Welcome to the five hundredth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous four hundred and ninety-nine. This week, in honor of the five hundredth edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed, you'll get a TRIPLE-sized column this week, in three parts (today, tomorrow and Sunday). The special theme this week is comic book anniversaries, as each part will spotlight a different superhero celebrating an anniversary this year. Friday was Wolverine, yesterday was Daredevil and today is Batman. Today, did we almost have a homeless Bruce Wayne in a Batman movie? What company sued Warner Bros. over Dark Knight Rises and what was their surprising reason for suing? Finally, what famous comic book writer was the model for Batman in Arkham Asylum?

Let's begin!

NOTE: The column is on three pages, a page for each legend. There's a little "next" button on the top of the page and the bottom of the page to take you to the next page (and you can navigate between each page by just clicking on the little 1, 2 and 3 on the top and the bottom, as well).

COMIC LEGEND: Frank Miller wrote a script for a Batman Year One film where Bruce Wayne is a cab driver.

STATUS: Specifically False but Roughly True

One of Frank Miller's most acclaimed works is his origin story for Batman (with artist David Mazzacchelli), Batman: Year One (which also served to work as an origin series, of sorts, for Commissioner Gordon, as well - Miller's take on Gordon would inform the character in the decades since).



The story of Batman: Year One was roughly brought to the screen in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, the start of Nolan's Batman trilogy.



But that was not the first time that Year One was nearly translated to the big screen, and the first time, Frank Miller was involved!

Reader David wrote in to ask:

Did Frank Miller really pen a Batman script that portrayed him as a taxi driver?

The answer is no, but I think David's confusion comes from the fact that while Bruce Wayne is not a taxi driver in the film, he is very similar to Travis Bickle from the FILM Taxi Driver...



You see, in Miller's script (written in concert with director Darren Aronofsky, who would have directed the film), after the murder of his parents, Bruce Wayne disappears and is basically homeless for years. He gets taken in by an auto-mechanic named Big Al (his son, Little Al, becomes Bruce's mentor and boss). Bruce is a bit of an electronics wizard, so he works for Al and he also eventually decides to become a vigilante. His approach is more similar to the creepy Travis Bickle manner of being a vigilante. After some failures as a "regular" vigilante, Al decides to give Bruce one of the only things he had on him when he was found by Big Al - a ring Bruce's father wore, with a T and a W intersected. This "inheritance" inspires Bruce and he becomes a successful vigilante (including using his technological knowhow to make devices to aid him in fighting crime) and soon, the mark of him punching people on their faces (the T and the W) soon begins to look like a bat to people and he is referred to as "the Batman." He takes that idea on and begins to dress like Batman.

Selina Kyle and Jim Gordon are both major presences in the film, as well.

In the end, Bruce inherits his family fortune (just within the nick of time) and he is now set up as the traditional Batman.

All in all, while it was definitely an audacious idea, it didn't necessarily sound like a BAD idea for a movie. Ultimately, though, it was too dark and too uncommercial.

Aronofsky discussed Warners dropping their approach:

I think Warners always knew it would never be something they could make. I think rightfully so, because four year-olds buy Batman stuff, so if you release a film like that, every four year-old’s going to be screaming at their mother to take them to see it, so they really need a PG property. But there was a hope at one point that, in the same way that DC Comics puts out different types of Batman titles for different ages, there might be a way of doing [the movies] at different levels. So I was pitching to make an R-rated adult fan-based Batman — a hardcore version that we’d do for not that much money

Here is Miller's script.

Here is some concept art for the film...









Thanks to David for the question!

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Check out my latest Movie Legends Revealed at Spinoff Online: What teenage son of a movie director got the chance to write "the stupidest song ever" for one of his father's movies, only to see the song to go on to make the teen millions?

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On the next page, what company sued Warner Bros. over The Dark Knight Rises?

COMIC LEGEND: A company sued Warners because The Dark Knight Rises used the name of their property as a fictional item.

