Primal Fear

If you haven’t been following the video game news, Portal 2 came out yesterday. I absolutely loved Portal and although it wasn’t designed to be a “scary” game, it creeped me out more than most. When you spend your time working with computer programs and (at the time) robotics, you start to develop a fear of that technology coming back to get you. So a game that focuses on a homicidal computer with a sweet voice and its child-like killer turrets evokes some of your deepest fears, regardless of how irrational they are.

It seems like ages ago when the rumors that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be in Dark Knight Rises were “confirmed,” but we had never had an official press release from Warner Brothers on the matter. Well, we now have the official word that JGL is in the movie as well as Marion Cotillard, also long time associated with the project. Gordon-Levitt’s role has been one of constant debate, but we now know that he is not Black Mask, Alberto Falcone, the Riddler, or anybody else that the rumor mill churned out. Instead, he will be John Blake, a beat cop on the task force to hunt down Batman. Cotillard had always been rumored to be Talia al Ghul, but is instead Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member interested philanthropic work. Clearly, Tate will be involved in setting up the Wayne Foundation, a charity that has always played a big part in the Batman mythos.

The thing I find the most interesting is how minor both of these characters sound for the actors that got cast for them. JGL makes some sense because by the end of The Dark Knight it was clear the importance that the Gotham City PD would play in the sequel. There have been a lot of other announcements associated with the movie that were tied to other police officers. While I think it’s going to be fun to watch the Gotham PD fill out, I’m disappointed that none of the officers named currently exist in the Batman comic universe. Gotham Central was a great police procedural comic that fleshed out a great cast of characters in the Gotham Police Department. I’d love to see a big screen adaptation of Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, and Crispus Allen. Maybe they just haven’t been announced yet, but I’m not hopeful. Up until after Batman Begins came out, Liam Neeson was also listed as a minor character. Part of me thinks that they’ve done the same thing with Cotillard, who starts out as this director and it’s later revealed that she is Talia or some other major character. If they’ve cast somebody who will be Ra’s in flashbacks, they need somebody to experience those flashbacks. So far, that person is probably Bane, but I’m betting that it’ll be more complicated than that.

Doctor Who Series 6 starts this weekend and while that’s exciting news, it’s tempered today by the news that Elisabeth Sladen has passed away. Sladen was Sarah Jane, one of the Doctor’s companions during the original run of the show in the 70’s. She returned in the new series for a couple of great guest spots that led to her own spinoff series The Sarah Jane Adventures. I’m 100% sure about this, but I want to say that combining all of Sladen’s appearances, she’s the longest running Companion. I’ve never seen her original run on Doctor Who, but it’s something I’m going to track down.

Finally, we’ll end tonight with an amazing discovery by Scott Snyder, author of the current fabulous Detective Comics run. Snyder has noticed that in recent years a pair of background characters have appear repeatedly in multiple books from both DC and Marvel. Snyder has lots of examples and I’m really tempted to go through all of my comics and see if I can track them down anywhere. It’s quite an awesome Easter egg.