• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Ideas for more "grounded" Batman villains?

Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
I want to call it "Nolan-ifying" Batman villains but with the recent Matt Reeves' rendition of Batman I guess we have one more filmmaker who has attempted to ground Batman in reality.

So anyway, what would be a cool idea for a grounded Batman villain that hasn't been done before?

Earlier today I was thinking about a version of Poison Ivy who, through a combination of experimental research and physical conditioning, built an unusually high tolerance for most plant-based toxins. In this version she would be a botanist reasearcher turned eco terrorist who's known for instigating domestic attacks on the general population using biological weapons. Her master plan would involve a world-scale terrorist attack that would infect most of humanity with a mutated pathogen that would start a global pandemic and cull the population, and it would be her idea of saving the planet from the effects of climate change or some shit like that. It actually sounds like it would be in line thematically with what they attempted to do with the Riddler in the last Batman movie, and it would give Ivy some extra depth instead of her being a bad guy just because she loves plants or whatever.

There should also be a secondary villain that could be involved in her plan, like Dr. Freeze for example. He would be the guy helping out with the technology needed to spread the virus or something, but he would also have a secret agenda, and the only reason he's working with Ivy is to use her research to develop a cure for his dying wife or something like that.
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
Just cut the CGI budget and force them to do it practically. That will almost definitely "ground" the villains because then they can't just paint the entire scene with animation and have to have a much more muted power effect. A Poison Ivy that has just a few semi-mobile plants versus thousands of CGI vines crisscrossing a foot ball stadium while a CGI batman parkours around like a rubber ball, for example. Even villains like Manbat can fit ion a more realistic world if the character is given practical motivations and the transformations are Stan Winston-esque and the fully transformed version is only seen in shadow or whatever. Think of the difference between Jaws and something like Deep Blue Sea. Less can often be more.
 
Kilau

Kilau

Member
Drizzlehell said:
I want to call it "Nolan-ifying" Batman villains but with the recent Matt Reeves' rendition of Batman I guess we have one more filmmaker who has attempted to ground Batman in reality.

So anyway, what would be a cool idea for a grounded Batman villain that hasn't been done before?

Earlier today I was thinking about a version of Poison Ivy who, through a combination of experimental research and physical conditioning, built an unusually high tolerance for most plant-based toxins. In this version she would be a botanist reasearcher turned eco terrorist who's known for instigating domestic attacks on the general population using biological weapons. Her master plan would involve a world-scale terrorist attack that would infect most of humanity with a mutated pathogen that would start a global pandemic and cull the population, and it would be her idea of saving the planet from the effects of climate change or some shit like that. It actually sounds like it would be in line thematically with what they attempted to do with the Riddler in the last Batman movie, and it would give Ivy some extra depth instead of her being a bad guy just because she loves plants or whatever.

There should also be a secondary villain that could be involved in her plan, like Dr. Freeze for example. He would be the guy helping out with the technology needed to spread the virus or something, but he would also have a secret agenda, and the only reason he's working with Ivy is to use her research to develop a cure for his dying wife or something like that.
Click to expand...
Just need Bane as her henchman and you are all the way back to Batman & Robin.
 
IDKFA

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I'll have a go.

Man-Bat is just a regular dude like Batman, but highly skilled in martial arts and is super intelligent. His parents were also killed by a criminal, but unlike Batman he kills anybody who breaks the law. Not just hard crimes either. He'll kill an old woman for littering or some dude for not paying their taxes.

To make him more believable, rather than being some half bat half human hybrid monster, he's just a human with the skin of hundreds of dead bats sewn to his body. He doesn't talk either. He just makes bat sounds like chirps and screams while pretending to fly.
 
Last edited:
Daneel Elijah

Daneel Elijah

Member
Evil Clark Kent. No need for Superman, just a journalist as good as Clark/Lois that will do all it( he or she) can do to find Batman identity. Between the protection of being legally in the right, but still doing reprehensible stuff to have scoops, and the pressure that a person good enough to possibly find out, plus all the mayhem that can be caused by writing about all of gotham other bad guys, that would want to kill it before they are next on the morning news...
Or the Marvel way. Anti Batman. So someone like Oliver Queen. But the best stories from batman are when he is allowed to fail, to not be the bullshit overprepared guy that always have a plan and can go against Superman and Darkseid. And only the Joker have the same level of plot armor that Batman has. So good luck to have a grounded ennemy that have to be considered equal to Batman when outside of the Joker, only a few non augmented humans can be close to him.
 
kondorBonk

kondorBonk

Member
- Poison Ivy, just an eco-terrorists to the extreme. Could be a lot of fun.
- Mad Hatter: Probably couldn't hold a movie but a quick side villain in an opener could be good. Brainwashing/abducting children.
- Clock King: Was already a really good grounded villian in BtaS and i always wanted more of. Super obsessed with scheduling of every element of Gotham was practically a super power.

Hopefully the Matt Reeves batman is done though. No hate on the actor but that was the worst/least entertaining Batman movie.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
kondorBonk said:
- Poison Ivy, just an eco-terrorists to the extreme. Could be a lot of fun.
- Mad Hatter: Probably couldn't hold a movie but a quick side villain in an opener could be good. Brainwashing/abducting children.
- Clock King: Was already a really good grounded villian in BtaS and i always wanted more of. Super obsessed with scheduling of every element of Gotham was practically a super power.

Hopefully the Matt Reeves batman is done though. No hate on the actor but that was the worst/least entertaining Batman movie.
Click to expand...
I think they're already making another Pattinson Batman so too late wishing for that, I guess.

