When to Call it Quits

There was once a fairytale about a boy who beat gold coins out of a donkey. His evil step-brothers bought it from him. When they took out the rug-beater, though, the donkey fell down dead, having had all its coins removed. Batman as a story shouldn't be a donkey, but the whole franchise has spun into many medias since its creation in the 1930s, going from live-action slapstick to Golden Globe drama. Has the story reached its apogee, however? With The Dark Knight as a wonderful, thrilling, and depressing crime drama, future screenwriters will have a lot to live up to. Should we just finish this current Batman storyline and leave it untouched, just as we have left Gone With The Wind, How to Steal a Million, and other franchises alone?

I'm speaking from an artistic, not financial, perspective; Batman will sell once if bad, twice if okay, thrice if good, and a million times if breathtaking. But all I want is breathtaking Batman; I want the Dark Knight to surprise me, to sweep my off my feet.
Maybe we should leave that job up to Heath Ledger's image and his ghost. Let him have the last laugh on the movie screen.

As for the show, I agree with Kevin; I loved watching The Batman, but it was not Batman: The Animated Series. Kevin Michael Richardson is not Mark Hamill (both voiced the Joker on each respective show). And yet The Batman used their Joker frequently, to the point that he irked fans.

Maybe we should learn a lesson from that. And so should the film producers.