What got you into Batman?

[webs]

Started reading the comics mid-70's been hooked ever since.. Even had issue 1 in my collections, if I had only known what a price collection it was.. but alas!!! Now I have my children hooked as well..!!

 

[Mace Dolex]

I always love these kinds of threads.

I was first a Superman fan and got exposed to Batman through The Superfriends and the 60's TV show so he didn't interest me at much since he had no powers and kids all like tough powerful heroes.

Around 1987 I read a couple of Batman comics from the early 80's that featured Batman becoming a vampire and was a far cry from the campy Adam West show, I mean here was a badass grim and gritty Batman and coupled with Gene Colan's effective moody art really made an impression on me.

And it was a good time too since Tim Burton's Batman film was just two years away.

 

[TX85]

The Batman'89 movie!,I was just 3 or 4 years old at the movies and was instantly a HUGE fan.....My parents started recording re-runs of the 60's show&SuperFriends toon for me and from there the Animated show started and plus I was so anxious for Batman Returns to come out.

After Returns came out and I was already starting to read alot.....Was when I was introduced to the wonderful world of comics!,Since then Batman has always been my#1 comic character...I of course started reading all types of comics But Batman was just my must-have/read/see superhero even to this day!

 

[Darkest-Knight]

It was the Batman 89 movie for me. I still can remember how thrilled after I watched in the movies!

 

[-Crusher-]

im 20 years old and i still dont know what got me into batman. i have literally loved batman for as long as i can remember. ive always been into it.

but considering when i was born, i would imagine it was most likely the burton films.

 

[Chris Wallace]

When I was a kid I watched reruns of the Superfriends, the 60's TV show & even an old animated Batman & Robin series pretty regularly. Eventually I lost interest in all of these until 1989, when I was introduced to the Dark Knight, courtesy of Tim Burton & Michael Keaton. Eventually I started reading the comics, watching the animated series & I've dug the Bat ever since.

 

[RustyCage]

A combination of Batman '89 and the Adam West series, coupled with a pair of Keaton suit pajamas and a cape.

I think the exact moment though had to be that brilliantly dark and moody intro to B'89, the visuals, Elfman's amazing score. I was so mystified and drawn into that. I spent a lot of my early childhood in my Batman pajamas, standing close to the TV, watching that part over and over with a serious look on my face. It thrilled me to no end, I swear. I still get that particular feeling whenever I hear the song these days.

My family still remarks about my 'Batman face' from back then. (I'm 23 now, I was just out of my diapers while this was happening.)

 

[Chris Wallace]

Truth be told-I know this is going to sound strange-I didn't actively start reading Batman comics until after Forever came out.

 

[RustyCage]

Truth be told-I know this is going to sound strange-I didn't actively start reading Batman comics until after Forever came out.

Don't worry, it took the hype for Begins to get me really rolling.

I had flipped through a few here and there as a kid, but nothing really grabbed me. What I saw was mostly really lame writing, hokey villains and thin plots. I also didn't like how Batman was drawn in any of it. But Begins hype informed me of Year One and The Man Who Falls, and I got rolling after that. On the quality stuff.

Oh, actually! I just remembered I read a couple of the spin-off books from the Animated Series. I did enjoy those, but I didn't follow it.

 

[Ponyboy]

Definitely summer of '89 Bat-mania. I was 11 years old and I'll never forget it. It was the first movie that really stuck with me... that influenced me.

 

[Cosmic]

I saw reruns of the '60s TV show when I was about 5. My mom remembered watching it and loved it as much as I did.

Then I was given some old comics from the '70s and early '80s from an older kid who lived on my block. Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Brave & The Bold, etc. I absorbed them.

Then I found a huge tome at the library one day, that started with Detective Comics #27 and continued on into many other stories over the years, and it all just blew my mind. That was really the moment of no return.

 

[The Guard]

A Viewmaster.

I was three years old, and my parents got me a Viewmaster. One of the slides was Batman riding and battling the Joker's shark from THE JOKER'S FIVE WAY REVENGE.

Then they introduced me to reruns of the Adam West show. Around the same time, my best friend and I were both given the three core SUPER POWERS figures, Superman, Batman and Robin.

