The Comics That Inspired Matt Reeves' The Batman

Batman: Ego is a 2000 work, written and drawn by Canadian artist and animator Darwyn Cooke and has recently been getting some major resurgence due to the fact that Matt Reeves has specifically referenced it as a main source of inspiration behind his movie.

It's a fascinating piece of work in both its visual style and the stripped down simplicity of the plot. It begins with Batman at the end of a hard night's work, having failed to prevent another killing spree by the Joker.

Bleeding and exhausted, he arrives at a bridge where a known felon is attempting suicide. Saving him from death, the exchange leads Batman to begin to question his motivations and before long he his having a somewhat schizophrenic conversation with himself - with Batman.

If Bruce represents the moral side of his personality then The Batman is all id, angry and vengeful. Reeves stated at DC FanDome (via Esquire): "There’s also many things that are driven by the parts of himself he doesn’t yet know, and so I would say that that kind of sort of psychological union, that sort of version is very much connected to the vision from Darwyn Cooke’s Ego.”

If Reeves is planning on drawing from Ego, then expect to see Bruce struggling with his inner morale compass, vengeance verses virtue. It would be fascinating to see this represented literally on screen, in a way that has only been alluded to in past cinematic iterations of The Bat, especially if Reeves takes the interpretation directly and gives us a huge demon-like Batman with a smile more reminiscent of the Joker himself.