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momebie(Title nabbed from Dick's comments in Batman & Robin #1 from August 2009.)
THIS IS THE POST ABOUT JOHN BLAKE FEELINGS. I have three major tenets and a whole lot of pent up flailing. Please tread lightly, all ye who have not seen The Dark Knight Rises.
In the beginning.
The really great thing about big summer blockbusters is the anticipation. It’s extra exciting when you’re dealing with a director like Christopher Nolan, who likes to keep a few things up his sleeve. This has become an increasingly impossible task, given the nature of tabloid news fodder and internet speculation. Everything about The Dark Knight Rises had been analyzed and evaluated months before we were given a chance to see the finished product for ourselves.
I ate every bit of it up.
I probably shouldn’t have. I don’t usually care about Spoilers, but a small part of me--the part of me who remembers what life was like before the internet--wants to adhere to Nolan’s wishes about just how he wanted to present the story to his audience, and part of that wish was that we not know the final fates of some of his more intriguing character choices. But I DO live in a world where everything about everyone is quite literally at my fingertips, so I followed along eagerly as people built rumours around the characters and who they could be.
I didn’t go into Nolan’s film as the empty bucket that maybe I should have. But let’s be real, I read a lot of comics and spend a lot of time thinking about Gotham (and Bludhaven) anyway, so I probably wasn’t going to ever be that empty bucket. I regret nothing. It was a pretty exciting ride.
John Blake as Every Robin.
I will be sincerely gobsmacked if there was a single Batman fan who went into this movie not at least expecting John Blake to turn out as he did. The reveal--while nice, low key, and probably necessary for the general movie-going audience--was less of a reveal and more of a wink and a nod. I’ve seen reactions ranging between my apoplectic spaz fit to epic eye rolling, but most of the people in at least half the know had gotten it by then. John Blake was a Robin. He wasn’t any one particular Robin from comic canon. His name was Robin. He was Batman’s sidekick and impetus. He kicked ass and took names and did sleuthing on his own. It was glorious.
I think I actually love it more that he wasn’t any particular Robin. They dressed him in blacks and blues and greys, so because we’ve been trained to know that Nolan doesn’t do anything by accident or halves, those of us who know and love Dick Grayson got to sit pretty firmly in the Nightwing place for two and a half hours. But there are pieces and parts of him that I personally don’t feel belong in Dick Grayson, and that’s what made me love him so much.
I’m working with my own reading of the three elder Robins, so some people may see these things differently, but a few of the things that made me grin like an idiot and say ‘okay, I believe’ were:
The reason John Blake works so well for me is that I would have a very hard time dropping any of the Robins wholesale into Nolan’s world. He’s taken license with every one of the characters to make them work in the ways he needs them to, and too much license one way or another with the boys would have made them read the wrong way on screen. However, if you keep the essence of their characters and how important they are to Bruce himself, then you can do a lot of things to serve the story and the old school fans.
John Blake as a gift from Nolan to the Movie-Going Audience.
But Nolan didn’t just give John Blake to the hardcore fans. Nolan gave John Blake to everyone. John Blake is a brilliant character within the Nolan universe because the casual movie-goer and the Batman fan who is only a fan of the films or television incarnations doesn’t have to know 80 years of Batman backstory to understand who John Blake is and what he means to the people around him. I have said many times in the last two weeks that I am really impressed with Bruce Wayne’s character arc over the trilogy, but I’m almost more impressed with John Blake’s character arc over that two and a half hours. We see him go from gungho and a bit naive to someone who is confident, competent, self-aware, and ready to take on whatever Gotham has to throw at him.
John Blake as the best candidate for taking over the cowl in the movie-verse.
And that, ultimately, is why I love that John Blake is Every Robin or His Own Robin and not One Particular Robin. A lot of people wanted him to turn out to be Dick Grayson. While that would have been neat, not everyone in the theater would have known about Dick’s time in Bludhaven as a cop. It wouldn’t have made sense to them that he wasn’t a young orphaned acrobat just as a young orphaned acrobat wouldn’t have made sense in Nolan’s universe. And it wouldn’t have made sense to me if at the end of the movie Dick Grayson had climbed his way into the batcave and looked absolutely agog at his possible future, because Dick Grayson does not want to be Batman.
