Daniel Craig’s 007 era came to a close with No Time To Die, and it gave him an ending similar to that of Christian Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. Both movies represent the culmination of long-running arcs for the respective actors and characters, bringing to an end the stories some of the most acclaimed versions of those iconic figures. At the same time, they also have to service a multitude of different audiences and expectations, and respect not only their own series, but what’s come before, challenges faced in ways both similar and different by Craig’s James Bond and Bale’s Batman.
It’s easy to draw several parallels between James Bond and Batman. Both are wealthy white men who were created in a bygone era (1939 for Bats, 1953 for Bond) but have been through countless regenerations since. They each work in the shadows – be that with a secret identity or as a secret agent – and wear masks, literal and figurative. Bond and Batman are highly skilled combatants, who use a variety of incredible gadgets and dole out brutal violence (and even kill) in the name of what’s right. Because of those actions, though, each struggles to lead a truly “normal” life and bears the psychological scars of what they’ve been through.
