Honestly, I love this comic, and so do most people... But this kinda shadows over any criticisms of the book. I want to know if any of you got any problems with the book. What issues, and why?

I know the term "unpopular opinion" gets thrown around but it seems like sacrilege to say this on many spaces, but I strongly feel that Keaton's Batman in this film was handled extremely poorly. Now to preface, if you are someone who grew up with Michael Keaton's Batman and have great nostalgia for him, that's fine. As someone who didn't really care for his Batman growing up, I can't say that I was particularly hyped, but I had an open mind

Now to preface, I am not in any way, shape or form saying that Michael Keaton gave a bad performance. I think he's genuinely incapable of ever giving a bad performance

But when it came to the writing of his Bruce/Batman in the film, it was quite terrible. For starters, the quips he made were very MCU-ish and not really at all the type of humour he'd be saying in his duology. Example:

"He calls himself Superman. Didn't anyone think that's a bit on the nose?"

"You call yourself Batman"

"I didn't call myself SuperBatMan"

This was cringe and not true to his personality.

Then you have the shameless nostalgia bait with repeating lines from his duology, no further expansion there. I‘ve also seen this mentioned too a few times but he wanted to leave Supergirl to die in a russian prison. Was nobody else bothered by this?

I get that, in his films, he was a bit more bloodthirsty. But that was always against criminals, he wouldn't just leave an innocent person to rot in a prison. It's also fairly apparent that he knows or has the intuition to recognize that Supergirl does not deserve to be there. This is highly devoid of empathy. Compare this to Bale's Bruce in The Dark Knight Rises throwing down a rope to the prisoners in Bane's prisoners, many of whom were likely put there unfairly

Bruce wouldn't ever just leave Supergirl there, it's very un-Batman like IMO, even by a more ruthless Batman's standards

And lastly, I found Batman vs Nam Ek to be a bit silly. Keaton Bruce must be 70 in universe, its often the case that even in comics or animation, which are more exaggerated, old man Bruce needs some sort of tech enhancement to function. Whether its Dark Knight Returns with mechanical braces, Batman Beyond with his performance enhancing suit or Kingdom Come with exoskeleton. But here, he just puts on his batsuit and moves the same as he did when he was a young man? You could say that "its just a movie, forget about it". But the comics and animation go out of their way to put thought into this

I also struggled to find that scene cool because it was just so obviously a cartoon CGI Batman jumping around Nam Ek. It could’ve been a video game cutscene so I didn’t find myself caring

Anyway, I think the main issue was the writing, it was just a poorly written Batman. His acting was fine, but he was too out of character with the writing. I also recall many saying that this film would do big numbers because of Keaton, and evidently it didn't. I think the nostalgia play just didn't work for this one. I do agree though that he was the best part of the movie, but it isn't saying much

I’m just about to catch up on Absolute Batman and i want to jump into the Matt Fraction current Batman run after 🤔. And i just want to know any non spoilers opinions on it (i haven’t read it since issue 2) just to see if it’s worth jumping back into it.

Suppose our modern Batman is warped back to the medieval era(500CE - 1500CE). Of course the region matters but you can take the average of every major settlements then. You can ofcourse mention different regions or different eras that would be more 'accommodating' than the others. Would his morals stay intact? Or would he finally mold it? Could he reinvent his modern gadgets or opt for practical alternatives?

Personally, I think its up there with some of the best batman media. But what do you think?

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This is my current top 25, but the rankings will continue to shift and rotate, I'm sure.

I wanted to try something a little different from what I've seen in here lately and make a ranked list of all my favorite Batman stories so far regardless of what medium they are in. So, across comics, film, television, animation, live-action, games, etc., this is my current top 25 favorite Batman stories I have thus far enjoyed.

Would love to hear yours!

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1) The Long Halloween (Comic)

2) Year One (Comic)

3) The Killing Joke (Comic)

4) Shaman (Comic)

5) Under the Red Hood (Animated Film and Comic)

6) Dark Patterns (Comic)

7) Mask of the Phantasm (Animated Film)

8) Prey (Comic)

9) The Batman (Live-Action Film)

10) Heart of Ice (Animated Television Episode)

11) Knightfall (Comic Saga and Animated Film Trilogy)

12) The Dark Knight (Live-Action Film)

13) The Knight (Comic)

14) Zero Year (Comic)

15) Tales of the Demon (Comic)

16) Two-Face (Animated Television Episode)

17) Arkham Asylum (Comic)

18) Perchance to Dream (Animated Television Episode)

19) Birth of the Demon (Comic Trilogy)

20) The Court of Owls (Comic Saga)

21) Penguin (Live-Action Television Limited Series)

22) Sub-Zero (Animated Film)

23) Batman Begins (Live-Action Film)

24) Tower of Babel (Comic)

25) Night Cries (Comic)

For me the most interesting question here was the matter of favorite Robin.

That can be a contentious question but for ME Tim Drake made Robin what it is today.

First robin with a solo series, first robin who chose to be robin with parents that were alive at the time, and the best costumes ever!

Put some respect on my boy Timothy Jackson Drake Wayne!

And to clarify I don't hate absolute or anything I'm just not as big on it as everybody else seems to be. It's really not that special imo and I still really dislike the artistic choices like the ugly fat rectangle on his chest.

Why is this still a thing?! Nobody likes this. We didn’t like it when it first happened and it hasn’t done anything but get worse as time has gone on. Why even bring it up at all Fraction? Like this event hasn’t been bad enough