The Nolan Trilogy is really good, but vastly overrated nonetheless.
Michael Keaton remains the best actor to ever play Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Damian is the second best Robin, behind only Dick Grayson.
Not to rain on anybody's parade or get down on anyone, but the reason these "controversial opinions" threads aren't all that great is because there isn't an opinion I've seen in here that I a haven't seen on this site by someone else before. Just kind of seems redundant.
Playing devil's advocate on this one you could make the argument that Robin was created so the young boy readers could have a character to resonate with and latch on to. And since Batman is still a character that primarily gains new fans when they are young boys, the Robin character can still serve that purpose. Meanwhile the Steph Brown version of Robin was generally a failure. And the Carrie Kelly version was created in a comic that wouldn't be aimed at a younger readership and was explicitly used to subvert the norms of the original Batman tropes, and shouldn't be taken as the default.
Though I guess you could equally argue that today in modern comics it doesn't matter as much since you don't have kids picking up these comics and any decision hence forth is more for literary creativity. I just still highly doubt a female Robin would take off in the mainstream the same way a male would. Even Damian was a perfect vehicle for the 21st century kid who is a little more entitled and savvy than his 1940's counterpart.
Because there are dynamics of relationship between Batman and Robin that can be strong only with a male charcter.
The relationships teacher/student, father/son, older brother/brother work better if the sexual element is totally out.
If you put a female in this role, it will bring troubles for sure.
Robin is a character that for definition needs his Batman, his tutor, his mentor, a Partner. Batfamily girls are all less under the influence of the Bat than a Robin is.
Hardly he goes flying solo, Tim Drake did it very well in the 90's, just because he did it always staying at the rules of his mentor (under his influence).
With Damian DC crossed the line, creating a new frontier for the Robin legacy: With the son of the bat, more of the relationships between Batman and Robin are changed for good. This is the reason beacuse, the ultimate Robin is, and forever will be, Damian Wayne. Maybe a new son, or a daughter (in this case i can accept it) will carry on the mantle of Robin, but i think that 4 (or 5 or 6?) Robins are enough.
- Poison Ivy should be a Nightwing villain like in a way of Catwoman Batman
- I like Tim Drake as a cocky arrogant smart ass jerk. He is trained by Batman and gets to do cool things, surely he has to have a massive ego in a way
- I prefer Bruce Greenwood over Kevin Conroy
- Jason Todd is better in New52 than ever before sicne he came back from the dead
- We need to see more Bruce Wayne. Yes I know Wayne is the mask but I want to see it
- Terry should have hooked up with Chelsea not Dana....heh
- Batman Beyond is better than BTAS
- I find Stephanie Brown a dull character even as Batgirl because she just comes off well dull. I don't know hot to explain it but yeah.
- DKR is one of the most average popular Bat books I've read
- Can we have one woman either not get killed (Vesper, Silver or that Piano girl) or leave Bruce (Silver) for a long long while. Then make her leave without killing her.
- Bring back Sarah Essen Gordon and not kill her either
- Batwing should be given a better role in Bat Fam since Dick has gone all Ethan Hunt
Grayson should still be Batman, or else Batman & Nightwing should be a permanent team-up as equals, 24/7 in Gotham. No "Be his own man somewhere else stuff." Just double Batman action.
Also, not relevant, but kill of Ventriloquist and Mad Hatter.
I'm actually looking forward to reading Grayson. I also don't mind the whole gun thing.
While Batgirl was a good insight to Cass and how she ticks and how she thinks, I thought it was, for the most part, boring. She works much better when she has upbeat characters (like Tim and Steph) to bounce off of, and there wasn't nearly enough of that.
I don't want Tim to go back to being Robin.
Batman should not be in the Justice League.
Sorry to be so late on responding to this, but I don't mean I want Bruce and Talia to have a happy love life or to have Talia be a hero; I just think that if a character is directly linked to the Batfamily, they should be compelling, which the Leviathan Talia was not.
She can still be an evil overlord who overthrows her father. She can still try and murder millions of people. She can still order or nearly tolerate the death of her son. But she should have characterization and personality that both allow for that, and that still heartens back to her most sympathetic depictions. I'm not interested in a femme fatale Baby Mama of evil who makes Fah Lo Suee look like a multifaceted character; I want to see how a woman could love Batman and even start a family with him before transforming into a ruthless monster that makes even Ra's Al Ghul feel she's gone too far. That journey and that nuance was tossed out the window for stupid damn reasons, and the entire eugenics/rape idea sucks compared to what it could be.
Everything from Batman RIP to the beginning of the New 52 is pretty much unreadable.
Bat-Jerk is Best Batman.
Tim Drake is the best Robin second only to Dick.
Dick makes a terrible Batman.
Tomasi and Dini wrote the only likable versions of Damien.
I never realized just how great of a character Steph Brown was as Spoiler until she became terrible versions of both Robin and Batgirl.
Although I love the iconography of Babs-as-Batgirl, she's far outgrown the role.
Cass is realistically the best Batgirl.
The only writer to get Jason Todd right is Scott Lobdell (this one even blew my mind).
Balent drew Catwoman as a porn star. Brubaker and Cooke were the only writers to get Selina right.
Along with Nolan's Batman, Loeb's from Long Halloween and Dark Victory is pretty bland.
I hate Bat-Jerk.
I like Titus, Alfred the Cat, Bat-Cow, and the turkey from Lil' Gotham. They should have their own book: Bat-Pets (heavily concentrating on The Adventures of Bat-Cow).
Bruce should think of Batman as his legacy to Gotham City, and have different divisions of Wayne Enterprises run by Dick (Public Relations and/or the Pin-Up Division), Tim (Accounting), and Damian (CEO-in-Training). Jason can head the Accounts Receivable Department for Wayne Enterprises and collect on outstanding debts to the company.
Alfred the Amazing Butler should be an ongoing monthly title.
Talia should show up a few times a year as The Ex from Hell and demand child support money from Bruce.
Batman admits that his life wouldn't be worth living without the Joker.
Two-Face gets plastic surgery and Harvey Dent becomes a good-guy crusading district attorney.
Wayne Manor gets termites.
Prior to Incorporated I wanted Batman to marry Talia, and I always thought they were the most interesting match.
Now that Talia is off the table I want Batman's relationship with Selina to actually go somewhere, instead of seeing "it can't be Selina" for the 100000th time.
Formerly known as YMCMB