LeaguePodcast Presents: The Alfred Letters Vol. 1

Vol. 1 Part 3

Our campaign is to spare you pain.

Dursin and I exchange letters from across town. Subscribe to Dursin’s Dungeon and get Dursin’s reply later this week. (we will also link the letters here and in The Dungeon.) Coincidentally, our letters fell on the 15th anniversary of The Dark Knight. We wish we could say we planned it that way, but we are not that smart.

Folks, welcome back to LeaguePodcast Presents: The Alfred Letters.

Listen to us on Spotify below or by heading to leaguepodcast.com. The Vampire Council has returned, and CurbCast will return!

(Part 1: Start Here), (Part 2: at Dursin’s Dungeon) (Part 3: You Are Here) (Part 4: The End?)

Dear Matt

Dursin

,

I stand corrected on your beverage consumption! And I cast no aspersions or judgments! I’ve been known to drink some iced tea even on the same day I had my usual 2-4 cups of coffee. Some folks are vegans, some just have preferences, and even my dyed-in-the-wool Apple Fanboy on the inside is more generous than one might think about people’s preferences for phones, laptops, or tablets!

I very much hasten to yuck on anyone’s yum.

The extra Apple logo on my bike helmet might associate me with a weird, out-of-shape (or, strangely, swole and in shape) primary color shirt-wearing Apple Store employee gang. Still, ultimately, I just want people to live their lives and be happy! And heck, my good friend Rachel—my friend Rachel, has a Samsung phone, and every time we are together, I am asking for her BETTER pictures instead of mine.

I live with a gamer and a PC gamer at that. How did someone who collects old paper comic books and only plays Tetris on a Gameboy wind up with a partner with her own bespoke apartment and costumes inside Fallout ‘76? This is a great melting pot! 

Were we talking about The Dark Knight? We were! The important things, as you said! 

You’ve last posed the question, after your thoughtful insights as someone that has actual knowledge about the film: 

Do you see any more to this movie than typical, good guy vs. bad guy schtick? Is it the movie Gotham deserves? 

Certainly, I think this is a more complex movie than the typical good guy vs. bad guy schtick.

Upon watching The Trilogy on a closer timeline than it was released, the Nolan Trilogy does chop Batman into a whole ‘story’ as much as Star Wars: The Original Trilogy is a whole story in itself, and hey, you’ve also got the most popular one as the ‘meat’ in the middle, as you say! 

I have been, and shall always be, your friend. But also, I have been and have always been kind of a multiverse guy. My recent litmus test was to compare the feelings I get from comic book media properties to what I like about comics ‘in general.’ Not adaptations or anything like that, just sort of “Why do I like comic book stories?” and “What about this movie or tv show reminds me about something I like in the way stories are told in comics?”

Batman Begins harkens back to my favorite stories of early Bruce Wayne. There are comic series, like Legends of The Dark Knight that fill in or expand on stories told in Batman: Year One. One of my favorite stories ever was “Shaman” by classic writer Denny O’Neil and drawn by Ed Hannigan. This put Bruce in a cold environment and would be a side story easily sliding into the Year One ‘training montage’ continuity.

Batman: Shaman - Dennis O’Neil & Ed Hannigan

Batman Begins reminds me of why I liked those stories and how Bruce needs to figure his shit out! Which, of course, he does, but not without fucking up a little along the way. What Frank Miller left us with Year One and Dark Knight Returns are some great touchstones, the same way Ledger left us with a version of Joker that is indelible now. New versions embrace aspects of it, etc. Not to overstate what Miller did, because this isn’t about Frank Miller. This is about how all of these movies would be different without Frank Miller. And we wouldn’t get stories like Shaman. Batman iterates, evolves, and even The Batman (2022) takes from this and that and everywhere. And I love that.

What I mean by ‘multiverse guy’, is that years before they started recreating Crisis in the Arrowverse or whatever, I’ve always thought there are a million versions of Batman and The Joker, depending on who was creating them. The dark stuff, the campy stuff, Batman of Zur-En-Arrh it all makes sense. Unfortunately, We’re being hit over the head with a multiverse canon from Marvel and DC, but I believe in the Nolan Batman universe. 

