Even more Batman movies without Batman – mainstream action edition!

Every once in a while, I like to spotlight films that, although they don’t feature the Dark Knight himself, share enough of Batman comics’ quirky vibe to be of interest for fans of that sort of stuff. This time, my choices are more mainstream, focusing on one of the most hegemonic genres, namely schlocky action movies about alpha males…

Here are half a dozen notable examples of pictures that combine different types of macho posturing with a disarming playfulness that verges on the Caped Crusader’s sweet spot of goofy-yet-exciting thrills:

SPEED (1994)

This is quite an obvious pick, but 30 years have passed since Speed first hit the screens, so perhaps some readers aren’t aware of how close this slick, adrenaline-charged blockbuster feels to a standard Dark Knight adventure. It’s almost like someone took an old Riddler or Joker comic and polished it into a high-budget thriller, generating a quip-heavy cat-and-mouse game between a terrorist madman (Dennis Hopper chewing so much scenery that he might as well be auditioning to play a Gotham-based rogue) and a quick-witted LAPD cop who has to use both agility and intelligence in order to circumvent the villain’s masterplan as he jumps from one deathtrap to the next. Yet the influence cuts both ways: you can also find traces of Speed in ensuing Batman yarns, with the likes of Chuck Dixon emulating the film’s pace and memorable set pieces (for instance, I see a lot of this in Dixon’s Nightwing and Detective Comics).

Detective Comics #705

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AIR FORCE ONE (1997)

Air Force One’s high concept is pretty easy to pin down: if Speed was ‘Die Hard on a bus,’ this one is ‘Die Hard on Air Force One’ – but instead of John McClane (or Batman), the hero here is the POTUS himself… and played by a growling Harrison Ford! Meanwhile, the villain is a Soviet veteran who (not unlike the NKVDemon) seeks to make Russia a powerful antagonist once again (if only he had waited a couple of decades…), thus responding both to the new world order (where, even in the film, everybody took it for granted that the Russian government had pretty much become a US puppet) and, on a more meta level, to the Cold War nostalgia of a Hollywood longing for the clear and simple narratives of the bad old days (including a throwback to the fear of communism in the form of a stirring rendition of ‘The Internationale’). If taken too seriously, the result may come across like pure flag-waving chauvinism, but the corniness, the shameless display of might, and the exaggerated (if well-crafted) action build up to a sense of ridiculous awesomeness that you also find in many a Dark Knight comic.

JLA #3

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THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (2004)

This straight-up sequel to The Bourne Identity is where Matt Damon really came alive as a proto-Batman figure – that is to say, a cool, driven, resourceful man/force of nature playing by his own rules who’s always thinking three steps ahead and who generally prefers to use creativity and martial arts rather than guns. Once again, Damon’s no-nonsense amnesiac spy runs circles around his former bosses, but the first film’s sunny Paris is now mostly replaced by a nocturnal Berlin, where the darkly clad protagonist moves around with the fluidity of the Caped Crusader in Gotham, climbing buildings, jumping from trains, hanging from bridges, and even ingeniously using the city’s thriving anti-globalization protests as camouflage. Also, when he gets behind a wheel, he sure drives like hell.

Batman & Robin Adventures #6

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JACK REACHER (2012)

A badass drifter gets involved in what at first appears to be a clear-cut investigation into a sniper shooting in Pittsburgh… but which soon turns out to be punctuated by convoluted twists and vicious violence. Yep, this is one of those vehicles that seems largely built around various ways of showcasing Tom Cruise’s supremacy, sex appeal, and mansplaining skills (writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has turned this into a career-long mission since then). The thing is that Cruise and McQuarrie push it so comically over the top that, for the most part, they turn the protagonist into the World’s Greatest Detective, complete with his mastery of kicks and zingers. That said, while I’m not sure how faithful Jack Reacher is to Lee Child’s novels (which always struck me as a brazen update of the type of 1970s’ hardboiled fiction that spawned the Punisher), this is certainly a taut, stylish crime thriller – one that riffs not only on the Dark Knight, but also on all sorts of macho action traditions, from the Hawksian blonde and the Mechanic-like silent opening to the Bruce Lee-ish fights and the Steve McQueen-esque car chase. And as a bonus, one of the villains is played by Werner Herzog, who clearly belongs in Batman’s rogues gallery.

(The sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, is pretty entertaining as well!)

The Dark Knight #2

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JAWAN (2023)

After an insanely hyper-charged prelude packed with superhero-worthy action in (what is clearly meant to be) Tibet, we move on to an extended set piece about a theatrical terrorist – and his troupe of henchwomen – hijacking a Mumbai metro train… which is just as insanely hyper-charged! In fact, Jawan hardly ever slows down for almost three hours, filling the screen with relentless jump cuts, stylized explosions, cheesy slow motion, broad comedy, soap opera twists, the obligatory dance numbers, and anti-corruption populism (including, from what I can tell, several jabs at Modi). This is the only Bollywood production I’ve ever seen, so I can’t claim it is the closest in tone to Batman comics (although my expert friends swear to me this is a good one). What I can attest to is that Jawan involves secret identities, elaborate heists, and enough extravagant fight scenes and overblown emotions to feel like it was co-written by Scott Snyder and/or Jeph Loeb. (Hell, among the many, many swipes of western fiction, there are even a couple of figures who seem visually inspired by Hush!)

Batman/The Shadow: The Murder Geniuses #4

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THE BEEKEEPER (2024)

Jason Statham plays a beekeeper on a rampage against an internet phishing scheme, helped by the fact that he’s a former super-duper secret agent with a particular set of skills a la Taken/John Wick, raising a panic in sinister sectors of the intelligence community. As far as I’m concerned, The Beekeeper offers at least three layers of fun. First, there is the general silliness of the whole thing, no doubt done with tongue in cheek, as characters are constantly baffled by the sheer premise (‘A beekeeper beekeeper?!’) to the point that an FBI agent actually starts reading a book on bees to search for clues, extracting useful factoids. Even the first minutes, which are shot like straight-up drama, are worthy for Statham’s deadpan delivery of lines like ‘Taking from an elderly person is as bad as stealing from a child … maybe worse.’ Secondly, director David Ayer commits to my favorite elements of this type of schlock, with plenty of ludicrous violence in the form of fight scenes that amusingly use handy props (i.e. lots of tech bros’ heads bashed by call center phones) and a steady supply of bee-themed one-liners that culminates in a Shakespearean pun – which is why I wouldn’t be surprised if the sequel reveals this to have been a stealth origin story for a Batman villain… Finally, there’s the fact that the film is an outlandish MAGA fantasy, complete with a manly, hat-wearing, blue-collar vigilante slaughtering young white-collar douches, fighting the deep state, and exposing electoral fraud while spouting that his only allegiance is to justice, not the law. Given Ayer’s reactionary track record, I don’t think any of this is necessarily presented ironically, but the result nevertheless comes across like a hilariously bonkers reimagining of whatever was going through the heads of the Pizzagate guy or the January 6^th crowd.

Batman #575