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youngandwild99-blog1 · 9 months

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The Batman Part II: My Theories

Please take this with a block of salt because as of right now all we have are rumors. Maybe take that block of salt home to your cows :)

Theory #1: Clayface

So, word is that Clayface may appear as the main villain in Part II. I've noticed some people in various comment sections being doubtful, because a giant shapeshifting monster made out of clay is a sharp left turn from the "grounded realism" of the first movie. They make a good point, which is why I predict that, if Clayface is actually going to appear, he'll be based on the Golden Age version. This was Basil Karlo, a failed actor who took on the alter ego of Clayface, a villain he used to play, to kill various actors and was thwarted by Batman and Robin.

Now, having two serial killer villains in a row would be repetitive, so I theorize that this Clayface will take a different approach. Imagine Basil Karlo using his skills in impressions and makeup (maybe a cutting-edge prosthetic face mask called a "clay face") to impersonate celebrities in Gotham, only to purposefully get caught in scandals. The real celebrity insists it wasn't them, but it's too late, and they're effectively "killed" in the courtroom of public opinion. And Clayface didn't even need to lay a finger on them.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is finally trying to develop his public image after ~20 years, only to discover a villain with the ability to singlehandedly undo all his progress in the eyes of Gotham. In the comics, this would be the part where Batman and Robin are on the case, which leads me to...

Theory #2: Robin

We haven't had a well-received Boy Wonder on the big screen since Burt Ward played him in 1966. If you're anything like me, that's pretty damn frustrating (Dick Grayson appeared in the comics before the Joker AND before Alfred!). So hearing this rumor of Dick Grayson appearing in Part II is both exciting and nerve-wracking, because writing a believable child sidekick in a "grounded, realistic" superhero movie is a challenge. Just logistically, it works in stories like Logan or The Last of Us, because X-23 is immortal and can shrug off most injuries, while Joel eventually taught Ellie how to shoot. But with Batman and Robin, you have a very-much-mortal kid wearing a colorful costume going up against the kinds of people who quite literally emptied their magazines into Batman's chest last movie. How do you make that character fit believably into the world you've made?

Obviously the only ones who can answer that question are Matt Reeves and Mattson Tomlin, the writers for Part II. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't notice some ways that Dick Grayson might've been set up in The Batman. First off: the mayor's son. Bats interacts with him three times throughout the movie. He saves the kid's life twice, once as Bruce and once as Batman. Furthermore, the mayor's son is the first civilian to trust Batman after the flood: he walks towards Bats first, and everyone else follows. In the wise words of Red from OSP, if you can't imagine your Batman comforting a scared child, then you haven't written Batman, you've written the Punisher in a funny hat.

Second: HBO's Penguin series. The fact that they're introducing other gangsters from the comics (Sofia and Alberto Falcone, Salvatore Maroni) gives me hope that they might take the opportunity to introduce Tony Zucco, the gangster who killed Dick Grayson's parents. There are quite a few actors cast in undisclosed roles, maybe one of them plays Zucco...? Either way, setting up Zucco's extortion of Haly's Circus in The Penguin and following it up in Part II with the Flying Graysons' murders would be a good way to tie those stories together.

Third: Bruce Wayne's reappearance. Part I was all about Batman discovering that he has to be more than vengeance, and Reeves has said we'll be seeing more of Bruce Wayne in Part II. Perhaps Bruce's first major public appearance is attending a performance by Haly's Circus, and he just so happens to witness the deaths of the Flying Graysons. And we know what happens next. What better way to force Bruce to take his image seriously (aside from Clayface's shenanigans) than for him to suddenly have an angry, traumatized, highly impressionable kid in his life?

Fourth: This is the weakest reason, but at the end of the movie Selina mentions she's moving to Blüdhaven, which also happens to be where Dick Grayson goes after growing up and becoming Nightwing.

That turned out longer than I thought it would be. Again, these are all just rumors, but I wanted to put my thoughts and theories down in writing in an organized way, and to see what anyone else thinks. Thank you for reading.

#batman #dick grayson #the batman #the batman 2022 #the penguin hbo #robin #clayface #basil karlo #tony zucco #fan theory #discussion #the batman part 2 #the batman part ii #matt reeves #reevesverse

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sammysdewysensitiveeyes · 26 days

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Ok so.. your thoughts at morpherine in 10 ep?

It's really interesting what happened to them, I'm so sad that they didn't show us what happened to Morph, Logan and Storm(

I know people will say "There's no platonic explanation for this!" about like, two dudes just existing in the same room. But when it comes to Morph and Wolverine.....or more specifically, Morph's behavior towards Wolverine? There is no platonic explanation for all the subtext that X-Men 97 has been feeding us.

We got the scene of Morph going to cheer up Wolverine (who is sulking over his unrequited female love interest) overlaid with Storm's letter talking about "sacrifices" people make to maintain connections, we got Morph hallucinating naked Wolverine in the shower and offering to come join him followed by the threatening "As if I don't know, as if we all don't know....", we got Morph literally saying "I love you" to Wolverine while shapeshifted into Wolverine's unrequited female love interest, and that on top of all the closeness between them in the original series.

Any one of these things by itself could still be seen as platonic (except that fucking shower scene, because really). Even Morph's "I love you" could be Morph trying to rally their platonic best friend from the brink of death by shifting into Logan's unrequited female love interest and saying what he wants to hear. Morph did something similar in the comics in Age of Apocalypse, when he woke up an unconscious Rogue by shifting into her son and calling out to her.

But all that stuff combined together? No platonic explanation for all that. Everything in the Morph and Wolverine scenes adds up to "Morph is secretly in love with Wolverine" (whether or not Logan feels the same), and "I love you" was absolutely Morph confessing behind the mask of Jean Grey, while Logan was conveniently unconscious. If Morph presented as a female character, I think there would be no ambiguity about it at all.

And Logan has had his moments, the "Morph, no!" when Sentinel-Trask shot them in the head, the hand on Morph's shoulder while Morph was talking about their experience with Sinister. But I don't believe the show will ever go there with fan-favorite/cash cow Wolverine, so the most we'll get is subtext and Morph obviously pining.

I'm sure Morph, Wolverine and Storm's whereabouts will be a surprise for next season, assuming that the three of them are together. Given that Morph's best known counterpart in the comics is part of a reality-jumping alternate universe team, there's a possibility they'll wind up....Exiled. But I'd rather see them stick with the main team for awhile longer.

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