Jonathan Nolan’s The Dark Knight will be relased on July 18, 2008. Matt Selman’s A Prologue to the Dark Knight was written on April 27, 1986, months away from his fifteenth birthday. Whose work is truly, “an ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity”? You be the judge.
SCENE 1
Enter Batman and Alfred into the Batcave.
BATMAN: Come on, Alfred. I need to have someone to help me get the Joker.
ALFRED: But sir, the commissioner has put the Joker under police protection while he waits for his trial.
B: Justice never waits.
A: Yes, but without the law, justice is nothing.
B: Gordon has gotten to be a stuffy old man who wouldn’t know justice if it hit him in the face.
A: If Gordon catches you now, charges will be put against you and you will be sent to jail.
B: He wouldn’t do that to me.
A: Oh, but he would. You have been a major nuisance to him ever since those riots last year when you revamped the Batmobile. And a fine example he would make of you to those numerous young vigilantes out there with their blatant disregard for the law, and their extreme rash search for justice.
B: Commissioner or not, I must get revenge on the Joker for killing Robin. He must be stopped. Are you with me or not?
A: I’m afraid I cannot break the law for you, sir.
B: That’s fine then, I’ll do it alone.
TO BE CONTINUED…
