Batman Begins Batman Begins Tie-In Novels

[Binker]

I was going to Wikipedia just to see if there was anything there that was new. I decided to check the Batman Storylines section and I caught three titles I was not familar with:

Dead White
Inferno
& Fear Itself

Checking them, I found out something I never knew: these were novels tying in to Batman Begins. I never knew that, nor was it ever on our Batman news on the internet. Dead White came out in July, Inferno on Halloween, and Fear Itself is set for a February 2007 release.

For you guys, here are what these books are all about:

Dead White Back cover description:

Who better than Batman to protect the dangerous city of Gotham, where even the cops are crooks? But the latest imminent terror might be too much for the burgeoning Caped Crusader, who is still carving out a place for himself in the minds of Gotham’s criminals.

There’s a host of deadly new weapons in Batman’s glittering, sinister city–in the hands of a psychotic mastermind called White Eyes. With his radical murder machine, the fiendish leader of Gotham’s racist Bavarian Brotherhood can move beyond dealing drugs and hot guns to pursue his real passion: the white supremacist takeover of America.

The homegrown terrorists’ first strike–at the heart of our nation’s capitol–is only weeks away. But first they’ll test out their killer toys on Batman, who is hot on the trail of White Eyes and his brutal militia. Ounce for ounce, muscle for muscle, Batman’s no match for the cunning villain and his wicked new firepower. At least, that’s how White Eyes sees it.

Batman has other ideas...

NOTE: This novel takes place four months after Batman Begins.

Inferno cover description:

Gotham’s never been so scorching, the Joker’s never been more despicable, and Batman’s never been in such grave danger.

With more than thirty fires raging out of control across the city, Gotham is indeed a hell on earth. But torching the population is small potatoes for the arsonist extraordinaire known as Enfer. The pyromaniac’s mad masterpiece is Arkham Asylum, blazing like a Roman candle and engineered to provide the perfect escape for Arkham’s most infamous inmate, the Joker. But the dire situation goes from bad to beyond monstrous when the archvillain’s path to freedom leads directly to the Dark Knight’s cave.

The Joker believes in striking while the iron is hot ... and now it’s never been hotter. After all, the diabolical villain has devised the ultimate joke: launch the mother of all crime waves, masquerading as the Caped Crusader himself! With Gotham erupting in flames and its #1 crime fighter fast becoming its #1 enemy, the burning question is: Who’s going to get the last laugh?

NOTE: The novel is set approximately two years after the events of the film Batman Begins. Additionally, this novel appears to be set after the events of the upcoming sequel, The Dark Knight, as Vicki Vale, a columnist for the Gotham Gazette in the novel, remarks that "Hearing that Two-Face or the Joker is definitely off the streets will let us all sleep better at night," in reference to the arson that destroys Arkham Asylum and frees several notorious prisoners.

For any of you who have seen The Batman animated series, the idea of Joker pretending to be Batman is similar but in the book

Spoiler

the Joker steals the actual Batsuit, a number of gadgets and tools, and the Tumbler/Batmobile so he can frame Batman

.

Fear Itself:

Not much is known of this book. What is known is that Batman will fight the Scarecrow. The book will be released on February 27th, 2007.

Already I'm interested in reading these books. Did anyone know these were out and have read them? If so, how were they?

 

[zer00]

Never heard of these. Sound interesting

 

[dude stannis]

Interesting. Really interesting.

 

[TwilightPro101]

I've seen them but I don't truly see how they fit into the movie's continuity.

 

[Binker]

There is a discussion on continuity of the novels from Batman Begins and the upcoming The Dark Knight. On one hand: while I can't speak for TDK nor the third film since we don't anything beyond what was announced, I think of these as alternate follow ups to the film that references not just BB but other things that are also what may happen in the film sequels. An example of this is the recent Spider-Man Animated series (3D series I should say) where it follows an alternate road from the first film and couldn't be part of the second or third films. Another example, that invovles a book, is the Star Wars book called: Splinter of the Mind's Eye which was an alternate sequel to A New Hope if that film proved unsuccessful.

But you never know if these books' authors have had contact with Nolan and this books might be, could be, connected into the movies. But that's 50/50.

 

[I Am The Knight]

Never heard of this novels. And probably for good reason.

 

[TwilightPro101]

Valid enough - 50/50.

 

[Miranda Fox]

I decided to read Batman: Inferno after finding an online review which praised it.

It's actually pretty damn good. The continuity is only very loosely tied in with BB (Doctor Crane is still running Arkham, for example) but it's definitely the Nolanverse.

What really caught my attention was some of the info about the Joker - if any of Irvine's ideas make it in to TDK I will be VERY happy. However, seeing as how neither of the Nolans are acknowledged anywhere I doubt the author was given any inside knowledge about the future film plotlines, which is kind of a shame really.

Haven't quite finished the novel yet but I'd actually recommend it. My only complaint is the first person tense used, as it's a little hard to get used to at first.

My two pennies.