#TheBatman

As the year pivots from frustrating lockdowns amid a terrifying pandemic to utter lawlessness in the streets, we’ve all probably been waking up on the wrong side of the bed on a daily basis. Today, your author roused himself feeling particularly bitter as he realized the sniffle from last night has evolved into something a little more persistent. That’s going to keep me on the sidelines while my neighbors decide whether to protest brutality or embrace it fully by ensuring another quadrant of the city is razed. Perhaps I should have splurged on a fancier pack of masks, surely then this 2020 would have all worked out in my favor.

Now would be the perfect time to share the hollow virtue-signaling coming from the leadership at Ford and General Motors, both of which have announced they’re finally ready to tackle discrimination head-on several days after the tragic killing of George Floyd. But you know that would be pointless because — and I can’t put too fine a point on this — they are automakers and nobody sane wants their corporate opinion on racial politics.

So we’re covering the new Batmobile (below the break), which was only controversial in 1995 because someone designed it to look exactly like a giant phallus (above).

If the recent filmic handling of DC’s comic-book franchises is anything to go by, there’s little reason to presume the next Batman movie will be a good one. After releasing a trilogy of enjoyable bat films, Warner Bros. seems to have settled into some of the worst entertainment currently available at your local cinema or home streaming service — whether it be related to the Dark Knight or linked to some other DC character. The only noteworthy exception from the past eight years was 2019’s Joker, a film that was panned in the media for months before ultimately garnering critical acclaim and an Oscar win for Joaquin Phoenix’s complicated portrayal of the villain.

Little is known about 2021’s The Batman, other than the titular character being played by Robert Pattinson and the film leaning into a more realistic portrayal of his tech. While that hasn’t done much to pique our interest by itself, it has done wonders for the new Batmobile. It’s probably the most down-to-earth vehicle we’ve seen the caped crusader drive since Adam West piloted a modified Lincoln Futura in the campy 1960s comedy series. If movie cars are any measure of a film’s overall greatness (they are), perhaps this will be a decent flick after all.