Batman

Detective Comics number 27, the first appearance of Batman

Batman is a fictional superhero who used his personal wealth as a capitalist to fight evil in a humble, high-tech way. He first appeared in Detective Comics in May, 1939. The creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, Batman remains one of the most famous and recognizable of the superhero genre, resulting in the creation of several television series, motion pictures, and graphic novels. The original comics are highly prized by collectors and routinely garners hundreds of thousands of dollars on the auction block.

The Batman character is sometimes unfairly portrayed as a lapsed Catholic or Episcopalian.^[1]

Comics lore[edit]

The man who was to become Batman is Bruce Wayne, a Gotham City capitalist who inherited his wealth from his father, a prominent doctor and philanthropist named Thomas Wayne. A trip to the movies with the family ended in tragedy: Thomas and his wife Martha are murdered by a common thug in front of Bruce, whose childhood effectively ends at the age of eight. Wayne's anger at his parent's murder causes him to vow revenge against the criminal element in all of its forms.

Growing up in the care of his father's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, he inherits a vast fortune, his father's business and philanthropic empire. Wayne uses his wealth to travel the world during his teenage years, seeking out instruction from experts in various fields including martial arts, chemistry, psychology, forensics, meditation and engineering among other things. He returns to his home of Gotham city and is nearly killed as he attempts to stop a robbery.

While recovering in his study at Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne's brooding is disturbed by a bat as it crashes through the window of his room. He reflects, "Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot." The bat inspires Wayne to create an alter ego for himself, one that will create fear and panic in those he targets, he decides to become the Batman. Wayne fashions himself a costume and arms himself with a small arsenal of bat related weapons and gear, specifically shunning guns. The refusal of Wayne to use guns stems not only from his professed belief that they are tools of the weak and cowardly, but also from a psychological block against them due to the one used in his parents' murder. In the last issue of the DC series Final Crises, Batman overcomes his disdain of guns and uses a special bullet to mortally wound the villain Darkseid. Batman is seemingly killed by Darkseid in the process and as of yet his fate is unknown.

Batman is unusual for superheroes in that he has no superhuman powers, though he is certainly an unusually gifted human being: an athlete who would "win or place" in any Olympic event, master of a dizzying array of martial arts forms, genius detective and capable scientist, and a billionaire to top it off. Despite this, he uses his brains, training, and resources to not only keep up but excel in comparison with many heroes with great superpowers, a testament to man's will in the face of adversity.

Comic book history[edit]

Vin Sullivan was the publisher of National Periodical (the forerunner of DC Comics), and during the end of the 1930s was basking in the success of Superman, the first true comic book superhero; Sullivan was looking for another such character to publish. The Detective Comics series would soon provide him with one, a costumed hero no less, having great intellect but without Superman's strength. Bob Kane, influenced by Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, a recent comic character called "The Shadow", the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, and a film titled The Bat, came up with a character in a gray suit, black boots, and a black cape and cowl; the creation was called the Bat-Man. The drawings were taken to artist/writer Bill Finger, and by May 1939 an excited Sullivan published the character in a story called "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," part of several stories in Detective Comics issue number 27, which became an immediate and successful hit.

By November of that year, Batman's origin story - the murder of his parents - was set; this storyline of a boy growing up to avenge his parents struck a chord with readers, and sales of the comics grew. The following year he appeared in his own series under the "Batman" name - published alongside Detective Comics - which also introduced "Robin, the Boy Wonder", a successful attempt to gain younger readers as well as creating the popularity of the "sidekick" in the comics industry; Green Arrow and Speedy, the Human Torch and Toro, and Captain America and Bucky would be prime examples of this trend. Eventually, Dick Grayson, the original Robin, would become Nightwing, while other characters would assume the mantle of Robin, before becoming other superheroes.

The combination of Bob Kane and Bill Finger (Finger was largely uncredited after Batman's creation) in the early 1940s also introduced to the comics world several of the most recognizable villains in fiction. Created were "Two-Face", a scarred villain reportedly based upon Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the "Cat", a sensuous woman who became better known as "Catwoman"; and the "Joker" - which Kane based upon the image he saw of actor Conrad Veidt in the silent film The Man Who Laughs - a nightmarish version of a clown who is the antithesis of everything Batman is, and who became one of the best known villains in fiction.

Film and television[edit]

The first dramatic appearance of Batman appeared as a reoccurring guest star on the Superman radio series. Interestingly, during the initial story line, Batman and Robin didn't interact with Superman, but Clark Kent. Batman's young side-kick, "Robin", was created specifically as an exposition device, desperately needed in radio. Although a pilot episode was recorded, Batman never received his own radio series.

