Pattinson's new Batman is younger, angrier, and more driven by the trauma of his past than any version before. Still, for all he represents a new take on an old character, the Caped Crusader cooked-up by Pattinson and director Matt Reeves does have some hallmarks of previous movies.
Like Keaton, Pattinson's Batman understands that Bruce Wayne is the character's real mask. Like Christian Bale, he'll be seen with a certain rawness in his early years. Like Ben Affleck, he not only carries with him, but is driven by, the rage burning within. Of course, there are other comparisons to be drawn as well - Pattinson's Batsuit looks inspired by the Arkham games - but one of the more surprising comes with a parallel between Batman and The Dark Knight's Joker.
In Ledger's Joker who, while having very different methods, intentions, and morals, was also someone who didn't seem to feel pain or have any regard for himself, which this suggests about Pattinson's Batman too: he is a man so far gone that he does not care if he lives or dies doing this.
Pattinson's Bruce is very much driven to this point by his past, which is what his scars are seemingly partly a reminder of, because it's that which made him Batman and that led to those makes. Something similar is true of the Joker, at least in a sense. One of the most compelling theories about The Dark Knight's Joker origin is that he was a war veteran with PTSD, while the reasons he himself presents for his scars also fit with the idea of them as being a physical manifestation of trauma of some kind, whether it's abuse from someone else or an act of self-harm. Pattinson's Batman's and Ledger's Joker are both men who wear their emotional scars on the surface, a sign of the deep-rooted turmoil within.
It does make some sense to link Pattinson's Batman to The Dark Knight's Joker. Christopher Nolan's movie is, after all, perhaps the seminal take on Batman, or at least the one to which all new movies, including The Batman, will be compared to and measured against. And, of course, the Joker has long maintained that Batman is only one bad day away from being like him. That may not entirely be true, because ultimately Batman's code will always win out, but Pattinson's brutal, vengeful Batman could well be closer than any who've gone before.
