I never knew a wolf could cry

Okay, so, I made an earlier post reviewing a seemingly forgotten Elseworlds comic, called “Batman Masque,” that combines Batman and the Phantom of the Opera. Personally, I didn’t like it very much, so that got me thinking about what I would do if I was writing a story like this.

So here are some of my thoughts:

— I would choose to write a story in the Batman universe with elements of POTO, but I would not attempt to exactly retell POTO in this format. Might set it in fantastical 19th century gaslamp setting.

— I would not make Batman a Phantom or Raoul character, unlike “Masque.” Since the original novel is mystery, I would include some element of Batman acting as the detective in the story and trying to unravel what’s going on.

— That said, I don’t think I would try to keep the identity of the Phantom of a secret from the audience. In the original novel, the reveal that the Phantom is a disfigured man living under the opera house was a real twist to the audience at the time, but now everyone knows about that twist.

It would be annoying and boring to act like the audience doesn’t know that the Phantom is a disfigured man.


— I would keep Harvey as the Phantom stand-in, but I’m waffling a bit on what kind of background I would want him to have? “Masque” wrote him as a dancer, but I don’t think that exactly fits, but also I don’t know if keeping him as a DA would work for this kind of AU.

Either way, I think I would keep the origin of his face being scarred by acid. The reasons for this are twofold:

1.) This is actually something that happens in some adaptations of POTO, such as the Claude Rains version. Like most phans, I prefer it when Erik is born deformed, but as I mentioned earlier, my goal with writing something like this would be transposing elements of POTO onto the Batman universe, not trying to make a 50/50 mashup.

2.) I feel it is important to Harvey’s character that he is disfigured by an accident, not by genetic happenstance. I would keep the idea that Harvey had mental health struggles prior to being scarred. I would also keep the backstory of him having an abusive father. That backstory would actually dovetail well with Erik often being portrayed as having an abusive parent when he was growing up.

— I would probably have the Christine stand-in be Gilda/Grace, rather than creating a completely new character. She is Harvey’s canonical love interest, so this would make sense.
For her connection to Harvey pre-scarring, I might take another cue from the Claude Rains movie and write it so that he was a mysterious benefactor who paid for her singing lessons. But this could certainly change if I put more development into this idea.

Either way, I would want to portray the two as having a genuine connection. I would want to focus a lot on this.

— I’m actually not sure if I would write in a love triangle?
I KNOW THIS MAY SOUND BLASPHEMOUS BUT HEAR ME OUT!!
I know that the love triangle between Christine, Raoul, and Erik is a very pivotal element to the original novel, as well as pretty much every adaptation afterward.

We also have some Two-Face comic stories where he becomes violently jealous because he thinks his partner is cheating on him (I’m specifically thinking of Two-Timer here). But, again, with this I wouldn’t be trying to exactly retell the story of POTO.

Rather, I would be interested in seeing the conflict coming into play because Gilda/Grace starts pulling away of her own accord and not due to any outside forces, like another love interest.

OR.

I might do an unorthodox love triangle and make it be between Gilda/Harvey/Two-Face. That could have some interesting potential.

— I’m not sure if I would want Harvey living in the opera house here? It might be interesting to have him being a mysterious street level criminal still, but have him still skulk around the opera house at times.

— The theme of redemption and forgiveness is pretty key to POTO imo. And at his best, Batman is a compassionate character. I would somehow want to marry these two themes together with whatever ending I wrote.

I’m not sure if I would want to write a tragic but redemptive ending, like in the novel and musical, or if I would want to write something kind of open ended but hopeful (ie gesturing at the idea that perhaps Harvey and Gilda/Grace could work things out, but leaving it up to the reader what they think would actually happen).

— This is a very rough outline of what I would do. And if I actually wrote this AU, I’d have to nail things down more. Truth be told, now I’m actually tempted to write this, but I struggle to even finish 1k oneshots, so it’s unlikely I’d turn this into an actual fic …