Chris Larsen's Writing Portfolio

Originally posted January 2017.

He is vengeance. He is the night.

He knows that good grammar is essential. He does NOT eat nachos.

He.

Is.

BATMAN.

Comic book characters, perhaps more than those borne of any other medium, are constantly being reinterpreted or reimagined, some more successfully than others. For every Sam Wilson/Falcon, who has become a hugely popular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe despite leaving out his comic book counterpart’s ability to talk to and control birds, there’s a Superman who snaps necks and wantonly destroys his city (yes, I’m still mad about that). One character in particular, though, stands out for having an extremely diverse collection of interpretations across comics, TV, video games and films: the goshdarn Batman.

My first introduction to the Dark Knight was through reruns of the decidedly NOT dark 1960s television show starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo. Though I occasionally watched the excellent Batman: The Animated Series (its spinoff film Mask of the Phantasm was actually the first Batman movie I ever saw), for many years I associated Batman with giant sound effects filling my TV screen and a catchy chorus of “Nanananas.” It wasn’t until I saw Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins that I was really introduced to the modern interpretation of the character: tortured by his tragic past, single-minded in his quest to fight the worst the criminal underworld had to offer, and truly frightening (though I’d argue that the Dark Knight trilogy doesn’t always take itself as seriously as people sometimes claim; each of the films has moments of genuine humor, with even Batman himself cracking a joke or two).

There’s no question that Adam West’s Batman is a far cry from the one seen in the Dark Knight films, or the one seen in the pages of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, which is generally acknowledged as the foundation upon which today’s “dark and gritty” interpretations of the character are built. Yet somehow, in their own way, these different versions of the character mostly work (looking at you as a misstep, All-Star Batman). How can that be?

No. DC Comics

Batman is a complex character with tragic origins. As a young boy, he saw his parents murdered in cold blood. That experience led him to turn away from the world, and forged his obsession with fighting crime. A brilliant detective and in peak physical shape, he adopted a symbol of fear as a new identity to battle crime in an ultra-corrupt city.

On the other hand, he is a man who dresses up like a bat, uses bat-themed gadgets like Batarangs (you see, it’s like a boomerang, but it’s shaped like a bat!), and drives a car called the Batmobile. He lives in a mansion with his loyal butler and a young boy who acts as his crime fighting sidekick. He built a secret lair in a cave underneath his mansion. His enemies include a guy who can’t commit a crime without leaving a riddle to help Batman solve it, a lady who dresses up like a cat and steals stuff, a short guy in a tux who fights using trick umbrellas, and Condiment King. His greatest adversary is literally a clown.

Depending on what aspects of the Batman mythos a creator chooses to highlight, the character and his world can be played extremely silly (four words: Shark. Repellent. Bat. Spray.), 100% serious (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s Batman burns the Bat symbol into criminals’ flesh, and it’s implied that the brand is a death sentence once it’s seen in prison), or some combination of the two (Batman, upon finding that Catwoman has disappeared when he turned around for one second in the largely serious The Dark Knight Rises: “So that’s what that feels like.”).

This brings me to my theory: THE BATMAN SPECTRUM.

Not that kind of spectrum. DC Comics

There exists a continuum, a sliding scale of seriousness, when it comes to the Batman. On one end of the spectrum, you have Adam West’s Batman, known for goofy gadgets with goofy names printed on goofy labels, unwavering morals, and a readiness to impart lessons on subjects ranging from “the romance of commerce” to “the nobility of the almost-human porpoise.” On the opposite end, we find the “hero” of Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman, a violent, angry, rude man who once forced Robin to live in the Batcave with no food but the rats he could catch for himself. Though this particular version of Batman is too EXTREEEEME for my taste, there are more palatable “serious” Batmen, including the one seen in Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy and (again)  Miller’s not-so-retired vigilante from The Dark Knight Returns.

If there exists a spectrum for Batman as a character, it stands to reason that other elements of the Batman mythos must also exist on that spectrum. It should come as no surprise that the best example of this is Batman’s archnemesis, the Joker. The characters are often said to be two sides of the same coin, and are possibly the greatest hero/villain pairing of all time.

