Batman, Turkey, Sues Warner Brothers, Chris Nolan

Mayor Huseyin Kalkan of Batman, Turkey, is suing both Warner Brothers and Vhris Nolan, the director of Batman: The Dark Knight for using the name of his town without permission. On the face of it, this seems like another silly lawsuit.

One stated reason for the suit is name infringement, even though the name of the town is actually short for Batý Raman and has nothing to do with a disturbed billionaire dressing up like a bat and manhandling criminals. Batman is the capital of Batman Province and is in an oil producing region in Turkish Kurdistan.

The other stated reason for the law suit is that Mayor Kalkan is blaming the influence of the Caped Crusader for the high rate of female suicides. Many of these female suicides are "honor suicides" which are like "honor killings" but involves a girl being forced to kill herself instead of being killed for the sin of having sex outside of marriage, dressing in an immodest manner, getting raped, or even casually glancing at a male not her close relative.

If course a number of questions arise due to the Batman, Turkey, law suit. First, as Variety suggests, the law suit comes about seventy years too late:

"No one from the town of Batman has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comic book character in 1939 and the "Batman" TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton's first big screen rendition for Warner Bros. came out in 1989."

Doubtless one reason is money. Chris Nolan's Batman: The Dark Knight has made just over a billion dollars so far. No doubt Mayor Kalken of Batman, Turkey, sees an opportunity to get a slice of the action.