DC Comics are ramping up promotions for next year’s The Batman, most recently advertising a three-issue box set of comics used by Matt Reeves as inspiration for the film. Originally intended to serve as the first solo outing for Ben Affleck’s version of the Caped Crusader, which he planned to write and direct himself, Reeves was hired to replace Affleck as director in 2017 following his success with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. In early 2019 it was also announced that Affleck would not be starring in the film, and the search began for an actor who would play a younger version of Bruce Wayne in the earlier days of his crime-fighting career.
Shortlisting Robert Pattinson, Nicholas Hoult, Armie Hammer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Reeves eventually whittled the choice down to Pattinson and Hoult and screen-tested both before settling on the former Twilight star. Despite boasting an impressive screen resumé spanning both big-budget and independent films, the news of Pattinson’s casting was met with some measure of resistance throughout sections of the fandom, despite being met with support from former Batman actor Christian Bale and director Christopher Nolan. When the first trailer dropped during last year’s DC Fandome, however, fans were wowed by the gritty and violent take on the character and much of the previous concern about Pattinson’s ability to do the role justice began to evaporate.
Now with The Batman set to be DC’s next big-screen adventure following the release of The Suicide Squad, DC’s marketing machinery are beginning to set their sights on Pattinson’s debut as the Dark Knight. In the latest issue of DC Connect Magazine (via The Direct), DC Comics have revealed that they will be releasing a complimentary three-issue box set of comics that were used by Reeves to inspire his new take on the franchise. Featuring Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, Darwyn Cooke’s Batman: Ego and Other Tales and Jeph Loeb’s Batman: The Long Halloween, the new box set, featuring case art from Jim Lee, is planned for release on March 1, 2022 ahead of the film’s March 4 release.
As a long-time fan of the Batman comics, Reeves had admittedly returned to some of his favorite entries to inspire his work on the film. Batman: Ego, which Reeves has previously cited as one of his biggest influences, is a dark psychological exploration of Bruce Wayne’s own traumatized mind, and sees the vigilante having to confront the division between his two alter-egos. Meanwhile both Batman: Year One and Batman: The Long Halloween portray Bruce Wayne in the earliest stages of adopting his Batman persona and he is still far from the experienced and well-oiled crime-fighting machine that film audiences are more familiar with. This particular trio of comics fits well with everything fans have learned about the new film so far, and their influences promise to provide fans with a unique, big-screen take on the character they have never really seen before.
While comic-book adaptations have been a mainstay in Hollywood for decades now, it is only in more recent years that the source material has been seriously mined for storytelling purposes. Even the Batman franchise itself, whose Joel Schumacher led the entries in the early 90s, presented a vastly different take on the character than that which was being portrayed in the comic books of the time. Now, with comic book movies enjoying a renaissance in contemporary popular culture, it is refreshing that studios and filmmakers, like The Batman's Matt Reeves, are giving the original comics the respect and attention they truly deserve.
Source: DC Connect Magazine (via The Direct)
