The Many Faces of Batman

Novels have been adapted into films for many years now, with a successful book inevitably being adapted into a film. Comic books are generally adapted very differently from novels, with adaptations generally just using characters and certain plot devices from the novels as opposed to adapting them right out. Batman is one of the most popular comic book heroes and has appeared in hundreds (if not thousands) of comics from around 1939. His origin has been portrayed in different ways, there have been four different Robins and characters such as the Joker have been given vastly different portrayals. To succeed a Batman film has to adapt the characters and villains in such a way that they are true to the comics. As argued by Stam and Raengo (2004, p278) ‘reviewers commonly praise the filmmakers for having caught the “essence” of the novel, or condemn them for having missed it’. In this essay I will assess whether the Batman comic book series is worsened or improved by being adapted for the screen. When adapting Batman for the screen there are a handful of stories which are adapted above all others, and that are said to best capture elements of the comic book series. ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ (Miller, 1986) in which a retired Batman returns to fight crime when he realises just how bad Gotham City has become is said to have inspired the dark and gritty setting of Nolan’s films. The characterisation of the Joker in ‘The Killing Joke’ (Moore, 1988) has been used as the main basis for the character throughout most adaptations of Batman. The best adaptations take elements from across the many years of comics in an attempt to create the perfect Batman story. 

 One of the earliest adaptations of Batman and one of the most well known is Adam West starring in the  ‘Batman’ TV series (1966-1968). The series is known for its bright settings and general campy atmosphere, as well as catch-phrases such as Robin’s ‘Holy .... Batman’ when he was alarmed. However it can be argued that while the series doesn’t portray the original incarnation of Batman it can be said that it matched the attitudes of comics at the time, which featured often outlandish plots and had lost much of it’s seriousness since the introduction of Robin. Brooker (1999, p193) argues that ‘the character’s “original” incarnation, now so often cited by comic book artists who claim a return to the dark roots of the Batman, actually lasted less than twelve months: that is, up to the announcement of “Robin the Boy Wonder”. With a brightly-costumed kid at his side [...] Batman could never be quite the same again’. Despite this due to the fact that the series doesn’t capture the essence of the original incarnation of Batman it is often cited as a terrible adaptation of the comics by fans and directors alike. Brooker (1999, p194) states that the TV series is ‘still held up by writers (and readers) as the Batman “bad object”, at best a misguided interpretation and at worst a betrayal of the character’. 

However, The series was incredibly popular at the time with criticisms of it’s camp nature only coming to late in the wake of the ‘darker’ Batman projects. The style of the show can be attributed to the time it was made, as in the sixties zany comedies were very popular. Recently the series was revisited with the TV movie ‘Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt’ (Kaufman, 2003) featuring the return of many of the actors. The movie pays homage to the original series proving that the series is still a great popular culture icon today. The more recent versions of Batman probably reflect the mood of our age, which seems to have a liking for angst. The idea of Gotham City as a near paradise in the Adam West series has transformed across the incarnations to the hell-hole that is Gotham in the Nolan franchise. 

 Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ (Burton, 1989) is a far better adaptation of the comics but it does take certain liberties with established facts in the comics. Batman is portrayed as a thin man who wears artificial muscle and needs his suit to be powerful. In the comics Batman is portrayed as a highly muscular athlete with incredible training. The Joker is made into the killer of Bruce’s parents, whereas in the comics it is a petty criminal. Batman also kills his nemesis The Joker which breaks his one rule - that he will never kill. Killing the man who killed his parents allows Batman to have some sort of catharsis, the intention of the killer being a petty criminal is that he never can. Burton was the first to cite the comics ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ and ‘The Killing Joke’ in reference to how well his film adapts the comics. Brooker (2001, p290) argues that ‘Batman, then is not an adaptation either of the The Killing Joke or The Dark Knight Returns, and neither is it an adaptation of the comic book mythos. [...] What it constitutes, perhaps, is the adaptation of late-1980s discourses around the comic book Batman into medium of cinema: the notion of Batman as dark, adult, serious and defined against the TV show, and secondly of creative freedom around authorship’. This suggests that while the film takes liberties with the mythology it does capture the mood of the comics at the time. Darius (2005, p149) argues that Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ was far closer to ‘Batman Begins’ (Nolan, 2005) than the Schumacher sequels while not necessarily being as realistic: 

‘On the one extreme is the 1960s television show. Indeed, certain 1950s and 1960s Batman comics may be seen as even more unrealistic than the 1960s TV show: in many of those stories, Batman cavalierly cavorted with bizarre extraterrestrials and developed a string of colorful alternate uniforms. On the other is Batman Begins. 
[...] The previous four films each fall somewhere between the two extremes, with 
1989’s Batman falling closest 
to Batman Begins and Batman and Robin falling closest to the 1960s TV series’.

