Na na na na na na na. Batman!
For as long as I can remember, Batman has been a pivotal part of my creative life.
Since sporting a baggy ‘Batman For President’ sweatshirt as a little kid riding on my Uncle Bruce’s Honda motorcycle, watching Adam West’s campy rendition in reruns of the vintage Batman TV show, buying the debut issue of Frank Miller and Klaus Jansons’s pioneering The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, or attending the opening of director Tim Burton’s Batman at the Westwood Theater in Los Angeles, this pop culture treasure has remained relevant to me.
My love for the character extends to late-night gaming sessions caffeinated on gallons of Diet Coke playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, interviewing Batman: The Animated Series’ creator Bruce Timm, or sitting beside the legendary Batman artist Neal Adams for hours at comic cons, Batman’s shadowy influence, cool demeanor, and psychological complexity seem as alluring and ever-watchful as ever.
Whether he’s known as the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader or the main component of the Dynamic Duo with his trusty sidekick Robin the Boy Wonder, this fearless vigilante and champion of justice who first appeared in the pages of Detective Comics #27 back in May of 1939 – one of the best Dark Knight stories – is perhaps the greatest fictional character ever created. Imbued with equal parts of Zorro, Sherlock Holmes, and the pulp icon called The Shadow, Batman is the embodiment of someone who has channeled their inner pain to become a beacon of hope and righteousness.Batman through the ages
Cloaked in gothic black and equipped with an arsenal of ‚wonderful toys‘, Batman is an intimidating hero for the ages, one that, due to his absence of any true superhuman powers, relies on his keen intellect, lightning reflexes, physical prowess, and preternatural powers of deduction.
Created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, Batman was born in pre-World War II America during the Golden Age of comics when there were clear distinctions between good and evil. The billionaire playboy industrialist Bruce Wayne became a nocturnal crusader after his parents were shot dead in Crime Alley after a showing of The Mark of Zorro in Gotham City. He took up the emblem of a bat to instill fear in criminals and honed his mind and body to sheer perfection.
Over the decades the character would be reinvented in myriad media, appearing in the ‘40s in matinee Batman serials at the local movie house after receiving his own Batman solo comic and remaining a fixture in DC’s Detective Comics line – if you’re wondering where these fit in a timeline, here’s how to watch the Batman movies in order.
