With Apologies to Mr. Keoghan...

Hello again, reader. Night number three in a streak of writing projects which have been, admittedly, somewhat refreshing and therapeutic for me. Despite being a creature of habit, I actually tend to have my enthusiasm for any given project peter out pretty quickly. There's a part of me that wonders if the constant deluge of new information and dopamine I get from constantly having a smartphone at arms reach has turned my brain into an increasingly barren skinner box, thus forcing my burnout cycle to shrink by orders of magnitude with each passing day. Alas, I'm not sure I want to court the hollow feeling I get when I inadvertently validate a thousand Boomer Facebook memes, so instead, let's blame this uptick in productivity on the pretty consistent feed of Geek-Culture related news we've been getting this week. 

Speaking of that particular devil, some wild stuff hit Twitter today, and I felt like I really needed to address it, and not because it made me overly happy. DC and Warner Brothers released a deleted scene from The Batman which features Barry Keoghan of Eternals, The Green Knight,  and Dunkirk as a new interpretation of The Joker. I have to say right now, I actually really like this performance. It feels evocative of Heath Ledger's character-defining performance without feeling like an altogether ripoff. It's certainly worlds apart from the, to be diplomatic, less than stellar turn taken by Jared Leto. Believe me when I write, the performance Keoghan delivered in this cut scene is not the part that leaves me disappointed. I'd love to see the character return after some time has passed. Genuinely. 

Instead, the part that has my proverbial panties in a twist is that we've now seen The Joker put to screen nearly as many times as we've seen Batman put to screen, and frankly, while he is Batman's nemesis and arch-villain, he's also pretty boring. That's not to say that I won't be happy with anything the studio releases. I'm a hyper-nerd. I will see literally any half-baked idea that the suits at Warner decide to smear on a strip of celluloid. There's no chance that I won't. What I mean is that of all of the Superheroes in the pantheon of available characters in the DC stable, there is no hero more defined by his rogues gallery than Batman. Batman's rogues frequently highlight the character in ways that other comic heroes should aspire to achieve both in similarity and in stark contrast. So, Instead of spending a night grumbling about a performance I dug in a franchise so full of promise, I wanted to take an opportunity to throw out a few Batman rogues that I'd love to see play opposite of Pattinson's Caped Crusader, and I'll even cast them for good measure. 

Something to consider while reading this list of suggestions is that the story of The Batman seems to take place very early in Batman's career, despite already having built up relationships with Gotham PD and having a bit of a reputation among Gotham's seedy underbelly. With that in mind, I can't rightly suggest Jason Todd or Red Hood show up, as there are certain building blocks necessary to get from A to B that we would be remiss to rush past in this franchise. So, I'm going to try to stick to rogues that could feasibly exist in this current canon, and which fit the movie aesthetically and thematically. Let's jam. 

When I think of Batman, on of the first aspects of the character to cross my mind is always his resolute adherence to Justice. The character, despite having no powers of his own, has dedicated his life to training and has gained the respect of DC's most powerful characters on his own merits as a result. Despite that influence, and despite his own potential gain, Batman has never turned his considerable resources toward any goal but the protection of Gotham. This current film iteration seems to share that singular focus, albeit with a more brutal than average manner of achieving those ends. Now, let's remove personal responsibility from the equation. One of few rogues in Batman's gallery who have beaten him, not just once but on several occasions, and who has been written to have ties to even bigger threats, is Slade Wilson. Deathstroke, one of the world's greatest assassins, has all of the combat skill that Bruce Wayne has, but with an enhanced healing factor, enhanced strength, enhanced reflexes, and an enhanced mind from taking part in a failed super-soldier program. What sets him apart from Batman is that while he does occasionally seem to have a code of honor, largely Deathstroke is loyal only to himself and profit. Now, personally, I'm a pretty big fan of Manu Bennett's take on the character from the CW Flarrowverse, but I want to rule out any previous portrayers of the character from this search. Sadly, that also means we can rule out one of Nerddom's biggest superstars, Joe Manganiello. With that said, I don't plan on imposing any more restrictions than that, so I'm not taking budget or availability into account. 

