The best Batman ever is Kevin Conroy, but if live action, then is a very close call between Adam West or Michael Keaton.
Nailed it right here. West was a perfectly good Batman for his time, but Keaton is fantastic and aged well. No one else comes close.
Lego Batman
A seemingly unpopular opinion, but Christian Bale’s Batman is my favourite live action version of the character.
Michael Keaton. I like the campy nature in general of the Tim Burton era.
However I will say, that I find later villain depictions to be excellent. Ledger’s Joker, and Colin Farrel as Cobblepot are two examples that quickly come to mind.
Those campy villains were amazing though - Ledger was an amazing Joker but so was Nicholson and so was Hamill… Carrey as the riddler was also amazing!
Honestly I think part of the appeal of Batman now is that the characters are archetypes and each portrayal shows how the universe might unfold slightly differently based on the specific personality traits involved. Will we have a lone ronin Joker like Ledger? Will it be Nicholson’s charismatic mafioso? Phoenix’s debilitated martyr? Hamill’s obsessed moralizing sadist?
Each one shows an interesting twist on the central character and gives a fresh story that, while great on it’s own, really shines when viewed through contrast.
Nicholson and Ledger were supremely competent agents of destruction - Hamill and Romero seemed entirely focused on their arch to the point of their own destruction - meanwhile Phoenix was utterly incompetent and gained notoriety only because he was a useful idiot latched on to by a society in deep pain (@see the rise of right wing dictators).
It’s fucking awesome. Batman is essentially new media’s Arthurian Cycle.
Visually, Batfleck is the best live-action Batman. He really pulls off the imposing look since he’s actually a pretty huge dude. As for the character itself, any of them who actually does some detective work instead of just punching people for answers.
Oddly, I hated Batfleck in the Joostice League but loved him in the Snyder Cut. He was so much more badass in the Snyder Cut.
Batfleck is probably in the worst position to be admired simply because the movies were so generally disliked and went against the cultural zeitgeist (Marvel cool - DC bad was a really common meme in that era).
Well I say that but the most awful baggage reward probably goes to Batooney - the be-nippled bat suit is a meme that will never die and tends to abort any consideration of anything else.
Agreed. It also didn’t help that the Joostice League was terrible and Batfleck tried to be funny vs dark and serious like he was in the Snyder Cut. That one scene difference I always think of is when he’s in the crawler going up the wall to help Wonder Woman. Joostice League he says ‘i didn’t bring a sword’ in a dad-joke way and Snyder Cut he says, ‘my turn’ super serious and it just fits so damn well. I can watch the Snyder Cut over and over without getting bored. I literally can’t watch Joostice League more than once.
