What has been the best Batman in history? We review the eight best adaptations (and some of the worst)

Since its birth in 1939, in the mythical number 27 of Detective Comics , the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger has gone through multiple mutations in comics. From the dark detective and influenced by the pulp thriller of the time to the carefree antics of the fifties; from the recent post-Frank Miller reinterpretation to the panoply of pop references by Grant Morrison.

And that multiplicity of readings, which make the Bat Man almost a blank canvas in which artists maintain a minimum constants (the suit, the origin and little else), moves to film and television in its many incarnations.

From the colorful verbena of Joel Schumacher to the seriousness of Christopher Nolan, from the joyful sixties dementia of the television series to the numerous and very particular animated adaptations, passing through the absurd Lego Batman movie , which combines a parodic prism with all the Batman that in the world have been. Today we collect the best and the worst Batman from the big and small screen. Unfold the wings.

1. Batman (1966-1968)

A series still unclassifiable and surprising today. No matter how many times you've seen it: the gag of the Dynamic Duo climbing the wall of the building, the fights with onomatopoeias or the vibrant soundtrack - Neal Hefti's main theme included, of course - keep their freshness intact.

Or even it has multiplied: compared with the somewhat imposing seriousness (we speak of a guy who dresses as a bat because he is traumatized by the death of his parents) of the Batman of recent times, the television series created by William Dozier and starring by Adam West and Bud Ward is directly subversive. Do not forget that this good-natured Batman, adventurous, firm, padrazo, ridiculously straight, is also a canonical Batman, as anyone who has read the comics of the fifties knows.

The Batman television series is not a voluntary comedy: it is very aware of being silly humor and for all audiences, as can be seen from the action sequences, the secondary characters, the villains' galleries and the own interpretations of the great ones West and Ward.

Compared with the somewhat imposing seriousness of the Batman of recent times, the series is directly subversive
And many of his great moments are among the best of the character, like the deservedly legendary gag of the 1966 film that was shot as an extension of the series, in which Batman does not know how to get rid of a striking comic bomb to explode because it is found successively with bands, ladies with baby carriages, groups of nuns and some adorable ducklings.

Seen today, the sequence works as joking mockery of the strict morality that Batman has always shown, vengeful but unable to execute the villains. The perfect antidote for overdoses of meddling Batmans and with their heads eternally in heavy clouds.

2. Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992)

A couple of films as essential or more than those directed by Nolan to understand the conception of Batman in today's pop culture. Let's not forget that they are the productions that gave the kick-off to the Batmanía. And they also shelved the humorous Batman of the sixties and the serious-but-not-so much of the seventies, focusing the focus on the revolutionary Batman: The Return of the Lord of the Night that Frank Miller wrote and drew in 1986.

The first film is a somewhat stubborn production because it tries to please too many fronts: it is faithful to the comics (with winks to several periods of the character), but it is also a creation of Tim Burton . She is fascinated with the overwhelming personality of Jack Nicholson's Joker, but makes concessions to the commercial cinema of the time.

Enter elements that do not fit (yet) on screen, such as the Batmobile or, ehm, the action sequences, but at the same time we are facing a perfectly recognizable Batman. The election of Michael Keaton is great, capable of composing a vulnerable Bruce Wayne and at the same time an imposing justice without the need to fall into the ridiculousness of Christian Bale (do not forget that the 'I'm Batman' paradigm is Keaton's creation).

And although the film hobbles at times and has severe problems with its script (to turn to the Joker in the assassin of the parents of Wayne is one of the worse approaches than the mythology of Batman has never received) the result is very remarkable.

The election of Michael Keaton is great, capable of composing a vulnerable Bruce Wayne and at the same time an imposing vigilante without having to fall into the ridiculousness of Christian Bale
Batman Returns , however, is already a hundred percent movie Burton. And it's funny, because it contains some of the most recognizable elements of the franchise, with the impressive Catwoman and the Penguin in the lead. However, the production design and the atmosphere are one hundred percent Tim Burton.

It is a film that is easy to take mania, because as a superhero film is a disaster: the torment of Bruce Wayne is artificial, Gotham City - unlike the great scenes of the first delivery - is not threatening, but simply spectacular and Above all, he imposed for the remains the script structure of two villains (one more than another) allies against a hero, a structural cancer that even today genre films have a hard time escaping.

Still, he has ideas as modern as the freak that comes out of the sewers to stand for election (and win), is superior in everything to the mediocre moments of the Nolan trilogy , and visually remains a retro, capricious enjoyment and personal.



