To mark the 80th anniversary of Batman, DC today unveiled plans for a global commemoration of the World’s Greatest Detective.
Kicking off this March at SXSW, the multifaceted campaign for DC’s Caped Crusader will feature exclusive celebrations, special theatrical engagements, the milestone release of DETECTIVE COMICS #1000, live events and first-ever Batman brand partnerships. As fans join together under the campaign’s tagline of #LongLiveTheBat, DC’s timeless character will be honored through Batman Day in September when the Bat-Signal lights up in major cities
Check out the link above to see all the "Ages" defined, from Golden Age to The New 52.
The Golden Age Batman
Key traits: A detective first. When he first burst on to the comic scene, Batman was a true vigilante and took the law into his own hands. He was more like a private detective than a superhero. Not only did he solve crimes using his meat hooks, he packed heat.
“Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself.”- Golden Age Batman quoting his favorite movie, Dirty Harry.
And he wasn’t afraid of killing someone in the name of justice.
“But Batman, all he said was he thought Captain America: Civil War was a better movie than Batman V Superman!” Photo Credit: DC ComicsWhat it says about you: Let’s be real. If you like this version of Batman, you are more than likely dead and reading this article from beyond the grave. In that case, hello ghostly reader! I don’t know many people who read golden age comics. The only way you can come across these golden age tales today are through the DC Archive trades and they ain’t cheap! This version of Batman says you like rough justice, have a devil-may-care attitude towards the law, and prefer dealing with problems on your own terms.
It may not look as grand as Wayne Manor, but villagers hope Batman fans might be able to help them save a community building in the real Gotham.
The building in the Nottinghamshire village - historically connected to the fictional Gotham City - closed amid financial problems and is up for sale. Campaigners are raising money to buy it and hope Batman fans will aid them. "We all need a superhero around occasionally, don't we?," said John Anderson, who is leading fundraising
Villagers in Gotham used to have a reputation for madness, and stories of their supposedly foolish acts were collected in various books including The Merie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotam, published in 1565.
The American author Washington Irving became aware of the tales and repeatedly referred to Manhattan as Gotham when writing, in 1807, in the Salmagundi papers, a satirical periodical mocking New Yorkers.
Gotham then became a popular nickname for New York City and is still used today, in shop names and notably at the Gotham Center for New York City History.
Batman's setting in Detective Comics was initially referred to as an unnamed "teeming metropolis" and later explicitly identified as "New York".
However, writer Bill Finger said he changed the name to Gotham City after looking through a phone book and seeing the name Gotham Jewelers.
Great article. This is only a portion of it. Read the whole thing at the link above!
When the Bat-Man first appeared, he did so from the shadows, clad in a vampiric cowl with slits for eyes, long, sharp ears and a cape with bat-like wings. That was in 1939, in the pages of Detective Comics No. 27. Six months later, when Batman’s creators realized they had a hit on their hands, they revealed his traumatic childhood. As a boy, the story goes, Bruce Wayne watched a criminal gun down his parents in a street robbery. Alone and orphaned, with tears streaming down his pink face, he resolved to spend his life fighting violent crime. “Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot,” he famously declared, as he vowed to “strike terror in their hearts.” It was a time of global unease. The economy had not yet recovered from the Great Depression, and Hitler was amassing power in Germany. Meanwhile, in the comic books, it was the dawn of the Superhero age. In many ways, the shadow Batman emerged from belonged to the enormously powerful Superman. But this was no Superman. Batman had no superpowers, no alien origins and no foster parents who inspired him to use powers for good.
Ok. I'm not anti-Superman (not like why wife thinks) but I do prefer Batman, and therefore enjoy when he gets the better of the "BoyScout". Check out the link above for descriptions of all 10 examples.
Long before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice finally got the green light at Warner Bros., the debate about who should win in a fight between these two DC Comics icons has been raging. As two of the world’s biggest superheroes, they each obviously have their own respective fan bases, and both sides come up with very convincing arguments about why one would emerge victorious over the other.
For Nolan, though, a driving force in the story was always Gotham’s unsung hero: the conflicted, but well-meaning city prosecutor, Harvey Dent.
