DocLathropBrown
The Man with the Hat is Back
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Rank all of the "official" Batmen. Everyone to ever play him on film or television. Obviously, don't rank them if you've never really seen their performances. Work with the list I've assembled here, if I've missed any major one (We're not counting things like Radio Dramas or Read-Along books... too hard to track down info), let me know. Those in bold are voice actors.
You can make comments, but no flaming other people's opinions! The last thing we need is for this to become "Keaton Vs. Bale" round 9,000! If anyone is caught flaming others' opinions, or flaming Bale/Keaton, and it leads to trouble, Mods will be brought in! Try to keep the comments positive! Nasty comments about other Batmen I'll allow. Only Bale/Keaton nastiness is to be moderated because it always is the biggest point of contention.
One last note: Adam West gets three spots in the rankings because he played three distinct types of Batman.
The list:
My personal ranking, counting down:
12. Robert Lowery
Boy, did he just sleepwalk through the role! Honestly, he hardly tried, it seems. He wasn't in the best written or highest-budgeted Bat-serial, but he could have tried a Hell of a lot harder.
11. George Clooney
He had good moments, I won't lie. He was a great Bruce Wayne, and the few times that the film was serious, he was pretty decent. But compared to the rest of the list, he's not that great.
10. Val Kilmer
Sadly, he had potential, like Clooney, but it was in a failed film. BF is much better overall from B&R, but Kilmer just comes off as a Keaton rip-off, seldom making the role his own. But in the scenes he does, he's quite good.
9. Adam West (1977)
More serious than his live-action run, but still a little campy, mostly because of the show. making Bat-Mite a regular part of any Batman show has got to go down as one of the worst ideas in Saturday Morning History. But West tries, and, thankfully, he gets to play the fact that Batman really hates Bat-Mite, it was plain in how he delivered the lines, which was a nice bit of realism
8. Rino Romano
Haven't seen the show in a while, but Romano gives a good, subdued performance. Perfectly serious.
7. Christian Bale
Again, my problem is with the material. They made some major changes to parts of the source material that rubbed me the wrong way. Bale is a great actor, and he did his best work. However, I look forward to The Dark Knight, as I'm sure the material (and thus, how I enjoy his performance) will be better.
6. Olan Soule
To me, this is one of the voices for Batman. The performance was never very dark, but he voiced Batman for so long that I identify certain eras of the comic with his voice. The first Filmation cartoon was quite serious, though.
5. Kevin Conroy
Dark and deep. Perfection. He's only at #5 because my personal bias sets him there, I can only complain about the change in his performance between the Fox and WB years. In '97, he started doing Batman and Bruce with the same voice, and was a lot darker, and I've never been a fan of the "borderline jerk" Bruce.
4. Adam West (Live Action)
Accurate to the era, and and almost complexly hilarious, there are a lot of times when I get lost in the "drama" of the series and take him seriously. West turned parody of Batman into an art-form. But there are times when he can surprise you. Overall, it may be campy, but it's still undeniably Batman, as the show, except in tone, still has everything we know to be true to Batman, even today. And no matter what you think, you can't deny that West's portrayal was just plain cool.
3. Lewis Wilson
The first non-comic portrayal of Batman, and he honestly tried. It was a cheap movie serial, but he acted his ass off. A perfect playboy, and a serious and tough Batman, he was everything we could have ever asked for. And for an actor at the time to put that kind of attention into his portrayal of "kids junk", he deserves my #3 spot.
2. Adam West (1985)
West gets the #2 spot because he really surprised me. The last two seasons of Super Friends was serious. They lost the kid sidekicks, and the designs changed to suit the 80s comics. But the last season in particular, West just went for broke. A totally serious Batman, he got to stretch his bat-range in episodes about the Death of Superman, all the way to the first non-comic portrayal of Batman's origin. That episode, called "The Fear", deals with Batman's fear of Crime Alley, brought forth by the Scarecrow. When Bruce goes over the murder of his parents to Wonder Woman, we have a very touching performance from West, and fairly clear implication that his parents were shot and killed. The young Bruce in the flashback is heart-wrenching in his vocal performance.... everything about that episode is perfect. Truth be told, it's mainly that episode that puts this West performance at my #2. I don't think anybody thought West had it in him.
1. Michael Keaton
You guys saw this coming, didn't you? The pre-crisis Batman is my favorite, particuarly Kane/Finger's darker original. The fact that Burton and his writers just decided to go from the original material and not much later means that the Keaton performance is right up my alley. Rich in subtext, and well acted on top of that, Keaton made me believe that he was Batman. A powerful, alternate take on Bruce Wayne keeps things fresh, and I find I can relate to the socially disallusioned Wayne of Keaton's portrayal more than any other (And yes, I know the hypocracy of citing changes to Batman in BB bothering me but not Burton's changes. It's just my bias).
Now, I'm honestly interested to see where the more obscure Batmen (Soule, West's other performances) rank on others' lists....
