Wet blanket ova here: If you go to the original video, the trailer was released on April 1, 2011.

"Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip." - George Orwell

Orwell wrote that when pro-Stalin publishers in Britain (some were friends of his) essentially blacklisted the manuscript of Animal Farm. Unlike his near-arrest by Stalinists in Spain, there was no conspiracy against Orwell. The left-leaning publishers knew it would be a controversial book and rejected it on its face. 

I bring up this anecdote to note in a broad sense why I'm annoyed at the Glenn Beck conspiracy types & to illustrate the almost telepathic collusion in American culture to remain averse to conservative opinion. It's less about logic as it is about groupthink.

The left hates Israel because it abandoned its surrounded strongman image after the Oslo accords. Its previous concessions had been negotiated from a position of strength (camp david happened post Yom Kippur War). After Oslo any concessions were made under the narrative that Israel was giving back stolen land. No one thanks a thief for returning stolen property.

A sign was noticed on the desk of a CIA case officer in Rome:

BIG OPS, BIG PROBLEMS.
SMALL OPS, SMALL PROBLEMS.
NO OPS, NO PROBLEMS.

That's from Thomas Powers Intelligence Wars. I used that quote in paper I wrote on Citigroup's culture of "keep dancing" for my business class. Management was more obsessed with Sach's quarterly reports and performance numbers than figuring out how to make profit. Incidentally, how many intelligence agencies are we up to now?

The 2009 Khost bombing comes to mind. Station chief Matthews was an al qaeda expert who had rarely stepped outside DC and tragically paid for her inexperience with her life. 

Comic book companies were very perceptive of popular opinion, which is how Stan the Man was able to create repeated successful franchises at Marvel, he listened to the 12 year olds opinions on what comic books should be about, which was modern versions of knights, cowboys and GIs. Emulative, positive role models for boys who wanted to be as strong as superman and as smart as Sherlock Holmes. 

Unfortunately, popular opinion no longer counts as both DC & Marvel have been shamed into wasting time and money trying to outdo each other with multiple issue, multiple franchise edgy story arcs that light up message boards, rent seeking PC nonsense, or encouraging writers to come up with "high concept" material that could net them money on the toy or film market. 

If you asked the kid why he liked Johnny Storm, he wouldn't cite Johnny's sexual orientation, ethnicity or abusive backstory as a reason. Pointing out Batman's anti-social patriarchal tendencies does not sell copies. 

I have no problem with adult themes in comics, they've just done a horrible job of it. Now both the 12 & the 22 year olds prefer video games.

Permit me to indulge in one of my crackpot theories about politics and culture. The Hellboy movies are a perfect example of what went wrong with comic books. The first movie was made in 2003, released in 04. It depicts a demon who loves Americana & protects humans from the supernatural. Its a visually attractive positively american story (with christian & lovecraftian overtones) in line with the director's previous work on Blade 2: a comic book hero who hunts the supernatural. 

By the time of Hellboy 2, its 2008. Guillermo Del Toro states in the director's commentary that he decided to make the villain more noble than the hero because of the iraq war and his desire to make an environmentalist statement. He's rent seeking in a comic book film. So glad this dude is off the Hobbit.

All of this excitement over comic book movies is based on 50+ year old franchises because today's writers & editors are too busy getting "critical acclaim" for Spiderman-India. They love to trot out Stan the man for a cameo, but the choice of Rachel Maddow shows where their hearts truly lie: not selling comic books.

As I said in a previous post, I expect Nolan to continue borrowing storylines and themes from Loeb so hopefully Selena Kyle shows up in Rome for the 3rd film. Considering the actress though, Nolan may just skip Rome for Hong Kong. Expect more Blade Runner and James Bond-ish elements.

As for the world of comic books, I checked out years ago. Even then I only followed Fables, Straczynski & Frank Miller. 100 Bullets was disappointing, I never had faith in anything Whedon (Serenity was a black swan) and Powers fizzled out real quick. Its all about high concept and a quick movie option anyway. Quesada's more interested in a Colbert Report cameo than figuring out how to sell product.

But then, I'm not a fan of the Iron Man films either so take my opinion with a galactus sized fist of salt.

While it is an inspiring story, we are living in a world where a hiker who cut his own arm off with a dull knife is GQ's man of the year and gets a multimillion dollar movie deal. Our culture adores the lone hero, or the idea of one. Virgil is dead.

