Finally Batman Begins has been released. He is my favorite graphic fictional character (the obvious winner is Sherlock Holmes) as he is a super hero without any super powers (Green Arrow is the only other; remember both Green Lantern and Iron Man assume superpowers by equipment they wear or use). The comic book character Batman (originally referred to as The Batman, and occasionally as The Bat-Man), is a fictional character and superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. Although the character was co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, only Kane receives official credit for the character. Batman was at first just one of several characters featured in Detective Comics, but has since become the lead or co-lead character of a number of comic book series, in addition to a “family” of titles featuring related characters (e.g. Robin, Batgirl). Batman and Superman are DC Comics‘ two most popular and recognizable characters.
In early 1939, the success of Superman in Action Comics prompted editors at the comic book division of National Publications (later DC Comics) to request more superheroes for their titles. In response, Bob Kane created a character called “Birdman”. His collaborator Bill Finger offered such suggestions as renaming the character “Batman”, giving the character a cowl instead of a simple domino mask, giving him a cape instead of wings, giving him gloves, and removing bright red sections of the original costume. Finger wrote the first Batman story, while Kane provided art. Because Kane had already submitted the proposal for a Batman character to his editors at DC Comics, Kane was the only person given official credit at the time for the creation of Batman.
A number of other sources have been cited as inspirations for Batman’s personality, character history, and visual design and equipment, including Zorro, Doc Savage, The Shadow, 1926’s The Bat, The Phantom, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Douglas Fairbanks, Superman, Dick Tracy, and even the technical drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Initially, the “Bat-Man” was a violent avenger who carried a pistol and left his foes dead more often than not (similar to The Punisher). Nonetheless, the character was a breakout hit, with sales on Detective soaring to the point that National’s comic book division was renamed “Detective Comics, Inc.” Soon after, National suggested that the violence be toned down, and that the character receive a youthful sidekick who the readers could use as an audience surrogate. Kane initially suggested an impish character like Puck, while Finger suggested a more down-to-earth character, Robin. The Batman and Robin team was a hit, and the character soon gelled into the hero that generations of readers and pop culture fans would come to recognize.
Kane, the more business-savvy of the Kane-Finger creative team, negotiated a contract with National, signing away any ownership that he might have in the character in exchange for, among other compensations, a mandatory byline on all Batman comics stating “Batman created by Bob Kane”, regardless of whether or not Kane had been involved with that story. At the time, no comic books and few company-owned comic strips were explicitly credited to their creative teams. Bill Finger’s contract, by comparison, left him with a monetary pittance and no credit even on the stories that he wrote without Kane. Finger, like Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, and many other creators during and after the Golden Age of Comic Books, would resent National for “cheating” him of the money and dignity that he felt that he was owed for his creation. By the time Finger died in 1974, he had never once been officially credited for his work. In comparison, Kane parlayed his official sole creator status into a low level of celebrity, enjoying a post-comic book career as a painter. Ironically, much of Kane’s later comics work, and even some of his non-comics art, was written or illustrated by other, uncredited writers or artists, ghosting under Kane’s name.
In the Batman mythos, Batman is the alter-ego of Bruce Wayne, a billionaire industrialist and philanthropist who was driven to fight crime after his parents were murdered before his eyes at the age of eight. The identity of the mugger traditionally is known as the small-time criminal Joe Chill, though recent comics have been somewhat vague on the identity of the killer of Wayne’s parents (the 1989 Tim Burton movie Batman presented the Joker as the killer of Wayne’s parents). In the comics and animated series, physician and social worker Leslie Thompkins was there to give loving comfort to the traumatized Bruce. Depending on the adaptation, he was then raised on the Wayne Manor estate by uncle Philip Wayne and/or wise and loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth.