My parents also had this:
http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/211/632111/3458931_1.jpg

I listened to it religiously, along with the two Superman ones I had.

I saw Tim Burton's BATMAN when I was eight, I think, on video, because I wasn't allowed to see it in theatres. Then my grandfather bought me The Complete Frank Miller Batman the same year, which included YEAR ONE and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. I got THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD from our local library around the same time, the only comic book collection they had there.

BATMAN RETURNS kept my interest, and the first comic book I read after Miller's and the greatest stories was the one where Tim Drake's Robin trains Jean Paul Valley before KNIGHTFALL. I was hooked after that.

It's 25 years later. Guess what I was given for Christmas?

A Viewmaster. I think they had an inkling.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

A Viewmaster.

I was three years old, and my parents got me a Viewmaster. One of the slides was Batman riding and battling the Joker's shark from THE JOKER'S FIVE WAY REVENGE.

man, a vm that had comic stuff, i didn't know they did them.

The Batman viewmaster set i had was the 1st episode of AW BM with Catwoman, which is actually one of the best eps, and it looks real good as well, very well lit, looks like proper Batman, as opposed to day glo comedy BM.

It was the Adam West show that got me into Batman, at about 2 or 3 yrs old, some of my earliest memories are of watching that show.

I ended up getting the comics bought for me not long after, I recall getting them read to me.
My first attempts at drawing were of BM too, I have a vivid memory of being v frustrated i could not draw him, and throwing the paper away after many tries, and my family encouraging me to keep going.
I ended up keeping this red sketchbook of Batman drawings, that charted my progress over the years, man, I wish i still had that book, it was an old hardback diary, i had it for years as well.

I ended up getting Batman, Brave and the bold and Detective, pretty much every month for many years, my family would always bring them in for me, and there was a toy shop about a mile up the road that stocked DC comics exclusively, and i would rake through them. I was such a Batman nut that if they had no BM in , i would buy any other sh comic that had a BM twinkies ad in it, lol.

 

[RustyCage]

A Viewmaster.

I was three years old, and my parents got me a Viewmaster. One of the slides was Batman riding and battling the Joker's shark from THE JOKER'S FIVE WAY REVENGE.

Then they introduced me to reruns of the Adam West show. Around the same time, my best friend and I were both given the three core SUPER POWERS figures, Superman, Batman and Robin.

My parents also had this:
http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/211/632111/3458931_1.jpg

I listened to it religiously, along with the two Superman ones I had.

I saw Tim Burton's BATMAN when I was eight, I think, on video, because I wasn't allowed to see it in theatres. Then my grandfather bought me The Complete Frank Miller Batman the same year, which included YEAR ONE and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. I got THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD from our local library around the same time, the only comic book collection they had there.

BATMAN RETURNS kept my interest, and the first comic book I read after Miller's and the greatest stories was the one where Tim Drake's Robin trains Jean Paul Valley before KNIGHTFALL. I was hooked after that.

It's 25 years later. Guess what I was given for Christmas?

A Viewmaster. I think they had an inkling.

 

[Mistah K88]

Just relooking into this thread reminds me of a time in my early childhood where I had some briefs with a picture of Batman on the back (butt) part of it. when I put them on I wore the underwear backwards because...i wanted to see Batman...

Also, my older sister told me that I would wear a towel around my neck after a bath as a kid...to...well...be Batman... The thing is I started to remember it because I would use a rubber band to tie the end of the towel around my neck...

Anyway, sorry to bump up a month old thread, but I feel that this will pretty much still be relevant to us with either newcomers to the site, or just sharing some of your earliest Bat memories.

Also, I've looked through the thread and notice that I didn't put my first comic book with Batman in it...It wasn't as long ago as the above Bat-tibits of my life (where I was like 5 tops) but I know it was a Justice League comic, but unfortunately as a kid I didn't value comics back then as I do now...so i know it got torn up. I do know that Joker and Martian Manhunter were in it...I had to look it up and...I saw that Superman Blue was in it as well! I didn't think of anything of it back then but wow...

 

[JoeyConQueso]

A couple of comics, reruns of the 60's series and Batmania '89.

 

[relentless1]

6 years old...got my dad to take me to batman returns...epic movie...fell in love with the chracter immideatley..went back and watched batman, watched the anu=imated series, read the comics and waited ever so paitentley for the third movie

 

[antsman41]

Returns was my first "theatre movie".

