Build your Best Batman Costume (using movies)

I keep thinking: which has been the best Batman costume?



For me it would be an amalgam:

1. Keaton's cowl from Batman Returns - it was sleeker and better fitting than his first one.
(I did not care for Bale's cowl as the chin opening was too small and too round - it resembled clown lips or someone wearing black face. His Dark Knight headgear, while maybe more realistic, made his head look bulbous and his neck look skinny!)

2. Keaton's torso from Batman '89 - I didn't care for the plated look of Batman Returns (nor the ultra-plated armor looks of the Bale movies). The first anatomical torso armor looked pretty good without looking mechanical or too over the top. While Val Kilmer's costume was almost perfect, the body sculpt was way too exaggerated - looked like some kind of steroid-addicted body-builder with his skin stripped off - and then of course there were the nipples which threw it out of the running completely!

3. Keaton's chest emblem from Batman Returns - the correct emblem. Why they used one never seen before on the first costume (with little feet!) even though they used the established logo throughout the rest of the film is beyond me. I can go either way on the emblem just being black (as in Batman's comic appearances of his first couple decades) or in the yellow circle - but the black emblems just seem to get lost on film. (But most definitely not this mechanical looking chest inlay we've seen in previews of the upcoming film!)

4. Any cape from the first four films (Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney) - they all looked leathery like bat wings. The reason this is an issue is that Bale's cape looked like it was made of felt, which felt totally wrong.

Over all, I didn't really like any of the Bale costumes while I did like the movies as a more realistic take on the character. Conversely, I didn't like Batman Returns very much while liking a lot about the costume.

The movie serial Batman costumes from the 40's along with Adam West's costume from the 60's were all ridiculously bad!

Affleck's costumes were simple but good (making him more resemble older Batman from the Dark Knight Returns graphic novels). I can go either way on long ears vs. short ears, but Affleck's costumes pulled off short ears pretty well.

I'm wondering, with the previews of The Batman (2022) are we seeing just one costume or a kind of evolution of costumes?

In some angles they look different, almost as if some are early homemade or patchwork costumes that become sleeker and more professionally made over time (kind of along the lines of how we saw in Batman Begins (2005) where Bruce Wayne first just wore a black outfit and a knit hat before advancing to his official Batman costume). But I'm just speculating as I can't really tell from the previews.

It's interesting to see the transition of the costumes over the years. They started out with a cheap, campy, almost homemade feel that basically looks like he's wearing his underwear over tights or a unitard.

As they get more modern, they look more like armor for bodily protection rather than a disguise to protect his identity. The costume seems to just get bigger and bulkier over the years, to the point that he's almost starting to look like a robot in the last two pictures.

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I'm not really considering the specialty suits here (such as Batman Forever's "Sonic" costume or Batman and Robin's "Ice" costume).

Don't know if you saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), but Batman dons a bulky armored suit that enables him to battle Superman - and yes, it did look like a robot. This, again, was directly based on a high-tech armored suit he wore to fight Superman in The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel which much of the film used as its basis.

Speaking of Affleck, I think he filled out the costume with a body type closest to the definitive Batman more than all the rest who played him. Keaton, despite a great performance, always seemed to come off looking short in the costume to me in both his Batman movies.

It's been a long time since I saw Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, so I don't remember them very well, but I liked Michael Keaton's costume in the 1989 Batman movie. It seems to be a nice midpoint between campy and armor.

I haven't seen Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Ben Affleck as Batman yet, so I can't really comment on them, except based on the pictures above.

Adam West on "The Big Bang Theory" discussing the best Batman:

While I disliked Batman v Superman for a lot of reasons, this one sequence is probably one of the best Batman fight scenes ever put to film.



I do take some issues with it though:
1.) His throwing a giant crate attached to a cable over his head with one hand - it defies human physics - it's a Superman (or at least Spider-Man) level stunt that could not be achieved by someone without superpowers.

2.) I really don't like the idea that he can take multiple bullets, at point-blank range, fired at the back of his head. Even if someone had a bullet proof helmet, such close range shots would at least leave them unconscious, concussed or brain damaged, if not dead.

