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But in the next movie they’ll be neo-Nazis played by Brits From the ever informative Dave Barry blog, I learn that a Hollywood type superhero is joining in the fight against al-Qaeda:
Batman may utilise his extensive knowledge of caves to fight his latest foe – al-Qaeda.
Batman writer, Frank Miller, has told a comic-book convention that his upcoming novel, “Holy Terror, Batman!” is a piece of propaganda.
“Batman kicks al-Qaeda’s ass,” Miller said.
Miller said the comic was: “an explosion from my gut reaction of what’s happening now” and “a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we’re up against.”
So how many Batman movies have there been so far? Is it four? What’s the betting that the next one does not feature al-Qaeda as the villains?
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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If ever you see someone in front of their computer giggling hopelessly, you can safely say, “Reading Dave Barry, are you?”
Verity,
They might actually be reading Jesus and Mo. 😉
James Hammerton – Uh, no. As in, what a yawn-o-roo.
If people are steadying an elbow against their computer desk, shoulders heaving helplessly while trying to raise their coffee to their lips, it’s Dave Barry.
… as in, words written by Dave Barry and not the little wannabees who pile onto his blog.
Batman should watch out. Being found in possession of a secret lair in a cave would have Bruce Wayne taken down as ‘associated with’ terrorist activities himself–and perhaps made an example of as a billionaire funder of terrorism.
Counting the 1970’s Adam West affair there have been 6 Batman films.
Oddly enough Frank Miller is usually quite an anti-statist writer. His classic Batman opus “The Dark Knight Returns” is portrays Superman as a government pawn used to keep the world in check. The more recent (and not as good imo) sequel is even more anti-statist.
I am an unashamed comic nerd, I am afraid.
Lusiphur, me too. In recent times there have been 4 Batman films in a series, Batman (good, but a typical Tim Burton movie), Batman Returns (OK, but still just a typical Tim Burton movie), Batman Forever (a Joel Schumacker piece of trash), Batman and Robin (a really bad Joel Schumacker piece of trash).
Last year Batman Begins relaunched the franchise from scratch. It was excellent and in part based on some of Miller’s ideas for the character. Recently however Miller has gone off tthe rails a bit and this seems to be another example of that. I don’t expect any subsequent Batman films to feature Osama Bin Laden or British Neo Nazis or indeed the insane, cackling, semi-paedophile Batman of Miller’s recent imaginings.
“Last year Batman Begins relaunched the franchise from scratch. It was excellent…”
Although I loved Nolan’s ‘Memento’ and thought his ‘Insomnia’ was pretty good, I was disappointed with Batman Begins. Sure, it’s better than the other Batman films, but the background to the character was just too much and done with surprisingly little imagination I thought. Although the Batman story is a cliched old fart of a thing, the first half of the film essentially strips away any mystery to the character. Yet the whole Batman story is a story about the character of baddie-fighting Batman. With no imagination, or mystery, (or humour) the film is just a going-through-the-motions. Whether that is down to Nolan or the producers I don’t know, but it was a bit ‘haven’t I seen this before somewhere a million times?’
If British actors are too-frequently cast as villains, I don’t think it is because the British are hated or despised. An English accent of the right sort conveys to an American ear the idea of sophistication.
So, the villains in American film and television productions are very often played by British actors. Not because we’re still angry about the War of 1812 or quartering soldiers in our homes without the owners’ consent, but because a sophisticated enemy is one who possesses an edge, thus is regarded as being harder to defeat, and so any victory is that much more impressive.
I think it’s some sort of genetic memory thing. How many of my fellow Phallo-Americans reading this agree with me that British women are hotter, just by virtue of their accents?
And for the purpose of staying on-topic, I’d like to add that of course Batman could kick Osama’s ass in a straight-up fight, it’s barely worth mentioning.
Once upon a time, of course, all of these villians were Germans and then Russians, but it’s hard to be a believable villian when the last war your country won was 136 years ago or when your country simply vanished because no one wanted to be bothered memorizing the works of Lenin anymore. And having Arab or Islamic villians is a p.c. no-no, seeing as how Islam is a religion of peace.