Welcome to From the Batman News Desk, a new series of op-eds and articles covering various aspects of Batman history. Each week one of the Batman News writers will share their thoughts on Batman characters and concepts across comics, film, television, and more.
In 2005, the Batman film franchise was in a state of limbo. After the critical failure of Batman & Robin in 1997, the onscreen exploits of the Dark Knight were effectively dead. Despite a few attempts to get another sequel or an entirely new series off the ground, nothing materialized for the better part of a decade.
When up-and-coming director Christopher Nolan was tapped to helm a brand new take on the Caped Crusader, it was effectively a make-or-break, go-for-broke attempt to course correct Batman on film and breathe new life into an all but dormant franchise. While the previews were promising and the direction Nolan was going seemed to be fresh and exciting, audiences and critics didn't know if a new Batman movie would be a success.
Needless to say, it was, with strong reviews and audience reception alike. Grossing almost $374 million against a budget of $150 million, it wasn't a smash hit, but Batman Begins had strong enough word of mouth and home video sales to warrant a sequel. And we all know how good that one was.
Somehow, this was twenty years ago next month.
Time is fleeting.
Instead of writing up a piece to chronicle the making of the film, or looking at its legacy, we decided to take a different approach to Batman Begins' 20th anniversary. After all, the production has been well documented, and we already sing its praises on a frequent basis.
No, with two decades separating us from the release of this landmark film, we wanted to put that in perspective by looking at 20 things that have come out since June 15, 2005.
This will be rough. We are all getting old.
iPhones and iPads
It's hard to imagine a time when cellphones and tablets weren't a part of our normal, day to day lives, and while mobile devices have been around for some time, it wasn't until the iPhone launched in 2007 that "smartphones" really jumped to the forefront of use. Watching Batman Begins and even The Dark Knight, it's notable that the characters use older cellular devices and flip-phones, as the iPhone wasn't even announced until the latter film was well into production.
The same goes for iPads, which didn't hit the market until 2010. Blackberries, e-readers, and other tablets were fairly common up to that point, and other such devices are still in use today. Still, Apple's sleek and simple iPad helped bring tablets into the mainstream, half a decade after Batman Begins made its debut.
Two solo Superman movies
Yeah, we've had several Batman and Batman-adjacent movies in the years since, but two separate Superman solo films have graced the silver screen as well. Barely a year after Batman Begins dropped in theaters, Superman Returns tried (and, ultimately, failed) to revitalize the franchise, before Man of Steel premiered in 2013. That kicked off a new franchise of DC Comics films that went through its own ups and downs, but that's a conversation for another day. With a new Superman movie due in theaters next month, it's wild to look back over the past two decades to see how much has happened in such a relatively short amount of time.
Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok
As social creatures, humans have always tried to connect with others through various means. Writing letters, making phone calls, and even making long trips to speak with loved ones and new acquaintances alike are second nature to us. The advent of "social networks" has been around since practically the early days of the internet, with various online journals and "blog" sites available for people to record their thoughts and interact with others.
Facebook was the first big networking site to hit the scene, back in 2004, and since then we've been inundated with no end of other apps and programs to stay connected with friends and family, watch fun videos, get recipes, and do all sorts of other silly/crazy/dumb things. There are way too many to name, but three of the biggies weren't even around when Begins was in theaters: Twitter went live in 2006, Instagram became available in 2010, and TikTok didn't come to be until 2016. Like smartphones, it seems like there hasn't been a time when these apps weren't a part of our lives, yet one of them hasn't even been available for a full decade. Wild.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Speaking nothing of the quality of the franchise, the fact that we have gotten an interconnected storytelling universe across dozens of movies, several televisions series, and a handful of specials and shorts is nothing short of astounding.
Also astounding? What is now known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe only kicked off two-and-a-half months before the sequel to Batman Begins. Iron Man came out three years after Begins, and earlier in 2008 than The Dark Knight, and in that time it has spun off the most successful film franchise of all time. And even though it's gone through some rough patches and dips in that time, with the recent success of Thunderbolts* and the highly-anticipated The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it doesn't show signs of letting up any time soon.
Netflix's streaming platform
And all streaming services in general, really. Netflix has been around since 1997, when it was the preeminent "mailaway" service for renting movies on DVD, and it did have some online viewing capabilities in that time as well. It wasn't until 2007 when Netflix launched an entire streaming platform where users could log in and watch movies and shows on their devices, though, which led to Hulu, Prime, and pretty much every studio and company wanting their own piece of the streaming pie.
Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton died in 1804, so he pre-dates Batman Begins by 201 years. Lin-Manuel Miranda's wildly successful musical Hamilton, however, didn't hit stages until 2015.
So for those keeping score, we're as far removed from the first performance of Hamilton as Batman Begins was, in the opposite direction. You're welcome.
DC's New 52
Alright, this is... this is hitting a little too close to home at this point.
DC's line-wide relaunch/reboot occurred in late 2011 (14 years ago), completely resetting their entire comics continuity (sort of) across 52 brand new number 1 issues. To this day it's an incredibly controversial decision, bringing in plenty of new fans, alienating long-time readers, and confusing/agitating/placating those in between in equal measure. Since then, the DC Comics universe has gone through several other soft reboots, reconfigurations, and good ol' Crises to build upon the foundation of the New 52 and try and reconcile all of DC's publication history in one way or another.
