We have less than two weeks to behold for what we have waited for more than two years–The Batman. This “year one Batman” story has the makings to be remarkable. We are not fully prepared to say this Matt Reeves extravaganza will top the gift provided to us by Christopher Nolan. But we are pretty damn close.
The Batman is going to be unforgettable. Regardless of where this film will rank and how Battinson will do, one thing is clear — there are bound to be things we do not know about the Cape and the Cowl. What will we learn from this movie? What dazzling nuance will we see? How will this become the architecture for a new “Batverse” (because that is happening)? All those questions had us wondering what other aspects of Bruce Wayne some Chiroptera enthusiasts do not know.
To get you ready for the festivities, here are the Top 10 Trivia Notes you may not know about The Batman.
10. Bruce Wayne’s Name is Heroic
The man behind the mask has a peculiar name–Bruce Wayne. It sounds like a dude who could be a Scoutmaster or some guy by the grill with a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron covered in grease, barbecue sauce, and the random mustard stain. Notwithstanding that, his name is nobler than you think.
When Bob Kane and Bill Finger were dreaming up the masked vigilante in the shadows, they were purposeful about everything–beginning with his name. It turns out both his first and surname are in honor of brave soldiers.
- Bruce — Did you see Braveheart? The man who fought alongside William Wallace, betrayed him and then finished the Scottish war for independence was Robert the…Bruce. Now that wasn’t a title of nobility. He was an Earl, the third out of five peerage titles. “The Bruce” is actually “de Brus” as his last name. However, he was still a courageous man who won the Scots their freedom.
- Wayne — Here is a guy you may not have read about in your U.S. history book, but Mad Anthony Wayne was a hero of the American Revolution. The guy served with General George Washington, who said, “He is one of the best and most successful military leaders of the early American republic.” C’mon. That’s pretty cool.
9. The Batmobile Should be a Lamborghini
When we saw The Dark Knight, gearheads and other nerds had an Easter Egg roll right over them, and many never knew it. The Batmobile has been a tumbler, a former hearse, a uniseat stretch limousine, and now, it appears a vehicle that has been at a Monster Truck rally. As fun as The Batman‘s new whip looks, what Christian Bale paraded around town (and rams headlong into a police motorcade) should have been the real Batmobile.
That is a beautiful Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster. It’s one of those cars if you saw driving by you, the possibility of you getting in a wreck looking at the dang thing would be likely. In Spanish, “Murcielago” means Bat. Easter Egg. Ka-ching!
8. Care for a College Course in Batmanology?
Any UVic students out there? Yes, academic nerds. If you want to get your Batman on in the most authentic way possible, go to school at the University of Victoria, Canada, and enroll in “The Science of Batman.” It’s a fitting course for someone who stars in Detective Comics…Comics, right? The “Ken Jennings of Dork” is Dr. E. Paul Zehr created this class. The premise of the course is investigating the possibility of becoming a human Batman. Oh, he’s serious. Zehr dissects the potential using a lens of neuroscience, muscle physiology, and human conditioning.
If you want to see Dr. Awesome in action, dude even authored a book “Becoming Batman,” which inspired the coursework. And, he has a TED Talk entitled “The Superhero in You.” If anyone deserves a free ticket to see The Batman, it’s this guy. Make it happen, people!
7. Welcome to Batman…Turkey?!
No, not the Thanksgiving tryptophan super feast. That would be too strange. If you visit Google Earth or are old enough to know what an Atlas is, you will find a nestled town in Turkey, just miles away from Iraq and Syria. That is Batman, Turkey. Well, if you want to say it correctly, it’s Baht-mahn. And in 2008, the city got so famous because of its Caped Crusader connection that the Mayor of this place filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. For, what else, copyright infringement.
