Entertainment
Celebrating The 40th Anniversary Of The Greatest Batman Ever Made
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For better or for worse, we are currently living through the age of superhero cinema, with movies like Avengers: Endgame and Superman (2025) dominating the box office. But would you believe that this entire genre owes its existence to a single comic? A comic that also managed to inspire some of the greatest TV shows the world has ever known?
That comic is Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, the seminal Batman comic that recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. Miller’s comic is very nearly perfect, and it helped usher in a modern age of darker and grittier superhero stories. That much is well known, but today, I’d like to focus on a lesser-known fact: that the modern superhero genre of movies simply wouldn’t exist without The Dark Knight Returns.
You’ll Believe A Batman Can Fly
The success of the 1978 Superman movie proved that tights-and-flights films had the potential to be critical and commercial hits. Accordingly, that film got three sequels, but the franchise did not keep going “up, up, and away.” Eventually, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace proved to be such a critical and commercial disaster that we didn’t get another Superman movie for nearly two decades.
Following the success of the first Superman movie, a new Batman film went into development at Warner Bros. in 1980. After he wowed everyone with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (his first feature film), young Tim Burton was hired in 1985 to direct this new Batman film. He immediately wanted a darker, less campy script.
Conveniently enough, The Dark Knight Returns came out one year later, and the success of Frank Miller’s comic made the public hungry for a serious take on the Caped Crusader even as it made Warner Bros. keener on bringing this Darker Knight to the big screen.
Obviously, the 1989 Batman film went through many rewrites over the years, including several lighter-hearted drafts that included Robin, the Boy Wonder. But Burton really wanted his film to have the grim and gritty atmosphere of Miller’s comic, so he insisted on a story with the same basic beats as The Dark Knight Returns: Batman is obsessive, the Joker is deadly, and Gotham City is a cesspool. Burton’s film ended up being a smash hit, launching a Batman film franchise that continues to this day.
When Cartoons Got Dark
Tim Burton’s Batman made the character more popular than ever before, and Warner Bros. quickly began developing a new cartoon featuring the Caped Crusader. The result was Batman: The Animated Series, a show that modeled Gotham City after the one scene in the 1989 film. There were some different design flourishes (mostly, the abundant Art Deco style of the buildings), but Gotham retained the dark and broody atmosphere that electrified fans of the live-action film.
Batman: The Animated Series won multiple Emmy awards, so you may be shocked to hear that Warner Bros. executives were nervous about the new show. They feared that executive producer Bruce Timm was making everything way too violent for children.
Warners wanted to cancel the series before a single episode was animated, but the success of Burton’s movie kept that from happening. Eventually, Timm was able to create the pilot episode “On Leatherwings,” which was so impressive that it helped his controversial series (complete with music from and inspired by Danny Elfman, the composer of Burton’s Batman) get the green light.
Batman: The Animated Series quickly became one of the most popular cartoons ever made, and the release of various sequel series (including Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League) established the fan-favorite DC Animated Universe. The DCAU was the first truly viable superhero cinematic universe, one that helped pave the way for the MCU. Before that happened, though, The Dark Knight Returns helped inspire Earth’s mightiest mutants.
Rise Of The Mutants
Tim Burton’s Batman would not have existed (or at least, wouldn’t have been worth watching) without the influence of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. But after Burton left, the franchise was in the hands of Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher. He made the franchise over-the-top with Batman Forever and downright silly with Batman & Robin. After audiences rejected that campy crapfest and Blade proved to be a big hit, 20th Century Fox made a decision: they’d swoop in and take the comic book movie crown away from DC with an X-Men movie.
That film came out in 2000, eventually getting two sequels, four prequels, and three spin-offs featuring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The success of Fox’s X-Men spurred Sony to create a Spider-Man movie in 2002, and Sam Raimi eventually delivered an entire trilogy of webslinging goodness.
