Donald Trump may have the makings of a classic comic-book villain. The US president is brash, outspoken, and makes bold—yet polarizing—speeches that are capable of rousing the masses.
In the weeks and months since his election, the US president has been compared to Batman’s most villainous foes. Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who played the Joker in Batman cartoons, has been voicing the US president’s more outlandish tweets as the Batman nemesis.
And the parallel was exacerbated after Trump’s inaugural address seemed very, very similar to uber-villain Bane’s triumphant speech from The Dark Night Rises:
Even Bane’s creators think that Trump might be as at home terrorizing the citizens of Gotham as he is in the White House—but they voted for him anyway.
“Is he like a Batman villain? In many ways he is,” comic-book writer Chuck Dixon told the Hollywood Reporter. “But our last guy in that office often reminded me of a Bond villain. So there you go,” he said, referring to Barack Obama, of whom that comparison has been made by others on the right.
Dixon and artist Graham Nolan co-created Bane with writer Doug Moench in the 1990s. Both Dixon and Nolan said they supported Trump in the general election and still do.
“Trump does have that kind of outrageous charisma that invites satire,” Dixon said. “But I think those that oppose him fail to understand that a lot of those tics and mannerisms that they see as faults were positives to those who voted for him. The bluntness. The swagger.”
If Bane and the president share a few traits, they’re also as different as they are alike, the creators noted. Dixon said Bane, who grew up imprisoned, would be a “brutal” president. “Bane serves Bane,” Nolan elaborated. ”He wouldn’t be a leader in any democratic sense but rather a dictator in total control…I would not care to live under a Bane presidency. But in the world of Bane, there is also the Batman. So we have nothing to worry about.”
The US has no such caped crusader to come to its aid, but Nolan, who considers himself a constitutionalist and voted for Ted Cruz in the primaries, is keeping an open mind about Trump.
“If the president comes through on his many promises, a stronger more robust economy, a more affordable and better healthcare system, respect from our allies and fear from our enemies, then yes I think this is the right step,” he said. ”If not, well, the beauty of our republic allows us to kick him out in four years.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Hollywood, the very worst expectations for a Trump presidency will soon be the basis of a dystopian future film. Universal and Michael Bay are reportedly developing the film, to be called Little America, set in a bankrupt, broken US where China has called in US debts.