When I sat down to watch “Batman Returns” in 1992, even though I was only 11 years old, I was baffled by the fact that Kim Basinger wasn’t in the film. I’d probably seen “Batman” (1989) a hundred times by that point — thanks to a well-worn VHS copy with that stunning Diet Coke commercial beforehand, and as many theatrical viewings as I could muster between viewings of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” — and I knew Vicki Vale had to return. She had to at least be given a send-off or mentioned somewhere, right?
Well, she was definitely mentioned. In passing. Briefly. And it was easy to miss if you weren’t listening for it.
As such a vital and important part of the first film, it felt like we were missing something. Following “Batman,” jumping into the narrative landscape of “Batman Returns” felt like we were missing a few issues of comic books between them. For movies adapting comics, especially when there were so few at the time, that felt acceptable enough, especially when both movies were such great standouts on their own. But Vicki Vale deserved better.
Fortunately, after 35 years, we can return to that gap between “Batman” and “Batman Returns” with John Jackson Miller’s new book “Batman: Resurrection,” which helps fill in the missing details between the two movies. That includes the return of Kim Basinger’s character, showing us once and for all what happened to Vicki Vale and what really happened between her and Bruce.
Vicki’s career takes her elsewhere, but she soon returns to Gotham
Just like “Batman Returns”, “Batman: Resurrection” begins with Vicki mysteriously absent. She has gone somewhere. Bruce isn’t even sure where she is, and he certainly doesn’t know how to get in contact with her. When the specter of Joker’s return comes back to haunt him, and knowing how obsessed the Joker was with Vicki, he’s dedicated to finding a way to let her know of the possible threat. Bruce Wayne goes to Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl in “Batman”), her colleague at the Gotham paper. Although Joker’s return is still a secret, and Knox works at a newspaper that will take the story and run with it, Bruce decides it’s worth the risk. He discovers that Vicki has gone back to Corto Maltese, the site of a vicious war, to get back into war photography.
When she finally gets word that Joker has seemingly returned, she comes back to Gotham, but she’s still wary of getting back into a relationship with Bruce and would rather chase her career. She had been doing war photography, prior to coming to Gotham to snap pictures of Batman, and she fell back into her usual career just as easily. It was her prior work in Corto Maltese that caused the Joker to regard her work so highly at their date in the museum, a location that gets more screen time in “Batman: Resurrection.”
Bruce couldn’t let go of Batman and pushed Vicki away
The reason Vicki decided to leave in the first place, though, all came down to a choice Bruce made. She thought she had a chance to have a real relationship with Bruce after the events of “Batman,” when he discovered that Jack Napier, aka the Joker, was the one who killed his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne. His vow was to avenge the murder of his parents and with Joker seemingly dead at the end of the events of the film and he’d gotten his revenge, she thought he might be able to hang up the cape and cowl for good.
Unfortunately for Vicki, Bruce’s obsession with fixing Gotham with his fists rather than his wealth only deepened, so she threw herself into her work. When she got word from Knox that Joker had returned, she came back to Gotham, both because the safest place to be is with Batman but also because she knew Bruce would need the support while going through the trauma of having the man who killed his parents come back, seemingly from the dead. She still cared about him deeply, and that cognitive dissonance of caring about him but not being able to be with him frames so much of the interpersonal drama of the book.
John Jackson Miller is able to frame Vicki and Bruce’s relationship so well in the novel, not to mention capturing the voices of Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger in these roles to perfection. If you’ve been a fan of the original film since it’s release or came to it at any point in the last 35 years, you’ll find it gratifying to see the relationship play out, even just in the text.
“Batman: Resurrection” by John Jackson Miller is out in bookstores everywhere now.
