There Can Be Only One

IMDB recently reported that the Mayor of Batman, a city in Turkey, is trying to sue Christopher Nolan over the use of the name for the new movie franchise. According to the Mayor, Huseyin Kalkan, "There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."

First off, what?

Second, I don't think it counts the same as stealing when Batman the person uses the name because he is a man who dresses like a bat. Unless everyone in Batman is a batman and that's why it's called such, I think it's still fair game.

Nevermind, of course, all the other reasons why this is ridiculous, like shouldn't Kalkan's beef have been with Bob Kane, and not the most recent owner of the rights? And I mean, I don't exactly know what Turkey's knowledge is of foreign pop-culture, but you'd think this would've come up earlier if it were really an issue of believing something that was rightfully yours was stolen and not some cash-in.

Here's slightly more information about this, as found through Ryan North's discussion on the matter. While I was writing about this before I couldn't help but think I had just heard something about the city of Batman, and lo! Side note: Dinosaur Comics is the best around.