HFactor
I like Bale as Wayne, he explored a side of Bruce that hadn't been done which is Bruce's early life as Batman. I don't mind the growl that much and it's basically because the reason why he does it. He's trying to make the criminals of the city feel the fear the inflict on their victims. So, while the execution can be hit or miss at least we know the reason why it's done. To me, a powerful scene that gave meaning to the growls and all was at the beginning of TDK when the drug dealer in the car sees the bat-signal and pretty much chickens-out meaning that Batman's goal of making criminals feel fear is actually happening.
One thing that is usually overlooked is how he keeps the batman voice even when he's talking to fox or alfred which pretty much deals with the question of true identity for Wayne. What is is real identity? Many, Joker included, think that whoever is behind the bask is just a decoy, the real identity is the batman persona. It's pretty neat how little details like that are taken into account in Nolan's movies.
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Interesting notion. I had always assumed the Batman voice was essentially the same thing Christopher Reeve and the radio Supermen (Supermans?) had done, where in order to help conceal his identity, Superman would speak in a lower register as the superhero and in a higher register as his civilian role. Maybe you're right. I guess my problem with this is that it makes me laugh (for all the wrong reasons), not believe that he's striking terror into the hearts of Gotham criminals. As it is, I prefer the way Kevin Conroy voices Batman. It seems to do the trick without being over the top silly.
But I love your point about Batman's true identity. This is something with which several superhero myths have tried to tinker.
Smallville functioned on the principle that Clark Kent was the disguise, not Superman, and for awhile that worked really well, I thought. I know Schumaker tried to toy around with this question a bit in
Batman Forever, but it's really hard to take anything he did with any of these characters seriously on any level.
I will say this, though. If you like Bale as Batman just because he's exploring parts of the character that we haven't touched on yet, that's more Nolan than Bale--it's the writing, not the actor. We'd still be getting that if someone else were playing the character. I certainly like Bale better than most other people who've played the character. Val Kilmer was a terrible Bruce Wayne and George Clooney was a terrible Batman (or maybe I would've liked Clooney better if his script had been better, I don't know). I just think the dual role is hard for any actor to play well due to the seemingly opposite attributes that the two identities have to showcase. But then, like I said, I can't imagine who I WOULD like in the role, so maybe I'm just never happy. I just think there's always been something very un-Bruce Wayne about Bale's Bruce Wayne.
A Change of Stevens
Any Batman comic experts in the house?
I have the first appearance of Bane. A one-shot from 1993 called Vengeance of Bane. Never read it, barely touched it, has been bagged and boarded and stored in a comic box since 1993. As such it's in pretty damn near mint condition. If I worked for CGC I would give it a 9.8 I was thinking about getting it professionally graded and selling it on eBay. Now my question is- i wonder when's the best time to sell it... Now- during the pre-release hoopla? Or after the movie comes out?
I grew up reading Marvel, not DC. But the past decade of Joe Quesada-inspired changes to my favorite characters and constant lame attempts to bring in more readers pushed me to where I had stopped reading comics all together until a couple of years ago. I do my homework.
The first appearance of any character will be worth more when the demand goes up. If you actually do want to sell it, keep it until the movie comes out. Just make sure it's taken care of. Personally, though, I feel comics are meant to be read, not prized like monetary investments. I'm not very smart in this area, because if I actually owned a copy of
Action Comics #1, I wouldn't be able to resist reading it.