Novel Full Chapter 61 - What's Next?
Chapter 61: What’s Next?
As Qiu Ren said, even though several movie theaters in New York had arranged screenings for Batman, there were very few of them.
Herring and Maine drove half a block to a movie theater and were just in time for the release of “Batman Begins.”
After Herring bought the ticket and rushed into the movie theater, she gradually calmed down and realized… something unusual.
The United States was undoubtedly the territory of Supernova Pictures. Although there were many powerful dream media corporations in the United States, they were all allies of Supernova Pictures.
It was almost impossible for the superhero movie based on Dark Side to enter the American cinemas.
After all, if Supernova Pictures wanted the Celestial Empire to return Dark Side to them, they would certainly ban the new production of Dark Side.
They could reduce the popularity of Dark Side and worsen its contamination, finally turning it into a knotty Nightmare Seed. After that, the Celestial Empire would have to return it, even if they didn’t want to.
However, Supernova Pictures permitted Dark Side’s new production to be screened in American cinemas. There was only one possibility: Supernova Pictures believed Dark Side’s new production couldn’t pose any threat to them.
This was a kind of ridicule, a kind of sarcasm.
Meanwhile, Herring was sitting in the movie theater, waiting for this new production, Batman Begins, which Supernova Pictures despised and thought it wasn’t necessary to ban, to start with an uneasy feeling.
Just like all the productions about the origin of superheroes, Batman Begins also started from the time when Batman was a child.
When Bruce Wayne was small, he accidentally fell into a deep well full of bats. After being surrounded by the frightened bats, he was severely traumatized and developed Chiroptophobia.
Then, he witnessed his parents being shot by an evildoer. The event filled his heart with anger towards the murderer and self-blame for his own weakness.
What was next? It should be time for his superpower to be awakened, right?
Herring was fully focused on the story. The quality of the entire movie was comparable to that of the large productions filmed by Supernova Pictures with all the resources they had. So, Batman Begins was definitely a masterpiece in film production. After all, Dark Side was a Level S Dream Seed, no matter what.
But the most important thing was, what was Batman’s superpower?
Herring watched the male protagonist practice with the followers of the East, the League of Shadows, far away. There were several times she thought the protagonist was about to awaken his superpower.
Did he have control of the bat’s ultrasonic waves, or did he have other superpowers?
But no… No superpowers were awakened. Eventually, the protagonist, Bruce Wayne, started the first fight in the entire movie. He disagreed with the idea of the League of Shadows that the wicked should be killed directly.
The fight was pretty exciting. However, he never showed any extraordinary powers from the beginning to the end. The biggest gain of this journey was that the protagonist overcame his fear and turned it into his power.
But the part in superhero movies that the audiences looked forward to the most—the scene where the hero got his superpower—didn’t appear.
After returning to Gotham City, Bruce Wayne started planning and preparing his superhero suit and equipment. Herring assumed Batman was a superhero that used dark technology.
That would be quite nice! After Bruce Wayne put on the suit and became Batman, Herring found this entire look very handsome!
Still… Herring felt like something was missing. This suit didn’t seem to have any impressive functions. It couldn’t fly or change its shape. It also didn’t have things like built-in micro missiles or repulsors in the gauntlets.
It seemed that the only use of this suit… was to turn Bruce Wayne, a billionaire on the outside, into Batman, the guardian of Gotham City.
And yet, even if he put on the Batman suit, he was still a mortal, a mortal who could be injured by a bullet and be affected by poisonous gas.
But it was this mortal hero who took on the responsibility to protect Gotham City.
Herring finished the entire movie without a lapse in concentration. She didn’t think about why Batman didn’t have superpowers anymore in the end.
The process of Bruce Wayne overcoming his fear and finally merging with it to become Batman was way more real and profound than those superheroes flying in the sky like Gods that Supernova Pictures created.
However, Herring felt like her anticipation wasn’t fully satisfied. She just thought something was missing.
She was indeed a little disappointed because Batman didn’t have any impressive superpowers or dark technology. This feeling arose when she looked at the movie as an intruder.
It was a Level S Dream Seed like the others, but Batman, who didn’t have superpowers, made Herring feel like he would definitely be at a disadvantage when he confronted the other superheroes in the future.
As a movie viewer and a fan, though, Herring thought that Batman Begins was a pretty good movie. But it was just that—pretty good.
If there were enough screenings, its performance at the box office would definitely not be bad. Still, it was asking too much to compete with Supernova Pictures in terms of popularity. At least Batman Begins couldn’t make Herring imagine a bright future where Batman was a big hit around the world.
When Batman Begins reached the end, Herring finally realized… Where was the character Joker? She never saw Joker in the entire movie.
But soon, a coda at the end responded to Herring’s doubts…
Batman’s most trusted friend and partner, Commissioner James Gordon, gave Batman a card representing the Joker, heralding the appearance of a new villain.
Joker is finally here! Her long-lost sense of anticipation was fulfilled this time. She believed that the character, Batman, had a lot of potential and that there would be more wonderful stories in the future!
And then… it ended. After Batman said “I’ll look into it,” the credits rolled out, marking the end of the movie.
Fuck!
Herring almost took out the pistol she carried with her to destroy the credits appearing on the screen. She wished to force the projectionist to show her what was next immediately.
“We’ve already sat here for two hours. Did you expect this movie to be four hours long? But the new image of that guy, Dark Side, is pretty nice. I just don’t know what his new Dream Maker was thinking. That’s a character made with a Level S Dream Seed, but he’s a mortal that has no superpowers at all,” Maine said.
Herring didn’t bother to argue with her comrade. She thought one of the charms of Batman was that he confronted the criminals in Gotham City and the corrupt bureaucracy as a mortal.
The problem was, what about the Joker? She had been looking forward to seeing him in action, but that was it?
While Herring was feeling a little disappointed, a weird laugh suddenly resounded in the entire movie theater.
Next, a shaky shot appeared on the screen. It wasn’t filmed with a professional camera. Instead, someone was holding a handheld camera to film himself.
That person was the Joker. While pointing the handheld camera at himself, he seemed to be gazing at the audience through the screen. He said something very simple…
Let me tell you a joke…
This confusing character and scene soon ended. The movie theater was reverberating with the evil and unpleasant laugh.
After that, the premiere date and venue for the next movie, “The Dark Knight,” appeared on the screen. It happened to be in Europe… and the release date was the same as that of “The Flash 2!”
“I want to know all the details of your looting plan for Europe. Arrange the flight to Europe for me in advance,” Herring lowered her voice and said.
“Yes, Captain.”
Maine felt like the vicious Captain of Team T was finally back. However, rather than participating in the operation of looting Dream Seeds, she was more likely going to kill the producers of Batman behind the scenes.