A Little More On A Lack Of Bat-Fever

Yesterday I was watching the Batman: Arkham Knight trailer. I watched it six (6) times and in the accompanying article I wrote this:

"This might well be sacrilege but I never find myself particularly drawn to Batman. There’s something about the character which rubs me up the wrong way even when individual implementations or explorations are interesting. I really like the high camp of the sixties incarnation and, to some degree, its polar opposite in Nolan’s movies. I’ve also dipped in and out of the cartoons in ages past and had friends wax lyrical about various story arcs or moments in the comics. I never finished it but I remember Arkham Asylum had a really pleasing sense of movement and grace of action.

"But despite this variety, the basic Batman template in my head is of a bullheaded, humourless guy, living in a miserable world and whose superpower is white male privilege. It doesn’t bar access to those games or movies, but it adds an extra layer of needing to be sold on a particular concept before I’ll fire the enthusiasm cannons."

It's an opinion I hold as a member of a potential audience for a triple A game – one with experience of various tellings of Batman stories but not via the comics – and the paragraphs above were intended as an explanation of why the idea of Batman, as expressed through the iterations I know, isn't enough to draw me in by itself. Graham is more excited about the franchise, and about Batman in general so we decided to have a Bat-chat to see how our opinions differ. Or not...