3. Batman Forever (1995)

The most balanced film of Warner's original tetralogy is more Batman than Burton's, while still being a film with Schumacher's stamp, but without reaching the extremes of dementia of Batman and Robin . Batman Forever - forget the title, yes - is one of the best examples of a Batman movie that is both light but with an interesting dramatic charge.

Val Kilmer does not have a physicist as clearly Bruce Wayne as Michael Keaton or George Clooney, but knows how to endow the character with a depth load that takes him beyond the mere masked psychopath, possibly because the original intention of Schumacher was to adapt the comic Batman: Year One , focused on the first twelve months of Batman's life.

But in addition, Batman Forever is a party thanks to two perfect villains: Tommy Lee Jones as Two Faces (in a role that could have played Clint Eastwood) and Jim Carrey as Riddler (in a villain for which Mark was considered Hammill, which undoubtedly would have nailed it: remember his Trickster for the noventera series -and very influenced by Batman de Burton- of Flash and his exceptional dubbing work for the animated Joker).

"Batman Forever" is one of the best examples of a Batman movie that is both light but with an interesting dramatic charge
The action sequences at last have some chicha and all the elements inseparable from the character (the suit, the gadgets) are finally credible and not a mere convention with the mythology of the hero.

And the colorful and verbena brand of the house, well ... certainly will not be very to the taste of all the batfans (and certainly it will be insufferable for new ones, those who indissociably identify Batman with the thickness of Christian Bale - that for true, he did the tests to play Robin before the role of Chris O'Donnell-), but none of that prevents this from being an impeccable bat-divertimento.


4. Batman and Robin (1997)

The fourth film of the initial phase of the character at the hands of Warner and the second directed by Joel Schumacher can be accused of many things, but the truth is that something was an indisputable pioneer: in 1997, times before the advent of social networks and the overcrowding of the Internet, and with it, the digital hatred capable of making executives shuffle uncomfortably in their seats, managed to mobilize the fans en bloc to cry out against it .

Batman and Robin did not like it. But it did not like to extremes that burst the future of the franchise in the cinema and canceled the possibility of sequels until the reformulation of Christopher Nolan, which in many ways can be understood as an operation calculated to show that Batman was anything but the Batman of Schumacher

That is to say, the Batman of Nolan is the opposite diameter to suits with nipples, planes of the Batman package, a combat on ice, scenes that seem to come from a B-series party hall in Las Vegas ... The reaction was negative to the point that poor Schumacher has been apologizing since then. Literally

"Batman and Robin" did not like to extremes that burst the future of the franchise in the cinema and nullified the possibility of sequels until the reformulation of Christopher Nolan
Does that derision deserve? No: it's true that the film has a shrill and demented tone that leaves the television series of the sixties at the level of a Shakespearean tragedy, but the film is not a mistake: it is perfectly aware that the Bat-VISA is a joke and that we are in front of a crazy comic of superheroes gone screw.

Even George Clooney happens to be one of the most credible Bruce Waynes of the franchise. A pity that his spectacular failure at the box office and the rejection of an Internet still in the making but already able to organize through forums and webs of fans would finally shelve a Batman perfectly aware that he is a guy disguised as a bat, with all the ridiculous greatness that entails.

5. Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995)

For many fans, the ultimate adaptation of Batman. Thanks to its condition of animated production can allow a certain visual lightness and dispense with the continuous rational justification that any adaptation in real image needs, but at the same time takes itself very seriously: its main visual influence are Tim's films Burton and a kind of very personal version of the art-deco adapted to the peculiarities of Gotham City.

The dubbing work is also spectacular: in the original version, Kevin Conroy reveals himself as an absolutely perfect, dry and sometimes caricatural Batman, but he does fall into the guttural excesses of Christian Bale. And what of Mark Hammill as the Joker: an interpretation also at the level of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.

Always keeping an appropriate tone for the children's audience, the series was able to deal with adult themes related to Batman: the responsibility of being a hero, guilt, revenge and madness. Among his most memorable achievements, undoubtedly, is the creation of the incomparable Harley Quinn, today turned into a popular character thanks to the movie Suicide Squad , and starring alongside the Joker one of the best comics of Batman of all time, Amor Loco , that respected the aesthetics and characters of the animated series.

The series was able to deal with adult themes related to Batman: the responsibility of being a hero, guilt, revenge and madness
This Batman stylized design would appear in other great animated series based on DC heroes, such as League of Justice and Unlimited Justice League , and in a good number of movies. Between them it is possible to emphasize, without a doubt, Batman: The mask of the ghost , an absolute marvel that got to be released in cinemas.

