Be warned that this is a long read, but it caters to fans and
non fans of the Dark Knight. So please bear with me, and I hope you
can discuss your thoughts with mine.
The Batman was created by Bob Kane in 1939, as Detective Comic's
answer to Action Comic's Superman. A darker, grittier hero compared
to the Last Boy Scout of Krypton. He doesn't have any superhuman
powers,instead relying on his detective skills to solve crime and
dresses up as a human bat to strike fear into the heart of the
criminal underworld. The appeal is that he's believable, and with
the right amount of training and circumstance, he could be you or
me.
Batman has evolved from the Bob Kane and Bill Finger days, taking
on, in the process, a slew of highly original villains like the
Joker, Catwoman and The Penguin, just to name a few. The appeal of
Batman is in his rich rogue's gallery. In the hands of different
storytellers, tales can range from camp (the 60s space aged stories
of fighting aliens), to the more psychological, edgy tales of
today.
I've grown up with the campy days of the Adam West television
series, the introduction and withdrawal of the yellow circle around
the bat symbol in the costume, the art of Neal Adams, Jim Aparo and
Norm Breyfogle to Jim Lee's beautiful rendition in the recent Hush
storyline. Cartoons I watched which featured Batman ranged from
kiddy-ish Superfriends, to the Batman Animated Series by Warner
Bros.
Batman turns 66 this year. It's a long time, but its pop cultural
icon status is still going strong. My intention of this article is
to share with you my thoughts of the movies (the last four, and the
upcoming one), from a fan boy point of view.
If you're interested and to avoid a mega-long posting, this
continues on my blog:
http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2005/06/dark-knight-and-i-thoughts-on-batman.html