There is no denying that comics have taken center stage today as our appetite for the fantasies of the unreal have grown in proportion. With tent-poles like the Avengers – Age of Ultron smashing all box office records, even a layman could assess the craziness and the frenzy behind these mega – comic live adaptations brought to the silver screen. Where Marvel’s been cashing on the Avengers, DC Comics and Warner Bros. aren’t leaving any stone unturned in rolling out their next Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice. Playing it smart, DC is wheeling two of its legendary and iconic superheroes into a brawl and who better to steer that epic battle than the 300 director, Zack Synder. After over a year’s speculation, recently Zack tweeted the latest image of the Batsuit Ben Affleck would be donning for his role as the Caped Crusader in Dawn of Justice.
As a tribute to the Dark Knight on his 76th Anniversary along with the release of the first official look at the Ben Affleck’s Batman, we at AnimationXpress.com would like to first steer you back into the 1960s, to the time when actually our beloved Batman leaped out from the comic strips right onto the screen. Here’s a glimpse on the 10 Batsuits that have graced the silver screen over the ages.
Adam West’ Batman (1960s)
Here’s a look at the very first Batman brought onto the live-action space back in the1960s’ TV series and also in the first feature film of the Caped Crusader – Batman (1966).
Straight out from the comics, Adam West’s Batsuit identically matches tone-to-tone of that penciled out in the Golden Age of the comic strips. No gritty context to the suit, no buffed up muscular lines, this suit tells you Batman is no hero with super powers but a man straight out of the comics. The traditional black underpants and fore-armed gloves over the body hugging grey costume with the signature yellow bat emblem placed just above the belly and an enlarged yellow utility belt make Adam look as the jolly hero running the streets for a Halloween party. Even the cape is short and reaches only to the knee length adding more to the comic tone of the TV show. However West’s Batman indeed deserves the credit of livening up the Dark Knight especially at the time when comics were losing their sheen back in the old days.
Micheal Keaton’s Batman (1989)
More than two decades later, Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) glorified the orphaned Bruce Wayne’s darker side and the resulting Batsuit just thrives on that idea. Stored inside a large vault in the Batcave, Keaton’s Batsuit clearly draws inspiration from the Batman comics where the vigilante takes on criminals by inflicting fear into them. As the Gotham’s Dark Knight, Keaton brought that out effectively in his darker and much more practical suit. Apart from losing all the grey in the costume, Burton does a credible job in ditching the underpants too. Dipped in pitch black with the shiny Black and Yellow Bat emblem and a much more practical looking utility belt, Keaton passed off well as Batman. Also one of the strongest elements of this suit is the cape and its bat-like attachment over the shoulders which make Keaton’s Batsuit resemble an enlarged bat when he spreads his wings. While being comic-friendly, this muscle-armored Batsuit doesn’t lose its practicality for the crime-fighter. However in the bid to stay true to the comics, this Batsuit’s cowl doesn’t allow the wearer to turn his head, a short-coming which followed in the Batsuits’ linage over the years. Yet Keaton’s Batsuit stands to be one of the best Batman costumes till date.
Micheal Keaton – Batman Returns (1992)
The duo (Tim Burton and Micheal Keaton) are back with the sequel but this time Keaton dons a new Batsuit. Inspired from Neal Adams’ comic book version Bob Ringwood threw in the basic design especially adopting the long pointy-eared cowl. Like the previous version, most of the things remain the same especially. The most notable change here is the suit adapting a plated body armor look, as opposed to the muscle shaped armor of the previous suit. Burton replaced those organic muscular lines with a more industrialised version. While it does give Keaton’s Batman a robotic frame, the sleeker bat emblem and the drooping cape keeps the overall look tight. However the shortcoming of the cowl’s inability to turn persists just like the previous one.
Val Kilmer – Batman Forever (1995) – Panther Suit
In the attempt to widen the appeal of the Batman movies, Burton stepped into the shoes of the Producer giving way for Joel Schumacher to build on the Batman franchise. Donning the Batsuit this time was the Hollywood heartthrob Val Kilmer. The redesigned Batsuit came to be called as the ‘Panther Suit’ because Joel made it look more organic and edgier. Adding practicality to the Bats’ costume, the batsuits were created from a less dense mixture of foam rubber than in the previous films, which resulted in much lighter suits and allowed more flexibility for the actor Val Kilmer and the various stunt doubles. The Batsuit re-adopted the body armor muscular frame with glaringly cut-out fashionable abs and was darker by fashion. However in all that noble intention, Schumacher made the worst mistake by adding ‘Nipples’ and an enlarged ‘Cod Piece’ to Kilmer’s Batsuit. This Batsuit also does away with the yellow utility belt from the Burton’s movies and flaunts a shiny, sleeker black one instead that almost looks like it belongs more in a fantasy movie than a Batman movie.
Val Kilmer – Batman Forever (1995) – Sonar Suit
Kilmer flaunts more than one Batsuit in the movie Batman Forever throwing a bit of light here at Bruce Wayne’s richness in building multiple suits. By the end of the movie, we see Kilmer don a futuristic ‘Sonar Suit’ which again to everyone’s misery adopts the ‘Bat nipples’ and not to forget the oversized cod piece attached to the utility belt. This entire costume strays away from the above batsuits as it adopts a silvery polish to it instead of Batman’s signature black. The cowl is definitely better than its predecessor with bit of more detailing done but the same-old problem persists again. The typical three-clawed bat-gauntlets are traded for a trendier single blade and even the signature oval yellow and black Bat emblem is axed in the ‘Sonar Suit’ brandishes a rebranded silvery giant bat across the entire chest of the suit.
