McFarlane 7" Batman 89 + Bill Dee Two-Face + Dark Knight Returns

[Dan2Dan]

I was shocked to find a red platinum McFarlane 'Billy Dee Williams as Two-Face' figure at my local Walmart a few days ago. I can't remember the last time I bought a figure in-store there. Not sure if they don't stock many, or if they sell out quickly, but I never see much.

Background. I went to see Tim Burton's Batman movie on its opening weekend back in 1989, still a teenager (barely). I came out less excited than I went in. I was a huge, huge fan of Frank Miller's 1986 Dark Knight Returns, and didn't really love how elements of that story were adapted into the film, and really didn't like Jack Nicholson's Joker. But I was looking forward to (presumably) seeing Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent as Two-Face in the sequel. So Batman Returns was a bit of a disappointment for me as well. I re-watched both films maybe twice on TV over the subsequent 35+ years and left it at that.

Excited Random Purchases. So I kind of surprised myself when, in a flush of unexpected excitement, I bought that Two-Face figure, and then, when I got home, ordered the new Batman 89 Page Punchers version (with wired cape and purple lining), and then also ordered the new McFarlane Batman Dark Knight Returns re-issue (with wired cape). And then, in a Dollar Tree yesterday, I saw a random miniature disco ball and bought that as well.

I'm not much of a photographer (of anything). Nor am I much of a diorama builder. But when these two McFarlane Batman figures are delivered, I'll put all of the above together in some way and post a photo here....

[Dannyc]

Could be wrong but, I think Killing Joke is the story that has parallels with the '89 movie. I think anything DKR-related that the fimmakers wanted to adapt was more along the lines of it being a serious more adult-oriented version of the character.

[Dan2Dan]

Could be wrong but, I think Killing Joke is the story that has parallels with the '89 movie. I think anything DKR-related that the fimmakers wanted to adapt was more along the lines of it being a serious more adult-oriented version of the character.

Yeah, with the benefit of all of these years of hindsight, it's clearer to me now that many of the elements of Dark Knight Returns, which were new to me as a teenager in 1986, were actually recurring characters and themes from decades of Batman comic books. So to me, when I saw the film in the cinema in 1989, still just 18 years old, having read several magazine and newspaper interviews with Sam Hamm where he cited Dark Knight Returns as an influence on the movie script, I was personally inclined to see the 'Joker fills parade baloons with smile gas' plot point in the film, followed by the final confrontation between Batman and the Joker where the Joker dies, as "obviously" having come from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns (only, in my teenaged mind, the movie version wasn't as good as the comic book and Jack Nicholson's Joker was a lot more Caesar Romero-like than the menacing, psychotic Joker in DKR). But with the benefit of 35+ years of hindsight, and several later interviews with Sam Hamm over the years where he's specifically mentioned a particular 1970s-era issue of the Batman comic book (as well as DKR and Killing Joke and others), it's a lot more "obvious" to me now that the influences were more varied and numerous and non-specific than I'd assumed coming out of the cinema in '89.

But for me personally, the two will always be inexorably linked....

[Dan2Dan]

The Batman 89 Page Punchers (with purple interior cape) arrived this afternoon. I'll pull it out of the packaging in the next few days and take a photo.

In the meantime, here's a photo I took this past weekend of that Billy Dee Two-Face figure, along with the new Batman Dark Knight Returns (in blue with wired cape)and a special guest star..... the McFarlane Keaton Batman from the recent Flash film. (The black dog is a Baccarat crystal retriever that my wife, a dog lover, bought 20 years ago and put on our living room bookshelf. I decided to leave it in the photo.....)

I'd forgotten that I'd bought this 'old man'/multiverse/Flash movie Keaton McFarlane figure.

My wife and I went with another couple to see the Flash movie in the cinema, because the wife of the other couple has, for many years, loved the Flash (from the CW TV show originally). And she knew I liked comic books and superheroes. And COVID restrictions were only recently lifted at the time, etc....So we all went to see the film. We met up for 'happy hour' beforehand, and then, in the cinema, you could order drinks and food to your seat. So I ended up having, like, 6 cocktails over 4 hours. When I eventually got home, I was so 'buzzed enthused' that I ordered this McFarlane Flash figure online. By the time it arrived, the moment had passed, and I put it in a storage box. Well, here it is! (The non-wired cape really was/is a bummer. )

[Dan2Dan]

Ok. Here's two photos. One is of the new Batman 89 (wth purple cape lining) and the new Dark Knight Returns confronting Billy Dee Two-Face. The other juxtaposes the Keaton Batman figure from The Flash movie with this current Batman 89 figure. I like the new body better, but the wired cape makes all the difference. So much better!

Also in both photos is a yellow promotional button for the (then upcoming) Batman movie. I got this as a teenager at San Diego Comic Con in, I believe, 1987. In those days, the convention was much smaller and it was held in San Diego's old convention hall with little local fanfare (let alone national). I was just wandering around and saw an old man in a cardigan sweater standing behind a table with, like, 20 of these buttons laid out. I walked over, hoping they were free, without even knowing what they were. He cheerfully told me they were free, and that a new Batman movie would be coming in a couple of years. There was no fanfare. No lines. No hype whatsoever for this film. So I ended up striking up a conversation with this old man, and he quite quickly revealed himself to be Bob Kane by telling me, as an aside, that he drew the Batman on the button (which was signed prominently Bob Kane).....