Detective Comics #27, May 1939. The first appearance of Batman. Art by Bob Kane.
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 owns. However, he is 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. He guards his secret so well that his true identity is known only to a handful of individuals, including Superman. Occasionally, a villain will be struck by the idea that Bruce Wayne is Batman, only to dismiss the possibility because Wayne clearly doesn't have the brains or the nerve to be Batman.
Batman operates in Gotham City, a fictional city modeled after New York City -- specifically altered to emphasize a "dark side," in contrast to Metropolis. In keeping with the "dark" theme, Batman is usually presented as operating only at night. Whenever he is needed, the police activate a "Batsignal" that shines into the sky. He operates out of the Batcave, a cavern located beneath Wayne Manor, which contains all of his gadgets, weapons, and other paraphernalia.
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 superhuman ability. However, he has elevated himself to near-superhuman status through years of rigorous training.
The 1966 television Batmobile was built by George Barris from a Lincoln Futura concept car.
Bruce designs and builds the costumes, equipment, and vehicles he uses as Batman. 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 being dark-colored and suggest a bat. 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 versions (namely the '60s TV show and the Super Friends series). The 60's TV show arsenal included such ridiculous "bat-" names as a bat-computer, bat-rope, bat-scanner, bat-radar, bat-handcuffs, bat-phone, bat-bat, bat-drinking water dispenser, bat-camera with polarized bat-filter, shark repellent bat-spray, bat-funnel and alphabet soup bat-container.
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 of 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. This use of armor has been used to explain why Batman once wore the yellow ellipse on his costume since it would attract enemy fire to where he wore the heaviest armor.
He keeps most of his personal field equipment in a signature piece of apparel, a yellow utility belt. It has contained items such as smoke bombs, batarangs, a fingerprint kit, a cutting tool, explosives, a grappling hook gun, a breathing device, etc. In some of his early appearances, Batman used sidearms, but for the past several decades he has eschewed the use of firearms (that being the method of his parents' murder). Some stories have relaxed this rule to allow exceptions such as arming his vehicles, for the purpose of disabling vehicles or removing inanimate obstacles.
Nicknames for Batman include the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, and the World's Greatest Detective. Batman is also a brilliant detective, criminal scientist, tactician, and commander.
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; 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".
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.
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 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 Gotham Police 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.
Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler, as seen in Justice League.
Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne's loyal butler (in effect, Batman's batman), who knows his secret identity.
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 Cain.
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 life, Lucius Fox is a 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 other versions, they either were always "best friends" or fostered a mutual respect for one-another. In the 1980's, when Superman had waning involvement in the team, Batman was portrayed as the leader of the team.
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 reappears as Bruce's guard dog and companion in the television series Batman Beyond.
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.
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.
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.
Batman #1, Spring 1940. Art by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson.
Batman is known as being an unusually (though not uniquely) grim superhero, particularly for a Golden Age character. He is driven by vengeance, and wears a frightening costume to scare criminals. The contrast to characters like Superman is stark. The grimness is not a constant; in some incarnations of the character (notably the television series of the 1960s, and many of the comic books from the 1950s and 60s), it evaporates into camp and even comedy. In fact, during the 1950s (when the popularity of superhero comics had declined considerably), Batman and Robin engaged in a number of science fiction adventures that resembled the comic book stories of Superman of the time.
They had a number of time travel adventures, traveling into outer space regularly; and Batman even acquired a crime-fighting mascot (Ace, The Bat-Hound) and an annoying extra-dimensional imp named Bat-Mite, who had powers similar to Superman's own Mr. Mxyzptlk.
In 1953, the book Seduction of the Innocent by psychologist Frederic Wertham used Batman and Robin, among several examples, to attack the comic book medium. He insinuated that Batman and Robin had a pedophilic relationship, and asserted that the bare legs in Robin's costume encouraged homosexuality. He also criticized the dark and violent portrayals of crime in comic books as promoting juvenile delinquency.
He 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 odd themed crime sprees, such as committing robbery while dressed as famous jester characters from literature. Most current comic book readers regard Wertham's accusations, particularly those about Batman being gay, as utterly baseless; though Batman and Robin continue to be fairly popular figures in gay culture.
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.)
The first issue of The Dark Knight Returns, the series that redefined Batman 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 gave a shot in the arm to the entire mainstream comic book industry, as its popularity was nothing short of phenomenal. It allowed Batman to finally 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 forever 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.
Current comics starring Batman:
Batman
Detective Comics
Legends of the Dark Knight
Batman: Gotham Knights
Superman/Batman
Current comics where Batman does not star, but appears regularly or from time to time as a guest character:
Batgirl
Birds of Prey
Catwoman
Gotham Central
JLA
JLA Classified
Justice League Unlimited
Nightwing
Robin
Previous comics with long runs featuring Batman:
Batman Family
Batman and The Outsiders
The Brave and the Bold
Shadow of the Bat
World's Finest Comics
Batman has also been featured in numerous miniseries and guest starred in many other comics.
Batman in other media
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.
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
Burt Ward as Robin and Adam West as Batman from the 1960s television series 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:
1960s - Batman/Superman Adventure Hour by Filmation
1970s - Super Friends by Hanna-Barbera Productions
1970s - The New Adventures Of Batman by Filmation
1980s - Super Powers: Galactic Guardians by Hanna-Barbera
1990s - Batman: The Animated Series by Warner Bros.
2000s - Batman Beyond (a.k.a. Batman of the Future in Europe and Latin America) by Warner Bros.
2000s - Justice League animated series by Warner Bros.
2000s - The Batman by Warner Bros.
Movies
A number of Batman theatrical films have also been made.
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. Many regard this as the definitive superhero movie.
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 flop, many believe it weakened the Batman franchise and superhero films in general.
Batman Begins directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al-Ghul and Cillian Murphy as the Scarecow. An origin story that reboots the film franchise and is independent from the previous Burton/Schumacher films.
A Catwoman movie starring Halle Berry was released in 2004, but it was unconnected to the Batman franchise, featuring a character markedly different from the Catwoman of Batman Returns. br>
