Good guys still wear black.
In 1937, comic book publication Detective Comics ran anthologies of various noir-style crime thrillers, with hearty doses of action and mystery solving. The publication was mildly successful, but it wasn’t until 1939 that it really shook the world with its 27th issue. Know why? Because it was in issue 27, released 80 years ago in 1939, that the world met Batman, who would go on to become the star and mascot of Detective Comics (which would eventually go on to form the bones of DC Comics, but that’s another story).
Batman’s been seen through quite a few different lenses by the world at large. If you thought he was a rough customer in his modern incarnations, you should see his early years. In his first appearance in Detective Comics, he straight-up killed like, three guys. As the character gained more appeal, they started to tone him down, though, which actually helped form the bedrock of Batman’s moral philosophy. The whole point of the cowl is to inspire fear in superstitious criminals; he wouldn’t kill them, but he’d gladly beat them within an inch of their lives to really put the spook in them.
Of course, that’s only some incarnations of the Caped Crusader. We can’t forget the trademark campiness of the Adam West TV serial. Batman didn’t really do as much sneaking and pummeling in that show, opting more for elaborate gadgets and detective work. And the Batusi. Lord knows, we’ll never forget the Batusi.
These days, Batman’s portrayals are a little more consistent. He’s back to doing the pummeling, but he’s also known to do detective work, as well as whip out some pretty far-out technology (though it never got as weird as shark repellent again). In many modern Batman video games, his cowl has an advanced computer linkup that lets him identify things like fingerprints and bloodstains at a glance. He’s much more stoic, letting his actions speak louder than his words, but he’s also not above a quip if the time is right for it.
It’s kind of silly, if you think about it, that people went so crazy over a dude in a bat suit, but that just speaks to what an inherently interesting character Batman is. Hopefully, he’ll continue to appear for many more years to come.