To avenge his parents’ death, Wayne spent his youth traveling the world, training himself to intellectual and physical perfection and learning a variety of crime-fighting skills, including criminology, forensics, martial arts, gymnastics, and disguise. He had entered such prestigious European universities as the Sorbonne and Oxford by the age of 14, and, in the film Batman Begins, attended Princeton University in New Jersey as a young adult. Throughout his teens, Bruce mastered all 127 forms of combat. He studied hunting techniques from Australian Aborigines, subterfuge and shadowy tactics from ninjas, and even ventriloquism from practitioners of the art. After returning to Gotham in his early twenties, Wayne made several harrowing and near-fatal forays into the world of crime-fighting before donning his now familiar costume. The costume may have been inspired by a Halloween “bat-suit” worn by his father before his death, and was also certainly influenced by both Wayne’s conviction that criminals are a “superstitious, cowardly lot” and his own fear of bats — at the age of six, he fell down a cavern, located beneath Wayne Manor (later to become the Batcave), that was swarming with the nocturnal creatures, wherein he was forever haunted by the event.
An important part of the mythos is that Batman – unlike Superman and most other costumed heroes – is a normal human being who does not possess any superhuman abilities. However, he has elevated himself to near-superhuman status through years of rigorous training. Batman is typically portrayed as a brilliant tactician and peerless martial-artist, possessed with a stoic personality and a strong desire for justice. In recent comics, Batman has often been presented as having an obsessive, humorless personality. Like Superman, the prominent persona of his dual identities has varied with time. Present comics seem to favor portraying the decadent playboy aspect of his character as the facade, while the masked and particularly dark, grim vigilante is marked as the “true” man. Usually, Batman is further separated from Bruce Wayne by the raspy voice he assumes while costumed. To the world at large, Bruce Wayne is an irresponsible, superficial playboy who lives off his family’s personal fortune and the profits of Wayne Enterprises, a major private technological firm that he has inherited. However, Wayne is also known for his contributions to charity, notably through the Wayne Foundation, a foundation devoted to helping the victims of crime and preventing people from turning to it. In recent comics, the idea was introduced of Batman being an urban legend and not believed by the denizens of Gotham City to actually exist; however, this notion is contradicted by various previous stories that indicate otherwise.
Wayne guards his secret identity well, as only a handful of individuals know of his superhero alter-ego, including Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash (Wally West), Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Alan Scott, Plastic Man, Aquaman and Green Arrow, as well as his butler Alfred. However, several villains have discovered his true identity over the years, most notably eco-terrorist Ra’s Al Ghul, Hugo Strange and Bane. Fortunately, most of Batman’s enemies have dismissed the notion of Bruce Wayne as Batman because of Wayne’s apparent dim-wittedness and self-absorption. The Joker has had opportunities to learn himself, but refused them since it would personally rob the mystique of his enemy.
Batman’s base of operations is Gotham City, a fictional city modeled after New York City – specifically altered to emphasize a “dark side,” in contrast to the modern, futuristic feel of Metropolis. In keeping with the “dark” theme and the nature of bats, Batman is usually presented as operating only at night. Whenever he is needed, the police activate a “Bat-Signal” (a searchlight with a bat-shaped insignia over the lens) that shines into the sky. He operates out of the Batcave, which contains all of his gadgets, weapons, and other paraphernalia. The 1966 television Batmobile was built by George Barris from a Lincoln Futura concept car.
Bruce designs the costumes, equipment, and vehicles he uses as Batman, which are produced by a secret military division of Wayne Industries. Over the years he has accumulated a large arsenal of specialized gadgets (compare with the later James Bond). The designs of most of Batman’s equipment share a common theme of dark coloration with a bat motif. A prime example is Batman’s car, the Batmobile, often depicted as an imposing black car with large tail fins that suggest a bat’s wings; another is his chief throwing weapon, the batarang, a bat-shaped boomerang. In proper practice, the “bat” prefix (as in batmobile or batarang) is no longer used by Batman himself when referring to his equipment, especially as this has been stretched to camp in some portrayals (namely the 1960s Batman live-action television show and the Super Friends animated series). The 1960s live-action television show arsenal included such ridiculous, satirical “bat-” names as a bat-computer, bat-rope, bat-scanner, bat-radar, bat-handcuffs, bat-phone, bat-bat, bat-pontoons, bat-drinking water dispenser, bat-camera with polarized bat-filter, shark repellent bat-spray, bat-funnel, alphabet soup bat-container, and emergency bat-turn lever.
