Holy Dark Side Batman!!!

Recently on You Tube a fan made film popped up which saw Batman take on Darth Vader. It was epic to say the least. There, on the screen in front of me was Batman, flying towards the Death Star in a space modified Batwing, on his way to save Superman from the Empire. It was everything I had dreamed of as a kid. The detail was awesome in this video. The costumes and sets were solid, the actors were top notch and the whole thing was held together with solid sound effects and soundtrack. If you haven’t seen it yet go watch it now:

The premise of this short was really cool. Superman is being held in the Death Star! Instantly my first thought was in what world could Superman be caught by the Empire? What kind of battle occurred between Superman and Vader? How did he take him down? I want to see that movie! If Vader took down Superman how is Batman going to stop him? All of this in the first minute. Batman gets aboard the Death Star pretty easily, but then again A New Hope taught us that security aboard this massive war machine is pretty sad. Han, Chewie, Ben and Luke didn’t get caught after they are brought into the hanger, Batman is going to have no problem here. Batman gets in and hacks the computer and is on his way to get to Superman. It’s here where he is discovered by Vader and the fun begins. Now, hopefully, you have just watched the battle and I don’t need to go into to much detail, but it is epic. When Batman pulls out the lightsaber and starts to battle Vader you can‘t help by but get excited. I had staged battles like this as a kid with my toys and now I was watching it. Batman is able to outsmart Vader almost ever step of the way. This back and forth battle is one you could watch this go on for hours! It just had these characters bring it all to the table and they stay true to what we have seen in the movies and comics.

Then it ended (huge spoiler) and Batman was defeated. The geek in me was outraged. How could Batman have lost? He’s freaking Batman and he would have found a way to win. Then, after a second or two, I collected myself, reminded myself that I am a 40 year old man, and then enjoyed the film again. See that is what is the coolest thing about this movie, and others like it, it is able to take the person watching back and capture those emotions and passions which brings people back to comic books and science fiction works again and again. It fuels our passions and makes us care about characters, who sometimes are more real to us than the people in our lives. Superman, Batman, Darth Vader and the rest matter to us because of what they represent and mean to us. They allow us to see ourselves in them, to project what we want to be and to allow us to escape our lives for a brief instant. In future I will examine this in greater detail and share with you some of the works, stories or even single panels which have had an impact on me as a reader.

There are so many of these fan made films out there and I highly recommend you check out any of the films done by “Superhero beatdowns”. They are really a lot of fun to watch the first time and enjoy again and again. Another of my favourites is the ‘89 Batmobile vs. the ‘66 Batmobile. These fan-made films are pretty solid and do a great job of getting the characters spirit. In the end does it matter that Vader won? Hell yes! He’s freakin’ Batman he would have found a way to win, he always does…but that’s just my opinion.