Michael Davis: The Death Of Batman

Michael Davis

Master Of The Universe, Lord Of All Media, Most Interesting Black Man In the World, Sexiest Man on Earth, Mentor, Writer, Artist, Producer & Uppity.

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36 Responses

  1. Kyle G. says:

    This spooked me pretty badly when it happened to. I was in Ohio visiting family the whole opening weekend so it wasn’t till Monday that I saw it right after work. I got in kinda last minute and took an aisle seat higher up than usual. I knew nothing would happen but I still couldn’t stop from feeling a little uneasy and looking at the doors every so often
    For me it’s not just that a person can do these terrible things, but its so often in the aftermath we see copy cats who think they can get famous doing the same thing. It happened with two people who sited Aurora so far, it happened with some other kids after Columbine, it even happened with two guys who tried killing women after Son of Sam was caught (so it’s nothing new). That’s what makes me most uneasy when something like this happens and gets such attention it latches onto the psychies of everyone in different ways. Some far more dangerous.

  2. I was gonna wait a while to see the film, just out of inertia, being old, and not wanting to brave the crowds.

    When I woke up to the news, I bought my tickets online for a showing that night.

    AMC theaters had put a ban on cosplay. My local AMC theater clearly didn’t get the memo – the lady in the booth was dressed as Batgirl.

    I was pleased to see no news crews outside, eager to get people’s feelings about the event.

    I’m hoping the massive amount of pro-bat reaction (especially from the victims, many of which have since gone to see the film) will help break the lock he’s put on the gate to enjoying the film.

  3. I still think a lot about buying a replica of the 1966 Batmobile. Like, when my kids are all off in college, I might be that embarrassing dad who spluges on myself then goes to visit them, pulling up in that ridiculous thing and not caring at all about them dying inside.

  4. Asha says:

    This column is so egoistic… I really don’t see its point…?!?

    Not that anyone cares will you see the movie or not…

    • Michael Davis says:

      And YOUR point?

      • Christopher Foxx says:

        And what’s *your* point, Michael?

        Honestly, with respect for whatever personal history you have, you start by building up to saying how that history means you simply can’t bring yourself to see The Dark Knight Rises.
        And then almost immediately declare that you’re going to make every attempt to see it.

        Which is it? Have the events in Colorado corrupted one of my favorite things because you have no defense over how how feel, or are you sure Batman will be back in your life?

        You column this week is a rambling jumble.

        • I’ll go slow.

          1. The shootings have affected me (because of my personal history) to a point where I don’t want to see the film now.

          2. I hope that I can overcome that and sooner or later do get to see the film.

          3. Next week I’ll write a article on about rather Superman can beat the Hulk. That better?

          • Christopher Foxx says:

            Thank you for the condescension. I was missing my dose of that today.

            If you’d rather not get responses to your columns, you should turn off comments.

        • Jonathan (the other one) says:

          His point, Mr, Foxx, is that this is his column, and he will write about what he wants – within editorial constraints, of course. If you don’t care for Dr. Davis’ writing style, you’re perfectly free to go haunt some other corner of the Web, but unless you somehow become an editor at ComicMix you don’t get to tell him how to write his column.

          • Christopher,

            I welcome your comments-really. I simply responded to your ‘rambling jumble’ statement in kind.

          • Christopher Foxx says:

            No, Jonathan, that wasn’t his point in this column. Neither Dr Davis nor I said anything about what he can/can’t or should/shouldn’t write about or how he should do it. But thank you for taking me to task for something I didn’t say.

            Contrast my comment to Asha’s. Asha was impolite and insulting and I see why Davis responded as he did. In mine, I explained why I found the column rambling and his point harder to determine.

            I’ve been reading Davis’s columns regularly. I have no problem with his style or choice of subject matter. In this particular case, I thought he wasn’t clear and said so. And, again, I briefly explained why.