By taking major storylines like No Man’s Land and having a different take on Robin, Nolan movies exist, fitting a complete version of Batman in my head that’s a continuation of Year One in a way.

This Bruce Wayne doesn’t get to evolve into the Dark Knight Returns Batman, though later, Affleck gets to do (some version) of that. And it is all OK with me. I believe in Harvey Dent, but I also believe that Batman being true to some Batman ‘essence’ is what is important. He can’t shoot or kill with a gun, but they address that in Batman Begins.

To answer the question directly, is this more than just good guy vs. bad guy schtick? Yes, but it’s not more than that in the literal sense. That’s what we’re here for! The clever thing about the Nolan trilogy is that the true Batman ‘thing’ to do is be fucked up about your parents, struggle with seeking justice, assemble a small team to help you do it, and ‘Bingo, Bango, Bongo’ you are at the end of the story with Batman triumphant. Nolan’s Bruce Wayne does get his fair share of abuse from Ra’as Al Ghul, Bane, Joker, the greedy capitalists, and even Scarecrow. But, “Why do we fall, Bruce?”

I think of all the Batman actors on screen, Christian Bale’s Batman is the one that suffers (in the Buddhist sense) the most. Hence, Alfred wants to spare his pain. On top of that, Thomas Lennon, as Doctor, tells him his body is shot as well. He knows his collagen is gone from every joint. That’s the same collagen lost in every punch, kick, and stab received by the Batman in any Alex Ross painting (well, maybe not the Adam West Batman). 

What I think sets this film series apart, and forgive me for sidestepping The Dark Knight specifically, is Batman’s real struggle with all of it. He’s not an idiot like my friend who locked his keys in with two full cases of New Hampshire State Liquor Store bottles for an entire wedding party in the trunk of a rental car, but it seems as though he is always just locking the keys in his rental car trunk. He didn’t ask to take care of this huge house, and he has to live up to his awesome dad’s legacy, and its all just too much. He mopes. But in the end, he gets up, watches for the Bat-signal, and tries to figure out why these madmen are torturing him and his city. Of course, he loves Gotham because he loves his mom and dad, and his dad was the one that built the subway everyone is on about!

To talk a little about your world, that of The Joker, I believe that this Joker doesn’t know who Batman is specifically, but he would say that he does know who he is to anyone that would listen, and they would believe him. On Tuesday, he would tell a lackey it was Bruce Wayne for sure, and then by Thursday, he would say it was Dent or Gordon. But it doesn’t matter. Scarecrow or Bane use the Bruce Wayne card differently, or would. The Joker plays one card. His calling card. Chaos. Knowing Batman’s identity isn’t what’s chaotic about being the Joker. It doesn’t matter. It’s ‘how I got these scars’ in double-secret-reverse. The story is always changing.

And, you outta know. You bought it!

There is something I’ve been noting lately about how Batman ‘66 influences the Dark Knight Trilogy. It’s the two ferries rigged to explode. That seems very much like a ‘poison the water supply’ storyline, and they also poisoned Gotham’s water in the first movie.

I can’t help but compare the bomb in the armored carriers to the bomb in Batman: The Movie. The thing is a big, round cannonball. I just think, more than they are easter eggs, those are ways Nolan is reveling in making a superhero comic book movie, and another reason that “I Think This Is Great!”

Please excuse the overarching storyline being my focus instead of the genius of The Dark Knight. I envy the casual fan, who was brought along to see The Dark Knight without seeing Batman Begins. It’s just a fantastic ride all around. No notes! I wish I still had my little Joker with a bazooka toy, unless I gave it to you. If I lost it, that’s the story of my life, losing toys I like or locking my keys in the trunk of a rental car, always suffering. But if I truly gave it to you, in a false, hazy memory, I am one step closer to enlightenment, practicing detachment. I know it would bring you joy! It’s the small things.

All The Best, Regards,

Clay Namaste Ferno, Still Here.

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