The latest installment in the Tim BurtonBatmanuniverse makes one of its darkest death scenes even darker. John Jackson Miller’s 2024 novelBatman: Resurrectionis set between the events of 1989’sBatmanand 1992’sBatman Returns, revealing the aftermath of the former and introducing classicBatmancomic characters to the BurtonBatmantimeline. The novel also usesretcons to explain some of the 1989 film’s potentially confusing momentsand retroactively add at least one major character to the movie.
One of the most entertaining elements ofResurrectionis its inclusion ofcharacters previously exclusive to one of the two BurtonBatmanfilms. Readers learn thata pre-Catwoman Selina Kyle met the Joker during the timeframe of 1989’sBatmanand that the Penguin respected the audacity of the Joker’s mass poisoning of Gotham City (despite the Red Triangle Gang’s irritation at another crime organization using the clown gimmick).Resurrectionalso reveals some fascinating connections between Returns villain Max Shreck and the gangsters of 1989’sBatman.
Batman Returns' Max Shreck Was Terrified Of Dying The Same Way He Did
Max Shreck’s Comments On Antoine Rotelli’s Death Are Darkly Ironic
When Max Shreck meets “the Joker” (actually a disguised Clayface) he refuses to shake his hand. He recalls stories of how the Joker murdered the Gotham mobster Antoine Rotelli with his lethal electric joy buzzer: “He’d heard about what had happened to Rotelli; The Joker had burned him like a brisket. He couldn’t imagine a more terrible way to die.” Of course, readers will surely remember thatMax Shreck ends up dying extremely similarly inBatman Returns, with Catwoman electrocuting him using both a stun gun and the cables of a generator, reducing Shreck to a gruesomely charred skeleton, just like Rotelli.
Batman: Resurrectionincludes direct connections to theBatman ‘89comics.
How Did Batman Returns’ Max Shreck Know Batman’s Antoine Rotelli?
Resurrectionmakes Shreck’s death even darker by revealing his connections to Gotham’s mobsters from 1989’sBatman. The novel reveals that Max Shreck was influential and feared enough that even Carl Grissom – Gotham’s most powerful crime lord – avoided conflicts with him, yet Shreck similarly avoided Grissom. AlthoughMax Shreck would work with smaller-time crime bosses like Antoine Rotelli and Vinnie Ricorso, his aversion to Grissom’s organization was specifically due to his fear of Jack Napier, who Shreck saw as a wild card well before Napier’s transformation into the Joker.
Batman 1989 Retcon Secretly Gave A Classic DC Villain Secretly His Live-Action Debut
Batman: Resurrection retroactively adds one classic Batman villain to the 1989 film and makes him a new threat to Gotham before Batman Returns.
Max Shreck was right to fear Jack Napier, of course, sinceNapier would murder Carl Grissom, Antoine Rotelli, and Vinnie Ricorso after becoming the Joker. If Shreck had been an associate of Grissom’s by the time Jack Napier became the Joker, he might have also been murdered, as the Joker tightened his grip on Gotham’s underworld by murdering the other crime bosses. Even having survived the Joker’s reign of terror in 1989’sBatman, Shreck would eventually suffer a similarly ghastly fate to Antoine Rotelli, as foreshadowed inResurrection.
Batman
Cast
Batman is a 1989 superhero movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne. The film features Jack Nicholson’s chilling portrayal as Jack Napier, who turns into the Joker and reigns terror on Gotham. Kim Basinger also stars in the film as Vicki Vale, along with Michael Gough as Bruce’s trusty butler named Alfred.
Batman Returns
Batman Returns sees the return of Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne after his victory over the Joker. This time, the Dark Knight faces a new threat in the form of The Penguin, an outcast who wants revenge on Gotham City. Featuring Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot, Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, and Christopher Walken as Max Schreck, Batman Returns is Tim Burton’s second and final movie based on the iconic DC comics character.
