Yesterday Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara told the suits at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference that Batman will be “tired and weary and seasoned and been doing it for awhile.”
It’s only a nugget of information, but it essentially confirms once more that WB, Snyder and writer David Goyer are taking elements of “The Dark Knight Returns” graphic novel and transposing it on to this modern story. In “The Dark Knight Returns,” which takes place in a future alternate universe (i.e. it’s not what will happen to Batman eventually) Batman comes out of retirement close to his ‘60s to fight back a mutant army that is threatening Gotham. They key element that Snyder/Goyer/WB seem to be mining is the “weary and tired” idea. Yes, the Batman is Miller’s version is not only old, he’s been through decades of war that has made him cynical and angrier than usual.
Didn’t we already do this in The Dark Knight Rises? Bruce Wayne/Batman was worn out and retired: tired and weary. But this argues my position even more. Our Batman from The Dark Knight trilogy is in the perfect place to take this role. He’s retired, presumed dead. this whole different Batman thing stinks.
One nice thing about all this though, is that it appears we won’t have to endure another Batman origin story, at least for now. There’s nothing saying we won’t get a prequel down the road. But for now, we can just pick up Batman where he is at.
I’m not buying this whole storyline though. We were teased at comic con with the idea that Batman can/will in some way defeat Superman. How does any normal man, much less a tired and weary Batman get the better of the Man of Steel? It doesn’t make much sense.