HD DVD
Ah yes, the great Format Wars of the mid-Aughts. DVD had a pretty firm grip on the home video market, and still does to this day in many ways, but two new contenders entered the ring in 2006 to try and become the "next generation format" for home viewing: Blu-ray and HD DVD. Both had their own pros and cons, but Blu-ray came out the winner when Sony included a compatible player in the Playstation 3 video game system. That brought about the death knell for HD DVD, which had a short life from 2006-2008. Batman Begins was one of the major releases in that format, though, so hey. That's neat.
Cupcake ATMs
There was a big cupcake craze there for a while that could be traced back to before June 2005 in some areas, including the opening of the famous Sprinkles bakery in Beverly Hills. Like any bakery, being able to go into a shop and get assorted treats isn't that far out of the ordinary, but in 2012 Sprinkles introduced a new method of obtaining a confectionery bounty: the Cupcake ATM.
Around 30 of these machines are still out there today, and there's hardly a landmark for the culture of the early 2010s than express cupcakes.
Windows 7
...maybe this was a bad idea.
The eighth major Windows operating system was released in 2009.
It didn't reach its end of life support cycle until 2020, outliving its successor Windows 8 by several years.
There are still people out there who use it.
Consumer support for Windows 10 is expected to end next year.
Where am I going with this? I really don't know, I just... need a minute. Working through some things...
Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show
Conan O'Brien is a genius, one of the great talk show hosts and comedians of modern times. He seemed a natural successor to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, but due to some behind the scenes shenanigans, his tenure seemed doomed from the start. O'Brien had the chair from June 2009 to January 2010, when his contract was bought out after a scant eight months on the job. He's certainly gone on to do bigger and better things since, but it's crazy to think this only happened 5 years after Batman Begins, when it seems so much more recent than that.
Bitcoin and NFTs
I won't go into the benefits and drawbacks, praises and criticisms for Bitcoin, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and the like. All I'll say is that both of these digital "items"-- one still relatively prevalent, the other all but defunct-- weren't even a consideration back in 2005. Bitcoin began as a website in 2008, when the digital currency went live in 2009, and NFTs-- "non-fungible tokens", for those not in the know-- had their genesis in 2014 before gaining popularity around 2020.
Batman-News.com
Why yes, Batman-News is younger than Batman Begins. In fact, the first post was published in 2010, so The Dark Knight predates it too. We've come a long way and endured lots of changes, so thanks for sticking with us all these years.
The rise and fall of Juicero
One of the most astounding product release blunders of all time was Juicero, which was founded in 2013. A "fruit and vegetable juicer" that was effectively the juice equivalent of a Soda Stream, Juicero boasted a sophisticated machine that could be used to make fresh juice from specialized packets. With a high price tag, limited shelf life for the packets, and niche appeal already working against it, the Juicero died on the vine when Bloomberg.com ran a piece about the machine. Most damning was the observation that the packets could easily be squeezed by hand to the same effect, negating the entire point of the juicer, which led to the product and company's swift downfall.
Martin Scorsese's Oscar win
Long considered to be one of the greatest film directors of all time, it almost became a running joke that Martin Scorsese had never won a single Oscar in his entire career. That changed in 2007, when he finally won the coveted Best Director award for The Departed, which went on to win Best Picture that night as well.
To borrow and paraphrase a joke of Jon Stewart's, that means Scorsese is now tied with Michael Cimino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kobe Bryant, and Three 6 Mafia for the number of statues on their mantles.
Minecraft and Fortnite
The two biggest games in the world right now are Minecraft and Fortnite, with children and adults alike making up the massive fanbases of each respective franchise. Minecraft didn't launch until 2011, over half a decade after Batman Begins came and went in theaters, and it took another six years after that for Fortnite to hit gaming systems. Both games are still going strong to this day, and fun enough, there have been multiple Batman crossovers in each, bringing everything full circle.
Froyo places
Like cupcakeries, we've had frozen yogurt places for decades now, but it wasn't until places like Menchies, SweetFrog, Pinkberry, and other chains blew up around 2009 that they became a staple. It was even a punchline for a joke on 30 Rock, that's how widespread the love for froyo was around that time.
A new Star Wars trilogy
Made all the more remarkable considering the Prequel Trilogy ended the same summer that Batman Begins was released, in 2005 the idea of another Star Wars film trilogy seemed unlikely at best. Barring the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008-- which itself was simply the three-episode pilot of the then-upcoming series of the same name edited together-- and select re-releases of existing films, Star Wars' life on the big screen was dormant for over a decade.
Then, in 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm for a staggering $4.05 billion, revitalizing the franchise and releasing a brand new trilogy of films.
And spin-off movies.
And streaming television series.
And more animated series.
Championships for the Dallas Mavericks and the Texas Rangers
I'm not a huge sports guy-- though I do quite like baseball-- but being a native Texan, seeing two of our home teams across two separate sports win their respective championships was pretty cool. The Cowboys had won some Super Bowls before (believe it or not), and the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999, so seeing the Mavericks clinch the NBA Finals in 2011 was sweet. Even sweeter was the somewhat unlikely World Series Championship win by the Texas Rangers in 2023, which was in some ways a pipe dream for so, so long.
Led Zeppelin's reunion
Is Led Zeppelin the greatest rock band of all time? That's entirely debatable, and completely subjective, but yes. yes they are.
For years after the tragic and untimely death of drummer John Bonham, rumors of a reunion with the three surviving members would always come and go, before finally being realized in 2007. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones recruited Bonham's son Jason to sit behind the kit, so the band could headline the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at London's O2 Arena. It was a landmark day in rock and roll history, feeling like an entire lifetime ago, yet still occurring after the release of Batman Begins.
Next week: the first in a four-part series about Nightwing’s history in the Justice League in “Little Bird, Big Leagues”!
