Hello, Mez. I’m DisThunder. I’ve been with you guys since the Hellboy days, but it’s been since One:12 Collective that I’ve really landed in your corner. Dark Knight Returns Batman came out at a time I was seriously wondering if I was going to continue collecting 6-inch figures. He made that decision a really easy one, and I haven’t looked back since.
Sigh … but I’m going to follow up my comments of gratitude and adoration with a request. I think it’s just human nature. To be honest, I started writing this as just a regular email. I thought it was an “oddball” request; I was going to lament the cancellation of your fantastic-looking One:12 Knightmare Batman figure. I figured even though I’d loved the design and have been craving a figure of it since the first glimpse in the trailer, it was still a one-off — a 5-minute costume in a movie that can be at best considered divisive among fans.
But when I hopped on the Internet to start … well, complaining, I was surprised to see the reaction was already out there, shared by far more people than I would’ve thought. See, I loved the look and the design, and even I was surprised at the amount of outcry on social media and message boards about his cancellation.
So, since I actually could be speaking for more than myself, I decided to make this a more public plea than just another “tell us what you think” drop in the “contact us” bucket:
Please save that Knightmare Batman figure, Mezco. It’s too damn cool not to join our collections.
Obviously, it’s an awesome design. Just the concept of a Batman in BDUs, shemagh, goggles and a trench coat, wielding a FN Scar and a 1911 — I literally looked around the theater and wondered if this was just something I was imagining. This was a Batman pushed to the end of the road. He’s always been a little contentious about the firearms, but you knew things had gotten bad enough that the rules and the moral codes just weren’t holding up. In a fight against a totalitarian Kryptonian and legions of Parademons, that line had to have been crossed a long time ago.
While Knightmare Batman is an excellent name, I can think of a few others: Rebel Batman. Apocalypse Batman.
Mad Max Batman.
It’s not the first time the idea has come up. Even the comics did a little variation on the theme during the Year Zero event, and it was pretty cool.
The concept of an unleashed, resistance-fighter Batman is something I encountered in a comic actually a long time before:
That would be the Adventures of Superman, Elseworlds Annual #6 from 1994. How’s that for some geek cred?
It’s a great little two-parter, if a bit cliched, but sometimes the ones you remember most are the ones that remind you of other things. Simply stated, Earth is attacked by a federation of alien outlaws who, after not being able to beat the resident superheroes, basically blackmail them out of action by massacring civilians any time those superheroes take them on. Pretty old-school occupier tactic, though it rarely works. Here, though, the carnage is bad enough to convince the heroes to hang it up, or in some cases get hung themselves. Except this one guy …
This Batman was also forced to become a guerrilla fighter in occupied territory. And he certainly looks the part. The goggles, the battle damaged suit, the holsters, the web gear — he is essentially a proto-Knightmare Batman. And like his screen counterpart, he is certainly less averse to lethal force. Especially in this case, where a survivor would mean a witness to his actions, and that could mean reprisals. This is a Batman that can’t afford prisoners.
So to see that same look brought into the modern age, on the big screen no less, and get a shot at that idea in figure form from some of the best in business, well, I have to give this a shot, too. And you guys definitely gave it one helluva shot. That prototype figure ranked up there with the Hot Toys version. It’s absolutely worthy of a release.
And based on Twitter, Facebook, and Pierre’s great interview with Rick’s Nerd Life, I think there are plenty of fans who would give it a good home. This Batman looks like he’s suffered plenty. Don’t let him fade away without an awesome One:12 figure.
