BEYOND THE BAT-SIGNAL: Exploring Fanboy Frustrations and the Controversy of a New Dark Knight

Ever feel like you have to make everyone agree with your opinion? Particularly when it comes to your favorite comic book heroes? Today, we peel back the layers of fanboy frustrations, the quest for consensus, and the beauty of individuality in the world of comic books. From my discovery of Batman through movies, not comics, to my tragic loss of a beloved comic collection in a flood, we traverse the passionate, often overwhelming world of comic book fandom. 

Then, the Bat-Signal shines on a new face - Robert Pattinson. Yes, the Twilight star is donning the cape and cowl. We've got mixed feelings about this and dive headfirst into the heated fan debates that followed this casting news. From pining for Ben Affleck's continuation as the Dark Knight to reflecting on past Batman adaptations, we explore the highs, lows, and controversies of the Caped Crusader's cinematic journey. Buckle up for a rollercoaster ride through comic-fan debates, casting controversies, and our shared love for the world of superheroes.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Whatever happened to agree to disagree like. Why does everyone feel the need to make everyone agree with their opinion? Why can't there be contradictory opinions? You know it's like you can't. Nobody wants to, nobody wants to accept that people have different opinions and different tastes and they try and force you to agree with what they're saying. You know, anyway, this is the objective, jerk, and I am said jerk, hope everybody's doing well.

Speaker 1: 0:54

I am doing pretty good myself. I've been pretty busy with the house, the yard, things of that nature, trying to get some stuff down. Been doing that for a few days now, but I kind of got a little sidetracked because I want to record this podcast, but this is the first one I'm doing, this one on Audacity Audition, adobe Audition. So I oh, check it out, skeletor Anyway. So I've been, I've always been doing GarageBand because that comes free with your Mac and it works great, you know, works fine, it's actually very easy to use. But so I got I'm paying for illustrator and Photoshop trying to get back into photography and stuff, and I use illustrator sometimes. I tried using a what do you call it? Just a free program, I forget what the term is and I used the Inkscape for a little while and then I went to another one and then they changed it to where you had to. You had to download something else in order to use it or something. I just hate having to do something I don't choose to do, so I got rid of it. So I'm like, okay, back to Illustrator again, I guess. But so to do that I had to buy, or I bought like a little package and a bunch of stuff came with it and one of them was the Adobe Audition, you know, so you can record music and podcasts. I mean it's created like, it's made like. I'm already like overwhelmed just starting this. I'm just doing this podcast. Luckily I had a little tutorial open a template podcast. But I mean it can do so much which might come in handy when I want to try and get guests on. So it'll probably be a little easier that way. But I don't know, we'll see. So I mean, right now it's not hard. It's gonna be hard, I guess, mixing it, making it sound good, so you don't hear my chair squeaking or the fan and stuff like that. So I gotta kind of start over as far as that goes. But anyway, so I've been busy with that and I haven't gotten anything done yet today, but get this done, anyway.

Speaker 1: 3:27

So I wanted to talk about, I guess a little bit of you know, the, the, the arguing that people have on on social media and and just like comic book fans in general, I guess. So I Am Like a part of a group on Facebook. You know, a fan group of I mean, there's a bunch of them, but I'm only just one because it's just like if you're part, if you know, if you're on Facebook and you're part of any kind of group, you know that it just like it's like crazy, like how many posts are put on there but it gets a little too much. So I'm on one Batman fan site, I'm on a Punisher and I'm on a Wolverine, that's it. Those are kind of like my three favorite comic book Heroes.

Speaker 1: 4:25

And, to be honest with you, batman you know I love Batman, I love the movies. But that's how I got into. It was a show in the movies, you know. I grew up as a kid watching the reruns of the classic Batman show and there was something about it. Man, it was really corny, but it just it had something about it that that was very intriguing and so I I loved that show, you know. And then, obviously, when Batman 89 with Michael Keaton and so Tim Burton's Batman came out, that was like, that was like my Star Wars, I guess you know what I mean, because it was just huge and it was, you know, it just was like whoa and it's still fun to watch now, but that's kind of my. That's where my Interest in Batman, you know, stems from. It's just the films of movies. So you know, had the Batman 89, and then you had the other ones, val Kilmer, and then the George Clooney, and then it was, you know, and then Christian Bell came out with his three and those were awesome and but I never, I never as far as like, I used to read column books but I was Marvel, Not by like.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I Didn't decide that. I don't know why, I don't know. Maybe I just didn't see DC, I don't know, I don't know why. But I read mainly I read mostly Marvel and then some image comics. But I read like Punisher and X-Men, you know, wolverine, we're like the main ones, and I would read smaller, you know, like Death Lock and and some other stuff, and I kept all my comics but they got ruined when I was in the army. I had him in a box and my, my father's basement flooded and they got ruined, so that sucks. So I lost my comics. I mean it wasn't a ton, but it was like probably like 200 or something like that 200 comics, which sucks. But anyway, I'm over it now. So that's kind of like my background.

