My most immediate inspiration for this was the latest issue of HARPER'S , which included a short story titled:
BATMAN AND ROBIN HAVE AN ALTERCATION
by Stephen King !!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure it's an " ironic " reference .
I haven't read the story yet .
Afew issues back , ROLLING STONE had two consecutive covers that tried to latch onto THE DARK KNIGHT RISES by plugging " thinkpiece " pieces on Batman on the cover ! One did have an interview with TDKR's director , but they played the piece - by Jonathan Lethem - up above the interview . The next issue's one was by their columnist Matt Tabbi .
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Stephen King has always been a comics fan--he's helping to write a comic book based on his Dark Tower comics, I think--so it's not a stretch for him to do something like that. But that title indicates it would have to be ironic, as there's no way to take Robin seriously, especially in the current movie incarnation. I would be interested in what he says, but I don't see HARPER'S.
The RS pieces weren't surprising, given how much everyone gushes over the movie version of Batman. But those weren't really about the comic-book Batman, they were about a character who appears in many media, and the one they discuss is the one everyone knows from the movies. The Jonathan Lethem piece even indicated as much, noting that his son is a huge Batman fan even though he has no idea who the character is, thanks to a lunch box he's got.
What I find amazing is that Marvel has been able to make Thor, Iron Man and Captain America into characters at that same level. There have been plenty of articles written about them, too, although not as many as Batman, since he has all those variations to pull on known by the mass media, especially the 1960s jokey one
-- MSA
...I have read the King story .
It is very much an " ironic ' ref. , and very much a " literary " short story .
I'll SPOIL in the next post .
I will say this - It takes the setting distinctly out of his New England comfort zone !!!!!!!!!!!
Not Colorado or any " where longhaired ex-syudents might've gone in the Seventies '-type settings - either .