Speaking of hidden nazis, isn't that what Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is about: A nefarious group of men who wish to subjugate society in modern sweden? Turns out it was the anti-feminist nazis all along.

I don't know of one person who's read that book, yet it seems to have sold millions of copies. He might as well have blamed witches. I understand the liberals in sweden aren't above using satanic rhetoric either.

When they were there, the nazis weren't worth the fight. Now that they're gone, tattooed swedish waifs are going to go toe to toe with the teutonic menace.

I forgot to mention Kevin Smith's Red State. That dude is hellbent on making me not watch one of his films for the first time.

Popular culture is now ruled by secular priests writing edgy hosannas so they can be noticed by their gods who will invite them to the right parties at the vomitorium. You can bet the MTV executives who approved Skins are basking in the glory of the negative press they're getting. Underage skin is OK Terrific, just don't mention Muhammad.

Forget the Continent, I propose a North American Grand Tour required for any young american before they enter college. How plebeian of me.

What about conservatives who travel the world as part of missionary work and as members of our armed forces?

I would venture most lefties who travel do it because its part of the status culture. Sure you went to some prestigious college, but better to regale the ladies at the bar with stories of how you spent that semester biking in the outback, rafting in south america or [insert exotic asian country here]

In a world of constantly one-upping each other for female attention, the man with the coolest exotic vacation with an emotional existential experience wins.

On 9/11, terrorists attacked the financial and military symbols of our nation, testaments to American hegemony over the world since WW2.

Nolan rejects the escalation argument because he realizes that society needs a silent guardian in times of peril, not a STOP symbol writ large in the sky. Symbols can be marginalized, they can be destroyed. A nation under siege needs good men willing to do bad things to bad people in the cover of dark.

Acting in our interest is not escalation, but that's how the joker sees it, that's how liberals see it. It is incumbent on the batman to cease his vigilantism, only then will the cycle of violence end. The argument states that the joker's card is the other side of the bat-coin, which it is not. That if only batman would unmask, the joker would leave us alone. If only we wouldn't try to defend ourselves, the terrorists would leave us alone.

Don't start now. Comic books have abandoned the ideas that made them popular in favor of edgy material. Because like, gay feminist characters written by joss whedon are hella kewl.

Dent's liberalism is the crux of the film. He starts out tough on crime, but he lacks the strength to endure and falls into the joker's trap. Dent is the white knight, but the city needs more than a pretty face that gives them hope. Dent and Bruce seek the same ideal, a better society. Batman is willing to venture outside the city walls to fight for that ideal, no matter the cost. When his ideal causes him real damage, Dent turns on the people (Gordon and his family).

This is classic liberalism, blaming society for its failure to incite a revolution against the old order (the mob). Brecht would rewrite his characters to make them loathsome when he realized the West German audience was actually identifying with them. Hitler blamed the inadequacy of the german people for his failure as a leader.

Catwoman was a given for the third film. Based on his ouevre & love of James Bond films (bond always gets the girl), Nolan knows that a story about heroism that appeals to men requires a love interest, more so than the technological fetishism of the bond films. Nolan's Batman is more like Superman in that way, moving away from the cultural meme of the clint eastwood, post-Bond lone hero.

Since the first two films used Jeph Loeb's Batman comics as a springing point, I expect the next film to have a scene with Catwoman in Rome.

Dent and the populace at large represent the liberal political order. Dent is hurt by the joker most of all and yet he falls for the joker's lies about the old canard that those who are fighting our enemies are just another side of the coin and any violence perpetrated on us is justified.The theme of escalation is prevalent throughout TDK and was mentioned at the end of Batman Begins. That superheroes & vigilantes are inherently detrimental to society because the emergence of a superhero requires a supervillain. Nolan takes it a step farther introducing the prisoner's dilemma by showing that people make the right choice eventually. In a movie about a hero, its not the hero who makes the right choice (batman played the joker's game and lost rachel) its the people who make the right choice. Ultimately, Nolan recognizes the risks of fighting evil but rejects the escalation argument by the film's end.

My favorite topic.

TDK was also about not taking taking our enemies at their word. The joker has multiple explanations for why he got his scars, but the larger point is that when he's telling you the story he's getting ready to kill you. Batman is the only one who doesnt' care to listen.

In Inception, Nolan points out that the most resilient virus is an idea. It's what makes otherwise normal, well behaved engineers fly planes into towers. He's possibly the most imaginative and relevant director to come out of Hollywood in decades. Even in a heist film, he's telling us something about our modern day troubles.