The details of the Batman costume have changed repeatedly through the character’s evolution, but the most distinctive elements have remained consistent: a dark scalloped hem cape, with a cowl covering most of his face, with a pair of pointed ears suggesting those of a bat, and a stylized bat emblem on his chest. The most noticeable costume variations include a “yellow elliptical” bat-emblem vs. no ellipse, lighter colors (medium blue and light gray) vs. darker (black and dark gray), a bulky utility belt vs. a streamlined belt, and a long-eared cowl vs. short-eared. The development of Kevlar, Spectra and other types of body armor has prompted some modern creators to make Batman’s costume or parts of the costume bullet-proof. In Frank Miller’s seminal work The Dark Knight Returns, Miller explains that the yellow ellipse is used to attract gunfire to Batman’s chest, where his armor is heaviest.
Batman keeps most of his personal field equipment in a signature piece of apparel, a yellow utility belt. Over the years it has contained items such as plastic explosives, nerve toxins, batarangs, smoke bombs, a fingerprint kit, a cutting tool, a grappling hook gun, and a “re-breather” breathing device. In some of his early appearances, Batman used sidearms (see especially Detective Comics #32, September 1939), but since that time, he has eschewed their use because his parents were murdered by a gunman. Some stories have relaxed this rule to allow Batman to arm his vehicles for purposes of disabling other vehicles or removing inanimate obstacles.
Nicknames for Batman include the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the Masked Manhunter, and the World’s Greatest Detective; when teamed with his sidekick Robin, the two are nicknamed the Dynamic Duo. Batman is indeed a brilliant detective, criminal scientist, tactician, and commander; he is widely regarded as the keenest analytical mind on the planet and possesses an eidetic memory. His most lasting and popular stories have almost without exception been ones where he has displayed intelligence, cunning, and planning to outwit his foes, rather than merely out-fighting them. His deductive skills put him on par with Sherlock Holmes, and in several stories he has even met the “Great Detective” himself, proving himself to be a worthy successor to Holmes. Batman is the mastermind behind the Justice League of America, offering brains and tactical skills to guide the raw power of the other members of the team. In this capacity, he is often seen as the antithesis of Superman; in older comics, the two were close friends, while in current comics, the two share an uneasy friendship. He has also been briefly affiliated with other superhero teams, including a short-lived team he founded in the 1980s called “The Outsiders“.
The Silver Age of comic books is generally marked by comic book historians to have begun when DC comics re-created a number of its superhero titles during the late 1950s. Editor Julius Schwartz presided over the drastic changes made to a number of DC’s comic book characters, including Batman. After a decade of colorful, campy adventures, Batman was returned to his dark and mysterious roots, giving rise to the character that most fans are familiar with. For the next twenty-five years, Batman was the mysterious, dark avenger of the night; though the popularity of the Batman TV series of the 1960s overshadowed the comic books considerably. A plethora of writers and artists took the Caped Crusader on a number of interesting adventures; high points of the comic book series include the Ra’s Al Ghul storyline, written by Dennis O’Neil and drawn by Neal Adams who established the modern look of the character; and a brief eight-issue run of Detective Comics written by Steve Englehart that many fans considered to be the definitive Batman. The classic Joker story “The Laughing Fish” was written by Englehart.
Writer Frank Miller grounded Batman firmly in his grim and gritty roots with the comic book miniseries The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Batman: Year One. In both, Batman’s story runs parallel to that of Jim Gordon. In Year One, Gordon has not yet become the police commissioner, and is instead a middle-aged cop with a shady past working to redeem himself amidst Gotham’s corrupt police force, while Bruce Wayne learns the ropes as a costumed avenger. In The Dark Knight Returns, Gordon is seventy, and is forced into mandatory retirement from his post as police commissioner while Wayne returns from retirement as Batman. These stories gave Gordon’s character a depth he had seldom achieved before. The Dark Knight Returns served to boost sales and interest for mainstream comic books, particularly superhero comics, as its popularity was nothing short of phenomenal. It allowed Batman finally to shed the image of a campy, clownish character for which he was still known; and it also helped to raise the image of comic books so that they were no longer known solely as a form of children’s entertainment. The Dark Knight Returns also severed the friendly relationship of Batman and Superman, replacing it with a more antagonistic one.
