Batman In The Movies Part One: The Suits

Batman films have been on cinema screens as early as the 1960s, and the most iconic thing about these movies, is the suit, which has changed a lot over the years. As part of my Batman Week I am going to explore the evolution of the Bat Suit.

Lets start with 'Batman' (1966), often referred to as 'Batman: The Movie' which was based off the television series starring Adam West (Family Guy) and Burt Ward. The suit you see to the left is the costume used in the TV series and the movie, as you can see it is based off the costume from the original comic (which was still newish at the time). It has a very typical superhero look about it, it looks like a pair of pyjamas, it has a bright symbol of the chest and he looks like he is wearing his underwear on the outside of his trousers. This design comes with a bright yellow utility belt and for some reason, they put eyebrows on the cowl, never quite understood why. Also the suit doesn't leave much to the imagination, it is quite tight fitting, and unlike the later designs it doesn't have latex moulded muscles. You see he's a bit on the large side.

 Now we move onto Tim Burton's 1989 'Batman' starring Michael Keaton. This suit (left) may have kept the bright yellow yellow utility belt and chest symbol, but apart from that it is quite different. This is the first time we see moulded muscles to make the actor look fitter and the suit in general has ditched the grey and purple colouring and has instead adopted completely black. The cowl is has also been changed to rubber so is actually more of a cowl than a mask (notice the ears are much more extended). The suit to the right hand side is the one from Tim burton's second Batman film, Batman Returns' (1992), also starring Michael Keaton. As you can clearly see, the suit is identical to the one from the previous movie.

The suit to the left is the one from the beginning of 'Batman Forever' (1995), this time with Schumacher at the directing helm, starring Val Kilmer. Again the suit is very similar to the previous one, the main changed are the change to the muscle mould, the addition of longer spikes on his forearms and his utility belt is now black. Later in the film Batman is forced to use his new experimental suit after The Riddler (Jim Carrey) destroys most of the equipment in the Bat Cave. This suit was the first one to drastically move away from the original, as you can see, it is now a dark silver colour, the Bat symbol is larger but is blended into the chest.

In 'Batman & Robin' (1997) Val Kilmer was replaced by George Clooney. This film is criticised for not just being an awful movie, but for the homosexual vibe geven off between Clooney and O'Donnell (Robin). The suit (left ) has changed from the one we saw at the end of 'Batman Forever', this incarnation shows the return of the Bat symbol enclosed in a ring on the chest, the colour of the suit also has a blue tint to it. The worst thing about this suit, is the fact that they put nipples on it. Seriously, why put nipples on the Bat suit?!

By the end of the film we are provided with another suit (below) which is designed specifically to fight Freeze (Schwarzenegger). Basically it is the same as before but it has a big silver Bat symbol on the chest and is covered in various random silver stripes. It's pretty crap.

Now we reach the golden era, the Christopher Nolan films. 'Batman Begins' (2005) starring Christian Bale, is the first Batman film where we actually see how he makes the suit. It is constructed from a black face mask, some prosthetics that look like bat ears, an experimental military armoured kevlar body suit (which he spray paints with a special black paint to disguise his heat signature), a utility belt and a cape made out of a special material that goes rigid when an electric current passes through it (which allows him to use his cape as a gliding device, the electric current comes from his gloves).

I'm not sure which poster for the 2008 'The Dark Knight' this is, something to do with milk I assume. But none the less we can clearly see the upgraded suit. At the beginning of the movie Batman used the same suit from 'Batman Begins', but after a nasty attack by some gangs dogs, Bruce decides that he needs to be able to move his head better. So the new suit allows this, but it cames at a price, with separe armoured plates rather than a one piece suit it means that he is in more danger from knives and gunfire. This to me is the coolest looking suit, and the most realistic design.

As we get to the final Batman film to date 'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012), we can all see that the suit hasn't changed from 'The Dark Knight', which doesn't really matter because this film is the most story driven out of all of the Batman films.

So that is all of the Batman suits from the movies up until 2012, hope you enjoyed the flashes from the past. I certainly enjoyed writing it (except when I got to 'Batman & Robin', god damn nipples on the Bat suit!).

So what suit will we see in the future? With a Batman reboot possibly on the horizon will we be seeing a revamped version of the original suit? Or something new entirely.

We could even be seeing Terry McGinnis on our screens?

I'd be up for a 'Batman Beyond' movie.