Playing the Movie: Batman Begins

With the release and general awesomeness of The Dark Knight Rises movie, I'd be remiss to miss an opportunity to highlight some fun teams that you can build from the HeroClix set of the same name. That said, I had so much fun building teams for this article that I actually have to split it up into the 3 films that it represents. Today's feature being Batman Begins, since that's the logical starting point.

Even though this set seems almost entirely filled with mooks and support characters, in one way it lends itself to building a lot of teams that you would see over the course of the films. However, because of the relatively high point cost on characters like Officers, Bodyguards, and Inmates, it actually makes it hard to round out teams.

Most of the teams that you will see in these articles are between 300 and 400 points, because that's really where this set works best. That said, but the end of the Dark Knight Rises article, I do go a little nuts with a couple of 600 point teams. It's also wise to expect that some spoilers might at least be suggested by some of these team builds. So with that, let's dive in!

When talking about Batman Begins the most logical place to start is with the League of Shadows (or in clix/comic terms, the League of Assassins):


 50 DKR015   Master Bruce Wayne
 60 DKR022   Ra's al Ghul
 85 DKR023   Henri Ducard
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
--------------------------------------------------------------
300 Total


Since this team trains Bruce, and it exists outside of Gotham, there's really no one for them to challenge here. However, it's a nice round build total that represents Bruce's trainers well enough.


Next we move the action to Gotham City and establish Batman and his allies:



 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 55 DKR013   Alfred Pennyworth
 35 DKR026   Lucius Fox
100 DKR101  Batman
 50 DKR106   Sgt. Gordon
 40 DKR205   Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
400 Total

And Batman's adversaries within the Gotham Underworld:

 40 DKR010A Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010A Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010A Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 60 DKR016   Salvatore Maroni
 50 DKR024   Carmine Falcone
 85 DKR025   Scarecrow
--------------------------------------------------------------
395 Total

Sure we don't see Sal in the first movie, but if he's taking over in Dark Knight, I think it's reasonable to assume that he's a high ranking crony in Carmine's organization. Plus he helps to round out the team and give it a little more of a punch.

After Batman busts up things at the docks, and tracks down information on what Crane is up to, action then moves to Arkham Asylum where the Inmates aid Crane with his part of the master plan:

 85 DKR025   Scarecrow
 40 DKR004A Arkham Asylum Inmate
 40 DKR004B Arkham Asylum Inmate
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
--------------------------------------------------------------
300 Total

Batman and the Gotham City Police department close in to try to stop Crane:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
140 DKR029  The Batman
 40 DKR205  Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
300 Total

Once Batman saves Rachel, he rushes back to his birthday party with Gotham City's elite, while Lucius and Alfred try to take care of Rachel (and the city):

 60 DKR003 Bruce Wayne
 55 DKR013 Alfred Pennyworth
 35 DKR026 Lucius Fox
 40 DKR205 Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
190 Total

Ducard and his League of (Assassins) Shadows crash the party:


 85 DKR023 Henri Ducard
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
--------------------------------------------------------------
190 Total

The climax of the film pits the Gotham City Police and Batman up against a combined force of Arkham Asylum residence and the League of Shadows:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 49 DKR011B GCPD Riot Officer
140 DKR029  The Batman
 50 DKR106  Sgt. Gordon
 40 DKR205  Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
399 Total

Unfortunately, the last force is not a keyworded theme team, but maybe at your venue you could make an argument that they all show up in the film fighting on the same side:

 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 40 DKR004A Arkham Asylum Inmate
 40 DKR004B Arkham Asylum Inmate
 85 DKR023   Henri Ducard
 85 DKR025   Scarecrow
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
--------------------------------------------------------------
400 Total

That's all I have for this installment of "Playing the Movie" but come back tomorrow to see what craziness I come up with for The Dark Knight! Also let me know if you came up with any other fun (preferably) movie-accurate teams.