You can argue that he doesn’t have to be Batman. You can hope, like me, that he goes on to be his own sort of hero, that he goes on to be Nightwing. But I feel like the heavy message of Batman Can Be Absolutely Anyone that Nolan’s Trilogy and the last film in particular carried meant that John Blake was looking to take on the cowl and replace Bruce in the end. Dick Grayson had to do that recently in the comics (well, from ‘09 to ‘11) and he hated it. For all that Dick loves and respects and reveres Bruce, he also sees his flaws and he does not want to be Bruce. He doesn’t even want to walk in his shoes, especially after having spent so long being his own man. John Blake, however, is ready. Put him in, coach.
And then all coherence was lost.
Because Christ, how awesome would a movie about John Blake as Batman be? It would give us a way to stay away from the previous cycle of New Batman-Choose Some Villains-Stir-Drink-Repeat that we had been so used to previously. Why cast another Bruce Wayne when Nolan left you someone that EVERYONE who has seen the movie has come to know and can get behind without having to see his origin over and over again. The Dark Knight Rises IS John Blake’s origin. And what a heck of an origin it is.
Before TDKR came out I made a post elsewhere about the sorts of Batman movies I would like to see following this to further shake up the franchise, but right now I’m perfectly fine with the idea of them just carrying on in this vein. Even if we never see John Blake back on screen I’m going to maintain a healthy bit of head canon about the kind of Batman he is, and it’s definitely one that Gotham deserves. It’s one that we all deserve at this point, now that we’ve been shown just how amazing Batman cinema can be.
. . .
Well, that was more or less coherent. Lisa is going to be so disappointed this wasn't just a voice post of me making unintelligible squealing sounds, because that's what I've been saying to HER about John Blake since last Saturday. Oh, and also about how I'm thisclose to writing John Blake/Dick Grayson smut. But you know, that's just how my brain shows love for things these days.
THIS IS THE POST ABOUT JOHN BLAKE FEELINGS. I have three major tenets and a whole lot of pent up flailing. Please tread lightly, all ye who have not seen The Dark Knight Rises.
In the beginning.
The really great thing about big summer blockbusters is the anticipation. It’s extra exciting when you’re dealing with a director like Christopher Nolan, who likes to keep a few things up his sleeve. This has become an increasingly impossible task, given the nature of tabloid news fodder and internet speculation. Everything about The Dark Knight Rises had been analyzed and evaluated months before we were given a chance to see the finished product for ourselves.
I ate every bit of it up.
I probably shouldn’t have. I don’t usually care about Spoilers, but a small part of me--the part of me who remembers what life was like before the internet--wants to adhere to Nolan’s wishes about just how he wanted to present the story to his audience, and part of that wish was that we not know the final fates of some of his more intriguing character choices. But I DO live in a world where everything about everyone is quite literally at my fingertips, so I followed along eagerly as people built rumours around the characters and who they could be.
I didn’t go into Nolan’s film as the empty bucket that maybe I should have. But let’s be real, I read a lot of comics and spend a lot of time thinking about Gotham (and Bludhaven) anyway, so I probably wasn’t going to ever be that empty bucket. I regret nothing. It was a pretty exciting ride.
John Blake as Every Robin.
I will be sincerely gobsmacked if there was a single Batman fan who went into this movie not at least expecting John Blake to turn out as he did. The reveal--while nice, low key, and probably necessary for the general movie-going audience--was less of a reveal and more of a wink and a nod. I’ve seen reactions ranging between my apoplectic spaz fit to epic eye rolling, but most of the people in at least half the know had gotten it by then. John Blake was a Robin. He wasn’t any one particular Robin from comic canon. His name was Robin. He was Batman’s sidekick and impetus. He kicked ass and took names and did sleuthing on his own. It was glorious.
I think I actually love it more that he wasn’t any particular Robin. They dressed him in blacks and blues and greys, so because we’ve been trained to know that Nolan doesn’t do anything by accident or halves, those of us who know and love Dick Grayson got to sit pretty firmly in the Nightwing place for two and a half hours. But there are pieces and parts of him that I personally don’t feel belong in Dick Grayson, and that’s what made me love him so much.
I’m working with my own reading of the three elder Robins, so some people may see these things differently, but a few of the things that made me grin like an idiot and say ‘okay, I believe’ were:
- John Blake (whose name rings like Tim Drake, which isn’t proof of anything I just feel like if I don’t address it someone else will in the comments) goes to Bruce’s house to confront him and tell him Batman is needed. He’s got it figured out like Tim did.
