The Flash Movie Can Resolve A Batman Returns Plot Hole

With Michael Keaton possibly coming back as Batman in The Flash, the film can provide resolution to a major plot hole left by Batman Returns. The future of the DCEU is set to really open up and explore the idea of the multiverse, which the Arrowverse has already started doing, and with that comes the return of Keaton’s Bruce Wayne from Tim Burton’s Batman movies.

The Flash is said to be operating as as its own version of the Flashpoint comics story. Aside from the time-travel elements that brings with it, the movie will also be able to facilitate Keaton’s participation with the aforementioned Multiverse concept. Furthermore, with Keaton’s last appearance as The Dark Knight being in 1992’s Batman Returns, The Flash can also address the biggest issue that the film never provided an answer to.

In Batman Returns, The Caped Crusader is framed by The Penguin for the kidnapping and murder of Gotham City’s Ice Princess. This was part of the larger aim of The Penguin and the corrupt businessman Max Shreck, played by Danny DeVito and Christopher Walken respectively, to force a recall election in order for The Penguin to become Mayor of Gotham City, but this plan is thwarted when Bruce Wayne plays audio during a rally of The Penguin showing his true colors. Once The Penguin opens fire on the now angry crowd no longer falling for his facade, he’s forced to flee back to the sewers of Gotham. There’s just one big problem though – Batman himself was never cleared of murdering the Ice Princess.

Not only that, but The Penguin had also managed to hijack the Batmobile by remote, causing it to plow recklessly through the streets of Gotham with Batman inside and the Gotham City Police in pursuit. Batman’s framing was never brought up in the subsequent films Batman Forever and Batman and Robin either, though it is admittedly debatable how much connection the two really hold to Keaton’s Batman films. In any case, The Flash can provide a belated answer to how Batman’s innocence was proven, with Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman being particularly well-suited for this.

Catwoman had assisted in setting up Batman, but even she was taken aback when the Ice Princess fell to her death, saying to The Penguin “You said you were going to scare The Ice Princess.” Though Selina Kyle has chosen to continue her life of crime by the end of the film, her love of Bruce Wayne could plausibly have compelled her to anonymously provide evidence of Batman’s innocence to the Gotham City Police, such as the Penguin’s blueprint of the Batmobile. Clearing Batman of killing the Ice Princess would likely be harder, especially with The Penguin using a Batarang to kidnap her and leaving it at the crime scene, and it may even work for The Flash to run with this Batman having never been exonerated for her murder.

The Flash may have once been stuck in suspended animation, but it has now emerged as possibly the biggest wildcard in the DC stable. Indeed, with its time-travel and Multiverse components, The Flash could become a monumentally significant film in the DCEU’s upcoming slate. At the same time, it also has the added bonus of being the only movie that can provide an answer to the most lasting loose end that Batman Returns never tied up.