Batman at 75...tribute to an icon

Okay, so July 23rd is Batman day. Not exactly 75 years since his first appearance, but the day on which DC is officially marking the anniversary of its most popular character. There will be mutters of "oh no, not more Batman" from fans of other characters, or those who feel that we have had just a bit too much Batman from DC lately, but really, who can blame DC. Batman is an icon. One of the most iconic characters of modern culture, someone who like Dr Who and James Bond transcends the genre from which he originated. He can't claim to be the first super-hero, Superman arguable holds that title, but he has over time become the most popular. So why is Batman so popular? Well firstly he has been around us a long time. My first memory of any super-hero is watching Adam West as Batman in one of the many re-runs of the TV series that were shown when I was a wee boy in the mid 1970s. Sure, the TV series was corny and campy, but it imprinted on my consciousness Batman, Robin, Alfred, the Bat Cave, the Bat Mobile, Baterangs and so on. One of my favourite toys was the corgi Batmobile I received for Christmas as a 7 year old, complete with firing torpedoes. The years passed and Superman films with Chris Reeve meant that I transferred my "favourite hero" badge to the big boy scout for a time. Then in 1989 Tim Burton released his film, at last a serious Batman replete in bullet proof costume, sans corny dialogue and fully able to despatch a hoodlum with a roundhouse kick or karate chop. That film was amazingly successful for the time, grossing over 400 million dollars. Following the iconic Frank Miller books Year one and the Dark Knight Returns, the Batman mythos was now fully established.

The woeful Joel Schumacher films couldn't dampen the publics enthusiasm for the Batman character. Whilst Superman was increasingly seen as a symbol for a bygone era of innocence, Batman seemed to touch a chord with a more serious and cynical age. Batman WAS superheroes. In 1996, the hugely successful British TV sitcom "Only Fools and Horses" even featured Batman and Robin in one of its Christmas specials...

The father's for justice movement in the UK, which campaigned for fathers against the child support Agencies often dubious practices featured various Batman clad dads climbing bridges and towers. Batman, notice, not Superman or Spiderman.

Then come the millennium and after 8 years away, Batman was back on the screen thanks to Christopher Nolan and his masterpiece Batman Begins, followed by the even more celebrated Dark Knight, which amazingly featured an acting performance worthy of a posthumous academy award. The first and only time an actor in a super-hero movie has been so recognised.

Marvel studios may rule the big screen right now, but Batman rules the comic book world and its hard to see him being topped any time soon. Just last month, the Batman comic shifted 130,000 copies and Batman eternal is shifting 60,000 comics a week, meaning that if you include Detective Comics, Batman and Ra's Ah Ghul as well as those two titles, sales of Batman comics are half a million a month.

So why is Batman so loved. Several reasons. Firstly, he is the most human of heroes. He has no super-powers, just his gadgets, his fighting skills and his brain. Hit him and he bleeds, he tires, he gets hurt, he has to use guts and cunning to beat more powerful foes. Secondly, his story is tinged with tragedy. Thirdly, the whole Dark Knight ethos sits well with the modern love of dark and gritty stories. Fourthly, some of the best writers in the business have written some awesome Batman stories and fifthly, well, he drives a cool car. What other super-hero has anything like the Batmobile?

As a child of the 70s, I grew up with Spiderman, Hulk, Wonder Woman and Superman as well as Batman and I am fond of all of these, but Batman is the one who makes me the most nostalgic. As they say, you never forget your first love.

So here is to another 75 years of Bat stories and I certainly hope in 2089, the dark knight is still in business.

I don't mind DC's Batman binges but I just wish they would do as much as they do for Bats for Supes.

To me, Batman is the greatest fictional character ever created.

Nice blog Bezza, straight from the heart pieces are always good and not as prevalent on here as they used to be. I see you're an old school Adam West convert to Batman. I'm a Batman Animated series convert myself.

@rustyroy said:

Batman approves of this sacrilege to him.

When I first heard of the Batman 75th anniversary being this year, I got a half sleeve tattoo to commemorate. He's been a big part of who I am, since as far back as I can remember.

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642

as you know, I am a long standing fan of supes too and agree its a pity more wasn't made last year of his anniversary, a point I made to the comic book owners today. "you got Superman unchained" they said "yeah and look what happened to that"...was my reply!

@lvenger Cheers...and yes, as It was a piece purely from the heart. As I get further into middle age, I do get more and more sentimental about Bats, Supes, Spidey and Hulk in particular as they have been with me so long!