Miller’s stories have set the tone for the franchise, including Tim Burton’s Batman movies, Warner Bros’ 1990s animated series (created by Bruce Timm), and the ongoing comic book series, and have served to inspire imitators both on the Batman franchise and on numerous other superhero comic books. Batman: Year One was also significant in that it cemented the concept of Year One, an early period during which Bruce Wayne was still a relatively inexperienced crimefighter and Batman had yet to become an established figure in Gotham. Since the original publication of Year One, many creators – notably Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale in their miniseries Batman: The Long Halloween (a follow-up to Year One) and Batman: Dark Victory – have set their stories in this era. The Batman title Legends of the Dark Knight in particular often features stories that take place during Year One.
The Year One Batman is characterized by his ongoing learning process, somewhat more down-to-earth approach to challenges, underdeveloped relationship with Gotham’s government, lack of connections to the rest of the superhero community, and less developed technological equipment, as well as a somewhat different costume, which notably lacks the yellow oval around the bat emblem on his chest. This version of Batman is the basis for the 2005 film Batman Begins (2005).
Many people consider the most controversial Batman story to be Batman: The Killing Joke, where the Joker cripples Barbara Gordon by shooting her in the stomach, which injured her spine and paralyzed her from the waist down. Immediately afterwards he kidnaps Commissioner Gordon with the intent of torturing him to death or into insanity. The story led to Barbara Gordon having to give up her career as Batgirl and eventually taking the identity and role of Oracle.
Batman’s love interests
Batman has had many romantic relationships with various female characters throughout his years fighting crime. The following characters do not include the various female hangers-on that Bruce has employed to maintain his image as a playboy. In several 1950s stories, Vicki Vale, a reporter for the Gotham Gazette newspaper, was shown as an occasional romantic interest of Batman. Vale appeared as a character in Tim Burton’s first Batman feature film, portrayed by Kim Basinger. The most well known is with Selina Kyle, alias Catwoman. Catwoman has fought Batman on various occasions, yet various hints have been dropped in the comics over the years of the two sharing a mutual attraction to each other. Formerly a jewel thief, Catwoman is now a hero who defends Gotham City with the help of Dr. Leslie Tompkhins. In pre-Crisis continuity, the Earth-Two versions of Batman and Catwoman were shown to have finally married in the 1950s, and later had a daughter, Helena Wayne (alias the Huntress) in 1957. Batman and Catwoman become romantically involved during the [Hush] story arc. Batman ends the relationship because he was unsure if Catwoman had been a willing participant in Hush’s plot.
A storyline in the late 1970s featured Silver St. Cloud, who managed to deduce the secret of Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, but she couldn’t handle being involved with someone in such a dangerous line of work. The two parted ways; a 2005 miniseries features a return appearance of Silver St. Cloud.
Another major woman in Batman’s life is Talia al Ghul, the daughter of the supervillain, Ra’s al Ghul. The villain has encouraged the relationship in hopes of recruiting Batman as his successor, and in the out-of-continuity graphic novel, Batman: Son of the Demon, the romance progressed to the bed and Talia bore his son (later named Ibn al Xu’ffasch in another out-of-continuity 4-part series “Kingdom Come”).
Wonder Woman and Batman briefly dated within the pages of the recent Justice League of America comics, but nothing came of the relationship and the two remain friends. This is echoed in the Justice League animated series (see below).
In other media, Batman was shown in Batman: The Animated Series as having had a relationship of some sort with magician Zatanna, the daughter of Zatara, the man who had taught Bruce Wayne everything he knew about escape artistry. While this relationship didn’t last, the two have remained friends, with Bruce contacting her from time to time for help. Wonder Woman has been hinted as a romantic interest of Batman in the series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, though the relationship in the series does not go as far as that of the JLA comics.