Deathstroke is often portrayed just a little older than Bruce Wayne in terms of appearance, but thanks to his super soldier healing factor, his actual age doesn't matter. Sadly, those kind of rejuvenating effects aren't commonplace in the real world, so I want to find someone just a smidge older than Robert Pattinson for this role. Pattinson is currently 35, but has a youthful aura. That gives us a rough target to aim for. Thanks to Manu Bennett, I have real difficulty imagining Deathstroke without a distinct accent, and I think in this case we can use that to our advantage. Compiling all of these factors into our calculations, I have one particular actor in mind for the role of Deathstroke, and suddenly while writing this I have found myself remarkably invested in the idea. It's Hugh Jackman. The man has aged remarkably gracefully, even for a celebrity, and has proven before that he's capable of insane levels of fitness and willingness to participate in the genre. Honestly, the only downside to this pick is that because Jackman seems so affable in real life, I couldn't find a recent photo of him mean-mugging. 

With each rogue moving forward, I'd like to "push the boat out" a little further away from the realism that The Batman was moored at. I don't think that Slade is a huge departure from the tone of the established universe, so I think that one is a safe bet. That said, let's let ourselves move away from that just a little further with another rogue that Batman might not always be able to beat in a fair fistfight. One of the aspects of Batman put at the forefront of the character, even in the trailers for The Batman is the brutality, which often verges on savagery, that Pattinson's Batman employs while dispatching the criminals of Gotham. The next rogue I'd like to see in this franchise would dial-up the brutality, and maybe force Bruce Wayne deeper into introspection regarding the casualties he's likely leaving in his wake by so heavily relying on violence. The criminal element of Gotham tend to see Batman as less of a man and more of a monster, so who better to throw this aspect of the character into contrast than Killer Croc? Waylon Jones is often, especially as of late, depicted as a ravenous beast motivated by a desire to feast on human flesh. That's sad, in a way, as the character has one of the more tragic backstories in Gotham and has a great deal of trauma that could be explored to significant effect if he's put in the spotlight.

Imagine, if you will, corpses of brutalized thugs start showing up on the streets of Gotham. Naturally, part of the Gotham PD want to immediately pin these attacks on the vigilante known for brutalizing the local riff raff, and Gordon is sidelined by Internal Affairs because of his established connection to The Batman. Meanwhile, Batman is also investigating these killings, and slowly, over the course of the whole movie, he pieces together a story of neglect, abuse, trauma, ostracism, and ableism. He clashes with Killer Croc multiple times, nearly dying at the hands of the more vicious and stronger villain, throughout the movie, but ultimately realizes that the best way to stop Killer Croc, is to appeal to the humanity left in Waylon Jones. I think that there's a lot to work with here. 

As far as casting Killer Croc, I know that there are a few elements I want to cover. He's typically depicted as a person of color, and often a young one. That's something I needed to keep in mind while finding an actor, but in addition to that, I want to make this a fully CGI character. I was so put off by the makeup in Suicide Squad that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's take on the character felt dead on arrival in my mind. When I think of young, black, male actors working today capable of bringing menace to their performance, as much as I want to break the mold here, I can really only imagine Michael B. Jordan here. He's Pattinson's contemporary, and he's also no stranger to Geek-Culture, which really cements this for me. 

Before our last rogue, I'd like to take a moment to give a short list of a few runners-up that should absolutely be adapted (or readapted) to fit into this new franchise. In no particular order, I'd like to see Scarecrow, Clayface, Two-Face, the Court of Owls, and last but not least Solomon Grundy get their own adaptations. They're all incredible villains, and each of them represents an aspect of Batman's character that can be played for some truly juicy contrast. Scarecrow is a very literal manifestation of Batman's use of fear as a weapon. Clayface could be used as a character study on the dangers of trying to be too many people at once. Two-Face has been used to great effect as a foil for the fallen hero that Batman could very easily become. The Court of Owls represents the dangers that Bruce Wayne's connections to Gotham pose to Batman. Solomon Grundy is a big old zombie man who does a stronk punch. All of these are equal in merit and value to Batman as a character. 

