batman

Well, if Bruce Wayne has finally taken to the streets and rooftops of Gotham, it makes sense he’d need new masked baddies. Our first Season 4 sizzle reel from Comic-Con hints at a full-fledged Scarecrow’s debut, while at least one villainess is back from the dead.

It looks like Ben Affleck’s Bat-days may be numbered — and more than you might think. Not only is the actor unlikely to appear in The Batman, but a new report reveals that he’s on the verge of exiting the DCEU entirely. The news comes as not much of a shock following Affleck’s departure from the helm of the upcoming solo movie, for which he was replaced by War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves.

Rough day to be Ben Affleck, the kind of day that makes you just wanna get away from it all by sneaking into your car and having a quick sad-vape. His performance as Batman has begun to emerge the fanbase’s most-loathed, and to add insult to injury, he was ousted from the director’s chair on upcoming solo film The Batman. Now, even more insult has been added to that injury, as replacement director Matt Reeves has begun to clean house and get himself comfy in a new franchise.

The people cannot get enough Batman. He’s everywhere: he fought Superman, now he’s in the Justice League, soon he’ll return to another solo movie, and he ended up back in the news due to Adam West’s passing — we’re living in the Batman-est of all possible worlds. And those Batmaniacs clamoring for more time with the Caped Crusader before he returns in Justice League on November 17 are in luck, because Bruce Wayne and a couple familiar friends will storm nationwide theaters for a special one-night engagement this summer.

Gonna be honest, this is the first, and probably only episode of Powerless I have ever watched. Worth it.

In the most fitting tribute imaginable, the Bat-Signal lit up the skies of Los Angeles last night, in honor of the late Adam West, the first Batman of television, and one of the most beloved versions of the iconic Dark Knight (or the “Bright Knight,” as West liked to describe his more upbeat version of the character). West died of leukemia late last week; he was 88 years old.

Can this please be in the next Batman film?

Earlier this month, X-Men fans were treated to Logan, a Wolverine movie … without Wolverine. A sort of adaptation of the comic Old Man Logan (although more in tone than plot), the movie imagines a future where mutants are nearly all dead, and a barely hanging on Logan is low-key doing chauffeur work to take care of a decrepit Charles Xavier. When some bad guys go after a young girl named Laura suddenly in Logan’s care, the ex X-Man takes a road trip to get her to safety --- while killing a lot of people who get in their way.’ While some are comparing Logan to Deadpool, the other R-rated film starring a Marvel hero from the past year, we should be looking at its similarities to another superhero film from 2017 instead; The Lego Batman Movie.

I don't want to be an armchair editor here or anything, but you'd think that if you're doing a story where Batman crosses the dimensional barrier from Gotham City to hang out in New York --- specifically the NYC that's home to the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles --- you'd have to take a page or two for him to ask questions, right? "Where are all the abandoned warehouses," he asks, scowling, "And why isn't there a single Playing Card And Chemical Factory on the entire island of Manhattan? And why are your sewers so... livable?!"

Wanna feel like Batman? Do you have an iPhone? Then welcome to the Bat Cave...

These are dark days for the Dark Knight.

We’re still not entirely certain the DC universe is built for serial comedy (any more than it was ultra-grim movies), but NBC’s Powerless is giving ample opportunity to flex that DC connection. See for yourself in a new extended trailer, and details of just how much Batman we can really expect to see in the Wayne Security world.