“The way the story is constructed we always imagined that Harvey Dent would form the emotional arc of the story. His story, his tragedy would be, excuse me, the arc of the story, because The Joker, the purpose of The Joker for us was always that he has no arc, he has no development he doesn’t learn anything through the film, he’s an absolute.”
A recent trip to the Dallas Zoo led to a discovery of comics being used for educational purposes. Inside the Insect House you'll find any number of creepy crawlies as well as this collection of insect inspired comic books:Spider-Man, the Tick, Blue Beetle and even Ambush Bug are represented. I'm not entirely sure of the educational merit of the display but anything that promotes comics to kids is a good thing.
Clooney went on to apologize for his portrayal of the Dark Knight once again, and even admitted that he thought he destroyed the Batman franchise (he kind of did!). He then told a hilarious story about working on Batman & Robin, and Joel Schumacher’s directing style.
Camren Bicondova (GOTHAM) nails the part with her combination of sass and toughness, and she looks like she has the potential to slink with the best of them — but she has some awfully big high heels to fill. Here’s a rundown of her predecessors in the role: the good, the bad but never the ugly.
Michael E. Uslan is the executive producer of the highly successful “Batman” film franchise that began in 1989, featuring Michael Keaton as the caped crusader and portraying Jack Nicholson as the Joker. The blockbuster movie, directed by Tim Burton, was a real game-changer that opened the floodgates for superhero fantasy films to flourish and in the process transcended the genre forever. Since that time Uslan, with his long-time mentor and co-producer Benjamin Melniker, have gone on to produce “Batman Returns” (1992), “Batman Forever” (1995), “Batman & Robin” (1997) and “The Dark Knight” trilogy which started in 2005 with “Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises”. The latter two films are two of the top-grossing films in history.
Little Fact That You Might Not Know About The Joker - He Was Almost Killed Off Despite being Batman’s all-time greatest nemesis, The Joker very nearly didn’t make it past his first issue. The early Dark Knight appearances – inspired by their more vicious pulp magazine roots – were characterised by a lot more death, murder and Batman wielding a handgun than the later iterations of the hero, and the Ace Of Knaves very nearly fell prey to it. He made his first appearance in 1940’s Batman #1, and was slated to be killed off in the very next issue.
The final page saw the defeated villain accidentally stabbed himself, and the Dynamic Duo legging it. Presumably so that they don’t get the rap for it. Most of the bad guys in those early comics were only supposed to make one-off appearances, but then-editor Whitney Ellsworth passed down a mandate deciding the character was too good to be bumped off. So the last panel was hastily redrawn, and then in every other appearance it looked like he died off-screen, only to return the following month. Taken from https://www.facebook.com/WOSlovebatman?fref=nf
check out the link for a complete history and more screen shots and videos!
Remarkably enough, Batman’s first appearance in a video game never saw an American release, as European fans were treated to his exploits a full two years before their brethren across the pond would get the chance to play as The Dark Knight.
Like any beloved comic book property, Batman has been crow-barred open and interpreted by a large number of writers, artists, actors and filmmakers; from the firm camp of Adam West’s TV series, to the German Expressionist undertones of Tim Burton’s Batman films, and the gritty realism of both Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One and the Christopher Nolan movies it inspired, Batman means many things to many people, and that is the beauty of the character.
Here's a great website for all your Bat-History buffs and really for comic history types too!
BATMAN -- that international champion of justice, that dreaded scourge of evil -- was created by a garment worker and a shoe salesman named, respectively, Robert Kahn and Bill Finger (both pictured). And it all started in the Bronx!
Key traits: A detective first. When he first burst on to the comic scene, Batman was a true vigilante and took the law into his own hands. He was more like a private detective than a superhero. Not only did he solve crimes using his meat hooks, he packed heat.
A recent trip to the Dallas Zoo led to a discovery of comics being used for educational purposes. Inside the Insect House you'll find any number of creepy crawlies as well as this collection of insect inspired comic books:Spider-Man, the Tick, Blue Beetle and even Ambush Bug are represented. I'm not entirely sure of the educational merit of the display but anything that promotes comics to kids is a good thing.