Throughout his history, the Joker has been portrayed as a ridiculous clown with goofy plans (we’ve all seen the out-of-context panels from when his “idea for a new adventure in crime” involved far too many instances of the phrase “pull a boner”), a terrifying homicidal maniac (a recent story arc in the comics saw him having his own face cut off of his body so he could use it as a mask, which is every bit as gruesome as it sounds), or a mixture of the two (remember the time he used his Joker Venom to give fish his trademark white face and grin, and when his attempt to copyright his “Laughing Fish” was denied, he murdered a bunch of people?).

This guy up here is somehow the same character as this guy down here.

Both images: DC Comics

In fact, one of the defining aspects of the Joker is his ability to exist on multiple points of this spectrum simultaneously (yes, I’m aware that DC Rebirth has introduced the idea that there are in fact three Jokers, but since this retcon has only been mentioned once so far, we’re going to ignore it for the purposes of this essay). I remember vividly the first time I saw The Dark Knight, immediately feeling guilty for laughing at his infamous “magic trick.” A big reason that Heath Ledger’s performance is so admired is because he ably embodied all of these disparate aspects of the character: cunning, brilliant, ridiculous, irreverent, funny, and horrifying.

There have been countless portrayals of Batman and the Joker across all forms of media. So naturally, there are two great debates: who is the best Batman? Who did the Joker justice? There will likely never be a true consensus. You’ll find plenty of arguments for or against the different versions of the characters online, and I don’t intend to rehash them actor by actor. That being said, two names seem to stand out as the ones most commonly suggested as the “definitive” takes on the characters: Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill.

These men first brought the characters to life on Batman: The Animated Series twenty-five years ago, and are still called upon time and again to play them, most recently in the Arkham series of video games and the new children’s cartoon Justice League Action. I know I’m not alone in saying that when I read the comics, their voices are the ones I hear in my head for the characters. What is it about their performances that have resonated for so long? Is it just because so many of us grew up with them? Or is there something more?

As voice actors, Conroy and Hamill have been afforded the opportunity to revisit Batman and the Joker in countless projects over the years. Their closest “competition” is the duo of Adam West and Cesar Romero, who played the characters for three seasons of the 1960s TV show and a movie. As of this writing, Christian Bale has portrayed Bruce Wayne in three films, more than any other actor has so far (Ben Affleck will eclipse this soon), and Jared Leto looks to become the first actor to bring the Joker to life in multiple films, because the world is unfair sometimes. With voice work, however, there’s no reason Conroy and Hamill can’t portray the characters for years to come in numerous projects. As a result of this freedom, not only are they the most prolific of the Batmen and Jokers, but they also have the freedom to portray the characters on many different points along their respective spectrums. Take the aforementioned Arkham video game trilogy. The games are decidedly NOT for children. The finale, Batman: Arkham Knight, even received an M rating, designating it as not appropriate for children under 17. Meanwhile, just over a year later, Conroy and Hamill were once again reprising their roles for the new Cartoon Network show Justice League Action, an action-comedy aimed squarely at younger viewers, which includes such storylines as the Joker being forced to perform standup for a race of alien warriors.

The secret to the success of these two actors in these roles is the same as the secret to the longevity of the characters themselves: malleability. Conroy’s Batman has been played for laughs (for example, calmly reminding the Justice League that he can’t fly as he plummets toward certain death), but has also explored the darker and more serious aspects of the character. Meanwhile, Hamill’s Joker has surprised Batman with pies to the face, sung the schoolyard version of “Jingle Bells” (“Batman smells, Robin laid an egg”) as he escapes Arkham on a rocket hidden inside of a Christmas tree… and also paralyzed Barbara Gordon with a gunshot to the spine and murdered people just for a laugh. With the ability to play the characters to these extremes, and everywhere in between, it’s no wonder that they have found the essence of what makes them tick, regardless of the mood of the given project. In so doing, they have ensured that their performances will remain as iconic as the characters themselves.

Batman has existed for nearly eighty-five years, and in that time, he and his adventures in Gotham City have taken on many tones. Whether it’s a goofy adventure in which Batman must wear a different colored costume every night, a serious drama where the Dark Knight takes on corruption and organized crime, or a self-aware parody starring Lego versions of the Bat-Family, there’s a Batman story out there for everyone, young or old. Without a doubt, storytellers will find new ways to bring Batman to life—on every part of the Batman Spectrum—for years to come.