Ironically, these characters were only available to the studios because Marvel had to sell the movie rights back in the late 90s to avoid bankruptcy. After seeing how successful Fox and Sony were, though, Marvel decided to create its own films and television projects, all of which would later be known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Obviously, the MCU proved to be a huge hit with audiences, spawning nearly 20 years of movies. Eventually, this inspired Warner Bros. to try its own hand at a superhero cinematic universe, and they created the DCEU as a direct competitor to the MCU. The second film in this new cinematic universe was Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and (for better or for worse), returning director Zack Snyder based his slightly older, much darker version of the Caped Crusader on Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.
It’s All Connected
Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns has had an outsized impact on movies and television, serving as the foundation of modern geek culture. Without the success of this comic, we don’t get successful Batman movies; without the later failure of Batman & Robin (which veered away from Miller’s dark tone), we don’t get the X-Men movies. Without those films and Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, we wouldn’t have the MCU, and without that, we wouldn’t have the DCEU or (more recently) the DCU.
It’s all connected, and comic nerds everywhere owe it to themselves to re-read this comic. Considering that it may be years before we see Batman properly appear in the DCU, re-reading it is currently the best way to experience the most iconic and fully formed version of the Caped Crusader ever made. Just be careful when handling this old comic; after all, you’ve got a genuine piece of pop culture history in your hands!
Entertainment
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for March 1, 2026
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you’re a frequent flyer.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Mashable Top Stories
Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections #994 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
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Little bite: CANAPÉ, FINGER FOOD, HORS D’OEUVRE, TAPA
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Construction equipment: HARD HAT, LADDER, NAIL GUN, TOOL BELT
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Vacation emoji: AIRPLANE, LUGGAGE, PALM TREE, SMILING FACE WITH SUNGLASSES
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Things you don’t eat that end in foods: COPYPASTA, JOHANNESBURGER, KNUCKLE SANDWICH, LICORICE PIZZA
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for March 1, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re not on. your best behavior.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Dressing down
The words are related to discipline.
Mashable Top Stories
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe ways to chastise.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is The Riot Act.
NYT Strands word list for March 1
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Braidup
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The Riot Act
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Scold
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Castigate
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Reprimand
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Admonish
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
New Scream Movie Is Only For Diehard Fans
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In 1996, iconic director Wes Craven rejuvenated the slasher genre with Scream, a film that served as the perfect deconstruction of horror movies. Scream was ahead of its time in many ways, predicting modern phenomena like true crime obsession and paradoxical relationships. At the same time, it worked as a perfect scary movie, one that transformed the entire genre for the better.
However, Scream was delivering diminishing returns even before Wes Craven died, and the franchise later re-oriented itself around a new pair of leads with Scream (2022). Unfortunately, the studio lost both Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, which necessitated the return of original franchise icon Neve Campbell for Scream 7. The new movie is directed by original Scream scribe Kevin Williamson, and while it provides competent kills and fun moments for returning cast members, the sloppy plotting results in a film that only diehard fans will really enjoy.
Sydney’s Coming, And Hell Is Coming With Her
The basic premise of Scream 7 is that a new killer (or is it killers?) is gunning for Sydney Prescott, and they are claiming to be the original Scream villain, Stu Macher. Syd is skeptical and thinks Stu’s taunting video calls are just an AI fabrication, but the danger is all too real when her daughter and her daughter’s friends become targets for the attacker. Now, Sydney must team up with Gale Weathers and other returning allies, but even their combined strength may not be enough to defeat the one type of foe they have never fought before: one who refuses to follow any kind of rules.
The Stu Macher stuff is mostly an excuse to bring fan-favorite actor Matthew Lillard back into the fold, and his taunting video calls to Syd are easily one of the best parts of the film. Unfortunately, his presence is also evidence of the worst part of the film: namely, that Scream 7 is much more interested in wallowing in nostalgia than really building anything new. This is a franchise that once deconstructed the entire horror genre, and every movie was fair game. Now, the latest Scream is only interested in its own lore, and with nothing left to really deconstruct, all director Kevin Williamson can really do is play the hits of yesteryear.