Speaker 1: 6:46

As far as Batman goes, I don't, I don't, I don't read. I've, I don't think I've ever read a Comic or graphic novel with Batman and I want to, like you know, you got all the the, the classics with Frank Miller and Just various things out there. You know I've almost ordered I don't know how many on Amazon and then I saved for later or whatever, but it's just I don't know, wasn't? You know I? I'm not, I'm not a Batman fanboy. You know, when I say like fanboy to me, a fanboy is you just know everything About whatever it is you're a fan of and you consume everything of Whatever it is you're a fan of right, which is, I think, in a sense, being a fanboy is being passionate, you know, and I'm not really, I'm not really like like, I'm not a fanboy of anything really. I Guess if I had to pick something for me, it would be he man. I Because I have a fig, you know I'm trying to collect some of the new figures.

Speaker 1: 7:53

I love the old show. I loved the he-man master the universe movie. Even though it's now it's kind of hard to watch and I Hate the new series on Netflix. I mean it looks awesome but you know they woke it up and made teela the main character, which is annoying. You know let's it's white.

Speaker 1: 8:15

What I don't understand why they couldn't just continue what was started for, like the first season, and then start going off on different shows and different characters. You know what I mean. Everybody's like what? Such a huge world, you can't just focus on Batman or Batman he-man. But we haven't had Anything good with he-man in years, you know. I mean they had the show in the early 2000s, I guess, but it was different. You know this show is actually a Continuation of Filmation or whatever the original. You know everything the aesthetic, the look, the characters, everything. But instead of he-man it was about teela. It's like okay, do the first season, give us some he-man, give us a bunchy he-man. That saw, the old fans are like, yeah, and then you just have okay, next season we're gonna have two storylines, one on he-man, one on teela or whatever. You know what I mean. There's ways to do it, but it's like they just kind of messed it up. So I guess I was pretty pissed about that and I don't know. But Again, I wouldn't even consider myself a fanboy anyway.

Speaker 1: 9:22

So I get on this Batman fan site on Facebook. I post basically like a picture that I found of Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck's Batman, like looking down at the new Twilight guy Batman, right, the new, the Batman. And it's a picture I didn't create it but it's, you know, looks it. You know it's digitally made up. You know it's like I think what it is is they took a picture of Affleck's Batman and superimposed them in in the scene with the other one, but the coloring is all good, it looks like they're like you know, and so I put like I put look at Batboy being scolded by Batman. And I posted it and it's like I know it's a couple days ago but it's got like a thousand likes and interactions or whatever and a Few hundred comments. So it's like the, the most, the I don't the comment with the most interaction I've ever posted and To I guess I just Clarify something.

Speaker 1: 10:35

So I Kind of went around. I was talking about Batman that I went to he-man and everything. But so With Batman I liked Belle and then you know, then I remember when they did you know Superman, but it wasn't, superman was a man of steel. I like that movie a lot. It wasn't I've never been like a huge Superman fan, but I liked that movie. I liked Superman more. This new version made me like Superman more and I'm just, I like Snyder, zack Snyder. I like the way he does his films. I know a lot of people don't, a lot of people do, and that's kind of where some of this Debating comes into play.

Speaker 1: 11:14

But I remember when they were talking about Batman being in a movie with with the new Superman, and I was like what? We just had Batman, it's like we're gonna do another Batman again. I was just like. I was kind of like I don't know, you know it's too soon. And then Ben Affleck was a cast. A lot of people were pissed about that and I was. I Didn't know. I mean, I don't know. He's pretty good. I Was optimistic but at the same time I was like I didn't think we needed a new Batman. And then the Batman vs Superman comes out. Trailers come out. It looks awesome. The first pictures of Affleck is Batman was like yes, I was like that is Batman right there. That looks badass.

