Bat In The Sun productions gives us another excellent addition to its Batman fan film portfolio with Batman Legends, a compilation of clips featuring faithful renditions of several scenes including the creation of the Joker, the death of Jason Todd, and Bane’s breaking of the Batman. Also notable was a shot of the original Bob Kane Batman with the wide ears :)
After Bruce Wayne’s apparent death in Final Crisis, the rest of the Bat family had an internal struggle as to who should carry on as Batman. In this teaser photo, we have a sampling of the major players. From left to right, the various Batmen are: Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Two-Face, Jason Todd, with a special mention to Hush (with a bandage around his leg), who surgically altered his appearance to match Bruce Wayne’s.
Dick Grayson eventually reluctantly gave up his Nightwing persona to become the new, kinder Batman taking his adoptive stepbrother Damian on as his Robin.
This might be the best fan film to date. The Joker escapes from Arkham and Batman interrogates all the usual suspects for information. The Bat in the Sun film crew’s attention to detail and faithfulness to the source material is outstanding. Except for the alternate logo, which I understand the reason for (see the seekers of the bat logo above), I completely buy this take on the Batman universe. I also appreciate the main actor using more of a Kevin Conroy batvoice rather than the much maligned Christian Bale grunt. My one question is was that bartender supposed to be Black Canary? Seems like the sequence was inserted purely to shoot a strip club scene :)
Another prime example of an animated character’s popularity forcing them back into the official comic book canon is Harlequin. Harleen Quinzel was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum who was assigned to the Joker. Not only did she fail to reform him, but her deep probing of his mind drove HER insane and she fell madly in love with him.
She was initially written as a desperate, clingy stalker used exclusively for comic relief. However, in recent continuity, she has grudgingly recognized that the Joker never loved her, and has become a thorn in Batman’s side in her own right.
