The caped crusader. The World’s Greatest Detective. Similar build and facial features to notorious playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne. Batman was first introduced March 30th 1939 in the 27th issue of Detective Comics, more commonly known now as DC comics.
A superhero with the power of being absurdly rich and having a fantastic personal trainer, Batman stalks the streets of Gotham city to rid it from crime. Pillars of the underworld such as The Penguin and Black Mask supply seemingly unlimited goons for Batman to send to hospital but vows never to kill, sticking to his moral compass apart from all of those times he doesn’t. Maybe more of a guideline than a rule. Faced with tackling a mental health crisis and a government corrupt from the top down, there is a relatableness that allows the audience to look past these foibles. Isolating himself to Wayne Manor, he’s pushed away all those he cares about bar an English butler and the occasional begrudging team-up with various sidekicks. When you include the full body latex suit he performs this all in, it paints a picture of his own trauma suffered early on as a child that he has to relive in each media rendition.
And there are a lot of renditions, with the Batman film franchise being the highest grossing in the DC Cinematic Universe (even if Aquaman outdrew all of them). A superhero is only as good as their supervillains, so when your biggest villain gets their own 18 rated blockbuster, you can see where Batman’s longevity comes from. As well as spin-offs such as Birds of Prey, there has been much success with animated series, toys and video games to accompany the graphic novels. In Film, we’ll be coming up to the 8th portrayal of the character, Robert Pattison donning the cape in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. So, in preparation, I thought I would plug in some of my gaps and explore the Gotham cinematic universe, covering some highs, lows and… different versions of the Batman.