- He reacts viscerally and with shock when he accidentally shoots the construction worker, because he’d been defending himself, but that hadn’t been what he’d meant to do. I can see both Tim and Dick reacting this way.
- He comes down hard on Gordon for promoting a lie, but then realizes that he needs to do the very same thing to protect the boys and give them hope. That was a very Dick moment to me.
- He’s repeatedly referred to as a hothead. He’s impetuous and wants to rush into the sewers without knowing all of the information. He carries a double barrel shotgun into the hospital to protect Gordon even AFTER his reaction to shooting the construction worker. And there I see Jason in spades.
The reason John Blake works so well for me is that I would have a very hard time dropping any of the Robins wholesale into Nolan’s world. He’s taken license with every one of the characters to make them work in the ways he needs them to, and too much license one way or another with the boys would have made them read the wrong way on screen. However, if you keep the essence of their characters and how important they are to Bruce himself, then you can do a lot of things to serve the story and the old school fans.
John Blake as a gift from Nolan to the Movie-Going Audience.
But Nolan didn’t just give John Blake to the hardcore fans. Nolan gave John Blake to everyone. John Blake is a brilliant character within the Nolan universe because the casual movie-goer and the Batman fan who is only a fan of the films or television incarnations doesn’t have to know 80 years of Batman backstory to understand who John Blake is and what he means to the people around him. I have said many times in the last two weeks that I am really impressed with Bruce Wayne’s character arc over the trilogy, but I’m almost more impressed with John Blake’s character arc over that two and a half hours. We see him go from gungho and a bit naive to someone who is confident, competent, self-aware, and ready to take on whatever Gotham has to throw at him.
John Blake as the best candidate for taking over the cowl in the movie-verse.
And that, ultimately, is why I love that John Blake is Every Robin or His Own Robin and not One Particular Robin. A lot of people wanted him to turn out to be Dick Grayson. While that would have been neat, not everyone in the theater would have known about Dick’s time in Bludhaven as a cop. It wouldn’t have made sense to them that he wasn’t a young orphaned acrobat just as a young orphaned acrobat wouldn’t have made sense in Nolan’s universe. And it wouldn’t have made sense to me if at the end of the movie Dick Grayson had climbed his way into the batcave and looked absolutely agog at his possible future, because Dick Grayson does not want to be Batman.
You can argue that he doesn’t have to be Batman. You can hope, like me, that he goes on to be his own sort of hero, that he goes on to be Nightwing. But I feel like the heavy message of Batman Can Be Absolutely Anyone that Nolan’s Trilogy and the last film in particular carried meant that John Blake was looking to take on the cowl and replace Bruce in the end. Dick Grayson had to do that recently in the comics (well, from ‘09 to ‘11) and he hated it. For all that Dick loves and respects and reveres Bruce, he also sees his flaws and he does not want to be Bruce. He doesn’t even want to walk in his shoes, especially after having spent so long being his own man. John Blake, however, is ready. Put him in, coach.
And then all coherence was lost.
Because Christ, how awesome would a movie about John Blake as Batman be? It would give us a way to stay away from the previous cycle of New Batman-Choose Some Villains-Stir-Drink-Repeat that we had been so used to previously. Why cast another Bruce Wayne when Nolan left you someone that EVERYONE who has seen the movie has come to know and can get behind without having to see his origin over and over again. The Dark Knight Rises IS John Blake’s origin. And what a heck of an origin it is.
Before TDKR came out I made a post elsewhere about the sorts of Batman movies I would like to see following this to further shake up the franchise, but right now I’m perfectly fine with the idea of them just carrying on in this vein. Even if we never see John Blake back on screen I’m going to maintain a healthy bit of head canon about the kind of Batman he is, and it’s definitely one that Gotham deserves. It’s one that we all deserve at this point, now that we’ve been shown just how amazing Batman cinema can be.
. . .
Well, that was more or less coherent. Lisa is going to be so disappointed this wasn't just a voice post of me making unintelligible squealing sounds, because that's what I've been saying to HER about John Blake since last Saturday. Oh, and also about how I'm thisclose to writing John Blake/Dick Grayson smut. But you know, that's just how my brain shows love for things these days.