The hilarious part about the already side-splitting stupid lawsuit was that mayor Huseyin Kalkan was only suing Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. There’s nothing about D.C. Comics, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Adam West Michael Keaton. Hell, not even Batnips himself, George Clooney. No, this was a lawsuit of passion, so it was just Nolan and friends. The Mayor lost the suit and his next term in office. Coincidence? We think not.
6. Superman was Once Batman
Yes, please! In a one-off fantasy football draft pick of sorts, Kal-el put on Bruce Wayne’s tights. In the “Superman Elseworlds” series, called Superman: Speeding Bullets, Kal-el spacecraft detours over the Hudson and crashes in the concrete jungle of Gotham. Everything in his life happens the same, only he was found and adopted by Martha and Thomas Wayne.
Everything: Sees parents die, grow up as an orphan, walks in a strange affinity for bats, and he hates the ne’er-do-well. So, consider the same bloodlust for vengeance but now all the powers of Superman. Now, that creature would whoop Darkseid’s intergalactic ass in a jiffy.
5. The Batman Could Have Been a Yellow Lantern
If you are in the camp that believes Green Lantern was a campy mess of bad CGI and ham-handed writing, imagine this: What if Batman worked with Sinestro in the sequel? That’s right, sports fans. That really (almost) happened. Imagine all the talent of kick-ass Bruce Wayne has–the trinkets, the knick-knacks, the toys. Now, give him a Yellow Lantern ring? Geoff Johns did imagine that when the Sinestro Corps were recruiting Batman. And, a yellow ring chose him in 2007’s Green Lantern 17.
Why? The guy specializes in fear the way a baker does in confetti sprinkles and icing. Fear’s color is yellow, so, of course, the Batman was a stellar choice. However, unlike Sinestro, Batman looked at the ring and shooed it away. (Don’t you wish you had his willpower when it came to going to the gym?)
4. What do Batman and Leonardo Da Vinci Have in Common?
Did you ever think you would see that question in print? The guy who painted “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa” was quite the wunderkind. He also invented an ornithopter (remember the space shuttles in Dune) and the helicopter. The artist had a fascination with flight. While other people looked into the sky to watch birds, here’s Leo asking himself how he could get up there. That was 1480!
Bob Kane and Bill Finger knew about the vast wisdom of Da Vinci, so they found some inspiration to help with the creation of the Caped Crusader. So, they sifted through the many things Leonardo Da Vinci did. That is when they found something that would later become a hang glider. Take a look at the wings there–as in, literal wings. Batman’s wings and automatic cape in the Nolanverse was inspired by the Da Vinci “Flying Machine.”
Not for nothing, but he could have inspired other things about Batman. Da Vinci lost his father at an early age and kinda’ fell into a cave in a notable story, which was highly traumatic for the Italian youngster.
3. The Batman’s Favorite Dish is Mulligatawny Soup
Maybe, there is a diner outside of a Gotham trailer park that Bruce Wayne loves to haunt? It could be that in a Gotham City IHOP, he has this secret sauce made because a hero must defend on a full tummy.
Who knows what happened, but the source of Bruce Wayne’s favorite last-meal dish comes from Alfred Pennyworth. The guy knows just how the Batman likes his piping hot soup.
Yes, that is a proper spelling — Mulligatawny Soup. Bruce is a man about town, so his palette is internationally traveled. This soup is not Campbells or even Chunky. Before you ask, there aren’t any bat shaped SpaghettiOs.
This is a refined curry-inspired dish that Alfred makes quickly. In “Batman Vol. 1, Number 701,” there it is, directly from Alfred’s mouth. This eastern Indian soup dish — originally called milagutannir — means “pepper water.”
Oh no, it’s real! It dates to 1784. There is a vibrant Indian population in the U.K., which is how milagutannir became comic book fodder and Bruce Wayne’s go-to burner food at 2 a.m.
