Hello BOF’ers as well as any non-BOF’er who might’ve stumbled upon this article…WELCOME!
I have been a Batman fan for as long as I remember, so I’m talking at least a half century at this point in my life. Needless to say, I’ve witnessed a lot of Batmanning in my day.
I have seen Batman exist solely in comics, TV show reruns, and Saturday morning cartoons, to what the character is today: An American (and worldwide) cultural icon that exists in all sorts of mediums.
In honor of Batman’s 80th anniversary, I thought it would be fun (for me at least) to write about some of my personal favorite Batman “things” in different mediums — film (animated and live-action), comics, TV, and more!
Enjoy!
CLICK HERE FOR PART 1
LIVE-ACTION FILM – BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
June 1997.
BATMAN & ROBIN is released and the Batman film franchise went totally off the rails.
Batman on film, a lot of folks believed, was dead…as did yours truly.
As much as I loved BATMAN ’89 and really liked BATMAN FOREVER, I was the mind that the definitive Batman film had yet to be made.
Would B&R be the way that Batman on film would go down? Really?
No, it would not.
Thanks to director Christopher Nolan, Batman on film was resurrected with arguably the genre’s best comic book/superhero origin tale with BATMAN BEGINS.
While THE DARK KNIGHT might be a better “film”, BATMAN BEGINS is my favorite Batman movie to date and I don’t know if I’ll see one that tops it. One more thing…
BEGINS being made was the reason I started BOF back in 1998. OK, ONE MORE one more thing…
Tell me you don’t still get chills and/or a tad misty-eyed watching this…
GRAPHIC NOVEL/TPB – BATMAN: YEAR ONE
“Ladies. Gentlemen. You have eaten well.
You’ve eaten Gotham’s wealth. It is spirit. Your feast is nearly over.
From this moment on…none of you are safe.”
Boy, I struggled over this one.
It was between BATMAN: YEAR ONE and BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.
I clearly remember the first time I read YEAR ONE. I said to myself as I read, “THIS is the Batman I’ve been waiting for!”
Thus, YEAR ONE won out because, like THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY, the gritty and “realistic” depiction of Batman represents “My Batman” more than any other incarnation of the character.
Also, it’s one of the greatest Batman stories of all time.
ANIMATED FILM/THEATRICALLY RELEASED – (TIE) BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM and THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE
Yeah, I had to cheat on this one because, well, I just couldn’t pick between the two.
So sue me.
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM — as the great Michael Uslan says — is arguably the best Batman film period.
And this scene, WOW…
THE LEGO BATMAN movie — like the animated BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD TV series — is a straight-up love letter to Batman and the Batman mythos.
If you don’t like that, then you might not be a Batman fan.
Come at me, bro!
Both of these movies are in my rotation which I watch on a kinda-sorta regular basis (unlike BATMAN RETURNS and BATMAN v SUPERMAN which suck and I’ll never watch again).
So, what are you’re favorites of these 3 categories? Post ’em in the comments section below! – Bill “Jett” Ramey
GO TO PART 3
#Batman80 #LongLiveTheBat