@rustyroy good to see you have returned to the Vine and as a massive Bat fan I hope my tribute meets with your approval!

@lvenger: Long live Batman TAS well come to think of it the DCAU in general.

@bezza: Not only that but the fact that they shove the 75 years of batman logo on everything. I wouldn't mind it on Justice League and Batman/Superman but on books like Flash, Superman etc it has no place there. It was mostly during the san diego comic con and the summer May-August that DC really celebrated Supes as opposed to Bat's all year round celebration.

I still love Batman though.

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642:

I know what you mean, but its pure market forces. With Batman shifting 500,000 comics to Superman's 140,000 last month for this two titles, you can understand DC milking Batman for all its worth!!!

Anyway, The Flash is probably my favourite DC character of all and they had better mark the occasion when he turns 75 in January 2015. But I ain't holding my breath!

But yeah, I love Batman. Is there a DC fan who doesn't? (aside from that Superguy fellow?!)

@bezza: The reason Batman sells so much is because of DC pushing him out so much. Milking the Arkham franchise, The Animated movies of Bats, The Dark Knight franchise and the Ongoing titles. Although Supes has multiple ongoing titles DC doesn't push them all that much compared to Snyder and Capullo's Batman. Same as Man of Steel compared to the Dark Knight movies and Supes hasn't had a decent game since well ever and it's about time we got some lovin in that department. Enough of my rant I hate sounding like an angry fan but when it comes to Supes not getting enough treatment...well you know I get I get a little *green glow in eyes* angry ;)

Yeah when I was young I used to hat bats for a time because people used to make fun of me liking Superman and how Batman was infinitely better also because of how overrated he was but when I got past that and watched the Animated series and read Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Hush I fell in love with the character. Add on to that Morrison's Brilliant run on Bats and the DK trilogy and the Arkham games it's impossible not to be a Batman fan.

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642:

People made fun of you for liking Superman? When I was a kid, Chris reeves was playing Superman, Batman was considered old hat and corny, Supes the cooler character. But a lot has changed since the late 70s, early 80s....

@bezza: I'm a late 90's early 2000's kid in the eye of the Batman storm. People would say Superman was a wuss and I was a wuss for liking him or that he was lame and so was I or that his weakness was a stupid piece of rock and that I was stupid. and other things like that it never really bothered me and I never really felt it was bullying just people who didn't know what they were talking about but maybe that's because it never really bothered me cause I just thought who cares everyone has different favorites. sometimes I would answer the kryptonite crack with a stupid retort like "if you show Bats a picture of his Parents he's on his knees begging for mercy" etc.

Let's hope DC is still around in 20 years

Then we can celebrate 100

@bezza: Its awesome!! Thanks for making it.

@bezza: All the more reason to blog about such topics I suppose. Looking forward to your next one whenever that is!

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642 Couldn't agree more my friend. Here's to the Golden age of DC, if not comic book cartoons!

Well said.

I won't ruin this with negativity. I have always liked Batman, and it was my favourite character (maybe next to Robin) when I was a kid. The 1960's tv series was in syndication, the Tim Burton movies and the animated series had just came on the air. It was a good time.

@lvenger: Exactly some of the best cartoons of all time those theme songs were perfect and don't even start on the voices. Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown. (But we can still pretend Zeta Project never happened *shudder*)

They were indeed. And the reason was because they were aimed at children AND adults. There was stuff for the kids to enjoy but subtle maturity that the adults could see too. Not to mention how respectful it was to the source material and what awesome stories the DCAU produced as a result. Also I don't know much about The Zeta Project show. Should I be lucky I haven't heard of it?

@lvenger: Exactly that was the best time to be a kid even the Marvel cartoons were great some more than others. Yes it's a really pointless addition to the DCAU and should have never begun in the first place. Static Shock was also a little ehh for me but still good.

Agreed, Spider-Man, X-Men and Spectacular Spider-Man were all really cool shows that gave DC a run for their money albeit not quite reaching their heights.

@lvenger: I loved Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes and The 90's X-men show and along with JLU are the definitive shows for those respective franchises.

EMH was a definite favourite of mine too, it was a crime to cancel it.

@lvenger: Yes it was. So many good shows ended prematurely. Spectacular Spidey, Wolvie and the X-men, Young Justice, Avenegrs: EMH etc. X-men Evolution and The Batman were also good shows.

If you guys grew up in the 90s, 00s, I think you're probably right (the best time to be a kid)...you had the DCAU, Marvel cartoons and of course from 2000 onwards almost yearly blockbuster movies.....