Film serials[edit]

The first film dealing with the Caped Crusader was a 1943 12-chapter serial from Columbia Pictures starring Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft as Batman and Robin. The plot of the film centered on a nefarious, stereotypical Asian scientist, Dr. Daka (J. Carrol Naish), who has a plan to steal valuable resources from the United States in order to support the Axis during the World War II. Although low-budget, Batman introduced the concept of the Batcave (called the "Bat's Cave" in the film) and the hidden entry to it, as well as altering the appearance of Alfred from a portly servant to a leaner, robust individual. Batman and Robin would follow it in 1949, also as a serial, starring Robert Lowery and Johnny Duncan.^[2]

Batman television series[edit]

In January 1966, ABC released a Batman television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin. The series would feature a recurring series of villains, mainly The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith), and Catwoman (Eartha Kitt/Julie Newmar).

During the series pre-production, there was a heated debate over which direction the Caped Crusader should be taken. Eventually, producer William Dozier's vision won out - "Batman" would be a high budgeted, camp series which often made the character more droll than stern.^[3] This portrayal of the character, while it was in line with the comics of the time, came in later years to be reviled by fans, particularly during the 1980s and '90s. During the summer of 1966, Dozier released a Batman feature film, also starring Adam West.

Although the series caught on quickly, its ratings fell just as suddenly. During the series' third season, Yvonne Craig was hired to portray Batgirl/Barbara Gordon, but this did nothing to slow the ratings plunge. The last few episode of "Batman" were among the lowest rated television series of the 1960s.

For many years after, the Batman television series defined the filmed comic book template, which can be seen feature films such as Doc Savage and the television productions of The Justice League and The Spirit. In 1978 Adam West and Burt Ward would both be reunited in the two-part television special The Legend of the Superheroes, in which Batman and Robin were part of a group of superheroes thwarting the attempts of a rival collection of villains to take over the world in a combination of camp and comedy, with the second part of the special having both groups taking part in a celebratory roast hosted by Ed McMahon. The camp-template suffered by Batman would be broken in 1978 as well, by a successful show with well-written scripts titled The Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby, and based on the character owned by rival publisher Marvel Comics. Meanwhile, the course of the character as written in the comics since 1973 had returned him to his darker roots as writers and artists placed him in more compelling storylines and situations, culminating in 1986's four-part The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, a work which helped influence director Tim Burton prior to putting Batman on the big screen once more.

Early animation[edit]

While Adam West was in costume in prime time, the Filmation and Hanna-Barbera studios made several efforts to bring Batman to Saturday mornings in animated form. In 1968, Batman appeared with Superman in Filmation's Batman/Superman Hour, a program divided into individual shorts featuring Dragnet character-actor Olan Soule as the voice of Batman, and radio disk jockey Casey Kasem as Robin. The following year the show was cut to thirty minutes, with just the Batman shorts in Filmation's newly titled Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder, also lasting a year.

Hanna-Barbera created the Superfriends in 1973, again using Soule and Kasem for voice work, and placed Batman and Robin alongside Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman in a "hall of justice" as the team fought minor villains around the world with a built-in moral message for children watching it. The Superfriends proved a success, ultimately spinning off several creations through the early-1980s.

Tim Burton films[edit]

Batman was released to the screen in 1989, taking a dark tone and look, with director Tim Burton portraying Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) as a reclusive, quirky billionaire who probably was not entirely sane. While at first wary of an actor known primarily for comedies playing Batman, fans caught on after seeing the trailer to the film, with many of them paying for tickets just to see the trailer alone and walking out of the theaters without even watching the actual movie they paid for. The film was a success, and was widely lauded for Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Batman's nemesis, the Joker. It was followed up with 1992's Batman Returns, which, while not as well-reviewed or successful, was still accepted by the fans, and brought the iconic figures of Catwoman and the Penguin into the movie universe.

Joel Schumacher Films[edit]

