Warning: contains spoilers for Batman ’89 #3!
The new Batman ’89 series only gets more weird as the story progresses, and is indicative of Tin Burton’s true intentions behind the unmade third film in the Batman franchise of the 90s. The director is known for his idiosyncrasies and visible signposts put in his films, from judicious use of black and white spirals to themes of alienation, loneliness and dreams and nightmares. In Batman ’89 #3, written by Sam Hamm with art by Joe Quinones and colors by Leonardo Ito, Tim Burton’s themes are the star of the show – but so is the rise and fall of Harvey Dent.
In Batman ’89, Tim Burton’s ideas for the unmade sequel to Batman Returns appear in comic form. Harvey Dent is modeled after Billy Dee Williams, Robin makes an appearance as a teenager from the Burnside neighborhood, and even Catwoman reappears as Bruce Wayne’s love interest from the previous film. At the start of the issue, onlookers are shocked to see Dent heroically escape a burning building, carrying an unconscious but alive Robin. From there, Dent seemingly gets everything he ever wanted: the city supports him, Commissioner Gordon resigns, the election is won in a landslide, and Bruce Wayne even gives him the identity of “Batman”, who is actually multiple mercenaries bankrolled by Wayne.
Unfortunately, Dent is only hallucinating; he doesn’t run out of the building, he’s dragged out, and half his face is horrifically burned. Meanwhile, its Bruce Wayne who saves people from the fire, and the media hound him relentlessly. The socially awkward Bruce is aghast to see “Bruce Wayne: Superhero” as a front-page headline. Despondent and anxious, he goes to the one person who can help him: Catwoman. Unfortunately, intense protests erupt below them, ruining their night.
Harvey Dent still hallucinates while in a hospital bed. Nothing has gone according to plan, and while the city still thinks highly of him, he’s not the hero he wanted to become. Moreover, Batman is still loose. Tim Burton films rarely have cut-and-dried happy endings for their long-suffering protagonists, and Batman ’89 is no different. It makes one wonder how Bruce Wayne, now outed as a hero (irrespective of Batman) would have interacted with Dent, who’s now recovering from his burns and confined to a hospital bed, disillusioned about Gotham City and her citizens. His transformation into the villain known as Two-Face is almost complete.
Tim Burton’s Batman 3 was sadly never made, and the directed was fired in favor of Joel Schumacher, who later directed Batman Forever and the much-maligned Batman and Robin. If the film was anything like Batman ’89, fans would have seen a film with multiple hallucinations, dream sequences, and copious amounts of men pushed far out of their comfort zone. Unfortunately, the Batman of the Tim Burton era is relegated to the comics, at least until the reappearance of Michael Keaton as Batman in 2022’s The Flash.
