- Which actor do you think of if somebody mentions Batman? Children of the 60s will no doubt think of Adam West, and younger people may think of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale or Ben Affleck. Before Adam West, there were Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery. Not to forget David Mazouz, who plays a teenage Bruce Wayne in Gotham. However, the person who has played Batman most often never actually wore a cape or mask - his name is Kevin Conroy, who has been the voice of Batman in various animated TV series, films and video games. Another famous person who was heard on an animated version was Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker. He wasn't Batman, though. He was the voice of the Joker.
- Chances are you haven't seen the first Batman film ever made. It was called Batman Dracula and was made by Andy Warhol in 1964. It was a black and white, silent art film and was only ever screened at Andy Warhol exhibits.
- The character of Batman was created by Bob Kane, who named him after Robert the Bruce, the Scottish King and Mad Anthony Wayne, a hero of the American Revolution. He was influenced by a pulp radio character called the Shadow, the 1920s film Mask of Zorro, and Leonardo da Vinci, whose Ornothopter flying vehicle formed the basis of Batman's wings. The name of the city he lives in, Gotham, came from an entry in the phone book for a company called "Gotham Jewellers."
- Bob Kane's original idea of Batman looked very different to the Dark Knight we know today. He was originally conceived as wearing a red leotard with black pants and an eye mask. He was also going to be blond. However, designer Bill Finger revised the concept and the rest is history.
- Forbes produces a "Fictional Rich List," ranking fictional characters according to their fortunes. Bruce Wayne has been on this list for 75 years. According to Forbes, Bruce Wayne is worth $9.2 billion. That makes him richer than The Simpsons‘ Mr Burns and Christian Grey (50 Shades) but not as rich as Tony Stark (Iron Man). Which is just as well, since it has been estimated it would cost over $300 million to become Batman.
- If you've ever wondered what Batman's favourite food is, wonder no more. Apparently, according to his butler, Alfred, it's mulligatawny soup, or French onion soup. His favourite drink, or at least the one he consumes most of, is ginger ale. He rarely drinks alcohol, except very occasionally at functions so people won't suspect he's Batman.
- In some comic storylines, he's actually portrayed as suffering from Chiroptophobia. In other words, rather than being obsessed with Bats, he's actually terrified of them. Perhaps because he fell down a well full of them as a child; and seeing bat-like characters on stage at an opera, his parents had to take him out of the theatre - and that was when they were killed. It has been suggested Bruce is actually suffering from PSTD after witnessing their death. Another reference to their death in the everyday life of Batman is the passcode to get into the Bat Cave. It's turning the hands of the clock to 10.47, the time of their death.
- Across the various comic universes, Batman has a brother and a whole bunch of children. Bruce Wayne's parents never told him about his elder brother, Thomas Jr., who suffered brain damage in a car crash. The injuries made him mentally unstable and had to be put in a mental institution. As you'd expect, he escaped from there and became a villain, but later gave his life to save his brother. Batman has about seven children scattered around various timelines but perhaps the most notable is Damian Wayne, the son he had with Talia al Ghul, the daughter of a demon. Damian is the latest incarnation of Robin.
- More about Batman films - Christian Bale refused to play Batman if Robin appeared anywhere in the Trilogy. While Val Kilmer may not have been the most popular Batman for comic fans, Bob Kane said in an interview that Kilmer was the best Batman up to that point. Kane died in 1998, so who knows if he would have changed his mind if he'd lived to see some of the others. The Lamborghini driven by Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is a Murciélago. Murciélago is Spanish for “bat.”
- Regular readers of this blog may recall that Melbourne in Australia was originally going to be named Batmania after one of its founders, whose name was John Batman. The city's founding document is “Batman’s Treaty”, and there is a Batman’s Hill, Batman Bridge, Batman railway station and Batman Park. There is also a historical unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire known as the batman. It was equivalent to about 16lbs and was divided into two units called the ‘great batman’ and the ‘lesser batman’. There are also three towns in Turkey called Batman and another in Iran. The mayor of one of the Turkish Batmans tried to sue Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan for using the name without permission when The Dark Knight grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Finally, you can even do a college course in Batman. This course is offered at the University of Victoria in Canada, and it will teach you “The extreme range of adaptability of the human body explored through the life of the Caped Crusader.”
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