Favorite Interpretation of the Wayne Murders

[The Dark Knight]

I admit to tearing up during the opening BvS montage. I didn't think that would happen, but it did.

[Silver Nemesis]

Thanks a lot, SN.  Looking forward to your thoughts on the unproduced scripts as a lot of them make you think "What if?" Mankiewicz's script had a lot of ideas ahead of its time. Hamm's Batman 2 script is more of a direct sequel to the 1989 film.

Hamm's Batman II script is the only one I've read so far, but I actually really liked it. Whenever it comes up in discussions, it's usually dismissed as a 'Hardy Boys' story about Penguin and Catwoman hunting for treasure. That makes it sound like a Goonies-esque adventure, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's got a much stronger plot than Waters' script. Each character is given his or her own storyline within the overarching narrative. And Bruce Wayne remains at the heart of the action, which would've given Keaton a lot more to work with. And as you say, it's a true sequel to the 1989 film. The one massive advantage Waters' version had over Hamm's was the depiction of Catwoman. But aside from that, I actually like Hamm's script better.

On the subject of Hamm and Waters, the latter has always maintained he disregarded his predecessor's input when writing the script for Batman Returns. And I think I heard Hamm say something similar about the earlier treatments of the first Batman film by guys like Englehart and Mankiewicz. And yet when you see a feature like this lay out the recurring elements, it's hard to ignore the connections. For instance, Englehart having Gordon comfort Bruce after his parents are killed, only for Hamm to reuse the concept in his own script. Or Selina witnessing the murder in the 1998 musical, only to do so again in the first episode of Gotham. Or a character like Charles Palantine in the 1999 pilot playing a similar role to Richard Earle in Batman Begins, just 6 years later. And the one thing all of these connections have in common is that the recycled concepts originated in unproduced treatments, not the comics. Did certain writers pinch ideas from their predecessors without crediting them, perhaps thinking no one would notice? Or is it just a coincidence?

I'll see if I can dig up some more similarities when I look through the other unproduced treatments.

As for the Batlad comic, it is collected in the Superboy: The Greatest Team-Ups Ever Told: http://www.amazon.com/Superboy-Greatest-Team-Ups-Ever-Told/dp/1401226523
The idea of young Bruce getting help from Superboy into investigating his parents' deaths (while wearing a costume before the Bat cowl) is absolutely insane and it's even crazier how obscure the comic turned out to be. You'd think something like that would be talked about. I didn't even know it existed until I read a Batman Encyclopedia that mentioned that he had previously teamed up with Superboy as "The Flying Fox" and "The Executioner." I then had to do some digging.

Cheers, I'll have a search for this on Amazon. I'm a big fan of the Silver Age Superman, so this looks like precisely my kind of thing.

[OutRiddled]

My ranking:

Batman '89 - very nightmarish, and the actor they got to play Jack Napier was perfect with that creepy smile
BvS - the most cinematic and I love the shot of the pearls getting caught up in the gun
Begins - not a bad scene but it's kind of glossed over, and Joe Chill is portrayed more sympathetic which was an odd choice
Forever - I like the killer being in the shadows and the general dark atmosphere of that scene, but it's much too brief and more of a flashback

Have not seen Gotham as I do not even watch that show.