Batman '89 (2021)

[Silver Nemesis]

It looks like Bruce finally figured out how to use those gravity boots.

[The Dark Knight]

I like that he's taken a B89 visual concept (Bruce hanging upside down after sleeping with Vicki) and expanded upon it. Visually everything has a nice atmosphere. The B89 suit vault is unbeatable in its design, too. It fascinated me as a kid. How imposing and heavy the door was, looking as if it belongs in a submarine. Something so heavy duty raised the importance of the suit within.

[GBglide]

I guess this is probably a no-go for me.
As Batman it looks ok.
Bruce Wayne really doesn't look like Keaton to me. He's just too square jawed.


Things like Bruce looking off and Alfred with a mustache, seems like the artist is trying to give the feeling of these characters while avoiding using their likeness.
Like it's just enough to avoid paying royalties to the actors/estates.

[Silver Nemesis]

I like that he's taken a B89 visual concept (Bruce hanging upside down after sleeping with Vicki) and expanded upon it. Visually everything has a nice atmosphere. The B89 suit vault is unbeatable in its design, too. It fascinated me as a kid. How imposing and heavy the door was, looking as if it belongs in a submarine. Something so heavy duty raised the importance of the suit within.

Last year I was introduced to a term I'd not heard before: dieselpunk. Just as steampunk is a retrofuturistic aesthetic derived from the technology of the Victorian era, so dieselpunk is retrofuturism derived from the technology of the interwar period. Articles on the subject specifically cite the 1989 Batman film as an example of dieselpunk cinema. Other examples include the films Brazil (1985), The Rocketeer (1991), Dark City (1998), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and the classic Indiana Jones trilogy, as well as videogames such as BioShock (2007) and the Wolfenstein, Command & Conquer and Killzone series. Here are some examples of diselpunk art.

It's essential that both the new B89 comic and Flash movie capture this diselpunk aesthetic if they want to successfully evoke the world of the Burtonverse.

I guess this is probably a no-go for me.
As Batman it looks ok.
Bruce Wayne really doesn't look like Keaton to me. He's just too square jawed.


Things like Bruce looking off and Alfred with a mustache, seems like the artist is trying to give the feeling of these characters while avoiding using their likeness.
Like it's just enough to avoid paying royalties to the actors/estates.

So far I like everything I've seen and heard about this comic. I want this to be a progression from the Burton films, not just a nostalgic retread. Burton completely revamped stately Wayne Manor and Gotham City in Batman Returns, and I think it's safe to assume there would have been just as many visual changes had he directed a third film. Perhaps Michael Gough would have grown a moustache.

Perhaps Michael Keaton would have hit the gym harder like he did when he trained for Desperate Measures (which despite being released in 1998 was actually shot in 1996).

By giving him a more muscular build and square jaw, Quinones is really just doing what the costume department tried to do in the original movies. They had him wear polo necks and put a chin strap in his cowl in an attempt to accentuate his jaw line. They also dressed him in broad-shouldered suits and coats to give his physique a more tapered and heavily-built look.

The only time they showed him shirtless (the closest thing the Burton films had to a 'validation scene') was when he was hanging from the gravity boots, and even then they shot him from behind while he was flexing his lats, with strategic lighting used to try and increase his muscle definition.

The Batman Returns comic adaptation also gave him a stronger jaw and more muscular physique.

In real life Keaton might be a 160lb everyman, but in-universe his Bruce Wayne is meant to be a badass whose kicks are strong enough to send criminals flying through the air, and whose punches are powerful enough to rip through the floor of the Batmobile. Quinones' depiction is consistent with that idea, and to my eyes his drawings of Bruce still strongly resemble Keaton. Just a more idealised version of him. Personally, I don't have a problem with that. But to each his own.

I can't wait to read the first issue.

[Gotham Knight]

if an in universe explanation helps, his routine and diet might possibly lead to Bruce putting on weight as he ages. He turns it to muscle, but he starts to carry more because he does not metabolize the same. You could even see it as a lean towards a TDKR future, since Bruce looks to be what comic book aesthetic defines as late 40s-early 50s here. I do think Robin will be a young man and be depicted as someone who will eventually need to take up the mantle. Bruce getting older does seem to be something the book wants you to know.

But, Nemesis is on the money here. It's all about creating the illusion

[GBglide]

Thanks for your well thought out responses to my post. But for me it's all about nostalgia. The farther it diverges from the '89 movie the more it just might as well just be a regular Batman comic, and there are already plenty of those.

[thecolorsblend]

Thanks for your well thought out responses to my post. But for me it's all about nostalgia. The farther it diverges from the '89 movie the more it just might as well just be a regular Batman comic, and there are already plenty of those.

Yo.

Of all Batman forums, I rly don't think anybody here will go easy on this comic book if it doesn't deliver the goods. Like you, I want something that feels like it could be a continuation of Burton's films. I don't particularly want the existing Batman mythos filtered through a Burton aesthetic. Any idiot can do that. I'd prefer something that feels like it could pick up where Burton left off.

[The Dark Knight]

Thanks for your well thought out responses to my post. But for me it's all about nostalgia. The farther it diverges from the '89 movie the more it just might as well just be a regular Batman comic, and there are already plenty of those.

I understand your apprehension because we all want this to work out. But I see a lot of nostalgia in the previews. They've chosen the B89 cave and brought back elements of the suit, which is already more than the heavy aesthetic deviation of Returns. Which I don't have a problem with, but facts are facts. If something doesn't feel like a genuine continuation I will call it out. But at the same time I don't want to be reading B89 or BR clones with slight deviations.

Keaton's Batman wouldn't have just fought Joker and Penguin. More bad guys would have appeared: we just didn't see them. Bruce did get older and experience problems associated with that. We just didn't see it. And so on and so forth. It is important the Burton tone remains through these plot points. But if they can do that, bring it all on. It's our chance to fill in a huge void and unfreeze time.

[The Laughing Fish]

Thanks for your well thought out responses to my post. But for me it's all about nostalgia. The farther it diverges from the '89 movie the more it just might as well just be a regular Batman comic, and there are already plenty of those.

Yo.

Of all Batman forums, I rly don't think anybody here will go easy on this comic book if it doesn't deliver the goods. Like you, I want something that feels like it could be a continuation of Burton's films. I don't particularly want the existing Batman mythos filtered through a Burton aesthetic. Any idiot can do that. I'd prefer something that feels like it could pick up where Burton left off.

Batman '89 is the only DC-related property I have faith in, at the moment. Quinones has demonstrated to have lots of love for Burton's Batman, and Hamm's involvement gives it credibility. I'm very confident this comic limited series will capture the spirit of the Burton world without coming across as contrived.

[Gotham Knight]

Take my money.