8. A Death in the Family
Perhaps one of the most famous and critically acclaimed story-lines I can recall, A Death in the Family details the murder of the second Robin after Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, at the hands of, you guessed it, The Joker. Afterwards, Batmans moral compass is even called under scrutiny as he considers crossing his own self-imposed line and finally kill the Joker for what hes done. Batman of course blames himself for the boys death and resolves to continue waging his war on Gothams criminal underbelly alone, without help from others, and it went that way for some considerable time. Now, many people have been put off the Robin character thanks to his terrible treatment in Schumachers stint with the movie property, so what Im posing is as follows. In the first act of a new Batman movie, the Dynamic Duo are in operation together, up until the point that Robin is murdered by the Joker. That in and of itself would be an incredible cinematic moment, a moment that would both delight fans in how it references the main Batman canon while simultaneously establishing a familiar Nolanesque lone Batman motif. However, the following two acts of a movie like this would really look under the Cape and Cowl, at the tortured soul underneath, as Bruce Wayne (not Batman) struggled with his almost undeniable yearning for vengeance. The comic book is extremely dark, extremely dramatic and, as I said, perhaps one of the greatest moments in Batmans history. I imagine any movie that touched upon the death of Robin would be equally so. Just sayin.