Speaker 1: 12:05

And Luckily for me, I did not see it in theaters. I saw it like I down or I bought it on voodoo and it has theatrical and the extended or whatever, and so I watched the exact. I've never seen the theatrical one, so I've seen the extended. So I watched that and I was like dude, this is awesome. Every scene with Batman is awesome. Every scene with Bruce Wayne is great and a lot of the the complaints that I heard. I was like I didn't understand it because I saw the extended version, not the theatrical version. So they edited it down and some things were confusing. I guess I Feel like I've talked about this before anyway. So that's kind of where I'm at. I like I like Zack Snyder's Batman and Then the new Batman again, when they're like well, cuz, cuz.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Originally it was gonna be Ben Affleck was gonna be his solo Batman movie and he was gonna direct it and he's a pretty good director, so I was pretty excited about that. And then he decided not to direct, I guess, I think, and he was just gonna be in it and then they were getting, I think the guy that directed the movie now, which I was still excited about and then, and then he dropped out, I Guess you know he just he didn't handle the, the, the negativity or criticism of Batman vs Superman very well or something, or I don't know. Plus, he's going through personal problems or something I read anyway. So he, he got out and then they, they did the, the Batman, the one that came out and when I saw that trailer, like it looked cool, you know, and it had it had some cool things about it.

Speaker 1: 13:48

But I just don't like the Twilight guy. What the hell is his name? Paterson Robert Pattison, robert Pattison, I think I don't. I don't like his Batman. I just I Don't like it. I don't like the way he looks. I don't like the Batmobile, like I don't know. Everybody's like well, he's just starting. It says you know he just starting his thing and I'm just like okay, but still, he's a billionaire, he can't do better than that. I don't know. It's like you know, we kind of got the beginnings of Batman and Batman begins. I know it wasn't much, but for me I Wanted to see more of of of the Dark Knight rises part, like where, you know Batman comes out of retirement, sort of he's older, and that's kind of where you know the Aflac I felt was going was. You know he, he was retired and he comes back because a Superman, and then it was gonna show him being older.

Speaker 1: 14:57

And and another thing that people like in the warehouse scene, when he's actually killing people, I was like, oh damn, it seems like you got three people. You got the first one sees that and like what the hell, man, and why is he killing people? He's not supposed to be doing that. This is stupid. You have those, you have me who was like, oh damn, he's killing people. You know this is crazy. And then you have the third one. It's like, yes, he's killing people. That's awesome, you know. And so I'm in the middle, I think. I think it's kind of cool but it's not needed necessarily, I guess.

Speaker 1: 15:33

And so how I was interpreting it was, you know, because Batman is just in this vicious cycle of Catching the bad guy, putting them in Arkham, then they escape, and then he fights them and catches them again and just over and over again, like to me that's kind of like a burnt-out cop dealing with like the same kind of people and they start getting more aggressive and more mean and more hateful and more, you know, racist, I guess, if you want to say and so I think it got to a point, like you know that's why I showed the Robin thing like maybe Robin got killed. So Batman was like you know what, I'm done with this crap. And he just starts ending people Taking care of business and stopping it, and then he retires. He's like I'm done, I did it, I'm done. You know I killed people, which wasn't good, I didn't want to do that, but that's what I had to do. And so now he gets out. You know he's done. He's like I can't, I can't do the no killing thing. It's not working, so I'm not gonna be Batman.

Speaker 1: 16:35

And then Superman happens and he feels like he's got to Get involved with that and and save humanity from Superman, right? So in the warehouse, seeing you know he's killing people, because that was kind of where he was at before. And then you know he wanted to kill Superman. And finally he was a good guy and Found the, the strength in humanity and Superman, you know, and it was changing his morals back to the way he was like. So I was thinking you know he's the the next Batman movie with him, with Affleck, was gonna be him Trying to maintain his original morals of not killing anybody and dealing with that and getting older and and all that kind of stuff. You know, that's what I was expecting and that's what I was looking forward to.

Speaker 1: 17:24

So For them to just kind of start all over and start with a young Batman who kind of looks like A kid in hockey pads, like the guys in the one, you know, in the dark night, it just, I don't know, it just didn't work for me. I had no urge to go see it. I was like, well, I'll see it when it comes out on video or whatever. But then I start Hearing things from people that I, whose opinion I respect, and I'm just like maybe I don't want to see it, I don't want it to ruin. I Don't know, maybe it's stupid and weird, but it's just like I want to keep the Batman that I like as the last Batman. I guess I don't know, but you know I watched Like a somebody that did like a spoiler review.

