Robin posted on 2016-05-14 10:23
Recently, "Batman: Return to Arkham HD Collection" was leaked to be released on June 10, two PS3 games have been moved to the PS4 platform after so many years, and earlier in early March lego Justice League movies were released, at the end of March "Batman vs Superman" movies were released, plus "Suicide Squad" in August Also has Batman's figure, the frequency of appearance is high, worthy of the annual top of the super British popularity and gold absorption double list of characters.
As an "old antique" character who was born for 77 years, why can Batman's popularity last so many years? As the only ordinary human being among the seven elders of the Justice League, he is always labeled by everyone as suspicious, dark, lonely, and terrifying. He was the product of violence, with Wagner-style pain, and there was no trace of self-pity in his soul, like a monster shining with a damp black glow.
But, is that all Batman is all about?
The Origins of Batman: The Opposite of Superman
The origin of creation and the evolution of early images: diverse, strange, chaotic
In 1938, the first superhero superhero in the history of comics was born, as the most deserved and greatest hero in the american comic book world, Superman did not wear a mask, won the trust of the people with undisguised honesty, showed his strength in the bright sun, and privately lived an ordinary life as a newspaper reporter Clark Kent. Since there has never been a similar supernatural character in the American comics, Superman was immediately successful as soon as he appeared.
The comic book company, which had tasted the sweetness, decided to launch a second superhero while the iron was hot, but Superman had enough of one, so they thought, why don't we create a superhero that is the complete opposite of Superman? On this basis, Batman was born. He is a completely ordinary man, and covers his whole body, creating fear in the hearts of criminals with ethereal and strange legends, silently hiding in the darkness, but taking off his mask is Gotham City's most prominent prince, Bruce Wayne.
Batman debuts: Cover of Detective Comics Issue 27, May 1939
However, Batman is not the well-known Dark Knight image from the beginning of his birth. Due to the relationship of the times, Batman first appeared in "Detective Comics", and initially appeared in people's eyes with a more detective-oriented image and story. Later, as the tastes of generations of readers changed, comic book companies let Batman experience detectives, gentle parents, sci-fi adventures, exaggerated funny and other styles in order to cater to the trend, but perhaps because these are not the real "ruthless avengers in the dark", Batman comic sales continue to decline, and popularity has declined to the point that current Batman fans simply can't understand.
Mainstream comic milestones and character stereotypes: The Ruthless Avengers of the Night
It was Frank Miller who saved the situation.
In 1986, Frank Miller's legendary batman: The Dark Knight Returns painted the world of Batman with an extremely dark and tragic color, depicting a story that was very different from all previous Batman comics in line with the real society at that time. In this world, the crime of Gotham City intensifies, the 50-year-old Batman has to put on his battle robes and fight in isolation, Superman is ordered by the government to arrest Batman who is regarded as a criminal, and the two fight for life and death... The book is full of loneliness in the twilight years, the panic of the Cold War era, the indifference of people, the confrontation with the system, and the attachment to faith. Its themes and realistic plots geared towards a mature reader changed the way many people thought about comics. It not only set the common tone of future Batman comics, but also caused a major rise in Batman's popularity, and the paranoid dark and lonely Batman we now know has since fixed the image, and even used the Dark Knight as a fixed description of Batman. It can be said that without batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which is known as a milestone in mainstream comics, then we would not see the Dark Knight who has been slaughtering the major charts for many years.
It is worth mentioning that Batman and Superman were still in another journal" at that time, "The World's Best Comics", other serial plots, and when Batman in the 70s and 80s gradually returned to his "ruthless Avenger in the Night" image in his personal magazine, the cooperative magazine still retained the exaggerated and funny character of the 60s because of the storytelling, a wonderful phenomenon until "The World's Best Comics" terminated serialization after 323 issues.
If Batman: The Dark Knight Returns established Batman's image and character, then batman: The First Year, which he created the following year, really created the origin and origin story of Batman.
Although his origins have been repeatedly mentioned since batman's birth, Batman: The First Year is undoubtedly the most realistic and darkest story, and it has become the setting followed in all Batman stories since then. Even when you go to the film "Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow" directed by Christopher Nolan, you will find that not only does it have a plot taken from the comic, but even many storyboards are directly copied from this comic.
Genre-rich and image-derived: a true hero hiding in darkness
When Batman was more and more popular, more comics, animations, movies, games and a series of derivative works have come out, although they have a very rich and diverse and even strange brain hole, but what has always remained unchanged is Frank Miller's portrayal of Batman's image and character in "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" and "Batman: The First Year". One that was profoundly influenced was the ACT game Batman: Arkham Origins, released in 2013.
When the Batman series of games debuted, the creators did not rush to present the origin story of the superhero, but chose the more intense and direct conflict "Batman: Arkham Madhouse" as the first attempt, I have to say that this is a feast for fans. But when the second game, Batman: Arkham City, was also released, more pure fans were curious about how the Dark Knight got to where he is today, and on this basis, Batman: Arkham Origins was born.
Although the game is shrouded in the aura of Batman: Arkham Madhouse and contrasts with such flaws, it has to be admitted that the game's plot inherits the core of Batman very well. As a fledgling Batman, the player gradually becomes a dark and terrifying urban legend of Gotham, awakening criminals with fear, leaving a deep shadow in their hearts, and countering violence with more extreme violence, extremism and paranoia.