Now, lastly, Batman is a character known for his devotion to a cause. His desire to see Gotham thrive is one of, if not chief among, his principle motivators for putting on the cowl every night and prowling the rooftops. In my mind, the only character capable of throwing such powerful devotion into contrast is a character whose devotion vastly outweighs Bruce Wayne's. Victor Fries, also known as Mr. Freeze, is a dedicated husband whose absolute selfless devotion to his wife makes him one of Batman's most relatable and sympathetic rogues. At some points, Freeze's ends make it hard to even refer to him as a villain, though his means are often hard to reconcile. What sets Victor apart from Batman's vast catalogue of rogues is that Batman cannot punch this problem hard enough to make it go away. It's a tenacity that Fries shares only with the Joker; however, where the Joker is hellbent on playing a game with Batman, Victor's commitment to his mission leads him down a criminal path to restore his wife's health by any means necessary. 

Strangely, ice puns aside, this is one of the more faithful villain adaptations we've seen yet in a Batman movie, and how it came from a Schumacher movie I'll never truly understand. Arnold Governator gave us an, while admittedly a quirky and silly adaptation, a sad and sympathetic villain with complex motivation. If he'd been in a better movie, I think there's a real chance that this would be Arnold's defining character, and not the T-800 from Terminator. Were these movies bad? Yes. Were they bonkers inaccurate on nearly every other rogue adaptation? Yes. Were they totally beyond redemption? Nearly No. The adaptation of Freeze is a glowing pinprick in the vast dark sky of these movies, and if we're being completely frank, as I've aged, the campiness has grown on me. 

So, who plays Victor Fries in the RobPat Battenverse? Let's examine the elements of this character that I took into account in my search. First off, Fries is a very European name, and often his adaptations lean into that. Personally, America is a melting pot and I think that we could comfortably discard that commonly adapted element. Second, Fries needs to be older. It's important to remember that Fries is a highly distinguished scientist, and has years of study and years of marriage under his belt. One of the important aspects of this character is that his spouse, Nora, was put into cryostasis before her terminal disease could make good on the promise of terminality. As a result, I think that there is potential drama to be mined from making Nora's actor similar in age to Pattinson, but having Victor, who's lived outside the stasis, portrayed by an actor considerably older, implying possible incompatibility and/or wasted time and potential. I think the most important aspect of this character is the tragedy of his circumstances. So, that gave me a pretty broad net to cast for actors. Part of me wants to recommend George Clooney as a form of poetic irony, but I think that Clooney has aged so gracefully that he couldn't really exhibit the level of frailty and delicacy I want to put into Fries. With that said, I think there is a franchise-friendly older actor, who has proven chops portraying a sickly character robbed by circumstance. It's Saw's own Tobin Bell. Bell is going on 80 this year, which skews a little further into age than I had initially hoped for this character, but while looking for an actor to fit the part, every headshot I saw of him just bled with the dedicated vacancy I imagine in Victor Fries' eyes. It's a cold stare, but not one lacking in humanity. 

I'm going to leave this here for now, but I'd love to come back to fan-casting this universe again in the future. I think there is an astounding amount of potential with this iteration of Batman, and I think the decision to leave The Joker on the cutting room floor bodes well for Matt Reeves' willingness to step outside the usual comfort zone inhabited by the past few Batman movie directors. Let's just hope that we stick with Bat movies, and don't end up with bad movies. 

If you're hankerin' for more NKP content and don't want to wait the yadda, yadda, yadda until my next update here, maybe check out my TikTok profile, Instagram profile, or Twitter profile. My sincerest thanks for reading. Cheers!

Nic Cage MCU Fancast!

