Let's start this. I enjoyed the first two movies of the Nolan Batman Trilogy. The third was a steaming pile of feces.
But....The fanboy love affair that people have with the Nolan Batman Trilogy totally clouds their objective judgement.
Nolan's Batman could never exists, nor should he, in the upcoming DC Justice League universe. Why?
Well, let's dive into this.....
1) Nolan's Dark Knight is too far grounded in reality to make for the Batman that would exist and interact with a Superman from space, an Amazon princess from a remote island, and an Underwater hero that talks to fish. Not to mention Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and anybody else they try to put in there.
- We need a Comic Book Batman who is Über smart, Über Rich and Über tough. Not some guy who is beat up with no cartilage in his knees, etc.
Which leads me to point #2
2) Nolan's Batman is BROKEN. He is older, out of shape, physically destroyed, mentally screwed up by the death of Rachel, and even had retired for 8 years. He has had his back broken, his knees are shot, and had to walk with a cane for quite some time. This is NOT the SUPER Batman that we need for the Justice League. Batman needs to be a real guy, but a TRUE superhero that fits with the Comic Books (not the bleak Dark Knight ones either).
3) And thanks to Nolan beating up Batman so badly we have a terrible ending to his trilogy. As I stated earlier, Batman was broken. He was done. He had to even fake his death to get out of the business. And then what.....he hands the mantle off to a Cop?!?!
Some Cop with barely a lick of the ninja, League of Shadows training that Bruce Wayne had?
- There is no way this Cop would be able to do half of what Bruce Wayne did.
a) He does not have the monetary resources...Bruce Wayne was left with nothing but a house, and that was left to the orphans.
b) He does not have the smarts...Bruce Wayne is brilliant....and a DETECTIVE first and foremost. A big part of Batman is that we like to see him solve the crimes. And he is Damn good at it. The cop doesn't have that.
c) As I said above...he does not have the training. Being a guy who can fight well is FAR different from being a person trained in the martial arts, and with a "flair for the theatrical" like Batman.
- That is what made Batman Begins and The Dark Knight so good.
In my opinion "Batman Begins" was far superior to "The Dark Knight" because you actually had a Batman who had that mystical edge....that special power that he learned from the League of Shadows. The scene in the ship yard where he takes out the mod henchmen....brilliant and pure Batman.
- The Arkham Asylum escape scene with Rachel....BRILLIANT. Calling the bats and using them as his distraction....it was Iconic. His tools were grounded in reality, as Batman's tools are....but he had that mystery...that mystique that Batman needed.
- Even Gotham city was better in Batman Begins. It was more iconic as well. It looked dark...it looked bleak....Hell, it looked Gothic. That is how Gotham should look (hence the name). The Batman Begins Gotham City looked closer to the Burton Gotham....but wasn't as over the top. It had a touch of reality with the comic book air of mystery.
What ever happened to "The Narrows" in Dark Knight and DK Rises? Nowhere to be found.
Whatever happened to Arkham Asylum? Nary a mention, and it plays such a HUGE role in the Batman Universe.
- I prefer the Batman Begins Gotham to the Chicago/Pittsburgh Dark Knight/DK Rises Gotham. The city was the perfect home for Batman. That was where the Batman we knew should exist...and could thrive. Then Nolan got too full of himself and had to make Batman just a guy.
4) Back to my original point....Batman is NOT just a guy. Batman is a freak of nature, a wonder, a prodigy of crime fighting. He is one of the best super heroes because...he is just a guy...who had trained himself to be awesome (Athletic, Educated, Strong, Smart and incredibly wealthy).
It is the Comic Book Batman that can battle The Joker, the Riddler, Penguin, Cat Woman, Scarecrow and the other villains...who also possess a bit of that otherworldliness. Yes Ledger did a great job as the Joker.....but Nolan also grounded him a bit too much in reality as well.
NOLAN PAINTED HIMSELF INTO A CORNER WITH A REAL WORLD BATMAN.
That neutralized all of the villains. So anything Fantastical would not be able to happen in Nolan, Dark Knight Trilogy, Justice League. He just won't mesh....not to mention that he is physically destroyed.
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN ARC
Simply, DC needs to just insert Batman in the universe like he existed all along....show some glimpses of him as a cross over element in the next Superman movie, maybe even let the two cross paths when Superman flies into Batman's gotham.
The PERFECT way to re-introduce Batman would be to have a brief Batman vs Superman act in the next Superman movie. Much like we saw Iron Man vs. Thor vs Captain America..... Batman vs Superman (for the 2nd Act of the three act story) would be PERFECT.
Crime happens, villain shows up, Superman flies to Gotham to stop the crime, Batman is already on it. Superman interferes. Batman gets pissed. A little back and forth...and there you can show how strong the NEW Batman is...how smart...how great his tools are...how well equipped he is to take on Superman....at least for a while.
Don't you think for a second that Bruce Wayne, knowing about Superman, would develop a kryptonite device to help neutralize him, or give himself an edge? Of course he would...and this would show how damn smart he is.
Superman...tasked with protecting the world would stand up to Batman and not understand his motivations totally, but he could be the sensible and moral one. That is Superman. He settles the fight down...they come to terms. They respect one another...and then they team up to beat this villain.
Now you will have introduced Batman...shown how awesome this NEW Batman is (and true to the comic books)....and you can spin off more Batman stand alone movies without having to go through an entire reboot. We already know the Batman origin story. It was just told about 10 years ago. And Batman Begins told it just right.
So you take a bit of Nolan direction (the right direction) and the only time he went in the absolute right direction with Batman Begins.....use a bit of that....that plants in our memories with "oh yeah, that's how he became Batman".... but then you take it in the proper, fantastical, DC Comics direction and give us the Batman we need...
....the only Batman that can serve in The Justice League universe.
Pretty simple actually....if Hollywood writers are up to the challenge.