Get your One Note ready to copy and paste. Here is the recipe:
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 apple, cored and chopped
- 1/4 cup white rice
- 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast (use half, cut into cubes)
- 1 pinch dried thyme
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, heated
- Salt and pepper to taste
Saute onions, celery, carrot, and butter in a large soup pot. Add flour and curry, and cook 5 more minutes. Add chicken stock, mix well, and bring to a boil. Simmer about 1/2 hour.
Add apple, rice, chicken, salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until rice is done.
(We want pictures and a review. Hit us up on Twitter.)
2. The Joker was the First Red Hood
This one may hurt a little, casual fans.
If go back into the very inception of Jason Todd, you’ll discover he needs to step aside. He was not the first Red Hood. That title belongs to the Joker.
No, really!
It was during the Golden-Silver Age of comics (between 1935 and 1970). Bill Finger and Bob Kane teamed up with the renowned artist Jerry Robinson to bring this “what the what” to light. It was Detective Comics #168 “The Man Behind the Red Hood” back in 1951 where we first learn about Red Hood.
There’s the cover and “the man behind the red hood” was indeed Batman’s soulmate for the next six decades. Here’s the part that will really mess with your medulla. Joker was taking folk down amnesia lane about his diabolical dealings. In the article, Joker reveals a caper where he planned on stealing $1 million from his employer…wait for it…
…at Ace Chemicals Plant.
Once he pocketed all that cash, it was time for early retirement. Maybe Joker was planning on Cabo, Fiji, or even New Zealand. Yet, he was running from Batman in his place of employment, then suddenly, there was a catastrophic slip-and-fall about 30 feet down into a bubbly vat of acid.
Interested in how he survived? The Red Hood had a SCUBA doohickey inside the hood that allowed him to breathe while underwater…or underacid. He swam to safety but realized his slight pigmentation problem. That’s when Joker had an epiphany to be Joker.
It’s all in print. Enjoy.
1. Batman was Created to Kill
It’s the shot heard ’round the nerd world–should Batman kill? It’s a question that tears up families, destroys fandoms, and makes a Girl Scout throw her Samoas out the window!
And whatever side of the Batcage fence you fall on, you need to get in the Wayback Machine and pay attention to canon. When Batman was coming up in the world, he had a fit that looked like thermals and a nappy hat, but in his utility belt was a loaded gun. Trust he wasn’t aiming for the villain’s big toe. In the middle of the 1940s, we have this comic strip.
See that? “A fitting end.” Dude is dead and Batman did it. Still don’t believe the creators of the comic?
Here are some more options. You tell us if these guys were dead or just sleeping with their eyes open. Here is Bruce Wayne practicing his “kick you so hard that it snaps your neck like a twig” move. And to make things worse, someone calls Batman “Doctor Death”. You know why? He killed someone! And that’s in the 1940s.
Here is another baddie you may not know too well, Mad Monk. No, he’s not a Shaolin who decided to go postal. That was the guy’s name. And then he is confronted with the Batman who cranks out a Smith & Wesson and caps that guy.
Here is something that is a little too gruesome for the juvenile Batman fans, but it happened. Here we are providing a resource for you. This was Detective Comics #27. It was a proud moment because the Batman is out on his own comic for the first time. Yet, moral code? Child, please. Bruce Wayne is flying the Batplane, rings a noose around a giant pummeling Gotham, and decides to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina or something.
How about something more fitting? This isn’t the first time America has been mad at Russia for doing something. Back during the Reagan Administration, things were pretty tense between the President and Mr. Gorbachev (as in “Take down this wall.”) so DC Comics decided to personify those relations with KGBeast. Cute, right? Until Bruce Wayne buries the dude…alive.
Batman has killed Dracula, Joker, some schlep named Jose Garzonas, and dare we say it, even Darkseid in Final Crisis. We don’t need to belabor this discussion any longer than necessary. Yes, Batman kills. In fact, he was created to kill, but they were all bad.
And this is just for grins from Mr. Sunday Movies, who is a great watch on YouTube. This is a video where Batman kills like 45 people on film. Good times!
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.