Well, I'll square with you, reader. I was expecting it to be harder to find something to write about for my second post since returning to the craft, but a golden opportunity has managed to land in my lap, and I'm either far too smart, or far too dumb, to let this chance slip away. Legendary character actor Nic Cage has decided to court controversy among art snobs by defending and validating the MCU. Admittedly, he didn't outright lavish the Marvel film catalogue with praise, but what he did do is make the argument that forward thinkers and decent human beings have been making since day one. Why yuck someone else's yum? 

In the wake of Cage's comments (and because this kind of thing is so up my alley it can see my back teeth) I'm going to shamelessly mine it for content use this as an opportunity to offer my fancasting for Nic Cage once he hopefully hits the screen in a shiny new Marvel role. To set the ground rules, I'm going to go through a list of roles that I think would suit Cage. I'll be honest with you, I already know exactly the role I want him in, but I'm not confident that it could happen, so I figured I'd pitch a few alternatives just to be safe. Let's go with a nice round arbitrary three backup picks. I'll give you my dream casting at the end. 

First off, I think it's fair to say that Cage has a number of different looks. The guy has range, both in terms of his acting chops and in terms of his aesthetic. Recently, I saw an incredible photo of Cage in-costume to play Dracula for for the upcoming horror-comedy Renfield. The look maintains Cage's natural surrealist energy, but elevates the look into something altogether ethereal and otherworldly. The man rocks a red velvet suit. Of course, with Moon Knight hitting the MCU in just a few short days, there is admittedly a temptation to bring Cage's interpretation of Dracula into the fold wholesale to make good on the Internet's favorite Moon Knight feud. 

That said, I'm not sure the creative at Disney are ready to court the level of Chaos that the internet can churn out, and honestly Marvel movies have always come across as a little cringey when they try to shuffle memes into the mix. So, barring this as a possibility, why don't we look at another recent look by Cage, his grizzled and bearded character from "Pig". 

I know I'm probably going to lose a point or two of nerd cred when I say this, but I unabashedly love the Wesley Snipes Blade movies. Yes. Movies. That means all of them. One of my favorite aspects of those films was the dynamic between Snipes' Blade and Kris Kristofferson's Whistler. This was my first introduction to the character, and as a "mom-friend", to borrow recent parlance, I am naturally drawn to wise old grizzled veteran mentor types. Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Uncle Ben, and John Kent are regulars in my lists of favorite characters in fiction, and it all circles back to this trope. That's why, when Mahershala Ali takes over as Blade, I can think of few characters I'd like to see return to the screen as much as Abraham Whistler. He's my first choice for a role for Cage in the MCU. 

Next on the list, let's part ways with the supernatural aspect of the Marvel universe and stray closer to the fantastical. I hold a firm belief that in the middle of this renaissance we're experiencing for Nic Cage in Hollywood, that he may not really want to sign on for a dozen-film contract with Marvel. He seems to be in the midst of what could realistically be described as an art-house era in his career, and big-budget action movies don't always mesh with that aesthetic. If that's the case, let's offer a single film contract that puts Cage close to the front, leaves room for a potential cameo or return, and which plays to his natural theatricality. This entry comes with something of a twofer, because I think Cage could give interesting takes on either of the characters here. With Black Knight just around the bend, but still far enough out that casting choices could be on the table, I would love to see Nic Cage as either Sir Percival of Scandia, the original Black Knight, or as Nathan Garrett, the Black Knight canonically before Kit Harrington's Dane Whitman. Again, I am steering Cage in the direction of a grizzled former hero, although I think there could be some interesting play with whether Whitman views his uncle as an asset/mentor, or whether he sees him as an obstacle. They did mention in Eternals that Dane and his uncle had a falling out and weren't on speaking terms, which could be a recipe for clashing conflict, or heartwarming reconciliation. Another benefit of this choice, is that because the Black Knight is so seldom in the mainstream purview, there is an opportunity to take creative license with his look. You could literally have Cage on set with a Con-Air mullet, or rock up with his everyday slicked back hairstyle. The creative license gets even more lenient if you use him as Percival in flashbacks. 

