Why John Blake?

Started by SamZED1 pages
SamZED Senior Member

Why John Blake?

I remember Nolan saying in an interview that he'd never introduce a Robin in the movies, then he comes up with Robin "John" Blake whose origin is somewhat similar to Dick's. I loved the movie but would it kill Nolan to introduce Dick Grayson instead? Have him be a guy who grew up in an orphanage and eventually became a police officer. And have him find the bat cave at the end of the movie. Why come up with a new guy? I know I would've loved to see Grayson in the movie even with a slightly changed origin (not like other characters' origin stories are 100% true to the comics). So why not do that instead? The guy who played Blake would've made a nice Grayson too.

StiltmanFTW CBvF

Naming him Grayson would spoil the ending, there would be no element of surprise.

steverules_2 Senior Member

Wasn't much of a surprise, I could tell it was where they were heading...guess it was a surprise for some I don't know

Myth Give me your babies!!!

^ I could tell where it was heading too, but a majority of people did not. Also, for many people if he went by a previously known name for Robin, it may have set up the expectation that we would actually see him in action AS Robin, and not met those expectations.

Esau Cairn Contagious
Originally posted by StiltmanFTW
Naming him Grayson would spoil the ending, there would be no element of surprise.

Element of cheesiness more like. I remember majority of the audience laughed at the notion that "Robin" was actually his real name.

And the notion of an adult cop dressing up as Robin (Not NightWing or Batman II) ruined John Blake's integrity.

Myth Give me your babies!!!

I know a guy named Robin.

SamZED Senior Member

Originally posted by StiltmanFTW
Naming him Grayson would spoil the ending, there would be no element of surprise.
Not much of a spoiler imo. People who read comicbooks would only get upset because there's no Grayson. And those who dont read comicbook (vast majority) wouldnt know who Dick Grayson is.

Bat Dude In God I Trust
Originally posted by SamZED
And those who dont read comicbook (vast majority) wouldnt know who Dick Grayson is.

Not true. Anyone that knows anything about Batman (whether they read comics or not) knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman and Dick Grayson is Robin.

If anything, they would have been confused as to why he was an adult cop and not a kid acrobat.

Kazenji Onyx Prime
Originally posted by Bat Dude
Not true. Anyone that knows anything about Batman (whether they read comics or not) knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman and Dick Grayson is Robin.

After all they used Dick Grayson in the 60's tv show.

SamZED Senior Member

Im talking about world-wide audience, not just US. Ask every one of them "Do you know who Dick Grayson is?" probably over 90% would ask "Who?". That is excluding people who read comicbooks ofcourse. Which is a small minority of the audience anyway. Again, talking world-wide.

Kazenji Onyx Prime
Originally posted by SamZED
Im talking about world-wide audience, not just US. Ask every one of them "Do you know who Dick Grayson is?" probably over 90% would ask "Who?". That is excluding people who read comicbooks ofcourse. Which is a small minority of the audience anyway. Again, talking world-wide.

Pretty sure other people did watch that 60's show besides 'US' 😐

SamZED Senior Member

Originally posted by Kazenji
Pretty sure other people did watch that 60's show besides 'US' 😐
Some have. Adds like 1% at best. Even less so if counting the ones who watched it and cared enough to remember Dick's name.

StiltmanFTW CBvF
Originally posted by SamZED
Not much of a spoiler imo. People who read comicbooks would only get upset because there's no Grayson. And those who dont read comicbook (vast majority) wouldnt know who Dick Grayson is.

Oh, they would find out in no time... "Dick Grayson" would be listed in the credits and comic fans/movie magazines/interviews/internet/etc. would quickly spread all info.

Esau Cairn Contagious
Originally posted by SamZED
Im talking about world-wide audience, not just US. Ask every one of them "Do you know who Dick Grayson is?" probably over 90% would ask "Who?". That is excluding people who read comicbooks ofcourse. Which is a small minority of the audience anyway. Again, talking world-wide.

So who made you Ambassador of the world-wide audience?
I mean I don't recall you asking me or anyone else I know whether we knew who "Robin" was?

But yeah go ahead, make generalised statements.

SamZED Senior Member

Originally posted by Esau Cairn
So who made you Ambassador of the world-wide audience?
I mean I don't recall you asking me or anyone else I know whether we knew who "Robin" was?

But yeah go ahead, make generalised statements.

Riiiight... Because asking the question on a COMICBOOK forum is the way to go if you need a balanced result. General statement is just that, a general statement, I never implied I asked every person on the planet so you can stop being a jerk now. But I don't need to ask everyone in order to make a safe assumption that the majority don't know who Dick Grayson is. Is the case with everyone i know. Im talking people from different countries. And why would they? Comicbooks are mostly popular in english speaking countries and the movie is translated into dozen languages. Some people still remember there was a Robin in an old Batman cartoon but thats pretty much the only source material they had growing up. So unless you think that the majority of people who go to the movies read comicbooks i dont see what surprises you.

U Neek Mr

Hi, UK resident posting here in peace.

I just asked my missus if she knows who Batman is. She replied "Bruce Wayne". I then asked if she knows who Robin is. She replied saying "No".

But in TDKR my missus deduced early on in the film that the Blake blokey was "Robin"...

SamZED Senior Member

My point exactly. It wouldnt have been much of a spoiler either way. Your missus pretty much represents an average viewer.

StiltmanFTW CBvF

You're really underrating mass media here. Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt would be listed as playing "Dick Grayson" in the credits months/>year before the movie release, revealing in no time who Grayson was in comic books.

Anyway, TDK > TDKR 😛 Hated the way Bane died.

Ridley_Prime Smug icon slayer

IMO, TKDR is more or less on TDK's level. Yeah, there's the complaints of how Bane died so quickly, but I wasn't exactly fond of how Two-Face died so abruptly either.

U Neek Mr
Originally posted by SamZED
My point exactly. It wouldnt have been much of a spoiler either way. Your missus pretty much represents an average viewer.

You're possibly right there. If I wasn't into Batman we probs wouldn't have gone to watch the movies, and if we did then I would say that it would be due to getting caught up in the hype of "Oh wow, you just gotta see this new Batman movie they made".