6. The Intrepid Batman (2008-2011)

The bright back of the animated series is The Intrepid Batman ( The Brave and the Bold in its original version), the other great bat animation series. Where in that whole were chiaroscuro, expressionism and sinister details, here the production opts for fun, polished jokes and a spectacular secondary school, since the grace of the series is that Batman is always accompanied by another DC character.

So the series, its light tone and for all audiences is not only a party for batfans, but also for the connoisseurs of the DC universe , who will come here with such beloved children as Guy Gardner, Batmito or Plastic Man.

We are before an oasis of action, humor and adventure in a universe that sometimes sins of taking itself too seriously.
With some designs of delicious characters (the Joker, for example, refers to the very first version of the character in comics, a middle ground between the iconic card of the poker deck and the Conrad Veidt of the film The Man Who Laughs , Genuine original inspiration of the character) and a visual finish that rivals the very same animated series , we are before an oasis of action, humor and adventure in a universe that sometimes sins to take itself too seriously.

Generated, in turn, a great video game for Nintendo consoles that also works as a mindless counterpart of the seriota Arkham franchise.

Although it is the most outstanding animated series of Batman after The animated series , The Intrepid Batman is not the only nor the last. After its cancellation came the very ephemeral Beware the Batman , shot in CGI and showing a dark and sinister Batman again, and also a first-timer, before becoming the best detective in the world.

7. The Dark Knight (2008)

If he is not the most influential Batman of all time (despite referring, once again, to that of Frank Miller), he is not lacking: the pseudo-realistic, psychological, serious and serious approach to the superhero gave him a patina of respectability that pleased the fans, sometimes somewhat in need of love from their elders (culturally speaking).

Putting the accent on the technological and ninja part of the matter, which would pick up, expand and improve videogames of the Arkham franchise, Nolan strives to make everything in his three Batman is credible: the car-tank (one of the most impeccable designs of the trilogy), the suit-armor, the structure of fall from grace and rise from the ashes.

Nolan gave to Batman blockbuster works and although perhaps he overloaded the psychological inks from three to the room, his influence is incalculable. Nolan, in addition, tends to continuous underlining, which in a scarcely subtle character like Batman, sometimes feels better and sometimes worse.

The best film in the trilogy of Nolan starring Batman is the second: you can do without the narrative moroseness related to the origin of the character and that ballast something Batman Begins and present an enemy at his height, the impeccable Heath Ledger Joker .

Nolan gave to Batman blockbuster works and although perhaps he overloaded the psychological inks from three to the room, his influence is incalculable
It is not exactly the masterpiece that many would like, but it is a film that portrays effectively how to a gridded mind (for better or for worse) like Batman's it feels good to face the pure psychotic unpredictability of the Joker. The touchstone for the current respectability enjoyed by the genre thanks to Ledger's Oscar.

8. Lego Batman

And to show that not everything in the current batpanorama has to be clouds of drama and frowning gestures, the Lego Batman recovers the best of the carefree pop fun of the sixties Batman and embellishes it with some of the frivolity of Schumacher and elements. of different animated incarnations of the character (from the already very canonical Paul Dini, creator of the animated series , to the cameos in the gigantic Teen Titans Go! ).

The Batman of Lego was born in 2006 as a set of construction of the company, but it obtained its definitive consecration with the videogame of 2007 Lego Batman: The video game , to which they followed a couple of direct sequels, plus the games based on the Lego Movie and that of the Lego Dimensions franchise. A whole panoply of digital entertainments that lay the foundations of a reinterpretation code of Batman's mythology in which, essentially, everything is canon. All.

In Batman's Lego games there is no drama and a lot of absurd sense of humor , like demountable figures that are aware that they are, and that is why they can afford to accept in their universe all the Batmans that have existed in comics and films. The Lego Batman is the maximum sum of all this: you can use any of the suits, the vehicles, the scenarios, the bat-weapons.

The Lego Batman recovers the best of the carefree pop fun of the Batman of the sixties and dresses it with some of the frivolity of Schumacher and elements of different animated incarnations of the character
It is a dream come true for the unprejudiced fans of a character with decades of history and who for elementary logical reasons can not carry on his back with such a strong past (unless it is scripted by Grant Morrison , but that is another question).

lego batman
These video games were accompanied by minor animated films and essentially advertising of the Lego sets, but his definitive consecration as a character with a life of his own came with his secondary but memorable role in La Legopelícula .

