Batman: Year One

Without question one of last year's most anticipated movies, Batman Begins promised to eliminate the campy elements of the last two movies and strip Batman down to his core, underlying elements. Early buzz had everyone wondering whether it would accomplish what it promised, and as the movie came and went, nearly all of us agreed: yes, it absolutely did. Considered by many even better than the highly popular 1989 original, Begins reawakened interest in the character and essentially revitalized the franchise. But given Batman's roots, it stands to reason that at least some of the characters and plot points that made the movie such a hit were drawn from the comics, right? Damn straight they were, skippy, and probably more than you'd even suspect… so without further ado, let's take a look at some of the elements that made the transition!

Easily the biggest influence on the storyline and overall "feel" of the film was Year One, a seminal miniseries by Frank Miller (yes, the Sin City guy, in the days before he ditched Catwoman to draw strippers) that chronicles Batman's first year on the job; though truthfully, it's as much Jim Gordon's story as Batman's. Quite a few of the movie's memorable characters and cool scenes were taken straight from it, from crooked cop Flass to the use of an army of bats to distract police pursuit… and of course, the movie's final, foreshadowing conversation between Gordon and Batman. (Didja happen to catch the name written on the bag, supposedly the officer who turned in the evidence? A certain Mister J. Kerr…) Year One truly is a classic, easily one of the top 3 Batman stories ever and well worth reading by anyone who even remotely enjoyed the movie. In fact, just about the only thing you won't find in it is actual supervillains; for that, the filmmakers were forced to look elsewhere…

Kingdom Come

Created for the comics in 1971 by legendary Batman scribe Denny O'Neil, ecoterrorist Ra's al Ghul (pronounced "ray-sh al gool," Arabic for "the Demon's Head,") is one of the only "classic" Bat-villains NOT created in the 40's, and probably the only one with no interest in wearing gaudy costumes, committing theme crimes, or even killing Batman (whom he refers to simply as "the Detective.") Instead, his sole purpose lies in preserving the planet Earth… unfortunately, he feels society is too corrupt and polluted to accomplish this, so his plans generally involve killing mass quantities of people, inevitably bringing him in conflict with Batman. But interestingly, Ra's' first comic appearance involved no such megalomaniacal schemes… instead, he surprised Bruce Wayne in the Batcave (having already deduced his identity), revealing that Talia, Ra's' daughter, had been kidnapped, along with Dick Grayson (Robin) from his college dorm. Teaming up, the Demon's Head and the Detective set out to rescue their respective heirs, but at story's end Batman revealed he had known the truth all along: Ra's himself had masterminded the entire thing. It seems Talia had fallen in love with Batman, so this was a test to determine his worthiness as heir to Ra's' legacy… a test he had passed with flying colors. Knowing Ra's' methods, Batman naturally turned him down, but with true regret, as he actually did have feelings for Talia in return. (In fact, certain alternate futures have even shown their son: Ibn al Xu'ffasch, "Son of the Bat.") But no one says "no" to Ra's al Ghul, leading to an amazing desert swordfight between the two that translated well into the training session on ice in Begins.

But hey, isn't he just some old fart? What makes the comic version of Ra's al Ghul such a great villain, anyway? Part of the answer lies in his similarities to Batman. While the Joker is Batman's psychological opposite, Ra's serves as a sort of dark reflection — a man of great economic and physical prowess who devotes himself to noble, benevolent goals… but who seeks to accomplish them by sacrificing innocents, something Bruce will never allow to happen. With the resources at Ra's' disposal, he can accomplish nearly anything; aside from leading the League of Assassins, the deadliest killers on the planet, he also commands a worldwide organization devoted to saving Earth at all costs (and finding the perfect fudge recipe. But mostly the saving-the-world thing.) One particularly memorable story had Ra's taking out the entire Justice League — including Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, etc. — using contingency plans stolen from Batman's computer for if they ever went bad… a move that not only defeated his enemies, but also led to Batman being kicked out for having such plans in the first place, a double win for Ra's. But perhaps his most valuable tools are the Lazarus Pits, strange pools of naturally occurring chemicals that can reverse aging and heal nearly any wound, which have kept Ra's alive for over 600 years. No matter how badly he's defeated or injured, even if… — oh, say, a train he's in plummets ten stories to the ground, for instance — the Lazarus Pits ensure that Ra's will always return to menace Batman and the world at large.

Mr. Zsasz

By contrast, the Ra's ("rahz," an alternate pronunciation) al Ghul of Batman Begins, played excellently by Liam Neeson, isn't interested in saving the planet so much as rescuing society from corruption; a smart move on the filmmakers' parts, I think, giving him an even closer ideological link to Batman — they have the same goal, just highly different methods of accomplishing it. Leader of the League of Shadows, movie Ra's differs from his comic counterpart by having personally trained Bruce Wayne (another nice touch, creating a shared history), but most of the other important elements are present: highly patient, intricate schemer who engineers the purging of a city through both economic and terrorist activities; master fighter and swordsman; incredibly intelligent, with just enough insanity to be dangerous; dynamite in the sack… well, you get the idea. Anyway, now they just need to introduce Talia and the Lazarus Pits in the next movie, and I'll be one happy little geek!