            Though you chose to be overly defensive and insulting, at least I can get your point: Michael Davis’s columns are masterful, his opinions are never to be disputed, and anyone who finds any fault with them should exile themselves. I don’t know Davis personally. But from what I’ve read in his columns I suspect he’s not so thin skinned that he needs you jumping in with that kind of reaction.

          • Christopher Foxx says:

            Michael –

            I tried, perhaps less delicately than I could have, to explain why it struck me as a jumble.

            And I was responding to your “I’ll go slow” statement in kind. Just because someone doesn’t “get” a particular column doesn’t make them stupid.

          • What are these “editorial constraints” of which you speak?

    • Mike Gold says:

      I do. After a couple hundred of these columns, I think we’ve got some insight into the writer and his reactions to an event that so clearly is on-topic on a comics-oriented pop culture website are valid. It’s a column, not a news story.

  5. JosephW says:

    Well, then, you’ve allowed the terrorists to win.

  6. Troll Asha must never have visited here before.

  7. Jonathan (the other one) says:

    Michael, one other thing that may give you heart, and which I enjoyed seeing on the news last night – several of the survivors showed up at a hearing for the asshole, all wearing various Batman T-shirts.

  8. George Haberberger says:

    I am a pretty big Batman fan myself and that is why I can’t stand the Adam West version. West seems like a nice enough guy. I think he be fine in comedy or Broadway show. But no way in hell was he right for Batman. Of course the parody that that show was wasn’t entirely his fault but his name is forever connected to what is in my mind the nadir of the character.

    • George,

      One of the biggest disappointments in my life was meeting Adam West. I was a H U G E fan when I met him at a small convention. I told him so and he was just a DICK to me. I try and tell myself he was having a bad day and that’s why he ruined mine.

      • I think for a while there, Adam West was in the “slightly embarrassed” part of his life when it came to Batman. But like Shatner, he found a way to come to peace with it, and sort of own it. With Shatner it started with the “Get a Life” sketch on SNL, and with West, I think it was not Family Guy, but the episode of Johnny Bravo he did, also written by Seth MacFarlane.

        I’ll lay odds he’d be much cooler about it now. Or at least fake it enough to keep you happy.

    • Mike Gold says:

      That show was, when it debuted, a lot closer to the Batman comic book than fans of my age want to believe. I’m grateful to it for two reasons: 1) it arguably saved the comics industry at a time when the traditional sales base of mom-n-pop stores was on its last legs, and 2) after it was over and Warners had bought DC, Julie and the new management (Infantino) took the character 180 degrees away from that teevee show.

      And I like that Batgirl costume.

      • mike weber says:

        Yeah, well the “Batman” books were pretty lame in them there days – the Joker couldn’t kill people, for ghod’s sake.

        But the teevee show was done by people with a deep and abiding contempt for the “trash” they had to work from.

        Quoting WIkipedia:

        In turn, 20th Century Fox handed the project to William Dozier and his Greenway Productions. ABC and Fox were expecting a hip and fun—yet still serious—adventure show. However, Dozier, who loathed comic books, concluded the only way to make the show work was to do it as a pop art camp comedy.

        • Mike Gold says:

          From the standpoint of making money, Dozier was probably correct. That was the time of trivia, pop art and camp. Actually, it was the time when the Depression Era culture was about to lose control of our culture to the Boomers (right on!). Dozier took a somewhat straighter approach with Green Hornet, but his Dick Tracy pilot was a godawful piece of shit that made Batman look like Boardwalk Empire.

  9. Randy says:

    Just wanted to post a positive meeting with Adam West. I was at a Mid-Ohio Con back in the late 90s or early 2000s. Adam West was there and he was really nice to me as he signed a picture for my Dad. He even said, “I think it’s great that you’re getting this for your father.”

    Also, I hope you do go to see the movie, Michael. Not going at all is letting Joe Chill win.

    • Randy,
      Thanks for the Adam West story, maybe as I said in my post, when I met him he was just having a bad day. I laughed out loud over your Joe Chill comment then I quickly realized that in a very real way it’s was also dead on point.