Batman in popular culture
Since his introduction, Batman has become one of the most famous comic book characters, and is known even to people who do not read the comics. In addition to DC’s comic books, he has appeared in movies, television shows, and novels. In 1953, the book Seduction of the Innocent by psychologist Frederic Wertham used Batman and Robin, among several examples, as evidence that the comic book medium corrupted the morals of the young. He suggested that Batman and Robin had a homosexual relationship, hinted at, among other things, by the bare legs in Robin’s costume and their happy domesticity as single men in a posh mansion. He also criticized the dark and violent portrayals of crime in comic books as promoting juvenile delinquency. The original inspiration for Wertham’s interpretation came from fans of Batman in the fifties, who brought the comic book to his attention as an example of the idealisation of a “homosexual lifestyle.” Their interpretation is seconded by Burt Ward, who, in his autobiographical Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights agrees that the characters could be interpreted as lovers, while the show’s double entendres and lavish camp help make the case persuasive. This is somewhat ironic, as the TV series was an attempt at a tamer, more family-friendly version of Batman which tried to be less violent than the comic series — one of Wertham’s arguments against comics. Wertham wrote another book in 1958 called Circle of Guilt, whose main claim was that Americans were starting to feel that they were less responsible for themselves and their actions, resulting in higher crime rates across the country. The culprit behind this crime, he claimed, was comic books and the cinema. Wertham succeeded in raising a public outcry, eventually leading to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority. The outcry particularly affected Batman comics; the characters of Bat-Girl and Batwoman were introduced to “prove” that Batman and Robin were not gay, and the stories took on a campier, lighter feel. Characters such as the Joker, who had previously been murderers, became characterized by themed crime sprees, such as committing robbery while dressed as famous jester characters from literature. Despite Wertham and “The Code,” the theme of ambiguous sexuality continued to be played upon by both the studios and the readers until the late sixties, when changing public morality necessitated an official split between Batman and any suggestion of sexuality with his young friend. Denny O’Neill separated the two heroes in 1969 by sending Dick Grayson to college, and female characters were eventually brought in as more proper foils to the main hero. Batman and Robin continue to be fairly popular figures in gay culture, and a well-known pornographic parody, titled Batdude and Throbbin plays on the association. Likewise, a series of skits on the US TV show Saturday Night Live titled The Ambiguously Gay Duo is generally seen as a parody of Batman’s and Robin’s relationship.
Supporting characters
Robin: Perhaps Batman’s most important allies have been several teenage sidekicks, all of whom had the title Robin (some of them advertised with the nickname “The Boy Wonder” or “The Teen Wonder”).
- Dick Grayson (1940): The original Robin, Dick Grayson has since grown up and become “Nightwing,” continuing as an assistant and ally to Batman. Many writers have portrayed his current relationship with Batman as strained. Nightwing is also the original leader of the Teen Titans (also known as the New Teen Titans, the New Titans and simply The Titans) and is the current leader of the Outsiders.
- Jason Todd (1983): Originally a virtual copy of Dick Grayson (orphaned circus acrobat trained by the Batman), Todd’s origin was later retconned so that he was a juvenile delinquent Batman took into his care. In 1989, Todd was murdered by the Joker in the controversial A Death in the Family storyline. Recently discovered alive after brutally beating the Joker with a crowbar as revenge.
- Tim Drake (1990): After Jason Todd’s death, Drake tracked down Grayson and urged him to become Robin once again, because Batman was growing unstable. When Grayson refused, Drake volunteered for the job – arguing that “Batman needs a Robin”. Although Drake retired, he has since returned.
- Stephanie Brown (2004): Formerly the Spoiler; became the fourth Robin and the only female Robin in current DC continuity. Stephanie was captured and fatally tortured by Black Mask, becoming the second Robin to perish.
- Carrie Kelly (1986): Although not technically part of current DC continuity, Carrie Kelly became the first female Robin (in real world chronology) in 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
- Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler (in effect, Batman’s batman), who knows his secret identity. Alfred is a trained combat medic in addition to an accomplished former thespian, and has used both skills in Batman’s service on many occassions.
- Batgirl: Several female crime-fighters have taken the name “Batgirl”. Unlike Robin, Batgirl has rarely debuted as a sanctioned member of the “Batman Family,” although they have all come to be accepted by the Batman to some extent (depending on continuity).