That very moment (3 years old) I was hooked forever.

Returns Toys -> BTAS -> Comics...

 

[The Joker]

Returns was my first "theatre movie".

That very moment (3 years old) I was hooked forever.

Returns Toys -> BTAS -> Comics...

You're the exact same as me. Returns was my first Batman movie. Then BTAS came out. Then I started buying the comic books. I haven't looked back since.

 

[BatBat]

I was introduced to Batman, as a kid, by the Adam West series. That was the late 70's to early 80's era. As I got older and realized how silly and senseless it was, my interests then went towards Transformers, Voltron and Robotech. Then one day when I was in sixth grade some friends were reading comics at recess. A Batman ad caught my eye.

That was not the silly Batman I grew up on. I picked up the next Detective comic I found.

Thus began my introduction to Norm Breyfogle and the true beginning of my Batman fandom. THIS Batman was Dark and serious. I could not get enough. The Norm Breyfogle comics got me hooked! And then came Batmania in 1989. Man. What a time to be a Batman fan!
Since that first Detective comic I've heard people say that 60's show is every bit a part of Batman as the comics. After reading his first beginnings and everything I could get my hands on since, I have to strongly disagree. Adam West left me with the feeling that I was lied to. Those comics revealed to me who Batman really was. He has been my all time favorite fictional character ever since.

 

[theman]

the movies. no question.

i was a child of the 90's. i literally grew up watching the films, epsecially the first 3 (B89 through Forever). batman forever inparticular was the first batman movie i remember seeing in theaters, and i was the perfect age for it (around 7-8). by the time batman and robin came out, i was a star wars nut, but i do remember going to see B&R in theaters with friends. it may not be very good but i still enjoy it for nostalgia, but it was the original 3 films that i watched a million times and collected all the toys and stuff, posters over the walls and played the videogames, had a amillion Forever t shirts, roleplaying with my shirt as a cape and all that lol. good times, batman was the biggest part of my childhood, along with star wars. never read much of the comics, though i did own a few. but i never got them or understood them really, i just had them cuz batman was awsome, but the movies are what i remember vividly.

 

[FCEEVIPER]

What was your first Bat experience? What got you into Batman?

Being born, no really I can't remeber but my Dad and Mom tell me when I was very young (too young to remember) I had a bunch of Batman related toys that I pointed to at the stores and that's was the reason they purchased them for me, and since I liked Batman soo much they would dress me up as batman on Halloween.

So I don't really remember, but my love for Batman was from the beginning.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Yeah... being born in 1990, it's hard to pinpoint if it was the two Burton movies on VHS or Batman: The Animated Series that really caught hold of me.

I guess there was something about the image of Batman as a really young kid that spoke to me and caught my attention. It's always fascinated me how it has remained with me to this day.

Batman is the ONLY thing i have taken from my childhood with me into adulthood. My fascination with other characters came and went... Spider-man, Star Wars (the re-releases), Power Rangers, etc etc...

Call it a fascination, call it an obsession, call it a hobby... but at 21 years old the character still has a tight grip on me and it will never disappear.

 

[Mace Dolex]

I was introduced to Batman, as a kid, by the Adam West series. That was the late 70's to early 80's era. As I got older and realized how silly and senseless it was, my interests then went towards Transformers, Voltron and Robotech. Then one day when I was in sixth grade some friends were reading comics at recess. A Batman ad caught my eye.

That's exactly how I felt as a child growing up in the 80's I was around 7-9 years of age where I started feeling that I had outgrown superheroes and that they were kid stuff when you had things like Transformers, G.I.Joe, Thundercats, He-Man which was the talk of the day at school recess.

Then around 1987 I was getting more into comic books then a friend lent me some reprint Batman comics that had Bats drawn by Gene Colan and becoming a vampire, cool stuff.

 

[BatBat]

@Mace Dolex
Yeah man. I almost pity those who only know Batman from the movies. They haven't truly been introduced to Batman yet. The Animated Series is the best true Batman facsimile they'll get from a cinematic standpoint. But if you haven't read pre 2000 Batman comics . . . you don't know Batman. Not like you should anyway.