On Episode 13 of the BOF Social Hour, yours truly and BOF Senior Contributor Peter Verra talked about the voice cast announcement for the upcoming BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN animated film. That lead to a discussion about what Batman comic book stories should get the animated movie treatment. Some of the suggestions we kicked around included…
BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN, BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK, BATMAN: YEAR 100, BATMAN: DARK VICTORY, “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” (from 1973’s BATMAN #251), BATMAN: RED RAIN, BATMAN: STRANGE APPARITIONS, amongst others.
I then decided to hit up my friend and the executive producer of all Batman films — live-action and animation — the great Michael Uslan and get his thoughts about this topic. Here’s what Mr. U had to say…
The first two-part Man-Bat story (from DETECTIVE COMICS #400 and #402, 1970).
I would also do an animated movie called “Batman: One,” combining into one woven story the origin of Batman from DETECTIVE COMICS #33 (1939), followed by his first adventure from DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1939), then the origin of Robin in DETECTIVE COMICS #38 (1940), then the stories taken from BATMAN #1 (1940) featuring his first fight with The Joker (“The Joker”) and his first fight with Catwoman (“The Cat”).
Other contenders are “The Laughing Fish” story (DETECTIVE COMICS #475, 1978) from Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers; expanding “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” (from BATMAN #257, 1973) into a film; and challenging a writer to take two Batman stories — “Night of the Stalker” (DETECTIVE COMICS #439, 1974) and “Night of the Reaper” (BATMAN #237, 1971) — and weaving them into one grander tale. – Michael Uslan
So, what do you think of Mr. Ulsan’s Batman animated movie ideas? What Batman comic book stories would you like to see get that treatment? Post your thoughts in the comments section below! – Bill “Jett” Ramey