The success of this one has made him worthy of his own film as protagonist, and the elements that made the games great are replicated: this Batman lives in a universe where all the previous elements, from Tim Burton's car to Frank Miller's tank, going through the anti-shark bat-repellent series of the sixties makes sense. They make sense as a tribute to an icon: that's why, apart from that, the Lego Batman movie is called, for once, to agree with all the fans. It can only be that way with a celebration of the whole history of the bat-man.

... And a few bad ones: Batman (1943)

Batman starred in a 15-episode serial in 1943 that had Lewis Wilson in the role of Batman and Douglas Croft in Robin's role. Usually put as an example of how complicated it is that the costumes of superheroes, so colorful in the comics, are good on the screen.

At that time Batman was only four years old and his characteristics were not as defined as today: that is why Batman is here serving the government as a hooded vigilante who limits himself to slap spies and face the yellow threat (personified not as the typical Batmanian grotesque villain, but like the terrible smuggler Tito Daka). Out, then, the detective plots that in the comics had a character more like a pulp novel of suspense.

And still, the serial has its value. To begin with, he established a couple of essential codes within Batmanian mythology. On the one hand, the secret entrance into the batcueva through the grandfather clock in the Wayne mansion. On the other, the appearance of Alfred, the butler of Bruce Wayne, like a stretched footman with a mustache: until then, in the comics he had been an overweight servant.

This series can be put as an example of how complicated it is that the costumes of superheroes, so showy in the comics, look good on the screen.
The success of the serial, in addition, led to a sequel, Batman and Robin , in 1949. Both serials were traced and re-released in films such as An Evening with Batman and Robin in 1965, and their extraordinary acceptance gave free rein to a version of Bat Man very superior, but undoubtedly influenced by the serial: the televised Batman of Adam West of 1966.

The Dark Knight Rises

That's what Christopher Nolan's Batman is like: they sneak between the best and the worst of Batman of all time. And if it was the Heath Ledger Joker and the certain balance between dramatic and comic elements that made The Dark Knight stand out as an adaptation, if not impeccable, at least if it is quite consistent, it is very similar aspects that make El Caballero Oscuro Dark Knight: The Legend Renace , closing of the trilogy, in a disaster.

The habits of the worst current blockbusters , with the destructuring of the script of the movies in set-pieces barely connected to each other, like a film of sketches , does not sit well with this film so paid for itself that it is not capable of account that his conclusion, with Batman fleeing in a hurry with a huge comic bomb in tow reminds too much of the aforementioned and hilarious gag of the Batman bomb of the sixties.

The result is not exactly a bad movie, just a dead end to which a hero as versatile as Batman should not be doomed
And if the Ledger Joker gave consistency to the fringes that were left loose in The Dark Knight , giving even motivation and drama to the Batman movements, in The Legend Renace Bane has the opposite effect: the interpretative excess of Tom Hardy makes it in a caricature that fits more with the villains of the Schumacher movies (only that those were aware of the environment in which they moved).

Although the worst of the show is without a doubt the own Bale , that if in previous films already was in the eternal tightrope between the gravity and the risión, here it is sent already in plate to the voice of sexual telephone harasser, that does not do highlight the involuntary comedy in which Nolan ends up turning the franchise. The result is not exactly a bad movie, just a dead end to which a hero as versatile as Batman should not be led.

Batman vs. Superman: The dawn of justice

If there is something that makes clear that maremagnum of confusion and ideas that is disdainful is The Dawn of Justice is that Zack Snyder has severe difficulties to understand the nature and behavior of superhero myths.

He already proved it by taking over The Man of Steel in 2013, with one of the most misguided film people in history (yes, more than the latest version of The Fantastic Four , more than Superman IV , the Cannon ). And it goes on with Batman vs. Superman , who introduces us to a Batman turned into a sociopath who puts his agenda of resentments before any other code of behavior. Which undoubtedly gives us an interesting reading of the US socio-political news, but it's not exactly what we expect from Batman.

If there is one thing that makes this maremagnum of confusion and discredited ideas clear, Zack Snyder has severe difficulties in understanding the nature and behavior of superheroic myths.
It is true that Ben Affleck as the Bat Man has been one of the most praised aspects of the Snyder film, but it is still a sub-Nolan creation with few details of its own identity.

We will see what happens with the movie of the hero who will not-direct-Affleck, and if he will remedy the great problems of this new version (of the trail of corpses that leaves behind the null attention to the facet detective of the hero), but for the moment an emotional Batman that moves by blind impulses is far from the cold, reflective and human justice that we have seen even in the most parodic incarnations of the character.