Who's the best Batman?

Who's the best Batman? Of course, personal preference plays a part but even so, I'm going to try and be fair and keep my own bias out of it.

The best Batman is Kevin Conroy, the man who voiced The Dark Knight for over 10 years in the DC Animated Universe.

Well that's not fair, he was only lending his voice after all and the DCAU is excellent in practically every aspect so to be fair I'm only going to look at theatrical releases. . . Mask of the Phantasm was released in theaters. . . it's still Conroy.

Alright, let's try this again. We're only going to use live action theatrical releases to compare Batman actors. Alright, now we're getting somewhere.

It started with Adam West. Yes, a movie was made based on the television show from the sixties. A lot of people hate this take on the character as it made it difficult to take anything from the Bat-Universe seriously. This may very well be true. Remember though, that this show made the dynamic duo mainstream and popular so that even non comic readers were familiar with the likes of Catwoman, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and Joker. Another thing to remember is that as campy as it was, it succeeded in that regard on every level. It's corny, campy, and ridiculous, but that's what made it so awesome to watch.

Despite my enthusiasm for the film, apparently others were not impressed as it was over 20 years before another Batman movie came along. This was a darker, more serious take. Inspired by Miller's classic The Dark Knight Returns , Tim Burton took the helm and cast Michael Keaton. Suffice it to say that fans were not pleased. Even though, Keaton completely disappeared into the role of Beetlejuice, people were convinced that he wasn't right for the role. Boy were they wrong. Keaton was actually pretty darn good. Despite his scrawny frame, he managed to make Batman intimidating. He also introduced the idea of using two different voices for Bruce and Batman (something Conroy and Bale would also do) His Bruce Wayne left something to be desired. He did a good job playing someone screwy enough to dress up as a bat, but it still felt like he was playing some guy who happened to be named Bruce Wayne. He returned for its sequel and again did a fine job.

When Batman Returns was seen as too dark, WB decided to make the third film lighter in tone. Both Burton and Keaton left and Val Kilmer was cast in the role. He seemed like a decent fit, good looking and his larger build would make it more believable that Bruce Wayne was out kicking criminal butt every night. The only problem was that his Batman was bland and not really intimidating. Kilmer seemed more comfortable as Wayne, a man haunted by a traumatic past and I think that between Kilmer and Keaton, Kilmer is the better Wayne while Keaton was the better Batman.

The film met with reasonable success. It wasn't quite as good as Burton's take but it wasn't terrible. Knowing this, WB began working on a sequel. Storm clouds started to gather and ominous chanting started to be heard by fans as George Clooney was cast as Batman. We didn't think anything of it at the time; we gave them the benefit of the doubt. Our faith was misplaced as we were given one of the worst comic films of all time, Batman and Robin. I don't really think I need to go into details on how bad Clooney was. In his defense, it was a horrible script with the studio forcing Schumacher to make it as campy and stupid as possible. Having seen From Dusk til Dawn I know that Clooney can play a badass character. It is just unfortunate that he got stuck in this rubbish.

It took a few years, and several proposed script ideas, but WB finally decided to give Batsy another shot. They scrapped the original franchise and decided to start over. Christopher Nolan took over and cast Christian Bale. I hadn't seen American Psycho at this point, my only knowledge of Bale came from Reign of Fire. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and unlike with Clooney, we were actually rewarded. Bruce was fully fleshed out and given the depth he needs, while Batman was dark and brooding while being stealthy, intelligent and unwilling to violate his own ethics. There was just one problem, Bale, wanting to make Batman a sort of creature, gave him this growling voice. It sounded rather silly in every day conversation and when he hangs a corrupt police officer upside down and yells "Swear to me!" you can't help but giggle. In fairness it worked much more effectively in the sequel when he's screaming at (and beating the crap out of) a psychotic clown terrorist.

So who's the best? Again, it's a personal preference. I think that looking at just Batman, Keaton is the best. He was tough and scary. He also used a voice that was intimidating but didn't sound ridiculous.

Looking at either Bruce or an overall combination of Bruce and Bats, I gotta give it to Bale. Part of it is just better writing, but Bale got a lot of the aspects that make up the caped crusader. He was also in good physical shape so it didn't seem odd like it did with Keaton.