It's gonna remain as an off-shoot, though. Independent of whatever James Gunn and his pals are planning for the DC movies right now. Which is fine by me. Not everything needs to be a part of the same connencted cinematic universe or whatever. Joker worked great as a standalone film.
 
Last edited:
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Kilau said:
Just need Bane as her henchman and you are all the way back to Batman & Robin.
Click to expand...
Actually, the idea came about because I was watching Batman & Robin, lol. I just thought what kind of a premise would make a movie with Poison Ivy and Dr. Freeze better.

Oh, and I forgot to add that I would totally add Barbara Gordon into my version too.
 
jufonuk

jufonuk

not tag worthy
batman with zero prep time, and all that bullshit versus ex SAS who have gone rogue for reasons.

boom smile GIF
 
Last edited:
Pegasus Actual

Pegasus Actual

Member
Natbam, he's basically Batman but he's like super dyslexic so he confuses doing crime with doing good and just does a bunch of crimes.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
Handstroke, a dude who fap in public causing mayem.

Mr breeze, a dude terrorizing any citizen who smoke cigarettes with his portable fan

Man-bet, a dude who lost everything at the hippodrome and now want revenge against the city

Brat-woman, your typical trans activist and pedophile that hate the police department

The broker: he laugh like a maniac everytime his clients lose money.

Scarecow, just an ugly, obese woman with bad intentions.
 
Last edited:
Artoris

Artoris

Gold Member
Batman is gay and has always had a crush on Alfred, but Alfred is dying and Batman has to face the four villains of denial, anger, bargaining and depression. Till he finally finds acceptance and he hangs up hi's cloak
 
AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
Do we need a Batman where Bruce deals with survivors guilt?


No we don't.

We need one where he goes back in time saves his parents, then has a picture of him and Robin and he slowly see Robin start to fade away, so he goes back in time and kills his parents.
 
Toons

Toons

Member
Batmans a dude who wears a suit with pointy ears on it to fight crocodile men and guys who take steroids that make him lift cars

I dont need him to be that grounded. Hes a superhero
 
JCK75

JCK75

Member
I'm tired of them being too grounded.. give me true Batman with some pretty cool villains like Solomon Grundy
 
Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
Alfred sees Bruce flourishing from following the latest Gotham health fads, and Alfred starts feeling unneeded.

So Alfred goes all Munchausen by Proxy and starts poisoning Bruce's daily guano supplements that he takes to "become the fear".

But Alfred didn't know what was in the supplements and tried poisoning him with bat shit thinking it'd be ironic, only to create the strongest, most fearless Batman ever.

It ends with Batman saying "Make a wish, Butler Boy" and throwing Alfred off the mansion roof into the courtyard fountain. Alfred takes a wicked 360 header off the basin before dropping in the water. While Alfred floats unconscious, having learned his lesson, Batman says, "How do you like them tangerines?"
 
Last edited:
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Toons said:
Batman is not absolved from that lol. If you dont want superhero stuff then why do you want batman
Click to expand...
Because Batman never was about excessive CGI crapfests that permeate cinemas these days. It was more like a detective noir (hence DETECTIVE Comics) with a bit of a pulpy spin on the formula with its over-the-top villains and gadgetry. It actually makes more sense for it to be a more grounded and gritty detective story than bombastic superhero schlock.
 
March Climber

March Climber

Member
Drizzlehell said:
Because Batman never was about excessive CGI crapfests that permeate cinemas these days. It was more like a detective noir (hence DETECTIVE Comics) with a bit of a pulpy spin on the formula with its over-the-top villains and gadgetry. It actually makes more sense for it to be a more grounded and gritty detective story than bombastic superhero schlock.
Click to expand...
This is why I liked The Batman more than Dark Knight Rises.
 
Toons

Toons

Member
Drizzlehell said:
Because Batman never was about excessive CGI crapfests that permeate cinemas these days. It was more like a detective noir (hence DETECTIVE Comics) with a bit of a pulpy spin on the formula with its over-the-top villains and gadgetry. It actually makes more sense for it to be a more grounded and gritty detective story than bombastic superhero schlock.
Click to expand...

Lol.... nah.

Batman may be lower grade than say, the guardians of the galaxy, but hes still a alrgwr than life surprhrro snd has been in his comic books for a very long time. Some of his villains are jst dudes in suits and scientists and terrorists, others are zombies, world breaker level eco terrorists, human animal hybrid creatures and more.

Theres not just one way to do a batman story. You can do a grounded one or you can do a larger than life one.

But we've had the grounded one already. Its not gonna get much more grounded than Nolans stuff was so why bother? This 9d why I'm glad the sequel to the batman isn't saying away from stuff like clayface. We need some of that stuff for batman on the screen. Hes a superhero with a cape. He can be allowed to fo superheroics.
 
Last edited:
killatopak

killatopak

Member
Poison Ivy is an extreme vegetarian activist that kidnaps animals so people wouldn’t eat them.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LTTP: Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) PS3
15
961
Physiognomonics replied
Opinion: Nolan and Burton Batman annihilate Reeves Batman
2
74
4K
PrimetimeKnight replied
Variety: When Superman and Batman Copyrights Expire in a Decade, Will It Be Kryptonite for DC?
20
2K
Skyfox replied
Too Timid to Tell the Boss You’re Quitting? There’s a Service for That
28
2K
Superkewl replied
What actually happened to Warren Ellis?
14
2K
CGNoire replied
Top Bottom