And then there's the Scarecrow, a much more "traditional" Batman villain, as well as one who stuck closer to his comic roots in Begins. As seen on the printed page, Jonathan Crane was a psychology professor at Gotham University, specializing in the science of fear. Spending nearly every penny of his salary on books, Crane's lanky frame and shabby clothing drew derision from fellow teachers, who mockingly compared him to a scarecrow. And when his practice of firing off loaded guns in class to demonstrate fear to students got him dismissed, Crane turned bitter. Obsessed with creating terror in others, he synthesized a gas that would make people live out their greatest fears, then used the scorn of his former peers as inspiration to create his new identity: the Scarecrow! Reasoning that crime = money = lots of books (man, even as a crook he's a nerd), Crane began using his fear gas for a variety of shady activities, from protection rackets to murder. Naturally, this brought him into frequent conflict with the Batman, who in turn often took a healthy dose of fear gas, generally hallucinating the deaths of his parents, Robin, or other close acquaintances. Movie Scarecrow differs from his counterpart in being employed by Ra's al Ghul, in working at Arkham Asylum (rather than simply being a frequent resident), and in having used a flower provided by Ra's to create his fear gas, but those are mostly cosmetic changes. Yes, a bit more backstory would have been nice, but there's always future movies for that, and what's important is that all the really important aspects of the character made the transition.

Gordon: Year One

Of course, Batman's greatest enemy is neither Ra's nor the Scarecrow, or the Joker or any of the other classics… but rather, just an ordinary man with a gun. One thing I was unsure about on my first viewing of Begins was the inclusion of Joe Chill, the man who shot the Waynes. Though originally a part of the comic mythos, Chill was removed from "official" continuity in recent years, after DC Comics rebooted their entire universe and decreed that a good 90% of stories about their characters from the past 50 years had technically "never happened." As things stand presently, Batman has never caught his parents' killer — the main reason being that with the crime unsolved, he remains haunted and forever driven in his quest, symbolically avenging their deaths night after night but never able to find true closure; whereas if he ever catches their killer, it in theory removes a great deal of the pathos, making Batman just another guy who dresses funny and beats up criminals.

Or if you don't buy that explanation, try this — even prior to the reboot, Bruce Wayne didn't encounter Joe Chill until he'd been operating as Batman for years, so continuing on afterward at least made sense; in Begins, Chill is caught the very same night and duly imprisoned, one of the few problems I had with the movie. Why? Because it changes Bruce from a man so desperate to correct an unresolved injustice that he'll bypass all normal law enforcement channels (like the police, who failed him by not catching his parents' killer) to instead take the law into his own hands… into a guy who saw the police and courts do their jobs efficiently and correctly, but still decided dressing as a giant bat was a better way of serving the system. Sorry, it just doesn't work quite as well for me.

Ra's al Ghul

Now, the Joker aside, several other comic elements were teased as well, either as foreshadowing for future movies or just cool easter eggs for fans. My personal favorite was the cameo by Mr. Zsasz, here presented as a simple mob enforcer, but in the comics a brutal serial killer who carves a notch into himself for every victim. (If you're wondering how good he is at it, try finding an unscarred part of his body.) But far more important was the appearance of Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, who served as the focal point of The Long Halloween, a murder mystery set in the early days of Batman's career. The last great crimelord of Gotham City, Falcone's eventual death heralded the "passing of the torch" from old-school gangsters to costumed freaks like Penguin and the Joker, so his appearance in Begins qualifies as excellent hinting at what's to come. (As well as a reminder of why you stay away from Italian restaurants late at night in Jersey.) Now all we need next film is a pre-Two-Face Harvey Dent, and we're good to roll…

Okay, so we've established there's a ton of things that made the transition successfully from the printed page to movie screen… now, what's the biggest change they made for the film that they probably shouldn't have? Any guesses? Fine, I'll just say it:

Batman lets Ra's die.

Yep, that's the one. Folks, Batman never murders, but he also doesn't make a distinction between actively pulling the trigger and simply letting someone get shot — one's as bad as the other in his mind. In having Bruce allow Ra's to "die" when he could have saved him, Christopher Nolan may have made him slightly darker, may have given him gray areas… but he also sacrificed one of the purest, most immutable elements of what makes him Batman in the first place — that, after his parents were taken from him, he can't stand to see anyone else die. I can't put it any better than Superman did in the classic DC miniseries Kingdom Come:

Scarecrow

"Don't give me that! The deliberate taking of human life goes against every belief I have — and that you have. That's the one thing we've always had in common. It's what made us what we are. More than anyone in the world, when you scratch everything else away from Batman, you're left with someone who doesn't want to see anybody die."

(Wow. I'd say that settles it, folks… because if you can't trust Superman, who can you trust?)

That one misstep aside, though, it's still an amazing movie, and the greatest compliment I can pay Begins is that it does exactly what it should — skillfully weaves together elements from a variety of Batman stories, drawing on the parts that work and discarding those that don't. The overall premise and tone derive from Year One, while Year Two contributed Bruce's inner turmoil over whether to kill Joe Chill. (As well as the name "Rachel" for Bruce's love interest, though since the two characters have nothing else in common, it's probably just coincidence.) Carmine Falcone and the transition from gangsters to costumed freaks descends from The Long Halloween and its follow-up Dark Victory, while Lucius Fox is a longtime staple of the monthly comics and The Dark Knight Returns lent its "Bat-tank" in the form of the Tumbler. And while none of us can say what other elements might find their way into the inevitable sequel to Begins, one thing's for certain- as long as the filmmakers continue to ask themselves "What would Frank Miller do?" instead of "What would Adam West do?", it'll undoubtedly be another movie truly worthy of the name… Batman.