When I sat down to watch “Batman Returns” in 1992, even though I was only 11 years old, it puzzled me that Kim Basinger was not in the film. By then I'll have seen “Batman” (1989) a hundred times – thanks to a well-worn VHS copy with that shocking Diet Coke commercial, and “as many theater viewings as I can muster between viewings of Indiana Jones and “Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade” – and Vicki Vale needs to return. I know that. She should have at least been sent or mentioned somewhere, right?
Well, she was definitely mentioned. in passing. In short. It's easy to miss if you're not listening.
I felt like we missed something important and important part of the first film. Jumping into the terrain of the “Batman Returns” story following “Batman,” we felt like we were missing some of the comic book interlude between them. It felt acceptable enough for movies adapted from comics, especially when there were so few of them at the time, especially when both movies were so great individually. But Vicky Vale played well.
Fortunately, 35 years later, we can return to that gap between “Batman” and “Batman Returns” with John Jackson Miller's new book, “Batman: Resurrection,” which helps fill in the missing details between the two movies. That includes the return of Kim Basinger's character, showing us once and for all what happened to Vicki Vale and what really happened between her and Bruce.
Vicki's life takes her elsewhere, but she soon returns to Gotham
Like “Batman Returns,” “Batman: Resurgence” starts off mysteriously without a wiki. She has gone somewhere. Bruce didn't even know where she was, and he certainly didn't know how to contact her. When the returning ghost of the Joker chases him and learns how obsessed the Joker was with Vicky, he is dedicated to finding a way to make her aware of the potential threat. Bruce Wayne visits his colleague Alexander Knox (Robert Wool in “Batman”) at Gotham Papers. Although the Joker's return is still a secret, Knox works for a newspaper that will pick up the story and run with it, and Bruce decides it's worth the risk. He discovers that Vicky has gone back to Corto Maltese, the site of a deadly battle, to take war photographs.
When she receives news that the Joker is back, she returns to Gotham, but is still wary of getting back into a relationship with Bruce and wants to get on with her life. He did war photography before coming to Gotham to film Batman, and he easily returned to his regular life. His previous work at the Corto Maltese, where the Joker held his own at the museum's date, is the place he gets the most screen time in “Batman: Resurrection.”
Bruce can't let go of Batman and pushes Vicki away
The reason Vicki decided to leave in the first place was because everyone came down to a choice Bruce made. She thought she had a chance to have a real relationship with Bruce after the events of “Batman,” when she discovered that Jack Napier, aka the Joker, killed her parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne. Avenging his parents' murder is his vow, and by the end of the film's events, the Joker appears to be dead and he's avenged, thinking he can hang up the cape.
Unfortunately for Vicki, her obsession with fixing Gotham with her fists runs deeper than Bruce's wealth, so she throws herself into her work. When she gets word from Knox that the Joker is back, she comes back to Gotham because Batman is the safe place she needs to be, but she knows Bruce needs support as he goes through the trauma of killing the man who killed his parents. Seemingly come back from the dead. The cognitive dissonance of still caring deeply for him and being unable to be with him while caring for him shapes much of the book's personal drama.
John Jackson Miller could have crafted Vicki and Bruce's relationship much better in the novel, not to mention perfectly capturing the voices of Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger in these roles. If you were a fan of the original movie, or if the movie came out any time in the last 35 years, you'll enjoy seeing the relationship unfold, even in text.
“Batman: Rebirth” by John Jackson Miller is now in bookstores everywhere.
