RocShemp

There's such a thing called prosthetic makeup.

hanshotfirst1138

There should be anyway, but these days they use CG for EVERYTHING .

Mike86

I didn't mean in the literal sense that he would be sixty, more just that they'd portray him as old and beaten up and perhaps not in action for a while. It's not impossible that he could be aged to look somewhat older.

RocShemp

Touche.

majorjoe23

If Bruce Wayne got started as Batman at 25 and they play the role at Affleck's age (41), he probably would be pretty old and beaten up after 16 years. He'd have had a longer career than most athletes and would be past the age most have retired.

Plus, in The Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne retired as Batman at 45 (hecame back at 55). So he's not far from Batman retirement age.

I can only hope at some point Batman gets shot and tells us he was only "two days from retirement."

Also, all female cast members are now called "whore." It's in Frank Miller's contract.

Mike86

Right I understand but that's why I think it's a bit of an odd choice. If this is a new start for the franchise and a new Batman I don't see the point to already showing him at a point where he's so beaten up that he can't be believable. Especially in the first film of the new series of films. If anything if they had done this after a couple were made or something it might have made a bit more sense.

That's probably the one gripe I have with the Affleck choice, I think it would almost make more sense to play the character a bit younger than his actual age because it's hard to believe that he'd still be active. Ideally I think they should have went with someone in their mid thirties or so even though I do like the choice of Affleck as Batman.

taffer

Nobody has ever said that Batman is going to be that beaten up. Stop taking the Dark Knight Returns thing so literally. We know Batman is going to be a veteran and not a newbie, but nobody has ever said he is going to be a worn down old man.

Also, RDJ is older than Affleck and still handles playing Iron Man very well. Sam Jackson is old as dirt, and he still kicks ass as Nick Fury. Heck, even Christian Bale wasn't that much younger in Rises than Affleck is now.

Solid Snake

In the case of RDJ, I like how he's the "oldest" of the team.

Mike86

I'm not really taking it literally but when someone mentions that a large part of the story is being influenced by that particular story that's the first thing that springs to mind not the Superman vs. Batman fight. That's really the only point I was getting at. Whatever I get the points you're making and I don't really care to argue anymore over it because I'm most likely wrong anyways. I just think it's a weird comparison to make.

PhantomStranger

I don't think we'll be getting a 50 or 60 year-old Batman. No one wants to see a hobbled Batman on screen when we only get one of these movies every few years. It's fine as one of a thousand comics, but there are only going to be so many Batman movies.

I'll scream bloody murder if they make both Batman and Wonder Woman more powerful than Superman in this film universe. DC hasn't figured out yet that every time they diminish Superman's power, the character gets less popular.

Guru Askew

You can draw a correlation between Golden- and Silver-age "anything goes" superpowered Superman and post-Crisis "set group of limited powers" Superman and try to attribute the drop in popularity and/or readership to that but it would be tenuous at best. Superman comics in the 80s, 90s, 00s etc. sold less because of things like television, movies and video games, not because they depowered him. And the character adapted to those mediums anyway. I've lived most of my life with a nerfed Superman and I don't think the character has ever been hurting in the popularity department even if its a far cry from depression-era icon status.

Similarly, portrayals of the character that featured dialed-back powers like the Christopher Reeve portrayal (which does have some pre-Crisis nonsense like the earth spinning thing, the cellophane S-shield and the masonry-vision) and the S:TAS/Justice League portrayal are among the most well-received. Supes was constantly getting the crap kicked out of him on Justice League as they attempted to strike a balance between making him extremely strong but not indestructible.

A character who can lift a space shuttle with great effort is already hard to relate to but its still much more relatable than a character who can lift a mountain with ease or knock a planet out of orbit. Depowering the character makes the character more relatable and allows for more dramatic situations which makes for a better character.

PhantomStranger

I don't think it's a coincidence that Batman became massively more popular when they made him Bat-God, the unbeatable superhero. The same could be said for Wolverine over at Marvel. Comic book universes are heavily built around knowing where a character places in the hierarchy of power. How did DC make Wonder Woman a more credible character? By powering her up and adding a host of powers.

I didn't think much about this until I started watching anime, which explicitly makes the point. Many anime universes give specific power rankings to their characters, an essential attribute of the character. Anime characters will often cite their actual power/intelligence ranking on some imagined list and reference others that way.

DaveyJoe

Comic book popularity is irrelevant. If you ask the average person if Batman or Superman is a more interesting character they would say Batman because he's more vulnerable, therefore easier to relate to. They aren't making these movies to appease comic book fans, they want to make mega Avengers bucks, and they're appealing to the average movie goer. People who don't know about pre crisis or post infinity power levels.

I don't read Superman comics because an all powerful, invincible character doesn't interest me in the slightest, and I'm definitely not alone.

Guru Askew

I chalk Batman's popularity to being "dark" and "badass." In reality he's as invulnerable and untouchable as Superman. The vulnerability is an illusion when he's written in a way that means he'll never be defeated in any meaningful way. The whole Batman mystique is an illusion. The character has no more depth or maturity than the Superman character does, but try telling that to a 14-year-old.

DaveyJoe

He might have plot armor, but within the context of the story he's still just a man with no super powers. Whereas in the context of Superman's story he's invincible aside from one weakness to kryptonite. That matters to anybody who has imagination and a bit of suspension of disbelief, and if you don't, why are you watching movies like this anyway? Drama and suspense lies in the execution, and while watching The Dark Knight Rises, I thought Batman was going to die.

taffer

Grant Morrison created "Bat-god" in the late 90s. I would say Batman's peak popularity was before that. In the 60s during the Adam West era, Batman was selling millions of comics. Then in the late 80s/early 90s was the peak of the speculator market, and Batman was at the top of the food chain (for DC at least), which was further fueled by the Tim Burton movies.

Comics from the Bat-god era of the late 90s through 2000s were nowhere near as popular. The comic industry almost collapsed in on itself when the speculator market died in the mid 90s.


Batman really isn't as unbeatable as many people tend to think. He does lose quite a bit. The most obvious example would be Bane breaking the Bat.

There was also a controversial storyarc where Batman fought KGBeast, and Batman knew he was outmatched and couldn't win so he locked the Beast in a room and left him there to die. There's also the storyarc that introduced Venom where Batman failed to save a little girl.

Batman also is not the best martial artist in the DCU. Lady Shiva is better than him. Bronze Tiger has also beaten him before.


Superman is also weak to magic, which is how magical enemies such as Mxyzptlk and Silver Banshee can hurt him.

DaveyJoe

I don't understand any of that, but I'm fairly certain that you've used at least one racial slur, so I'm reporting this post.

taffer

Serious or joke?

I didn't intend any racial slur, and I don't really see what would give that idea.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

van der graaf

The Valeyard

Solid Snake

... The motherfucker was being sarcastic, dude.

JumpCutz

taffer is trolling our asses.

duff beer

Batman is horrifically boring, the dark and badass thing is sooooooo limpdick.

PhantomStranger

I think Batman's current popularity has more to do with the small chance a person like him could actually exist in the real world. While remote, a psychotic billionaire could conceivably train for years in secret and then decide to dress up and fight crime. Mainstream audiences find a lot of wild sci-fi and fantasy material off-putting to their everyday perception of the world.

The story of Superman is completely fantastical and the modern impulse is to immediately deny it, a human-looking alien arriving on Earth with God-like powers. The decline in religiosity probably has something to do with it. If you are willing to believe in someone like Jesus, Superman provides an excellent stand-in for fantasy literature.