A ROB is at it again.
In an alternate 1940s, Orson Welles' The Stranger is delayed, and Welles has free time on his hands. He finds a few comic books in a doctor's office, and sees... Something in Batman. Something that in the hands of the right director, could be amazing. He really wants to stretch his creative abilities, to make a silly children's comic into an amazing film. He doesn't only just read the Batman comics, he also reads about ancient martial arts, and uses his knowledge of the classics to craft an idea: The Batman.
So, with a bit of jiggery pokery with RKO Pictures, Orson Welles gets his Batman film. It's cheap, but Orson is able to get help from stuntmen who want to try some new ideas that the heads at the studios have always ignored. He also by chance runs into a Chinese martial artist who fled his homeland during the war and who tells him about their martial arts traditions, which ignites the idea of a secret cult of assassins who could train Batman-With their leader, Ra's al Ghul (played by Vincent Price), and a femme fatale, his daughter Talia (Jane Russel). Noble Johnson, a very experienced black character actor, is chosen as Lucius Fox-Something Orson does to thumb his nose at the studio. Alfred Pennyworth is played ably by British actor Robertson Hare. The story (perhaps due to ROB interference) is broadly similar to Batman Begins with some Batman: Year One, the DCAU and Orson Welles' own creativity put together.
Despite the low budget and extremely low studio confidence, when released in 1946... Batman is a hit! Easily breaking box office records, the tragic tale that critics call "Zorro for the modern day" with a hero in a corrupt city he is trying to save connects with a Post-World War II audience easily. As a result, National Comics and Detective Comics are now in the movie business, and more villains from Batman's Rogues Gallery are either created or adapted.
What are these films like? What changes in pop culture result? What other films might result from this? Would there be a competing Marvel Cinematic Universe?