The Batman comics aren’t really as realistic as the world of ‘Batman Begins’, where Batman commonly communicates with aliens and characters like Superman. His villains are also very other-worldly, with even his more realistic villains like the Joker having strange origins. As such the world of Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ could be said to be a better adaptation. 

 The sequels to the 1989 ‘Batman’ were seen as far closer to the Adam West TV series. While ‘Batman Returns’ (Burton, 1992) was not as critiqued as the Schumacher films, it definitely embraces the camp far more than the first film through the villain of the penguin - who has an army of penguins at his command. It was also far darker than its predecessor in many ways, especially the portrayal of Batman and Catwoman. Catwoman is portrayed as a villainous character but in the comics is more of an anti-hero, being more likely to join Batman only fighting him when she believes he’s in the wrong. These elements don’t mix too well, with scenes jumping from darkness to comedy at seemingly random intervals. A major problem throughout Batman films is that it’s difficult to keep the focus on Batman as opposed to his villains, who are often insane to the point of scene stealing. ‘Batman Returns’ suffers from this far more than it’s predecessor with the films many villains often overtaking the film. 

  After ‘Batman Returns’ was deemed too dark by the studios and some members of the public, Tim Burton was pulled off a second sequel and Joel Schumacher was brought in. He first made ‘Batman Forever’ (Schumacher, 1995) which featured Val Kilmer as Batman with Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones as the villains The Riddler and Two-Face respectively. This film makes many mistakes that bring it far closer in line with the 1960‘s TV series, the film was lighter and funnier. The gothic atmosphere and noir style from Burton’s films were replaced with bright colours and fast-paced action. A teenage Robin was brought in to make the film more accessible for children. And in one of the weirdest fashion choices of all time, nipples were added to the costumes, apparently to give the character’s God-like appearances - instead they are just laughable. While a lesser film than the first two it wasn’t quite as offensively campy as the movie that followed. 

‘Batman & Robin’ (Schumacher, 1997) took this elements and amplified them. As well as nipples the costumes now had enlarged codpieces, to emphasis the crotch. Many close-ups showed the heroes butts and crotches. This raised controversy over Schumacher inserting homo-erotic elements into a children’s franchise, Schumacher himself being gay. Detora (2009, p209) argues that ‘While many fans disliked the Schumacher Batman film specifically because of their homosexual subtext, the film are also garish, poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly directed. They seem more like spoofs of Batman than adaptations’. Out of the film’s three villains Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze in some ways match their comic book counterparts, having the same motives but lacking much of their personality. The character of Bane however, is turned from a super-powered genius to a mindless thug. The movie as a whole lacked the darkness of even the film released previously and was seen by many as a vehicle to sell toys to children. Jeffries (2005) in a review of ‘Batman & Robin’ said: ‘The overall impact is more like the 60s TV series than anything envisaged by D.C. Comics' Bob Kane  or Tim Burton’. ‘Batman & Robin’ is believed to have killed the Batman franchise with another film not being made for eight years. O’Hara (2011) argues that Schumacher misjudged the mood of the audience at the time:

‘Batman is peculiarly suited to being rebooted  because he is a character with so many incarnations. There’s the straight-forward crimefighter, the campy 60s comedian, the sardonic watcher and the brooding, tortured heroes. What Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan successfully did was to choose the right Bat for their era; where Joel Schumacher arguably went wrong was in not reading the wind quite so well.’ 

