An ongoing exploration of the dark and gritty reboot
For the past several weeks, this blog has investigated which Batman character has the most in common with presidential candidate Donald Trump. We have considered five Batman villains thus far: Oswald "the Penguin" Cobblepot, Dr. Jonathan "the Scarecrow" Crane, Harvey "Two-Face" Dent, legendary villain the Joker, and the most recent of prominent Batman villains, Bane. …
Continue reading Which Batman Character Does Trump Resemble Most? Part 6: The Conclusion
"Do you feel in charge?" It is with these words that the power shifts from one man to another in the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, as the terrorist and demagogue Bane rests a hand on the shoulder of corrupt, scheming businessman John Daggett. This is Daggett's last moment alive, realizing that he staked …
Continue reading Is Bane the Batman Character Who Trump Resembles Most?
Trump and the Joker have been compared many times. Let's take a close look at how much they resemble one another.
"This has never been about who the nominee is," Paul Ryan said yesterday, explaining why his party will fight any Supreme Court justice nomination made by Barack Obama in 2016, and why they are specifically going to fight the nomination of Merrick Garland. This, from a party ostensibly dedicated to the Constitution. This response to the President's …
Continue reading How the Republicans Have Become the Political Equivalent of Batman’s Villains
It's a strange thing when a celebrity dies. Some people mourn for days or weeks or months. Others feel ostracized when it's someone whose work they didn't know, outside the world of grief. I recall the deaths of Kurt Cobain (I was 8) and Princess Diana (I was 11) with confusion, a sense of not knowing …
People are still complaining about the idea of Ben Affleck as Batman. But, based on the trailers alone, and a few released still images, it's already obvious that, even at its worst, the new Batman and Superman movie can't be worse than what has come before it. Batman has bottomed out plenty of times before, …
Continue reading Why Tim Burton’s Batman is the Worst Batman Movie Ever
On the first page of The Great Gatsby, narrator Nick Carraway tells us about a piece of advice his father gave him: "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” Carraway goes on to tell us that he attempts to …
Like all television shows that appeal to the intellectual and the obsessive, True Detective has gathered itself a menagerie of obsessive fans, the sort that remind you that fan is derived from the word fanatic. I'm not referring to the people who are excited for another season, or the ones who have watched the first season …
Continue reading Why All the Bad News About True Detective is Actually Good News
If there is one thing the internet agrees on regarding Super Bowl XLVI, it's that Clint Eastwood sounded like Bale does when Bruce Wayne is being Batman. That's about it. But to me, the strongest Batman connection throughout the entire Super Bowl was not Eastwood. It was the Madonna Spectacle and the ways in which …