Aw, why don't you like Batman Returns?

I know it's a controversy as some still feel it's one of the best Batman films.
And I do like parts of it - like the roof top fight with Catwoman.

I felt one problem it had, like with a lot of comic movies, was too many villains instead of focusing on & developing one. We had the Penguin, Catwoman and Shreck (and the Circus Gang). The story seemed crowded with characters that took away from development on the Batman.

I really didn't like how they altered the Penguin. I preferred him as the dapper aristocrat thief or even as a crime boss (of the comics) as opposed to a deformed sewer-dweller who spewed black fish guts out his mouth.

But as far as the big threat of the film: an army of remote-controlled penguins? It was just too silly a premise (more appropriate for the old TV show) than for what was otherwise a rather grim movie.

I would have preferred the movie had been about Catwoman as the sole villain (or anti-hero) and Selina's relationship with Bruce as I thought the parts about their mutual duality were pretty good.

P.S. A personal experience - this was the last film I saw at a drive-in theater. I took a vacation to a rural area of PA. by myself as sort of a retreat. I went to see Batman Returns at a local drive-in (one of the last ones). I was so bored on this trip that a couple days later I went and watched it again at the same drive-in because I was going stir crazy and couldn't think of anything else to do. So maybe I overloaded myself on it in too short a time!

This video from "Bat in the Sun Productions" is hard to believe it's "fan made" because the effects & production values are just out of this world.
It's a fanboy's fever dream as the DC and Star Wars universes meet. The voices are spot on. And as far as Bat suits go, this one's not bad (except maybe for those pants)!

That fight scene reminded me of the fight scenes in Chuck Norris movies, with one person fighting multiple people, and somehow defying the odds and winning. But Batman wins more because of his gadgets and his costume saving his life, rather than his fighting abilities. He was able to take multiple bullets to his head and body without any damage, but he was stabbed in the arm and reacted with a sound of feeling the pain. Shouldn't his costume be able to withstand a knife better than a bullet?

I get the impression with that armour in the DCEU, is kinda like a lightweight chainmail with a bullet proof under-suit... and then cloth over the top of the lot.
The cowl is a solid piece, probably moulded from Kevlar, with the softer chainmail like armour around the neck so he can turn his head.

I think the stab from the knife, (which does actually penetrate as you see him yank the knife out of his shoulder afterward and then proceeds to stab the thug with it) is in the soft part of his shoulder where the armour is thinner to allow movement. Basically just the cloth and chainmail, which given the right amount of clout, you can cut through it.
It's a small chink in the armour that the thug got a lucky hit with.

Just my nerd input

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I've seen a bunch of these fan-made mash-up videos, and this is a very good one. The only thing that bothered me about it was at the end,

That makes sense, but it also looked liked he was shot in the arm earlier in the fight, but the bullet didn't pierce the sleeve at all. So like you said, it must have just been a lucky hit with the knife in just the right spot. It's a bit far-fetched, but it makes for an exciting fight scene.

Yeah he's got armoured gauntlets
If you notice he deflects knife strikes as well with the gauntlets, I think at one point sparks come off as well, which is why I took it that he has a bullet proof under-suit, coated in chainmail, with cloth over the top (a lot of the cloth top-suit also has stitch marks where it's been repaired in the past)... and the shot to the head too, he does wince and growl when he gets hit, so the Kevlar works, but he still feels the hit.

Yeah, the armored gauntlets have been standard in all the movies since '89.
They made the point that the three "fins" he always had on each of his gloves weren't just decorative, but served a purpose - they are defensive & offensive weapons that are part of a metal forearm gauntlet.

In Batman Begins they made them more hook-like to defend from sword strikes, obstruct an enemy's blows or even be used offensively (as in the Dark Knight, we learn they can become detachable projectiles as Batman shoots them at the Joker).

Funnel ferry butter bar, funnel ferry butter bar, funnel ferry butter bar...

???

Bat nipples plus Adam West. Flip the colours so the cape is yellow.


The trick is to blind the enemy. The nipples are for after hours.