Speaker 1: 18:16

They basically broke down the movie in order, talked about it, so I basically watched the whole movie but it was just in short form. You know, I got the, the cleft notes, basically, and so with that I was just like, yeah, you know, I don't, I don't really feel Like I need to see this, you know. So I have it. I still haven't seen it and Maybe with the, the sequel, when it comes out, it'll be something that I like, and In order for me to watch that, I'll have to watch the first one. Maybe, who knows, we'll see. But so my comment Was that picture of a flight and it's just like it's insane.

Speaker 1: 18:58

The people that are just, you know, you got people that are so, oh yeah, batman or Affleck's awesome Paterson sucks, and you know it just goes back and forth, people talking trash. You know, one guy eats me, one guy is vegan and just all this stuff, and it was just like, like it's crazy, it's crazy, how like, how, like passionate people are about it. You know what I mean. And then it's just like, so like I'm just letting people talk about it. I mean I'll say a few things, I'll like a few things, but I did say kind of what I just said. You know, I was like there's there, you know there's a guy that's he's he's talking about you know all the great things about it, which I'm not saying he's wrong or nothing, but it's just, you know, like that's his opinion. You know he liked the movie. That's I'm happy for him, but it's just not.

Speaker 1: 19:46

You know, just, if the trailer does not pull me in and people's reviews who are not paid to say one thing or another, you know, support what I'm getting from the trailer, then I don't want to watch it. Why would I want to watch it? That's you know. I mean, it's just, I don't know, I just don't want to watch it. This, it doesn't appeal to me, it sucks. You know, because I love Batman, but I just, you know, and you got people like, oh Well, it's like the comic book year one, this. Now I'm like, okay, that's, that's cool. But you know, if marble, if anything is like, just because it's comic, accurate, doesn't make it right or make it good. You know there's a lot of comics out there that suck, so I Don't know. So that's where I'm at, and and. But then you have, like you know, certain people that just they don't accept that. I just don't care to watch it, don't want to watch, it doesn't appeal to me. How are you a Batman fan? Blah, blah, blah. I'm sick. I just don't want to watch it. I like, I like a flex take and God that I Mean, I guess.

Speaker 1: 20:51

When did that come out? I mean, it's like seven years now, I guess, but it's, you know, I would rather watch Batman versus Superman. I love the Batman scenes in that, you know, I would have loved to see a standalone Batman and now that All those movies are on Netflix, including the Batman, but I haven't watched it, obviously I'm kind of wondering if maybe, you know, after, maybe or maybe in between Some rebel moon stuff that Zack Snyder is doing, maybe he'll do a Batman movie with Affleck or something. That would be kind of cool, just to kind of. Just one movie with their version of it would be nice. I don't know, I Could get behind that.

Speaker 1: 21:33

It's just, I don't know. You know, it's just People, people are not gonna agree with everything that you agree with. You know, and it's like social meat, it's like, I don't know if, like people, I guess it's because you know, in the real world, you know, you, you, you associate yourself with people with the same Morals, the same beliefs, the same tastes, the same. You know, I mean, that's what you hang out with, that's your friends. And Now with social media. It's like people are are talking to people that they normally would not talk to and they just can't understand that they have a different opinion. And it's just like dude, there's eight billion people in some kind of you know, we're gonna have different opinions, we're gonna have different, I don't know. It's just kind of crazy how, how crazy it gets on on this, this post, this Facebook post. People are just like it's crazy, I don't know. But that's all I'm gonna say about this, but that's all I wanted to say. Maybe I'll try and tag this into my comment so then people can, Because it's kind of hard to explain all this kind of crap on, you know, on a little block of words, and people don't read it.

Speaker 1: 22:51

Anyway, it's like they start reading it, they're like, oh, and they just make a comment, you know, and like some people are so quick to like, start an argument, like there was another one where it was. I mean, it was just kind of like. I guess the way I said it too, that's. The other thing is, you know, people write a comment and it's, it's in its, it's geared towards a certain Aspect or certain whatever, but then the person reading it completely reads it different and and then they're like, oh, what you do it. It's like, dude, I didn't, that's not what I said. I said you know, blah, blah, blah or whatever, like it's just crazy. I Don't know. It's funny, but at the same time, I've never had so many notifications on my Facebook before. It's like, hey, anyway, that's it. I think I just wanted to kind of talk about that. Plus, I wanted to try out the Adobe audition, so let me know if it sounds any better, the same or worse. All right, but that's it for me. I appreciate your time and and thanks for listening. I