I am Batman

Batman was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger and debuted in the 27th issue of Detective Comics on March 30, 1939. Since then he has been one of the most popular characters in comics. He has been portrayed in tv and movies by several actors starting with Adam West and the most recent Robert Pattinson. The following is my list ranking these actors from worst to best.

This is purely my opinion. If any of you disagree with me, that is perfectly fine. Everyone has different tastes and may find things that I dislike with a portrayal, to be their favorite part. That’s the beauty of nerdverse.

9. George Clooney – This, most likely is no surprise to anyone. I have not heard of one person saying George Clooney is their favorite Batman. George himself has gone on record to apologize for his performance in Batman & Robin. Now on paper, you look at it and go, oh; he would make a very good Bruce Wayne. And yes, George has the look to pull off a very good Bruce Wayne. But that’s where it ends, you put him in the batsuit and it all falls from there. He was not very convincing as Batman. He didn’t have the gravitas to be the caped crusader. I used to solely blame George for his performance. But as I got older, I learned that there is more that goes into it, writing, directing and the studio itself tends to meddle more than they should. Overall Batman & Robin was a terrible movie.

8. Val Kilmer – Val nudges ahead of George, mostly because this list is about Batman portrayals. And Val was just slightly better as Batman. He looked good in the suit and he had better villains to work with than George did. He had Jim Carrey as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face to play against. Two amazing actors playing two iconic villains and did a very good job. Val had a little more of the serious side that is needed to play Batman, except for one thing, he smiled. That scene…. ugh, why? Why did you need to have him smile, in the batsuit no less? Just takes you right out of it. But other than that, Val’s performance as Batman was very good. Val as Bruce Wayne not so much. I’ve always said, if you take George as Bruce and Val as Batman, it would be one very good performance.

7. David Mazouz – Now David didn’t have much time as Batman, for the entirety of his run on Gotham was as a young Bruce Wayne. He really didn’t get to be Batman until the last season. And technically really didn’t look like the typical Batman, more of a year zero type look. Those comic nerds out there will know what I am talking about. But that is what I like about it, it was different. It was another interpretation of Batman, which we hadn’t seen before. The other advantage that David had, that George and Val didn't have, was that he had 4 seasons to mature as Bruce Wayne, so it was an easy transition to start being Batman. He grew up with the character so to speak. I enjoyed Gotham. It gets a bit of a bad rap because of some of the liberties they took with the canon. But that really isn’t any different than what they do with comics. When a new writer takes over for a comic, say Batman, they will put their own spin on things. But for the most part they will pay homage to the core of the character. I felt Gotham did that and David Mazouz achieved that as well. The reason he is down here on the list as to being higher was that the main focus of the series was on a young Bruce Wayne and his journey to becoming Batman, rather than him being Batman.

6. Robert Pattinson – I have flip flopped these next 2 in my head so much, that I am still not entirely convinced this is how I want the order to go. But after putting David at 7 for time spent as Batman, I feel that I should put Robert at 6 because he only has 1 movie under his belt so far. When it was first announced that Robert was going to play Batman, I will admit I hated it. The dude from Twilight is going to play Batman? What? But, people said similar things about Affleck and Keaton. So I thought to myself, you know what I am going to keep an open mind and give him a chance to prove himself. And oh my goodness was I wrong initially. Robert knocked it out of the park. He really captured the torture Bruce put himself through to be Batman and the detective side of The Greatest Detective of all time. No other Batman movie showed much of that aspect of Batman. The Batman was an absolutely amazing movie. The grit, darkness and the overall mood of that movie was spot on. I can’t go without saying, Paul Dano’s performance as The Riddler was fantastic. He really helped enhance Robert’s performance, because he was a great antagonist to play off of. I really look forward to future movies with Robert Pattinson under the cowl.