For my last pick, I want to really play into Nic Cage's natural magnetic personality. No one, bar none, chews scenery like Nic Cage. It was the foundation of his entire career at one point. He's larger than life, and despite that he still seems remarkably approachable. His seemingly natural animated presence on screen really lends him to characters that are able to work a crowd. I could believably see Cage standing on a cage with an enraptured audience sitting slack-jawed or cheering him on. So what if we take that force-of-nature personality, and instead of using it for good, give him one of the most iconic villain roles in the entirety of Marvel? 

If there is one thing that living in America in the last three decades has taught me, it is that the disenfranchised and embittered are very, shockingly, depressingly easy to radicalize. And of course, in Marvel, there are dozens of characters able to speak persuasively, control a crowd, or outright control others using superpowers. But amongst all of the villains ever put to page in Marvel one specific character resonates more than any of them, and he didn't even have powers for the longest time. He relied on a very real-world power shared by his real-world contemporaries. That is the power to weaponize the grievances of the privileged against a marginalized minority based on a world finally waking up to and acknowledging said minority's existence. That man is the Reverend William Stryker. 

The wild thing about Stryker is that while he is one of the most-adapted comic book characters in existence right now (nine separate incarnations between movies and videogames) he's never been adapted really well. There have always been glimmers of the original character present in the on-screen portrayals, but none which have really encapsulated the inherent bombastic nature of an evangelist preacher trying to sway his flock. I refuse to believe that Nic Cage couldn't give us the energy this despicable monster deserves, and with the X-Men poised to enter the MCU, I can think of no better time to start casting this role. 

Lastly, I want to give you my genuine hope for Nic Cage in the MCU. It combines the mentor aspect of Whistler, the fantastical elements of The Black Knight, and the... I don't know, strong Christian overtones of Stryker? I want to see Nic Cage reprise his role as Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider. That is to say, I don't want Ghost Rider 3, or a full movie where Blaze returns as an MCU mainstay (though I wouldn't say no to a Circle of Four adaptation) but instead I want to see Johnny Blaze return as a mentor for a new Ghost Rider, in the form of Robbie Reyes. 

The adaptation of Reyes in Agents of SHIELD was totally fine, verging on pretty damn good, I have to admit. That said, I would really love to see a younger actor take on the role in a way that speaks to the heart of the character, and with the MCU currently trending down in median actor age, I don't think it's out of the question. It would even give us an opportunity for a huge team-up shot if you could feasibly pay Sam Elliot enough to come back for another comic book movie.

The upsides here are too many to count, and I can't think of a realistic downside to this arrangement. Currently in the comics, Johnny Blaze is the sitting King of Hell, so you could even bring Cage back in a somewhat recurring role in sequels. Long live The King. 

And if all of that wasn't enough to sway you, I present you with my closing argument. If you bring in Nic Cage as Johnny Blaze, you can bring on John Travolta as Danny Ketch, giving us a Face/Off reunion, and setting up for one hell of a confrontation. 

If you're hankerin' for more NKP content and don't want to wait the -let's be honest, possible long while- until my next update here, maybe check out my TikTok profile, Instagram profile, or Twitter profile. My sincerest thanks for reading. Cheers!

On Batman and Hope

Oh, boy... It's been a minute, hasn't it? 

It's been a busy few years, and as time passes it has become increasingly obvious to me that I need a creative outlet. I've tried a number of meditative activities in the time since my last post to scratch the proverbial itch, some of which I fully intend to continue to do, but none have ever given me the satisfaction of putting "pen to paper" and expressing my thoughts in a written format. My leave of absence is largely the result of a more stressful and demanding job, which occupies most of my waking hours, both in the office and out. I love my job, and it caters to many of my atypical interests, but even doing a job you love can wear on you without a sustainable work/life balance. That's why, a few brain cells lighter and a few grey hairs heavier, I've decided to dig my heels in and give this writing thing another go. I don't expect any level of consistency- hell, this may be my first and last post in several years, but the interest exists, the drive exists, and (even if it is only for a short time) the time exists for me to indulge myself for a page or two. 

