The Best and Strangest Batman costumes as we celebrate 80 years of the Dark Knight
Happy birthday to big bad Bat!
The crime-fighting billionaire Batman has been battling hooligans and supervillains for eighty iconic years, and during that time he has amassed a truly eclectic wardrobe.
The character is set to get another reinvention with the release of The Batman in 2021, a new reboot from director Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader.
And as the world's greatest detective’s 80th birthday and Gotham: The Complete Fifth and Final Season arrives on DVD, we've collected some of the best and strangest costumes Bruce Wayne has worn during his long career.
If you don’t see your favorite on the list, let us know in the comments below.
The Best and Strangest Batman costumes Best: Batman: Year One (1987)In Frank Miller’s critically acclaimed account of the superhero’s first year as a crime fighter, we get to see a less competent Batman learn the ropes. The costume combines the best of the early designs with simple grey and black cloth design, fitting closely with Bruce’s great inspiration from the film The Mark of Zorro.
Stan Lee had the chance to reimagine some of DC’s popular characters in 2001, applying his own brand of design to the traditionally grounded character of Batman. In Lee’s take, Batman created his costume in the wrestling ring which, bizarrely, has an anatomically correct bat face. Looking more like a cereal mascot than a crime fighter, the fashion faux pas did not end up catching on.
Best: Batman Beyond (1999-2001)In the classic Warner Brothers cartoon series, we see what Batman is up to in the far off year of...2019. Terry McGinnis takes over the mantle from an elderly Bruce Wayne, and sports a high tech suit featuring a stark all-black design that completely seals away his humanity. A set deployable gliding wings and a vibrant red Bat Symbol on the chest leaves an unforgettable silhouette across the futuristic Gotham skyline.
You can always rely on the 60s to produce some strange sights. In the famous comic serials of the decade, Batman ran up against a collection of now-forgotten challenges, including being hit with a magnetic ray machine. This, apparently, causes his costume and even skin to warp into a strange Zebra pattern that certainly is memorable, if completely useless. Zebraman doesn't roll of the tongue as well, so he soon found a solution and went back to his original look. Speaking of which…
In his very first appearance, Batman lays down the defining principles of the Bat Suits designs that would last eighty years. Ignoring the strange, arm-mounted cape and bright purple gloves, the grey bodysuit, cowl, bat symbol and even external pants all came from here. It goes to show the genius of the original vision, that despite drastic changes in fashion sensibilities, art and the ever warping idea of what is cool, very little has been changed from these early days. After all, why fix what is undeniably not broken.
If this design teaches us anything, its that Batman should never, and we mean never, have a summer look. With a shocking mix of vibrant colours and fringed seams, this alien Batman’s wardrobe is as unhinged as his mind. Originally appearing in 1956, this Batman became a focal point of Batman: R.I.P in 2008, and quickly took a place in the Bat Fashion hall of infamy.
Best: Jim Lee’s Batman (2002-2003)During the ‘Hush’ storyline, legendary artist Jim Lee penciled the series and in doing so created a near perfect version of the Batsuit. An amalgamation of all of the finest elements of the classic designs, Lee elevates each defining feature with subtlety and without grandeur, providing a modern Batman look that has become one of the most iconic images of the Bat. Bringing back dark blues contrasting with light grey, the classic utility belt and moulded cloth finish to the suit, the design both a nostalgic throwback and a powerful reinvention.
No, we will never stop talking about this. Joel Schumacher’s vision for a ‘comic book meets reality’ version of the Batsuit is admirable in the effort to mimic the defined muscles and striking sharp shapes of the comics, but the nipples were an odd choice. The hard plastic body suits and living action figure design paints one of the strangest images in comic book cinema.
If you want to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the world’s greatest detective, you can catch up on his early history with Gotham: The Complete and Final Season on DVD and Blu-ray now.
READ ON APP