- In 1961, the original Bat-Girl was introduced as the sidekick to Batwoman (Kathy Kane).
- In 1967, the Silver Age Batgirl was introduced: Barbara Gordon, the daughter of James Gordon. She continued the role until an attack by the Joker left her a paraplegic. She later reinvented herself as Oracle, a research assistant for superheroes and the leader of the Birds of Prey female superhero team.
- In 1999, a third Batgirl was introduced: Cassandra Cain, the daughter of the assassin David Cain.
- James (“Jim”) Gordon: the police commissioner of Gotham City, with whom Batman has a strong (though secret and unofficial) working relationship. In the current DC Universe, James Gordon has retired and been replaced by Michael Akins, a hand-picked successor.
- In addition, other members of the Gotham City Police Department have played prominent roles, such as Harvey Bullock who was introduced as a subordinate secretly assigned to spy on and discredit Gordon. However, Bullock soon changed his mind and became loyal to the commissioner while having a deep suspicion of Batman. The 1990s comics added Detective Renee Montoya as a character adapted from the animated series. The GCPD are currently featured in their own series, Gotham Central, in which they investigate the unusual crimes that plague the city, in a personal effort to minimize Batman’s involvement.
- Huntress: Originally the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-Two, Helena Wayne followed in her late father’s footsteps. In current DC continuity, Helena Bertinelli, a daughter of the Bertinelli Mafia family, has become a crime-fighter. She has a difficult relationship with Batman, who feels that she is too rash and violent, and she works closely with Oracle/Barbara Gordon.
- Lucius Fox: Although far less privy to his personal life, Lucius Fox is a trusted close associate of Wayne as his business manager responsible for both Wayne Enterprises and The Wayne Foundation.
- The Justice League of America: Batman is a member of the superhero group, although is sometimes skeptical of the League’s more powerful and idealistic members. In some versions, Superman (often the team’s leader) is portrayed as having a strained relationship with Batman. In earlier versions, however, they are shown as “best friends” or the “World’s Finest” team. The “World’s Finest” nickname derives from the long-running Superman/Batman teamups in World’s Finest Comics. In current continutity, the pair are shown as friends with nonetheless different, and sometimes conflicting, crime-fighting philosophies. In the 1980s, when Superman had waning involvement in the team, Batman was portrayed as the leader of the Justice League.
- Ace the Bat-Hound: In 1955, a few months after the Superman mythos saw the introduction of Krypto, the Batman mythos saw the introduction and short duration of Ace, the Bat-hound, a German shepherd with a black mask covering most of his head. Ace later reappeared as Bruce’s guard dog and companion in the television series Batman Beyond, and is currently seen as a character in the 2005 animated series Krypto the Superdog.
- Batwoman: In 1958, Kathy Kane was introduced as Batwoman, but the character was mostly dropped from the series by the appearance of Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl in 1967. A different Batwoman appeared in the direct-to-video animated movie Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman in 2003.
- Azrael: Trained from birth to be the assassin and enforcer of a sinister secret society, Jean-Paul Valley was trying to forge a new destiny for himself with Bruce Wayne’s help when Wayne was crippled by Bane. Valley took up the Bat-mantle until Wayne recovered, but his Azrael conditioning began to take over, and he became violent and dangerous, and Bruce Wayne was forced to fight him to reclaim his identity as Batman. Valley went his own way, returning for the occasional guest appearance until his death.
Enemies of Batman
Batman’s foes form one of the most distinctive rogues galleries in comics. In the 1930s and 1940s the most familiar Batman villains evolved: the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, Two-Face, the Riddler, the Mad Hatter, the Scarecrow, and Clayface. Other well known villains emerged in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s including Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and Ra’s Al Ghul; Killer Croc and the Ventriloquist emerged in the 1980s, and Bane and Harley Quinn in the 1990s.
Batman in the Newspaper
From 1943 to 1946, Batman and Robin appeared in a syndicated daily and Sunday newspaper comic strip distributed by the McClure Syndicate. Other newspaper comic versions appeared in 1953, 1966, and 1989.