Another example is ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ (1992-1995) which was created shortly after ‘Batman Returns’ and was essentially set in the same universe. The series’ portrayal of Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne was especially well praised. In particular Bruce Wayne was portrayed as a real person that was committed to his job as opposed to the fumbling buffoon that the films and comics had previously shown him as. This TV series actually had quite an effect on the comic book series. Joker's girlfriend and side-kick Harley Quinn proved so popular that she was carried over into the comics. The series recreated Mr Freeze as a sympathetic character that became a villain in an attempt to save his wife, the comics then copied this origin story. However as it was still a children’s TV show it wasn’t entirely dark. As argued by Brooker (2001, p246) ‘While Dini [the show’s creator] still feels he has to stress that “this is not Batman lite, it’s Batman classic” emphasising the series  “darkness” and a return to the ‘original’, the show does in fact contain more than a hint of liteness amid the dark, as suggested by Dini’s own tribute to the “live-action TV series” alongside Miller’s ‘magnificent Dark Knight Returns’ as one of of the contributory texts to Batman’s “legend and lore”’. This series is seen as a high benchmark for adaptations of Batman and is definitely a far better interpretation of the comics than ‘Batman Forever’ and ‘Batman & Robin’. 

 ‘Batman: Mask of the Phantasm’ (Radomski and Timm, 1993) was a TV movie based on the series and is still seen as the best film adaption of Batman by many fans. Bruce’s old love interest returns to town around the same time as Batman is framed for the killings of many crime bosses. Through flashbacks it shows the events that lead to Bruce Wayne finally deciding to embrace his role as Batman; which show him losing the love of his life and realising he can never be happy. The film’s dark themes and plotting were praised alongside it’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne, which was said to be the most inline with the comic’s portrayal of him.

  The most recent Batman films take into account the failure of Schumacher to set the right tone for his films, presenting a Batman franchise far more realistic than any seen before. Villains aren’t created from falling into vats of acid, gadgets are believable and the Batmobile is essentially a tank. These elements while making for a more believable story mean that right off the bat the films aren’t very good adaptations of the comics, which as previously mentioned can feature very outlandish plots. In other ways the new films adapt the comics very well, ‘Batman Begins’ is a rather close adaption of the comic ‘Batman: Year One’ (Miller, 1987) both tell the story of Batman training to be the hero he will become, taking on the mob and developing a friendship with Detective Gordon, a key character in the comics who was often made into a minor character or totally ignored in past films. One key difference is that it takes the mob villains from the comic and turns them into pawns of two slightly lesser-known villains Ra’s al Ghul and The Scarecrow, who are terrorists trying to destroy Gotham City. An Article by Snatch (2008) argues that: ‘The Scarecrow, though not a famous enemy, is a good call. He is more human than the other villains like Poison Ivy who could have passed in a carnival show. The Scarecrows weapon, drugs, is real and presented a real challenge to Batman. Such realism and logic is difficult to achieve in a comic book adaptation, but Batman Begins did it without being unfaithful to the original characters’. The threat Batman fights is a real one for many people and the ‘real world’ setting gives this film poignancy for modern audiences. Detora (2009, p215) argues that ‘at its best, the Batman story is about justice, restraint, and the desire to take a stand against evil. [...] It is in Batman’s nobility - his desire to protect and improve his home city - that he has a renewed appeal for modern audiences.’  The characterisation of Batman is suitably dark and conflicted to match that of his comic book counterpart. It also restores the idea that Bruce’s parents were killer by a random thug and that no matter what he does he’ll never be able to get over his parent’s death.

  The film’s sequel ‘The Dark Knight’ expanded on the previous films ideas of a realistic Batman while introducing the most well-known Batman villain, The Joker. Once again the character is made more realistic while still being faithful to the original comics. Despite differences in origin, in the comics The Joker gains his trademark look from falling into chemicals in the film he wears make-up, dyes his hair and has his smile cut into his skin, the character still has The Joker’s trademark insanity. A trait often missing from adaptations of The Joker is his intelligence and planning skills which are incredibly prevalent throughout the film, as he plans to bring Gotham into chaos. Dittmer (2009) argues in his essay on the post-9/11 villain that ‘In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, with Heath Ledger in his final role, fills the figure of the Joker with an unprecedented nihilistic morbidity. The majority of commentators agreed that Ledger is not only the best Joker there ever was, but also one of the gloomiest villains in the history of film.’ The popular comic ‘The Killing Joke’ is used as the basis for much of the plot, exploring the comics theme of one very bad day being all it takes to drive a man to madness. The darkness of Batman is explored to great detail with him being pushed to the brink by Joker’s tactics but still not breaking his one rule. While unfaithful to the style and technology of the comics Nolan’s films are faithful to the characters which for most readers is far more important.

