As the story established by Tim Burton’s Batman films continue in a new comics series, a detail teased by Crisis on Infinite Earths could come true.
One of the first worlds seen in the Arrowverse television crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was Earth-89, revealed to be the reality where Tim Burton’s acclaimed Batman films were set. Seen briefly as its skies turned crimson to reflect the Anti-Monitor’s devastating attack on the DCTV Multiverse, Gotham Gazette investigative reporter Alexander Knox is seen reading a newspaper before hoping the Dark Knight responds to the impending antimatter attack on their world.
And with the world of Burton’s films revisited continued in a newly announced digital comic series by Sam Hamm and Joe Quinones, that newspaper may have revealed a few details about the comic’s post-movie world.
In this short scene, Knox’s newspaper contains the headline that Batman had taken the Joker into custody, which suggests that Jack Nicholson’s villain may have survived the events of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. At the end of that film, the Joker seemingly died after falling off of a ladder to a helicopter he was trying to escape in. Although his body is never explicitly shown, the film’s ending certainly seems to imply that the Joker dies after plummeting from such a great height.
If this newspaper is any indication, the Joker may still be alive, after all, and continuing to menace this world’s version of Batman. As the villain of the film that this comic is named after, it certainly seems possible for the Joker to be featured in the series in some capacity. Even though he hasn’t been mentioned in any of the promotional material for the series yet, his legacy will live on in the criminals he inspired, and he may even still be around to lead them.
Beyond that, the comic may also fulfill the promise of a rumored Easter egg that appeared in the run-up to “Crisis,” where another copy of the Gotham City Gazette announced the marriage of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle.
Michelle Pfeiffer’s Selina was introduced in 1992’s Batman Returns as a harried secretary that worked for the villainous industrialist Max Schreck. After discovering Max’s shady business dealings, including a plot to steal Gotham City’s power surplus for himself in a planned energy capacitor, Selina was murdered by Max but resurrected by a group of cats to become Earth-89’s Catwoman. While defending Gotham and antagonizing Max’s business holdings throughout the city, Selina struck up a whirlwind romance with Bruce, with both vigilantes initially unaware of each other’s alter egos. Selina is apparently electrocuted to death in a showdown with Max but was revealed to have survived in Batman Returns‘ final scene, with Bruce unaware of this development.
The dangling plot thread of Selina’s survival was originally planned to be explored in a spinoff film, with Pfeiffer set to reprise her fan-favorite role. As preproduction on 1995’s Batman Forever moved forward without Burton as director, Burton teamed with Batman Returns screenwriter Daniel Waters on the planned Catwoman spinoff in 1993. The planned project would have had Selina suffering from amnesia after her near-death experience and leaving Gotham to recover in a desert-based resort before she reclaimed the mantle of Catwoman. However, with the new direction of Batman Forever outperforming Batman Returns at the box office, plans for the spinoff were shelved to focus on a direct sequel to the 1995 Batman film instead.
The announcement of the Batman ’89 comic book miniseries confirmed that Selina was slated to reappear in the story in an unknown capacity. Whether these plans will incorporate Waters and Burton’s original plans for the character or simply pick up from her final appearance in Batman Returns‘ ending scene is unclear, but Quinones’ concept art for the series indicates that there is a bit of a time jump since the events of the 1992 film, with a visibly older Bruce seen back in action as Batman. This leaves the possibility that Bruce could have learned of Selina’s survival in the intervening years, though a rekindled romance is far from certain.
Still, Nearly thirty years since Batman Returns, Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Selina are finally slated to be reunited in comic book form this summer, potentially resolving a plot thread left open for 30 years after Batman Returns. And while Pfeiffer and Nicholson may not have gotten to reprise their roles as Batman villains on the big screen, their stories seem likely to be continued for one last dance with the Dark Knight.
Written by Sam Hamm and illustrated by Joe Quinones, Batman ’89 goes on sale digitally on July 27, with print issues planned to launch in August before being collected in a hardcover edition in October.
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