Tim Burton was replaced with Joel Schumacher for the third Batman movie in the canon, Batman Forever (1995), which introduced Robin (Batman's iconic sidekick), and the villains the Riddler and Two-Face. Whereas Burton had tried for a more dark and Gothic look, Schumacher went with bright neon colors and brought back some of the camp of the 1960s TV series. The movie did well at the box office, but received mixed reviews. The fourth and final film of the series was Batman and Robin, released in 1997. Widely regarded as the worst of the series by fan and critic alike, Batman and Robin returned fully to camp, featuring "candy-coated" sets, poor special effects, weirder science than normal from Bat-Media, character derailment, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lead villain Mr. Freeze, who had with barely 100 lines of dialogue, over half of which centered around cold-themed puns. This film was reviled for years as having "killed" the franchise, and performed relatively poorly in ticket sales. Prior to the release of Batman & Robin, a fifth film, entitled Batman Unchained, was planned. The film would have seen George Clooney return as Batman, with the villains reportedly being the Scarecrow (with Jeff Goldblum playing the role), and Harley Quinn (with Madonna reportedly being offered the role). Harley Quinn would've been the Joker's daughter, rather than girlfriend. Other villains that would've appeared include the Mad Hatter (reportedly said to have been Martin Short) and Man-Bat (reportedly being played by Mark Linn-Baker). Jack Nicholson would also return as the Joker, being a hallucination as a result of the Scarecrow's fear toxin. In a 2017 interview, rapper Coolio, who had a cameo in Batman & Robin, would've returned as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow. The film had been slated for release around 1999–2001.

The tone of the first two Burton movies influenced the 1991 critically-acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, a cartoon shown at first in prime time. Some of its takes on certain villains - such as the Joker (whose appearance in this series was based on Jack Nicholson's portrayal in the 1989 movie) and Mr. Freeze - became iconic, and it introduced several characters that eventually "immigrated" to the comics, such as Detective Renee Montoya, and the Joker's hench-girlfriend, Harley Quinn.

Fan films[edit]

Attempting to get attention for his directing skills Sandy Collora spent $30,000 dollars to create a demonstration reel strictly for the fans. The result was the 2003 short Batman: Dead End, a film which drew on the imagery of comic artist Alex Ross, in addition to previously-published work by Dark Horse Comics, which pitted Batman against the Alien and Predator from the Hollywood films of the same names. Starring Clark Bartram as Batman and Andrew Koenig as an escaped Joker, the film earned critical praise from comic veterans and fans alike.^[4]

Christopher Nolan films (The Dark Knight Trilogy)[edit]

The film series was rebooted again in 2005, with Batman Begins, a grittier, more realistic take on Batman. In this film director Christopher Nolan took Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) halfway around the world in search of the answer to the riddle of criminality. He learns to fight multiple opponents, conceal himself, and gains the will to act in defense of others. Returning to Gotham after being declared legally dead, he deftly maneuvers himself back into the control of his murdered father's company and resolves to terrify the criminal element by making himself seem inhuman, choosing the mantle of a bat, because bats scare him.

Several critically-acclaimed comic book stories - among them The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke - were used as well as in the second entry in Nolan's series, The Dark Knight (2008), which has thus far exceeded all expectations. Almost universally lauded by critics and shattering numerous box-office records, The Dark Knight featured the final complete performance of Heath Ledger as a monstrous version of the Joker, a psychotic who thinks the only sane way to live is without rules and wants to prove it to the world - and at the same time gave the artists and writers who penned the Batman stories a version of the Joker they thought was closest to their own. Though the tone at the start of the film is hopeful - Batman has inspired citizens to stand up for themselves again and has organized crime in the city reeling - it quickly spirals downward, embodying the theme that Nolan chose for the movie: things have to get worse before they get better.

The Dark Knight Rises was the third film in what has since been called The Dark Knight Trilogy. It was released on July 20, 2012. Most of the cast from the previous two films returned. New cast members included Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, and Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul. The film takes place eight years after The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse after the past eight years. A piece of legislation called the Dent Act has denied parole to convicts associated with the Mob, most of whom are placed in Blackgate Prison.

Gotham (2014)[edit]

Bruce Wayne appears as a teenager played by David Mazouz, he appears as Batman in the series finale.

DC Extended Universe[edit]

In 2013, WB announced that Ben Affleck would play Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the sequel to the 2013 Superman reboot, Man of Steel. This film was a sequel to Man of Steel, and will be a continuation of the DC Extended Universe, similar to the Marvel movies. This version of Batman is said to be older than previous ones, with a costume that's more accurate to what is seen in the comics. Affleck reprised the role in 2017's Justice League.

The Batman (2022)[edit]

Robert Pattinson will play Bruce Wayne/Batman in Matt Reeves' The Batman, due out in 2022. The film was originally set for an October 2021 release. However, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the release date was pushed back. Colin Farrell will play The Penguin, Zoe Kravitz will play Catwoman, and Paul Dano will play The Riddler. A trailer was released in August 2020 to positive acclaim. At the time of the trailer's release, only 25% of the movie had been completed.

References[edit]

• Kane, Bob (with Tom Andrae). Batman & Me, Eclipse Books, Forestville, California (1989).
• Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Encyclopedia, Harper Entertainment, New York (2004).
• Muir, John Kenneth. The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina (2004)
• Collora Studios: Batman: Dead End
• The Man Who Laughs, uploaded to YouTube