How Christopher Nolan Reinvented the Superhero Origin Story with ‘Batman Begins’

Spoilers ahead for Batman Begins. Christopher Nolan didn’t invent the origin story for superheroes, but he made sure that for the foreseeable future, origin stories would become the primary mode of rebooting franchises for over a decade. Until this point, characters were pretty much fleshed out in their debut adventure. There might be an explanatory first act followed by a montage like in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, but Nolan defined what studios would demand. “A gritty reboot in the vein of Batman Begins” may as well have been a macro in the Hollywood trades. As we’ve seen …