STATUS: True

One of the MacGuffins in The Dark Knight Rises is the "Clean Slate" software that Selina Kyle wants to get a hold of to wipe herself off the face of the Earth, electronically.



Well, as it turns out, there was a company that had a problem with that aspect of the hit film. From the Seventh Circuit, Fortres Grand Corp. v. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc....

Fortres Grand develops and sells a security software program known as “Clean Slate.” It also holds a federally registered trademark for use of that name to identify the source of “[c]omputer software used to protect public access computers by scouring the computer drive back to its original configuration upon reboot.”



As the description in the trademark registrations suggests, the program wipes away any user changes to a shared computer (wiping the slate clean, so to speak). It is the kind of program that might be used at schools, libraries, hotels, etc., to keep public computers functioning properly and free of private data. Because a desktop management program is security software, its single most important characteristic is its trustworthiness. Fortres Grand had been able to establish its Clean Slate software in the marketplace as a trustworthy program.

In July 2012, Warner Bros. released The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final installment in a film depiction of the comicbook hero Batman. The film was an immense commercial success. In the film, Batman and his allies battle a shadowy organization hell-bent on the destruction of Gotham City, Batman’s home town. One of Batman’s allies, the antihero Selina Kyle (Catwoman), begins the story as an unwitting pawn of the shadowy organization. In exchange for her unique services as a cat burglar, the organization agrees to give her a software program known as “the clean slate,” which was developed by “Rykin Data Corporation” and enables an individual to erase all traces of her criminal past from every database on earth so that she may lead a normal life (that is, to wipe her slate clean)….

Additionally, as part of the marketing of the movie, two websites were created purporting to be affiliated with the fictional Rykin Data Corporation. The websites contained descriptions of the clean slate hacking tool and its operation and an image of a fictional patent. Nothing was available for purchase or download from the websites — they were purely an informational extension of the fictional Gotham City universe.

After the film was released, Fortres Grand noticed a significant decline in sales of its Clean Slate software. It believes that this decline in sales was due to potential customers mistakenly believing that its Clean Slate software is illicit or phony on account of Warner Bros.’ use of the name “the clean slate” in The Dark Knight Rises. Accordingly, Fortres Grand filed suit alleging that Warner Bros.’ use of the words “clean slate” in reference to the software in its movie infringed Fortres Grand’s trademark … The district court concluded that Fortres Grand had not alleged a plausible theory of consumer confusion, upon which all of its claims depend, and that Warner Bros.’ use of the words “the clean slate” was protected by the First Amendment. Fortres Grand appeals.

The Seventh Circuit held for Warner Bros., as they determined that there was no way that anyone would be confused as to whether Warner Bros. was behind Fortres Grand's product.

Thanks to my buddy Loren for suggesting this one!

On the next page, what famous comic book writer was the model for Batman in Arkham Asylum?

COMIC LEGEND: Neil Gaiman was Dave McKean's model for Batman in Batman: Arkham Asylum

STATUS: True

Batman was put through the ringer in Grant Morrison and Dave Mckean's classic graphic novel, Arkham Asylum...









Interestingly enough, someone ELSE put through the ringer was McKean's model...Neil Gaiman!!!

Gaiman (who, by 1989, had worked extensively with McKean both on Black Orchid and Sandman) discussed it on Twitter a few years back...

In "Arkham Asylum" graphic novel I was Dave's Batman model. Writhing around with broomsticks, grimacing etc.

Thanks to my pal Travis Pelkie for suggesting this one!

Okay, that's it for #500!

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com. And my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, so you can ask me legends there, as well!

Here's my newest book, Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? The cover is by Kevin Hopgood (the fellow who designed War Machine's armor).

If you want to order a copy, ordering it here

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Also, be sure to check out my website, Urban Legends Revealed, where I look into urban legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can find here, at urbanlegendsrevealed.com.

Here's my book of Comic Book Legends (130 legends - half of them are re-worked classic legends I've featured on the blog and half of them are legends never published on the blog!).

The cover is by artist Mickey Duzyj. He did a great job on it...(click to enlarge)...



If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you all next week!