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Catwoman's become pretty emblematic, but after Halle Berry's turn, I doubt they'll be eager to return to that one too quickly.
The Penguin, while I feel a certain affection for him, these days is pretty much just a funny looking organized crime fixer. He isn't too scary, in and of himself.
Many I'd dismiss almost out of hand under the premise that the new Batman is aiming for an air of quasi-realism. Without significant revision, that likely leaves out villains like Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze; their powers and origins are just too far-fetched.
Black Mask is too contraversial, and an unlikely choice for relatively early in the movie's chronology. The comic versions of he and Hush irritated me severely; they didn't succeed because they were especially smart or resourceful or interesting, but because the writers wove stories that allowed for their success, sometimes twisting other characters' actions severely to make it happen.
Interesting things have been done with Harley Quinn in some versions, when authors didn't seem to feel she was something of a joke.
Harvey apparently appears in the next movie, which would seem to make Two-Face a likely candidate for the next movie or the one after. And he's been done well in some of the comics.
It's way too early, I suspect, but I'd love to see Bane done well. He's one of the few recent villains who was fairly believable, smart, and scary. What Schumacher did with the character in Batman and Robin was unforgivable.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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"Man, they're totally going to ruin the continuity between the films!"
Actual quote from an anti-recasting post seen on another board.
Say...did'ja know there's going to be an anime-style "linking series" released at some point between this summer and the next? It'll show Bruce's increasing unease as he ponders the rapidly increasing shift in Gotham's criminal element from mobsters to super-villains.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Are Freeze and Ivy really harder to accept than an immortal eco-terrorist and his microwave weapon? Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Okay, true enough, but they didn't really make Ra's an immortal eco-terrorist in the movie version, and I'm somewhat at a loss for how one could similarly dial down Freeze and Ivy without making them significantly not them.
And they did enough work to make a quasi-believable Gotham that I was willing to forgive them the microwave weapon (which mysteriously didn't incinerate every human being underneath that train.)
I admit I don't know Black Mask's history very well, but the "War" storyline is probably going to be where most people immediately recognize him from.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Toyman? or was it Toymaker? Either way instead of having him actually be a puppet make him some mysterious man using the puppet as, well, a puppet.
Posts: 1401 | Registered: Jun 2004
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The only villain I care about is Mr. Freeze. He's always been my favorite Batman villain, and one of my favorite villains of all time.
But they have to do the Animated Series version of him, not the simple old school comic book, or the cartoony goofy, ridiculous travesty mockery that Ahnold made of it.
Mr. Freeze is complicated. He's not evil by nature, but he's not a good guy by any means. He steals and fights in order to save his wife, Nora. He loves her deeply, which I think already sets him apart from your general cookie cutter bad guy. Things change of course after Nora is healed and subsequently leaves him, I think he loses his will to live. But there's several instances when he could have killed Batman but chose not to, or specifically intervened to make sure that Batman didn't die when he simply could have done nothing and he would have died.
I'm a sucker for complex bad guys. I hate cookie cutter evil for the sake of evil bad guys, I think they are way too easy. I think the Operative from Serenity is one of the best bad guys of all time, and I think Mr. Freeze, TAS version anyway, falls into that same category.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Sterling, I agree with you about Bane and Shoemaker.
And I will go on record as being the one guy who didn't mind Katie Holmes in the first movie.
Granted, I've never seen her in anything else, so I must have missed wherever she became hard to stand.
(Okay, I just IMDB'd her to see if that statement was true, and I have seen a few minutes of First Daughter, and all of Muppets From Space.)
As for other villans, I love it when Riddler is done well. I'm trying to think if I can come up with any time he's been done well on TV or film, and nothing is jumping to mind, but there are some great comic book moments.
Lady Shiva seems the easiest to incorporate into the world they've created--that said, comparisons to Electra might dissuade the powers-that-be.
Come to think of it, Talia would probably be even easier.
The Ventriloquist is one who comes across so great in the comics, but I just can't see working in a live action movie. Like the scene in Knightfall where the two puppets get in the shootout, leaving him in a bloody heap on the floor--that's great. It absolutely worked in the comic. I cannot concieve of how it could work onscreen in live action.
In this CGI age, I do see them jumping to Clayface pretty quickly. Hopefully they can do him the justice the animated series did.
I think Man-Bat could make for a great screen presence, though. He's probably not anybody's first choice, but he seems like the camera would dig him more than some of the others.
But it seems clear they'll use a pared-down approach to anyone they use. If Scarecrow can just be a guy in a tie with a scarecrow mask he whips out sometimes, Ivy could be a girl with a slight tinge to her skin color and really great red hair.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Why not create a completely new villain? Why must they only do that in comic books but never in the movies?
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Puffy Treat: Black Mask only became controversial because of that insipid editorial-dictated story. He existed for nearly two decades before that poor story.
And if we're talking "too early in the chronology" than Ra's and Mr. Zsaz would definitely be out.
As I've said, I don't know Black Mask's history very well. The reason I think he would arrive too early is that the storyline I do know him from ties heavily into the relationship between Batman and his confederates, confederates who do not yet exist within the universe of the movies. I wouldn't do Bane yet for similar reasons: Bane's masterstroke was wearing Batman down by forcing him do deal with many of his arch-enemies all at once, enemies who do not yet exist.
If there's a plotline regarding Black Mask you think the movies would do justice, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Ooh, I'd love to see Poison Ivy. Can't imagine why, though.... Oh, and I'm back in business on Hatrack now, but I had to re-register since my Outlook is stupid. But I'm Ivygirl. Still.
Posts: 52 | Registered: Sep 2007
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My vote goes to Clayface, he was always one of my favorites when I was a kid. I'd also like to see Harley Quinn make an appearance, she was always more of a source of comic relief during the cartoons, but it would be interesting to see her cast as an actual villain.
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
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