In the 2020s, This Forgotten Batman Story Would Make A Good Movie

 Last month for no real reason I revisited some of my old movies.  I started with Watchmen just because I thought I hadn't watched it in a while.  And I still loved it as much as I did before.  To me, Zack Snyder has never topped it.  Sorry, Snyder Cut freaks.  The next night I watched The Dark Knight and I still like most of it, though the final act always rings a little hollow to me.  I always think, why didn't the Joker just give everyone a button to blow up the other boat?  If people could do it anonymously, someone surely would have in seconds.  But making someone have to come forward and do it in front of everyone allowed cowardice to creep in. Even in 2008 he probably could have just made it so someone could text a certain number and it would cause the other boat to blow up.

Then I watched The Dark Knight Rises.  Up to where Batman gets "broken" it's pretty decent.  But after that when it starts trying to echo the classic "No Man's Land" story from the late 90s-early 2000s it gets pretty silly.  And "fixing" Batman's back by punching him.  Oy.  And in the middle of all the stuff in Gotham, Bane flies off to a prison in Africa with Bruce Wayne to dump him there?  I mean so much of it doesn't really make sense.  But like Rogue One, the end really makes up for it.  That ending montage is just so awesome.  And every time for whatever reason the room starts getting dusty when it gets to that part where Bruce's will is read and they show that his old house is being turned into an orphanage named for his parents.  I guess because it just seems like such a great tribute; I mean here's Bruce the orphan helping other orphans in the names of his parents.  I dunno, I just really like it.  And then at the end where "Robin" finds the cave and I always think someone should whisper, "Rise," which is the name of the track on the soundtrack.

Anyway, now that I've vamped a little like a clickbait article, let me get to the point.  I was wondering, how could I make this less silly?  I was thinking maybe they should have done more of a Batman Beyond thing where after Bruce is crippled he trains "Robin" Burke as the new Batman.  But then I wasn't really sure how that fits into the whole rest of the story.  I suppose most of it could have been the same but Bruce could fly "the Bat" while being crippled or something.  Though a lot of it would still be kinda silly.

Then I thought of the Batman storyline in the 90s that came before "Cataclysm," that was the earthquake creating "No Man's Land."  It was called "Contagion" and was about a virus being unleashed in Gotham to destroy the city.  Robin is infected but I think most of the Bat-family of the time is OK.  Then Azrael gets to be a hero because the virus was based on something created by the Order of St. Dumas that created him.  I think he and Catwoman go to get a cure for it.

Anyway, especially in the 2020s, a story about a killer virus would actually make a really good movie.  Maybe it'd hit too close to home, but it'd be a lot less silly than "No Man's Land."  I haven't really puzzled the whole thing out, but basically Ra's al Guhl or whoever unleashes an ancient virus.  Batman has to find the cure before the city--and world--are destroyed.  I suppose that's a bit like Batman Begins only a more realistic virus than the fear toxin thing.  I mean it's more like Outbreak only if it had been in Gotham City.

Probably could have remade The Dark Knight Rises with this instead of the nuke thing.  The scientist guy Bane kidnaps could be the guy who weaponizes the virus.  Bane and Talia want to release the virus to finish Ra's al Guhl's work.  Bruce, Burke, and Selina Kyle work together to find a cure.  I haven't worked out all the details because I'm not sure the disease itself would keep out the CDC or army or whoever else.  I don't know if you really need Bane breaking Batman since the disease might not give him time to recover.

It's just something I was thinking about and since it's Memorial Day and no one cares about blogs, why not?