So the ongoing saga of whether or not Ben Affleck will continue to play Batman after Justice League continues. This has been pretty much a thing since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice failed to live up to expectations. Affleck has gone on record saying he doesn’t want to play as Batman anymore, only to pull a 180 just days – sometimes hours later – and say he is committed to the role for the foreseeable future. The actor has played The Batman three times so far: once in Batman v Superman, another in Suicide Squad, and a third coming up in this week’s Justice League.

But it appears that Affleck has grown tired of the superhero world and is setting his sights on hanging up the cape for good. However, unlike previous attempts to exit the DCEU, the actor is now reportedly looking for a “graceful and cool way to segue out of it.” More on the story below.

Batman: White Knight #1
Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger
Script, art, covers by Sean Murphy
Colors and cover colors by Matt Hollingsworth
Letters by Todd Klein
Asst. Editor: Maggie Howell
Editor: Mark Doyle
DC Comics
Release date: October 4, 2017
Price: $3.99

First, I’ll state the obvious: Batman: White Knight #1 looks spectacular.

Sean Murphy‘s style is tailor made for Gotham City and its inhabitants. In the action-adventure series Chrononauts, he showed his range, packing each frame with so much kinetic energy it burst at the seams — but it’s in the shadows where Murphy shines brightest. He was born to illustrate Batman.

At the moment there are a handful of artists at the top of the food chain — Adam Hughes, Greg Capullo, Rafael Albuquerque — and Murphy is among the very best. Not to be overlooked, Matt Hollingsworth adds a pitch-perfect color palate to offset Murphy’s darkness, and the results are stunning.

In the past few days, DC fans have been wondering what the heck is going on over at Warner Bros. Two different Joker movie announcements in two days, one is a Joker origin story not set in the DCEU, and the other a Joker and Harley movie that isn’t related to Suicide Squad 2 or Gotham City Sirens. While there are many trying to make some sense of this, one person who is clearing the air surrounding his movie is The Batman director Matt Reeves.

Yesterday, Reeves said WB told him that The Batman is “a standalone, it’s not part of the extended universe.” At the time, many speculated that it would be somehow related to the Joker origins movie and that Ben Affleck was no longer a part of this particular project. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. In fact, Reeves took to social media to confirm that The Batman will in fact be a part of the DCEU. Check out what he had to say below.

If there was one DCEU film that has been giving Warner Bros. the biggest headache, it would have to be The Batman. The film which would see Ben Affleck reprise his role as the titular character has been going through a series of behind-the-scenes troubles that have prevented it from entering production. Affleck stepped down as the director because he felt unable to give the film the attention it needed. Then came the rumors that he no longer wanted to be Batman. And now there is word that Warner Bros. will be launching a new banner with DC, that will tell new and unique stories with new actors playing iconic characters that will be separate from the DCEU, such as the just announced Joker origins film.

Now I bring that up because it appears that The Batman is heading in the same direction. In a recent interview director Matt Reeves says the film is a standalone, and is not a part of DC’s extended universe. More on the story below.

Tell me if you haven’t heard this one before. Ben Affleck says he is dissatisfied with being the Batman in the DCEU and then backtracks on those comments. Then rumors of Affleck’s unhappiness appear once more only for him to “squash” them at SDCC.

This story has been reported on so many times it’s really hard to keep up. So, let’s just mark this as the third time that we’ve been hearing Affleck wants out. However, it’s not Ben who is saying it, but his brother, Casey Affleck. Get more on this story below.