You can make comments, but no flaming other people's opinions! The last thing we need is for this to become "Keaton Vs. Bale" round 9,000! If anyone is caught flaming others' opinions, or flaming Bale/Keaton, and it leads to trouble, Mods will be brought in! Try to keep the comments positive! Nasty comments about other Batmen I'll allow. Only Bale/Keaton nastiness is to be moderated because it always is the biggest point of contention.
One last note: Adam West gets three spots in the rankings because he played three distinct types of Batman.
The list:
- Lewis Wilson in BATMAN (1943)
- Robert Lowery in Batman and Robin (1949)
- Adam West in Batman (Among others) (1966-1979)
- Olan Soule in Super Friends (Among others) (1968-1983)
- Adam West in The New Adventures of Batman (1977) (Different portrayal, less campy)
- Adam West in "Super Powers" and "Galactic Guardians" (1984-1985) (Totally serious)
- Michael Keaton in BATMAN (1989) and Batman Returns (1992)
- Kevin Conroy in Batman: The Animated Series (Among others) (1992-2006)
- Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995)
- George Clooney in Batman and Robin (1997)
- Rino Romano in The Batman (2004)
- Christian Bale in Batman Begins (2005)
My personal ranking, counting down:
12. Robert Lowery
Boy, did he just sleepwalk through the role! Honestly, he hardly tried, it seems. He wasn't in the best written or highest-budgeted Bat-serial, but he could have tried a Hell of a lot harder.
11. George Clooney
He had good moments, I won't lie. He was a great Bruce Wayne, and the few times that the film was serious, he was pretty decent. But compared to the rest of the list, he's not that great.
10. Val Kilmer
Sadly, he had potential, like Clooney, but it was in a failed film. BF is much better overall from B&R, but Kilmer just comes off as a Keaton rip-off, seldom making the role his own. But in the scenes he does, he's quite good.
9. Adam West (1977)
More serious than his live-action run, but still a little campy, mostly because of the show. making Bat-Mite a regular part of any Batman show has got to go down as one of the worst ideas in Saturday Morning History. But West tries, and, thankfully, he gets to play the fact that Batman really hates Bat-Mite, it was plain in how he delivered the lines, which was a nice bit of realism
8. Rino Romano
Haven't seen the show in a while, but Romano gives a good, subdued performance. Perfectly serious.
7. Christian Bale
Again, my problem is with the material. They made some major changes to parts of the source material that rubbed me the wrong way. Bale is a great actor, and he did his best work. However, I look forward to The Dark Knight, as I'm sure the material (and thus, how I enjoy his performance) will be better.
6. Olan Soule
To me, this is one of the voices for Batman. The performance was never very dark, but he voiced Batman for so long that I identify certain eras of the comic with his voice. The first Filmation cartoon was quite serious, though.
5. Kevin Conroy
Dark and deep. Perfection. He's only at #5 because my personal bias sets him there, I can only complain about the change in his performance between the Fox and WB years. In '97, he started doing Batman and Bruce with the same voice, and was a lot darker, and I've never been a fan of the "borderline jerk" Bruce.
4. Adam West (Live Action)
Accurate to the era, and and almost complexly hilarious, there are a lot of times when I get lost in the "drama" of the series and take him seriously. West turned parody of Batman into an art-form. But there are times when he can surprise you. Overall, it may be campy, but it's still undeniably Batman, as the show, except in tone, still has everything we know to be true to Batman, even today. And no matter what you think, you can't deny that West's portrayal was just plain cool.
3. Lewis Wilson
The first non-comic portrayal of Batman, and he honestly tried. It was a cheap movie serial, but he acted his ass off. A perfect playboy, and a serious and tough Batman, he was everything we could have ever asked for. And for an actor at the time to put that kind of attention into his portrayal of "kids junk", he deserves my #3 spot.
2. Adam West (1985)
West gets the #2 spot because he really surprised me. The last two seasons of Super Friends was serious. They lost the kid sidekicks, and the designs changed to suit the 80s comics. But the last season in particular, West just went for broke. A totally serious Batman, he got to stretch his bat-range in episodes about the Death of Superman, all the way to the first non-comic portrayal of Batman's origin. That episode, called "The Fear", deals with Batman's fear of Crime Alley, brought forth by the Scarecrow. When Bruce goes over the murder of his parents to Wonder Woman, we have a very touching performance from West, and fairly clear implication that his parents were shot and killed. The young Bruce in the flashback is heart-wrenching in his vocal performance.... everything about that episode is perfect. Truth be told, it's mainly that episode that puts this West performance at my #2. I don't think anybody thought West had it in him.
1. Michael Keaton
You guys saw this coming, didn't you? The pre-crisis Batman is my favorite, particuarly Kane/Finger's darker original. The fact that Burton and his writers just decided to go from the original material and not much later means that the Keaton performance is right up my alley. Rich in subtext, and well acted on top of that, Keaton made me believe that he was Batman. A powerful, alternate take on Bruce Wayne keeps things fresh, and I find I can relate to the socially disallusioned Wayne of Keaton's portrayal more than any other (And yes, I know the hypocracy of citing changes to Batman in BB bothering me but not Burton's changes. It's just my bias).
Now, I'm honestly interested to see where the more obscure Batmen (Soule, West's other performances) rank on others' lists....