 In conclusion, probably the most faithful adaptation of the Batman comics is the films of Christopher Nolan. While not true to the style of the comics, they portray the characters far better than previous films and capture the true essence of the Batman story - a man fighting to keep his city safe. Tim Burton films probably best capture the style of the comic books with their futuristic  and unbelievable gadgets which are replaced by realistic gadgets for the Nolan films. The cartoon series, ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ does a fairly good of portraying the characters and the style closely matches comics at the time. It also portrays the character of Robin who is intentionally left out of Nolan’s films, as he is believed to lighten the tone too much. Despite the exclusion of Robin, in terms of film ‘Batman Begins’  and ‘The Dark Knight’ portray the key members of Batman’s supporting cast in ways true to the comics. Hopefully the film’s sequel ‘The Dark Knight Rises’  will be as great an adaption as the previous films, portraying the characters of Catwoman and Bane in a more positive light than they have been previously.

Adaption bibliography

• Article Snatch (2008), ‘The Best and Worst of Batman’. Available at: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/The-Best-And-Worst-Of-Batman/350767 (accessed: 1 April 2011)
• Bluestone (1973), ‘Novels into film’. London: The John Hopkins University Press
• Brooker (1999), ‘Batman: One Life, Many Faces’, in Cartmell and Whelehan. (ed.) ‘Adaptions: from text to screen, screen to text’. London: Routledge, pp185-198
• Brooker (2001), ‘Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon’. London: Continuum Publishing
• Cinemaroll (2007), ‘How to Adapt a Novel into Film’. Available at: http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/how-to-adapt-a-novel-into-film/ (accessed: 29 March 2011)
• Darius (2005), ‘Batman Begins and the Comics’. Lulu.com
• DiPaulo (2009), ‘Terrorist, Technocrat, and Feudal Lord’ , in Detora (ed.) ‘Heroes of film, comics and American culture’. London: McFarland & Co. pp 194-216
• Dittmer (2009), ‘New Evil - The Joker in “The Dark Knight” as a Prototype of the Post-September 11 Villain’. Munich: Grin Verlag
• Gorden et al. (2007), ‘Film and comic books’. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.
• Hamlett (2010), ‘How to Adapt a Novel to a Movie’. Available at: http://www.ehow.com/how_4545899_adapt-novel-movie.html (accessed: 29 March 2011)
• Jeffries (2005), ‘Batman And Robin’. Review of ‘Batman & Robin’, directed by Schumacher. Empire, 2005.
• Loeb (writer) and Sale (artist) (1996), ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’,  New York, USA: DC Comics
• Miller (writer) and Mazzucchelli (artist) (1987), ‘Batman: Year One’, Batman #404 - 407, New York, USA: DC Comics
• Miller (writer and artist) (1986), ‘Batman: The Dark Knight Returns , New York, USA: DC Comics

• Moore (writer) and Bolland (artist) (1988), ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’, New York, USA: DC Comics
• O’Hara (2011), ‘Superhero Movies, The Boom and Bust Cycle’. Available at: http://www.empireonline.com/empireblogs/empire-states/post/p1026 (accessed: 4 April 2011)
• Stam and Raengo (2004), ‘A Companion to Literature and Film’. New Jersey, USA: Wiley-Blackwell

Filmography

• ‘Batman’ (1966-1968), ABC. January 12, 1966 - March 14, 1968 
• ‘Batman’ (1989), Tim Burton. USA: Warner Bros. 126 mins.
• ‘Batman: The Movie’ (1966), Leslie Martinson. USA: 20th Century Fox. 105 mins.
• ‘Batman & Robin’ (1997), Joel Schumacher. USA: Warner Bros. 125 mins.
• ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ (1992-1995) Fox Kids. September 5, 1992 - September 15, 1995
• ‘Batman Begins’ (2005), Christopher Nolan. USA: Warner Bros. 139 mins
• ‘Batman: Mask of the Phantasm’ (1993), Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm. USA: Warner Bros. Animation. 76 mins.
• ‘Batman Forever’ (1995), Joel Schumacher. USA: Warner Bros. 122 mins. 
• ‘Batman Returns’ (1992), Tim Burton. USA: Warner Bros. 126 mins.
• ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008), Christopher Nolan. USA: Warner Bros. 152 mins.
• ‘Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt’ (2003), Paul Kaufman. United States: CBS