5. Ben Affleck – Ben is ahead of Robert, because of he has had more movies as Batman. However some people will argue Robert above Ben, because Ben has never had a solo Batman movie. Those people are not wrong. Trust me,as I said above, I have flip flopped them in my head so many times. This was another instance where when it was announced that Ben was going to be Batman, that I hated it at first. But then I saw him in that suit and I was like ok, we may have something here. Even though Batman v. Superman was not that great of a movie, we will get into that on another post, Ben was phenomenal as Batman. It really showed that Ben is a lifelong fan of Batman, because he fully embodied everything that is Batman in that movie and also in Justice League. The action, the voice, the suit is one of my favorites that has been on screen. Ben Affleck’s jaw alone could get him cast as Batman, I am not joking. I feel we really missed out with not having a solo Ben Affleck Batman movie. Now that he is getting older, the likelihood of that happening is very slim. Unless they decided to do an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, then I am all here for it. Ben is also one of the few actors that can pull off a great Batman and a very convincing Bruce Wayne. I understand that I am not going into full detail on all of these performances, just hitting the broad strokes. This blog is long enough as it is, if you want me to go more in depth on these just let us know.

4. Christian Bale – Christian Bale was in arguably the greatest Batman movie ever, The Dark Knight. I say arguably, because The Batman came out and puts up a great fight. But at the time The Dark Knight was the best Batman movie we have ever had. The entire Nolan trilogy was epic, even with The Dark Knight Rises falling a bit short of the other two movies. Christian did everything that was asked of him to be Batman, but the one thing that puts him at this spot and not higher, was his choice of Batman voice. I hated it. It was just bad; it almost takes you out of it. However everything else was so good, you can grow to tolerate it. Christian was also able to play both Bruce Wayne and Batman very well. He captured the differences between the two. He was very charming and fun as Bruce and was able to flip the switch and be dark and moody as Batman. I really enjoyed Christian’s run as Batman, except for that voice. If you want to see an awesome parody of Christian Bale’s Batman, look up Pete Holmes’s The Badman videos. They are hilarious.

3. Adam West – I feel bad putting Adam here at this spot, because he is the original, the man that introduced Batman to so many people on a mainstream level. However the '66 Batman series was so campy and dorky that it just can’t take the top spot, in my opinion. Now I am not saying that the series was bad, oh no, I love the '66 Batman. It was so much fun because it was campy. The cast alone was unbelievable. You had Burgess Meredith as The Penguin, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt as Catwoman and everyone always forgets him in the conversation as the greatest Joker of all time, Cesar Romero. I will get into more detail on that another time as well. Adam just took the ball and ran with this one. His delivery and comedic timing were absolutely spot on and made this show so enjoyable that it is still shown on tv to this day!

2. Michael Keaton – This is how I was introduced to Batman. The 1989 Batman movie is by far my favorite Batman movie ever, but that is mostly for sentimental reasons. Before this movie people only knew Adam West’s campy version of Batman, so when this slightly darker version of Batman came out, people were blown away. I know I was. The Solid black suit, with only the yellow in the symbol as opposed to the traditional Blue and grey from the comics was groundbreaking. The tone that Tim Burton brought to those two movies was so good. The set design of Gotham really made you feel like you were watching a comic book come to life. Sorry I am talking more about the movie than Keaton’s performance. Michael for the longest time was my Batman. He was just so badass. He was another that was good as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, even though he did slip into Beetlejuice a little bit in the first movie. Most of you know what scene I am talking about. “You wanna get nuts, let’s get nuts!” Such a great line. Maybe it’s mostly for nostalgia reasons as to why I am putting Michael Keaton up here, but I know a lot of people will agree with me.

1. Kevin Conroy – Now I know a lot of you will probably look at this name and say “who is that?” Well I will tell you. Kevin Conroy is probably the man who supplied the voice that you most associate with Batman. I said earlier that for a long time Michael Keaton was my Batman, that was until 30 years ago, man I’m old, that the Batman The Animated Series came out. Kevin Conroy voiced Bruce Wayne and Batman on that series. He has also gone on to voice Batman on numerous video games and other projects, making Kevin the longest running actor to portray Batman. Now I know a lot of you will say, all the others were on film and he was a voice actor for a cartoon. My response is, so what? The man embodied Batman with just his voice and voice alone. The emotion, gravitas and grit that could bring with just his voice is and was amazing. When I read comics, I hear his voice when Batman talks. His voice is how I have always imagined how Batman would sound. For those of you who have played the Arkham games and who have watched the animated series know what I am talking about. Kevin Conroy will always and forever be my Batman.

So there are my rankings. You can agree or disagree that is perfectly fine. See you next time; "Same Battime, Same Batblog!"