Now that the soft apologies for my absence have been made, I'd like to express a few thoughts I've had in the wake of The Batman. I think, and fair warning, this is purely subjective, Batman Begins came at a time when America was at its most "culturally primed" for a "realistic" take on superheroes as a genre. We were still deep in the Bush era of American politics, which to my mind and memory felt, perhaps counterintuitively, optimistic. The great cultural awakening experienced by people coming into voting age was only just on the cusp of happening, and while the enlightened among us were rightly coming to grips with the capitalist hellscape we had landed in, most of us were still in the throws of the pseudo-patriotic Islamophobia that the fringes to the political right cling to today. Times were as dark as they had been in a very long time, but culturally we were blind to it. (Note, I'm using "we" here very liberally, and I regret that. I've done a lot of growing in these 17 years, more than half my life, and I'm deeply ashamed of the person I was.) My point is, the America that saw Batman Begins was a brighter America (in my mind) than the one we live in today. The Obama era ushered in even more optimism. Hope was literally his campaign slogan. Even an economic recession was unable to dampen our spirits, which is remarkable. 

What does this have to do with Batman? Well, I'd like to think that our relatively optimistic outlook as a culture provided a contrasting backdrop for the films, all of which shared a grittier, darker aesthetic than the contemporary superhero fare. Spider-Man 3 was far from a masterpiece, and it had it's grim moments, but it was SNL compared to Begins. 

Frankly, these are 10-17 year old movies at this point. I'm sure I'm not forging any paths not already well trodden by minds far more invested and far more capable of intelligible critique than my own, but I would be surprised if there also weren't hundreds of intellectuals out there who've already written articles posing the exact opposite hypothesis. The Dark Knight, which is to this day one of the best comic book movies ever put to cellulose, gave us inspired performances by several participating actors, all of which were outshone by the masterful craftsmanship of the late Heath Ledger. Say what you will about the incredibly cringe-inducing army of dudes who idolize this interpretation of the Joker, but this was an objectively stellar performance. 

Then we had a sobering few years. A going-on two decade long war, the aftershocks of the aforementioned recession, four years of an incompetent goon in the white house, the utter disappointment that was Joe's first year, a global pandemic exacerbated by the dimwitted refusal of lifesaving vaccines, and the broad-scale degradation of basic human decency we've seen since 2016 left most of us (with the good sense to see the unfolding chaos) feeling a little hollow inside and a lot tired. It's become all too easy to give in to dark thoughts and dwell on the bad things around us, because there are currently a lot of bad things. If you're struggling right now to see the silver linings, know that you're not alone. There is light at the end, and you should hold on so that you can see it. 

I genuinely believe that culturally, right now, the last thing we need is another dark and gritty reinterpretation of a character like Batman, who while admittedly is one of the more tragic heroes in the DC pantheon, is ultimately in his current incarnation defined not by that tragedy but by the ways he copes with that tragedy. The Batman of modern comics strikes a tone that is simultaneously familiar to fans of the Nolan era films, yet wholly more positive than that interpretation of the character was able to be. The ever-broadening "Bat Family" is just one of many aspects of this character's story which has grown up-and-out of the edgy and violent bronze-age comics, and into a true force for the concept of hope in the DC Universe. 

Without spoiling the plot of The Batman in this post, which would be a real Nightwing-move, I'll leave this post with this. I understand that the movie tries to put an emphasis on what Bruce Wayne and Batman mean in this take on Gotham City, and the word "hope" is explicitly used to encapsulate that. Batman is a dark character and every interpretation of the character should remember that, but I just hope that Matt Reeves and Warner Brothers are willing and able to deliver on the premise of a kind and hopeful Dark Knight and give us a Batman worthy of this scene. 

If you're hankerin' for more NKP content and don't want to wait the as-of-yet-undetermined length of time until my next update here, maybe check out my TikTok profile, Instagram profile, or Twitter profile. My sincerest thanks for reading. Cheers!