Brickbats! #Batfleck !

Vital issues and stuff over the last few weeks:

So... Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in Batman vs. Superman - or Superman vs. Batman, or World's Finest, or ... I'm sure they'll think up a proper title. Keep in mind that this is the improved, post-"Argo" Ben, which implies that we'll be seeing the work of a more seasoned actor..one that may surprise us the way Robert Downey Jr. did when he played Tony Stark & Sherlock Holmes. 

This will also be a new take on Batman...just for fun..how about it if Ben played Tlano, the Batman of Planet X, with Verne Troyer as Bat-Mite by his side? By gum, that will either fill seats..or leave me sitting alone in an air conditioned theatre during a heatwave..I welcome either outcome.

Another thing that's come up is the word "tricky", used by executives trying to get a Wonder Woman movie off the ground. I think it's wise of Warner Brothers to not want to crank out a film that might arrive with a thud, but I'm convinced this is simply because they haven't found someone to play that character. It's like solving a jigsaw puzzle with only half the pieces - they were almost ready to fast-track Megan Fox into the part before she let slip her indifferent & apathetic opinion ("Wonder Woman is a lame superhero...I just don't get it.") which can easily be reversed if someone wrote a screenplay that was persuasive...no such thing exists. In fact, the last time anyone paid attention to a Wonder Woman comic book was when Walt Simonson 

wrote a storyline in which ... she got a haircut.  Before that, there was the Stan Lee event "Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating The DC Universe" in which he collaborated with Jim Lee on a new take on Wonder Woman that had elements of Xena and She-Ra mixed in. I'm not so sure if what your average Hollywood screenwriter conceives will be more or less ridiculous.

One more thing - Grant Morrison got attention this week for dusting off an old debate about Alan Moore's "Batman: The Killing Joke": had Alan written the "last" Batman story? Did he have Batman kill the Joker in the final page by strangling him off-panel? Morrison believes that was EXACTLY what happened in that story and Moore got away with it by keeping it subtle. 

There are strong clues that support this: that Sheldon Moldoff-drawn "Batman Family" portrait in the Batcave; Barbara Gordon looking noticeably older than she was as Batgirl in her last few appearances,  along with the implication that she had retired a long time  ago; Batman's famous "Hello" monologue/soliloquy, implying that he WILL kill the Joker someday, but it would take a game-changing catalyst to do it; finally, the finite nature of the way things happen in the story, as if THIS is as far as anyone should go - this is the end, the Joker has made Batman's code against killing a joke, so the "killing joke" is...Batman surrenders to his darker impulses and kills theJoker. The last Batman story. Moore's storytelling skills remain without peer in comics -  there's no topping him, that's why superhero comics are the way they are -  we can only imitate what he did already. 

Of course we know DC chose to interpret that story as just one more story, so this remains moot, but the debate makes me want to read it again - mission accomplished.