|
| Comic influences |
Author: BatmAngelus, thecolorsblend, Evil Twin 120 & Silver Nemesis
Sat, 19th July 2008 |
| Analysis of Batman 89 |
The first half of the following anaylsis was put together by BatmAngelus, thecolorsblend & Evil Twin 120. The second half was compiled by Silver Nemesis. It is a extensive exploration of the possible comic book influences on Tim Burton's Batman (1989).
You can discuss it here in the forum
As directly stated in the thesis essay posted on this site, the filmmakers really focused on the Detective Comics #27-37 (basically all Batman appearances before Robin showed up) to portray the character. Below are instances where they may have been influenced.
Bruce would often brood when thinking of his parents and how to find meaning in their deaths...
 
In Detective Comics #27, The Batman first appeared. What did he do first? Apprehend two goons on a rooftop...
 
No one thought that Batman had a practical form of protecting himself from bullet wounds:
The second time he took action in #27...it was at a chemical factory:
 
And the villain fell to his doom into a vat of chemicals....
 
For getting away, Batman would use gas pellets..
 
Even in Joker's first appearance...he wore makeup to cover up his identifying features, but you could still tell it was him because of the smile:
 
In Joker's second appearance in Batman #1, he assaulted a museum. Batman was left unconscious...
 
But not for long...
 
The Bat-Gyro (precursor to the Batwing) was introduced in Detective Comics #31. Kane frequently drew it against the moon...
 
 
In the same issue, we met Batman's first love interest. When he rescued her for the first time, he took her for a ride in the Batmobile...
 
In Batman #1, Batman took out the thugs , about to attack Gotham, from above with a machine gun...
 
 
 
In certain situations, Batman used this manuever:
 
 
  
 
More Joker pics:
 
 
In both instances, we have Joker talking to himself about what he's about to do.
Also, in the original Joker story, the Joker shoots mobster Brute Nelson to death to "settle an old score." It reminded me of what Joker did to Grissom.
But the early 1939-1940 comics weren't the only era that influenced the first film.
For instance, I always thought that Jack Nicholson was the splitting image of thingy Sprang's Joker, right down to the hairstyle and eyebrows:
 
This may be more coincidental, but hey, I'm posting it here anyway:
 
There's a story called "Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker!" by Len Wein in the 1980s which The Joker pulls the same "Old Phony-Hand-Up-The-Sleeve-Gag, Sucker!" before his boat crashes, supposedly killing him (obviously...not).
While in the film, Joker does it to Vicki ("HaHA, lend ya a hand!") a few moments before his death.
I believe that comic may have been the first we saw of the "BANG!" gun, which Joker also uses in the film.
Michael Uslan in the intro for Batman In The Fifties: Apparently, the Batmobile of 1950 "would also be the primary influence for genius production designer Anton Furst, who imagineered the 1989 Batmobile for the first Batman feature, winning an Oscar for his creative efforts."
The Batmobile of 1950 gave the car its trademark "long" look as well as the flaming afterburner in the back of the vehicle that probably gave Furst the influence.
Lest we forget the Steve Englehart run in the seventies.
In the foreword to one of the "Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" collections, it is mentioned that Michael Uslan showed Englehart's "Night of the Stalker" story to Tim Burton.
Here are a few similarities I found:
- It begins with an innocent family who, when walking down the city streets, encounters criminals- meant to be an echo of the Wayne family's fatal encounter. Batman hears the screams and swoops down to unleash Hell on the criminals. Unlike the film, though, the parents are killed, making Batman more pissed.
- The criminals fire at Batman. When he disappears, they believe that they've killed him.
- Batman plays dead in a fight with a criminal.
(EDIT: The following is from the collection of Englehart's run called Strange Apparitions which teamed up Englehart with Marshall Rogers. Sadly Englehart's Night of the Stalker is not in that collection.)
Artist Marshall Rogers did pre-production art on Batman (see the DVD) and Englehart wrote two script treatments in which Silver St. Cloud and Rupert Thorne were the precursors for Vicki Vale and Carl Grissom.
http://www.steveenglehart.com/Film/Batman%20movie.html
 
(EDIT- both comic book scans from here are from the story "The Laughing Fish")
Compare with Batman 1989 Dialogue:
BATMAN
The police have got it wrong. They're looking for one product. The Joker's tainted hundreds of chemicals at the source.
VICKI
Then whole shipments of products would be poisoned. And we'd all be dead.
BATMAN
No...the components of the poison only works when the components are mixed. Hairspray won't do it alone. But hairspray mixed with lipstick and persume will be toxic, and untraceable.
And let's not forget Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, one of the comics that Keaton looked at when he was offered the part, according to Les Daniels's Complete History of Batman.
The use of the pearl necklace for Martha Wayne...
And the entrance to the Batcave...
The Deadshot Ricochet (Detective Comics #474, 1977) climaxes with a battle between Batman and Deadshot atop a giant display-typewriter. Towards the end of the fight Batman executes a manoeuvre thats very similar to the one the Keaton-Batman used against the final Joker-thug in Batman '89.
This story was amongst Steve Englehart’s classic Strange Apparitions run in the late seventies, so odds are it was a deliberate reference.
Here’s the Joker’s phoney hand from Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker! (Batman #321, 1980).
And here’s the “bang”-gun.
This next one is from the same story and probably wasn’t an influence on Batman ‘89, but it struck me as quite similar anyway.
Both scenes involve the Joker playing a non-lethal prank on Batman’s girlfriend, knocking her unconscious using some flowers and a spring-loaded hand.
The finale from this story is quite similar to the ending of Batman ‘89.
 
In both we see the Joker luring a crowd of spectators to what is essentially a mass murder disguised as a funhouse party. He addresses the crowd in the manner of a ringleader talking to a circus audience, using a public stage to settle a personal score with Batman.
And is it just a coincidence that the Joker’s parade float in the movie resembles a giant birthday cake?
Here is the grinning Joker corpse from The Joker Returns (Batman #1, 1940).
And here are a few images from Englehart’s Night of the Stalker (Detective Comics #439, 197)
Some of the dialogue in that last scene reminded me of the disagreement the two muggers have at the beginning of Batman ‘89, with one of them reprimanding the other’s methods while the latter remains unrepentant.
One thing I’d also like to mention about Night of the Stalker is the fact that Batman doesn’t speak throughout the entire story. He uses the same intimidation-through-silence technique that the Keaton Batman uses in the movie.
And finally, here is the scene from The Laughing Fish (Detective Comics #475, 1978) where the Joker pushes one of his henchmen in front of a truck.
 
Discuss this feature here in the forum
Last edited by Paul (ral) on Wed, 9th June 2010 at 6:50pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