Like Mother, Like Daughter
On paper, that happens through a loose reconstruction of the first film: Sydney now has a daughter of her own, one who is the exact age that Syd was when the Woodsboro murders went down. She’s got a slightly creepy boyfriend who likes to climb in her window for surprise snuggles and a group of hapless friends that soon become cannon fodder for a marauding masked killer. The police (including her dad, the chief) are helpless to stop the carnage, forcing these plucky teens to take matters into their own hands lest they get picked off one by one.
A remake (or requel, or whatever we’re calling all this crap now) of the first film works well on paper, but the essential problem of Scream 7 is that it can’t decide which characters to focus on. We start out with an uneasy balance of newer and older actors, but the film soon focuses almost exclusively on legacy characters like Sydney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and even Scream 5 and 6 veterans Chad and Mindy. While that leads to some great fan service for returning audiences, it creates one of the film’s biggest problems: we don’t really get to know almost any of these younger characters before Ghostface is picking them off.
Ghostface Is Back For More Blood Than Ever Before
Fortunately, the kills in this movie are some of the nastiest and most memorable in the entire franchise, and Ghostface is as viscerally scary as ever as he dispatches victims in increasingly grotesque ways. Accordingly, your enjoyment of Scream 7 will largely hinge on your primary motivation for watching slasher movies. If you’re here for killers looking cool (the kids call it aura farming) and pretty faces dying ugly deaths, this latest franchise entry delivers all that and a bloody bag of chips. If you prefer to get to know the virtual victims before they are transformed into raw meat, you’ll likely find Scream 7 to be the weakest movie in the entire series.
Speaking of weak, the reveal of the killer (or is it killers? Don’t worry, I’m keeping this spoiler-free) is particularly disappointing because the motivation for stalking Sydney comes out of nowhere. In the first movie, Stu Macher and particularly Billy Loomis had tangible reasons for stalking Syd, and discovering who the killers were felt a bit like solving the puzzle of a whodunnit. Like Scream 6 before it, Scream 7 tries too hard to surprise fans with the reveal, and this came at a cost: namely, the killer’s motivation makes no real sense, and it comes in the form of an exposition chunk so thick it threatens to choke the climax of the movie.
Killer Performances From Actors Old And New
Aside from the cool kills, Scream 7 does a few other things very well. The new additions to the cast are awesome: Community’s Joel McHale is weirdly perfect as Sydney’s top cop husband, and the character steals his handful of scenes with McHale’s trademark rogueish charisma. But I was even more pleasantly surprised by Isabel May, who convincingly gives Sydney Prescott’s daughter an aching vulnerability whose pain masks ice-cold reserves of hidden strength.
As you might imagine, the returning actors all do a great job, starting with Courtney Cox: her Gale Weathers is as fierce and funny as ever, and she has taken the characters played by returning actors Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown under her wing as journalistic interns. Those younger characters continue to provide humorous, Randy-like commentary on the violent proceedings around them. But the actor truly giving it her all is Neve Campbell, whose Sydney reluctantly saddles up for one last fight with the ghostly demons of her past.
When You Stare At The Past, It Stares Right Back
Ultimately, how much you like Scream 7 will depend on how much you enjoy the franchise as a whole. As for myself, I’m a superfan: I saw the original in theaters, I’ve listened to the cast speak at multiple conventions, and I’ve got a house filled with way too much Ghostface merchandise. From the perspective of a superfan, the film is decent (good, not great) in bringing back our favorite characters and wrapping up its derivative story in the bloody packaging of some truly innovative kills.
If you’re not a Scream fanboy, though, it’s worth waiting to catch this on streaming, assuming that you catch it at all. Kevin Williamson wrote the legendary first film in this franchise, but now that he’s in the director’s chair, he created a movie that only complete franchise diehards will really enjoy. As for everyone else, let’s just say that if Ghostface calls, Scream 7 will never be the answer to this franchise’s age-old question: “what’s your favorite scary movie?”
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