There’s already been a lot of talk surrounding whether the theater attack in Aurora, Colorado will negatively impact the financial well-being of the already-struggling cinema business in the long term, with many openly questioning whether midnight movie screenings, which are after all a relatively recent phenomenon and only rose to real prominence in the last several years, might fall out of vogue completely.And while nobody, including this reporter, wants to belittle the tragedy of the shooting by focusing on the financial and entertainment aspects of it, the rapid increase in stories relating to a theme of “the shooting has made _______ impossible” has made it seem like it’s time to at least consider some of the ramifications for the comics that have been inspiring so many of the biggest hit movies of the last few years.Gangster Squad may be delayed or go back for reshoots, after its trailer was pulled from theaters for depicting a scene eerily reminiscent of what happened in Aurora last Friday. The weekend box office for The Dark Knight Rises came in about 25% below expectations, with the shooting and anxiety over potential copycats shouldering much of the blame from forecasters. E! Online is even speculating that next year’s Superman film, Man of Steel, may be “tainted” by the killings, which could create long-term problems for Warner Brothers. Since the shooter called himself “The Joker,” Heath Ledger’s father issued a statement in support of the victims, urging people not to blame his son, or the iconic character he famously portrayed, for the actions of a madman.There’s also a sense that, combined with the unprecedented popularity of the Nolan films, it may simply be too difficult to reboot the Batman movie franchise anytime soon after this. There will be critics on the one side attacking the filmmaker as compared to Nolan, critics on another who claim it’s insensitive to put another Batman movie out so soon, and that third group who are just uniformly opposed to reboots. Pile on the fact that between Ledger’s tragic death and this shooting, it will be extremely hard to sell The Joker, Batman’s most well-known and popular villain, on film for a long time to come, and you’ve got what could be a real problem for Warner, who had planned to carry on making the films in order to get Batman into their planned Justice League movie.And that’s just the movie-business stuff, forget about the social and political fallout, plus the additional incidents that have already turned up on the news, ratcheting up the already-high anxiety levels surrounding the event.Shortly after the Columbine massacre, in which a pair of Colorado high school students went to school heavily armed and killed 13 people before turning the guns on themselves, there was a lot of discussion about whether the mass media was to blame in some way. Violent video games were targeted by parents’ groups, and singer Marilyn Manson, popular at the time and a favorite of the troubled youths who committed the murders, was singled out by the mainstream press as a target. This time, there’s been a good deal of focus on comics and comic book films (for obvious reasons), leading some fans to wonder whether there could be longer-term repercussions for the industry.The delay of Batman Incorporated #3, which was supposed to be in stores tomorrow, may be the final concession made to the killer’s rampage, but it’s difficult to know yet. Certainly DC Entertainment seems to be focusing its efforts on the shooting full-time thus far, working with Warner Brothers and local government in Aurora to minimize any association that their company or intellectual property might have to the shooter.
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