Characters in Burton/Schumacher Batman Films?

Cafe Society
1

Here’s a question for all the die-hard Batman fans out there…

In the Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher Batman films, which minor characters have also appeared in the comics?

Just to get things rolling, here’s a list of minor characters from the four films (and who played them)…

BATMAN - Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl), Boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance)
RETURNS - Max Shreck (Christpher Walken)
FOREVER - Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman), Sugar & Spice (Drew Barrymore & Debi Mazar)
& ROBIN - Julie Madison (Elle Macpherson)

(Please forgive me for digging up any bad memories. :wink: But, PLEASE, don’t let this thread devolve into a “debate” over the quality of those films.)

Anyhoo…

2

I believe the only characters that appeared in the comics were Sugar and Spice, although they might not have had actual names. I distinctly recall a Batman comic from the '90s where the cover showed Riddler flanked by two sexy henchwomen.

3

When I was a kid, someone gave me a hardbound collection called “Batman from the 30’s to the 70’s”, which I read religiously, and still retain much information from.

Max Shreck was the name of the real-life actor who played Count Orlock in silent film “Nosferatu”. I always assumed that was a scriptwriting fan’s reference to that film.

As for the Robert Wuhl character, I think they stuck him in the film to add a little Perry White/J. Jonah Jameson-style media antagonism into the mix, but I could be wrong.

The comics I read back then didn’t spend a lot of time focusing on women who were Batman’s or Robin’s (or Bruce Wayne’s or Dick Grayson’s) love interests, except for the daughter of the nefarious Rahs Al Ghul, whom batman was obsessed with. I can’t remember her name.

Sugar & Spice I think were invented because the filmmakers wanted to emphasize a dichotomy in “Harvey” Two-Face’s good and bad sides. Two-Face was actually my favorite villain in the comics I had (The TV series had ruined Joker, Riddler and Penguin for me), and I was very disappointed in the film’s treatment of him. In the early comics, they mainly emphasized his obsession with the number two (I recall one panel where his desk had two phones, two pen sets and two lamps, all pairs being duplicated on an identical desk right next to it.) The good/bad dichotomy was relegated to a two-headed coin with one scarred side (just like his face) that he flipped when he needed to make a decision.

I don’t recall a Boss Carl Grissom (been a long time since I saw the film, was he the Joker’s former boss?), but there was a Boss Zucco in the comics who had Dick Grayson’s aerialist parents killed as a threat to a circus owner, spawning him to become Robin.

Before an accident in the chemical vats of a playing card company that altered his appearance (without the film-added touch of plastic surgery, thank you very much), the Joker was a smaller-time crook called the Red Hood, who worked for himself. I was very glad to see the retention of Joker’s grin-inducing poison in the movie, by the way.

Joker didn’t kill Bruce Wayne’s parents, either, it was a crook named Joe Chill.

OK, I’ve just scared myself really badly by remembering all this after 25 years of more or less not giving a shit about comics, so I’m going to curl up in bed and suck my thumb now… :frowning:

4

I read DC comics for years, but Batman was never one of my favorites. However, I’ve never heard of any of those characters in the comics.

5

Actually, Harvey Dent—the future “Two-Face”—has a minor role in the 89 Batman. He’s played by Billy Dee Williams.

6

Talia
And Red Hood was actually a series of small time crooks who wore the hood. Joker was convinced by a couple of guys to wear the hood that fateful night when he fell in the chemical waste.

7

Oh, good, something I know about. No, the original story of the Red Hood was waaay back, and the Joker was actually the original Red Hood. The story you’re referring to was the Alan Moore remake of the original in The Killing Joke. NOT one of his best efforts. Actually, really disappointing crap. But even Homer nods.

8

I had forgotten that. Now I remember thinking in the theater, “Wow! Billy Dee Willimas is going to be Two-Face in a sequel. Cool.”

9

Yes, it was a story from the 1940s or 1950s, where Batman teaches a course in detective work at a college or police academy, and uses the unsolved Red Hood affair as a case study. During the course of the student’s research, the Red Hood suddenly makes a reappearance, and is revealed to be the Joker.

10

Big Bad Voodoo Lou:

I believe the Riddler’s henchwomen were named Quiz and Query.

11

Julie Madison appeared in many of Batman’s earliest adventures. She was Bruce Wayne’s fiancee and – surprise surprise – frequently found herself in dangerous situations that Batman would have to get her out of, such as being menaced by vampires.

–Cliffy

12

Cool! How early are these stories? What about Dr. Chase Meridian (played by Nicole Kidman in BATMAN FOREVER)?

And much thanks to everyone contributing to this thread!

13

Kim Basinger’s character Vicky Vale originated in the comic book. She was introduced sometime around the publication of “Seduction of the Innocents” - the quark sociology book that accused “Batman & Robin” of being masked gay pedophile propaganda. The publishers at DC got nervous, and demanded a female love interest for Bruce Wayne be brought in. She faded away as soon as the anti-comic book hysteria in the 1950s died down.

Also, in “Batman & Robin,” John Glover plays a character called Jason Woodru, the mad scientist responsible for turning Uma Thurman into Poison Ivy. In the DC universe, Jason Woodru actually turned himself into a plant-based supervillain called “Floronic Man.”

14

That’s ‘quack’ sociology, not ‘quark’. (Just ONCE I don’t hit preview…)