will be pushed. Who knows? Wow, is Oneer Woman being pushed? Yes, that's that's going to come out in August now some you know, I'm saying some stuff got pushed, pushed like mulan, who even knows when that's

coming out? And Fast and Furious five nine f nine a year yeah, yeah, and James Bond, Well, Hector, thank you for joining us, Thank you so much for having me much. I hope I did any kind of justice to barely barely barely scratching the surface of the iceberg that is Batman. I think we've got just a tip of it. Um. But it's always a pleasure to get to out with you guys. And and uh, hopefully I didn't make too many people. Man, that's impossible. You'll see

if he you're wrong, you will see Hector. Where can everyone find you? You can find me. I'm at home every single day now the rest of my life, and I'm on Twitter at Hector is funny and I'm on Instagram there as well, and uh, you should check out d C Daily, where I actually get paid to talk about d C stuff with a bunch of cool peeps

over on on DC Universe. And we have just recently set up and have I've been going forward with doing DC Daily from our homes, so we're gonna have a bunch of new episodes and in fact, our first sort of test on this, we just talked about the movie Batman Forever. So that's gonna be coming out on on Monday as of this recording, two days from now, so it might already be out by the time you hear this, but you get to go to DC Universe and see us from our homes talk about the movie Batman Forever.

And that was a blast because Batman's great. It's me your boy if he if he if you why the way on Twitter and Instagram, Uh, if he's on Twitch, which you can still see me, and uh, you know, and of course we have this week we have super Punch, so be tuning into that. We're keeping that going luckily from home, and you know, uh, wash your hands now. I'm at miss Danny Fernandez on all the things. Um,

I'm really glad that we got this set up. And again we're still playing around tinkering around with our recording, but thank you to everyone for being patient. We really appreciate it. Um as always, you can at Nottificent and uh, if you and I and Joel are producer, if you have something that you're dying for us to cover, you know, if it's something that you feel a lot of people love, that would be great. I think sometimes we've gotten hit up about like super super super super niche things and

I'm just like, yeah, um, we'll consider it. Uh, if you guys, if if you guys ever end up talking about Jackie Chan Adventure hit your boy up, well, that actually sounds cool. You know. Some people will talk to us about like a board game that like was made just in like the year, and I'm like, I mean we can explore this lure. I don't know like how accessible it is to everybody, but um yeah um, And like we always say, stay nerdy,