In the game, we see a conventional superhero like Superman who represents all the desirable virtues of light, hope, kindness and justice, and the sense of first-person substitution brought by playing Batman makes us more clearly realize that the real hero is different from the idol created by the public, but Batman understands human dignity and understands the immortal spirit of human beings, which is lacking in Superman's education.
And in the end, you become the greatest crime terminator in the world, even if it is a difficult road...
Batman's image goes deep: the number one nemesis, the Joker
Resilience in the face of adversity
People who can understand you, but who have different pursuits from you on different paths, are called old enemies. For Batman, this kind of person has a very specific image - the Joker. If you want to truly feel what a disgusting and fearful, evil and chaotic existence the Joker is, maybe you can incarnate as Batman and start from the first point of view to make this understanding more profound. What can help is Batman: Return to Arkham HD Collection.
The collection of games to be released next month is actually a remake of two PS3 console games, Batman: Arkham Madhouse and Batman: Arkham City, including all of their DLC, and after many years, the two classic games will be remade and brought to the PS4 platform.
One of the most important to recommend is Batman: Arkham Madhouse. Based on the comic of the same name, the original book is arguably the darkest batman in all its history, and in the game, the Joker who was arrested in the Arkham Asylum broke free of the guards, while Harley Quinn hijacked the director of the asylum and took control of the security system, and The Director Gordon was kidnapped. With the Joker threatening anyone who approaches the insane asylum to detonate a city bomb, Batman is forced to go on a mission on his own. Batman is not only on the verge of being on the verge of dyslexia, but you can also feel the fear, frustration and hope more realistically, and of course, the last point is the key to your game.
Of course, the joker is terrible because he is not only the leader of the big event of Arkham Madhouse, in fact, the major plot events that have made Batman and the Bat family (that is, Batman and the members of the Bat family with it) such as "Batman: Death of the Family", "Batman: Deadly Joke", "Batman: Annihilation Disaster" and so on are all caused by the Joker. He led to the death of the second Robin Jason Todd, took and paralyzed Batgirl Barbara Gordon nude photos, killed the wife of Batman's old partner, Police Chief Jim Gordon, and much more. We can see the Joker in every generation of Batman games, precisely because every appearance of the Joker makes the darkness in the Batman world more vivid.
The vigilantes still have a bottom line that will never be crossed
And no matter how much he hated everything the Joker brought with him, Batman always insisted that he only let the law judge him, and he would never be an executioner, no matter how far he was forced by the Joker. And you have to admit that when faced with the Joker and the consequences he caused, Batman's persistence and adherence to his bottom line is even more valuable, and his willpower is amazing. If you go to Batman: Arkham Asylum, you'll even be mad at the Joker's hijacking of Commissioner Gordon and hating the game for forcing the remnants of a bloody no real death for killing all villains. At the end of the game Batman: Arkham City, when the CG appears batman to the dead Joker and says that even if he is full of evil, he will still save him, I believe most people will rush into the screen to kill the Joker so that he will no longer do evil, but from the heart, you will still understand Batman's behavior of only guarding the innocent and not sentencing the perpetrators.
It is worth mentioning that in order to ensure that Batman who acts as a saint with a mortal body will never give up the "no-kill principle", except for "Batman: Arkham Madhouse", in all batman series games, whether the villain or the NPC who plays soy sauce, no matter how fierce the skill is used, it will be forced to retain a blood, forced to die, in order to ensure that the batman spirit will never die!
...... Otherwise, the Rocksteady Studios building where the game was developed would have been demolished by Batman long ago.
Batman's Legacy: Batman Forever
Even the strongest will in the world could not forever maintain a body of wind and frost that had been fought for many years and was extremely badly damaged. When Bruce Wayne no longer has the ability to wear a battle robe and abandons the side of "Playboy Brucey Baby", Batman, as a created symbol and symbol, needs to be passed on forever, becoming a dark urban legend, forever alert to Gotham's criminals.
In the comic book world, Batman not only has a huge superhero family, but also has a number of superheroes who have to take over Batman's robes in an emergency and incarnate into a new generation of Batman to continue the legend. These include the moment when Batman is broken back by Bane and becomes the Angel of Death instead of Batman's death. Nightwing Dick Grayson, who took over Batman's cloak twice during the Angel of Death's loss of control and during the Infinite Crisis period, respectively. There's also the Future Batman series, which tells the story of Bruce Wayne's aging, when Taylor McGinnis succeeded him as the new Batman. In addition, another of Batman's little assistants, Red Robin Tim Drake, also resolutely took over the Batman cape in a parallel world where adult superheroes suffered major blows and were almost killed. The current Robin Damien Wayne, as Bruce Wayne's biological son, is predicted in a dream that he will succeed to the new Batman and bring about the demise of Gotham City, although this turns out to be a misunderstanding, but unfortunately, the twelve-year-old Damian died in the batman's hero's attack on the Leviathan organization.
From left: Angel of Death, Nightwing, Taylor McGinnis, Red Robin, Robin
Fortunately, the world is still kind to Batman, and Bruce Wayne, who lost his parenthood, successfully resurrected Damian Wayne from the Apocalypse Star shortly after.
But maybe... Well, when you're playing any Batman series, no matter how many times you die, you can always come back to life, and maybe that's the reward of "playing" Batman to uphold justice.