...my childhood days were also quite exciting, in that we had the first ever Superhero blockbuster, Superman the Movie, which came along when I was 10, plus the WW tv series with Linda Carter and Lou Ferringo's Hulk, but certainly we had nothing like the choice you "youngsters" had-lol!

Anyway, I have done a Spiderman, Superman and now Batman appreciation blog, I guess the next will either be a Flash 75 special tribute in January 2015, or really I guess I should do something for the Hulk. I wasn't on the Vine when he celebrated 50 years in 2012, so will have to think of some other excuse..or just do a random blog for another character....

That must have been a really interesting time to grow up a superhero fan. I'm also intrigued by your story that Superman was once considered cooler than Batman. That's a rarity by today's standards where kids think Superman is cooler than Batman. Also, won't Wonder Woman's anniversary be next? Does she not get your special blog treatment? :P

And if you think the Hulk deserves a belated 50th anniversary blog, then there's nothing stopping you.

Nice blog! Happy 75th to the great detective. Heres to another 75 for both him and superman. Should be fun!

@lvenger:

According to my DC encyclopedia, Wonder Woman's 75th birthday isn't until the winter of 2016, but now you mention it, yes she deserves a blog, definitely! .

As for Superman being cooler than Batman in my childhood days, yes he really was. In the 70s UK kids generally only had access to Batman via the old Adam West TV show, or whatever comics had Batman in them and from memory Batman comics in the UK back then weren't that readily available.

Superman came along with Superman the Movie and showed off all these cool powers and put Batman and Robin in the shade amongst UK kids for a time. Amazing but true!

@bezza: @lvenger: I wish people would let go of he phenomenon that is Batgod and realize that there are other heroes and characters worthy of attention and that just because Batman has Kryptonite does not mean he can beat Superman in a fight.

So now you are going to whine about Batman in this thread? lol.

@farkam: Nope just saying that other than that flaw the character is great just that people really need to stop batwanking. Peace and love trampolines.

It's pretty underhanded to complain about this on a thread designed as a tribute to the character, while also moaning about Superman and other characters not being as popular. Peace and love and all that jazz.

@bezza: That is amazing. I would have loved to see the day when liking Superman was cooler than liking Batman. And I should have written a Superman 75th anniversary blog come to think of it. He deserved one if any of my heroes ever warranted a blog :P

@lvenger:

Still time bud, I would love to read your Superman tribute!

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642

I understand where you're coming from, but Batman, like it or not is massive and I feel he fully deserves the birthday fuss he has been getting., hence why I wrote my tribute blog....I did one last year for Superman which you can read by clicking on my profile and hitting the blogs button.....

@lvenger: You didn't do a...blog. Heresy!!!

Never moaned about other characters not being as popular just that they get shunned away in favour of him. Maybe I should have worded this better as my intention was not to insult Batman or really complaining it was just a discussion I was having with Bezza. Apologies if I made it sound wrong. Peace and love and prosperity.

@bezza: It's a bit late no? But I could russle something up in the 2 months I still have off from uni I suppose :P

@lvenger: *Gathers crowd* Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!

@bezza: Oh I completely agree it just saddens me when it comes to the expense of other characters not just Supes. I'm worried that DC won't do nearly as much for WW who deserves way more recognition than she gets. You should do a 50 anniversary Hulk blog (he's turned 52 which is also a special # don't forget but still)

@bezza:

good write-up.

I certainly wouldn't argue that Superman is anywhere NEAR the first superhero though.

we can look upon some of the masked and unmasked heroes of the 17-1800s like Cyrano de Bergerac and King Arthur, some with Villains, evil plots to foil, or even gangs of likeminded protectors of the populace.Robin Hood was certainly a superhero. complete with mask, secret lair, gagdets, and a band of sidekicks fighting crime and uprooting the evil corrupt government

if you need something closer to the format. the Penny Dreadful (earlier comiclike format of England) Spring Heeled Jack of 1867 had a secret hideout a disguise, gagdets and a rogues gallery.

throughout the 20s and thirties you have dozens of characters that are still considered superheroes , , Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger,

if you absolutely NEED it be in the same media than you have Conan, Zorro,The Shadow The Phantom and Doc Savage all before Superman

or Doctor Occult if it can't be a comic, but a comic book.

if your argument is that they need to be superpowered (than we should exclude Batman) than we can reference the old greek Heroes, Herecles, and achilles et cetera.

again great write up. just my two cents about a bit of misinformation that i am sick of correcting.

Batz iz kool