George Clooney – Batman and Robin (1997) – Suit I
Taking the Dark Knight’s mantle from Kilmer, George Clooney stepped into the shoes of Batman in Batman and Robin. While there is no surprise, the movie received the worst response from the audiences; the Batsuits’ pitiable design only added fuel to that fire. Here again the movie brought out more than one costume for Clooney to put on. Speaking about the first which evidently remains tolerable save for the fact that it borrowed the nipples and cod-pieces from Schumacher’s Batman Forever, Clooney dons the neat, solid-black chiseled muscle armor.With a single black tone thrown in throughout the suit, the smaller bat symbol is lot between the bat-nipples and the organic finish to the armour. The utility belt looks a little better compared to its predecessor, and the cowl stays with a sleek look. Overall, the Dark Knight remains tolerable.
George Clooney – Batman and Robin (1997) – Suit II
If Joel Schumacher was edging the line of disaster with Batman Forever, he crossed that line by leaps and bounds with George Clooney’s second Batsuit in Batman and Robin. From the looks of it, the entire Batsuit looks a horrible mess of silver scratched on a black canvas.With no regards for the comic, Clooney’s Batman looks like a twinkling shiny star with the gigantic silver Bat-emblem emblazoned across the entire chest. The entire silvery muscle armored batsuit is a sad mash-up of Robocop and Batman. Also the utility belt is reduced to a mere design in the costume and the eye-soar bat-crotch just puts you off. No wonder Clooney regrets his role as the Batman, sporting one of the worst Batsuits till date.
Christian Bale – Batman Begins (2005)
It’s the dawn of a new era for the Dark Knight with the Inception director Christopher Nolan rebooting the entire Batman franchise. Till date the entire Dark Knight franchise has raked in nearly $ 2.5 billion. With crisp editing and story-telling, Nolan retold the origin story of the Caped Crusader bringing in more of a realistic approach to the dark comic. Versatile actor Christian Bale takes on Bat symbol in Batman Begins and he doesn’t disappoint. The entire suit is fictionally created by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) in the movie who spells the suit as the military-grade body armor. The Kevlar suit is mostly charcoal black save for a dark gold utility belt. Nolan refashioned the bat-symbol and emblazoned it proudly on the suit’s chest in the same charcoal black tone. The cowl looks menacing and angry while staying in line with the new symbol taking the shape that conforms more to the wearer’s head. The cape appears of fine cloth but at the same time is made of a fiber that hardens enabling our Dark Knight to scale across the skies truly like a bat.
Christian Bale – The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Teasing the previous version of the Batsuit as heavy in The Dark Knight, Lucius Fox obliges the sequel with a leaner and more complicated Batsuit. Continuing the tone of realism here, Bale’s new attire in the Bat linage is by far the most practical of them all and doesn’t pass of as a comic superhero costume at all. The updated finished product design only astonishes you as military battle armour in black. The more subtle and smaller bat symbol is however lost in the maze-work of the suit which is fitted with multiple pads and pieces of body armor. The gold plated utility belt remains the same. Separating the head piece Nolan solved the cowl’s eternal problem here, allowing Bale to have a complete 180 degree view; the first suit to actually allow the person to turn his head in the suit.Though the drawback was that the mask looked more of a biker helmet than a bat cowl.
Ben Affleck – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Boiling down to the latest offering; Ben Affleck’s Batman in Zack Synder’s upcoming tent-pole Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. With the first teaser out of the most anticipated Superhero flick, Zack also obliged his fans by dropping in a full-size image of the upcoming Batsuit, Affleck would be getting into. We know the square-jawed American hunk is over six feet two inches with broad shoulders; a make-shift Bruce Wayne after Bale declined to don the cape once more. The latest Batsuit only underlines Afleck’s personality more clearly making our new Batman look beefier than even what Bane looked in The Dark Knight Rises. Afleck’s Batsuit brings back the age-old grey and the body hugging armored suitback into the costume. The difference is however that Ben Affleck is going to be a mess-with-me-nothulking Batman and damn more muscular that what the Adam West looked like back in the 1960s. The greyish body hugging suit has a lot of mesh-work giving the Batman a rugged and battle-worn look. The cowl sports a shorter Bat ears and is detailed to look mean and menacing. The Bat-symbol is rebranded again and just like the suit, is beefed up and scratched across the meshed chest. The cape falls perfectly over the shoulders and the entire suit cuts out some heavy-duty muscles. Simply put, the entire batsuit looks lifted straight off Frank Miller’s mini-series, The Dark Knight Returns where a matured bulky Batman does some serious damage on Gotham’s bad guys.
Designed by Michael Wilkinson, Affleck’s Batsuit also deals with the problem of Batman being unable to turn his head in the cowl. Speaking to Fashionista, Wilkinson mentioned that he tackled that problem by a lot of incredible engineering and developed the new black cowl which is called it a ‘six-handed operation’, so each time Affleck gets into the suit, it takes him 25 minutes.