Well I'm recovered from Batman Begins Mania enough to talk about Batman in rational terms. I have devoured the various books about the movie which have come out. My personal favorite is "The Art of Batman Begins" which takes a look at the design behind the movie. Like the original concept model of the Tumbler. Which was basically a F-15, Humvee, Tank, and Ferrari model kitt all glued together funny. It's an interesting picture, and while it isn't close to what the Tumbler looked like in the movie (This model had a cockpit), you can see the idea of the Tumbler in there. Also I have enjoyed the Novelization of the film, the author attempted to bridge the comics and the movie a bit more. It has journal entries of Ras'Al Ghul, where he talks about being like 600 years old, his daughter Talia, and the Lazarus Pits he created. Also there are a few extra scenes, which while I don't think were ever filmed make the book more intereseting. Mainly there is a long sequence after Bruce returns to Gotham, but before he even starts becoming Batman where he decideds to figure out just what the League of Shadows and Ras'Al Ghul is. Which involves a very almost Lovecraftian search through libearies looking for information. Bruce eventually finds it in this collection of a dead guy (Who died under mysterious circumstances once word leaked out he had this information). So Bruce has to break into this guys laywers house, and steal the information he needed. After which is a very long story of the origin of Ras'Al Ghul. Which is summed up as follows (Spoiler alert for those of you who want to read the novel). Ras'Al Ghul was born, crazy witch said he would "either save humanity or destroy it." He has a gift of healing, and learned many strange, ancient, and even invented ways to heal people. Ras gets married to a wife he loved a bunch. Sultan's son gets sick and hires Ras to heal him, Ras creates a pit of poisons which he thinks will have a net benefit of healing him. Sultans son gets dipped in there, comes out all crazy (which is a side effect of the Lazarus Pit) and kills Ras's wife, which snaps him out of it. Sultan sees this happen but blames Ras cuz he doesn't want to admit his son is all evil. A former patient of Ras breaks him out of jail, and that is about it. (End Spoiler) Click here for more information on Ras'Al Ghul.

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Also I was reading Monte Cook's webpage, where he has his own blog! In there he talks about Batman Begins. Specifically that the plot for Batman Begins would only be a OK plot in the comic. Not bad, not good, just eh. Which stopped and made me think about Batman Begins, because Monte is totally correct. The plot of the movie is a pretty average one when it comes to the comic. It would get some hype because it talked about Bruce's origin a little bit, which the fans all want, but Ras'Al Ghul teaming with the Scarecrow to attempt to destroy Gotham yet again would be a severe case of been there done that. Also if it was the "new" origin story for Batman (replacing "Batman; Year One") the fans would be pissed. No the reason why the movie was good was even though the plot was so-so in comic terms, they got Batman right. Which is something Monte agrees with. Genre fans really respond when they get something right and they treat whatever it is we love with respect. Look at how well the Lord of the Rings, or the Spider-Man movies did. That was because they treated it VERY well by the people crafting them. Sure changes were made, but it was for the sake of good filmmaking, not because of some stupid lame ass idea. Such as the Catwoman movie, which was in development hell for years before, Hallie Berry "saved" it and put that steaming-pile-of-crap on screen. Although honestly I would like to see it for the pure train wreck value.