John Byrne wrote: Some here may recall that my story "The Many Deaths of the Batman" (edited by Denny) keyed on a mysterious killer knocking off the people who had trained Bruce.

Yup.  I particularly remember the first issue being overly wordy ;-)

Like Spider-Man, I think Batman learned how to be a crime fighter by taking some bumps on the road. 

A film I recommend for people who like Superheroes: "HERO AT LARGE" what John Ritter learned in that film is you can train as much as you can by the best Mr. Miyagi's in the universe but the best training you can have is on the beat.

I don't care about the technique just give Batman obstacles in NEW YORK CITY.

If that IS an origin story.

Glenn Greenberg wrote: The pre-Crisis Batman had a mentor, a police detective named Harvey Harris, so I never had a problem with the idea of the post-Crisis version of Batman having teachers who helped him along the way.

So Alfred is simply a butler.

Rob Hewitt wrote: I am not that excied abiout the main villain, nor about bringing Batman to Asia, but I am keeping an open mind,.

I wish I was more like you but I am convinced that Hollywood does not want to do it right. 

Bob Simko wrote: There were some scattered examples (similar to the batarang one) that led me to believe this, but I don't recall ever reading anything that implicitly stated this.

If the scattered examples similar to the batarang example led you to believe that Batman "had studied under (or the works of) the best of the best," then didn't those examples implicitly state that Batman "had studied under (or the works of) the best of the best"?  ;)

JB says that the Batman he grew up reading had studied under many of the world's best teachers.  That was my experience of the character, too.  In part because "The Many Deaths of Batman" was one of the first Batman stories I read.  That story explicitly states that Batman had teachers. 

It will never match the Ra's Al Ghul saga by O'neil and Adams.... That story was the closest to a movie a comic has ever got IMO and would love to see that on screen.

With this flic the casting does not grab me....from Michael Caine to the guy as Ra's..... But who knows................

See Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country and Time After Time.

There's an Actor named David Warner in the film, he would be a perfect Ra's Al Gul.

John Byrne wrote: Last night, Terry Austin stopped by for dinner, and since he does not have a computer, I showed him the trailer for "Batman Begins" online. One major problem he had, he said, was that this appears to him to be "the Denny O'Neil" origin, with Bruce trekking off to Tibet to learn from some sensei master. Terry feels this diminishes what he calls the "by his own bootstraps" element of the origin. He likes that Bruce is self-taught, that he worked on his own to become Batman. This aspect does not trouble me, as there was never any specific point made in the origin that said Bruce had not sought out the best teachers in the world, and, indeed, the Batman I grew up reading had many such -- the origin of the batarang, for instance, was his learning from an Austrailian boomerang expert. Thoughts?

I've always liked your description of Batman as the second best at everything he does and, in that vein, he's the second best because he was trained by the best. I'm not sure he could become as good as he is all on his own without some sort of training.  Bruce is a smart enough guy, with the money to make his mission real, that he wouldn't hesitate to seek out those who could teach him everything he needs to know. 

Works for me!

BTW, the casting and the costume don't bother me much at all based on the production stills I've seen.  At the very least, it looks as though Batman can move his neck as the material appears softer and more mobile than the other Bat-suits we've seen.  I love the cape!

It also looks like this suit is much more flexible than previous versions:

I'm also a huge fan of the urban assalt vehicle that is the Batmobile:

Personally?  I'm really excited about this film.

Thoughts?

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"The Man Who Falls" which is the Denny O'Neil version of Batman's beginnings is indeed not only one of my favorite Denny O'Neil stories, but is one of my favorite BATMAN stories.  Giordano's art is pretty neat, too!

Matthew Hansel
matthewphansel@mac.com