Books
In 2005 The Batman Handbook: The Ultimate Training Manual, written by Scott Beatty was published by Quirk Books (ISBN 1-59-474023-2). Written in the same style as The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series, the book explained the basics on how to be Batman. Amongst the skills included in the book are “How to Train a Sidekick”, “How to Execute a Backflip”, “How to Throw a Grappling Hook” and “How to Survive a Poison Gas Attack”.
Radio
Beginning in March 1945, Batman and Robin made regular appearances on the Superman radio drama on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Efforts were made to launch a Batman radio series in 1943 and again in 1950, but neither came to fruition.
Television
In the late 1960s, the ABC Network aired a Batman television series with Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The series aired for 120 episodes from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968 and was marked for its high camp. It continues to be the version many associate with the Batman character, despite its being perhaps the least representative of his depiction in comics; although some comic book stories were adapted to the TV series. Although it has been disliked and denounced by some serious Batman fans ever since, the live-action TV show was extraordinarily popular; at the height of its popularity, it was the only prime-time TV show besides Peyton Place to be broadcast twice each week as part of its regular schedule. (This was, however, inherent in its format, typically splitting full-hour stories into two half-hour episodes to be aired different nights of the same week).
There have also been several TV animated series starring Batman, produced by at least three different TV animation studios. The treatment of the character has varied with the decade; the 1990s and later series have had a darker, more sincere tone which has appealed to adult viewers, while still being accessible and entertaining to children. These cartoons include:
Movies
- Columbia Pictures released two 15-chapter, live-action movie serials, Batman (1943) and Batman and Robin (1949).
- Batman (1966), the first feature-length adaptation, based on the TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward.
- Batman (1989), directed by Tim Burton, and starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. This movie introduces Batman as a brooding vigilante and dispenses with the campy tone. It relied heavily on the dark atmosphere set by the Frank Miller graphic novel: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and the comic run, Batman: Year One.
- Batman Returns (1992), also directed by Burton and starring Keaton, with Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman and Danny DeVito as the Penguin.
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) feature length spinoff of Batman: The Animated Series
- Batman Forever (1995), produced by Burton, directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Val Kilmer as Batman, Chris O’Donnell as Robin, Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, and Jim Carrey as the Riddler. The decision to continue the franchise without Burton or Keaton was controversial and opinions of the movie’s quality were mixed.
- Batman and Robin (1997), starring George Clooney as Batman, O’Donnell as Robin, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy. A huge critical and box office embarassment, with nipples on the batsuits, many believe it weakened the Batman franchise and superhero films in general.
- Batman Begins (2005), directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Detective Sergeant James Gordon, Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Ken Watanabe as Ra’s al Ghul and Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow. An origin story that reboots the film franchise and is independent from the previous Burton/Schumacher films.
- Batman 2 (2008), will be helmed by director Christopher Nolan yet again and will be written by David S. Goyer. Starring is Christian Bale as Batman, Gary Oldman as Sgt. Gordon, Mark Boone Jr. as Detective Arnold Flass, and Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth. Casting for The Joker has begun as early as 2005 following its release. The contenders to play the part are: Crispin Glover, Mark Hamill, Lachy Hulme, Sean Penn, Tim Roth, and Paul Bettany.
Several low-budget, unauthorized Batman movies have also been made, including Batman Dracula (1964) by Andy Warhol; Batman Fights Dracula (1967), made in the Philippines; and a second Filipino movie called Alyas Batman en Robin (1993). (Critics who have seen this movie say it is very poor quality.) Additionally, an independently funded self-promo film titled “Batman: Dead End” was produced by Sandy Collora in 2003, starring Clark Bartram as Batman. The film featured not only Batman but also Aliens and Predators from the popular 20th Century Fox film franchises, and generated considerable buzz. Another self-promo by Collora, a trailer for a World’s Finest film and also featuring Superman, followed in 2004.
Since 1997 Warner Bros. has released a number of episodes of Batman: The Animated Series on video (both VHS and DVD), including a volume one set of DVDs in July 2004 and volume two set in January 2005. One three-part episode involving a team-up with Superman (“World’s Finest”) is available on video as The Batman/Superman Movie. In addition to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a number of movies based on the animated series have been released direct-to-video: Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman.
