Warning: Spoilers for Wonder Woman (2023) #6 ahead!Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) remains a classic Batman film for a reason: the tightly-paced thriller’s impact on the superhero genre can still be felt today. As such, it’s only appropriate that the film receives a nod from the comics every now and then, with a recent side story confirming one of the film’s major plot elements as DC canon.
Wonder Woman (2023) #6 concludes with Tom King, Belén Ortega, Alejandro Sánchez, and Clayton Cowles’ story, “World’s Finest, Part 4.” The story is largely a charming romp in which Damian Wayne and Jon Kent attempt to coax a young Lizzie (Trinity) to bed. However, a mild spat arises between Jon and Damian when Jon discovers Damian has hooked the television up to a surveillance feed of Gotham.
“Father cut this feed out of some pathetic theoretical privacy concerns,” Damian explains, echoing one of the key ethical debates posed by The Dark Knight. “Fortunately, I was able to repair the damage without the necessity of his supervision.“
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Batman Has Canonically Bugged All Of Gotham
Electronic monitoring without knowledge or consent is one of The Dark Knight‘s major plot elements. With Batman desperate for any edge he can get over the Joker, Lucius Fox is horrified to discover that Bruce has used his sonar technology to hijack the personal devices of everyone in Gotham to act as his surveillance network. The breach of privacy is so egregious that Lucius refuses to work for Bruce for as long as the network exists, although Batman redeems himself by destroying the network by the end of the film.
While the film presents this as a major ethical dilemma, Batman is infamous for doing far worse in the comics. Between the creation of Brother Eye, his anti-Justice League contingency files, and his Failsafe robot turning Gotham into a miniature police state, Batman has become DC’s poster child for paranoid illicit surveillance. Not only is it completely in character for this film element to be adapted into canon, it marks one of the few times the film adaptation of the character has wound up making better choices than their comic counterpart.
Batman Still Struggles To Escape His Worst Impulses
It’s fascinating how Batman’s role as “detective” has transformed over time to become the worst-case scenario for intrusive technological surveillance. While The Dark Knight presents this as an ethical quandary that is ultimately resolved for the better, it is something that Batman still struggles with in the comics, making it an easy part of the film to incorporate into DC canon.
Wonder Woman (2023) #6 is available now from DC Comics.
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The Dark Knight
- Summary:
- Christian Bale once again embodies the man behind the mask in The Dark Knight, reuniting Bale with Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has been making headway against local crime—until a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker unleashes a fresh reign of chaos across Gotham City. To stop this devious new menace—Batman’s most personal and vicious enemy yet—he will have to use every high-tech weapon in his arsenal and confront his beliefs if he hopes to stand a chance against the Clown Prince of Crime.
- Release Date:
- 2008-07-18
- Cast:
- Nestor Carbonell, Morgan Freeman, Ritchie Coster, Cillian Murphy, Chin Han, Gary Oldman, Eric Roberts, William Fichtner, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale, David Dastmalchian, Michael Caine, Anthony Michael Hall, Heath Ledger
- Director:
- Christopher Nolan
- Genres:
- Action, Thriller, Drama, Crime
- Rating:
- PG-13
- Writers:
- Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer
- Budget:
- 185 Million
- Studio(s):
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Distributor(s):
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Sequel(s):
- The Dark Knight Rises
- prequel(s):
- Batman Begins
- Franchise(s):
- Batman
- Runtime:
- 152 Minutes
